Viper's Hope (Anguis Defenders Book 1)(67)

He was now way too mesmerized with Viper to be concerned with her. Hope watched as Justice started dancing around.

"Hey buddy do you need to go to the bathroom?"

"I do." Charity replied raising her hand as if she were in class.

"No!" Justice replied, but the way the tow-headed boy crossed his legs said otherwise.

"What if I show you the facilities?" Viper volunteered.

"I'm a big boy I can go by myself." Justice puffed up his chest.

"The bathrooms are different here." Hope informed them. "Are you okay helping them?" She asked Viper.

Tara was here, but she was keeping tabs on the sleeping adults. Hope was glad they arranged a dwelling next to her own for her family. That way she'd be close these first few days when things were the roughest.

"Follow little ones, I will show you the bathroom then if you like I can show you your new room." Viper said.

"Okay! Are we on vacation? I like vacations." The kids bounded after Viper as they went down the hall.

Hope turned to see Tara smiling.

"He's good with kids." Tara winked at her.

"I know, right?" Hope gushed.

"Do you think you are compatible?"

Hope considered the question. She hadn't really thought about it. Things had been too wild.

"I don't know, you're the doctor, you tell me."

Tara looked like she was hatching a plan. Hope suddenly imagined her friend drawing lots of blood from her and Viper in the future with a groan.

"Compatible with who?" Faith yawned. "Hope how'd you and Tara get here?" She asked in confusion as she started to glance around the room.

"It's a long story." Hope leaned down to hug her sister. "We'll explain everything as soon as Cody wakes up."

Faith looked over at her husband in the other unit.

"Hope why are we in some kind of crazy coffin?" Faith looked suddenly to the other empty ones. "Oh my god where are my children?"

"Relax they are fine. They woke up faster than you did and had to go to the bathroom." Hope tried to reassure Faith.

"Tell me right now what's going on Hope!" Her sister started to panic.

"Babe, stop nagging your sister." Cody sleepily mumbled.

"Yeah, stop nagging me." Hope couldn't help tease as she assisted Faith out of her hibernation unit.

"You don't even know what's going on!" Faith groused at her husband as she walked over to Cody on wobbly legs. "Wake up Cody, so I can find out where we are and what's going on."

"I'm awake. Stop shaking me." Cody grumbled.

"Do you remember the meteor shower?" Hope asked and Faith nodded. "Well it brought something awful to Earth, and we had to be rescued."

"What do you mean?"

"The meteors carried a virus that poisoned the earth and we were rescued."

"Hope have you been drinking?" Cody asked skeptically.

"Hey mom, dad look, Viper's one of the X-men. Isn't he cool!" Justice bounded in followed by Viper and Charity.

"I have my own room!" Charity trilled as she held Viper's large hand.

Faith's eyes grew large. Hope could tell by the breath she sucked in that she was going to scream. Hope slapped her hand over Faith's mouth.

Cody jumped out of the hibernation bed but stumbled.

"Get away from my children!" Cody yelled.

Viper understood the man's concern. He instantly let go of Charity's hand and stepped back.

"Don't worry dad. He's not the Boogeyman." Justice moved to his father talking calmly as if he were the adult in this situation.

Cody grabbed his children as Faith batted at Hope's hand.

"Don't scream. This is Viper." Hope walked over to Viper so they would see she wasn't afraid of him. "His people rescued us from annihilation."

Both Cody and Faith's eyes left Viper's face for only a moment to acknowledge her.

It was a long tense conversation as Hope described how Viper had rescued her, a story she'd told a billion times. She was thankful the kids were so comfortable with Viper because it put Faith and Cody at ease.

"Viper's people, the Anguis, were attacked about 15 years ago by a smaller group of the Morbo."

"That's the virus on the meteor?" Faith confirmed.

"Yes, they lost many but we're able to avoid extinction. Unfortunately what they discovered was that the Morbo are very resistant to anything but extreme heat and UV. They swarm fast, infect a host and replicate."

"Like AIDS or Ebola on crack." Tara added.

"What does this thing look like?" Cody interjected.

"I will play you some images later." Viper told them as he glanced towards the kids.

The little ones did not need to see the almost humanoid virus. It looked like something that had been de-fleshed. Hope still shuddered from the video of it leaping onto a victim and stabbing the man with its proboscis tongue.