Tobermory held his daughter’s hand as they walked along the corridor, their footsteps echoing from the stone walls. He sensed her looking up and gave her a little squeeze.
“Don’t worry, daddy,” Eleanor said, “I’ll be okay.”
“I know, Pumpkin,” he said, displaying a sad smile. “We’ll all be okay.”
“Did you bring Flibut?”
Tobermory pulled the stuffed, one-eared camel from his bag. “Yes, he’s here.”
“Because I couldn’t go without Flibut.”
He looked down at her earnest features, a pixie face in a halo of red curls. Just five years old, he thought, how could there be a god?
He could have scooped her up right there and bounded back down the corridor. But he knew the guards would pick him off before they got out. And a stranger would make the long walk with her.
Eleanor had Gasporkin’s Automaton Disease. Uncurable and terminal, GAD manifested itself after the seventieth month, until when it remained dormant. Once activated, it became highly contagious, and Eleanor would turn into a superstrong, feral super-spreader. Even before, it afforded protection to its host. That meant she was invulnerable to all but the most extreme interventions. After a week, it would kill her by dissolving her tiny body over hours, during which she would feel every burning, melting moment.
He imagined the screams and knew he couldn’t let that happen.
The government offered a way out and it lay at the end of this corridor leading deep into the bowels of the Earth.
So, he walked, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, as fear gripped him. They rounded a corner and there it was: a massive vault-like door in the rock.
His instructions were explicit: “Press the red button, wait for the door to open, ensure the patient stands in the middle of the room, then wait thirty seconds for the door to close and lock.”
It would be painless, they assured him.
He pressed the button, and the door swung slowly open.
“We have to say goodbye now, Pumpkin,” he said, his words choking him like lumps of bile-thickened carrion. “Stand in the middle and wait. Someone will be along soon.”
“Bye-bye, Daddy,” she said. She gave him a hug, and clutching Flibut, scuttled into the room. She turned and waved as the vault door closed silently. Tobermory watched through the narrowing gap as she flashed him a smile.
He dived in after her as the door clanged shut and lifted her up, holding her close, waiting for the moment.
A door on the far side slid open and a horned figure walked through.
“Congratulations, Mister Tobermory,” Lucifer said. “You have activated the Escape Clause. You’re the first to do so. Self-sacrifice is such an underrated quality. You’re free to go, Eleanor is cured.”
Lucifer waved a hand towards the door, beyond which were green fields, blue skies, and a life Tobermory never expected to enjoy with his little girl.
Eleanor smiled. “I told you it would be okay.”
