BLUE IRIS
Chapter 29

Colt

"DARICK, STOP the car," Gael ordered as he raised the radio. He hopped down from the passenger seat as soon as the car halted, and we followed suit.

"If anyone out there can hear me, please, spread this message by posting flyers, writing on every wall you see, or tell everyone to come to us. On behalf of the Center for Disease Control, I am Dr. Warren Leveroque. We are at the CDC, or you can go to the nearest port to get the vaccine. We have a breakthrough and successfully created and manufactured the cure and the vaccine for the virus. Let us save humanity and help build our beloved nation again..."

***

WE ARRIVED at the CDC complex. Military, commercial, and personal vehicles were everywhere, even with the government and CDC seal. It was a good sign that mankind had not completely wiped out its existence. Guards and from the military were present, and it was incredible as well as overwhelming.

After several hours, we moved closer to the gate. Inside, where we were going to receive the vaccine.

Gael and Dr. Hull marched toward the security at the guard post. The back gate was the exit once we received the vaccines, and from where we were standing served as the entrance.

"Are you okay?" I asked Iris beside me when she breathed deeply.

"Never been better. Do we need to receive though?"

"I think so. Nothing will happen if we will be injected, I guess."

"There's only one way to replace out."

"Name, ma'am," the guard asked, wearing a U. S combat Army uniform.

"Blue Iris Clayton."

The guard froze and looked at Iris intensely for a couple of seconds, making my body stiffen. I couldn't smell violence, but my instinct said something was going to happen today.

"Got a problem, 1Lt. Dunnam?" I asked, eyes focused on him after I checked his name and his rank insignia.

His hand went to the walkie-talkie on his chest. "Dr. Warren? Please, come in."

"We're leaving." I gripped Iris' hand. My stomach suddenly felt rock hard.

"Wait," Iris stopped me, making me groan in annoyance. I completely forgot the reason for this long trip. To save the fucking humanity, but things had changed when they already discovered the cure. I didn't care if I wouldn't receive the vaccine, as long as Iris wouldn't be harmed.

"Yes?" A voice from the radio echoed, probably Dr. Warren. He seemed to have the same voice from the radio back in the car.

The radio message was probably legit, but why the guard suddenly froze when he heard Iris' name?

"There was a woman here claiming she's Blue Iris Clayton, Dr. Warren," the guard answered almost quickly.

"Is she has bluer eyes?"

Iris' face ashen and swallowed.

Fuck!

"What's going on?" Gael came back and asked with already armed men following at his back.

"What do they want from me?" Iris finally found her voice, shaking.

Isn't it what you want? I wanted to roll my eyes, but I loved her so much that I couldn't just resist her plan.

"You're not in trouble, ma'am. We are just going to escort you inside to meet Dr. Warren."

"She's not coming with you," I said firmly.

"You can come with us," 1Lt. Dunnam replied.

"Not without me," Gael interjected.

"And me!" Frost moved to us.

The crowd and lines started to grow and murmur as we got their attention and already marched toward us. Nosy people. After what they had been through, they never changed.

A male voice from the megaphone spoke to not break the line as they would all receive the vaccine.

"Or if you want, or whoever wanted to talk to her, why don't you tell him to come over here instead."

"Your name, sir?"

"Colt Snow."

He extended his hand, but I ignored it.

"Mr. Snow, we've been looking for Ms. Clayton for a long time. If you just radioed us, we would definitely send a team to escort her here."

"What's this all about?" Dr. Hull also walked in to join the conversation.

"Dr. Warren will explain everything. You must be all exhausted from a long trip. So, shall we?" He gestured us to the opened gate.

"Fine. I'll go if my family will come with me," Iris agreed. Since she wanted to make things right and to replace answers, this was the best time, and hopefully, she would be satisfied with the answers she would get.

After a few minutes, we were all sitting in the room with white concrete, glass walls, and sliding door with food and refreshments. They way they treated us, we felt like we just landed from another planet. Doctors and staff waved and smiled at us outside this room.

"Don't you think it's a little bit weird?" Darick asked.

"It is," This time, I agreed with him.

The door whooshed and slid. An old man with a white shirt and loosened red necktie walked in. His aura seemed calm and friendly. Almost trustworthy.

"You must be Blue Iris." He smiled tearfully.

Iris stood up. "Yes."

"I can see it from your eyes, my dear. I'm Dr. Warren Leveroque, but everyone calls me Dr. Warren. You're probably asking why I asked Dunnam to escort you inside. Well, we are glad you made it here." He held and gripped Iris' hand as he talked like she was some kind of a Queen or just saved the world from an alien invasion.

"I still don't understand."

"Let's have a seat then. This might take a while."

I listened attentively as he explained how he met Iris' real parents and how they ended up with the breakthrough.

"So, my parents were forced to work with the pharmaceutical company owned by a Russian billionaire?"

"Let me guess, it has something to do with a biological weapon."

"Yes. That's what we thought. They found a primordial virus and had an ambitious bioengineer on their payroll who would create it for a bioweapon. After the epidemic in the small village, your parents were kidnapped to help create the virus." "So, why faked their deaths?"

"The team who were tasked to investigate found cremated bodies and thought your parents were in there. It was difficult to trace the DNA, and they received a call from the high-ranking official to keep it off the record as they were afraid of the media leaks. But your parents, especially your mom was intelligent, so she must have altered the virus with her DNA and created a cure."

"So, what happened then?"

"When the van carrying the virus with the bioengineer was ambushed, the container was broken, and it leaked. The bioengineer was infected, but before he died, he was able to run away, probably asked for help."

"So, he infected other people?"

"No. Animals carried the virus. They must have close contact with his body. About a year ago, a few miles from that village"

"Wait a sec. The same village?" Iris asked in disbelief.

"Yes. It was a quarantine zone since that epidemic. But there were people who caught wild animals and sold them. Though it was illegal, no one would want to stop them since they were living in the wilderness. When they caught a wild monkey, in just a few minutes, all of them got infected, but the monkey got away, and that was how the spread of the virus started."

"Oh, my God." Iris shivered, wrapping herself as she turned white.

Still speechless, I swallowed hard, feeling my throat dried in an instant.

"The same virus altered by your mom. I thought that was her message to us to develop a cure. And she must have injected you. And now, it is running through your veins."

"We've been looking for you, Ms. Clayton. We even posted a reward just to replace you. Everyone thought you might be dead, and obviously not from the virus."

"And it caused my brother's life." She looked down. "That was because they wanted to give me to you."

"I'm so sorry. You don't have to worry about the Colony from the West. They won't bother you anymore," he assured her. "About Otis Wise, he was supposed to bring you to us unharmed. That was what we agreed upon, but instead, he became greedy-"

"And I killed him," I said proudly. I didn't care if this would have caused my life. I nearly died once, but I would do it over again in a fucking heartbeat. After what he did to Iris, he deserved it.

"We heard about the encounter at the bridge. Our men from the military planned a mission to intercept the colony for coming after you. When our men got to the scene, you were all gone."

"So, Otis knew that I had the cure in my blood?" Iris asked.

"Not entirely, but he believed that your blood could slow down the effect. You have probably tested it." Dr. Warren looked at me, particularly to my eyes. "How do you feel, Mr. Snow?" I shrugged. "Good?"

"Your irises darkened, aren't they?"

"I think so. It was smokey gray now they looked like ash gray."

"You looked like you're wearing cheap contacts," Iris commented.

"Is that so?" I smirked. The 'behind the tree encounter' came flashing back in my head.

She rolled her eyes, clearly read my thought. "How did you figure out about the cure, Dr. Warren?"

"Through your mom's DNA. We had to check your parents' old house, but it was wiped out. We track down your heritage, none of them exist. That's why we forced to put that reward. We knew the possibility that it would place you in danger, but we had no choice. Until we got Intel about your brother. Too late, Nuke Clayton was already dead. After we got a sample from him, we gave them a proper burial, Miss Clayton."

Iris shook to cry. "Thank you."

I remembered how much she wanted to give him that. Without her knowledge, someone had already done for her.

"That's the least we could do. I'm sorry for your loss," the doctor said sincerely. "Do you want to ask something? Or you might want something?"

"Everything seems clear to me now." She paused. "Oh, I want something. I hope you could help me."

"Of course, anything."

"Can you check up Gael, or ask someone to fix his leg." She looked at Gael who gave her a slight nod. "He is diabetic and an amputee."

"We have all types of doctors here. This place is huge. You can all stay as much as you want while we are building our nation again."

"Thank you. I think we could stay for a while. It's been almost a year since I feel the air condition on my skin. Can you please check Colton. You know, he just woke up-"

"From the dead," Frost interrupted.

Dr. Warren softly laughed. "Of course, we owed you and your parents, Miss Clayton."

"Just, Iris."

"Iris. And I have something for you." Dr. Warren signaled to the black man outside. He came carrying a box.

"When we raided that old lab, we found this. It belonged to your mother. We thought this meant something to her." He offered it to Iris before he rose from his seat. "Let me know if you need anything. Rowan will help you to your quarters. Mr. Snow, let us know whenever you're ready, and so as Mr. Gael."

"Glad you made that decision, twig."