So, where Elaina and Alec could find cars, they were often damaged beyond repair. A large vehicle that offered a little more protection than a tiny sports car was preferred, but, at that point, they would have taken anything that ran. Unfortunately, there were no options available to them yet.
Elaina was thankful that she still had Alec. She didn’t know how to hotwire a car, and it would have taken her too much time to figure it out on her own. She made a mental note to watch Alec do it the next time they found a car on the side of the road, just in case she found herself alone and in need of a vehicle.
“I can’t believe the truck got destroyed while we slept just feet away,” Alec moaned, mourning the loss of the military vehicle. “That thing was the perfect size and ran like a dream. We’re never going to find anything like it again.”
“You never know,” Elaina said, half-heartedly. “Maybe we’ll be picked up by another military operation here pretty soon.”
Alec glared. “Don’t say that. If we found that truck, we can find another one. I just don’t get why anyone would vandalize and strip that truck. An infected person wouldn’t take such care to carefully remove the headlights.”
“But an infected person would smash the windows,” Elaina added. “My guess is that it was just a gang of your run-of-the-mill criminals, doing what they do best. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that we’re no different than those criminals.”
Alec gave her a sideways glance. “Do you think it’s possible that there’s someone else out there like us, trying to get to safety? I mean, if you saw an empty truck like that and needed some supplies, what would you do?”
Elaina tilted her head. “We’d probably take whatever we could get. That’s kind of our current plan.”
“Exactly. I wonder if these people have something to do with Natalia and Will’s disappearance.”
“Fat chance,” Elaina said. “If you’re talking about a group of good-natured people trying to get to safety, they’re not going to kidnap two kids. Nor are said kids going to willingly abandon their travel companions to go off with someone else.”
Alec stopped in his tracks. “What’s going on with you? You’re acting really strange.”
“How so?” Elaina asked coldly.
“You’re usually not this moody.”
“Moody?” she cackled. “Excuse me for not always being full of the pep you so desire. It’s just that I managed to misplace two kids that can’t possibly survive on their own. I just keep thinking about how slim a chance there is that they’re still alive. And if they are alive, I bet they’re terrified. I promised Natalia that I wouldn’t let this happen to her.”
“Hey,” Alec said, touching Elaina’s shoulder. She flinched.
“Come on,” he said, dropping his hand to his side with exasperation. “I don’t think you need to hold yourself completely responsible for Natalia’s wellbeing. You have yourself to worry about and, frankly, there are some things that are just beyond our control.”
Elaina fought back tears of frustration. “Yeah, but if there’s no one to take responsibility for the important things in life, what would our world look like?” she asked, throwing her hands in the air.
She felt a strong duty to step up and fix whatever problems she could fix. As far as she knew, she was the only one in the world who could solve the virus crisis. She was also the only one Natalia trusted in her entirety, and Elaina trusted her the most in return.
“I’m sure they’ll turn up,” Alec said gently. “If the border to the east is closed, then it won’t be long until we run into them, or at least meet up with someone who has seen them. They’re tough kids. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”
Elaina took a deep breath, trying to push the fear and worry out of her lungs. Worrying would not help her get out of the small town and it certainly wouldn’t help her find Natalia. She needed to stay calm and think rationally.
“If that’s true, I can’t wait to meet up with the people who stole our truck parts,” she smirked. “If I were a more sinister person, I might just use them as test subjects.”
Alec raised his eyebrows and smiled. “Damn, Lainey. I feel like a whole new side to you is coming out. I mean, besides the side of you that wasn’t a powerful virologist.”
Elaina frowned.
“I’m just kidding,” he groaned. “Honestly, you’re much more badass than you give yourself credit for.”
Elaina blushed and rolled her eyes. She had been described as a lot of things in her time, but badass had never been one of them. Most people went with words like nerd, know-it-all, or freak. However, it felt pretty good to be addressed by this new moniker. His approval made her want to show him that he wasn’t wrong. She needed to be tough and end the virus before it ended them.
“How are you feeling?” he asked as they walked down the road in the pink morning light.
“Fine,” she said, not wanting to overplay the fact that she wasn’t experiencing any virus symptoms yet.
“Awesome,” Alec nodded, sensing that she didn’t want to talk about her feelings. She looked healthy, so Alec didn’t feel the need to be concerned.
It wasn’t long before they approached another town down the road. But this one was clouded in a grey haze. As they got closer, they realized that it looked and smelled just like Seattle did when they’d left it. This city had also been burned to the ground, presumably due to the spread of illness.
Elaina’s heart fell. The further they went from Seattle, the further they were supposed to be from the danger. But it appeared that, no matter where they went, their lives would always be at risk. On foot, she wasn’t sure if they could outrun the virus.
They had been walking all day and had made good time. It was late in the afternoon when they neared the burning town, and the pair were exhausted. The two found a rest stop outside of town and sat at the concrete picnic tables and rested.
“Do you think we can just skip this one and keep going?” Elaina asked Alec, looking at the wreckage of the town just a couple miles away.
“How much water do you have left?”
She held up her bottle and swished it around. “I’d guess about two hundred and fifty milliliters.”
“I think that answers your question. I agree that we shouldn’t stay for too long, but I think we need to grab whatever we can carry and maybe try to find a car. We’re not going to make it very far like this.”
Elaina took a tiny sip from her bottle to wet her tongue. “I’m not looking forward to this.”
“I’m not either,” he said grimly. “Why don’t we rest up for just a little while longer, so we’ll be better equipped to handle any shady scenarios?”
“Call it what it is,” Elaina chuckled. “We’re procrastinating because we know that whatever is left of that city is most likely not going to be friendly to us.”
He returned her sly smile. “Let’s just procrastinate a little while longer, then. We can still make it before it gets dark. I’d just like to spend a few minutes pretending that we didn’t lose two teenagers and we’re about to gather supplies in a ghost town.”
Elaina closed her eyes and nodded, resting her head on the cool concrete. “Just a few minutes, and then we’ll willingly expose ourselves to the greatest danger known to man.”
“That sounds nice,” Alec said dreamily, lying down on the bench. “Then we can go and get ourselves killed.”
They giggled to themselves out of stress and exasperation from the situation they were currently in. Everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours was so terrible that they couldn’t do anything other than lie down on the picnic bench and laugh.
Elaina hoped that, somewhere, Will and Natalia were in a similar situation, laughing in horror at their terrible misfortune.
Chapter Twelve
The next thing she knew, Elaina was being nudged awake by Alec. Night had begun to fall, and the dim light didn’t do much for visibility.
“Lainey, wake up,” he
said, poking her hard in the ribs. “We must have fallen asleep. We need to get into town before it gets much darker.”
Elaina groaned and wiped the drool from her face. “Are you sure we should go? Why don’t we just wait here until morning?”
“Look,” he said, pointing down the road.
“What?” she squinted, scanning around.
He lightly nudged her cheek in the direction he was looking.
“Are they infected?” she asked, as she watched the people mill around in the distance.
“I just started watching them, but I have a bad feeling that they are. They’re moving a little too aimlessly for my liking. Why do they do that?”
She shrugged, sitting up a little straighter. “It’s some type of neurological side effect, that’s for sure. I don’t think any confusion like that ever popped up in my trials, but I also never tested my virus on humans. My side effects were mostly cosmetic and superficial.”
“I’ve seen some drug incidents that look kind of like this, but never this bad,” Alec said. “It almost looks like they’re strung out on heroin, but a little more active.”
“See, I think it looks like advanced stages of dementia. I bet if you did an autopsy of the people who have died from this, their brain would be riddled with holes.”
“You’d see a similar thing with some heavy drug users,” Alec argued. “I’ve seen pictures of brains that looked like Swiss cheese.”
“So, I think it’s pretty safe to say that this virus basically eats the brain. That’s why they look so out of it.”
“Then what causes the rage?” Alec asked.
Elaina chewed her lip. “I’m not sure,” she replied as she watched the infected people with Alec, as if they were at the zoo. “It’s clearly a response to the atrophy of the brain, but it’s pretty strange.”
“It’s almost like what happens to professional athletes who get hit in the head one too many times,” Alec added.
“Yeah, but all of the pounding comes from the inside. The virus is just eating away at these people’s brains until they start acting in ways they would never normally behave. I’m willing to bet that the glucose that’s released from cells is powering these people’s bodies to expend the energy they need to attack. I’d love to have a neuroscientist to work on this with me.”
“Maybe we’ll find one,” Alec said, with some sarcasm. “I still don’t understand the point to all this. Why create these horrible viruses? Is it just because you can?”
Elaina violently shook her head. “Do you think all viruses are bad?”
“Yeah,” he scoffed. “I’ve never heard of a good one.”
“Of course you haven’t,” she spat. “We learn from a young age that bacteria and viruses are these nasty, destructive forces, when, really, they can be quite useful.”
“How so?”
“Take my original virus, for example. The only bad things about it were side effects that I was trying to iron out when this outbreak struck. It had a purpose, and a good one, at that.”
“What was that?”
“Have you ever seen anyone with brain cancer? It’s a really horrible way to die. It causes terrible headaches and can even change your personality. I watched my sister die from brain cancer as I sat around, completely helpless.”
Alec’s face fell. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“It’s fine,” Elaina said softly. “I created the Morgan Strain to fight off these types of cancers. I thought that with enough work, I could maybe even create a safe cure for all types of cancers. Did you know that there are some cancers that can kill a person in just months? Sometimes, doctors won’t even recommend treatment because the patient will suffer the side effects of the drugs with no hope of getting better. I was about to change all of that.”
“Then how is it possible that Bretton’s virus is so similar to yours, but so dangerous? Yours couldn’t have been completely risk-free, right?”
Elaina chewed on her tongue. “I suppose I don’t know for sure. I hadn’t tested on humans yet. There’s always a risk that the virus will affect people differently than animals. That’s why drugs have to go through clinical trials. But I know it was much safer than what Bretton did, which was take my virus and basically make trial and error changes.”
“Still, you were trying to cure all cancers. It sounds ambitious.”
“It was,” she persisted. “But I wouldn’t have done it if there wasn’t potential there. I made calculated moves. I dedicated my entire life to it. He tried to steal my work and completely botched it.”
“Do you ever think about the fact that your work inspired the end of the world?” Alec asked.
“Every day,” she said softly. “It helps when I can remind myself that my virus was meant for good.”
“It was a pretty noble task,” Alec admitted. “It just so happened that the world wasn’t ready for it to be a reality. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be. There are some illnesses that just keep the population in check, you know?”
“It was my sister, though. She wasn’t one out of a few billion people. If I could have saved even one other person’s life, it would have all been worth it.”
“I’m sorry,” Alec said, embarrassed at his carelessness. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I get it. And, honestly, I sometimes wonder if my presence on the Earth has been a net loss or gain. More often than not, I feel like a loss.”
“Oh, don’t say that,” Alec said, squirming in his spot. “You’re so young. We haven’t begun to live our lives at this age. You don’t know what else you’ll be able to contribute by the time you’re eighty.”
“I don’t foresee myself living that long,” Elaina said coldly. “I just want to stop the virus that I partially created. Let’s go into the city and see what we can do.”
“Wait,” Alec said, grabbing Elaina’s hand before she could get ahead of him. She swung around to face him, a pained expression on her face.
“I think I said all of the wrong things. I just want you to know that I believe everything that you’ve told me. I know you didn’t create this virus and I know you didn’t spread it. It’s clear to me that Bretton stole your work and changed it to something destructive. I’m sorry I’ve been so rude and careless toward you since finding out about your true identity. I’m sorry for everything.”
Elaina stared at him. Alec was worried that she was going to flip out on him. She had a fiery look in her eyes as she stared him down. Finally, her gaze softened.
“Thank you,” she said simply after Alec gave what felt like the biggest apology of his life.
“You’re welcome. And, hey, you’re probably the only person to come in contact with the virus that isn’t infected. Your little vial of antidote did that. That’s something.”
Alec turned and led Elaina through the tall weeds that were growing by the side of the road so they could avoid the infected people standing in the median. They trudged through the greenery in silence, not sure if the infected would suddenly act out in a fit of rage. They’d learned that they could never be too careful when dealing with the infected—any second, the switch could flip, sending them from docile to murderous.
Despite everything that had happened in the past day, Elaina felt a little more at ease. She finally felt like Alec was like a friend, and not someone who put up with her out of obligation. She didn’t need Alec’s apology or approval, but getting it felt way better than she imagined it would.
They walked past the crowd of infected walking in the opposite direction without incident. Elaina was thankful that these people were still in the early stages of the illness. Their behavior told her that they were still slightly ahead of Seattle’s disease progression, but not out of the woods yet.
She tried to calculate the approximate distance from Seattle with the time since they’d left the city to figure out how fast the disease was spreading. She hypothesized that if they were able to move one hundred miles a day, they could outr
un the major destruction. The infected would always appear wherever they were, but if they could cover their daily distance, they had some hope for finding a laboratory that was still intact.
The only problem was that they would need to be able to move that many miles in a relatively short time. There was no way they would ever make that on foot. If they got really desperate, she figured they could steal bicycles from a sporting goods store. But, if they really wanted to survive, they’d need a proper vehicle.
The town they were nearing looked to be a pretty good size. If they hurried and found the things they were in need of, they could potentially get out of town that very same night. Finding food, water, and a car wouldn’t be completely impossible.
“I really hope all of the infected that we run into are dozy like those other ones,” Alec said. “I don’t feel like running.”
“I hope so, too. Maybe we’re just seeing a new mutation of the virus.”
“If that were true, I think I’d cry tears of joy,” Alec chuckled. “I mean, that would change the whole trajectory of this epidemic. Those in quarantine would slowly pass away without purposefully infecting others. It would all come to an end.”
Elaina thought about that theory for a while. If Bretton’s virus could mutate to the point where people were entering violent rages, maybe it could mutate to the point where the brain was altered so far that the infected person couldn’t do much of anything, let alone harm someone.
It was a beautiful thought, something that she didn’t want to get her hopes caught on. But, it would certainly make her job much easier. She would have the time to work on a perfect vaccine and cure so that so many people wouldn’t have to get sick.
As she walked toward the smoldering city, she fantasized about a decline in the number of infected and how that would completely change the lives of everyone in the world. Families would be reunited again, people could get back to their normal routines, and Elaina could get back to work.
There would probably be some hell to pay for being the originator of the virus, but Elaina hoped she could clear her name. Little by little, she was collecting witnesses, people who could account for her work. People like Alec, Natalia, and Will could vouch for her and back her story up. But first, she would have to find two of those witnesses.
The Morgan Strain Series (Book 2): Point of Proximity Page 8