I’ll take right now with him, though. I’ll take it for as long as it lasts.
“Ahem.”
Avrell and I break apart to find Julie standing at the elevator door. She has a gigantic container of slimy green meat in her hands and a mischievous grin painted on her face. “Sorry to interrupt,” she says.
As Avrell’s grip slackens, I slide off his lap to my feet. “That’s okay. He needs to rest anyway.”
At this he scowls. “All I’ve rekking done since I got here is rest and choke down rabbawolf meat. I’d be of more use synthesizing the proteins to concoct an immunization.”
“Is that what you were doing?” Julie teases. “Synthesizing proteins?”
I glare at her. “Shut up.” Pointing to Avrell, I say, “You rest. I mean it. If I come back here and you’re working I’m going to lock you up in one of the padded cells until you’re completely healed.”
I don’t voice my fears aloud.
That he may not be healed.
That The Rades may take him from me.
That I’ll be all alone again.
Instead, I lean down to give him one more kiss. Just one, and take his tablet to my own desk, clear across the room. Naturally, he scowls at the end of all the kissing and the lack of his tablet.
“Sleep,” I order, before Julie and I step into the isolation pods.
My last view of Avrell before the doors shut in front of us is of him, propped up on one arm, his dark eyes on me.
* * *
“What’s it like to kiss an alien?” Julie asks as we divvy up the meat to serve to the rest of the patients. I say serve, but most are unconscious or out of their minds with fever, so we’re going to do our best, but I don’t have my hopes up.
What we really need is a vaccine, but Avrell has to rest before he dives into creating one. I know he’ll throw himself into his work as soon as I let him get out of bed. Which will mean no sleep, barely eating, and working until he essentially passes out. None of which is conducive to getting better. If the antibodies in the monster meat do their job.
I pause in cutting up my portion of meat. Tilting my head, I say, “Why? Do you want to kiss one?”
Julie makes a face. “No, ugh. That’s why I’m asking. It doesn’t weird you out that he has claws and fangs and pointy ears?”
Though not like Theron’s or Hadrian’s, his claws have begun to grow into sharp points and his fangs have become prominent the past few days.
“I don’t really notice those things when I’m kissing him, Julie.” Then I laugh at her expression. “I’m serious! Yeah, at first when they came here, I thought they were a bunch of freaky looking monsters, but don’t you feel like you know them now?”
She lifts a shoulder as she places a container of meat on a tray with several others. “I don’t know. I was just curious. I don’t have an alien of my own, you know.”
I tilt my head as I study her. “Well, you know there’s one last mort left. Galen. He studies plants, I think.”
“Are you trying to hook me up with an alien?” she says with a giggle.
“Why not? Everyone else is doing it.”
“I don’t know. I’m not really sure I even want to go to the Facility if we’re being honest.”
My hands still on the bowl of slimy green meat. “What? What are you talking about? You want to stay here? What about Earth II and all the Kevins?”
“You guys don’t need me. With Oz’s weapon, you’ll be able to wipe them out no problem. What I’m really interested in are those aliens who were chasing the wolves.”
I shiver, remembering them. They looked even more otherworldly than the morts. I’d only seen them from a distance, but I remember their scars and tattoos vividly. “Why? They looked like they’d skin you alive and pick the meat off your bones.”
“Well, it’s not so much them in particular, but this world in general. There’s so much to explore now that we know it can be safely inhabited. Who knows what else is out there?”
“That’s the point. We know most of the animals that live out there can eat you alive in one gulp. You seriously want to traipse through what is essentially a wasteland looking for more monsters? The Facility would be safe. They have gardens and pastures for those rogcow things. There are other people there. I mean, we’re basically family now.”
“Of course we are. But I’ve been caged up for what feels like forever now. If we’re truly going to live here, I want to be free to make my own choices, no matter the risk.” She grins. “Besides, how cool would it be to discover another race of aliens?”