The Greatness Thrust upon Us
Suddenly I jolt awake, head still groggy with fragmented dreams mixed with a feverish sleep, I guess it’s true what Dru said I still have along road to becoming one of those ‘Onyx Eyes’. Muffled sounds slowly become louder and louder until they threaten to burst my eardrums, looking over at the bed where Mr. Thornton was last night, I fill with relief to see he’s still there. Seeming a little better as well.
“Awake Sleeping Beauty?” Dru laughs when she emerges from behind one of the huge cabinets of drugs
“Yeah, I didn’t know I’d dropped off.”
“It was very late, and you’ll be happy to know that Daniel is going to pull through. He’s going to be an onyx eyes just like you. You want some breakfast?”
“Are you kidding me, I’m starving!”
“Alright I’ll go and get you some just try not to eat your leg whilst I’m gone.”
Taste buds are tantalized with delicious aromas of cooking bacon, that salty tang combined with a beautiful smell of burnt toast. Both of which send my nose into overdrive. A bad side though is I can clearly smell odours of metallic blood, sweat and that awful classic of vomit. Whoa, serious nose overload.
Anticipation rises in me, hope grows for a delicious bacon sandwich on toasted white bread that would be the pinnacle of my existence if I could get one of them.
It’s only now that I have a proper look at myself, yesterday was hectic I only really had time to eat, sleep and think in between trying to help out Dru with Mr. Thornton and keeping Takeshi off my back. Feeling gingerly around my neck I run into a flurry of stitches, I can feel sticky blood framing the arches of pale flesh. Dru must have cut a hole in my neck to help me breath properly.
For the first time I think back to that night, the sheer pain I was in, I literally couldn’t move. My body was rigid with it. Physically shaking my head to rid myself of these horrible thoughts I turn my attentions back to dreams of lovely bacon on toast.
I am to be sorely disappointed though, Dru returns with a rather soggy piece of white bread toast, half cold already and an apologetic look plastered to her face.
“Sorry Abi, the guys attacked the meat so there was none left. I just about managed to scrape this for you, if you get hungry I give you full permission to kill and eat one of the guys, preferably Takeshi.”
A sense of sadness sweeps over me and a shock of realization, if these soldiers hadn’t been just around the corner, I would have died. I would have died, or worse, be turned into a mindless drone hungering for flesh constantly and killing even the smallest of children for food.
“I don’t think I could hurt Takeshi even if I wanted to, I owe him my life after all.” I weakly smile in Dru’s direction “Anyway, it looks like Mr. Thornton’s making a swift recovery.”
“Yes he is, he should be up and walking about today, it normally takes a bit longer to gather strength to get up.”
“Right, what exactly happened to my eyes then? I can see just as good, no, better than I did before so what’s the problem?”
“Basically, when you contracted the disease a number of factors made you immune to it. A common one is the increased production of adrenaline. This in turn leads to a new strain of disease, one of the side effects of which is the change in eye colour.”
“O.K. so if everyone got this strain then it would be better then wouldn’t it? I’m still coherent, I’m not addled in anyway.”
“Our research team found that too, however the cure for the disease is different for every person, if we infected everyone with your strain then we would not only have more lunatics out on the street, their senses will be superior to humans.”
“So it’s a bad idea then.”
My heart sinks a little when I realize I haven’t found a cure for all mankind. Listening to Dru fumble around in several draws, I pick up one of the dry bits of toast lying listlessly on a polystyrene plate. It’s a sad excuse for a breakfast but it’s all I’ve got.
Slowly I start to place bits of dry bread into my mouth, swallowing becomes as hard as running a marathon whilst my displeasure shows through my plastered façade.
“I know it’s not the Ritz but I don’t want to try you with anything that’s too solid incase it has an adverse effect on you.”
“Oh right, totally. Like I’m going to be limited to soup, water and digestive biscuits for the next week huh?”
“Pretty much.”
“Wow that sucks. Can’t I have a small bit of meat? Got to get my protein in somehow.”
“You heard what the Doctor said, I think that you’re a type of girl that would basically ignore any advice that you didn’t want to hear.” A shadow falls across my bed, unmistakably these dulcet tones must belong to Takeshi, who else could combine being horrible with being charming?
“You’ve known me for less than a day Takeshi, how can you be so accurate?” Coming out distant my voice ebbs around the truck
“I can read people fairly accurately. Have you told her what we want? What she can do?”
“Hello, I am sitting right here. Right here, on this bed, waving my arms at you.”
Seemingly ignoring my obvious attempts to find out what in Hell they’re talking about, Dru avoids the relentless eye of Takeshi. He pushes and pushes until her kind voice snaps, it transforms into a coarse version of it’s former self. I half expect Dru to fly across the truck and start going ninja on him. Actually that’s a very amusing thought.
Whilst I ponder about Dru karate chopping Takeshi’s face into one of the metal walls, I miss out on the verbal argument they start. I can faintly hear it, like a dull roar in the background as well as their loud voices I can also hear soft breathing coming from Mr. Thornton –still lying helplessly in the bed across the truck-.
Attempting to sneak around both parties of the quarrelling couple, I sit next to him on one of numerous green canvas chairs. Without warning, onyx eyes seem to burst out of his opened eyelids sending shock running through my veins as well as the weak thud of poison that still remains.
“Uh, hey.” I begin, what are you going to say, I hardly know him I’m not going to spill out any meaningful speech about how I missed him whilst he was unconscious.
“Hey.”
I can almost laugh out loud at the comical expression forming on his face, I know I shouldn’t but…I can’t resist. It breaks free from my chest like a bird from a cage; it then persists to fly around flat refusing to leave. I bend over, totally engrossed in a laughing fit and unable to stop despite concerned looks from Takeshi and Dru. Mr. Thornton still looks confused, well if possible he looks even more confused than before.
“Sorry, I’m so- I mean your face…you look so confused…” I choke out in-between random outbursts of laughter
“Well, yes I guess so, I do have reason to be though.”
“Yes, I guess you do.”
All arguments suspended a deathly silence envelopes everybody, tensely I flick my eyes from one person to another much like everyone else does. Before I can open my mouth to break it, Mr. Thornton does. His voice sounds harsh, raspy and even a little demonic. I guess that’s to be expected, he hasn’t spoken for at least a day.
“What the f**k am I doing here?” Quite shocked by his swearing episode my head automatically swivels to stare at him
“Well, I guess I should get the Commander to explain that. He’s probably better for the job.” Dru flushes mimicking a headless chicken dashing to and fro, searching for something that probably isn’t even in existence.
“Yeah, he wouldn’t go all flustered or develop a crush on you in five nanoseconds.” Takeshi teases soon to run out of the truck in sheer terror of loosing a limb
“Don’t listen to him Sir, he’s a little bit mentally blunt. This ought to be good though even I don’t know why we’re here and I’ve been conscious for over a day.” I sigh trying to remain calm on the outside, yet desperately yearning to know more about us.
Outside I detect the scrape of metal upon metal as the door grins slowly open, a loud procession of boots clang across steel floor until they come to rest just short of me and Mr. Thornton. My eyes narrow of their own accord, even without him uttering a word my blood starts to boil. The Commander stands defiantly in front of us.
“We wouldn’t have wanted you to try and escape now would we?” He smirks
“Why would we want to escape? Unless you’re going to do something bad to us?” I question, eyebrow rising with my pulse, mind racing with images of possible tortures that they could do.
“Now, as you are well aware you have undergone some serious physical changes and have become ‘Onyx Eyes’. You now serve Her Majesties Royal Army. No questions asked, you have no choice. You will be our first line of defense you-“
“Wait! I wasn’t made aware of any of this. I’ve only just gained consciousness literally five minutes ago! What is going on here?” Mr. Thornton asks, his voice wavers slightly when he says it, I can tell he’s worried but he doesn’t want to show it.
Carrying on like he never even heard him the Commander states in his monotone voice: “-you will attack the lines of infected when we instruct you, you will fight with your lives and with whichever weapons we see fit to give you. Later on today you will be brought to our safe house to meet other Onyx Eyes and we will conduct a skills audit to see which fighting style suits you best. That is all”
We sit, dumbfounded in our seats. I try to take in everything he’s just told me; a part inside me says that it’s all a dream. I’ll wake up any minute and look back with fear at this dream, hoping against all hopes that it doesn’t come true. Another part of me wants to rise to the task, wants to show that ass of a soldier that I’m better than him and could kick him sky high if I wanted.
Cold tears run down my face, tears of shock or sadness I can’t be sure. Reaching out with pale hands to wipe them fiercely away, to try and keep my reputation as a normal person, not a cry baby, I realize something. My tears are red, a deep crimson red kind of like the colour of…blood.
Silence has so many forms: awkward silence that lies like a fog around everybody; peaceful silence like that time before you’re fully awake yet not quite asleep; but the silence that falls across the truck now is the nastiest of all. It lurks around every second, freezing it into ice. Even when the ice is smashed, pieces still hit you. Pieces can still pierce you right through the heart. It is right now that I realize it’s too late for my heart to be pierced…it’s already broken.
Doubt creeps into my head about whether I can actually do this. Whether my shards of heart left can stand this responsibility, this trauma of killing. Slowly but surely and for an unknown reason and English saying swims into my head, ‘Some are born great, some become great and some have greatness thrust upon them.’
I wonder what happened to those who ran from greatness.
