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Chapter 15 Shattered Senses
“Why?!” Specter repeated loudly. He couldn’t recall ever feeling so hurt, so betrayed.
Devon shook all over as he stared at his feet. He looked like he might start to cry.
“Because I knew that…that otherwise you wouldn’t have helped me with the train…” he choked out in a trembling voice.
“Why did that matter then? If everything you said was a LIE, then why did you bring us here?” Specter snapped angrily, clenching his fists.
“I did get information from some of the people at that camp!” Devon burst out abruptly, “I did! But…”
“Tell me!” Specter growled.
“They said…” Devon spoke quietly, “They said that there was an organization that had started up, a bunch of scientists trying to find a cure…”
Specter furrowed his brow, not comprehending what this had to do with Lark. Devon looked up at him sadly.
“It wasn’t a gang.” He said finally in an exasperated tone, “It was that organization that took Lark away. They call themselves the VCA, the Viral Cure Association, and they’re doing whatever the Hell they please. They take young people to use as subjects in their experiments, Specter. That’s what they did to Lark. He’s probably dead already by now.”
Specter’s face was blank, as usual. But he felt like his insides were crumbling away. He felt hollow. He felt empty.
“Why didn’t you just tell me back then?” Specter asked him slowly.
“Because all they said was that the VCA was in a big city.” Devon answered, taking a shaky breath “They didn’t say Toronto. But at the time I was so scared for Lark, I wanted to get there fast and check. I knew…” The brunette wiped his tearing eyes, “I knew you’d never help me use the train if I wasn’t sure he was here in Toronto, so I lied to you. And then…” Devon hiccupped and his shoulders shook, “And then all that stupid shit at the train station happened, and now a whole month has gone by and wherever he is he’s probably dead and…I…”
Devon started to cry, and Specter’s anger melted away. But so did his hope. All of it had been drained from him and it was just a puddle at his feet now. He raised a weak hand and placed it on the brunette’s shoulder.
“It’s okay…” Specter said quietly, his eyes drifting to the ground, “You were just trying to help, its okay…”
“I wasn’t going t-to do it at first!” Devon sobbed, “B-but, you were so broken-looking that I…I couldn’t tell you that we had no leads, I c-couldn’t…and…you’d wanted t-to go here from the start so…I thought I’d make something else up if we didn’t find him here but now…I screwed shit up again…I didn’t think it would get s-so out o-of hand…”
Specter stroked Devon’s head and let the other boy cry into his shoulder. This wasn’t Devon’s fault. This wasn’t his fault at all. Specter was to blame, as usual. He forced people into these horrible situations and he just ended up hurting them. Why did it always have to turn out like this?
The silence was long and painful. Devon was clearly falling to pieces and Specter was steadily becoming numb and hopeless. Was this really it? They had no leads, no direction, no drive. Was there nothing left to do but give in the madness and allow the world to die?
No. It wasn’t over yet, Specter reasoned. They were here in Toronto, the one of the biggest cities in Canada. There was just as likely to find Lark here as there was to find him in any of the other big cities. And then there was his initial reason to get to Toronto, to find his old friend Allan. Both of these people were probably either dead or long gone from here, but since they were in the city now they might as well take a look around.
But Toronto was a very big city.
“We have to look anyway.” Specter said suddenly, standing and pulling Devon up with him, “This is no time to get angry or to cry. We’ll do what we came here to do.”
Devon wiped his eyes and face a blinked up at Specter, shoulders slumped and overwhelmed with shame and apprehension.
“But…don’t you hate me Specter?” Devon asked in a weak voice, rubbing his arm with his hand nervously.
“Grudges are pointless in a world like this.” Specter reasoned quietly, “Don’t lie to me anymore though, it’s dangerous.”
“Yeah…”
“I forgive you already, let’s just start looking okay?” Specter grumbled impatiently, though his expression was still calm and impassive.
“Okay.” Devon said quickly, probably afraid of starting an argument, and they both started walking.
There was a distinct ringing in the air. It was steady, and rhythmic, and almost inaudible, but Specter could hear it. He hadn’t noticed it before because he’d been distracted, and the sudden silence was making it all the more deafening. And it was getting louder as they traveled deeper into the heart of the city. Stronger.
“Can’t you hear that?” Specter asked finally.
“What?” Devon asked, looking up from his thoughts, “Hear what?”
“Never mind.” Specter responded immediately, “It’s nothing I guess.”
Specter wasn’t being honest of course. It was something alright. It was a frequency that only those with the virus could hear, obviously. Maybe it was nothing, just a radio tower emitting static, or maybe it was something else.
The main part was that it was awfully suspicious for this big city in particular to have that frequency drifting through the air. Specter smiled very slightly.
Maybe Devon had been right after all, and the VCA did have its headquarters in Toronto. He couldn’t trust a hope, but the gears were turning in his head. Why would anyone else be sending out that frequency?
The answer became clear as they traveled further and further down the empty roads and charred buildings; the frequency was much louder now, it sounded like the pumping muscles of a giant beating heart. Devon still couldn’t hear it, couldn’t feel it, but Specter could do both all too well. It was a heavy throbbing sound now, almost like music, calming and alluring and overpowering. He realized with a start that he was being drawn toward it.
“That’s why,” Specter uttered out loud as he realized it, “The others were drawn to this place. That’s why they were headed in the same direction as I was!”
“Huh?” Devon blinked and gave him a strange look.
“The frequency!” Specter frowned and looked around at the empty streets, “I can hear it, and the contaminated must hear it too. I can’t believe you can’t hear it Devon, it’s so loud…”
“Really?” Devon was silent as he peered around himself, listening.
“It’s attracting the others with the virus to this city, I can feel it too.” Specter continued as he stared off down the road, “It’s making me feel a bit heavy…it’s like standing in the ocean and having the tide push against your back, urging you to move closer to shore. I don’t think I like it.”
“Damn, should we stop?” Devon asked, genuinely concerned and slowing his pace.
Specter slowed and stopped too, considering it.
“I’m sure the answer to all this will be waiting for us at the source of the frequency.” The blonde admitted, “If we want answers, we should probably move forward. You may have actually been right about Toronto after all.”
“…but?” Devon asked knowingly.
“…But... I’m afraid that if I get too close I might not be able to resist it.” Specter admitted, gazing up at the sky with a furrowed brow.
Suddenly there was a clatter nearby, like a garbage can turning over. Whipping around, ready for anything, the two scanned the area anxiously for the source of the noise. Specter adjusted his sunglasses wearily as he tried to tune out the ringing sound.
Three people ran past them from the other side of the road. Just from the way they ran, Specter could tell that they weren’t contaminated, and they weren't frightened either. They didn’t seem to notice either of the two at all as they ran past. Maybe they were used to seeing slow-paced carriers of the virus edging forward to the source of the ringing, and they were assuming that Specter and Devon were one of them? The blonde had no way to be sure.
Specter looked at Devon. The brunette nodded to him and a silent decision was made. Before either could blink they were both sprinting after the three strangers, down the street and deeper into the dying urban jungle.
The people cut down an alley, with Specter and Devon at their heels. They clearly had somewhere to go. Or so Specter thought. But then the group stopped running, and it took quite a bit of willpower for him to put on the breaks. Devon didn’t quite register that in time and went hurtling into the closest person, a girl maybe a year or two younger than them.
“OW! Damn it!” She exclaimed as they fell to the ground.
“Ouch, man, I’m sorry.” Devon stood up as quickly as possible.
The black-haired girl heaved herself from the ground with a huff, and her companions didn’t look too worried either. They were both boys around the same age as Devon and Specter were; one looked like he might be from India and the other was a tall Caucasian with pale brown hair falling down to his shoulders, with a patch of white in it and a scar across his right eye. He reminded Specter of someone, but he couldn’t quite remember who. Not that that this was anything new for the blonde.
“Are you guys new in town?” the Indian boy asked with a thick accent.
“Yeah,” Devon nodded, “We just got here today, we’ve been floundering around for months.”
“Really?” the girl cut in quickly, “I didn’t realize there were many people still alive outside of Toronto.”
“There are a few anyway.” Specter assured her, pressing his sunglasses against his eyes carefully and keeping his expression neutral, “There was an armored town that was doing pretty well for itself up North in cottage country, and Kitchener has a big gated community living on the Waterloo University campus.”
“You mean the trigger-happy ones you told me about?” Devon asked.
“That would be them.”
“Ah.”
As Specter spoke, the guy with the scar didn’t take his eyes off of him even once. He just kept staring the blonde down. Specter hid his unease well. If worst came to worst and he was found out, he might have to make a run for it.
“That’s great news!” the girl exclaimed, “I thought this was the only safe place left!”
“What’s keeping this place safe anyway?” Specter asked casually, “I don’t see any gates or guards…”
“Oh!” she waggled her eyebrows, “Ever since we started letting those scientists stay here we’ve been pretty high tech. You can’t hear it, but there’s this special frequency that’s constantly in the air, and it goes out for miles and miles!” she made large arm gestures, “It attracts the contaminated ones, and once they step foot in the city they turn into complete zombies, completely harmless because it’s too loud for them. They follow it to the electric gate in front of the scientists main research building a few blocks down and end up zapping themselves unconscious on the gateway!”
The girl was only to happy to imitate being electrocuted, and Devon smiled and chuckled nervously.
“Wow, what happens to them after that?” he asked curiously.
“Well,” the girl pulled some of her hair behind her ear, “They get taken inside of course. Those scientists work tirelessly to find a cure for this craziness. They even have these tough guys driving in and out of the city with big white trucks and vans that bring in contaminated from further out to help with the research! I saw one unload once. They’re always unconscious by the time they come into the city, and all of them were really young people, even some kids, poor things. It’s such a pity that they got infected at that age.” The girl shook her head sadly, “But when we find a cure things will get better!”
The girl continued to ramble, but Specter was no longer listening. White trucks with unconscious youths inside, presumably contaminated, being brought into the labs. All the mental alarms were going off in his head. Lark, they said. If he’s alive, then he’s here. But his thoughts were soon interrupted.
The scarred boy who’d been staring at Specter intensely up until now cut the girl off very abruptly, his eyes becoming wide with realization as he pointed an assusing finger at the blonde.
“Oh my God.” He said suddenly, looking straight at Specter.
Everyone turned to look at him in confusion. The youth continued to point with a slight frown.
“...Everett?”
I shall tell you nothing. Mahaha.
As always, special thanks to my wonderful batch of reviewers (and a handful of new folks too!): Rena’s Starsong, Jordan Storm, SapphireIris, Gaki Toki, kayoko101, DiamondKing, Thomas Maplewood, Max Koring and Lady Psychic! Your reviews keep me going, thank you so much for your support! I hope to hear from you again after this chapter too!