RESTLESS SPIRITS ▷ ELLIE WILLIAMS

CHAPTER SIX: A SUDDEN SENSE OF LIBERTY

"Wait, explain it to me again."

Ellie paced in front of the couch in Marlowe's home, tossing an apple from one hand to another. The copper-haired medic sprawled out across the loveseat.

A groan escaped Marlowe's lips. Her father's journal lay across her stomach, rising and falling with each breath she took. After stumbling upon the box of items hidden under a floorboard in Seeley's bedroom, the pair had returned to Marlowe's house, brimming with questions.

Marlowe had spent the better part of the afternoon and well into the evening going through her brother's notes with a handheld mirror, translating everything she could into a separate notebook for Ellie to understand.

"The Empyreans are bounty hunters who work for FEDRA to round up immune people for experimentation. They originated within in Washington but have spread all over the states. The Empyreans seem to have gone north into Canada too. We don't know who leads them or how many there are."

Marlowe tilted her head to look at Ellie. "I don't see the reason for repeating myself."

Ellie stopped pacing and sat at the coffee table, opening her journal to the pages containing the list of names.

"And of the twenty-one immune people listed, fifteen are dead, most killed by the Empyreans that leave us with what-" Ellie paused, "Six alive?"

"We don't even know if they are still alive," Marlowe added.

"And then there is the Calgary post,"

"Might be some kind of settlement like Oakridge or Jackson? Or a QZ?" suggested the medic.

The pair fell silent as Ellie flipped through her journal, and Marlowe stared at the silver camcorder. It was all tucked into an old box and pushed below a floorboard. Seeley had obviously intended for no one but himself to find it, which made Marlowe wonder why he had never told her. There were others out there like her, like Ellie, like Sasha. Cursed with surviving.

"I want to find them,"

Ellie looked up at Marlowe, "What?"

"I want to find them," Marlowe repeated. "If there are others like us out there, isn't it worth looking for them?"

When Ellie did not reply, Marlowe continued, "If we are, in fact, being targeted, aren't we stronger together? Shouldn't we be attempting to protect those of us who are still immune?

"There is strength in numbers," Ellie agreed, cringing on the inside as the words left her mouth. If Ellie from a year ago had heard herself say that, she might have laughed at herself. "But where would we start?"

Marlowe frowned, sitting up, "We?"

"If you're doing this, I'm going with you,"

"Are you sure? I don't want to keep you from your people back in Jackson. I have no idea how long this will take."

The brunette leaned forward. "Until I met you, I thought I was the only immune person in the entire world. Now there are likely more of us out there. There's another chance to find a- "

Ellie's words caught in her throat. A cure? No. Jerry Anderson was dead, Ellie was still alive, and the chance for a cure had passed.

Marlowe tilted her head curiously. "Ellie?"

"Forget that."

Marlowe cast her gaze back down at her journal, skimming through the English translations she had written on the margins of each page.

"We can start with Lydia Kearns," she suggested, "She's the most recent name added, so maybe better chance's she still alive,"

Ellie followed along in her journal, tracing the name and location, "Belgrade, Montana. Where's that?"