Chapter Thirty-Nine

Ellie was sitting on the worktable as Riley had instructed him to do. I couldn't help but study our surroundings. We were in the tiny little shed located in Riley's back yard, but in the shed was a small hatch on the floor, revealing a wooden staircase that led to an underground room. There is no doubt in my mind that this was a place Riley and my father had worked in many times, but I was a little hurt to conclude that neither of them trusted me enough to show it to me.

Riley examined Ellie by flashing a flashlight in his eyes, making him wince. He has barely said anything to either of us. I've never seen him act like this before. I always remembered him as the funny one between he and my dad. He always has some sort of joke to tell, or story to dramatize. His eyes lit up with kindness, and he always would bring me some sort of sugary treat.

This man was cold, emotionless, silent. He was a stranger to me.

"I heard about your father." He says to me, surprise and hurt flared in my chest. If he knew about my father, why did he not attend his funeral? Why has he not come to visit me even once? I haven't heard from him in years.

"Yes." I force the word out but couldn't manage any more on the topic. Instead I try to talk about Ellie, "He never gave up on him." I beckon to him, as Riley examines the grey tint in his veins.

"No shit." Clearly Ellie was uncomfortable being touched. I saw him take several breaths, as if he were trying to control himself. I wanted to reach out and grab his hand, but I didn't want to get in the way of Riley's examination. "I told him to let the project die."

"Ellie isn't a project."

He turns to me so quickly I take a step back nearly stumbling over a metal chair, "He shouldn't fucking exist."

I frown, "He's all I have."

"You should kill him before he kills someone else."

From the corner of my eye, I see Ellie flinch, but I don't take the bait. "You know I won't let that happen. He's not a monster. He's learned right from wrong."

"That didn't stop him from killing your father."

I suck in a breath, "How do you know how my father died?"

He stares at me for a long, painful moment before speaking low, the anger in his tone gone, "Because he called me." He looks back at Ellie, but the expression on his face softens, "The night he killed himself, he had called me. Said he was bitten, and that whatever he was infected with was making him lose control. He told me he was terrified to be around you, afraid he might attack you."

I wipe a tear that refused to be held back, and speak up, "Ellie also has trouble controlling himself. Whatever the black stuff flowing through him is, it makes him act out. He's getting better at controlling it though. We came here because we wanted to know what it was. I thought maybe you would know. You're the only person, besides me, who is still alive that knows Ellie exists."

He says nothing for a long moment. He faces Ellie, then me, then looks up to the ceiling, running a hand through his hair. "I've been expecting you, do you know that? I knew your father kept him, and I knew something would happen eventually. Your father may have died, but Three Eleven Thirteen wouldn't. I initially expected to see him on the news, him and multiple victims. I have spent that last few months waiting for the day I become an accomplice to the making of a serial killer." He sits down on the metal chair, his body slack as if he is exhausted, "I've been waiting for months, and I'm so damn tired."

The room is silent, and I move to Ellie's side, hoisting myself up on the worktable to sit beside him. I grab his hand, and it's cold, but I don't let go, and he makes sure to not let me. "Ellie isn't a monster."

"It doesn't matter what you or he thinks he is, it is not he who kills people it is the shit running in him."

"Do you know what it is?" I try not to sound hopeful, but it's hard being that this is our last option. If Riley does not know, then we will never know.

He leans back in his seat. He doesn't fail to notice how I hold Ellies hand, and I don't fail to notice his eyes lingering on our hands longer than necessary. Would he have a problem with me and Ellie dating? Would he find it gross?

Finally he speaks up, "Has your father ever mentioned a project titled Icah?"

I shake my head, and he continues, "Project Icah was something that I was assigned to back in 06'. It was one of my first jobs, I was an attendant to Dr. Cillian Hui Singh. I hadn't been working in the field long, so I mainly observed, and did paperwork, but sometimes I got a close-up look at the patients."

"Patients?"

"A little girl, infected, but she was different than the others. Maybe people in the compound were infected with the blood Three Eleven Thirteen is, but this little girl was different."

"How so?"

"She wasn't just infected with the blood; she was infected with the source of it. A living being."

"She was infected with a person?" I narrow my eyes, "That makes no sense."

"It doesn't because it shouldn't. It wasn't a person, not exactly. He wasn't from here, an entire entity not of this world."

"Are you really lecturing me on aliens?" I scoff, "That's ridiculous. Aliens don't-"

"You are holding hands with an artificially made human being, and you don't believe in non-earth beings?"

"Do you hear yourself? You are telling me that Ellie is infected with an alien." I was beginning to think Riley had gone mad.

"Not an alien," He correct me, "But the blood of one. Let me fucking finish, no more questions until I'm done." I raise my hands up in defeat, and he continues, "Her name was Rosie, she was seven years old at the time. At first when I set eyes on her, I thought Dr. Singh was a villain. Experimenting on a child? That's fucked up, even for my standards." He took a long breath, "And then I watched a recording of her interview. Clear as the fucking sun, Ripley, I saw it. An entire being sitting right beside her like a damn shadow. His eyes were black, coated in white glistening sparks like stars. I've never seen anything like it in my whole life." He shakes his head, "Somehow the boy fell from the sky. We can't figure out how it happened, but it did. He fell from the sky and landed on her family's farm. She happened to see him fall, and they formed a bond." He clapped his hands in emphasis, "They became one person, like how one would be injected with the blood of another, they were one. He lived inside her, and anytime he was angry, her veins and eyes went black like the night. She had the power to kill a squad of trained soldiers like it was nothing, and she fucking did. Rosie mentioned his name was Icah, and since then, he has been deemed an entire project on his own. Project Icah, a phenomenon."

He doesn't stop, "Ellie has only a fraction of the power Icah had. I don't think any human being, or one like a human could have the capacity to control whatever the blood contains. There were other humans in the compound also infected, but not with the alien itself, just the blood. They always ended up killing others, and then inevitably dying themselves. Human bodies can not carry the substance for long, it is a death sentence. So, I advise you to be careful, Ripley." He eyed us both, "And you two should not come in any contact with each other whatsoever. It is not worth the risk."

"She will die?" It's the first thing Ellie has said since we arrived here, and the only thing he has said to Riley.

Riley looks surprised that he has said anything at all, but after a few moments, he composes himself, and nods slowly, "Yes, it would kill her, slowly, painfully, like a gruesome torture. The only one who has managed to be infected and survive is Rosie, and she has only been able to survive because Icah balanced the power that she could not handle. He only gave her what he knew she could manage. Despite everything, they were a good pair. It's like something you would read in a science fiction novel. A little girl befriending an alien who protected her no matter what."

He is silent like he is thinking, so I take the opportunity to ask, "What happened to her?"

"Not sure. I left the job after a few months in. Decided to work along with your father in his own lab. Personally, I couldn't stand to see a little girl get cut open so many times." He winces, "It never gets easier. It didn't help that the doctor was a self-fulfilling sociopath."

"If it's all true," I speak slowly, carefully, "Then how did Ellie come to contain the blood? How do other people get infected?"

"Ellie contains the blood because of me." He admits it like he's releasing a burden, "The lab me and your father worked in gave me orders to study the blood some more, knowing that I had previous experience in the subject matter, I was the perfect candidate. When you father told me about project Three Eleven Thirteen, I made a stupid mistake. I thought giving Three Eleven Thirteen some of the blood, being that he isn't human, would be a perfect way to test some theories." He locked eyes with me, his gaze so intense that I had to force myself to stare back, "I swear to God Ripley I put barely a drop in his system. How it manifested throughout his whole body is incomprehensible to me. This stuff expands like a plague, and there is not way to kill it, not entirely unless you kill the host."

"There's not cure."

"No. There isn't."

My chest suddenly feels heavy, and the weeks of being on the run have suddenly fallen on me like a boulder. All I want to do is lay in a warm bed and sleep.

I had been so invested in Riley's explanation that I had not realized that Ellie let go of my hand until he was finished talking. I looked over at him, to see him staring at Riley, as though he was comprehending every last word he said.

If he was upset about there being no cure, he was not showing it. I could not figure out what he was thinking, because he lacked any expression at all.

Riley asked me something, but I realized I hadn't heard a word, so I say, "What?"

"I asked why you both look as though you just went on a hike through a fucking dirt pile."

Oh right. I had almost forgotten that we still looked like we hadn't bathed in days, which was the truth. We really haven't bathed in days.

I decide to tell him everything. I don't see any benefit to lying, so I leave out nothing. From the murder, to us fleeing like cowards, the tornado, being captured by Marley, and walking the entire way here. When I was finished explaining, Riley just stares at me like I was speaking another language.

The room was silent, and I wasn't sure what else to say. Ellie didn't say anything, and Riley sat staring at the floor like he was trying to come up with a plan on what we should do next. Even he looked at a loss.

Riley's voice surprised me when he said, "So he's already killed. Three people."

"My father and our neighbor weren't his fault."

"That doesn't make it okay."

"Please, Riley." I'm so tired. "Please help us."

He swallows hard, and then says, as though it is painful to even get the words out, "You two can stay in the attic bedroom until I speak with Joy. I don't want Three Eleven Thirteen anywhere near her, do you understand me?" He is saying it to me, as if I have control of Ellie, "My wife has nothing to do with this. He may be my burden, and I will take responsibility, but she's not in this."

"Okay." I nod quickly only because I'm too exhausted to care about anything right now, "You won't even know we're here. I promise."

"Yeah," He says it like he doesn't believe a word I'm saying, "Sure."

Because I feel the need to justify his offer, I add; "You won't regret this. I'll make sure of it."

"Oh," He slowly stands from his chair, like his whole body hurt, "I already do."