Page 38 of Echos and Empires (After #3)
The doctor was still talking, pointing out features on the ultrasound, but her words faded into meaningless background noise as the contours of a plan began to take shape in Chris’s mind.
He needed to end this, and he needed to end it now.
No more half-measures, no more biding his time and playing Victor’s games.
It was time to bring the resistance out of the shadows and into the light. To rally every soul on this godforsaken rock who still had an ounce of defiance left in them, and storm Victor’s stronghold like the fury of the gods unleashed.
Even if it meant painting the streets red with his blood, or sacrificing everything he was, everything he’d ever been, Chris would see this through. For Emma, for their unborn children, for the chance to build a life and a future free from the specter of what life had been.
When the exam was over and they stepped back out into the hallway, Chris’s heart sank.
“Okay, Emma, you know this part. Dad, you’ll wait here. There are special tests and we can’t have you in the way for and some wellbeing checks.”
He couldn’t even thrill in the idea of “dad” applying to him.
“I’ll be waiting,” he tried to put on his calmest voice but the twitch from the scar on his cheek told him he bit down too hard. “Take too long and I will come back there.”
If the nurse who met Emma at the door heard the threat, she ignored him and took Emma back through a door that he heard lock with a beep when they were through it.
Darius was waiting, leaning against the wall with a casualness that was anything but.
“Christopher,” he drawled, pushing off the wall to stand in their path. “Fancy meeting you here. I didn’t realize you had such a keen interest in prenatal care.”
“Foolish of you to think anything less knowing that I came here to protect that very woman’s life,” he said evenly. “As I’m sure you can understand.”
Darius’s smile was razor-sharp. “Of course. Family is everything, isn’t it? I’m sure you’d do whatever it takes to keep them safe.”
The implication was clear, the threat barely veiled. A cold fury rose up in him, a rage that burned away the fear and left only icy clarity in its wake.
He took a step forward, putting himself between Darius and the wall. When he spoke, his voice was low and deadly calm.
“Let me make one thing very clear,” he said softly. “If you or anyone else lays a finger on my wife, if you so much as breathe in her direction...there is no hole deep enough, no shadow dark enough to hide from what I will do to you. Do we understand each other?”
For a heartbeat, Darius’s mask slipped, a flicker of something that might have been fear crossing his face. Then it was gone, replaced by a mocking smirk.
“Perfectly,” he purred. “So long as you understand the consequences of crossing the wrong people. Give my best to Emma.”
With that, Darius turned and sauntered away, leaving Chris vibrating with impotent rage.
It was only when Emma’s gentle touch was on his arm that he snapped back to himself, the red haze receding, realizing she’d come out faster than expected and without any noise making him worry she hadn’t protected herself.
He turned to her, seeing the concern and the fear she couldn’t quite hide.
“We need to be more careful,” he said, his voice rough with suppressed emotion. “Especially where you’re concerned. Darius...Victor...they won’t hesitate to use you against me if they suspect anything.”
Emma nodded, her jaw set with determination even as her eyes glistened. “I know. And I am being careful. But Chris...you need to be careful too. I can’t...I can’t lose you.”
The words hit him like a punch to the gut, the fear and the love in them tearing at his heart. He pulled her close, wrapping her in his arms as if he could shield her from the world through sheer force of will.
“You won’t,” he promised, the words fierce with conviction. “We’re going to get through this, Emma. All of us. I swear it.”
But even as he said it, he could feel the walls closing in, the net tightening around them. He had played this game for so long, worn so many masks. But now, with Emma in the crosshairs and their child’s life hanging in the balance, the stakes had never been higher.
And for the first time, Chris wasn’t sure he could keep up the charade without losing everything he held dear in the process.
“Come on then, outside. We need to chat.” he guided her toward the doors, his heart damn near not beating as he worried she wasn’t herself.
Chris scrubbed a hand over his face, the exhaustion of the past few hours, the past few weeks, pressing down on him like a physical weight. “Emma, what happened in the back room?”
“This time nothing. They tried to convince me again that my children will have the best care. When I spit on the nurse, she threatened to kill me if I didn’t come around before the birth.
She went to needle me and I got her first, leaving her sitting on the ground before coming out to find you and that man. ”
His sigh of relief nearly left his knees weak as he pulled her close, kissing the top of her head. “Thank fuck.”
“Chris, who was that man? Why were you so pissed off?”
“Darius. Victor’s personal security. Someone I hated since I met him when he got here, long before realizing what his job actually was. He was fishing just now,” he said finally, his voice rough. “Trying to see if he could rattle me, get me to give something away.” He looked down at her.
Emma’s eyes widened, fear and understanding warring in their depths. “And did you? Give something away?”
“No,” Chris said firmly, meeting her gaze. “I didn’t. And I won’t. But Emma...you need to understand how dangerous this is getting. If Darius is watching me, if he’s paying attention to where we go and who we see.”
Emma hugged her arms across her chest, as if trying to physically hold herself together.
“I do understand,” she whispered. “That’s what terrifies me. Chris, if something happens to you...”
She broke off, a single tear escaping to track down her cheek. Chris reached for her, pulling her into his arms and holding on tight. “Nothing is going to happen to me,” he murmured into her hair. “I promise.” He repeated.
But even as he said it, he could taste the lie on his tongue. Because he couldn’t promise that, not really. Not with the path he’d chosen, the war he’d committed to fighting.
He thought of his brothers, lost in the first days of the apocalypse. The way they’d looked to him for guidance, for protection. And how in the end, he’d failed them.
He wouldn’t fail again. Not with Emma, not with their child. He would do whatever it took to keep them safe, to build a world where they could thrive. No matter the cost.
As if sensing the direction of his thoughts, Emma pulled back, her eyes searching his face. “You can’t do this alone,” she said softly. “I know you want to protect me, to keep me out of it. But I’m in this fight, too, Chris. I have to be.”
Chris started to shake his head, to argue, but Emma cut him off with a fierce look.
“No,” she said, steel beneath the tremor in her voice. “This is my life, my future, too. Our future. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit on the sidelines and watch you risk everything without doing my part.”
They stared at each other for a long moment, the air heavy with all the things unsaid. Finally, Chris sighed, his shoulders slumping in defeat.
“Okay,” he said quietly. “Okay. But we do this smart, and we do it carefully. No unnecessary risks, not for any of us. Agreed?”
Emma nodded, a tiny, tremulous smile touching her lips. “Agreed.”
They came together again, holding on like they were the only solid things in a world turned to quicksand. Chris closed his eyes, breathing in the scent of her, trying to imprint this moment in his memory.
Because he knew, with a certainty that chilled him to the bone, that there would come a time when moments like these would be all they had. When the fight would consume every waking hour, every ounce of strength and will.
The storm was coming. He could feel it, gathering on the horizon like a towering wall of black clouds. And when it broke, it would either wash away the rot that had taken hold of this island, or it would destroy everything in its path, leaving only ruins in its wake.
But for now, for this one stolen instant, he let himself just be. A soldier, a father-to-be, a man in love with his wife. The rest could wait, held at bay by the warmth of Emma in his arms and the steady beat of her heart against his.
No matter what tomorrow brought, they would face it together. And maybe, just maybe, that would be enough to make the world what it needed to be for their children.