Page 32 of The Hollowed
Sliding out of the seat, Luci pulled the back door open for Luna. She might not have been trained to fight like Alex but this she could do. For once, she felt like she was really contributing.
Once Luna jumped into the back seat and curled up as comfortably as she could, Luci leaned forward to tuck their bags into the narrow gap between the seats. Just then, a thought struck her.
“Have you ever heard of Daniel Alcides Carrión?” she asked as she leaned back against the car and folded her arms over her chest.
Confusion fluttered in Alex’s eyes before he answered. “No — colleague of yours or something?”
Luci let out a quiet laugh and shook her head. “No. He’s been dead for over a century. I learned about him back in school. He was a med student in the late 1800s who had his friends inject him with blood from an infected patient. He wanted to prove there was a connection between the acute and chronic forms of the disease.”
Alex’s eyes widened. “That’s…intense.”
“It was,” Luci replied softly. “But it was also so groundbreaking that they named the disease after him.”
Alex still looked puzzled as he took a few steps forward and raised his hand instinctively to cradle her jaw, searching her face for the meaning behind her words. “I could listen to your stories all day, but I don’t understand where you’re going with this one.”
Luci laid her hand gently over his. “In a few hours, the vaccine vials will begin to denature. After that, they’ll be useless.”
Alex frowned. “But once we get to Arizona, you can make more, right?”
“Yes,” she confirmed, her tone stable even as her stomach knotted. “But these vials will still be wasted.”
And then it clicked, a glimmer of realization crossing Alex’s face. “Luci…” His tone was taut. “You’re not seriously suggesting what I think you’re suggesting, are you?”
“I know it sounds reckless, but just think about it,” Luci pleaded. “If we dose ourselves now, while the vials are still stable, we’ll have another layer of protection out there.”
Alex stayed silent, weighing her words. Luci took the opportunity to press a kiss against his palm, grounding both of them in the contact.
“I just want to do whatever I can to keep us both alive,” she whispered.
She hadn’t expected the small smile tugging at his lips in response. “I’m pretty sure trying to charm me into this would be considered highly unethical,” he teased, though his eyes betrayed how much he wanted to believe her. The playfulness in his voice made Luci smile, and when Alex leaned in, brushing his lips against hers in a slow, deliberate kiss before pulling away, she felt her argument win ground in ways logic never could.
“Did it work?” Luci asked softly, watching as he pulled away .
Alex shot her a smirk over his shoulder, sliding into the passenger seat. “I told you, I’m yours to command, didn’t I?”
The way he looked at her was so mischievous that Luci considered delaying all their plans just to test how true his claims were.
But she ignored that desire and climbed into the driver’s seat. The leather squeaked beneath her as she shut the door. Her hands trembled slightly as she reached for the kit and drew up two doses with a steady breath.
“Ready?” she asked, her voice lower than she intended.
Alex rolled up his sleeve, slightly hesitant. “You first,” he said.
She gave herself the injection quickly, then she turned to him, pressing the second syringe against the vein in his forearm before she pushed the plunger down. His jaw tightened, but he didn’t flinch.
“That’s it,” Luci said, tossing the empty vials aside. For a moment, all was silent aside from the faint hum of the idling engine.
Alex reached into his pack and unfolded a weathered map across his lap. His finger traced the line of roads stretching west, pausing over a point circled in red.
AZ-7. The facility. Their destination.
“Alright,” he said, letting the map sit in his lap before his eyes lifted to hers. “Let’s finish this.”
Luci gripped the wheel, shifted the car into gear, and pressed her foot to the gas. The vehicle rumbled forward, carrying them out of the garage and into the unknown.
Chapter 14
Myra