Z-Minus Box Set 2

by Perrin Briar

Hamish brushed aside his sweaty fringe with his sleeve.

  “How do these things keep getting out?” Kate said. “They don’t look like they’ve got the brainpower to be able to work the locks loose. And even if they did, they certainly lack the dexterity.”

  “Maybe they got lucky,” Carl said.

  “Maybe,” Hamish said uncertainly.

  “You get back to the blood tests,” Kate said. “We’ll clean up here.”

  Bang! Bang bang! Bang!

  Something beat against Lindsey’s door. They all stared at it.

  “Lindsey?” Kate said.

  “Or Ian,” Carl said.

  “Or both,” Daniel said.

  No one wanted to find out who was right. Hamish walked back down the corridor to his office.

  “Now, where was I?” Hamish said, returning to his office.

  The vials of blood sat unmoved from their previous position. He remembered where he was. Right where he didn’t want to be.

  Z-MINUS: 1 hour 44 minutes

  They all sat with their hands in their laps, looking anxiously at Hamish, who held a piece of paper with the results in his hand. He didn’t really need to read it. He already knew the results off by heart. It felt like he was reading the results of an exam to a bunch of students.

  “Okay,” Hamish said. “You’re all nervous, so I won’t beat around the bush. One of us is infected.”

  “I knew it!” Patrick said. “It’s me, isn’t it? I already packed my bag. I’ll just do a Dr. Scott and get out of here. I’m doomed.”

  “It’s not you,” Hamish said. “It’s Carl.”

  Carl just sat there a moment, processing the news. His eyelids flickered as he thought everything through.

  “You’re sure?” he said.

  “I am,” Hamish said.

  Carl flexed his hands, his feet.

  “I feel fine,” he said.

  “I’m sorry,” Hamish said.

  “No,” Carl said. “You’re wrong.”

  Hamish turned to the others for their support of what to say next. He’d just told Carl he was infected. But he’d flat out refused to listen? There was hoping for the best and there was being blind to the truth. Hamish had been prepared for every response, save this one.

  “Carl,” Hamish said in his best impression of a caring doctor. “You are infected.”

  “No, I’m not,” Carl said.

  He pressed his glasses up his nose in an open act of defiance.

  “Carl…” Kate said.

  “Don’t start, Kate,” Carl said. “I feel fine. Better than fine. I feel better now than I have in a long time. So, feel free to chalk this one up to a mistake on Hamish’s part, but I’m not infected.”

  He said it with such certainty that Hamish was beginning to doubt himself, that there was nothing wrong with him.

  “Check my blood again if you have to, but you’ll find I’m not infected,” Carl said. “You’ll see I’m clean. There’s nothing wrong with me.”

  “It’ll affect everyone slightly differently,” Hamish said. “You might not start feeling the effects for another few hours.”

  “This is bullshit,” Carl said.

  He pulled up his sleeve, exposing his arm.

  “Take more blood,” he said. “Test me again.”

  “I already checked – twice,” Hamish said. “You’re infected.”

  “I’m not going to stay in my room,” Carl said. “There’s nothing wrong with me!”

  Hamish held up his hands in a defensive pose. Body language communicated seventy percent of all meaning in a conversation.

  “I understand you’re scared,” Hamish said. “We all are. But you have to stay in your room until help arrives. If there’s nothing wrong with you, then we’ll take you out.”

  Carl looked beseechingly from one person to another, but met wayward glances. He finally settled on Daniel.

  “Daniel,” he said. “You believe me, don’t you? I’m not infected.”

  Daniel scuffed one shoe against the other. Carl shrugged.

  “All right,” he said. “Fine. I’ll go. But you’re all going to feel like fools when this is over.”

  “I’m sure it’ll turn out to be nothing,” Daniel said. “You’ll see.”

  “I refuse to turn into one of those things,” Carl said. “If I’m going to die, then it’ll be on my terms.”

  “What are you going to do?” Kate said.

  Carl turned to look out the snow-encrusted window.

  “It was good enough for Dr. Scott,” Carl said. “It’ll be good enough for me.”

  Z-MINUS: 1 hour 34 minutes

  “You shouldn’t throw your life away like this, Carl,” Kate said. “They’ll come up with a cure.”

  “Will they?” Carl said. “I never heard of anyone curing death before. And between heading out into the night, and getting beaten over the head with a broken-off chair leg, I know what I prefer.”

  Kate frowned. She clearly hadn’t considered the idea someone somewhere wouldn’t come up with a cure for the virus.

  “I don’t want to be something you all have to be scared of, to be wandering around and bumping into the walls and windows until someone finally puts me out of my misery,” Carl said. “I deserve to die in a manner more becoming of my station. It was nice knowing you all. It was a pleasure working with you.”

  Carl shook hands with Hamish and Patrick. He hugged Kate and Daniel. They slapped one another on the back.

  “Put this on,” Daniel said to Carl, proffering his favorite jacket. “It’ll be a little chilly out there.”

  “What’re you trying to do?” Carl said. “Prolong my suffering?”

  Daniel grinned and was about to take his jacket back when Carl took it from him.

  “Fine, I’ll wear it,” Carl said. “It’ll be doing the jacket a favor for someone of style and class to wear it for once.”

  Carl grinned, but there was no concealing his fear and apprehension. He turned to face the door and the raging storm outside. He nodded to Hamish, who released the locks. The storm flailed at them with its long white tendrils. The cold was biting and hard. No man could last long in its clutches.

  “You don’t have to do this,” Kate said.

  “No,” Carl said. “I do.”

  “Thank you for everything, Carl,” Patrick said. “You’re a wonderful person.”

  The others looked pained and sorry to see Carl go, but there was a general feeling of unease, like people afraid of AIDS when it first exploded onto the global scene. People didn’t know how to respond to an infected person.

  Carl stepped outside and immediately stumbled, the wind strong and swift. He caught himself, stood upright, and walked into the thick white cloud. He was lost to the howling winds and freezing snowdrifts. Carl was a part of the storm now.

  I hope he’ll fight to help protect us, Hamish thought, before closing the door shut.

  Z-MINUS: 1 hour 21 minutes

  The survivors returned to their watchful vigil. No more undead were roaming the corridors, and each of the survivors were uninfected. All they needed was for the storm to die down, to send out a message, and they would be rescued. They could relax. The nightmare was largely over.

  Daniel sat in sullen silence after Carl had wandered off into the storm. He shot murderous glances at Hamish, as if he was the one responsible for Carl’s demise. It was not a look of friendly camaraderie. Their temporary allegiance had been broken. They smiled behind their teeth at each other. The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.

  “How is being a professor of biology?” Daniel said. “I can’t imagine it’s very exciting.”

  “About as exciting as swimming underwater,” Hamish said.

  “It’s taken me all over the world,” Daniel said. “I’ve seen incredible things.”

  “Me too,” Hamish said.

  “Taking over from Dr. Scott, trying to complete his notes and research,” Daniel said. “Must be tough. Big shoes to fill.”<
br />
  “I’m sure my feet are big enough,” Hamish said.

  “I hope so,” Daniel said. “A lot rides on the findings of the late great Dr. Scott.”

  They both felt obvious relief when Patrick headed over to join them.

  “What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get back?” Daniel said.

  “Jump in a glistening swimming pool, eat a bunch of crap and find the nearest bar and dirtiest skank I can get my hands on,” Patrick said.

  “Sounds like a plan,” Daniel said. “I might join you.”

  Hamish’s idea of fun clearly differed somewhat from those of Daniel and Patrick. But there was at least a ray of sunshine at the end of this cold, dark, bleak tunnel.

  “I thought you and Kate were a thing,” Hamish said, doing his best to sound nonchalant.

  “We are,” Daniel said. “Or, we were.”

  “What do you mean?” Hamish said.

  Daniel shrugged.

  “We haven’t had much action lately,” he said.

  Hamish ignored the word ‘much’ and let his heart cling to the possibility it was mostly over between the two of them.

  “Since when?” Hamish said.

  “About the time of Dr. Scott’s death,” Daniel said. “Since then, she just doesn’t seem that interested in bumping and grinding. It’s strange, because to look at her you wouldn’t think she was in much grief.”

  “Some people are good at hiding it,” Patrick said.

  “If so, she’s the best,” Daniel said. “I’ve had to resort to a swift one off the wrist.”

  “Welcome to my world,” Patrick said.

  The conversation drifted into something about technique after that, but Hamish had already switched off his ears.

  Was the reason for Kate’s turning cold toward Daniel in fact not only due to her feelings for the dearly departed Dr. Scott? Was it in actual fact more because by that time she would have learned Hamish was coming to replace Dr. Scott in his research? Hamish found himself wanting to believe it to be true. But he knew love could blind a man and he daren’t make a move before he was certain…

  Certain.

  That had always been his problem before. He always wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to be rejected, make sure Kate was going to feel the same thing for him as he did for her…

  But he was never certain. He never let himself be certain, because there was no such thing as certainty. You did your research and preparation, but then you had to just roll the die. You had to take a chance, and that was exactly what he hadn’t done before.

  He was still scared, to be sure. He didn’t want her to stop being his friend… Or did he even really care anymore? Could he be happy just being a friend? No. He didn’t want that. He wanted more. And to see her be with someone else, for her to fall in love with someone else and leave Hamish behind… That was the last thing he wanted.

  He did not want to see her be happy and in love with someone else – especially if that someone else happened to be Daniel. He wanted her to be happy, but to be happy with him.

  Hamish stood up. Sometimes a moment of clarity can change a man’s life, one moment where everything clicks and makes sense. This was his moment, and he was not going to waste it. He decided to act then, act fast, act now, and confess to Kate everything he felt, and had felt for years. He wouldn’t hold back. He would let her know everything.

  But what if she-?

  He squashed that line of reasoning. She would do what she did, and there was little he could do to change that. But he could control himself, his actions, and the way he felt about her. That was within his power. He could be honest.

  “Kate,” he said. “Can I speak to you for a minute?”

  “Sure,” Kate said. “What is it?”

  The radio hissed, and a voice, like an echo from the past, came through.

  “Patrick’s got someone on the radio,” Carl said.

  They all dropped what they were doing and ran to the radio. Patrick sat in front of it and held up a hand, signaling the others to be quiet.

  “Affirmative,” Patrick said. “This is Palmer Station, over. We require immediate assistance, over. I repeat, we require immediate assistance.”

  Static and hissing on the other end of the line.

  “We require immediate assistance, over,” Patrick said. “Do you roger, over?”

  More hissing and crackling. Patrick leaned back, exhausted.

  “Damn it, I thought we had them,” he said.

  Daniel rested a hand on Patrick’s shoulder.

  “It’s all right,” he said. “You did your best. Take a break. I’ll take over for a while.”

  “Received, over,” the voice on the other end of the line said. “Standby for immediate evac the moment the storm is over.”

  “The second the storm’s over we’re getting out of here,” Patrick said. “Did you hear that? We’re getting out of here!”

  They whooped and clapped and high-fived and hugged. It was a joyous, happy moment. It was really going to be over. And soon.

  Kate hugged Hamish. She looked at him, and he looked back at her. This was his moment.

  “What was it you wanted to tell me?” Kate said.

  It wasn’t going to be the end of their little world after all. Hamish had lost all confidence. Help was coming. They were no longer alone. They would get through this. They were going to go back to the way they lived before.

  “Nothing,” Hamish said.

  He groaned at his own weakness.

  Z-MINUS: 1 hour 12 minutes

  It was just a waiting game now, waiting to see what would happen when the chopper arrived, waiting for when the army came and swept everything under the rug. Waiting for the storm to end. But it still blew, threatening and cold outside.

  The center had lasted more than fifty years, had seen countless other storms and lived to tell the tale. The chances it could not survive this storm were remote. For the first time since Hamish had arrived at the center, he relaxed. They were going to get out of there. Help was coming. He even allowed himself to smile.

  “You know,” Hamish said out loud. “There’s one thing about all this I still don’t understand. If Dr. Scott erased all the information, ensured none of us would find anything about it, how did Ian contract it?”

  “Maybe Dr. Scott wasn’t as thorough as he’d hoped,” Kate said. “He was infected, turning into something, something he didn’t know yet, but he knew enough to know it wasn’t going to be anything good. He was weak and hungry for blood. He cleaned up as best he could, but somehow something was still left behind, something for Ian to get infected with.”

  They were all silent a moment, thoughtful about how easily it could have been one of them who got accidentally infected. They peered at their surroundings. The virus could be in this very room. All it would take was for Ian to touch an open wound, to sneeze into his hand, to touch one of the surfaces.

  “We may never know what infected Ian,” Daniel said. “Whatever did infect him will have lost its potency by now. This virus is not airborne, otherwise we would all have contracted.”

  Kate shrugged.

  “We might never know how Ian got infected,” she said.

  “You’re probably right,” Hamish said. “None of us is infected, so as long as we stay here and don’t move, don’t go to any places Ian might have caught the virus, all we have to do is sit and wait.”

  “It’s too late for Carl,” Daniel said. “He’ll never get to see his friends and family again. He’s dead out there. Probably dead already.”

  There was no good response to that. Daniel was clearly still aching over his best friend’s demise. He wanted to draw someone into an argument, but no one was rising to the bait.

  “How long have you guys been here up till now?” Hamish said after an appropriate amount of time had passed.

  “Six weeks,” Kate said.

  “What’s that got to do with anything?” Daniel said belligerently.


  “Ian caught whatever it is he has from somewhere,” Hamish said. “Which means he must have caught it here. Or from something he brought with him.”

  “So you’re saying the origin of whatever turned Ian into what he is came from here?” Daniel said.

  “But nothing has changed in the past few days,” Kate said. “What could it be?”

  Daniel’s eyes grew distant with thought, and then narrowed as something snapped into focus. He looked at Hamish, a curious look on his face.

  “Nothing has changed,” he said. “Except your arrival.”

  Kate blinked. Patrick was equally surprised at the comment.

  “You don’t honestly believe Hamish would have brought something here to infect us all with?” Kate said. “What would be the purpose?”

  “Perhaps none,” Daniel said. “He might not have even known he brought it with him. It could have stowed away on his clothes, in his suitcase. But he brought it with him nonetheless. Think about it. Everything has gone downhill since he came here.”

  “It makes sense,” Patrick said.

  “No, it doesn’t make sense,” Kate said. “Why would there be a dangerous virus on Hamish?”

  “Bacteria and germs get passed around remarkably easy, you know that,” Daniel said. “A single sneeze or touch can pass the germs on.”

  Could Daniel be right? Could he have accidentally brought something with him? He hadn’t had much contact with Ian before he got infected, but then, a virus didn’t require much.

  “What about Dr. Scott?” Kate said. “Hamish wasn’t here when he disappeared.”

  “We’re not blaming him for Dr. Scott’s situation,” Daniel said. “Only Ian, Jeff, Lindsey and Carl’s.”

  Hamish felt like he was floating above himself, looking down on the others. It didn’t seem like this was really happening. Was it really his fault the others got infected? He shuddered at the idea.

  “This is Hamish’s fault,” Daniel said. “Everything was running fine before he turned up. He must have brought the virus with him.”

  “Will you listen to yourselves?” Kate said. “I understand you’re afraid, but there’s no need to start casting ungrounded aspersions.”