by Max Lockwood
“Melissa,” he said groggily.
“No,” Bethany said, her lip quivering. His brain damage seemed to be more severe than they previously thought. “I’m Bethany.”
He batted his eyes open. “Ugh . . . my head is killing me. Where are we?”
“We were captured by soldiers,” Elaina said. “We’re in a van and we don’t know where we’re going.”
“How many fingers am I holding up?” Bethany asked, holding two fingers in front of his face.
“I’m not stupid,” he groaned. “Where’s Melissa?”
“We don’t know. She wasn’t brought into the van with us. We think she was hiding when they attacked us.”
“Is she safe?” he asked.
Bethany looked at Elaina.
“Yes, Bobby Dean,” Elaina said. “We’re pretty sure she’s safe.”
“Good, good,” he mumbled, resting back down in the van. “Do we know who captured us?”
“No,” Bethany said definitively. “Some army that we’ve never encountered, as far as we know.”
“Oh,” he responded. “Well, we’re going to fight back, right?”
Elaina sighed. “We already tried that and lost. We’re going to try to keep calm and outsmart them. Can you do that?”
Bobby Dean thought for a moment. “You know, I’d rather just kick their asses.”
Alec finally cracked a smile, which flooded Elaina with relief. “Me too, man.” He chuckled. “In due time.”
The van slowed to a stop, but Elaina couldn’t see more than a few blurry shapes out of the tinted windows. More sets of headlights appeared behind them, stopping next to their van. While this was troubling, Elaina also thought of it as a point of pride. The four of them, as injured and defeated as they were, were formidable enough to require a whole fleet of soldiers to transport them.
“We’re going to be okay,” Elaina said again as the doors to the van opened and hands reached inside to drag them out into the dark night.
Then, for good measure, she repeated her mantra to herself. She was going to be okay. There was no other option.
Chapter Twelve
Once Elaina saw the soldiers lining the path from the van to the building, she knew they’d made the right call not to fight back. They were completely outnumbered and outgunned. She thought they were being led into another courthouse, but once inside, she immediately recognized the structure.
Bright paint made the scene feel so much eerier that it already was. A mural of children playing plastered one wall while pieces of construction paper stapled to cork strips lined another. It smelled like a combination of finger paints and disinfectant. It gave Elaina the creeps to see so many soldiers marching around the entrance to what was, until recently, an elementary school.
Bethany looked horrified to be surrounded by so many military personnel. She scowled at anyone who gave her a second glance, but Elaina noticed her lip quivering. Bobby Dean was still woozy from his injury, his feet dragging on the ground as he walked. Or, Elaina thought, he was purposefully being defiant and churlish. Alec was looking worse for wear but was wearing a brave face. Elaina wanted to scream at the soldiers handling him, warning them to be careful with him. But she knew that it would only make things worse for him.
They were marched down a long hallway, passing several classrooms along the way. Some had been converted into what looked like offices. Stranger yet, many of the rooms were left untouched, as though twenty students would arrive later that morning for class. She wondered where the kids with the name tags on the desks were now.
It was all very unsettling to Elaina, who had experienced a difficult time in primary school. By the time she was enrolled at the age of four, she had already mastered subjects that wouldn’t be introduced for several more years. This led to extreme boredom in class because the teacher did not have the ability to teach her multiplication and division while some of her classmates struggled to write their numbers. So, she sat in too many conferences with the principal and her parents, just trying to figure out what to do with her.
They couldn’t just bump her up to the appropriate academic level because age differences felt bigger back then. A thirty-five-year-old working with a forty-year-old in a lab wasn’t a big deal, but putting a kindergartener in the fifth grade would be traumatizing for a young child. But having few other options, it was decided that she would skip a few grades when it felt appropriate.
This was perhaps the first time that Elaina had experienced what it was like to feel disappointed. She had always been told that school was a magical place full of opportunities to learn new things. But when she arrived there with all the excitement a four-year-old could muster, she quickly realized that there was nothing for her to learn. Even when she was in the right classes for her ability, she wasn’t able to make friends. The older kids had no time for the weird little kid in their class.
So, when she went home, Elaina read from her own extensive library and played with her sister, who never saw Elaina as weird or different. Elaina was just an older sister to Lily, nothing more or less than that.
It wasn’t until high school that there were teachers who were remotely qualified to teach her anything useful. So, elementary and middle school became the physical representation of what it was like to not fit in and to be disappointed with what life had to offer. Seeing worksheets with poorly-written and misspelled words stuck to the walls took Elaina to a dark place. After all, she was only there because she’d failed to make a cure for the virus.
“Sir,” a soldier said as they approached a large office, “we’ve recovered the subjects.”
“Any issues?” he asked.
“No, sir. A few of the subjects have injuries, but all of our soldiers are fine,” she said.
“Very well.”
“Do you have new orders for us?” she asked.
The officer rubbed his eyes, looking cross. “Take the injured one to the medical ward and get him fixed up. They are of no use to us if they’re not alive and in decent shape. I thought I told you that they were not to be harmed.”
He frowned at the other soldiers, as if something similar had happened before and they were not learning from their mistakes.
“Put the others in the boiler room until it’s time for them to be utilized. I don’t want any more problems. Do your jobs.”
“Yes, sir,” the soldiers said in unison, marching their subjects to their assigned destination. Alec was led in one direction and the other three were led in another.
“Alec,” Elaina called. “You’re going to be okay.”
“Don’t leave me,” he said sadly, causing Elaina’s chest to hurt. She had never seen him look so devastated and scared before.
“Where are we going?” Bethany demanded. “Tell us why we’re here and what you plan on doing with us. I need answers.”
“Shut up,” a soldier whined. “Do you really think we’re going to tell you classified information? If you don’t be quiet, we’ll have to put you in isolation.”
They were led to the boiler room and shoved in the corner of the concrete room before a metal gate was locked behind them.
Moments later, a young woman in a lab coat arrived, pulling a lancet and glass vials out of her pocket.
“Please give me your finger,” she said calmly. Elaina approached the gate but left her hands tucked firmly under her arms. “I only need a few drops of blood for testing, that’s all.”
A soldier leaned over the scientist’s shoulder. “Do it, or you’ll be sorry. We have to get the blood from you one way or another.
Elaina bravely stuck her index finger through the wire. She was curious to see what the woman would do. Even if she was going to trick her and inject her with the virus for some reason, it wouldn’t do anything—she was immune.
After a quick jab, three drops of blood were squeezed from the pad of her finger into the small glass container.
“Thank you,” the scientist said politely. “Who’s next?”
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Bethany and Bobby Dean reluctantly submitted their blood for testing, following Elaina’s lead. When she was finished, the woman dropped the samples and her equipment back into her pocket.
“Oh, I was told there was another one,” she said, looking toward the guards. “I wish I would have gotten his sample before he was taken away.”
“Just go up to medical,” a soldier grunted. “There’s plenty of blood to spare with that one.”
Elaina grimaced at the crude joke. She sat down, leaning against the concrete wall. Once the blood tests were complete and the lab assistant left, the soldiers double-checked the lock on the gate and left the boiler room.
It took all of five seconds for Bethany to begin pacing back and forth across the floor. After getting hit in the head, Bethany’s spell on Bobby Dean seemed to have broken. Two minutes after she started pacing, he finally called her out.
“Can you not?” he groaned. “I have a headache and your stomping around isn’t making it any better.”
Elaina smirked. She didn’t like when Bobby Dean got into arguments with people, but she found it slightly amusing that he was finished fawning over Bethany. She just wished Melissa and Alec were around to see it.
“I’m trying to think,” she said. “I don’t like it when I don’t know what’s going on.”
“We don’t have a clue what’s happening either, but we’re not freaking out about it,” he retorted. “Just sit your butt down and wait until we learn what’s going on.”
“You don’t understand the gravity of this situation,” she said. “They took our blood. That means they’re going to use us in their experiments. As far as I can tell, we could be the only people here who aren’t soldiers. There’s no sneaking out of here. We’re going to be pumped full of viruses and left to die.”
“Calm down,” Bobby Dean said.
“No,” she hissed. “I worked so hard to get to safety. I traveled by myself, killed and was nearly killed a bunch of times, and now I’ve been captured again. But this time, there’s no way to distract the soldiers from us. We’re outnumbered by a lot. I don’t know what to do. Alec is probably already dead.”
“Hey,” Elaina shouted, jumping up to her feet. “Why would you say something like that?”
“Oh, I don’t know—maybe because he was bleeding all over the place in the van. I mean, look at me.”
She gestured to the blood on her shirt that was just beginning to dry.
“He’s going to be fine.”
“Yeah, Alec is tough,” Bobby Dean chimed in. “Even if he wasn’t going to make it, why would you say that in front of Elaina?”
Bethany sighed. “She’s always talking about being rational. I don’t want her to get her hopes up.”
Elaina scowled. “That’s still a really nasty thing to say.”
“Then I apologize,” she said flatly.
Elaina was hot with anger. She had been exceptionally kind and understanding toward Bethany, and now she was being told that her best friend in the world wasn’t going to make it and that she shouldn’t get her hopes up. A switched flipped in her brain. She stopped seeing things from her old perspective and placed herself in Alec’s head. The more she thought about it, the less she trusted Bethany.
“I don’t think you wanted to be caught,” Elaina said. “But I think you have something to do with this.”
Bethany threw up her hands in exasperation. “This again? I don’t know why I even bother talking to you people. I think Will has played a nasty joke on me. He said you were the good guys. Maybe he was being sarcastic when he said that.”
Elaina frowned. Was it possible for Will’s personality to change so much that he would put both parties in a conflict-prone situation, just for laughs? Will was vindictive, but there was no way he could have known how badly the group would clash with Bethany. To predict that would have taken some serious foresight, something she didn’t think Will was capable of. He was angry and probably depressed, but he wasn’t conniving.
“Melissa was right about you,” Bobby Dean muttered. “We should have never let you in the house. Hell, when we saw you walking down the road, we almost shot you. It makes me wonder what state we would be in if we had. We might not be here.”
Bethany shook her head. “I’m done talking about this. You’re obviously not capable of listening or thinking if you’re still going on about this.”
Though he was still dizzy from his blow to the head, Bobby Dean managed to find the strength to enter into one of his classic arguments. Bethany and Bobby Dean went back and forth, hurling insults at each other. The noise must have alarmed the guards, who came into the boiler room to check on them.
“You,” a guard said, pointing at Elaina. “Come with me.”
“She didn’t do anything wrong,” Bobby Dean whined. “If you’re going to take anyone, take this one. She’s the one causing all the problems.” He jabbed a finger in Bethany’s direction.
“Those weren’t my instructions,” the guard replied. “You two, stand against the back wall.”
They reluctantly obliged and the gate was momentarily opened and Elaina was pulled out.
“Where are you taking her?” Bethany asked.
“None of your business,” the guard said.
“Tell us,” she screamed.
The guard sighed as two others grabbed onto Elaina’s arms. “Listen, this is for your own good.”
“I’ve heard that a million times,” Bethany scoffed. “Usually, it’s before someone attempts to murder me.”
“I suggest you figure out how to control your temper. Do you know who else acts like that?”
Bethany shrugged.
“The Infected. If you’re not careful, someone’s going to think that you’ve turned. You haven’t, have you?”
Bethany glared at the guard. “Obviously not.”
“Then stop acting like it. You three just need to relax.”
“That’s rich,” Bethany spat. “You’re not locked in a cage.”
“Come on,” the guard said to the others. “Let’s take her.”
“No!” Bobby Dean yelled. “Just leave her here with us. You have no idea who you’re messing with.”
“I think we do,” the guard said before they marched Elaina out of the dungeon-like boiler room. As they walked away, Elaina could hear the other two yelling at the top of their lungs, both at the guards and each other.
Elaina’s heart was pounding. If her captors wanted to see her so soon after the blood test, she had a pretty good idea why. Her blood was a mystery. She just hoped she had a chance to explain why she had the virus in her system without showing any symptoms. No one understood the virus like she did, and she doubted anyone understood why her DNA kept her from getting sick.
It wasn’t easy being Elaina Morgan when so many different militarized groups were working on their own virus-related projects. People either wanted her help or wanted to kill her, and it was nearly impossible to know who was who. She could either use her name as a free pass or an execution order.
Elaina walked past a room filled with children’s science projects and she suddenly felt inspired. If at age eight, she could explain how vaccines worked to a group of schoolteachers, she could explain her unusual predicament to whoever was examining her blood.
She took a deep breath and mustered every ounce of confidence she had left. If she acted frightened, her captors would take advantage of her. But if she played tough, she figured she could be a formidable opponent in whatever was being planned for her.
Chapter Thirteen
The guards walked Elaina through the front office to a small room with a cot, partitioned off from the rest of the room with a gauzy curtain. A set of cupboards was plastered with laminated papers, instructing students on proper handwashing methods and how to cover a cough or sneeze, illustrated by cartoon germs.
“Have a seat,” the guard said, gesturing to the cot that was a violent shade of yellow.
“Oh, no, I�
�m not injured,” she said, realizing their mistake. “I don’t need medical attention. One of my friends was shot, though. Can you tell me how he’s doing?”
“He’s undergoing minor surgery now,” the guard said. “His prognosis looks good. We were asked to bring you here to speak with the doctor.”
“I said I wasn’t injured,” she repeated.
“Yes, we’re aware,” the guard said, looking annoyed. “Just sit tight, will you?”
“Fine,” Elaina sighed. She stared at the tiny pinprick on her index finger, afraid of what was to come.
Moments later, a man in a lab coat strode in with a smile on his face. He looked like the average middle-aged man, like many of the scientists Elaina worked with. But upon closer inspection, she noticed how handsome and confident he looked.
Under his lab coat, he wore khaki-colored slacks and a slim-fit dress shirt. His slightly graying hair was cropped short but clearly styled with gel. He was freshly shaven, as if life in the midst of an epidemic didn’t stop him from his usual grooming routine. When he entered the room and shook Elaina’s hand, she knew that he wasn’t a lab-dweller like her. He worked with people on a regular basis.
“My name is Dr. Martinez, from the University of Kansas Medical Center. You can call me Steve, if you like.”
“I’m . . .” She paused. “I’m Lainey.”
“Oh,” he said, a look of surprise on his face. “I didn’t know you preferred to go by Lainey.”
“I—” she stuttered.
“I can also call you Dr. Morgan, if you’d prefer.”
“No, I . . .” she stammered.
He gave her an understanding smile. “You’ve been featured fairly prominently on the major news outlets. If you’re afraid of divulging you identity, it’s too late. I’m aware that you’re Dr. Elaina Morgan.”
“Oh,” she said, her face falling. “Just call me Elaina, then.”
“Elaina,” he said warmly. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you and your friends. I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt.”