November part two

In front of me, judging me with her eyes. Clara Carson, in the flesh.

"Hey Clara!" I said, spreading my arms. "Is that how you welcome your dear brother-in-law?"

"If my brother-in-law is an idiot like you, then yes. I'll never treat you like family," she said firmly.

"Well then, how about them?"

I stepped aside and presented her kids, who just moments ago had been trembling and clinging to my back. Their eyes widened as they saw, for the first time in their lives, their mother.

"Is it… them?" she said, covering her mouth in shock, tears filling her eyes.

"Yes, it's them. The one in the cap is Rick, and the one in the lab coat is Andrew," I said, giving them a little push forward, encouraging them to go.

Clara ran to them and hugged them while sobbing.

"I'm so sorry, boys! I've always wanted to see you and be with you, but this damn world wouldn’t let me," she said, pulling back to look at their faces. "Are you okay? Your uncle didn’t hurt you, did he?"

Her joy quickly turned into the typical concern of a mother. She licked her hand and began wiping the dirt off her children's faces—faces that still didn't know how to react.

They felt her warmth and, in that moment, felt a sense of home they never knew existed. They looked at each other and began to cry as they hugged her again.

"Mom! We always wanted to meet you!" Andrew said, tightening the hug.

"Yeah, we're sorry it took so long," Rick said, crying like I had never seen before.

They never hugged me that tight. Well, makes sense. She's their mother, and I'm not that into emotional stuff anyway.

As the family reunited, Melanie touched my shoulder and teleported me further into the camp.

The nausea hit again.

"Never do that again without warning!" I said, gagging.

"Sorry, but your nausea face is hilarious. Besides, the family needed a moment."

"You’re right about that," I said, straightening up. "Now tell me, what the hell is HealingCamp?"

"You're looking at it."

I turned and saw the truth. Dozens of ultramutants in various tents being cared for by groups of doctors and scientists. Some were in irreversible condition, others a bit more stable.

"You’re taking care of ultramutants??" I turned to her, confused and angry. "These beasts can snap at any moment and destroy everything! You don’t know the atrocities I’ve seen them commit along the way. I can’t leave my nephews here."

"Well, I was one of those ultramutants you hate so much… but look at me now, I’m fine." She said trying to calm me. 

"Yeah, I don’t know how, but you still have those filthy powers that make you feel superior!"

I stood right in her face, staring at her.

She answered with a look of disgust and shoved me to the ground.

"You seriously think I wanted this?! You really think everyone here doesn’t regret taking that pill and enduring painful changes every day?! That’s why they come here—to heal, away from a corrupted society. I get where you're coming from, but don’t think we’re all the same."

I thought of Tristan locked in his cage, suffering from PowerMax’s experiments and his ever-growing hair.

From the ground, I looked up at Melanie’s anger and understood her pain.

"Seriously, Melanie, I’m sorry. I wasn’t in my right mind. I’ve been through a lot fighting them, and arriving here to see all this… it was too much. My head just exploded."

"Tch," she said, lighting a cigarette. "Don’t worry, luckily I know you enough and I know how you tend to misread situations."

"Haha, yeah," I replied with a nervous laugh. "Still, how? How did they remove your mutation and everyone else’s here?"

"Not even I fully understand it."

That voice wasn’t Melanie’s—it came from behind me.

A muscular young man with a wide smile.

"Nice to see you again, Jason Carson. I’m not here for revenge this time. HealingCamp helped me redeem myself," he said warmly.

"Sorry, do I know you?" I asked, having no clue who he was.

"Eh?" he said, shocked. "It’s me! Peter the Beast! We fought in the RedCage! Oh right, maybe you don’t recognize me because the scientists here removed my mutation—you know, the one that made me look like an animal, with gorilla arms and kangaroo legs. I still have the abilities, though, so maybe we can have a rematch!"

"Sorry, kid, doesn’t ring a bell. Why don’t you go elsewhere while the adults talk?"

I tried to wave him away.

"But I am an adult! And we ran into each other two months ago at the ParadiseCastle branch, where you beat me easily!"

"Oh, now I remember. You were the coward who gives up the moment I aimed at your face."

I remembered his tearful face in the RedCage, surrendering and handing me the win.

"Oh, is that true, Peter?" Melanie interrupted with a smug look.

"No, no, Melanie, I’d never give up so easily," he said, waving his arms in denial. "We must be thinking of different people!"

He played dumb and started whistling.

"Relax, I was just joking. But what business does a ParadiseCastle lackey have here?" I said, pointing my gun at him.

He raised his hands, terrified and sweating.

"Ahhh, I just needed a change of scenery! After you beat me twice, I realized I didn’t want to go through that again, so I wandered until I ran into Melanie, and she brought me here! That’s all!"

He explained his situation at lightning speed.

I looked at Melanie, and she nodded, confirming Peter’s story.

"Yeah, we never turn away ultramutants who need help. We checked him thoroughly—he wasn’t carrying anything to contact potential threats."

Melanie backed him up.

"Yup! Melanie, my savior!"

Peter, relieved and overjoyed, jumped to hug her in gratitude.

But—

BANG

I fired a shot at the ground, right by his foot.

"Don’t touch her," I said coldly.

Peter, terrified, ran into one of the tents.

"Uh, don’t tell me you still…?" she asked, looking at me with that perv look like she knew something.

"You’re wrong. What we had is over. I just saw his pervy face and remembered how much you hate when that type of people get too close," I said, explaining why I scared Peter off.

"Thanks, but you know I can take care of myself," she said, walking into another tent, showing me her back.

"Wait, I still have questions I need you to answer," I said, disappointed, staring at her back.

"Then I’ll answer for her."

A voice came from behind me, and I didn’t even need to turn to know who it was.

"Clara…"

I looked around her—my nephews were nowhere in sight.

"Relax, they're taking a good bath and then they'll have a nice, nutritious breakfast," she clarified, sitting on a bench.

"And I'm not getting any of that?"

"I haven't decided yet if it's acceptable for you to stay," she replied, just as I expected.

"Figures."

"But... my kids spoke very highly of you—too highly, in fact. So I told them I’d think about it."

"Ha, I bet you just said that so you wouldn’t look like a wicked old witch in front of them, right after you met them for the first time."

"Don’t make me regret this."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," I said, sitting next to her on the bench. "Hey, about Johan... he..."

"I know. I suspected it the moment I saw he wasn’t the one who brought the kids. And they already explained everything to me."

"You don’t seem too sad that your husband or ex—sorry, I don’t know what your relationship was at that point—is dead," I said bitterly.

"I’m dead inside. I just stayed strong in front of my kids, like a good mother would, and held back their tears. Besides seeing my children, there was nothing I wanted more than to see the love of my life one last time. But instead, I had to face the person I despise most in this entire universe."

"Touche. Then if you loved him so much, why'd you leave him and your newborn babies behind?"

"PowerMax."

That one word said it all. As always

"As you know, your brother and I worked there. But after the kids were born, I started to question what the company was doing behind the scenes. That’s why I left with a group of rogue scientists to help fix the damage PowerMax was causing. Johan wanted to follow me, obviously, but that would’ve put him and the kids in danger. We would’ve been hunted down for treason. Even so, he still helped from afar as a double agent, and we planned to reunite eventually—but then the ultramutants came, and returning became more and more impossible."

"And why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve helped."

"Seriously?"

"Just go on," I said, not even bothering to argue.

"With the world in the state it was in, my team and I couldn’t just sit by. We had to do something. I got in contact with Melanie, who was on the verge of collapse because of her mutation, and we applied her a new genetic editing method we developed. She was our first successful case of reversing the mutation. In return, she joined us and helped gather information on other mutants who might need help. That’s how we started helping more and more. And as you can see, that’s how HealingCamp was born."

"I see. But why do they still have their base powers?"

"Well, it turns out the PowerMax pill is extremely potent. The genetic changes from the powers are so deeply embedded in a person’s DNA that trying to fully reverse them can cause other side effects. Possibly new mutations—then we’d be stuck in a vicious cycle. But don’t worry, we’re confident we’ll find a solution. And besides, most of them have agreed to keep their powers."

"Of course they did."

"It’s not what you think. They keep them so they can protect us from other ultra attacks. And no, we don’t kill them like you do. We capture them and treat them. That’s how we’ve grown into what you see today," she said, gazing warmly at the ultras and humans working together. "And we’re planning to expand. I can feel it—we’ll turn this around."

"Eh, sorry to break it to you, but the world’s gonna end in two months. So I don’t really see the point."

"Yeah, we all know. But we’re not letting that crush our hope for a better world. We’re working on a way to stop it."

A solution... to the end of the world? Ha. Sorry, but not even PowerMax could figure that one out. I doubt a bunch of boy scouts are going to stop the ultramutant Johan warned me about.

"But anyway, let’s get to more important matters," she said, switching topics. "My kids—what exactly did you make them do during these long eleven months?"

"Whatever it took to survive," I said, finishing my cigarette.

"Oh, really? And what does that mean—stealing and killing everything in sight?"

There it was. The infamous angry Clara Carson—fierce enough to make the devil himself tremble.

"Relax, I taught them the code Johan and I came up with."

"That stupid code you two made up as kids?!"

"Adapted for the end of the world."

"Wow! What a huge difference!" she said, dripping with sarcasm.

"Hey, it was either that or they’d die in the first month for being dead weight. I turned them into men earlier than they should’ve been. You didn’t see the world out there like we did. You stayed here, living in the fantasy that everyone’s friends, while your kids were out there starving, freezing, and wounded because of your beloved ultras!"

"Don’t talk to me like I’m some ignorant fool! My kids are not animals—they’re children!"

"Well, you weren’t there to raise them. They only had Johan, who was in the lab all day. And when he died, they had me—the screw-up uncle! Look, I know I’m violent and I don’t care much about people. But I always keep my word, and they’re my family. I did what I had to do to get them here, so they could finally meet you. And yeah, maybe I taught them some bad things, but I also tried to help them keep their humanity. They’re not cold-blooded killers like me. They taught me to use my feelings in battle. So, sorry for trying my best and being the closest thing to a decent uncle I could be."

Fed up with the argument, I walked away from that woman I could barely stand to look at.

Behind me, I heard her frustrated sigh.

"...Fine. You can stay. I misjudged you. I know Johan would’ve been proud."

I turned around and saw my sister-in-law’s defeated expression, accepting my words.

She led me to a tent, where my nephews—clean and healthy—welcomed me.

And so, together, we began our stay at HealingCamp.