Harem Apocalypse: My Seed is the Cure?!

Chapter 353: Atlantic Theatre [6]

I sat down beside Tommy.That was already a decision in itself. I wanted to hear what he actually had to say before I decided whether he was really good or not.

He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and looked at the floor for a moment, like he was organizing it before putting it into words.

"After you left that day, we got out too. Eventually." He exhaled slowly. "We had cars, we had a rough plan, we thought we knew what we were doing. We didn’t." A short, humorless breath escaped his lips. "Every time we thought we had a route clear, there were more Infected than we expected. We had to abandon cars twice. We lost people making those calls, people who couldn’t move fast enough, people who were in the wrong car when we had to leave it." He paused. "We were too optimistic about how it would go. I think we all knew that somewhere, we just didn’t want to say it out loud."

"Plans rarely survive contact with this world," I said. "Especially early on."

"Yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck. "We figured that out the hard way. And by the time we reached Atlantic City and found a group that actually seemed to have things under control, a real structure, a leader, walls, supplies... we just..." He trailed off. "We gave in. We were exhausted and we were scared and we wanted to stop running for five minutes."

"Callighan," I said.

He nodded once. "I know what you think of him. And I’m not going to sit here and tell you he’s misunderstood or that his methods aren’t what they look like, because they are. He’s ruthless and he runs things the way someone runs things when they’ve decided the ends justify everything." He was quiet for a second. "But he took us in when we had nothing left. When Emily wasn’t doing well and I had no idea what to do for her. He gave us shelter and he gave us safety and at the time that felt like enough."

"You joined for Emily," I said.

"Mostly, yeah." He didn’t seem embarrassed about it. Just honest. "And then Gaspar was there and he started explaining things, the Symbiote Race, what Emily was, why she was the way she was. And he offered to help her stabilize."

Something cold moved through me at that. I kept my face neutral.

"Help her," I said carefully.

He caught the tone. "I know. Looking back I know how that sounds." His jaw worked slightly. "But at the time Emily was deteriorating by the day, she was losing herself, losing control, and I was watching it happen and I had nothing. No answers, no resources, nothing. And Gaspar came in with explanations and solutions and I wanted so badly for something to work that I didn’t ask enough questions."

"I saw her," I said. The coldness in my voice came out before I could flatten it. "When I found her. The way she was being kept, the way she looked at me, she didn’t recognize me. She went for me like I was nothing. You’re treating her like an animal."

"She was hurting us!" He blurted out before he caught himself, dropped his voice. "She didn’t recognize anyone. She broke two of our people’s arms in one night. She ran, she fought, she couldn’t be reached. When she got loose once she nearly killed herself getting through an Infected pack." He looked at me, and the frustration in his face was genuine and exhausted and not directed at me. "What were we supposed to do? Just let her go? She would have died."

I wanted to be angry about it. I was angry about it. But the anger had nowhere clean to land because Tommy wasn’t wrong that there were no good options, and more than that, I was the reason Emily was in that state to begin with. I knew that. The Symbiote transfer, the instability, the deterioration, all of it traced back to what I’d done that day. I’d saved her life and broken something in the process and I hadn’t been there to deal with the aftermath. Tommy had.

What would I have done in his position, without Dullahan, without any of it? I didn’t know that the answer would have been better.

So the anger sat there in my chest and I let it sit.

Then Tommy’s expression shifted. The frustration drained out of it and what replaced it was worse, a ground-down pain and guilt.

"I can’t do it anymore." His voice had gone quiet. "I can’t keep walking into that basement and looking at her like that and telling her it’s going to be alright when I don’t believe it. I can’t keep watching Gaspar run his tests and claim he’s making progress while she gets worse and stays chained to a wall." He pressed his hands together hard, knuckles whitening. "I feel useless. I feel worse than useless. Every time I leave that room I feel like I’ve abandoned her all over again, and the encouraging words have run out because even I don’t believe them anymore." He gritted his teeth, the muscles in his jaw pulling tight. "I don’t want to watch her suffer anymore. I just... I can’t keep doing it and changing nothing."

"Then leave," I said. "If you’ve reached that point, staying isn’t doing either of you any good."

"Yeah." He let out a slow breath. "I was thinking about it. And then Mei came to me."

That pulled my full attention back to him. I didn’t say anything, just held his gaze, waiting.

"She told me you could help Emily. Better than Gaspar, better than anything they’ve been trying in Brigantine." He paused. "I don’t trust Gaspar’s methods. I never fully did. But I believe you can actually do something for her."

"What makes you think that," I said. "You barely knew me."

He looked at me for a moment, something quiet and certain in his expression.

"Because you love her," he said simply. "Don’t you."

I held his gaze for a second before looking away.

"I loved Emily, yeah. For a while, back in school, before all of this." I said thoughtfully.

I honestly found myself surprised at how easily I admitted it without feeling embarrassed in the slightest.

"It’s been three months since I last saw her properly. Things change. But I still care about her. I still feel responsible for what happened to her. That part hasn’t changed."

"You saved her life that day, didn’t you?" Tommy said.

I gave a small nod.

He was quiet after that. He turned it over, looked at the floor, turned it over again. Whatever he was working through, he worked through it without rushing it.

Then he straightened up slightly.

"I’m going to trust you," he said.

I waited.

"I’m going to get Emily and Mei out of Brigantine."

I stared at him.

"You’re serious."

"Yeah." He said it without hesitation. "I’m done. Done with Callighan, done with fighting over things that have nothing to do with me, done watching Emily deteriorate in a basement while Gaspar calls it progress. This is the only way I can actually do something."

"I respect that. But getting out of Brigantine with Emily and Mei, that’s not a small thing," I said carefully. "If Gaspar catches you, or anyone else does, you’re finished. You know that. The numbers alone—"

"I know," he cut in, not defensive, just acknowledging it. "I know exactly what I’m walking into. But I’m already there. That’s my advantage, I know the layout, I know the routines, I know where they’re being kept. I have room to prepare." He met my eyes. "Do you have a better plan? Because I’d like to hear it."

I was quiet for a moment.

"I was going to go in alone. Through the water," I said.

Tommy’s eyes widened slightly. Then he let out a short breath that wasn’t quite a laugh. "Yeah, that might actually work for getting in. But going into Brigantine alone, even with everything you can do, that’s borderline suicidal." He leaned forward. "But if I have a boat ready with Emily and Mei already on it, you don’t have to go in at all. You just have to meet us at the edge. Pick us up and get us out."

I turned it over.

It was cleaner than either of our plans separately. I wouldn’t need to penetrate Brigantine’s defenses and going in their territory blind. Tommy handled the inside, the part he was positioned to handle. I handled the outside, the part I was equipped to handle. The overlap was a boat at the waterline and the right timing.

It was still dangerous. Everything about it was dangerous. But it was better.

"You’re really going through with this," I asked more than said. I just wanted to hear him say it one more time clearly, because there was no room for halfhearted commitments in a plan like this. One moment of doubt at the wrong second and all three of them were dead.

"Yeah." He nodded twice. "Just give me time to set it up properly. When it’s ready, I’ll get word to you."

"How? You’re in Brigantine."

"I’ll find a way to leave a message. Don’t worry about that part, I’ll figure it out." He held my gaze. "Until then, keep your head down. Stay off Gaspar’s radar especially. He’s been asking about you more than Callighan has and that’s saying something."

"I know. The priority is getting them out safely," I said.

Tommy glanced back at Liam and Crab still unconscious between the rows, then back to me.

"Alright. Let’s sort out the details then."

We spent the next ten minutes going through it, logistics, timing, how contact would work, contingencies if something moved faster than expected. At some point I asked whether it was possible to also pull Keith out, Lucy’s brother, still somewhere in Brigantine.

Tommy didn’t miss a beat. "Already in the plan actually. Mei and Keith are together."

I hadn’t expected that kind of coincidence. It landed well, really well, a rare thing in this world where good coincidences were hard to come by.

Three people to extract from Brigantine then.

Emily, Mei, Keith.

The risks were real and significant and every single thing that could go wrong had a version where nobody made it out. I knew that. Tommy knew that.

But it was still the best plan either of us had.

Honestly, it was the only plan worth having.