Harem Apocalypse: My Seed is the Cure?!

"Well, look who finally showed up," Brad called out.

The moment his voice carried across the room, every face turned toward me.

Brad stood near the middle of the group with Billy and Kyle close behind him. He pointed straight at my chest, his finger trembling with enough anger that it was hard to tell whether he was more furious or afraid.

"The fucking traitor and liar himself."

Nobody answered him.

The place went quiet in an awkward, watchful way. A few people glanced toward Kunta, who stood behind Rachel with her shoulders pulled in close. Lucy remained off to the side with her arms folded, looking bored enough to be somewhere else entirely.

Cindy was the first one to speak.

"Who’s the traitor?" She asked, staring Brad down. "The one sitting on his ass and refusing to help anybody, or the one actually going out and doing something?"

Brad gave a humorless laugh, but Billy stepped in before he could answer.

"Doing what?" Billy snapped. "He keeps disappearing and doing useless shit that brings more trouble back here every time. And this time he crossed every boundary. He secretly kept a dangerous alien in the same hotel where we all live."

"A dangerous alien?" Christopher repeated. He looked toward Kunta, then back at Billy with open disbelief. "That’s how you see her?"

"She’s one of them," Kyle shouted. "The people who brought that virus here. The ones who destroyed Earth and destroyed our families. Wake the fuck up!"

Kunta lowered her head behind Rachel.

Rachel did not move away from her. One hand remained near Kunta’s shoulder, close enough to reassure her without forcing her forward.

"Blaming an entire race for what some people did is racism, idiot," Sydney said.

Brad turned on her.

"That’s called telling the truth."

"Enough." Margaret’s voice interrupted, though she had been quiet until now. Her gaze moved to Kunta. "This poor girl had nothing to do with what happened."

Rachel ran her fingers over Kunta’s hair, slow and gentle. After a few seconds, Kunta stepped out from behind her.

She did not come all the way forward. Her hands stayed close to her sides, and her eyes kept dropping toward the floor whenever somebody looked directly at her. Still, she let them see her.

There was no hiding what she was.

Her features were different from a human’s. Her eyes, the shape of her face, the details of her skin, anyone staring at her could tell she was alien.

But she also looked young.

Scared.

Nothing about her made her look capable of causing the end of the world.

Brad scoffed.

"What, you’re trying to play on our feelings now?" he asked. "Sorry, but I lost my dad. Everybody here lost someone."

"You heard her," I said. I was already tired of this. "She isn’t dangerous."

Brad’s glare snapped back toward me.

"You don’t get to fucking speak, you liar. You brought that dangerous killer here while she was working with a psycho."

He pointed past me toward Lucy.

Lucy did not react.

She stayed where she was with her arms crossed, her expression blank. Brad could have been yelling at an empty wall for all the attention she gave him.

"Just a few hours ago, Lucy put her life on the line fighting Callighan’s men," I said. "While she was doing that, you were here doing nothing useful. You’ve been repeating that point all day, so maybe you should hear it too."

Brad barked out a laugh and looked around at the others.

"Look at him," he shouted. "You all praised this guy for everything, and now he’s defending an enemy who was responsible for killing people on Marlon’s side."

I looked around the room.

Everyone was watching.

Some people looked uncertain. Others kept their faces down, clearly wanting no part of the argument. I could not even tell what some of them were thinking anymore. Seeing that made irritation build in my chest, because Brad was using their fear to make himself sound right.

"Stop saying bullshit already!" Sydney snapped.

Her voice came out louder than everyone else’s.

Christopher reached toward her arm.

"Sydney—"

She pulled away from his hand without looking at him.

"You people are a bunch of hypocrites," she went on, glaring at Brad, Billy, and Kyle. "Do I have to remind you what Ryan has done? How many times he’s risked his life for this place?"

Nobody replied.

"If it was up to him, he would’ve handled Callighan his own way and finished things much faster. The only reason he’s been careful is because he doesn’t want anybody here getting hurt."

"Sydney." I put my hand on her shoulder.

She stopped speaking, though her eyes stayed on Brad.

"So what?" Brad said, raising his voice again. "He still hid an enemy and a fucking alien right above where we live. If he really cared about us, he would’ve kept them outside. And Margaret, I put half the blame on you too."

Margaret did not answer.

Brad took her silence as permission to keep going.

"You accepted everything he said. You gave that fucker too much trust and too much power, and now look what happened."

"What happened?" I asked.

Brad turned toward me again.

His face had reddened from shouting.

"You’re asking me that?!"

"I am," I replied. "Tell me exactly what Kunta and Lucy did to this community."

Brad opened his mouth.

"T-That’s... they..."

He stopped.

Nobody helped him.

Kunta had not hurt anyone here. Lucy had not attacked any of them either. They could accuse them of being dangerous, blame them for things they had no part in, call them enemies because it made people uncomfortable to have them nearby.

But they had nothing real.

Brad’s finger slowly lowered from where it had been pointed at me.

I took a small breath.

This was on me.

Maybe I should have told everyone the truth from the beginning instead of waiting until it became this. Maybe keeping things quiet had only made it worse in the end.

"Margaret had nothing to do with this," I said. "Nobody else did either."

The room stayed focused on me.

"I captured Kunta not long ago. The day we first came here, actually. She was hiding in the hotel while we were clearing the place out." I glanced toward Kunta for a second before facing everyone again. "I couldn’t just throw her outside, so I kept her in one of the rooms and planned to question her."

Kunta’s eyes widened.

That was not how it had happened.

I had told her to leave. She had refused, and once she chose to stay in the hotel, I had not really had another option except to keep her hidden.

Still, I kept speaking.

"I took responsibility for Kunta’s situation. I made that decision. Everyone else only followed it." My eyes moved to Margaret. "Margaret kept it quiet because she didn’t have much of a choice after that, and because she didn’t want everybody panicking over it."

"Ryan—"

"It’s fine, Margaret," I said before she could defend herself.

She did not deserve to be blamed for a decision I made.

If somebody had to take the anger from this, it should be me. I did not care if they hated me. At least it would keep the pressure off the others.

"And Lucy being here is on me too," I continued. "When I went to look for Mei, I found Lucy. I captured her because I wanted to use her as a hostage. I couldn’t leave her outside, so I brought her here."

"You hid her too," Brad interrupted. "Until we found her ourselves."

"Yeah. I hid her too." I nodded. "Telling everybody there was a hostage in the hotel would have caused the same panic you’re all feeling now. Lucy wasn’t dangerous while she was here. She was under control."

Lucy remained against the wall with her arms folded, looking at no one in particular.

"In this situation, she’s also Callighan’s hostage," I said. "He has her younger brother. That’s why she worked for him. She didn’t have a choice. She did it for her family."

Kyle gave a bitter shake of his head.

"That doesn’t change the fact that you lied to us and tricked us."

"No," I said. "It doesn’t."

The answer came out easier than I expected.

"I’m not trying to make excuses. I understand why you all feel betrayed. I would probably feel the same way." I rubbed my thumb against the side of my hand, looking around at the people gathered there. "But I didn’t keep it from you because I wanted to betray anyone."

A few people who had been avoiding my eyes looked up.

"I kept it secret because of what happened in Jackson Township. You all finally found a new place. A home. Somewhere you could sleep without wondering if Callighan’s people were about to come through the door." My voice lowered. "I didn’t want to bring all that fear here too."

The hotel had been supposed to be different.

That was what I had wanted.

"You aren’t stupid. You know we aren’t completely safe here. There’s a dangerous community nearby. One of them killed one of yours recently. They took Mei." I looked toward Brad, Billy, and Kyle. "But while everyone here was trying to settle down and start over, I decided to deal with those problems outside the hotel myself. I thought I could keep them away from you."

Nobody said anything.

"I wanted you to have a chance to be happy again," I said. "To have one place where you didn’t need to be scared every second. I thought you deserved that after Jackson Township."

My gaze moved to Kunta.

"Kunta is an alien. She’s Starakian. But she isn’t our enemy. She had nothing to do with what happened to this world, and I trust her."

Kunta stared at me without moving.

I turned toward Lucy.

"I trust Lucy too. She isn’t going to hurt anyone here."

Lucy’s expression did not change, though her attention shifted toward me for a brief second.

I faced the group again.

"If you’ve lost trust in me, I understand. I hid all of this. That part is on me." I looked directly at Brad and the two men beside him. "You can hate me for it. You can despise me. I’m not going to argue with you about that."

Brad’s face stayed tense, but he did not interrupt.

"And I accept it," I said.

The words left a bitter taste in my mouth.

"Once I make sure Callighan and his people can’t threaten this place anymore, once everyone here is safe, I’ll leave."

Several people reacted at once, especially my own group.

A few gasps came from the crowd. Someone murmured my name, too low for me to tell who it was. Margaret’s face changed, and Cindy took a step toward me.

"Until then," I continued, before anyone could stop me, "I won’t be staying here either."

I turned away from them.