Chapter 458: Maribel telling Carmen

"I think we’re pretty far away now, Maribel," Carmen said with a small laugh as the two women continued walking, leaving the others further and further behind.

Maribel glanced over her shoulder.

The voices of the others had already faded into the distance, becoming little more than muffled sounds carried by the wind. They had deliberately chosen a quiet path away from the group, giving them enough privacy that their conversation wouldn’t be overheard.

"Right..." Maribel nodded.

She nodded, but unlike Carmen, she didn’t laugh.

Instead, she fell silent.

Carmen noticed immediately.

She slowed her pace and looked at her companion with a curious expression. There was something different about Maribel. She had been unusually quiet ever since they had left the others, almost as if she were struggling to find the right words.

"Maribel?"

"Hm?"

"You wanted to talk to me about something, didn’t you?"

Maribel hesitated.

That was exactly why she had brought Carmen away from everyone else.

Ryan had asked her to explain the situation.

As expected, he had found himself unable to bring it up with Carmen directly. Whatever confidence he might have had in other situations, this was something else entirely. The circumstances were complicated, uncomfortable, and deeply personal.

Maribel understood that better than most.

She had already gone through the same process herself. She knew what it felt like to have Ryan’s Symbiote inside her, to experience the strange symptoms afterward, and to have to deal with the consequences of being cured.

More importantly, she understood the confusion Carmen was probably experiencing.

She knew how difficult it was to accept what had happened.

So, even though she was uncomfortable discussing it, Maribel had agreed to help Ryan.

She wanted to spare him the awkwardness of having to explain everything himself.

And, perhaps more importantly, she wanted to spare Carmen from being completely blindsided by what came next.

"It’s about Ryan," Maribel finally said.

Carmen’s expression changed almost immediately.

The smile on her face stiffened.

"Ryan?" she repeated.

She tried to sound casual, but the concern in her voice was obvious.

"Is he okay?"

"Yeah," Maribel quickly reassured her. "He’s fine. It’s not that something happened to him."

Carmen relaxed slightly.

"Then what is it?"

Maribel took a slow breath.

"You remember when we went to visit Margaret and Ryan’s people?"

"Yes..." Carmen nodded slowly. "I remember."

"And afterward, Ryan and I left together to look for some of the people who hadn’t returned."

Carmen nodded again.

"You told me about that."

"Right. Well... we ended up at the theater."

Maribel’s expression became more serious.

"There were a lot of Infected there. More than we expected. We had to fight our way through them."

Carmen listened quietly.

"And during that fight..." Maribel paused. "I got bitten."

Carmen’s eyes widened.

"B-Bitten?"

"Yeah."

"You were bitten by an Infected?"

Maribel nodded.

"I was."

Carmen stared at her in disbelief.

"But you’re fine."

"I know."

Maribel held out her arm slightly, almost as if to prove that there was nothing wrong with her.

"That’s because Ryan cured me."

Carmen’s expression froze.

For several seconds, she didn’t say anything.

Then her eyes widened.

"C-Cured you?"

"Yes."

"What do you mean?"

Maribel could see that Carmen was already beginning to understand.

She simply didn’t want to believe the conclusion she had reached.

Maribel sighed.

"I think you already know what I mean."

Carmen looked away.

Her hands slowly tightened together.

Maribel softened her expression.

"Carmen... I know Ryan cured you too."

Silence.

The words seemed to hang heavily between them.

Carmen’s shoulders became tense.

"Did Ryan tell you?"

"He did."

Maribel paused before continuing.

"He asked me to talk to you because I’ve already gone through it myself. He thought I would be able to explain everything better than he could."

Carmen lowered her eyes.

"And what exactly is there to explain?"

Maribel hesitated again.

"The part that comes afterward."

Carmen looked back at her.

"Afterward?"

"Yeah."

Maribel swallowed.

She clearly wasn’t comfortable with what she was about to say, but she forced herself to continue.

"Being cured isn’t the end of it, Carmen."

Carmen frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"The Symbiote doesn’t simply disappear after Ryan cures someone. A part of it remains inside the person."

Carmen’s eyes widened slightly.

Maribel continued carefully.

"Your body has to adapt to its presence. If it doesn’t, the foreign biological material can cause problems."

"What kind of problems?"

"Headaches. Pain. Fatigue. Nausea. Confusion..."

Maribel’s voice became quieter.

"And if the process isn’t completed properly, the symptoms can become much worse."

Carmen stared at her.

"You mean..."

"You need to become stabilized."

Carmen looked increasingly confused.

"How?"

Maribel looked away for a moment.

She knew this was the part Carmen was going to hate hearing.

"The stabilization requires further intimate contact with Ryan."

Carmen said nothing.

Maribel waited.

The silence stretched between them.

Finally, Carmen spoke in a barely audible voice.

"You mean... I have to do it again?"

Maribel’s face reddened slightly.

"Yes."

"And not just once?"

Maribel shook her head.

"No."

Carmen’s expression fell.

For a moment, she simply stood there as if her mind had stopped processing what she had heard.

Maribel immediately regretted how bluntly she had delivered it.

"Carmen..."

"I can’t."

"What?"

"I can’t do that..."

Carmen shook her head repeatedly.

"I...I already feel terrible about what happened the first time."

Maribel remained silent.

Carmen’s voice trembled.

"I told myself it was necessary. I was infected. I was dying. I had Shannon to think about. I couldn’t leave her without a mother."

She pressed a hand against her chest.

"I kept telling myself that I had no choice."

Maribel understood.

"But now you’re telling me that surviving means I have to do it again with Ryan?"

"I’m telling you that you need to be stabilized," Maribel corrected gently. "If you don’t, there could be serious consequences."

"But that doesn’t make it easier."

"I know."

"No, Maribel, you don’t."

Carmen looked at her, her eyes filled with distress.

"You don’t understand what this means to me."

Maribel’s expression softened.

"Actually..."

She hesitated.

"I understand more than you think."

Carmen looked confused.

Maribel lowered her gaze.

"I know what it feels like to struggle with what happened. I know how uncomfortable it is to think about it afterward. I know how many times you can question yourself."

She took a breath.

"But Carmen, none of this changes the fact that you need to survive."

Carmen’s eyes dropped again.

"I know."

Her voice was quieter now.

"But Ryan..."

She couldn’t finish the sentence.

Maribel already knew what she meant.

"His age," Carmen finally whispered.

Maribel nodded.

"Yeah."

"He’s around the same age my son was."

The words came out painfully.

Carmen’s expression tightened.

"My son..."

She stopped herself.

Her son was gone.

That fact alone was enough to make everything more difficult.

"Ryan is around the age my son was," she repeated. "How am I supposed to just ignore that? He is not even properly adult."

"You don’t have to ignore it," Maribel said gently.

Carmen looked at her.

"But you also can’t let your guilt stop you from surviving. And I am also older than him from couple years..."

Carmen shook her head.

"You’re twenty-two, Maribel. That’s different."

"Not really."

"It is to me."

Maribel couldn’t argue with that.

She understood why Carmen saw it differently.

The age gap between Carmen and Ryan was considerably larger than the one between Ryan and Maribel. More importantly, Carmen’s memories made the situation emotionally complicated in a way Maribel couldn’t simply dismiss.

Carmen looked toward the distant horizon.

She felt trapped.

The first time, she had been able to convince herself that what happened was nothing more than an emergency, a desperate measure taken to save her life.

She had been infected.

She had been running out of time.

Shannon needed her.

Those reasons had allowed Carmen to bury her discomfort and move forward.

But now?

Now she was being told that the cure had created another problem.

If she wanted to remain healthy, she needed to stabilize the Symbiote within her.

And that meant having sex with Ryan again.

Several times, perhaps.

Carmen closed her eyes, her lips trembling.

"You cannot leave Shannon alone, Carmen," Maribel said.

"I...I..." Carmen bit her lip.

Maribel sighed.

Obviously she didn’t think Carmen would leave her daughter alone.

She just needed to accept the situation, and put aside her moral compass.