Plague Town
Page 31
When we arrived back at Patterson Hall, it was the middle of a flurry of activity. People ran back and forth, soldiers shouting orders and loading things into trucks.
Gabriel and I looked at each other, then ran up the stairs and into room 217, where we saw Simone, Nathan, Colonel Paxton, and Dr. Albert, deep in conversation. Their expressions were grim. Dr. Albert looked ill, his skin a pasty white.
Simone looked up at us and Gabriel inhaled sharply. I saw why. Her eyes were sunk into the sockets, almost as if she’d caught Walker’s.
“Gabriel, Ashley...” She took a step toward us and swayed on her feet. Nathan reached out and caught her by one arm to steady her.
“Are you okay?” I hurried over to her, Gabriel right beside me. “Are you ill?”
“No.” Simone swallowed as if it hurt. “I wish that were the case. It’s... it’s much more serious than that.”
“This is my fault.” It was Dr. Albert, who stared straight ahead as if looking into the gates of hell. “I did this. It’s my fault.”
Colonel Paxton shook his head, but didn’t say anything.
“Did what?” Gabriel snapped. “What are you talking about?
“The Walker’s vaccine.” Dr. Albert looked at us. “It’s out. And it’s my fault.”
Simone shook with a shiver that looked as if it hurt, then gathered herself.
“It seems,” she said in a voice at least resembling her normal tone, “that the Walker’s vaccine Dr. Albert developed is the cause of the rapidly spreading pathogen within this region.”
“My fault...”
Simone shut her eyes, then opened them again.
“It seems that the vaccine wasn’t actually cleared for public distribution, either before or after it was sent to the labs in the U.K. Test results were falsified.”
We all looked at Dr Albert. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, this man had been my doctor for years. He had seen me in diapers.
Simone continued, each word sounding as if it hurt her throat.
“The vaccine reacts to a normally dormant variant of a retrovirus that’s present in about ten percent of the population.” Seeing the confusion on my face, she added, “It’s like the HIV retrovirus. It causes the host’s DNA to mutate Walker’s into the walking death.”
Slowly I began to understand, and it felt like I couldn’t breathe.
I looked at Dr. Albert and said the only word I could think of.
“Why?”
“I was sure it would work,” Dr. Albert said. “Walker’s was going to be bad, maybe as bad as the Spanish influenza. They told me I could be the one to stop it. I thought I was doing the right thing.” He shook his head as if clearing it, then looked at me with the eyes of someone about to slit his own wrists. “I thought I’d be famous.”
Colonel Paxton led him off into a corner, talking to him quietly.
Nathan joined us as Simone continued.
“This is why all of the military personnel outside of the infected zone remained disease free,” he said. “They hadn’t had flu shots.”
“So this is Dr. Albert’s fault?” I didn’t want to believe it.
Simone hesitated.
“He didn’t know this was going to happen.”
“Bullshit,” Nathan said. “Even if he didn’t know, sending out a vaccine without adequate testing is criminal on its own, especially without the express consent of the participants. Ignorance is no defense against something this monstrous.”
Talk about a lifetime’s worth of guilt, I thought. “But we’ve contained it, right?”
Simone and Nathan’s expressions made my heart sink through the floor, a rapidly growing knot taking its place in my chest.
“It was a new vaccine,” she said. “Redwood Grove was one of the first communities to participate in a clinical trial to test its efficacy, based on the initial—and false—test results.”
“One of the first?”
Simone nodded, but Nathan answered this time.
“Clinical trials have been conducted in a number of other small communities worldwide—places that have been hard hit by Walker’s flu. All of them are relatively isolated, which in and of itself is suspicious.”
“You mean someone may have done this on purpose?” I asked, horrified.
“I don’t know.” Simone massaged her forehead. “If so... it wouldn’t be the first time. We won’t know until the dead start to walk. But I think we need to assume the worst.”
I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself.
“So it’s not over.”
Simone shook her head.
“No. I don’t think it is.”
EPILOGUE
* * *
Lucy slowly pushed herself up from her rocking chair, wincing as pain shot through her head and limbs as if transported on pieces of broken glass.
The kitchen, with its promise of cold water to soothe her throat and aspirin to help with the aches, was only a few yards away. But the distance felt impossible as she grasped at furniture along the way to keep herself from falling to the floor in an exhausted, nauseous heap.
She lived alone. All of her relatives had long since died or moved out of Belleville, which her nephew frequently referred to as “a perfect craphole.” Even if they hadn’t, Lucy would rather suffer the pain on her own than call any of them, or her neighbors.
Only two thousand people in Belleville, and Lucy hated every single one of them. The sentiment was probably returned, and Lucy gave a skinny rat’s ass.
Dr. Perkins, for instance. The incompetent quack who’d insisted on sticking her with a needle full of god-knows-what, just because she had a bit of a fever and chills. Lucy had felt better before the vaccination, proving her theory that Dr. Perkins was an idiot.
Lucy stopped and shut her eyes, resting her head against the wall as drums played inside her skull and a furnace rush of heat blasted through her body. Cold water... She imagined the soothing ice-cold water running down her throat, and made herself take a few more steps before having to stop again, hands braced on a short bookcase as another wave of dizziness washed over her.
Damned quack.
Opening her eyes, she caught sight of herself in the antique mirror she’d inherited from her grandmother, one of the old-fashioned ones with tin mercury amalgam that flattered a woman instead of reflecting every flaw. What she saw in the mirror, however, horrified her. Eyes the color of bloody egg yolks, skin the color of a jaundiced lime.
Lucy gasped, the sound turning into a liquid cough that reverberated throughout her body. It hurt, oh lord, how it hurt... but even more horrifying was the black fluid brought up by the coughing.
I think I’m dying, Lucy thought as she slowly collapsed to the floor.
She was right. But it didn’t last very long.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
* * *
There are so many people who have given me so much encouragement, praise, and great lolcats pictures, that if I try to list them all, I will inadvertently leave someone out. So I’m giving a blanket thank you to all of my fellow authors, Sisters in Crime cohorts, and wonderful family members, friends, and coworkers who have enriched my life and cheered me up on a daily basis.
Thank you, Lori Perkins, for trusting me with your idea of Buffy with zombies, and for all your hard work getting me the contract with Titan Books! And thanks, Holly (and the rest of the RR crew) for all your support and understanding!
A huge thank you to all the authors who took the time to read and blurb the book; I know how precious spare time is when you’re on deadlines! Ray Garton, Jonathan Maberry, Stacey Graham, Roger Ma, Lois Gresh, Heather Graham, and Gina McQueen, you all rock!
Mom and Willy P. for their never-ending support and willingness to read whatever I write. And special thanks, Mom, for knowing when NOT to ask how the writing is going.
Thank you, Allie May Kiputh, my “Lil”, and Ernie Sloman, who totally inspired Tony. Love you both. And how could I forget Mike, our mailman and fellow
George’s Zoo “gang” member? Told you you’d be featured in my next book.
Thank you, Phillip McSorley, for giving up some of your precious downtime while deployed in Iraq, to fact check and advise on military protocol and language.
Hugs and appreciation to everyone at Vin Debut, all of whom listen to my whining when the writing’s been hard and always pour me a glass of wine to ease my pain. Thank you, Matt Burns, for the near daily pep talks and the wonderful and inspiring artwork! Huge thanks to Aldyth Beltane for the zombie music compilations, and to Aldyth, Brad, and Maureen for all the help with our felines.
Thanks to everyone at Titan Books—including Nick Landau, Vivian Cheung, Katy Wild, Cath Trechman, Martin Stiff, Tim Whale, and Lizzie Bennett—for taking a chance on Ashley. I love the cover!
Ocho, who supplied me with some awesome ideas (déjà vus!) for this book. His imagination never ceases to amaze me and I know the Ocho always has my back. Sun, moon AND stars.
T. Chris Martindale, who gave me some great creepy stuff to work with. His imagination (and ability to outline, damn his eyes!) never cease to amaze me.
My sister Lisa, who has talked me off the edge of the Cliffs of “I Can’t DO This!” Insanity more than once, and helped me keep my perspective at all stages of this book.
David Fitzgerald, who puts up with my moods and fears on a daily basis, is always willing to stop what he’s doing to read and critique. I couldn’t do any of it without you.
And finally, to my incomparable Dark Editorial Overlord Steve Saffel, who has made me work harder on this book than I’ve ever worked on any writing project; who took the time to give me pep talks when I was pulling my hair out; and who has been a delight to work with. I’m looking forward to working with you on the rest of the series!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
* * *
Dana Fredsti is an actress with a background in theatrical sword-fighting, whose credits include the cult classic Army of Darkness. Her favorite projects include acting alongside Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead) and Josef Pilato (Day of the Dead). She has been a producer, director, and screenplay writer for stage and film, and was the co-writer/associate producer on Urban Rescuers, which won Best Documentary at the 2003 Valley Film Festival in Los Angeles.
She has written numerous published articles, essays, and shorts, including stories in Danger City (Contemporary Press, 2005), and Mondo Zombie (Cemetery Dance, 2006). In addition she’s published Murder for Hire: The Peruvian Pigeon (Rock Publications, 2007) and several books and stories for Ravenous Romance. She has served as the president of the literary organization Sisters in Crime, Northern California Chapter.
Through seven-plus years of volunteering at Exotic Feline Breeding Facility/Feline Conservation Center, Dana has had a full-grown leopard sit on her feet, been kissed by tigers, cuddled baby jaguars, and had her thumb sucked by an ocelot with nursing issues. She’s addicted to bad movies and any book or film—good or bad—which includes zombies. Her other hobbies include surfing (badly), collecting beach glass (obsessively), and wine tasting (happily).
* * *
Also available from Titan Books:
ANGEL OF VENGEANCE by Trevor O. Munsen
LA-based P.I. and vampire Mick Angel has been hired by a beautiful red-headed burlesque dancer to find her missing sister. But the apparently simple case of a teenage runaway is soon complicated by drug dealers, persistent cops, murder and Mick’s own past. Mick must learn the hard way what every vampire should know—nothing stays buried for ever, especially not the past.
ANNO DRACULA by Kim Newman
It is 1888 and Queen Victoria has remarried, taking as her new consort Vlad Tepes, the Wallachian Prince infamously known as Count Dracula. Peppered with familiar characters from Victorian history and fiction, the novel tells the story of vampire Geneviève Dieudonné and Charles Beauregard of the Diogenes Club as they strive to solve the mystery of the Ripper murders.
CAPTAIN NEMO by Kevin J. Anderson
The young Verne and his best friend Andre Nemo stow away on a ship bound for the high seas, but Jules’ father catches Jules and forces him to come home in total disgrace. Nemo goes on to have all the adventures, battling pirates, fighting sea monsters, being shipwrecked, ballooning across Africa etc. Jules eventually turns these real life tales of his friend into his popular novels.
For more fantastic fiction visit our website:
www.titanbooks.com
* * *
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About The Author
Also available from Titan Books