She peered around the room. She wasn’t shaking anymore. The Parkinson’s was gone. Raising her hands in front of her eyes, she moved each finger, one by one. She bent her wrists, her arms, and her knees, testing the joints.

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “Oh my God, I’m… I’m…” She swallowed, and an enormous smile spread across her face.

Next, she gripped the bed rail and lowered her feet to the floor. “I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna do it.”

She bent slightly and, using the rail, pushed to a standing position. She wavered a bit, but her feet were beneath her, her head was in the air, and her shoulders were back. She looked at the sunshine pouring in through the window and laughed again.

“Hey, I’m… me.” Tears of happiness rolled down Edna’s cheeks.

Gabriel realized that he, too, was crying. His ethereal consciousness returned to that feeble, human body up on the cloud. The slugs and Victor were gone. The Sky Amoeba pulsed before him, filling the sky.

His aches and pains returned in full force, but Gabriel didn’t care. He laughed. He cheered. He cried with a heartfelt joy beyond anything he’d ever experienced.

Edna would never know what he had done for her; none of them would. But that didn’t matter. He remembered Edna’s smiling face. He remembered the catharses experienced by Bernard, Mickey, and the rest. They were free. Everyone was free.

Everyone but him, and he accepted that. It had been his choice. He’d given up the one thing he valued the most in exchange for a prize greater than anything he’d ever imagined.

Thank you, the Schistlings said in his mind.

“For what?”

For giving us a chance, Father. For believing in us. For trusting us, when you had no reason to.

“Well, you’re welcome.”

We will forever honor your request, Father. Humanity is safe. There will never be another Black Virus. Your sacrifice will not be in vain.

“Thank you. I… uhhhnn…” He was losing control over his vocal cords. “Will I… those terrible black… black eyes… will I…?”

No. You will not have the black eyes.

He couldn’t talk. He could barely move. But with what little control he had left, Gabriel managed to smile.

He watched the glowing lights of the Sky Amoeba rush past him. He felt his consciousness dissipate, crawling deep inside the caverns of his mind. But everything was okay. He’d already lived his life. He was ready to sit back and rest.

Bathed in the warmth of the Sky Amoeba’s loving, luminescent glow, Gabriel closed his eyes.

Chapter 53:

Möbius

“Well, that time he escaped was over five months ago,” Harry said. “I’m surprised we found him, to be honest. But since then, he hasn’t spoken a word.”

Harry Brenton stood outside the doors of the locked unit that was once Level Five but had become the Guggenheim unit. He turned to face Katie, the new LNA he was training. She had a stack of papers in her arms and seemed to hang on every word he said.

Her eyes widened. “That really happened?”

Katie was a tiny little thing, with short dark hair and tight-fitting, olive-green scrubs. She’d displayed a natural kindness to every resident she’d interacted with, and though she’d only recently obtained her license, she’d spent some years caring for her grandfather when she was a teenager. She was going to be a really good addition to the staff once he finished showing her the ropes.

“Yeah, it was crazy,” Harry said. “He had just tried to escape a couple of weeks before that, and they’d put him onto Guggenheim. Then one day, one minute he was in the room, unconscious, and then one of the new aides went into his room, and poof, he was gone. Totally gone.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that, just like he said,” Dana Kleznowski said, walking up to them with a notebook tucked under her arm. “No evidence, no explanation. The poor man was just gone.” Dana shook her head, and Harry noticed the faintest hint of tears in her eyes. Back in the initial weeks following the escape, it’d been common to see her randomly burst into tears every time she passed Schist’s old room.

Katie’s eyes were huge. “That’s crazy.”

“The police searched the whole countryside,” Harry said. “Heck, half of the nursing staff here searched with them. His daughter helped, too. All we knew was that when I was doing rounds that morning, I heard him mumble something about going to the ocean, but that’s like twenty miles away. Still, I drove all the way to the beach that night, just to make sure. And then, the next morning, some college kid found him on the side of Route 4, all the way in Durham.”

“He made it that far?” Katie smiled. “Wow, he must’ve been one tough old dude.”

Harry nodded. “You bet he was.”

“Never found his trench coat, though,” Dana said. “When they took him to the hospital afterward, apparently the janitor there threw it out. I tried so hard to find it.” Dana left, shaking her head.

Harry suspected that Dana felt guilty about Gabriel’s escape. Her father had suffered from Alzheimer’s, and he had walked out in a daze one day and never been found. So she probably thought that finding the trench coat, one of the old man’s most prized possessions, would help his daughter in some way.

“Gabriel Schist. Wow.” Katie looked through her paperwork, a nervous gesture, as none of it contained any information about the scientist. “Where have I heard that name before?”

“Oh boy.” Harry grinned. “Believe it or not, that guy is actually the fella who cured HIV.”

“Wow, really? That’s awesome. I’ve gotta meet this guy. Didn’t he win the Nobel Prize?”

“Oh yeah. I’m a microbiology student, and he’s my idol. Let’s go meet him.”

Harry led her to the Guggenheim unit, telling a couple of stories about Gabriel on the way.

As they passed several rooms with open doors, Katie said, “This whole nursing home seems so empty. Is that normal?”

“Well, not really. We just don’t have many residents anymore. I’m surprised they took on new staff, actually, though I’m glad to have you on board. Oh, but hey, here’s his room.”

She nudged his shoulder. “He must be pretty cool if you like him so much.”

“He is. I mean, he was. I guess, um, he’s not really the same anymore. Not since the escape. He’s been on hospice for a long time.”

Back in the days when Gabriel had still been walking, talking, and trading theories with him, Harry had never realized how much he was going to miss the old guy when he was gone. Sure, Gabriel was still in there, but that silent, bedbound man with the dazed, constantly blinking eyes, ghostly skin, and slack-jawed mouth wasn’t the same Gabriel that Harry had liked to think of as his friend.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Katie said, looking down sadly. “What was he like? Other than being tough… and smart. I guess he must’ve been really smart.”

“Well, he was, ah… brilliant. Total genius, that guy. Would you believe he was seventy-some years old with Alzheimer’s and he was still trying to cure viruses?”

“You know, Harry,” Katie said, leaning closer. “You’re really cute when you talk about him. Your whole face just lights right up.”

“D-does it?” Harry asked. A blush warmed Harry’s cheeks. He couldn’t believe he had stuttered. No wonder he always had bad luck with girls.

A loud, obnoxious female voice emanated from Gabriel’s room. “Hey! Just roll over, dude. God!”

Harry peered into the room. Oh, God. Natty Bruckheimer. He marched in, acutely aware of Katie following him.