August 17th, 2020. [Part III]

If I’d just kept looking, I might have found something, anything, that could have convinced her to stay.

It was around two-thirty in the afternoon when Chloe got back from her own reconnaissance. The rain had subsided for now, so both our clothes were dry—that concern had been mostly unwarranted.

She walked in through the front, having climbed out the fire stairs instead of up the elevator cord. Aside from being pretty damn sweaty, she seemed mostly fine. I was sitting next to the burnt-out fire when she noticed me.

“Hey, Niko.”

I waved. “Hey. Find anything?”

“Well, not a whole lot about the building, no. But that floor, B4, had to do with our amigos down below,” she explained. “I found more of those weird metal headpieces, the ones they drilled into their skulls.”

“Oh, shit. What do they do?”

“I have no clue. But the signs said B4 was the Biomechanics Lab, so… biomechanics stuff, I guess.”

“Biomechanics stuff. Hell yeah.”

“Hell yeah.”

She took a seat beside me on her bedroll. I heard her stomach growl—she grimaced and looked around for the jerky she’d been snacking on the night prior. She tore a piece off with her teeth and chewed for a moment.

“Oh. There was something else, too,” she mumbled, mouth full.

“I was gonna– no, you go ahead.”

“Huh?”

“Like, I was about to say something, but don’t worry about it.”

“Okay,” she said, swallowing. “So I was also looking on the floor below it, B5. That’s the Genetics Lab. Lots of big computers there, not a lot of info. Some of them were missing.”

“Missing, like… gone?”

“Maybe they were never there, but it was a big grid of these kinds of machines, and there were some empty spaces, so I just kind of assumed.”

“You think those are the really big computers we found on B7?”

“Hard to say. If we go back in, I’ll check, but I really don’t want to.”

I smiled. “Heh. Is it the stairs?”

“Oh my God, Niko. So many fucking stairs. My back hurts.”

While she complained, I opened my backpack and uncrumpled the paper I’d found. In all honesty, I’d gotten sidetracked a lot after finding it, and I hadn’t uncovered any more evidence supporting the virus’s existence.

“This is what I was gonna mention earlier,” I told Chloe. “About the virus.”

She grabbed it and read it through. I watched her expression shift, the same way mine had, as she read the last line. It seemed seeing my name on the page gave her the same anxieties it gave me. I found it odd that she didn’t try to rationalize it like usual—I’d pictured her telling me off, saying it was ‘obviously another Niko’, maybe even suggesting he was one of the corpses. But instead, she sat in a stunned silence.

“Uh… so this was down in the hatch?”

“Yeah. We probably didn’t notice because the lights were going out.”

“I mean… I guess that settles it,” she said with a shrug. “The virus wasn’t real. Or at least they didn’t finish it, so it’s harmless.”

“Woah, woah, woah! That’s not what that means. All it does is confirm what we already knew! That there’s an incomplete prototype!”

Chloe glared at me. “An incomplete prototype would imply it’s harmless, primo.”

“But–”

“Don’t get me started. If it were real, we’d be feeling the effects right now, yeah? We’d have symptoms. Especially if we were turning into animals, which might not even be what the thing was supposed to do.”

“It’s not like I made the New Dawn Experiment. I wouldn’t know,” I grumbled. “But even a prototype could still, you know. Work.”

“…Alright, look. Do you have fur?”

“No.”

“Scales?”

“No, but that’s not–”

“Anything at all that’s not just regular old Niko Thumis?”

“…My ears were ringing when I woke up.”

“Oh, wow, so were mine, buddy. Welcome to the tinnitus club.”

“Both of us? Maybe that means something!” I was kind of grasping for straws, I admit.

“Niko.”

I had actually stood up at that point without realizing. The way Chloe looked at me, that brief flash of pity—she thought I was paranoid. And I certainly felt that way. Hot red embarrassment filled my cheeks, and I sat down uncomfortably.

My mind raced to fill in what quip Chloe would make next. ‘It’s not that serious’, she might have said. Maybe some joke about the virus turning me into a scaredy-cat. There was even the chance she’d get up and start walking home. Instead of any of that, she spoke with sincerity, the way a negotiator or a mediator would talk.

“I don’t want to upset you. I know this is scary. We’re in uncharted waters here,” she began. “And this lab is definitely blurring the lines on what’s possible. I’m not judging you for thinking the New Dawn Experiment could be possible, too. If I really didn’t care about what you thought, I would have left last night, or this morning. But I’m still here, sitting right next to you.

“We’re in this together, and yeah, it’s been really dangerous. You almost fell down an elevator shaft. You barely saved us from getting locked in an underground bunker. Worst of all, we almost had to share a sleeping bag. But this has been one hell of an adventure, that’s for sure. I’m sure you have a lot to write about in your thesis.

“The thing is, though… man, I don’t have the right words for this. I’m not trying to be rude, but we have lives outside of these woods, Niko. I’m supposed to organize a fashion show next week. I might have missed calls from the SCPD, and, let’s face it, those guys are clueless without me. Plus, the longer we spend out here, the further your grades drop. If you lose your scholarship, it’s over for you. I don’t know how long you told your professors you’d be gone, but I don’t think a week-long camping trip was in anyone’s plans.

“I guess what I’m saying is, I have a feeling you wanted me out here because everything’s like it was when we were kids. There’s nothing wrong with that, but… this apocalypse virus just isn’t real. And I wish I could stay out here with you until we prove it for sure, but I just can’t, dude. You know it’s not real. You just want to feel this way for a few more days before you have to live in the real world again. And I’m sorry that can’t happen.”

I stared down at my crossed legs, eyebrows furrowed. I gritted my teeth. She didn’t get it. Why didn’t she understand? This wasn’t some short-sighted nostalgia trip. Or maybe it had started that way, but…

My bangs still mostly covering my eyes, I glanced up. “…What about the letter? The one with my name in it?”

Her response: “Niko, you planted that.”

I wanted to hit her. I wasn’t the kind of person to get physical, but I was practically boiling. I curled up my fists and held back tears—I had no reason to cry.

What bothered me wasn’t that she’d assumed that. It was a crazy find; add that to the fact it was handwritten, and it wasn’t a hard deduction to make that I had just written it myself. And given my history of playing catch-up with her, it would be in-character for me to do something like that—to make a mystery she couldn’t solve.

I was pissed because anyone but Chloe would make that assumption. She was the smartest person I’d ever known, without a doubt, and with a degree in forensics she should have known it wasn’t my handwriting. With her experience in criminal psychology, she should have known my fears were genuine.

Maybe she was in denial. Then again, maybe I was just trying to come up with more excuses to keep searching. Maybe I felt in control somehow, holed up in the woods where she finally had to rely on me for once. I owed it to Chloe to give her a way out. I wasn’t in charge of her.

“I know you said you’d wait until tomorrow, but… you can go now,” I mumbled, still staring at my hiking pants.

“The way you said that implies you’re not coming with me.”

“I’m not.”

“Don’t be brash, primo.”

“That’s why I’m staying. I still think this virus is real.”

“Are you just doing this to prove… never mind. Please stay safe, Niko. I don’t want to see your name on a missing persons list.”

I watched in silence as she stood up, stretched out, and pocketed her phone. She hadn’t brought any other supplies with her, so I had no time to change her mind. Not that hers was a mind to be changed.

We both heard the buzz from her phone as she was stepping out of the lobby. Undoubtedly at low battery, she was hesitant to check and bring it closer to its demise. A look of mild annoyance crossed her face when she saw the notification.

“Hey, I got service for a second. It’s just Instagram comments… oh, and a text from Maya.”

“What’d she say?”

“Read it yourself.”

I got up and she showed me the screen. Though she’d only mentioned one text from Maya, there were actually dozens, from increasingly longer ago. The most recent simply read, ‘Where is Niko?’. I scrolled to read more, but the display froze for a moment, then shut off—the pinwheel of despair rolled for a few seconds afterwards as I looked awkwardly away.

“Coincidence. Don’t blame yourself for it,” Chloe said. “What time was it again?”

“Um… around five?”

“I should make it back before sunset. I’ll have your mom tell Maya where you are. God forbid I say a word to her without starting an argument.”

“Maya’s not that bad, is she?”

“You didn’t have to live with her.”

The sun poked out through the clouds then, illuminating our faces in the lakeside humidity. Chloe walked out into the clearing and scanned the laboratory down one more time. She gave me a sad smile.

“Come home soon, okay?” she said.

“Only once I have proof.”

“Love you, primo.”

“Love you too.”