Chapter 127

“So, what happened?” Jonah asked quietly.

There was a brief pause before Elena began, “We saw someone fall from a roof. At first, we thought it was a person, but then we realized it was the morphus—though I didn’t know its name at the time.”

Elena fell silent for a long moment, as if reluctant to recall what came next.

“And then it attacked your group?” Jonah gently prodded.

“Not right away. It got up and just stared at us.”

“Hold on,” Michael interrupted. “You said it fell off the roof?”

“Yes,” Elena confirmed.

“How tall was the building?”

“Ten stories.”

“So you’re saying the morphus fell from that height and then got up like it was nothing?”

“That’s exactly what happened,” Elena replied, her tone unexpectedly firm.

Michael appeared taken aback by the firmness in her voice, hesitating before answering. When he did, his voice softened.

“Did it at least sustain any injuries from the fall?” he asked.

“I can’t say for sure,” Elena answered. “If it did, it didn’t show.”

“So it fell from a ten-story building and then just jumped to its feet as if nothing happened?” he asked again.

“That’s what I just said,” Elena replied.

Michael scoffed but remained silent.

“You mentioned it didn’t attack you right away,” Toby interjected. “Do you know why?”

Jake didn’t hear her answer—she probably shook her head. Then she said, “The morphus seemed intelligent to me. Rather than attacking, it raised its hands and shook its head when one of my teammates suggested we kill it.”

“So it actually understood human speech?” Jonah asked.

“It certainly seemed that way. But my teammates didn’t notice. They were hell-bent on killing it. I tried to reason with them, but they either didn’t hear me or just ignored me. What happened next was so fast I barely had time to understand what was happening.”

Elena paused for a moment, as if catching her breath.

“When my teammates opened fire on the morphus, it charged at us instantly,” she continued. “I can’t even describe how fast the creature was. My teammates kept shooting, but I honestly can’t recall if they even managed to hit it. If they did, it had little effect. The morphus just circled us, waiting for my teammates to run out of bullets in their guns. When that happened, it charged at us. And then… then—”

Her voice broke, and Elena fell silent.

“It’s okay, hon,” Hanna said gently. “You don’t have to relive this. We have a pretty good idea of what happened next.”

“Yeah,” Michael said. “The unkillable morphus killed all her teammates. What I don’t get is how she lived while they didn’t.”

“Michael, shut the hell up,” Hanna snapped, her voice laced with anger.

“I’m just being curious. Aren’t you curious too?”

“I swear, Michael, if you don’t cut it out, I’ll sock you.”

Michael opened his mouth to speak, but Elena suddenly spoke up, raising her voice and cutting him off.

“I ran,” she declared. “I ran, okay? Is your curiosity satisfied now?”

“Okay,” Michael replied. “You ran. But didn’t the morphus chase after you?”

There was a brief pause before Elena finally answered, “It did.”

Silence enveloped the group again. Michael waited a few seconds, and when it became clear that she wouldn’t continue, he prodded, “And?”

“Leave her alone, man,” Jonah interjected.

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“Yeah,” Toby added. “She clearly managed to escape. What’s so hard to understand about that?”

“I didn’t manage to get away,” Elena said suddenly. “The morphus was so fast it should’ve caught up with me easily.”

“Then how did you escape?” Michael asked.

“It was right there, chasing me, getting closer. I knew it was about to catch me. And then it… just disappeared,” Elena explained.

“What do you mean?” Michael asked, puzzled. “It was right after you and then just vanished?”

“Yes. It was right on my heels. I was terrified, too scared to look back. At one point, I realized it should have caught me by now, but it hadn’t. When I finally dared to glance back, it was simply gone.”

“So the scary, bloodthirsty morphus just let you escape for some reason?” Michael scoffed. “Explain that to me”

“I can’t explain it,” she replied. “I’m just telling you what happened.”

For a moment, silence hung in the air. Then Michael spoke up again, his tone sharper this time.

“Tell me something,” he directed at Elena. “Did you run while your teammates were still fighting the morphus?”

“Hey, what the hell are you implying?” Hanna interjected, her voice thick with anger.

“I’m not implying anything,” Michael shot back. “I just want to know. Think about it. She had time to escape, which means her teammates were still fighting the morphus. Instead of helping them, she must’ve turned her back on them and run while the creature was distracted by her friends. She took that chance to save herself.”

“Hey, you can’t just accuse her of leaving her teammates behind,” Toby interjected. “Quit being an asshole.”

“I just want to know if—”

“Yes,” Elena snapped, her voice raised and trembling. “I ran while two of my teammates were still alive and fighting the morphus. When I realized there was no way we could kill it, I… just ran.”

“Hey, nobody’s accusing you of anything, hon,” Hanna said gently. “You did what you had to do to save your life. If you had stayed, you would’ve been dead too. Think about it this way: if your teammates hadn’t opened fire on the morphus, they might’ve been alive. And you did try to convince them against provoking it.”

“I mean, it’s always nice to know which teammates you can rely on and which might leave you in the lurch,” Michael said matter-of-factly.

Suddenly, Elena snapped, her voice cracking with emotion.

“You think you’re tough, but you’ve never encountered the morphus,” she yelled, teetering on the brink of losing it. “You don’t understand!”

“Hey, don’t freak out, I just—”

Elena didn’t let him finish his sentence. “You think you can kill the morphus? But you’ve never even seen it! Who knows—maybe you’d be paralyzed with fear, unable to even run if you encountered it. People like you, full of bravado, tend to be the biggest cowards.”

“Did you just call me a coward?” Michael replied slowly, his tone tight.

“Guys, if that jerk says another word, I swear to God, I’m gonna punch his lights out,” Hanna interjected, her voice full of anger.

“And I’ll help her,” Toby added.

“Yeah, Michael, you really need to shut the hell up already,” Jonah chimed in.

Michael sighed, “You guys, I can’t believe you’re actually buying her story about this imaginary morphus. Really?”

“Michael, you’re teetering on the edge of crossing a line,” Gerard warned, a threatening edge to his voice.

“Et tu, Brute?” Michael exclaimed dramatically. “You actually believe her story? Even with all the holes in it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. But you’re being a real asshole right now. You need to stop. Right now.”

Jake fully expected Michael to blurt out something foolish again. However, there was only silence. Either Michael didn’t want to mess with Gerard, or with everyone against him, he decided to drop the issue.

Jake’s sharp hearing picked up the muted sounds of Elena and Hanna talking, though their conversation was quiet enough that the rest of the group couldn’t hear them. He assumed the two women were huddled together, with Hanna hugging Elena and trying to calm her down. While he could hear their voices, he couldn’t make out the words. He did manage to catch one phrase from Elena, though. She said, “I still have nightmares about it. I fear that someday I might see the morphus again. Sometimes, it feels like it keeps stalking me, lurking in the shadows, just waiting for the perfect moment to jump out and finish what it started.”

Hanna offered some words of comfort to Elena, but Jake couldn’t make out exactly what she said.

He remembered that when he was killing Elena’s teammates, his craving for human blood had taken over his judgment. However, a long time had passed since then, and he was now much better at controlling himself. He no longer slipped into a frenzy when fighting humans, always keeping a clear mind.

As for his emotions and feelings, they were mostly blank. He hardly ever felt anything since the transformation. However, as he listened to Elena tell her story, he felt a long-forgotten sense of empathy bubbling up inside him. He felt bad for Elena and what she was going through because of him. Jake welcomed that feeling because it meant he wasn’t a complete monster yet. He was still capable of understanding and sympathizing with others.

Jonah, Toby, Michael, and Gerard steered away from the previous subject and began talking about Los Demonios. For a few moments, Jake listened to their conversation, wanting to learn what they had to say about the gang. Sure enough, they hated it. Jake discovered what he already knew—the bandits from Los Demonios were everywhere, attacking and capturing regular survivors. Nobody knew much about them, except that the people who were originally in the gang, as well as those captured and later recruited into their ranks, were truly evil. Regular survivors were now in a dire situation. They had to be on the lookout not only for mutants but also for the Demons, whose gang seemed to grow stronger with each passing day.

The group continued their conversation, but Jake decided it was time to leave. He turned around and made his way back to the stairs. The last thing he heard was Gerard suggesting they team up with other groups of survivors to wage war against Los Demonios. He pointed out that with the gang growing stronger every single day, they could hide and run from the Demons only for so long.

A minute later, Jake stepped out of the building, and Elena along with the rest of her group never realized he’d been listening to their conversation just outside their room.