I rise.

– Hey! Hey!

Delilah steps forward.

– Yes, it is time we departed.

Amanda twists the second lock open.

I try to walk to her and cramp up all over.

– Don’t.

She turns the third lock and steps back and the door swings open.

Terry stands on the threshold, worse for wear, but, heavy feeder that he is, the burns covering the right side of his body are healing fast.

– OK, yeah, Ms. Horde, finally we get to meet in person. We can, you know, we can make some progress here now.

Lydia behind him, aiming her carbine down the stairs.

– Shut up and get in there, Terry, something’s coming out of the basement.

He steps into the room.

– Yeah, if we could claim a little sanctuary maybe while we. Some complicated issues have arisen and a real opportunity. I don’t know. Hurley.

Hurley steps into the doorway, dragging Predo by the scruff of his neck.

– Yeah, an I guess ya might call it opportunity. Still I don’t know why ya just won’t let me kill da bastard.

He sees me.

– An Joe in da bargain, if I may.

Lydia squeezes off a few rounds down the stairwell and backs into the room, kicking the door shut.

– Damn, damn, damn. Where’s the? Keys for this? It’s. What the fuck are? I can’t.

She’s leaning her forehead against the door, eyes closed.

– I had this nightmare when I was little. This. My mom was always talking about the inherent threat of patriarchy. But she never explained what it. And I saw, when I was about five, my dad took me to see some horror movie. Something I was way too young for. And. My mom, all I understood about patriarchy was that it was something to do with men. And the horror movie, my dad took me and it was all guys in the audience. And I was so scared by the movie. And these nightmares I had after, this creature I would dream about. It wasn’t, it’s not Freudian, it wasn’t like it was covered in penises or anything. It was just all fangs and scales and gross and just a movie monster. And I thought, I told my mom I had nightmares about the patriarchy and it almost ate me, and she told me, she said, Yes, that’s what it will try to do.

She starts to laugh, keeps talking through it.

– And down there that’s all, when they came out and were, I saw them and all I could think was, the patriarchy is going to eat me!

She stops laughing.

– What the hell? What the hell?

– And now we are assembled, can we not leave this tower of horrors?

Lydia looks at Delilah.

– Chubby’s daughter.

I take a drink.

– Told you.

Lydia steps toward her.

– How’s the baby?

– The child is well. But I feel it is not safe here. We must be away. Is there no one here who can escort us to safety?

– Excuse me, if I may.

Predo manages to give the impression that he just happens to be wearing his coat after asking Hurley to hold it by the collar for him.

– Several of my people are still outside. I believe it is safe to assume that no one will be leaving without my complicity.

Terry raises a hand high over his head, as if he knows the right answer and wants to be called first.

– Don’t listen to, I don’t know, to that propaganda. Even if, even if he still has troops outside, which I think there is room for doubt on that one, it doesn’t change the fact that we have him. So, you know, a man like, a man who I’ve known a lot of years, a man who has a powerful desire for self-preservation, he won’t be ordering his storm troopers to open fire when he’s going to be the first one out the door.

Predo coughs into his gloved hand.

– Do you think, Bird, do you think it is a matter of what I tell them at this point? The orders regarding hostage situations are long-standing and come directly from the Secretariat. There will be no negotiating. Any arrangements will be made in this room. And I will be dictating terms.

Hurley gives him a shake.

– Terry boy, must we listen ta dis shite?

Terry slings his AK over his shoulder and raises a finger.

– Well, he’s full of shit, Hurl, but there is room to maybe settle a few things before we lose, I don’t know, all perspective.

– This is full of a, um, Vyrally activated bacillus.

We all look at Amanda, at her desk, a small vial made of spun aluminum in her hand, tiny hand-lettered label on its side.

– I mean, like a microscopic version of the stuff in the basement. And it’s a sanguivore. Which means it likes to eat blood, like the Vyrus. But because it can live without a host it doesn’t care about keeping you alive. It just wants to eat and replicate. And really fast. And it can survive in any environment I’ve stuck it in. And. Oh, and um, I just had to shoot my lover. So. Yeah. I am totally in a fucking mood right now and everyone should put their guns down and maybe you, Lydia, because I know you sort of, you can put them outside the door and use these keys to lock it. OK. So. And, I mean, I totally don’t expect everyone to leave this room alive. Because, come on, how could we? I, for one, I think, I mean. I think I’m going to kill myself. But I’m gonna talk a little first, and if anyone interrupts me I’m going to open this can and I don’t know if anything can kill this stuff before it kills everything everywhere. So OK?

Everyone does as she says, so it must be OK.

She starts by recapping the lecture she gave me, and then moves on to advanced topics in how everything is going to change now.

– This is proof.

She pulls on a beaded chain that hangs from her neck, tugging it from her collar until we can see the fat little rectangle of plastic dangling from it.

– I mean, real scientific proof that you.

She waves her hand at all of us.

– Exist. Or whatever.

She pulls the chain over her head and drops it on her desk.

– Images of all the known mutations of the Vyrus that I’ve catalogued. Including the ones that I.

She points at the floor.

– The ones that I, cooked up myself. Which, I mean, I may have gotten carried away and played a little god. Sorry for that. Or not. I could do it. So I did it. Because. I don’t know. I just did it. And you.

She points at Predo.

– You pissed me off just enough to set them loose. Because the idea was just to destroy them. Experiments. But you had to starve us. You couldn’t just. What was so hard to accept? A cure? What was so hard to? It’s not like anyone would have made you take it if you didn’t want to. I. Gah. Anyway.

She fingers the chain.

– This USB drive has my simulations. It has the locations of known Vyral HERV fragments in the human genome. Just a few that I’ve been able to find. But, I mean, compelling stuff. If you like that kind of thing. There are the complete records of my experiments. All of them repeatable for similar results. Procedure for a Vyrus test.

She giggles.

– Can you see the posters on the bus shelters? Some Goth with a serious look on her face. Have you been tested?

She stops giggling.

– Like the only test you need is to ask yourself, Does blood sound like what I want for dinner?

She lifts a hand.

– Yeah, I know, I’m being stupid. But I mean. Right? You know that would be the attitude for some people. Testing for the inactive Vyrus. People found guilty for having the potential to be dangerous. Anyway.

She counts off a few fingers.

– The images, the HERV map, the procedures, the test, oh, different environments hostile to the Vyrus. All of which kill the host as well, but, well, there it is. Methods for killing the infected. There that is. And the details of my theory that the Vyrus was the primary building block for all life on the planet and that Vyrally active life is the most pure and essentially earthy thing around.