Revelation

source, soon.”

I said nothing, and could only be shocked by how much things had changed. I realized then why that spire had been empty of Blighters. It wasn’t because it was trying to trick us. It was trying to protect us. In the dream, something strange had happened. The Wanderer, with his white eyes, had been infected with the xenovirus. But he was not dangerous. At least, I didn’t think he was. And the feeling I got, when we had ridden the dragons back to the spire…

My head swam. We rode dragons. It was just a dream, but it had felt so real. It was messing with my mind, now, so much so that I knew, without a doubt, that destroying that spire was a mistake. It had unleashed the swarm.

“It’s really gone, then?”

Anna nodded. “We’re probably ten miles west of Vegas now. Everyone’s been kept going by force. I don’t know how much time we have until the swarm starts to follow…”

I shuddered. Everything had changed so quickly. I felt I had changed, though I hadn’t been awake to witness any of the attack’s horror. I had been here, sleeping, while everyone had been down there, dying.

“I guess everyone in our group is alright?”

“Yeah,” Anna said. “It was the farms that got hardest hit, like I said. We rescued a lot of the farmers. Many were left behind.”

I squeezed her hand. “Are you alright?”

“I don’t know,” she said, after a moment. “I’m still trying to decide that.”

“I can’t imagine what it must have been like. Did the gangs make it out alright?”

“Yeah,” Anna said. “Makara, Char, and Marcus hold the reins, for now. The fact that they were right is giving them some leverage with the gang lords. Who knows how long that will last, though? Rey and Jade want to go their own way, and Cain is thinking of going with them.” Anna sighed. “None of them understand that we can’t be fighting each other right now.”

“They’ll probably agree to work together,” I said. “At least for now. Without unity, they can’t have L.A. Now, out of their home, they have no choice but to press on.”

“I hope you’re right.” She leaned down, kissing me on the cheek. “I was afraid you’d never wake up. At first, we thought you were dead. Your pulse was so slow. You should have seen how worried Makara was.”

I laughed. “I don’t believe you.”

“It’s true.”

“Where is everyone?” I asked.

Anna was looking at me, not answering. Something had changed. Even in the darkness, I could tell that she had tensed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

A sudden fear clenched my chest.

That was when Anna screamed.

Before I knew what was happening, she rushed to turn on the lights. I was blinded, and covered my eyes with my arm, so as to shield them.

Footsteps sounded from the corridor. Michael slid open the partition, running into the room.

“What the hell is going on?” Michael asked.

Anna was crying. Crying at what?

It wasn’t long before I got my answer.

“His eyes…” Anna said. “He’s turning.”

I turned my head to the side. I knew I was in the clinic, and if that were so, on my right there would be a mirror. I faced myself toward it, not daring to open my eyes.

Then, slowly, I opened them, and wanted to scream myself.

Anna was right. My eyes were completely white.

* * *

I stared at my reflection dully for a moment, wondering how it had happened. But the image didn’t lie. My vision wasn’t any different than what I was used to, except perhaps my sensitivity to light was sharper. Looking at the reflection in the mirror was like being stared at by one of them. The eyes — I couldn’t think of them as my eyes — stared back at me empty, vacant. There was no doubt. Like the crawlers, like the dragons, like the Wanderer — I was infected.

No wonder Anna had screamed. No wonder she had run.

Michael still stared at me, his expression shocked.

Samuel and Makara were next to run into the room. I kept my head turned. I wanted to hide. I didn’t want any of them to see.

“What’s going on?” Makara asked.

I dreaded what would come next. I didn’t want anyone to know, neither her, nor Samuel, nor anyone else. Anna’s reaction was enough pain for a million lifetimes.

I knew, however, that I would have to face this sooner or later. I turned my face upward, and opened my eyes.

Everyone gasped.

“I’m infected,” I barely managed.

No one said anything for what seemed an eternity. I heard Char and Marcus speaking outside the door, their enmity now forgotten. I wondered who would be the first to draw their gun.

Samuel suddenly took charge. “Makara, find us a spot to land. Now.”

“Where?”

“Anywhere! Just hurry. Bring the army to a halt. Anna, call Ashton. Tell him to drop everything and come here.

Anna didn’t move.

“Go! You want to help him, don’t you? There might still be time.”

She ran out of the room.

Time? There was no time. Once infected, there was nothing now preventing me from becoming a Howler. All the same, wouldn’t I have transformed by now? Anna said it had been two days since the spire. Usually, it took no more than two hours for someone to turn.

What the hell had happened to me?

With Anna and Makara gone, Char and Marcus entered and stood against the wall, saying nothing, ready for anything. I sat up in bed, shaking my head. I was glad that both of the women were gone. For some reason, they were the last ones I wanted to see me like this. My gaze first found Samuel, who just looked at me as if to confirm that what he saw was real.

“Holy cow,” Michael said. “She wasn’t kidding. White as a Howler’s, only the rest of you is normal.”

“I have no idea what happened,” I said. “I had a dream, where I found the Wanderer, and his eyes were the same way. Maybe I’m more like him than the Howlers.”

I remembered something the Wanderer had told me — not in the dream, but when we were in the cave, on the way to the Great Blight. He said he had gotten lost in the Great Blight, and that he became…different. His eyes had been clouded then, as well — yet not completely so, as mine were now. But in the dream, they had been dead white

“Well, you haven’t turned,” Samuel said. “It’s been two days since we were all knocked out by that spire. You were in a deep sleep the entire time. Maybe the spores affected you differently. The thought that you would turn never came to any of us.”

I still didn’t know what Samuel was talking about. Why me? As far as I was concerned, we had all been affected by the spores. Was I the only one with whitened eyes, the only one that was turning?

Beneath me, I felt the ship veer and dip to the ground below. Makara was landing.

“What do you remember, Alex?” Samuel asked.

Everyone waited for me to speak. Marcus slid shut the clinic’s partition door behind him. As I watched the brothers, something seemed different between them. During my sleep, they had come to some sort of