Chapter 148: The Scream [13]

"I am one of them," she said quietly. "I’m Starakian."

I blinked my eyes in disbelief before they widened further in profound shock, my mind struggling to process what she had just revealed.

I looked again at her face and hands. Her whole presence seemed different now that she’d dropped whatever disguise or suppression had been concealing her true nature. The red marks around her eyes glowed with alien energy, and the crimson sparks dancing above her palm pulsed with rhythms that matched no human heartbeat.

I had always sensed that something was off about Wanda—her unnatural calmness in dangerous situations, her strange mannerisms, the way she seemed to observe rather than participate in human interactions. But not even in my wildest dreams would I have imagined she was actually from the alien race that had invaded our world and spread the virus that created the infected.

"How is that even possible?" I asked, my voice strained with confusion. "You were born here on Earth, weren’t you?"

"My mother came to this world injured when she was young," Wanda explained, her red eyes never leaving my face as she watched my reactions. "My grandfather Joel found her and adopted her, giving her a new identity and protecting her secret until the day she died."

"Your mother came here from another world..." I repeated slowly.

Wanda nodded, the red marks around her eyes pulsing with each acknowledgment. "She was running away from something or someone on our homeworld, but she never told me the details of what she was fleeing. She only gave me two instructions: keep absolutely quiet about our origin and our abilities, and never trust any member of our race if they ever found me."

The pieces were beginning to fall into place with terrible clarity. "Until the virus spread and activated the Screamer device," I said, understanding now why the Starakians had targeted her specifically. "That’s when they contacted you, isn’t it?"

"Yes," Wanda confirmed, lowering her hand so the red sparks dissipated into the air like dying embers. "They told me to follow them, to join with others of our kind, to leave this dying world behind and embrace my true heritage."

"But you refused," I said, remembering about how Joel had been desperate to protect Wanda fall this time. "You chose to stay with your grandfather instead of joining them."

"So that’s why they attacked the Municipal Office?" I asked, anger building in my chest at the thought of how many innocent people had died because of their determination to capture one girl. "To force your hand by threatening everyone around you?"

Wanda nodded. "Every person who died in that attack, every injury suffered, every family torn apart—it’s all my fault because I refused to go with them when they first made contact."

"My mother told me to live here among humans and never trust any member of our race," Wanda continued, her voice growing quieter. "She warned me that if I ever encountered other Starakians, I should run and hide rather than reveal myself to them. But now..."

She trailed off, unable or unwilling to complete the thought. It seemed she could no longer bear watching people around her dying because of her presence. Maybe it was selfish of her to have stayed silent until now, but it also proved that she was just a young girl who wished to remain with her grandfather until the end, not join some alien civilization she knew nothing about and her mother had explicitly warned her against.

"It’s my fault so many people have suffered," Wanda said, raising those unnaturally calm red eyes to meet mine directly. "Are you angry with me?"

What kind of question was that to ask at this moment, when we were both trapped in mortal danger and facing enemies that wanted to capture or kill us?

I stiffened suddenly, my enhanced senses screaming warnings that made my heart race with renewed terror. The enhanced infected was approaching from behind our position, rushing with supernatural speed that meant we had seconds at most before it would burst through the door and recapture us both.

I quickly jumped away from the doorway, pulling Wanda with me, just as the reinforced door exploded inward under the tremendous impact of the enhanced infected’s assault. Splinters of wood and twisted metal fragments scattered across the room as the massive creature pounced through the opening and positioned itself between us and any possible escape route.

Damn it...

But at least I accomplished what I needed to during our conversation.

The barbed wire restraints that had been binding my wrists and torso finally snapped apart as my wind blade energy completed cutting through the metal bonds. I was free to move and fight, though my body was exhausted from ability overuse and blood loss from dozens of lacerations.

"Leave now," Wanda told me suddenly; "They won’t hurt me because I’m from the race that created them. I’ll be fine here, so just escape while you still can."

I understood now how she had managed to travel through infected-infested territory unscathed to reach this radio station. Her Starakian nature gave her immunity to the creatures that viewed her as an ally or at least not a target for elimination.

I looked at her back, which seemed impossibly small and vulnerable despite the alien energy crackling around her. She was what, fifteen or sixteen years old? Maybe a year or two younger than me? Just a girl who had been forced to carry burdens no one should have to bear.

"Idiot," I said simply, and rushed forward to grasp her wrist and pull her toward me.

"What are you—" Wanda widened her red eyes in shock as I wrapped my arm firmly around her waist and launched both of us toward the shattered window.

We were on the third floor, and jumping from this height would definitely result in broken bones or worse under normal circumstances. But I had spotted a car parked directly below our position, its roof offering a potential landing surface that might absorb enough impact to keep us alive.

I quickly shifted our positions mid-flight, rotating so my back would take the brunt of the collision while protecting Wanda with my body. The physics of our fall accelerated us toward the ground with terrible inevitability, and I had just enough time to hope that my enhanced durability would be sufficient to survive what came next.

"Nghhh!" I grunted in agony as my back collided with the car’s metal roof with devastating force.

The impact drove the air from my lungs and sent shock waves of pain radiating through my entire spine. I felt something crack—maybe vertebrae, maybe ribs, possibly both—and for a terrifying moment I thought my back might have been broken entirely. The car’s roof crumpled beneath the force of our landing, creating a body-shaped depression in the metal.

But at least I was still alive, still conscious, and still capable of movement despite the excruciating pain.

I jumped down from the crumpled car roof with Wanda still held firmly in my protective embrace, my legs absorbing the impact of the short drop despite the screaming protests from my injured back and ribs.

"What are you doing?" Wanda frowned deeply, her red eyes flickering with frustration as she tried to push against my chest with her small hands. But her strength, while enhanced by Starakian physiology, was still no match for my Dullahan-empowered grip. "Let me go! You don’t understand what you’re interfering with!"

"Jasmine is dead," I said.

The simple declaration made Wanda stop struggling immediately, her eyes widening slightly. She had known Jasmine at the Municipal Office—had probably shared meals with her, listened to her gentle voice during community gatherings, observed her kindness toward others. Now that person was gone, transformed into a mindless creature that bore no resemblance to who she had been.

I started running with Wanda through the radio station’s devastated parking lot, my enhanced speed allowing me to navigate between abandoned vehicles and scattered debris despite my injuries. The Screamer’s massive transmission had drawn most of the infected away from this location toward human population centers, but there were still dozens of creatures shambling through the darkness around us—enough to pose serious danger if we couldn’t break through their loose perimeter quickly.

I looked at Wanda with deadly seriousness. "I won’t let you surrender yourself to these people," I said, pulling her forward as I adjusted our trajectory to avoid a cluster of infected blocking our most direct escape route. "Not after everything that’s happened. Not after Jasmine."

But Wanda suddenly stopped moving entirely, her feet planting themselves on the concrete with surprising force that made me stumble as our momentum was interrupted.

"You don’t understand the larger situation," she said. "This isn’t about individual lives—it’s about ending the bloodshed that my presence is causing."

"Understand what?" I asked harshly, my patience wearing thin as I heard the sounds of more infected approaching our position from multiple directions. We didn’t have time for philosophical debates about sacrifice and the greater good—we needed to move immediately or risk being overwhelmed.

"I will go with them voluntarily, and they will have no further reason to attack human settlements here," Wanda explained. "I’ll tell them to stop all attacks in Jackson Township if they want me to join them. They need me alive and cooperative, which gives me bargaining power."

"They’ll just kidnap you the moment you’re in their custody," I replied with bitter certainty. "Whatever promises they make will be meaningless once they have what they want. You’re being naive if you think alien conquerors will honor agreements with you."

"Then I’ll threaten to end my own life," Wanda said with chilling matter-of-factness, as if she were discussing weather patterns rather than suicide. "If they try to force me or break their word, I’ll kill myself before they can do whatever they need from me. That threat will keep them honest."

I widened my eyes in shock.

What are you even saying?" I asked.

Wanda looked back at me with those unnaturally calm red eyes, showing no fear or hesitation about the terrible choice she was contemplating.

"They will accept those terms if I make the threat credible," she said.

She paused, glancing back toward the radio station where we could still hear sounds of movement and destruction. "Just leave me here and go save your friends while you still can. A Starakian agent will come soon to find me once I stop suppressing my natural energy signature. If I use my abilities openly, I should be able to make contact or send a signal that will call them to this location within the hour."

"No," I cut her off sharply.

Wanda looked at me with obvious confusion, clearly not having expected such absolute refusal.

I stared at her with deadly seriousness, my enhanced vision allowing me to see the alien marks around her eyes pulsing with energy that reflected her emotional state despite her outward calm.

"I won’t let you go with these bastards," I said with quiet intensity. "Not willingly, not as a hostage, not under any circumstances. What you’re proposing isn’t a solution—it’s surrender."

Wanda’s red eyes turned cold and annoyed as she looked at me.

"Your grandfather Joel must be worried sick about you right now," I continued. "I have a camping van parked near our house that’s stocked with everything we need to survive on the road. Once I reach Sydney and the others and get them loaded up, we’re heading to the Municipal Office to join the evacuation convoy. You’re going to reunite with your grandfather and stay with the people who actually care about you as a person rather than as an asset to be exploited."

I pulled her forward again, trying to resume our escape before the infected could close in around us. But Wanda slapped my hand away with surprising force.

She glared at me with those alien red eyes blazing with anger and something that looked almost like contempt.

"That attitude of playing the hero is making me sick," she said harshly. "You’re so focused on saving everyone that you can’t see the reality of our situation. Everyone will die if I don’t surrender myself to the Starakians and negotiate terms for human survival!"

"It won’t change anything!" I shouted back at her, cutting off her argument with desperate intensity as emotions I’d been suppressing finally broke through my careful control.

I glared at her with all the rage and grief and helpless fury that had been building since Jasmine’s transformation. "The Starakians won’t stop their invasion just because you offer yourself to them! They don’t care about individual human lives or communities! Don’t you understand that?!"

My voice rose with each word. "They’ve invaded this planet to conquer it completely and destroy people like me who carry symbiotic enhancements! They want to eliminate any potential resistance to their colonization plans! And they will destroy every single human settlement, every family, every hope for survival until nothing remains but ashes!"

Tears were running down my face despite my attempts to maintain composure, mixing with the blood and sweat that covered my features. They were tears of anger at the injustice of it all, tears of hatred for the alien forces that had stolen everything from us, and tears of overwhelming sorrow for Jasmine and everyone else who had died because I hadn’t been strong enough or smart enough to protect them.

"It’s not because you threaten to kill yourself that they will stop their systematic extermination of humanity!" I continued, my voice breaking with emotion. "One day or another, humanity will die by their hands unless we fight back with everything we have! Your sacrifice won’t save anyone—it’ll just give them one more victory while the rest of us continue dying!"

Wanda’s eyes widened slightly.

"What you’re proposing isn’t noble sacrifice," I said more quietly, grasping her hand again with gentle but firm pressure. "It’s just running away from an impossible situation. I know you don’t trust the Starakians, and I know you want to be with your grandfather until the very end rather than joining some alien civilization your mother explicitly warned you against. So think only about that simple truth—about staying with the person who loves you and has protected you your entire life."

I clenched my free hand into a fist, feeling my nails dig into my palm.

"Instead of wasting time with futile gestures here, focus on survival and family," I continued. "As for the Starakians who did this to our world, who killed Jasmine and so many others..." My voice dropped coldly. "I will personally make them regret this invasion. Every agent they send, every weapon they deploy, every plan they conceive—I will destroy it all..."

I will never forgive them for what they had done.

Never.