Chapter 17: Ep. 5 — Sister, III

My eyes started opening, slowly, while they adjusted to the light, but something was different from before. I yawned and stretched my arms up in the air. It looks like it’s late now… but how long was I asleep for? I turned my head towards the bed and jumped up, I had completely forgotten that Yuri was there.

“Oh… it was just you.” I slowly reached over and grabbed the blankets. Ken must have moved them while he bandaged his leg.

I covered Yuri up and sighed.

“You must be really tired…”

My stomach grumbled, and I remembered that I hadn’t eaten for days, I haven’t even drank anything. I walked over to the kitchen while wondering how I hadn’t died yet… I haven’t had water for almost a week, but it only feels like it’s been a couple days.

As I quickly grabbed the only cup on the counter, I filled it with water and started gulping it down.

“Ahh… so refreshing.” Never in my life would I think water would be so good… I’m starting to miss my old life. I hated it, but I never realized how lucky I was. I looked down at my bandaged legs as I could still feel a sting coming from them. I set the cup down and looked at the window.

“I gotta deal with this now…”

I walked over to the fridge and opened it. To my surprise, there was something in there. A half eaten… sandwich? I quickly grabbed it and took a huge bite of it.

“Pff…” This tastes horrible, and I think I took a bite of the paper wrapping by accident.

I still scarfed down the sandwich as I was starving and couldn’t afford to be picky. I looked in the fridge again, but there wasn’t much in there… maybe 3 slices of bread, some type of meat, and some… mustard?

I closed the fridge and tossed the wrapper in the trash can, and as I did, I realized I had completely forgotten about the alien. I froze, as my eyes glanced around the room. I couldn’t see him anywhere.

“A-alien? Where are you?” I slowly crept toward the last spot I saw him.

I stopped as I felt something on my arm. I thought it was a bug, so I brushed my hand across my arm, but the feeling was still there. So I looked down and saw some writing, almost like my skin was changing colour in the exact shapes of letters, but that wasn’t even the weirdest part.

What was written was in a different language, one I’d never seen before, but I still somehow understood it.

“I’m here” I read it out loud with a confused look, then realized what he meant.

“HEY, GET OUT!” I screamed, I didn’t want him there.

I screamed a bit too loud as Yuri jumped up, and we locked eyes. He looked around and realized he was in bed. He quickly pulled the covers over his chest and screamed asked where he was.

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I slowly pulled my hands up to reassure him I wasn’t going to harm him. “At least I didn’t kidnap you, you just fainted while bringing me here…”

He became flustered after I told him he fainted, “I w-what?”

“Remember? You were running like… really fast…” I’m great with words.

He jumped out of bed and ran to the window. He pulled one of the shutters down and peaked through it.

“DANG IT!” He screamed in frustration as he walked back to the bed and sat on the edge.

“What- what’s wrong?” I hesitantly asked. Also, how was he walking on that leg so well?

“How long was I out?” He tightly folded his hands together as his head tilted down.

“Umm… I’m not sure, maybe a couple hours?” I fell asleep too… so I don’t really know.

His head perked up a little as he said, “Wait, we still have tomorrow.”

He turned his head in my direction and asked if I was still going to help him. I hadn’t even thought about it… why didn’t I just leave him when he fainted. He didn’t know where I lived, I could have easily escaped. I’m so stupid-

“Hello?” He asked as my hands tightened up and my teeth had started gritting together, I was so mad at myself.

“If I’m gonna help you, I need you to at least tell me why…” I know I’m the one who made the deal, but it would be good to know why he hates them so much…

He tilted his head down again, and I could see him starting to shake a little bit.

He bit his lip, “Fine.”

He sat there in silence, was he struggling to think? Hopefully he’s not trying to think of an excuse…

I grabbed the chair I had been sitting in earlier and set it in front of him. As I sat down, I noticed him move his head a little in the other direction… was he avoiding eye contact?

“Well, are you going to tell me or-”

“It’s my sister.” He started fidgeting.

“You’re- someone who works there?”

“No… she used to be in the same facility with me, but they told me they moved her here.”

“Facility? For what?”

He didn’t respond for a while, but he finally looked me in the eyes and said, “If you don’t want to help, then whatever… I got the wrong person, and I’m sorry. but don’t play stupid. You know exactly what I mean.” His eyes were slightly red, with teardrops in them that hadn’t run down… he was trying his best not to cry.

“Wait what- no I’ll help, I’m sorry, I just don’t know what you mean!” I felt horrible… I didn’t know what happened to him, but I was starting to have a bad feeling that Lunar Labs had something to do with this.

“How we got our powers, that facility…” His head tilted down again as he responded, and I reached my hand out and grabbed his. I had realized this was the ‘test subjects’ that he had been referring to earlier. What did they do to him… what did they do to Lydia.

“Is she okay?” I reached my other hand out and grabbed onto his hand.

“That’s what I don’t know… they said she was being transferred here to try a different Xeno.”

“So she’s probably fine… right?” I was trying to be comforting, but he pulled his hand out. I’d never had siblings, so I mistakenly said something insensitive.

“Wait that’s not what I meant-”

“She was really sick before they took her… and they continued to lie to me about it.” His fists tightened.

“It’s all their fault… she would be fine if they hadn’t given her the Xeno…”

“Why did they give us… a Xeno?” This probably wasn’t the time to ask, but I did anyway.

He looked at me again in confusion, and I couldn’t blame him, I was probably asking really dumb questions… but he answered anyway.

“They need us to fight against the invasion…”

As I had somehow gotten comfortable in this word, not really questioning what was going on, I had completely forgotten about all of those people turning into those egg shape things… was that what he was talking about?

“Are you talking about the people transforming into eggs?”

“Huh? Oh, the people outside? No, their infected.”

“Wait what? On top of what I’m guessing is an alien invasion, people are also becoming… INFECTED??”

Without realizing, I had said that completely out loud, and the look on his face completely changed.

“Didn’t you say you worked for Lunar Labs…?” His head tilted as he asked.

Oh no… I really screwed up.