Azzie made a face. “Umm, no. You could empty that place out and leave Greg and Rachel a pea shooter, and that would be fine. I give no fucks.”
“I found something extra too,” I said, almost blushing. I really hoped no one had a problem with me bringing my new toy. “I don’t want to know why these preppers had a sniper rifle chambered for .338 Lapua Magnum rounds, but it was in a case on the bottom shelf.” My new baby has a folding stock, telescopic sight, bipod and mount… almost everything was in the case except the spacers and a few accessories. “It’s not the gun I was trained on, but I’ve fired one before, and it’s— it’s a nice gun.”
“I think he’s about to jizz in his pants,” Luka said in a really loud whisper and Azzie giggled.
“I’m pretty sure he started leaking right around the Glock G48,” she whispered back, and then I really was blushing.
“Shut up,” I made a face at them. “Sorry, not all of us know the stats for a two-handed sword—”
“If you mean a two-handed greatsword, that’s 2d6 slashing damage plus your strength modifier,” Azzie said haughtily.
“—but guns are kinda my thing.”
Azzie made a face back at me then leaned forward and kissed my cheek. “I’m not making fun of you, Spider, I think it’s awesome that someone knows what the fuck all of that is and how to use it. The only thing I’m laughing at is the look on your face when you brought up the sniper rifle, you looked like a little kid who got caught stealing a cookie.”
“It’s kind of a big deal, finding a gun like that,” I said sheepishly. “The AWSM-F held the record for the longest kill for a really long time, over a mile and a half. I feel a lot better about being out there having that with us.”
“That’s— that’s a really long distance,” she said, genuinely impressed, and I felt a lot less defensive. Her eyes were big and she was looking at me as if I’d made that shot. “You can do that?”
I bobbed my head in a semi-agreement. “Under the right conditions, I could get really damn close. I’ve been trained to take shots like that but I’ve never made one that far.”
Luka whistled, his eyes as big as hers. “Dude— you’re a sniper?”
I full-on nodded this time, no hedging. “Right up until they recalled everyone back to the states. Not as much use for one when you aren’t technically in a war zone, or at least I wasn’t the kind of soldier they’d go to for domestic jobs. And I gotta admit, some days I really hate that being a trained killer is more impressive than being a teacher, but this world has always been pretty fucked up.”
Azzie grabbed my hand, squeezing it, and somehow instinctively knew I couldn’t keep talking about it because she asked, “So you finished in the armory—?” I nodded. “How about regular supplies? Or do we still need to sort all that out?” She was getting tense again.
I shook my head, intertwining my fingers with hers. “We put together bug-out bags for everyone, did an assembly line. Every bag got a bunch of the same things, just standard supplies for purifying water, starting fires, and such. Okay, basically anything you could need for a long hike in erratic weather, plus extra clothes to layer. The amount of shit available here is insane, it’s like being set loose in one of those mega-stores for hunters and hikers. We’ll distribute the food once Tai and Sev are done sorting all that out, and then a couple extra things were added like I’m going to carry a biostove and Sasha has a folding shovel. Luka, you and Sev both have survival hatchets — yeah, didn’t think you’d mind. I don’t think we’ll be on the road for too long before we get some transportation, but who the fuck knows? Might as well be prepared for anything since we’ve got access to all this stuff, you know?”
As I spoke, Azzie’s smile got bigger and bigger until she was outright grinning, the line between her brows completely gone, and she let out a big, gusty sigh. “That’s… that’s fantastic. Sounds like everything is under control. Mouse and I both have our own go-bags that we keep ready, all I need to do is grab a few things for each of us, the stuff we wouldn’t want to leave behind. After that, I just need to go over stuff in the lab and then we can go.” She stared off into nothing, shaking her head. “This was just way too easy. I was afraid we’d be here all night if I had to— thank you, Spider,” she turned to me, and her eyes shiny. “Thank you — all of you — for just dealing with everything. I’m so fucking relieved right now.”
I’d like to think we would have stepped up without Gemma and Adriana reaming our asses, but I’m not totally sure of that. We might’ve held back, assuming Azzie wanted to be in charge. To say this was “eye-opening” was a colossal understatement, I think for all of us.
Chapter Eight
Sev
Azzie punched another code into another door — apparently no one in Salem wanted to use actual keys, like ever — and it swung inward, lights automatically igniting in a wave through what appeared to be some kind of lab. Which made sense, since Azzie told us we were going to the lab.
Stark white tile walls and ceiling topped an industrial-looking tile floor. Long counters ran down either side dotted with intimidating-looking machines, with closed drawers and cabinets underneath, and shallow cupboards mounted above. Behind their clear glass doors, the shelves were jam-packed with boxes and supplies. The only thing I really recognized was a super high-tech looking microscope and a computer terminal.
On both sides, they ended about five feet before the wall, enough room for a door on each side. A series of stainless steel tables were set up down the center, more shelves packed with stuff underneath. There was a big whiteboard on wheels nearby.
The far wall had a few free-standing machines on wheels lined up against it, and a glass-fronted refrigerator dead center. There was a giant, divided utility sink to the left of us as we entered, stacked with clean glassware waiting to be sorted, with drying racks and a shelf of chemicals above it. The sink was spotless — everything in the room was actually spotless, I could even see my reflection in the shiny, white enamel facings on the cupboards and drawers.
To the right of us was safety equipment: a sink for hand-washing, an eye wash station, and an emergency shower in a tiled alcove, open to the room.
“Welcome to our secret lair,” Azzie squeaked out what was supposed to be a diabolical laugh. Adorable. “This was an infirmary, and we made it into a lab. Door on the right houses one of the server racks for the bunker — temperature controlled, of course — and the server for the lab. That computer terminal there is the only connection to the lab server, and there’s a different code to access that room. Door on the left is storage for things we realized we didn’t need.”
“Stuff that Mouse collected?”
“Some of it. Some of it was also here. But she did hit the medical center, doctors’ offices, and three vet clinics. And the science labs at the high school, they were good for a lot of chemicals, and things like bunsen burners.”
“One person — Mouse — hauled all this equipment here while dodging construction crews? And then through the woods?” Tai was as incredulous as me, some of this equipment looked really heavy.
“One person, Mouse — who is freakishly strong — hauled most of the equipment and supplies into the steam tunnels, then drove it to her cabin. We moved it to the bunker together.”
“I can’t believe that nobody noticed any of this.” He looked around, baffled by the setup they had here. I didn’t know what hardly any of it was, but it all looked very impressive and science-y so I tried not to touch anything.
“Well think about it — you’re having a hard time believing me and you’re standing here surrounded by all this equipment, in a fully functioning laboratory.” She leaned back against the counter and crossed her arms, looking around the space with an expression that can only be described as smug as shit. “No one ever considered that Mouse and I would be doing these things, so even when there might have been giveaways, no one paid attention. We also weren’t in a big rush once everything was down in the tunnels. Th
ose first few weeks when Mouse was alone and trying to collect all the important shit was pretty frantic, because she had no idea how long she’d be able to get away with looting the town, and she had a list of specific items she was looking for — I think all the lab equipment and supplies were gathered in the first week, and then the next couple weeks were all the extra stuff and the decorations. By the fourth week, she was grabbing stuff just because it was there and she didn’t want it destroyed, then was going around and closing off the tunnel entrances, covering them or disguising them in some way. And it worked.”
She pointed to the shelves under the bank of tables in the center of the room. “All that stuff is extra, like I think there’s an entire case of tongue depressors. Some of it was here already because this was the prepper’s infirmary.” She shrugged, looking around. “At the time, it helped that the people clearing everything out and the construction crews didn’t really care as much about what they were doing as getting their jobs done and getting the fuck out of here, because they were all afraid that they’d catch the virus just by being in the town. We had a lot of freedom in those early days, and not once in the last four years has anyone ever considered that Mouse and I had a very organized and detailed plan that we were following, and that we were taking advantage of the situation.”
“Why would they be suspicious?” Tai looked around. “I mean, who would suspect this?”
She nodded. “Exactly. But sadly, I don’t know what half this shit is — this was all Mouse. She spent a lot of evenings and weekends working in here, unless I was going to be home and then we usually did stuff together. I only rarely worked with her in the lab, mostly just for her to teach me stuff once she’d refined a technique or something, and I don’t understand most of what she was doing.”
“She was researching stuff about your blood and the vaccine?”
“Yeah. She doesn’t have the background or equipment to try to create a synthetic vaccine or anything, but she believed it could be made more efficiently using less blood per dose. And, theoretically, she had good results, but McNamara shot her down every time she brought anything to him. He made up all kinds of reasons to invalidate her findings, like claiming they already tried something and the success rate wasn’t consistent, or her sample size was too small, or the computer modeling she did wasn’t conclusive. She asked to join the research team, and he refused. She asked to see the research they were doing, and he refused.”
Tai leaned back against the counter across from her and rubbed his hand over his chin, his nose wrinkling. “You know for a fact he was lying to her?”
Azzie smiled a wide, toothy grin, her voice infused with glee. “Mouse doesn’t like to be told no without good reason, and she couldn’t get into the research labs themselves, so she broke into his office through the ventilation system. She downloaded or photographed everything she could find. He didn’t have a whole lot of raw data available, it was mostly reports with conclusions rather than the actual data itself, but there was still some important information in his files. For example, him admitting to a higher up that he lied to Mouse to get her to back off, and he sent some of her work off for others to continue. And also, proof that they aren’t actually working on a synthetic vaccine because it’s too difficult and expensive — I quote — to produce a synthetic as effective as what was being made from my blood. There were no plans to ever phase out the AESLI vaccine. Which makes sense now that I know they preferred keeping the supply low to maintain its value.”
Tai froze in place, staring at her with his mouth open and brow furrowed. “What the fuck? How could a synthetic not be more cost-effective long-term? They could still limit production but make it cheaper.”
“It’s something about my blood. It’s the reason my vaccines work better than any of the other ones even from other people with PV. That’s actually what Mouse focused her research on after she stole McNamara’s files.”
She shifted on her feet and pursed her lips together, staring down the length of the room at the refrigerator humming quietly to itself, the shelves behind the glass doors stuffed with labeled vials and containers of substances I couldn’t identify from here.
“There’s something else— we’re going to need to talk about it, but not right now,” she said, voice subdued. “I need to explain about the vaccine first.”
Azzie
“Do you remember all that stuff I said in the game store?” I asked, and both of them nodded though Sev looked a little iffy on the details so I backtracked. “I told Ben that I know how to make the vaccine, I said it was a subunit and monovalent, and we piggyback it on a pertussis vaccine.” Now he was nodding more definitively too. “Well, all of that was a lie — it’s what the vaccine should be, in order to work the way it does, but that kind of vaccine wouldn’t use antibodies from blood.”
They were appropriately shocked by that — they weren’t completely ignorant, no one could exist in this world without having at least a cursory understanding of immunity and vaccines, plus Tai had medical training — but the stuff I needed to teach them required a bit more so they could comprehend the sheer absurdity of the situation we were in.
I used an extra burner phone I grabbed from my room to snap a picture of Mouse’s whiteboard — which reminded me that I needed to track down the rest of our supply — and then erased the board. I threw out six markers before I found one that still had juice, which was kind of rare around here — Mouse had a habit of “saving” pens and markers in case she could squeeze more out of them later. I had a habit of going through and throwing out all her mostly-dead pens and markers whenever I could.
I drew a big + on the board, labeling it Active and Passive along the left side, and Natural and Artificial across the top.
“There are four types of immunity as you can see by my very instructive drawing here. Active-natural is surviving the virus and developing antibodies to it; passive-natural is a mother passing immunities to a fetus during pregnancy—”
“That’s an adorable stick figure of a pregnant woman,” Sev complimented me. “The bow on her head really brings it home.”
“I’m all about the gender stereotypes,” I agreed. “Okay, so active-artificial—”
“Is that— what is that under active-natural?”
“A dude throwing up. Duh.”
“Oh, of course. You know X’s over the eyes mean he’s dead, right?”
“As I was saying,” I continued firmly, replacing the X’s with dots, “active-artificial is when you receive a vaccine that stimulates the production of antibodies by introducing the virus or toxin or bacteria in a form that doesn’t trigger symptoms or illness, just triggers the immune response and over time you develop your own antibodies—”
“Illustrated by a dude flexing big muscles. Got it, very healthy. Oh, no, wait… that’s a chick. Good thing you added the bow. And the boobs. In a bikini. This is a really elaborate chart.”
“—and all three of these give you permanent immunity, though sometimes boosters are required.”
“Thus the giant syringe in her arm. Got it.”
“What’s the fourth type, Azzie?” Tai asked, not even trying to sound like he wasn’t laughing at Sev’s running commentary.
“Here’s where it gets interesting—”
“Oh, believe me, this whole thing has been very interesting.”
“—because passive-artificial is receiving a direct injection of antibodies from someone who already has them. This is a very fast-acting — usually immediate — way to trigger immunity, but it’s temporary. At most it might last a few months. Think about that for a second. Right?”
“How—?”
“So it shouldn’t work? The vaccine shouldn’t—”
“Nope,” I said, pointing at the chart. “Technically, scientifically, the vaccine made from my blood shouldn’t produce permanent immunity, and shouldn’t take days to kick in. And that’s why all the other strains fail so frequently, because unless you somehow deve
lop an active immunity on your own, direct injection of someone else’s antibodies is temporary at best.”
“How—?”
“So this might be temporary?!”
“No, it isn’t. Mouse still has the same level of antibodies as she did when we walked our asses out of here four years ago. Are you even listening to me? Quit playing with that, you’ll throw off the calibrations!” Sev was fiddling with dials on a machine that we’d never used, and was just a leftover from the original equipment-grab, but I liked how I made him jump away from it and look guilty-slash-concerned, like he’d just broken something critical. I needed to keep them in line somehow.
“That’s not even plugged in,” Tai pointed out unhelpfully, “and it’s a bladder ultrasound machine.”
“Oh… huh. We always wondered…” I shrugged. Sev glared at me and turned the dial again, just to be spiteful.
“Rude.”
“Okay, so types of immunity, your blood is weird, etc. Keep going.” Tai was getting impatient again, which was understandable. I needed to focus and not get distracted by anymore of Sev’s shenanigans.
“My shenanigans?”
“Wasn’t intending to say that out loud, but yes. You’re a menace.”
“Azzie! Focus!”
I indulged in a really spectacular pout for about five seconds, then continued on.
“Right, so there’s more. The antibodies that come from a regular person’s blood who has survived the virus, in theory, should work just as well as mine for passive-artificial immunity. The only difference should be that it requires a much more substantial amount of blood to match the number of red and white blood cells that I can pack into a single pint. And the injection itself should be a much bigger dose to flood your system with my antibodies, and having red blood cells included really shouldn’t matter. But it doesn’t work like that, only people with PV who survived the infection produce usable antibodies, and only mine are permanent, and it only needs a small amount of my immunoglobulin and red blood cells in each injection to work.”
Book of the Lost: AAV-07d25-11: (A reverse harem, post-pandemic, slow-burn romance) (The JAK2 Cycle, Book 3) Page 10