Radioactive

"I can hear the footsteps that follow to my pulse. This paranoia has haunted me like a ghost."

---

Matt found Harper in the lab, drawing. He sat down on the edge of the table until she turned her attention to him. "What do you want?" She asked moodily.

He cracked a smile. "It's about Taniss." She set down her pencil as he explained what had happened.

Her eyes widened in surprise. "Are you serious? We should go see if he's alright."

"Probably a good idea." Matt admitted. They made their way back to the living quarters, and Harper knocked on the bedroom door.

"Taniss?" She called softly. No one answered. She pushed open the door and froze. Matt stood behind her, his mouth falling open with an audible snap.

The room had been completely torn apart. The mattress was on the floor, and there were multiple slashes across it, as if Taniss had just sat there going at it with a knife. Shards of glass and feathers from the torn open pillows littered the floor, but Taniss was nowhere to be found. "This is insane." Harper muttered, taking a step into the room.

Matt reached out to pull her back, not wanting her to step on any glass. "We should find him. Make sure he's okay. I didn't realize it was this bad. I don't know what could have possibly set him off."

"You're probably right," Harper shoved him from the room, determined. They found Amaryllis and told her what had happened, although she refused to believe them until she checked out the room herself.

She gingerly touched the ripped up mattress before straightening from a crouch and glancing around the room again. "This is just weird. That's so unlike Taniss."

"I've never seen him go off like that." Matt admitted as they made their way to the security room, upon Harpers request. The building was huge, and using the cameras would be a lot easier than searching for him.

Matt slid into the chair and began flipping through the monitors. They went through them all twice--even the c-wing--but couldn't find him anywhere. Amaryllis stood up, "I'll check the roof."

But she was back ten minutes later, claiming that it was empty.

-*-*-*-*-

He had completely disappeared. It was the most unusual thing. He was missing for the rest of the day. They had dinner in the lab and then retreated to their bedrooms. While Harper was in the shower, Matt went back to the security room to flip through the cameras again. He was still nowhere to be found. The gate hadn't been opened, and Amaryllis had checked the RV. He had simply disappeared.

When he returned to the room, Harper was standing in front of the full length mirror perched on the bathroom door, staring critically at herself as she brushed her hair. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder. She only crinkled her nose at her reflection. "Why are you making that face?" He asked quietly, his gaze flickering over her reflection.

"I look like i've swallowed a planet." She answered grumpily. Matt only started to laugh, so she shook him off, turning to glare at him. "It's not funny! I'm fat!"

He laughed again, only managing to stop when she stomped across the room and dramatically threw herself onto the bed. "Harper, you're pregnant."

"Yeah, thanks a lot." She murmured into the pillow she was holding over her face.

Matt sighed, "okay, while you're being mean, i'm going to take a shower." He picked up his back pack and set it on the bed.

She peeked out from behind the pillow as he pulled his shirt up over his head, and grabbed a new set of clothes. He unbuckled his belt as her eyes roamed hungrily over his body, stopping only when her eyes flickered up to his and caught his gaze. She scowled. He was doing that on purpose. He only grinned cockily at her as she pulled the pillow over her face again. "Go to hell, Matt."

"Hormones!" He said as he walked into the bathroom.

-*-*-*-*-*-

Amaryllis had decided to go ahead and accept all possibilities when something bad happened. Taniss could've been eaten by zombies, for all she knew. How, she wasn't quite sure, but she wasn't ruling anything out. Barefoot and with dripping wet hair, she made her way to the security room, a gun clutched tightly in her hand. A light chill hovered around her, but she had luckily thought to bring a blanket with her. She was only wearing a t-shirt and shorts. It definitely wasn't enough, she realized, as she settled herself into one of the chairs and started flipping through the monitors, the blanket wrapped tightly around her.

At some point she must've drifted off, 'cause someone was shaking her awake a while later. She blinked open her eyes, suddenly fully awake when Taniss' face came into focus. "Taniss?!" She jumped up, startling him, and threw her arms around him.

When he returned the hug, she realized that he didn't feel quite as steady as he usually did. She pulled back, holding him at arms length. He looked like he had been crying, but she decided not to comment on that. "Where have you been?"

His gaze flickered towards the screens, and then back at her. "I don't know."

Her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion, "you don't know?"

He shook his head, "No, I just--" his voice was shaky and confused, "I blacked out. I just remember I was on the phone and they said--they said--" his bottom lip started to quiver like he was going to cry again. Amaryllis was alarmed and unsure how to handle the situation. She hadn't seem him cry, or show any kind of weakness until now.

"Hey, hey, hey," she said soothingly, as if she were talking to a kid, although she tried not to sound patronizing. "It's okay, just tell me what happened."

He seemed to be mulling something over in his head until he continued in a cracked voice. "And then I woke up in an air vent."

"An air vent? How'd you get there?" He only shook his head, looking extremely confused and tired. She realized now how utterly exhausted he looked. His shoulders were slumped forward as if he found it impossible to carry the weight of himself, and he looked as if he was going to curl up in a ball and cry at any moment. "Come on, we need to get you back to--" she remembered what had happened to his room. "You need some sleep. You can stay in my room."

He seemed unsteady on his feet, as if he had been drinking, but she knew that wasn't the case when his warm breath fanned across her face. No, it wasn't alcohol that was making him shudder against her as she wrapped an arm around his waist, and hoisted his onto her shoulder. As soon as they got to the room, Taniss climbed up onto the bed and pulled the covers up over his head. She took a few extra pillows and another blanket and made herself a place to sleep on the floor. She couldn't tell if he was still awake or not as she laid down on the floor. She was just drifting off to sleep when she was brought back to the sound of Taniss' sobs. His soft cries, muffled by the blanket and pillows surrounding him, sent a chill down her spine, causing her stomach to clench. Every time his crying would cease and she would drift off to sleep, it would start up again after what felt like only minutes later. She spent the entire night curled up beneath the blanket, her hands over her ears, trying to drown out the noise and close the empty hole that seemed to settle itself in her chest.