Chapter 6

360 days left. I opened my eyes and looked around. I was in a big room with stone walls. The one window was covered with wire mesh and there was a small TV in the corner. I was in a strange room. Then everything that had happened yesterday came rushing back.

Who were those men in the black combat gear? And why was my mom driving them and wearing the same thing? I got up and tried the door. It was unlocked. I opened it to reveal a long hallway which I started walking down. I had to get some answers. Just then my mom came up the stairs at the end of the hallway.

"Good morning son! How are you feeling?"

"I feel fine, but what's going on? Why aren't you wearing a mask?"

I gasped and quickly covered my mouth. There was no way I was going to give the virus to my own mother.

"Lance, it's fine. I'm immune to the virus. In fact everyone here is. Welcome to the fortress!"

"Immune? You can be immune?"

"Yes, perhaps I should explain."

I nodded.

"It would be easier to explain while I give you a tour."

She started down the stairs and I followed her. We stepped outside and I lifted my arm to shield my eyes from the sun.

Sunlight!

I hadn't seen it for only five days but it had seemed like forever. My eyes soon adjusted to the light and I looked around.

It looked like we were in a small town and I could see that far off in the distance there was some type of wall. We were on 5th street and there were a couple of shops and mostly houses on it. The shops looked like they had been turned into armories.

"That's the weapon manufacturing building."

She pointed to one of the shops and I could barely make out that it had used to be a jewelry shop.

"That's the food storage building and that's the medical center."

She pointed to what used to be a post office and a bank.

"Where are we?"

"South Helster

"That's like 300 miles away from where we live."

"Yeah, we flew in last night."

"So, where's dad?"

She looked pained.

"I'm afraid he's not here."

"What do you mean?"

"He disappeared the night that you didn't come home."

She led me to one of the houses and I could smell food cooking.

"It's about lunch time and I'm sure you're hungry."

My stomach growled and we both laughed.

"Mom?"

"Yes son?"

"How exactly do you fit into all of this?"

"Well, I'm the second in command here actually."

"Wow! So what are we doing here anyway?"

"The world has gotten a lot worse since you've been gone. Almost everyone has the virus now and it's caused everyone to go into a panic. I found out that I was immune and that's when General Whitcom found me and he brought all of the immune people he could find here."

"Wow."

We were each handed a plate of food and someone entered the building and ran up to my mom. He saluted and my mom saluted back.

"More mutes have been spotted on the south boarder, Ma'am."

"Thank you, Jonas, you may go now."

They saluted each other once more and he left in just as much a hurry as he came.

"What are mutes?"

"Mutations. The government has been doing some experiments on some animals to try and see if they can find a cure. The experiments backfired and the animals they were testing on mutated and broke free from the testing grounds. They mingled with the normal animals and even more mutations were created."

"That doesn't sound too bad."

"Imagine a twelve-foot bear with foot long claws and can run faster than a human."

"Okay, I see your point."

We finished our food and headed back to the house that my room was in. We both sat on the bed and I looked at her quizzically.

"Lance, I need to ask you some questions about what experiments they were doing on you."

I suddenly remembered Lea, and tried to send her a message but it was like she was too far away. I told my mom all about the painful electricity experiment and all about the place they had kept me in. I left out the part about Lea and me being able to talk to each other in our minds.

"Mom?"

"Yes?"

"Can we go back and get the girl that was screaming?"

I didn't want to tell her Lea's name cause then I would have to tell her about our "ability."

"I think it might be too dangerous."

I frowned.

"I'll talk to the general okay?"

"Okay."

She went to talk to General Whitcom leaving me alone on the bed. I thought about all stuff that had happened in the past week. I had gotten the virus. My mom had rescued me and now we were in some place they called the fortress.

I had learned that there were mutated animals and then there was that strange moment during when I was in the middle of the shoot out. I still remembered clearly how time had seemed to slow down and I could see the bullet coming straight for me and yet I just had grabbed it from the air.

What had happened back there? Was I a mutation of some sort as well? I pressed the power button on the TV expecting it not to work. It flashed on.

"...and numbers are soaring into the billions."

The camera switched to show an aerial view of city. It was very chaotic and lots of people were fighting and you could see some police trying to control looting and other violent acts. I pressed the power button again.

I didn't want to see all of the awful pictures. It was dark outside now and I closed my eyes. After a long time of tossing and turning I fell into blissful sleep.