He swallowed hard, trying not to cry. He was in so much pain, emotionally, that he began to plead with me while the tears fell. “Please. I’m begging you. I know it’s a lot to take in. I know it’s difficult to understand, but I need to know that you can trust me. I need to know that we are alright.” Henry continued to try to get me to look at him.
I finally looked deep into those fading green eyes. “I don’t know who you are. I invited you into my home, shared my bed with you, and I was going to marry you this morning, for fuck’s sake.” I stood up in haste. He grabbed my arms.
“Please, Elaina. You have got to believe me. My love for you is real. I’m telling you the truth.” He wouldn’t let go of my arms, no matter how many times I tried to shake him off.
“How do I know?”
“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t risk my life telling you all this!” There was a very pregnant pause, and I stopped struggling against him. He let go of my arms, and I sat back down on the bed.
“Alright. Go on,” I whispered. “But I want to know your real name before you go any further.”
“Luke. Luke Richards.” I hesitated at first, but then I held out my hand to him.
“Pleased to meet you, Luke Richards.” He eyed me carefully, trying to figure out if I was being my sarcastic, smartass self.
“The pleasure is all mine, my love.” He took my hand and kissed it. I tried to fight it, but I blushed like a schoolgirl. I hated that he could still do that to me. I felt like such a fucking loser that I could fall for all of his flirtations. That was the way that it had been since the first moment.
“Go on...” My voice was shaky. It was obvious that I was still overcome with giddiness.
“The front of the building looked like a proper office building, remodeled from a broken down warehouse, just in case someone entered by accident. Harold and Margaret were also part of the program, in a sense. Essentially, they were handsomely paid actors to carry on the façade that I was their son, but they didn’t know what the truth was. Hence the whole American accent thing.”
“So there are more of you here?”
“In this country? Yes. We have coverage in all regions. I’m supposed to work the northern part of the east coast. So that’s why I’m in New York. I have connections throughout the country that help keep tabs on everything.”
“Do you know where the others are?”
“I used to, for the most part. But since I busted my phone minutes ago, I won’t have contact with them anymore. Plus, with all that has occurred today, who knows what has happened to them. And I assume the network will be going down soon, anyway…if it hasn’t already.”
“Right,” I snipped. I wanted to know more about what was happening than with whom Henry worked. “So where does the undead virus come in?”
“Well, part of our training was on undead animals.” I looked at him in disgust. “A team came in from the States who knew how to produce the virus, and our scientists would make it and inject the lab animals. They would monitor and study them, then we were forced to take care of matters.”
“What kind of animals?” I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know, but I asked anyway. My stomach was getting queasy again. One of my few soft spots was for animals so the thought of animals doing what I saw today saddened me.
“Everything from rats to chimps.” I held up my hands, trying to shield myself from his words.
“Wow,” was all I could muster.
“Now, it breaks my heart to think about it, but at the time, I was beaten into submission on a consistent basis. I had to have a lack of emotion, and be able to remove myself from the situation.”
“Why did you allow it to happen?” I was getting angry with him again.
“I didn’t have a choice! I told you, if I protested anything, I would get beaten. If I looked at them the wrong way, I was beaten. I was subjected to regular beatings and tasings to make me tougher and obedient. I was on the brink of death on a few occasions. Along with a few hospitalizations.” He looked down at his feet. Tears were forming in his eyes again. Our range of emotions had been off the charts. I was feeling sorry for him. His memories were obviously painful to recall.
“I’m so sorry, Henry... I mean, Luke.” I reached for him. He looked up at me.
“Please, call me Henry. I can’t have you calling me by my given name. That person does not exist anymore. He’s...” He cleared his throat, “considered dead on paper.”
“Yes, sorry. So were the two countries working together to make this virus?”