The Plague Runner

by Burgy, P. J.

“That’s not the point, Gencho,” Kara said. “It’s not as easy as just falling back and waiting it out. If you leave the bridge out and just one gets across, you’ve killed everyone in Blue Lagoon. The rafts would give us a place to go, to continue firing on them if they got in. Besides, they’d be back the next night. It has to end here.”

  “And we could shoot at them from the docks on the island, to keep them from running the bridge. We could station guards there.” Gencho threw his hands up into the air and then took a drag off of his cigarette. “Either way we’re covered. We’ve got an escape route for us, and the fort folk will be safe out on the water. We could wipe out the Wailers in one night too, from the comfort of the island. They wouldn’t come back.”

  “And if more than one rushes the bridge and the guards can’t drop them? Then what?” Kara asked, leaning across the table toward her brother. “Gencho, these Infected think, remember? They plan. They’ll know the layout of Blue Lagoon, thanks to Frankie. The first thing they’ll do is try to cross the bridge if they get in. If we build the rafts, we can fall back onto the water without endangering the citizens.”

  “You’re putting a lot of credence into these things actually stepping foot that close to the water, Little Sister,” Gencho muttered, ashing his cigarette onto the floor as Renshen narrowed his eyes at him, the older man clearly disapproving of the act. Gencho smirked, showing off his teeth. “Allow me to remind you that they keep back from lakes and rivers. Far back. Our bridge is safe, out or in.”

  “They’ll find a way to do it, I am sure,” Kara said.

  Tengen stepped forward. “Rafts might not be such a bad idea. Honestly, we can build them quick and it doesn’t hurt to have a Plan B. We wouldn’t need all too many of them either.”

  “Hey, Russell.” Gencho tilted his head toward the cell, his green eyes seeking out the shadow of a man sitting in the far corner. “You’re a Wailer. Tell me, you wouldn’t run that bridge, would you? Scared of the water, ain’t yah?”

  Russell exhaled. “Just because I wouldn’t do it doesn’t mean that they won’t find a way. The wild ones, the feral Infected, could be trained to overcome the same phobia that paralyzes those of us who are aware. Or, perhaps there will be those who are better at controlling their fears than I am.”

  “Hey, lucky us, we got the scaredy-cat on our side.” Gencho chuckled.

  “Gencho.” Renshen grunted.

  Broderick Tate scratched his beard, studying the tabletop for a few moments before speaking to Kara, his tone deep and somber. “I agree that the bridge has to be pulled before nightfall. We can’t risk the chance. We’ve got more than twenty feet of water between the dock and the town, so if they do breach the wall, I think the folk’ll be safe enough. As for us, if the worst comes, we’ve got the underground safe rooms, or we can swim to the island. There’s no point building rafts.”

  “Haven’t you been listening, Broderick? These things are smart. They know how to open a door. Anyone who hides in a bunker is dead.” Kara clenched her jaw. “The rafts will let us continue fighting from on the lake if they get in. We can stay on the wall for as long as possible, and we might even drive them off, I don’t know. Maybe we can even beat them without ever having to worry about falling back. But we need a contingency plan.”

  “I vote rafts.” Tengen raised his hand.

  Hooper and Renshen exchanged glances.

  “Building rafts will mean dismantling the bunkers, and parts of the new construction out on left end. We’d have to rip it all apart for the barrels. We just finished setting that all up,” Tate said. “It will mean breaking down the service sheds for materials. No, no rafts.”

  Gencho cleared his throat. “Let’s do it.”

  Tate shot Gencho a look. “What?”

  “Tengen and me, we can put together the rafts.” Gencho said, “Easy as pie. Hell, we can get those done in the next few hours, as long as Broderick Tate and his boys lend a hand breaking down the service sheds and bunker houses.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “It’s a better plan than hiding in the ground and waiting to die.” Gencho rolled his shoulders and then looked to Kara. “If Little Sister really thinks it’s a good idea, then I guess I do too.”

  “Looks like we’re building rafts,” Renshen said and stood up. He studied Gencho’s face and then noted Tate’s shocked expression. “I’m gonna agree with Yusha Senshi on this one, Brody. Ain’t much use addin’ to the island if the people aren’t alive t’enjoy it. Those bunkers are useless 'gainst anythin' but dumb animals. Use those fer the materials. We’ll have twenty guards out on land, so you’d best make four rafts. If those things get in, we won’t have much time t’waste. We’ll need lights on the rafts if the grid gets kicked.”

  Hooper nodded. “We’ll need to get the dogs on the island too. I ain’t losin’ them to the Wailers.”

  “We’ll need to get the geese too,” Tengen said. “I’m sure the folk will love that.”

  “Best get to work on them rafts, boys,” Renshen said. “Me’n’Hoop’ll ready the guards. Get stocked up. Yusha, y’can help get the folk situated on the island. I’ma call a town meetin’. I’ll want ‘em all in the square.”

  “And Russell?” Kara asked.

  “What about him?” Renshen eyed her.

  Kara stood, then walked over to the cell housing Russell. She held a hand out toward him. “Are you going to leave him here, locked in this cage? If they get in, they’ll kill him.”

  “He ain’t one of us, Yusha. I ain’t handin’ him a rifle,” Renshen said. “An’ we can’t let him on the island.”

  She sought to implore Gencho or Tengen, but they were already gathered at the door to the security shack. Tate made eye contact with Kara, though she felt that she knew what he would say to her. Instead, she raised her voice and pointed at her brothers, pivoting to point at her father next. “This man saved my life. He risked everything to get me home.”

  Renshen winced, pulling himself to his feet. He cracked his back, joining Hooper close to the door. He watched Kara, nodding to her. “That doesn’ change what he is.”

  “He isn’t like them,” she said.

  “Maybe not, but he’s still contagious,” Renshen noted. “If we let ‘im out, and he wanders, the entire fort is in danger.”

  “It isn’t that easy, remember?” Kara neared her father, stopping a foot from him.

  “We’ve got a few hours b’fore sunset. Call a town meetin’, girl,” Renshen told her. “Dr. Hassel will need to be ready too, ‘cause I’m sure it’ll get wild tonight. Don’t let yer feelin’s get in the way of yer brain. There’s a fight comin’ our way. It might get rough. And I’ll tah what, if we need tah, we’ll let yer boy here out. He’s as strong as they are, I’m sure, but in the meantime, I have a duty t’keep my people safe.”

  “So you mean to keep Russell in a cage until you need him?” Kara asked.

  “I mean t’use what I got until I got no choice.” Renshen sighed. He tilted his head, aware of the fact that Gencho, Tengen, and Tate were still standing close by at the door. “What’r you waitin’ fer? Get movin’! Go on. Build them rafts.”

  The door opened, then closed.

  Kara stared at Renshen while Hooper kept his distance, his brows furrowed.

  Hooper went to Russell’s cage. “Ren, I think it’d be smarter to let him out and have him ready.”

  “No, Hoop. That’d be a huge risk,” Renshen replied.

  “If you’re keeping him as a prisoner now, you have no right to expect his help later,” Kara said, her eyes locked on Renshen’s face. “He isn’t a thing. He’s not a tool, or a machine, or a weapon. He’s a man. He doesn’t even have to be here.”

  Renshen frowned.

  Russell stood up, wrapping his fingers around the bars of the cell, looking out at the discussion taking place only yards from where he was being kept. “I choose to be here. I’ll help you, for what it’s worth. There’s only one of me though, and there’s hundreds
of them. When they come, they’ll find a way in, believe me. They will get in. Leave me here, or don’t. It doesn’t matter. Any one of them can pull these bars right out of the concrete. Just like I could, at any moment, if I wanted to.”

  Hooper and Renshen reacted in the same way, stepping back and away from the cell. Renshen let his hand hover over his pistol at his hip, fingers at the ready until Kara stepped into the way. Renshen Bui blinked, first at Kara and then at Russell, before speaking. “Is that so, boy?”

  “I figured it would have been poor manners.” Russell shrugged, leaning forward against the bars. His eyes traced lazily over the inside of the security shack before moving to focus on Renshen. “What I mean to say, Renshen Bui, is that I chose to come here knowing you’d probably lock me in a cage. You’re a smart man, a good leader. You were counting on my good manners though. You know right well how strong a Wailer is and you still put me in this cell. This cell wasn’t built for a thing like me.”

  Renshen sniffed, nodding his head as he rubbed at his chin. “Well, yeah. I knew y’wouldn’t bring down the buildin’ on us, son. I also knew how scared they’d all be at the prospect of yah bein’ out there among ‘em. Not many people seen a talkin’ Wailer. It leaves a bad feelin’ in their insides t’know that things like you exist out there.”

  “You didn't look too shocked.” Russell smiled.

  “I didn' expect it, to be sure. Yer a rarity,” Renshen replied.

  “You talk like you’ve seen someone like Russ before, Dad,” Kara said.

  Renshen cleared his throat, turning away from Russell. “Seems like he has,” Russell said flatly.

  “Not like him, no,” Renshen spoke. “But I seen't a talkin’ one. Long ago. It didn’t string together no sentences or nothin’, but it always bothered me thinkin’ ‘bout the human mind that’d been trapped behind those dead eyes. I’ll never forget it, try as I might. An’ neither do you, Yusha. You never forgot ‘bout it either.”

  “Excuse me?” Kara asked.

  “You ‘member. You tell the story ‘nuff.” Renshen eyed her. “The day we found yah. You heard it too.”

  Kara felt her throat go dry. “My name?”

  “It’s how I knew t’look under the sink f’yah,” Renshen told her. “Yer mother, that thing, she said yer name, and pointed at the sink, right bef’r the last of her faded an’ she charged us.”

  “I was hiding from her for days... She knew I was there?”

  “I 'spose she did.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Kara asked.

  “Y’had plenty of nightmares already. I wasn’ gonna give you more.” Renshen shrugged, frowning as Kara came up close to him. “I wanted t’protect yah. I thought I was doin’ the right thing.”

  Kara searched for the words to say, coming up empty as she felt the heat of Russell’s gaze on the back of her head. She turned to see him watching her, and she nodded slowly. “The time to do that is now. Let him out, Dad, okay? Even if he’s in here, just, I can’t see him in any more cages. I’ve seen him in too many cages. Russ can stay in the shack until nightfall, but, just, no more cages.”

  “Act’lly, I gotta better idea fer Russ here.” Renshen went to the wall by the door, grabbed the keys from where they hung on a wooden plaque, and jangled them in the air toward Russell. “Seems I got two Brethren in the hold next door who don’t wanna tell me nothin’, an’ accordin’ to you both there’s a bounty on my girl. Russ, whattaya say y’help me get these fellas to talk, eh? That’d be a help.”

  “You want to use me to threaten some goons who mean to threaten Kara?” Russell asked, tilting his head.

  The older man bobbed his head. “Uh-yuh,”

  “Let me just get my helmet on, sir, and I’ll be happy to oblige.”

  “I can’t wait to see this,” Kara said.

  “See what? Girl, I told y’to gather the folk on the island,” Renshen muttered. “Don’t worry, we’ll let yah know what they have t’say.”

  She frowned. “Are you serious?”

  “We all got a job t’do right now. You were so gung ho 'bout me draftin' your friend here, and I found a job fer 'im. Yer boy is helpin’ me. Go do your part.”

  She sighed, unhappy, and went to the door. “I’m the one with the bounty on her head. Least you could do is let me hear what they've got to say about me.”

  Renshen shooed her away, dismissing her with a wave of his hand. “I'm sure it ain't nothin' kind. Go on now. Get.”

  After a roll of her eyes, she left the shack.

  Kara went around the shore, directing anyone she saw to go to the island. There was some resistance at first, a few of the fort folk wanting to know what was going on, and who had come in with her earlier, but, after about twenty minutes she’d gotten them across the bridge and found herself talking to Tommy Reed. It was a strange and difficult conversation, thankfully shorter than she’d anticipated. In fact, he didn’t seem as affected as Kara had thought he would be. When they parted ways, Kara went to the pier to watch Gencho, Tengen, Tate, and several of the fort handy-men carrying barrels and large pierces of plywood across the bridge to the shore.

  Behind her, the citizens of Blue Lagoon mingled.

  “Kara!”

  Kara spun around, seeing the tall, slender form of Dr. Hassel come running in her direction, the crowd parting for her as she forged through the square. The doctor was a great deal older than Kara, though it didn’t show. Her long hair was still a shade of brown so dark it was nearly black, speckled with only a few white hairs, her tan skin smooth and blemish free.

  “Doctor?” Kara canted her head.

  “Can we talk? Somewhere else.” Dr. Hassel indicated toward the boardwalk leading away from the square, off toward the tall column of tin dock homes to the left, many feet away from the gathering fort folk.

  Kara nodded and they went together to a more secluded spot.

  “Miranda brought me the girl,” Dr. Hassel said, her sparkling eyes on Kara. “Lena Kalamon, from Pleasant Tree. She asked me to check on her, seemed to be very concerned that the girl was in such close proximity to the Infected. As were you.”

  “I was checked when I came in. And so was Lena,” Kara replied, frowning. “Miranda is paranoid. Lena is fine. In fact, she’s immune, you know. She was exposed, but didn’t get sick.”

  “Miranda told me that too,” Dr. Hassel stated, pausing to consider her next words. “Listen, Kara, sometimes the virus doesn’t show at the door check, not right away. Holding a UV wand up to someone only works if the symptoms have begun to show. That’s how the sick can slip passed the dogs. So, I had to check her. Within a few hours of exposure, the body produces massive amounts of white blood cells in response to the virus. It happens so fast. Like an allergic reaction.”

  “What are you saying to me right now, Eileen?” Kara’s throat tightened.

  “She’s clean,” Dr. Hassel said, touching Kara’s shoulder. “It’s okay. She’s clean.”

  “So you want to check me?” Kara asked.

  “I could, yes, though by now you’d be showing, but that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about,” Dr. Hassel said. “Kara, Lena’s blood type is O negative.”

  “And that means?”

  “If she’s truly immune, Kara, we could make an immunization serum, like a vaccine,” Dr. Hassel breathed. She smiled gently, squeezing Kara’s shoulder. “It would be a passive immunity, temporary, and would need to be re-administered every few months to be safe, but it would be a guard against the Black fever.”

  “Medicine for the fever?” Kara’s eyes widened. “A cure?”

  “No, not a cure. Once someone is showing symptoms, they have it. But if they’d never been exposed, and they were immunized first, they wouldn’t get sick,” Dr. Hassel explained. “I have no way to verify whether or not Lena has the antibodies to the virus; my equipment just isn’t good enough for that. However, it’s worth a shot to try it. We’ll never know if it works unless someone is exposed, of course. If w
hat Miranda said is true, then we might see that possibility tonight.”

  “Can you make it in that amount of time?” Kara asked.

  “I don’t want to take too much blood from Lena, so I can’t make enough to immunize everyone. Not before nightfall.” Dr. Hassel paused again, looking out over the crowd in the square. “You, your father, the guards that will out tonight, you'll be, eh, the guinea pigs , I hate to put it that way. The possibility of a vaccine might make the citizens crazy at a time like this, and it might put Lena in a dangerous position. So, please, don’t say anything to anyone yet.”

  Kara shook her head. “I won’t.”

  Dr. Hassel smiled again. “Thank you.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The sky was getting darker. She could hear them working on the rafts, the sound of metal scraping metal, wood being split, hammers hitting nails. The garage was the quietest place in the fort, and Kara found herself standing there, her eyes drifting across the various old machines and equipment Renshen had gathered over the years.

  The Bella was parked, sleeping again. She'd become so used to seeing her father at his work bench that his absence felt wrong. Stepping over to his table, Kara reached down and picked up the circuit board he'd been soldering back into life. She set it back down carefully.

  Kara had put on her riot gear earlier, her rifle hanging from her belt and her helmet at her side. As she rubbed at her upper arm, she remembered the quick pinprick of the needle Dr. Hassel had pushed into her flesh only minutes before. She didn't feel any different.

  Her head tilted when she realized that she wasn't alone. The smell of him betrayed his approach, and Kara turned slightly when Russell cleared his throat. From the corner of her eye, she saw him step into the shade of the garage and take off his helmet.

  “Find out anything?” she asked.

  “Nothing that surprised us,” Russell told her. “You're definitely a person of interest for the Brethren right now, that's for sure. The Teague Clan, some camp name, they're all hot and bothered for your blood. They blame you for the deaths of their leaders.”