Chapter Text
“Use Rocky breeder tanks.”
“What do those even look like?”
Rocky shows me, but I cannot help but feel like a stumbling child with how slow my information processing is. I think I will leave this whole task for the morning(?). Now that I know what the little buggers look like, that will make reproducing nitrogen-resistant generations far easier.
“Grave sleep now,” Rocky rolls after me sluggishly walking over to the dormitory.
I really want a shower, a clean set of clothes, and a full meal. Unfortunately, I am not sure if that will ever really be the cards for me again. Feverish from exhaustion, I let a few tears fall as I curl into a ball on top of the bed.
“Grace need hug, question?”
That is right. Rocky is still here.
“I’m not sure it’s really possible with you being in a ball and all,” I mumble.
“Grace hug Rocky when Rocky in ball. Humans weird. Get in here, statement.”
I laugh and relent. Man, it must be scalding inside of there because I can feel warmth as I wrap my arms around it. Rocky lets out a chirruping giggle, thunking his carapace against where I sit.
“Grace different but Grace same. Grace is Grace. Rocky here for Grace.”
I smile.
“Thank you, Rocky… I think you’re my best friend, and I have only just met you.”
“Yes, yes! Grace Rocky best of friends!”
We stay like that for a few moments. The bed is calling to me after all.
I stare at Rocky as I slide under the covers, expecting him to leave.
“Uh, you okay?”
“Rocky watch Grace sleep.”
There is a lot to unpack there.
…
My eyes ache. There is a burning pain in my chest, and it feels as if my heart is attempting to escape my ribcage with how fast it is hammering. I feel feverish with restlessness and anxiety.
It feels nonsensical at this point. Have I not made my decision? I swear I made my peace... So, why do I feel like I am still being sent to a guillotine?
Suddenly, I rush over to the little bathroom attached to my room and vomit the remains of whatever I ate last. A panic attack wracks my taunt body as random flashes of the day’s training exercises, random confrontations, and the Adrian incident assault me.
How could I ever be sent back up there when I cannot even handle the stress?
…
I am alone in the science classroom back at Grover Cleveland. It is off-putting just how silent it is. All of a sudden, I am bathed in red light and bombarded with alarms that coalesce with the shrill drill one hears when there is a fire, or God forbid…a shooting. I cover my ears, and I swear I feel blood leak from my ears, which pulse in tandem to my anguish.
It hurts.
It hurts so badly.
There is a frantic thump-thump-thump at the window facing the parking lot. I turn to see a brilliant white tundra has overtaken it, and there are little figures desperately hitting the glass with freezing tears on their frost-bitten faces. Abby is screaming. Kevin is pleading. Rekha’s hands are bleeding and seemingly glued to the glass. A torturous wind appears to whip relentlessly at them, and their lips are blue. Too blue.
Instinct kicks in, but before I can dare run towards them, my legs give out. I can feel my right arm and torso slam into the metal part of my desk and subsequently the linoleum floor. I grunt against the injury and try to get up once more, but there is something tying my legs down.
A red ribbon is tangled up around them.
It looks harmless. Fragile even.
But now it is constricting the blood flow in my numb legs with how tight it is becoming.
I frantically claw at the thing restraining me as I hear my kids calling my name, and the alarms rip apart at my senses. For just one moment, I spare a glance back at the window just in time to see Abby collapse into it. Her brown eyes were unseeing, and frost coated her dark skin.
Screaming, I reach out towards them.
The walls are closing in on me, and the red line of fabric snakes around me like a boa constrictor. It is now wrapping itself around my neck, choking me violently.
I lost the battle.