A Mother's Rage

By CJ knight

Photo by Cedric Letsch on Unsplash

Second submission for Maryellen Brady 💗📚’s Millcreek Village for the month of April.

This is a continuation of Jay Tufore’s tale, this time with a twist, the introduction of a new character. The previous instalments created during March’s World Building Wednesdays can be found on the links below.

Heat came in waves, not from the air, but through the earth itself. It pulsed from below through jagged stone. Fighting its way forward like breath from lungs exhaling through cracks where molten lava crawled in luminous veins.

L41, or Elle Forwan to those who knew her away from the company, lay prone on the ridgeline. Her body in black combat gear perfectly at one with the terrain. To those below, she was no more than shadow and stone. She took one last look at the photograph in her locket before closing it.

From above the falls, Elle held the advantage. Always take the high ground. Below, Fire & Ice Falls roared in contradiction. A river of molten lava to her left spilled in a thick, glowing curtain. To her right, locked in thorned stillness, a cascade of frozen water. Where they met at the bottom, steam churned above a mineral rich spring, swirling alive with chemical potential. Perfect. Elle watched as they settled in. The people from Millcreek. Some seemed fearful, others hopeful. There were those who carried themselves with optimism that this experiment drew out of participants. Laughter. Elle’s lips curled into a smile. They adapt fast with resilience and social cohesion. Her gloved fingers brushed the case beside her. Inside the vial rested. Her objective required extreme heat for dispersal. The lava would create accelerated activation, and the spring below would become her distributor. A child dipped their hand into the spring water below, giggling as a parent pulled them back. Her finger opened the latch of the case.

“Always so efficient, Elle.”

She didn’t flinch. The voice was one she knew well. Embarrassment mixed with anger. He was close. Too close. Sloppy. Elle exhaled and shifted the angle of her body to bring her pistol in line with Jay before turning onto her back. He stood a few paces away, relaxed, staring at her like something mildly interesting. Elle hated that about him. “Jay.” She rose to one knee, pistol aimed at his chest. “I killed you.” Her eyes found the hole in his shirt where her bullet hit him in the lab. “I know I hit you. You were as good as dead when I entered the experiment.”

Jay smiled and put his finger through the bullet hole in his shirt. “All you hurt were my feelings, I’m afraid.”

Elle tilted her head. “Pretty sure you fired first.”

Neither moved as the lava fall roared. Steam curled between them like a curtain. Elle’s eyes flicked toward the vial.

Jay noticed. “Don’t do this, Elle.”

“I’m following orders. The way you taught me.”

Jay sighed. “I was wrong.”

“Why did you come for me first?” Elle took up the slack on her pistol trigger. “Maybe I should be flattered?”

“It doesn’t need to be a fight.” Jay eyed her finger on the pistol’s trigger. “Help me save this place.”

Elle shook her head. “I thought maybe you came for the one in command, cut the head off the snake.” She laughed. “This isn’t flattery. It’s an attempt to guilt me with old friendship.”

“No,” Jay’s brow creased. “Forget everything I taught you. You do make the decisions. Make the right one now. You don’t understand who we work for.”

“I understand enough,” Elle’s finger tightened on the trigger. “I know what they’ll do to him if I don’t do this.” Jay glanced at the locket around Elle’s neck.

The first shot cracked along the ridgeline through the steam. Jay ducked and pressed forward as the echo faded. Elle fired again, but Jay was already inside her line, forcing her to shift. She pivoted, striking Jay’s shoulder with the butt of her pistol. He deflected the blow, grabbed her wrist and twisted. Elle drove her knee into his ribs, forcing Jay to let go of her wrist. They squared off, two professionals. Jay’s hand dipped to his waistband, a blade flashed into view. Elle smiled. “Now we’re talking.” She tossed her pistol into the flowing lava and drew her combat knife from her shoulder scabbard.

Sparks flared as steel clashed in bursts of motion. Intimate, and too close for anything but instinct. Jay slashed low. Elle parried and countered toward his throat. Her blade missed as Jay leaned away. Their boots scraped the rocks at the edge of the ridgeline, heat suffocated as they closed in on the lava fall. Elle feigned high, drove low. Jay grabbed her wrist and twisted. She didn’t fight for her grip on the knife as it slipped. She stepped into him, driving her shoulder forward. His momentum carried them over the ridge.

Jay hit the ledge, catching the jagged edge of the ridgeline as he rolled over. Elle wasn’t as lucky. Her hand grazed the ridgeline, but her momentum carried her over the edge and toward the falling lava.

Jay pulled himself up to the ridgeline, watching the falling lava. She was gone. “Elle.”

***

Jay turned toward the case. The vial. During the fight, the unlatched case was cracked open against the stone. The vial inside was intact, but damaged. A fracture splintered along the glass surface. Unstable. Jay picked it up. The liquid inside was bubbling in reaction to the heat. Not ideal. He hurried toward the icefalls. Cold wind bit hard. Jay drove the vial deep into the packed snow near the top of the frozen cascade. That should stop it for now. Jay glanced one final time at the cascading lava fall, then headed toward the path for the signpost.

***

Below the ridgeline something moved, clawing against the stone. Elle dragged herself upward. She’d avoided the lava fall, but being close enough to it had been enough. The left side of her body was a ruin of charred flesh and exposed tissue. There was no pain, her nerve endings were gone. She’d seen Jay. Saw where he hid the vial in the snow. Elle pulled herself up the jagged rocks.

Snow hissed beneath her as she crawled along the snow. Chunks of burnt flesh dropped from the stump she used to call an arm. Her left eye was gone. The chill of the icy wind stung as it howled against her exposed jawbone. She rolled onto her back beside the buried vial. The fingers of her right hand found the locket around her neck. The chain had fused to her skin. She pulled the locket free and opened it. The tiny photograph of her three year old son smiled at her. “Mommy will be home soon.” Elle dug into the snow and pulled the vial free. She smashed the vial against the burnt side of her body. The violent reaction was instantaneous. Heat ripped through her body as her flesh wriggled to life. Elle screamed as nerve endings reformed, amplifying the pain. Muscles and tendons formed and twisted together, skin crawled in uneven waves. Elle closed her eyes, tears forced their way through. Her pain became rage, unfiltered, untethered. Elle rose to her feet. Steam curled from her body. Her eyes burned bright. She picked up her locket from the snow and placed in her pocket. The broken vial sat in the snow, empty. She knew the rumours. A virus that activates under extreme heat with the power to regenerate diseased and broken bodies, even from the brink of death. The catch. The major side effect had been uncontrollable rage in the subjects. What choice did I have? My son needs me. The company will kill him if I fail them. Elle thought of Jay’s plan to stop her and her team. A scream of fury exploded from her throat. It drew eyes from those by the hot spring below. Elle continued screaming as she sprinted toward the signpost after Jay.