Chapter 7: Blood Army

Balto stood in a dark, quiet room of the fishing warehouse, which he and Jenna returned to when he decided it would be safer to stay there than at the shack. He had been able to use his virus powers to accelerate the healing of Jenna’s wounds so that they were almost completely better already, and he was now working on his own body. His eyes were closed, and random patches of glowing yellow appeared and disappeared on his fur as he took long, slow, relaxed breaths. One of the virus arms turned its head to look at the open door behind Balto, and made an affectionate growl. Jenna stood there, silhouetted in the door by the light behind her, hesitant to enter in the event that Balto was resting. “Come on in, baby,” Balto said gently, and Jenna walked in and came to his side. Balto opened his eyes, startling Jenna a little when she saw that they were glowing yellow, if only faintly. “Sorry to disturb you,” she said. “You didn’t,” Balto replied, and the yellow glow vanished. “I just wanted to thank you for saving my life,” said Jenna. “You threw yourself right at that monster for me, and you hurt yourself so much with your powers…” She choked up suddenly. “It makes me…feel so blessed that you love me that much. I love you.” She gave Balto a grateful kiss, and he returned it, whispering into Jenna’s ear. “I love you, too.” “Do you feel better?” “Much better. You know how you told me Sorrow regenerates? That’s what I was just doing. It worked pretty well.” His voice became a little softer as his eyes met Jenna’s. “I’m actually feeling…really good right now,” he said, a pleasant sensation rising inside him. Jenna felt a rush, a sweet, giddy leap of pleasure, and she smiled. “So am I.”

Balto went over to the radio he had found earlier and turned it on, finding a song with a deep, moody tone, and Jenna shut the door, sealing out all but the moonbeams coming through the single window. They walked to each other, meeting in the center of the room. They nuzzled each other softly, then began to dance slowly, moving about the room with their eyes locked, speaking with quiet voices. “It’s been a while since we’ve danced,” said Jenna. “I’ve missed it.” “Me, too,” said Balto. “When we don’t do that sort of thing for a while, it gets a lot more appealing.” “I know what you mean. Sometimes, I just need to be with you like this, to feel your love for me.” “Isn’t that amazing, what really being in love does? It makes it so you’re perfectly happy just to be with the one you love, just to dance like this, just to feel the other’s heart.” Jenna smiled and gave Balto a kiss. “You know,” she sighed, “I’m glad those virus tools didn’t change who you are inside. You’re still the Balto I know.” “Still, I think I can put them to use,” Balto said, moving closer to Jenna. He coiled the virus arms around her body slowly, lifting her gently off the ground, holding her up close in front of him as he continued to dance. They stared at each other, drinking in the warmth of passion. Jenna put her paws on Balto’s shoulders, caressing him, and he sighed, closing his eyes, savoring the sensation. He opened his eyes, moving Jenna close to him, and they let their lips touch tenderly, feeling like their pleasure and the tones of the song were combining to carry them both like waves. They held the kiss for a long time, turning around slowly, loving the sense that they could nearly taste love itself. After several moments, they released the kiss, staring into each other’s eyes again before Balto lowered Jenna, letting her feet touch the floor again. They began dancing together again, standing side by side, mimicking each other’s steps. “How incredible is this?” Jenna said. “Even in the middle of all this horror, all this death, we can still just kind of…shut it out and focus on our love?” “There’s another great thing about love. Nothing physical can ever harm it. No matter what happens to us, we still have that.” “And no one can steal it away.” “That’s right.” They smiled, nuzzling each other again, and Jenna looked out the window at the moon. “Why is moonlight so conductive to passion?” she asked. “I don’t know,” Balto replied. “Maybe it’s just one of those things, like the color red, or velvet, or a fire burning low in a fireplace.” “That sounds familiar…like back at home…” Jenna said, and they both broke into a grin, giggling as they kissed each other, intensifying their dance. “It’s great when music and feelings kind of…line up, you know?” “Adding to each other?” “Yeah, when each makes the other better.” “I love those times.” Balto wrapped the virus arms around Jenna again, lifting and tilting her so she was on her back, facing up at him, holding her body close as he kept moving to the beat. She licked his neck, and he shivered, kissing her head. After a short time of more kisses, Balto set Jenna back on her feet again, and they sat down, putting their paws around one another, breathing heavily from the pleasure. Balto drew one of his paws up and down Jenna’s ear, touching it with his claws, causing her to shudder and breathe harder. She leaned toward Balto, kissing his neck just above his shoulder, producing a similar reaction. These were what the pair called “sweet spots”, the places on their bodies that would incite pleasant feelings if the right contact was made. They looked at each other, gasping for breath, and Balto spoke. “I love you, Jenna,” he said. “I love you, too, Balto,” Jenna replied. “Now, why don’t we go to the window and look at the moon?” asked Balto. Jenna nodded. “Sounds good.” They went slowly to the window. Balto walked up behind Jenna and wrapped his paws around her body, and she took a step back, pressing against his chest. As the moonlight splashed over them, they carried each other away with the wings of euphoria…

Later on in the night, the two went to sleep, allowing Balto in particular some much-needed rest after the ordeal in the cavern. They still got up fairly early in the morning to see if there was a clue waiting, but it turned out, much to their surprise, that there was nothing. They went back to sleep for a couple more hours, and the rest of the day passed without incident. When night fell, they were planning on staying up and spending some time with each other, but the idea was cut short when Abaddon suddenly arrived. “Why are you here?” Balto asked urgently. “Did something happen to the others?” “No,” Abaddon said, with a strange dread in his voice. “I am here because I believe something will happen.” This didn’t exactly reassure Balto. “What?” he said. “The mountain of the leper caves,” said Abaddon. “I assume you destroyed it?” Balto was surprised that Abaddon knew about that. “Um…yes,” he replied. “How did you know?” asked Jenna. “That is what I wished to speak with you about. You see, the leprae swarm mutated decades ago, but none of them could mutate further into advance forms. One beast, the Dreadnaught, was a different sort of mutation. It knew that though its purpose was to herd the swarm, they would need a leprosy advance form to lead them, so they dug that cavern and began hibernating, waiting for the day when an advance form would arrive and lead them. According to the mythos surrounding the swarm, they knew that heavy snow or avalanches might seal the door, so they dug a second entrance, a tiny passage out the lower rear of the cavern. Now, during your escape…” “Where I had to kill the Dreadnaught.” “Correct. A number of the bacilli made an escape out this other entrance.” Now, Balto knew why Abaddon was disturbed. “How many?” “A little less than two hundred, out of the thousands that slept in there. I came to you because they are gathering outside the town. Even though the Dreadnaught, which was their ‘shepherd’, is dead, they still must satisfy their taste for blood. Tonight, they will attack the town.” Jenna looked at Balto. “What are we going to do?” Balto was thinking deeply, seeming to be focused on what he knew about his powers. He was looking for information about swarms, and he finally stumbled across something new. A look that resembled a cringe came to his face, and shortly after this, he headed for the door, with Jenna and Abaddon following him. “Where are we going?” Jenna asked. “To Seaman’s Sleep,” Balto replied grimly.

Seaman’s Sleep was a mass grave near the seashore outside of town, used as a burial site for sailors who met their end at sea. The walk there was slightly strenuous because of the distance, but none of the three cared. Abaddon went off to gather a report on the leprosy swarm, and Jenna stayed with Balto, who went onto the burial site. “What are we doing here, Balto?” asked Jenna. Balto began digging in the snow as he answered. “Since there’s no way I can fight hundreds of those bacteria by myself, I’m going to need some assistance.” His paws reached earth, and he continued digging. “Now, when I searched for information about swarms, I found out that new viruses are produced…” Here he hit something with his paws, and stuck the virus arms into the hole, “…from dead bodies.” He pulled a decomposing corpse from the hole, depositing it on the snow. “Isn’t this, um…irreverent?” Jenna asked, somewhat shocked by Balto unexpectedly digging up a dead body. “He’s not using it anymore,” said Balto. “Besides, I need to do this. The whole town’s at stake.” He took a deep breath, gathering up his courage, his face showing his resignation at what was about to happen. “This’ll be disgusting. Here we go…”

Balto manipulated the growth chemical excreted from the virus arm’s teeth inside the corpse for almost half an hour, testing different paths of progression, finding out what advanced the process, calibrating to the proper chemical configuration. Finally, he released the virus arm’s teeth, pulling them out of the body. “Now, we have to wait,” he said. “You’ll see what’s happening.” Over the space of fifteen minutes, the corpse seemed as it was at first, then