It Started With Blood & Will End With Blood

‘Da-dum, da-dum, da-dum’

The sound reverberates in my body. The familiar aching heat begins to grow and grow until eventually I’m sweating and my chest burns as if it has been lit on fire. I clutch my chest from the pain as my heart struggles against the heat.

‘Ever, wake up!’ I feel strong hands shake me.

The pain is too much for me to reply, so I respond with a grunt of acknowledgement. I feel water thrust against my parched lips, ‘Quick drink the water Ever!’

My heart feels like a thousand small hot needles are piercing it and sweat drips from every pore in my body as I ride through the wave of sensations. I should be used to it by now. Ever since my 18th birthday my heart has become defective.

Once the worst of it is over I manage to shakily grab the water from my brothers hand and take a sip. I sigh in relief from the healing effects of the water as it cools all my organs down to a manageable level. My vision clears up and I see concern etched on his face even with the dim light in this underground bunker. ‘Look don’t worry I’m fine.’

He arches his eyebrow at me, ‘You call that fine Ever?’

I put my hands up in surrender, ‘Ok look, I know it looked bad but I’m slowly starting to get used to it , and who knows maybe it’ll go away on it’s own’.

He grabs me by the shoulders, shaking me slightly, ‘Everleigh this isn’t joke! You’re fine this time but what about the next time. We have no idea what this is. It could be killing you for all we know.’

I grab his hand that is still on my shoulder, ‘Look I know you’re worried about me, especially after what happened a couple of months back. But trust me if I was getting worse I would tell you.’

His face is still stern, but eases up a fraction, ‘I do trust you Ever; I just don’t want to lose you too. I don’t know what I would do without you.’

I punch him in the shoulder, ‘Look at my brother, getting all sappy over here. Never thought I’d see the day.’ He glares at me and slaps my hand away. He puts me in a choke hold and messes up my hair. ‘Stop it! I’ll punch you again, if you ruin my hair even more’.

He lets me go and gives me a once over and chuckles at his handiwork, ‘That’s what you get for being a pain in my ass.’

I grumble as I try to straighten out the rats’ nest that my hair has become.

A chill passes through my body, and I realise that my clothes are quite damp from that sweating fest I just had. I trash around the abandoned bunker and look for some dry clothes that I can change into.

After trashing around this old bunker I find a t-shirt and sweatpants, they should do nicely.

I’m just about done with changing when I remember that I forgot to redress my wound. I pull up the sweat pant on the injured leg and unwrap the bandage and gauze from my wound. I have a massive gash on the back of my calf that I got when my brother and I got ambushed at a convenience store on the outskirts of the city. I walk over to the backpack strewn on the old coffee table in the bunker and rifle through it for a fresh set of gauze.

Eureka, I finally spot it at the bottom of the bag and pull it out.

‘What the fuck Ever?!’

I look up at my brothers stern face, ‘What? I’m just grabbing some gauze, no need to get your panties in a twist.’

He rolls his eyes at me, ‘Not that, your leg!’

‘Yes, I know I should’ve dressed it sooner, don’t come for me.’ I say getting exasperated with my surly brother.

He kneels down and grabs my calf in a tight grasp shining his torch on my wound, ‘Look it’s healed!’

My heart stops, ‘That’s impossible!’

‘Take a look for yourself, ‘ he removes his hand from my leg.

I twist my back around to get a good look at my calf. My eyes widen, where I had the 5-centimetre gash, is now perfect and healthy skin. I touch it and pull the skin to see if I am dreaming, but it remains in perfect condition.

‘See I told you.’ Dane turns off the torch and sits at the coffee table. His face twists in concern, ‘I don’t understand how this is even possible? Neither of us are purebloods.’

I shrug lamely, just as confused as he is.

* * *

Last year the governments around the world, including the Australian government distributed a vaccine to fight against Covid19, but it went terribly wrong. The vaccine was rushed and no one knew of the dire consequences that it would have on our population.

At first it was harmless blood clots in some of the older people but then more serious things began to develop.

People began to notice that their cuts, bruises, lesions and wounds wouldn’t heal. The symptoms were similar to that of people that are born with haemophilia. Scientists were stunned around the world, and tried their best to reverse engineer the vaccine, but it was already too late. Our DNA had fundamentally been altered and there was no coming back from it.

The number of people dying increased in the thousands day by day. People began to become more on edge as the situation became increasingly unstable. Riots began in the streets, with people petitioning and rioting against the government for help.

Even doing simple things like shopping for food became dangerous, as people became more desperate and erratic. We were on our way to the supermarket when a jeep went through a red light and smashed into the front of our car.

When Dane and me came to, the jeep had already driven off. Luckily we were both fine, but when we rushed to the driver and passenger seats our parents weren’t so lucky. We called ‘000’ but no one answered. So we kept trying until finally we got an operator but he didn’t care to hear us out. We kept calling and calling, but no one would help us.

On my mother’s dying breath she held out her heart-shaped locket to my brother that he clutched as if his life depended on it.

Her arm dropped to her side, and we cried as we hopelessly watched the life drain out of our parents’ bodies. I’d never seen my funny brother who always made everyone laugh; cry as much as he did on that day. He hasn’t smiled the same since, if at all.

* * *

I sit across from Dane, ‘Dane I know we aren’t purebloods, but maybe something has changed in our blood.’

He grabs my shoulders, ‘Ever, no matter what happens we can’t let anyone know about this. Trust no one, especially not the army doctors.’

‘Why? Maybe this could be the key.’

His expression turns dark, ‘Just trust me on this, you have no idea what they are capable of.’

I touch my hand to his on my shoulder, ‘Okay you have my word, I won’t tell anyone.’

His expression relaxes, ‘Ok good. Now, I’m going to head out and get some food supplies for us.’

‘I can come too.’ I say already grabbing my backpack.

‘Nah, you can stay. I’ll be quick.’ He ruffles my hair and goes to grab his backpack and rifle.

I stare after him. I hate being left behind, but it’s not like I can complain when I know he’s just trying to protect me.

Just as he grabs the handle of the front door, a chain of explosions goes off rocking the bunker. I hear cracks open up in the walls and ceiling. Dane looks back at me with worry, ‘Quick, hide Ever!’

As he says that the door bursts open and soldiers sprawl into our small bunker, completely surrounding us. One person, the commander I assume, moves to the front of the ranks with a device that beeps. ‘We’ve lost the target.’

The Commander looks at us with cold eyes, ‘I’m only going to ask this once, where is the hybrid?’

We both look at the commander in confusion. He raises his arm and two soldiers flank my brother and me with a gun held to our head.

We both look at the Lieutenant in confusion. He raises his arm and two soldiers flank our sides, holding a gun up to our heads.

He narrows his gaze, ‘Well?’

‘We don’t know anything about a hybrid’, Dane spits out with venom.

The Lieutenant signals his soldier, ‘Shoot him.’

The shot fires so quickly that neither Dane or me have time to react. It hits him square in his thigh.

I scream from my soul, ‘No! You monsters, how could you? You know he’ll die.’ I struggle against the soldier that is holding me down, and land a hit in his gut. His grip on me loosens and I run to Dane. Just as I reach him another gunshot fires, I yelp as I feel the bullet embed between the flesh of my left shoulder blade.

‘Ever!’ My brother’s angry voice rings out in the air.

The Lieutenant’s lip curls up in a foul smile, ‘She might be useful. Bring her to me.’

Dane ‘s expression becomes fierce and I see him mentally calculating, and my heart sinks.

The soldier holding him down makes the mistake of loosening of his hold for a fraction of a second and my brother makes his move. He disarms the soldier and knocks him out. Just as Dane points the handgun at the Lieutenant I see his soldiers already ready to shoot on orders.

‘Ever, run!’ He yells as he fires the fun and tries to kill as many soldiers as he can for me to escape.

I see the Lieutenant’s hand go down, almost as if in slow motion, and without even thinking about it I throw my body in front of Dane’s.

The Lieutenant catches on and rescinds his order to fire, but it’s too late a few go off, and hit me in the back and I crumple to the ground.

‘Stop! You idiots! We need her alive!’

An animalistic roar rips out of my brothers throat, ‘Nooo‼ Ever!’

I don’t feel any pain, only wetness as the blood pours out of my body. Then all at once the heat erupts inside me like a volcano. This episode is unlike any other. My blood and skin begin to boil, as if to say that I don’t belong in this body.

I pant and scream, uncaring of the audience I have. The pain too much to bare.

‘What have you done to her?’ Dane yells.

Before the Lieutenant can even react, another explosion goes off, but instead of fire burning gas begins to the fill in the room.

‘They’re here!’ Yells the lieutenant.

His monitor starts ringing like crazy. ‘Men cover your mouths and noses, be prepared to shoot any moment.’

In seconds gunshots go off, and fill the entire place.

I hear something that vaguely resembles a howl in the distance, but I can’t be sure as my consciousness fades in and out.

The pain is so dire that I’m crunched into a foetal position and don’t realise I’ve been picked up until bright golden eyes bore into me.

The pain recedes for but a moment as I stare back at him.

I point to the last place I saw Dane, ‘My brother.’

His deep baritone reaches my ears, ‘Smell him out.’

His golden eyes are the last thing I see as my consciousness fades.