CH2a
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JULY 10TH, 2011
An hour passed. Seline didn't really want to say anything to the pilot, so she spent the entire time listening to him mindlessly sing along to nothing—there was no radio. He just sang and hummed along to the music in his head. And it was all classic rock: Skynyrd, Beatles, Zeppelin, Journey, Foreigner…he had his own personal jukebox in his mind. And he didn't really know the words to all of the songs, either. In fact, he'd already turned to her twice and tried to serenade her with random made up lyrics, adding lib wherever he felt it was necessary. She was pressed up to the window as far away from him as she could be now to save herself the trouble of doing anything about it. She knew, due of the virus spreading through her body, that if Jed was to try anything devious, there was a chance she would lash out and hurt or even kill him on accident…and that would not be good, since the plane was several thousand feet in the air.
"Seline!" He turned to her with a wide, sharp-toothed grin across his fuzzy, gray face. A few minutes after take-off, he put a headset on, though he didn't really need it. He was quite a bit louder than the hum of the plane. However, he'd given Seline one earlier just in case she needed to say anything, because she wasn't nearly as loud as him.
She responded through the outer noise, "what?"
"Nothin', I just like your name."
She raised an eyebrow. "Thanks…?"
"What's your last name?"
Oh great. Now that he was done with his karaoke, he was trying to get to know her. She reluctantly responded into the headset mic, "Jackson. I'm Seline Jackson."
"And that's your real name? How do you know that?"
"What do you mean…? My parents named me that!"
"Really? And you remember all that?"
"How would I forget my own name, Jed?"
This time he raised his eyebrow at her. "I'm just askin' cause I did. Honestly, I haven't been able to recall my real name for a few months now. I just took this jacket 'n borrowed somebody else's name when I ran away." He pointed to the name printed across the front of his jacket. "Back in the US, lots of us infecteds suffer from huge bouts of memory loss. I couldn't even tell you how old I am." He laughed. "I bet that doesn't help calm you down at all."
"You're serious?!" Seline asked, looking up from his nametag to his face, suddenly becoming interested. "Fascinating! You know, you're in the most advanced stage of infection I've ever seen!"
"Yeah? That's cool, I guess." He didn't look nearly as 'fascinated' at Seline claimed to be.
"It is cool! I used to study hyenas and African wild dogs! My team and I used to film documentaries about them for educational television! They are amazing creatures!"
"Too bad you got bit."
Seline frowned, but she wasn't done. "Now that you've rescued me, I could be helping prevent the spread of the virus! I have so much knowledge on the species! I could be out there, finding a cure!"
"Too bad for you—our kind is cast out from society!"
Another awkward silence elapsed.
"…Is it really this bad everywhere else?"
"Yeah. Like I told you, they treated me like a dog back at the base. Me and my guys were positioned in some dingy Air Force base in North Carolina. When they found out I was infected, they put me on a chain! Me! I was still at least HALF human! I didn't even get to sleep in the barracks. They kept me outside, even when it was raining! Now, I know I'm a big boy and I should be able to tolerate more, especially since I'm part of the military, but that's just wrong! I mean, look what they did to my ear!" he took his hands off of the levers he had used to operate the plane and pulled his left ear down towards the front of his face to show Seline a silver tag with 'S-57-S' written on it.
"They tagged you?"
"Like a bird!" he chimed, though he still didn't sound very happy. "If I had room to complain, I might, but there's no tracking device in the tag. And look at you—you've got that bulky ankle monitor. That's a hell of a lot worse than this." His ear flipped back upright, the tag glinting light on the plane's ceiling for a split second. "And it's a lot more barbaric here in Africa, I've noticed, burnin' infecteds at the stake. They just give the 'un-savable' ones lethal injection in the States."
"Were you one of them…?"
Jed looked back out the windshield. "Yeah. I'm pretty much a hopeless case."
"How long have you been infected?" Seline quietly asked.
"'Little over three years, I guess." He didn't look back at her.
She stared at his profile. The tip of his nose was brownish, like a dog's nose would be. He was indeed a fascinating creature. She wondered if her face looked similar...she hadn't seen her own reflection since she was made into a slave.
"Me too," she said. "I was probably bitten a few months after you were. I think I can tell by the way our bodies have both changed...I was bitten by a particularly frisky pup on an expedition. Right here." She pointed at her right hip, where the bite marks were partially covered beneath the pants she was wearing. She smiled, getting the feel of finally having something in common with somebody else after three years.
"I wish I could've been that lucky." Jed muttered. "But I guess you don't mind all these scars. I'm your fascinating little pet project now, huh?"
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