The Redemption Trilogy

by A. J. Sikes

  “Heard you just fine. Where are they?”

  She held his gaze for a few breaths, then said, “The ones still in comas are on the second floor. The one who just woke up, the man named Kipler, is down the hall.” She pointed behind her. Before Jed could step around her, she was up close and in his face.

  “If you want to risk exposing the entire community to Cholera or Hepatitis, by all means please disobey my orders to refrain from interacting with the patients. If you would like to visually confirm their safety, you may follow me and inspect them through the doors to their rooms.”

  Jed searched the doctor’s eyes and found what he was looking for. She meant business, plain and simple. He may have been armed and furious, but he knew better than to start wagging his weapon around as a way of getting things done.

  “Lead the way, ma’am,” he said.

  “Thank you,” she answered before turning on her heel and marching down the hall. The nurse followed close by, putting himself between the doctor and Jed. He followed with Garza and Mehta, keeping back a few steps from the nurse.

  “Emily’s in there,” Garza said as they passed a room on their right. “Her friend’s in the next one. LT’s at the end.”

  At the end of the hall, they turned a corner to the right, coming to a dead end with a door in each wall.

  The doctor pointed to the nearest door. “Your lieutenant is in that room. Mr. Kipler is here,” she said, approaching the door opposite the LT’s room. She stopped in her tracks and looked through the narrow window, then slammed the door open and went inside. Jed pushed past the nurse and followed her in.

  The bed was empty, but held a body until recently. The sheets were tossed like someone had flung them off. Blood spots marked the edges of the bed near a dangling IV line. A trail of them led to the door and into the hall.

  Jed spun around and followed the blood trail, kicking himself mentally. He’d been so focused on seeing one of his platoon mates, he hadn’t paid attention to his surroundings.

  Garza asked, “What’s up, Sergeant?”

  “Kipler’s gone.”

  The doctor came out and spoke to the nurse, who rushed around the corner and back down the hall. His footsteps echoed on the tile floor.

  “How about we go upstairs and check the others?” Jed suggested. “I’m guessing that’s where Kip went. First thing I’d do is check my people.”

  “And I can appreciate that,” the doctor said. “For now, I have to ask you to leave while I establish what happened with Mr. Kipler. I’m sure one of my nurses can explain.”

  “You want us to leave after we’ve been inside a building that might be contaminated because you lost a patient?” Jed asked, knowing his words would hit a nerve. He wasn’t wrong.

  “I have patients relying on me and my staff for their safety and well-being. Stay out of our way, and you can do whatever the hell you think you need to do.”

  She stormed away from him, through the door at the end of the hall.

  “What now, Sergeant?” Garza asked as they turned around and headed to the stairs.

  “Now we have a problem,” Jed said.

  Garza’s sister poked her head out of her room. Jed motioned to Garza and Mehta that they should keep moving, but Emily had the same look of disappointment on her face from before.

  “I’ll follow you if you leave. What is the problem we have?”

  Garza gave his sister a thumbs up. “She’s good to go, Sergeant. Anything you need to say, she’ll hear it from me later anyway. Not like there’s any national security to worry about these days, right?”

  “Okay,” Jed said, leading them into Emily’s room. “I want the whole squad to hear it, but—If I’m wrong, and if this gets around too much, we’ll just be starting a panic for nothing.”

  “What’s up? You seem shook,” Garza said.

  “I’m worried about Kip. He was in a coma when they got here. He was supposed to be in that room, and the doctor seems to think he was taken somewhere. But I’m thinking it’s something else.”

  Garza’s sister perked up. She’d sat on her bed, but stood quickly and joined them by the door.

  “You think the virus is active again,” she said.

  “Pretty much. You said you saw bats and dogs. We’ve seen the dogs, too. And we were attacked by the human variety on our way to the bridge. I’m thinking the virus changed, like it’s been asleep or hiding the past two years and now it’s starting to wake up.”

  “Can viruses do that?” Garza asked. “I thought they die without a host.”

  “Sí, that is one way they can die,” his sister said. “But some can go into a latent state, waiting for a host to arrive.”

  “For two years?” Jed asked.

  “If the virus is robust, it can survive outside an ideal host given the right conditions. Humidity helps, so it would make sense that the Variant virus would survive here.”

  Jed thought about the people they’d seen with the dogs. The hunter and the crackhead. If they were infected, they would show symptoms, wouldn’t they? And their men who came in comatose. What if that was just the virus working on them?

  “What about inside a host?” he asked. “Is it possible that a virus would live in an ideal host, but they wouldn’t show symptoms yet? Like, could the virus decide to turn itself off or on?”

  Garza’s sister shook her head, but paused before replying.

  “I thought about that when I saw the men Angie killed. Their eyes were just like a Variant’s. The same color, I mean. But still human. And their teeth—it was like they had half developed, like the virus wasn’t fully expressing in them.”

  “Or maybe it was waiting for the right moment?” Jed asked.

  She paused and shook her head, with a sad look pulling her mouth into a frown.

  “The bats,” she said. “They—they hibernate. The rabies virus can hibernate inside them. If the Variant virus evolved to become like rabies, it could survive the same way.”

  “It just lives in them until the bats wake up?” Jed asked.

  “Rabies does not always express in bats. Even if they are carriers, they may never show symptoms. Some viruses can lie dormant within a host. Like herpes. It can be controlled, but is sometimes reactivated by environmental conditions.”

  “Like what?”

  “Usually some kind of stress on the body, so the immune system becomes compromised and can’t effectively control the virus.”

  Jed saw a reality forming in his mind’s eye, and it wasn’t one he wanted to consider. He just had one more question that needed answering. Garza caught his eye and asked, “You got something you need to tell us, Sergeant? I ain’t down with being left in the dark like what the LT did. You got something, you gotta let us know.”

  “I know, Garza, but I want the whole squad to hear it. Let’s get with our people outside.”

  — 23 —

  Emily followed her brother and the young Marine, Mehta. Chava’s sergeant was outside already. He called to the other Marines, and they grouped up around him. Greg was in his truck on the radio, casting looks in their direction as he nodded along to his conversation. He opened his door as they passed his truck.

  “Hey, Sergeant Welch! We don’t leave soon, the sun’s gonna set before we even get there. We need light to work.”

  Chava’s sergeant yelled back. “We got bigger problems, Radout! We’ll go when we’re ready.”

  Emily felt the argument building, but both men seemed to prefer silence to more yelling. Greg closed his door and talked into his radio again. Emily followed her brother to where his fellow Marines stood beside the SUV they’d come in.

  “What’s the deal, Sergeant?” he asked.

  “Deal is we have people upstairs in this building. One of them is unaccounted for. Only—Shit, there’s no easy way to say this. I don’t think he’s one of ours anymore.”

  All of the Marines took this news differently. The woman named McKitrick was the first to say anything.

>   “You saying Sergeant Kip is infected?” she asked.

  “I’m saying we need to police him up. If he’s infected, then the best thing we can do is get him far away from this place before he does something that spreads the disease.”

  “But how is that possible?” the other woman asked. “Wouldn’t he be showing signs? He’d have a sucker face, right?”

  Emily felt the words on her tongue before she knew she was saying them.

  “The virus could be latent inside him.”

  Everyone looked at her, and she continued. “If it’s dormant, or prone to going dormant, then it could be that he’s just a carrier. Like bats and rabies, or with herpes. You don’t know a person has it just by looking at them, unless the virus is expressing at the time.”

  “And you said that stress could trigger it, right?” Chava’s sergeant asked her.

  “Sí. Yes, that can be true. But we don’t know—”

  The creak of a car door stopped her. Greg had left his truck and was walking toward them. All of the Marines tensed and held their guns a little tighter.

  Greg said, “Sergeant, I’m out of time. My people are at the north gate already. We’re moving out in fifteen minutes, with or without you. But if you don’t come along, the council’s going to be less happy with the idea of keeping you around. The gear we brought got us inside, but you gotta pull your weight to earn a place to lay your head at night. I’ll wait for you at the gate just before the drainage canal. It’s up the street. You can’t miss it.”

  When Greg had gone back to his truck, Chava’s sergeant picked up Emily’s explanation.

  “I think the virus is living inside people around here. Not everyone, but enough to make me think we’ve got an enemy hiding in plain sight.”

  “How do you know this?” Emily asked him.

  “You said you’ve seen people with symptoms. Yellow eyes, and the beginnings of those needle teeth. And we’ve seen people acting like they’ve got something wrong with them, or doing things that don’t make sense. That hunter we saw on the way up here,” he said to his people. “Who the hell wanders around the wilderness like that? Even before we confirmed the monsters were back, can you see anyone doing that these days?”

  The Marines all nodded and mumbled their replies.

  “If the virus is working on people, making them act weird, but keeping them human, it has to be for a reason. Why does an enemy hide?”

  “It’s not ready to attack. Like it’s waiting for the advantage,” Mehta said.

  “That’s what I’m thinking,” the sergeant replied. “That’s what I’m thinking and it’s what I’m worried about. We need to go inside, see which of our guys are in there and make sure they’re all good to go. Especially Kip. If he’s good, we take him with us on this mission. If he’s not, we take him anyway and make sure we get him far away from these people before the virus decides to come out and play.”

  The group turned to go back inside, and Emily had to step backwards quickly to avoid being run down by one of the women Marines, the one named Keoh. She looked to Chava, but he waved for her to stay put.

  “You’re safer out here,” he said, sending a wink in her direction.

  Emily thought she should get into the SUV, so she wouldn’t be out in the open. The door to the clinic swung out and the doctor and her nurse stood there scanning the parking area. The nurse’s eyes landed on her and he called out.

  “What are you doing out here? We need you inside under observation.”

  He waved for them to come back in. Emily looked to her brother again. His sergeant was motioning for her to do as the nurse asked. She stepped forward, but Chava spoke up before they got any closer to the building.

  “I want to stay with them,” he said.

  “Okay, Garza. Stand post outside their rooms. We’ll head upstairs and look for Kip. See who else is up there.”

  The doctor came over to them as they turned to go inside.

  “You find Kip?” the sergeant asked.

  “No, and we’ve looked everywhere, so I have to assume he left the building somehow. I’m on my way to inform the fire chief and advise the community to be on the watch for him.”

  “What about the other guys?”

  “Their status has not changed. Still comatose.”

  “We’re going up there to check. I need to know who you have inside.”

  “I’m fine with you checking on your people, but the same rule still applies. Their doors are locked. You can confirm their identity through the windows. I’m sorry if that’s not good enough for you, but it’s what I’m willing to offer. If you jeopardize the safety of this community by breaking into the rooms, you will be judged by the council and very likely cast out.”

  The sergeant stared at her, then quickly walked away with his other people, leaving Emily and Chava with the nurse. The doctor said something about going to the fire station, then marched away. Emily followed the nurse inside with her brother walking close behind her. He kept looking over his shoulder as they passed the empty rooms. When they reached Emily’s room, he came to stand next to the door like a guard. Emily looked through the narrow window at the dark and empty space of her room.

  “Can I be with Danitha?” she asked.

  “Why?” the nurse demanded.

  “Because if either of us is infected with something, the other one probably is, too. We have been through everything together the last two days.”

  She made some notes on charts hanging by their doors, gave a shrug, and left them outside the room. Emily walked down the hall to Danitha’s room and found her rifling through drawers and cabinets around a sink in the corner.

  “Ain’t nothing in here,” she said. “Not even the damn tongue sticks they use to make you say Aaaah. How we supposed to defend ourselves without a weapon?”

  “You’ll be okay,” her brother said. “Both of you. Just stay put, and don’t freak out if you start hearing things. I’ll be right here.”

  Danitha stopped digging through the cabinets and looked at Emily. “You should tell him you’re not a little girl, Professor. You shot one of them things with that pistol, remember? And we made it all this way without him.”

  “She’s right,” Emily said to her brother. “But I’m glad you’re here just the same. If something happens, we’ll be a team, all three of us.”

  “Oorah, Emi,” Chava said, gripping her good shoulder. “Guess you’re still my big sister after all.”

  He stepped into the hall, letting the door close part way. He looked over his shoulder at Emily, and she saw her fear reflected in his eyes.

  “Stay put, okay,” he said. “I’ma check up and down the hall quick.”

  He let the door close and moved out of Emily’s line of sight. Danitha went back to digging through the drawers and cabinets, cursing quietly to herself. Raised voices vibrated through the space. It sounded like they were coming from upstairs. Rushing feet and shouting followed, and then a sound Emily was dreading to hear.

  A shriek, like the monsters would make when they saw prey.

  Danitha stopped searching and froze in the corner by the sink. Emily went to the door, but did not open it. Chava was nowhere in sight. Emily stepped away from the small window and felt the walls tighten around her. The room was cramped with a bed in the middle and two chairs against the wall by the door. If a single Variant got inside, it would kill her and Danitha before either of them could reach safety.

  — 24 —

  Jed took his people up the stairs in teams. McKitrick and Mehta had their six while he and Keoh took point, climbing the flight two steps at a time until they came to a set of doors at the landing. Jed went through first, checked his near corner and ran the left wall, leading to the patient rooms. His squad filed in behind him. Jed signaled his zone was clear and turned to see McKitrick echo it.

  Jed relaxed his posture a little. Straight ahead from the doors was a check-in counter with a nurse’s station behind it. Three African-American wome
n and one Asian man in scrubs stepped into view behind the counter. When they spotted Jed and his people, they went stiff and quiet.

  “You got Marines up here, right?” Jed asked them.

  “Yeah,” said one of the women. “Who are you?”

  “Sergeant Welch, USMC. Which rooms?”

  The nurses traded looks and mumbled until one of the women said, “All the rooms. They down the hall there, but you can’t—”

  “On me,” Jed said. He motioned for his squad to follow and moved out, doing his best to ignore the burning fear in his gut. Something was off about the whole situation, and none of the people here seemed to notice it. They probably assumed the men were in comas because they’d nearly drowned. Jed felt certain it was a lot worse than that.

  With Mehta and McKitrick in the lead, they moved down the hall in teams again. Doors lined the left side of the hall up here. Jed paused to check through the narrow window in the doors. Every room had a Marine in it, lying in a bed and hooked up to an IV.

  “This ain’t good, Sergeant,” Keoh said as they passed the third set of rooms. “Sergeant Kipler’s squad looks real sick. And I bet I know with what.”

  Jed had an answer on his tongue when Kipler stepped around the corner up ahead. He had on his pants and boots, but no jacket. His wrists and upper arms were bandaged. Streaks of dry blood lined one arm where he’d torn the IV out. He froze in his tracks and stared at them like he’d never seen them before. Jed’s people had their weapons at the ready, but everyone’s muzzle was still aimed at the floor. Kipler stood in place, shifting his weight side to side.

  “Yo, Kip,” Jed called to him. “Glad you made it.”

  He didn’t respond, just kept staring. A trickle of blood, like a tear, spilled down Kip’s cheek, and his mouth twitched into a sneer. His eyes clouded with a yellow haze and he twisted away, running around the corner he’d just turned. Jed raced forward, calling his team to stack behind him. One of the nurses yelled after them.

  “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”

  “Get everyone outside!” Jed shouted over his shoulder.