Michael was in front of the large radio, holding the black military grade STAT phone up to his ear.
"You have an update for me," Michael stated – he did not ask.
His men had taken about two weeks since his initial order of the assignment and he would have no more further delays on his end. It was either the soldiers that he sent out on the mission had an update or they shouldn't be bothered returning back to base –
Michael did not accept failure as an option.
"We fou--nd kid and – wom--an," came a voice on the other end – it was filled with static and the words were broken up.
Michael had plenty of experience dealing with this type of military technology and thus it did not faze him. It was easy to understand as though the person speaking into the device was standing directly beside him. In his many years of having been enlisted in the military, this wasn't the hardest one he had to decipher – it was, however, the heaviest.
The Major smiled briefly at that news – though it wasn't at all in happiness. In fact, the smile was born from the feeling of great triumph and satisfaction.
"Understood," Michael replied back. "Bring the boy to the posted quarantined area. Kill the woman. Await further instructions."
He hung up the phone and did not wait for the soldier to respond back to him.
After he had placed the phone down onto the table, there was a still, calm silence that was currently surrounding the man.
Then, he began to chuckle to himself, inevitably disrupting the evened out layer of tranquility that had formed in the room.
Michael placed a hand on the table in front of him and breathed in deeply, simmering in his own victory that he had been waiting nearly a month to obtain. It was by pure immeasurable luck that the kid and the woman hadn't managed to become infected themselves, or by the most logical conclusion...having been murdered and devoured by them.
It had been a considerable amount of time after the break out had happened, and he did well to not let the scientists understand the true severity that took place outside of the facility walls –
It was for their own good.
It allowed them to focus on their presently assigned task.
Michael had taken the biggest amount of satisfaction knowing that he had manipulated Rebekah – an esteemed and quite intelligent scientist. In a way, she was at his complete mercy and was eating directly out of the palm of his hand. Admittedly, there had been a few bumps in the road, such as Ingrid Hans, although that had settled itself out rather quickly.
Any doubt that she had towards him was gone – she trusted him again.
Now that he had everything he needed...It was finally time for him to start finishing off those loose ends – Doctor Yoenhiem Abraja and Doctor Riley Ong.
It didn't matter to him if Rebekah had even made the cure to this infection happening outside...the world was too far gone to recover it to the way it was before. Too many people had died and societies have completely collapsed...
Which is why it was time for Michael to build his own society –
Brick by brick.
Of course...having his favorite scientist at his side – willingly or not – would have been considered a spoil of war.
...
...
I walked into my lab holding a cup of instant coffee in a white, small coffee cup while rubbing my left eye with my left palm. I knew that I was getting more sleep, although I still wasn't getting nearly enough to the point where my eyes would stop feeling this detrimentally heavy.
I would be unable to stop my mind from wandering, and this fact was even more self-evident in my unconscious state. I would keep reminiscing about the past and would dream of Manuel and Enzo more and more often – my dreams would continue to haunt me about my failures as a scientist...and a mother.
There was no winning against how my mind endlessly blamed me.
Clearing my throat, I opened one of the steel double doors for the lab that I was working in. I paused in my stride when I found Doctor Abraja examining my white board.
I felt that my eyes were blinking in shock – I hadn't...expected the man to be standing there. My first impression of the scientist is that he would sit back and let the rest of us handle the cure. I had assumed he was going to wait it out, forcing other to perform the grunt work, while he couldn't be bothered with this 'fool's errand' of a task.
"What are you...doing in here...?" I asked unsteadily, keeping a safe distance away from him.
I had learned my lesson with getting close to other scientists – they were either going to leave or try to harm me in some way, shape, or form.
"You have experimental methods up here," Doctor Abraja poked the board with his right index finger a few times, smudging some of the marker lines that remained up there. Slowly, I narrowed my eyes at the man that refused to turn around and look at me – I suppose I wasn't worthy of his respect, either. "I doubt that they would ever work..."
He turned around this time to meet me in the eye.
He doesn't have the right to criticize my work --
"What exactly have you been doing to show your progress?" I couldn't help but huff out. I felt as though he were personally attacking me, and I wasn't getting nearly enough sleep to pretend to be cordial with him.
I saw the way that he let out a slow smirk while tilting his head up to appear taller – it didn't make him any less of a complete jerk.
I couldn't help it as I continued on with my tirade -- "Are you done with taking your four month break? While the rest of us worked tirelessly?"
Doctor Abraja pointed at me a few times in the air, and I took a slight step back.
"I knew that you were going to be trouble, Doctor Hartman," Doctor Abraja placed his hand down at his side and titled his head. I didn't know what to say and instead remained quiet, hoping that he wouldn't take my earlier words to heart or see it provocation as a basis to attack me. "It was why I set Doctor Nguyen off on you."
I couldn't help it when I froze and took in that information that he just told me. I blinked my eyes a few times before clenching tightly onto the coffee cup that I was still holding.
"You..." I breathlessly spoke. Even when he had just told me these words, I wasn't able to fully register them. It had seemed too brutal and I didn't want to believe that a human was capable of such malice. I couldn't wrap my head around it, but knew I needed some clarification behind his horrible motive -- "You did what-?"
"Are you having a hard time with hearing?" Doctor Abraja asked bluntly and I didn't respond back to him. He admitted what he said earlier as a truth when he didn't deny or attempt to refute his words. "It was easy to get Doctor Nguyen to target you – you were the only obstacle standing in his way to get to Doctor Ong, after all."
I don't understand --
I hadn't said anything terrible to Doctor Abraja to warrant such animosity-!
