‘Hey, I remember what you said—about the guts thing,’ he said. ‘I happen to like my guts where they are. Let them take him. They’ll look after him. I promise.’
Raine took one more look at the two doctors and then down to O.B., his leg almost painted red from ankle to hip.
‘Stand down,’ she said.
‘Fuck you,’ Darla said.
‘Stand down.’ This time the finality that resonated from her voice caused Darla to step back, allowing the doctors to push the gurney through the doors and out of sight.
Ethan, Darla and Salty immediately slumped into the chairs of the canteen table nearby. Now they had achieved their goal of delivering O.B. to the doctors, the exhaustion of their arduous journey started to take its toll.
McCaffrey examined the five men and women he’d escorted and noticed just how weak and dishevelled they appeared.
‘I’m guessing you haven’t eaten a square meal for a long time. I’ll fix you somethin’ while you wait,’ he said.
‘That would be kind of you. Thank you,’ Ethan said.
‘Before I do, I’d better properly introduce you to my associate. This is Major Jane Crawford.’
McCaffrey pointed to the woman who had driven them through the facility’s internal roadway. Her curly blonde hair billowed up around her black leather cap. Her jacket was leather too. Her cargo pants gathered up around the top of her black boots. She nodded with nonchalance, a tooth pick sticking from the right corner of her mouth.
‘Crawford, this is Raine, Salty, Ethan, Darla and Father Edwards,’ McCaffrey said.
The surly-looking woman cast her eyes over the new arrivals until she set her stare upon Edwards.
‘You a Catholic, Father?’ she said.
‘Of course,’ he replied, his craggy face momentarily losing some of its creases. ‘Are you a member of the church yourself?’
‘My whole family was—back before it all.’
Edwards smiled a smile that seemed to hurt him to perform.
‘Well, then, at least I may not be completely useless around here. Please, feel free to visit me for any spiritual guidance you might need.’
McCaffrey sniggered and Crawford frowned in his direction.
‘He’s pretty handy if you want someone maimed too,’ Salty added.
Edwards lost his smile and took a deep breath.
‘I didn’t mean to shoot the boy. It was an accident. You were there—you saw.’
‘I did indeed. I also saw you nearly pull the trigger on me.’
Crawford shrugged and began to take her leave from the burgeoning tension.
‘Looks like you’re gonna have to be the hostess with the mostess tonight, Donny. I’ll catch you folks some other time,’ she said.
‘Yeah, thanks for all your help,’ McCaffrey said sarcastically.
‘Don’t mention it.’
As she walked away, Ethan searched his fragmented memory, trying to figure out who she reminded him of. It was for sure a character from a movie… McCready. That was it! She was like a female version of McCready from The Thing.
‘Where’s she going?’ Raine said.
‘Her quarters are all the way over on the west side of the facility,’ McCaffrey said. ‘It’s more dangerous to be based there, but Crawford likes to keep herself as far away from the general population as possible.’
‘Christ, Miller. You two should get married,’ Salty said.
‘I’ll go get your food,’ McCaffrey said.
He returned within twenty minutes with trays of piping hot microwave food. The kind that used to be served on long haul flights. Some scrambled eggs, beans, processed bacon.
McCaffrey brought one for himself and they all sat and ate in silence. At any other time, the meal would have tasted the way it actually was—rubbery and full of salt, but it was the first hot food they’d eaten for a good while.
Everyone cleared their trays—all except for Darla who didn’t touch hers and Ethan who left the bacon.
‘You, more than anyone, need something in your belly,’ Raine said.
Darla smirked. ‘I lived on the streets, lady. My stomach’s been the size of a peanut for years.’
Salty reached over and pushed the food tray under her nose again.
‘Eat,’ he said.
Darla scowled at him and then jabbed the plastic fork into the firm block of scrambled egg.
‘You mentioned that Crawford’s quarters were on the other side of the facility. Exactly how big is this place?’ Raine said.
‘As I said before, this place wasn’t built for us. It was constructed in the eighties in the event of a nuclear war, primarily to house children to help preserve the species. Grant called it a “lifeboat for humanity”,’ McCaffrey said. ‘After the threat of war started to ease, it was used for secret research projects and to store nuclear warheads. Ironic, huh?’
‘So, where’s Grant now?’ Raine said.
‘Where he usually is. Working in his lab.’
‘Working on what?’
‘On those creatures. He’s still trying to find out what caused the outbreak. Even without the data from Central Control, he believes he’s close, and therefore closer to discovering an immunity to the infection.’
Before Raine could probe him any further on the ‘experiments’ Grant was conducting, Doctor Osgood emerged from the double doors. His previously slicked-down fringe had broken loose and several strands now hung over his glasses. His surgical gloves were so caked in blood, they were indistinguishable from the skin of his bloodied wrists and forearms.
Darla jumped to her feet at the sight of him.
‘Your friend is going to be OK. We managed to remove the bullet and stop the internal bleeding. He’s going to need plenty of rest in order to make a full recovery. So, I would ask that if you want to see him, you make it brief. He needs his sleep. Doctor Foster and I will continue to monitor his progress.’
‘Thank you for helping him, Doctor. We really appreciate it,’ Ethan said.
Osgood nodded. ‘Just try not to shoot each other so much. We have important work to do here.’
Edwards wriggled uncomfortably in his chair.
Raine looked at Darla. ‘Go check on him. Everyone else can see him tomorrow.’
Darla didn’t hesitate and followed Osgood to the medical bay.
‘I’m glad he’s gonna pull through. Now, I got work of my own to do. Security detail. Gotta get things locked down for the night,’ McCaffrey said. ‘Before I go, let me show you where you’ll be sleeping. Follow me.’
They left the rec area and the soldier led them along a short corridor to the living quarters’ block. Each room was identical and consisted of a single bed, a wardrobe and a bathroom and shower unit. The mattresses were reasonably firm, but it was the most comfortable place they had stayed since the refugee camps, and there was hot running water too. McCaffrey told them to take their pick when they were ready.
Once he’d escorted them back to the rec room entrance, he said his goodbyes before he began his regular patrol.
‘You never know. You might get to like it here,’ he said. ‘If not, once your friend is fit enough to travel, I’ll take you back to the Wilderness and you can head for the cold. It’s still a free country as far as I’m concerned.’
When they re-entered the rec room, Darla was already back from her visit.
‘How’s our boy doin’?’ Salty said.
‘Still a royal pain in the ass. Even gettin’ shot didn’t cure that. He’s sleepin’ it off,’ she said.
‘Good. Now you can relax,’ Salty said.
Darla shrugged. ‘I am relaxed.’
‘I saw how pale you looked when they wheeled him through those doors.’
‘I was already pale. I’m strung out—remember?’
Salty smirked and took off his cap to reveal the angry orange tuffs of hair sprouting from the top of his bandage. ‘Yup—I remember.�
�
Ethan wandered over to the two glass-fronted refrigerators on the east wall and crouched down to examine their contents.
‘Anyway, I think we should toast to our friend’s recovery,’ he said. ‘And it so happens I have just the thing.’ He opened one of the refrigerators and pulled out a bottle of vodka. ‘It’s not the cheap shit either.’
‘I don’t think that’s such a good idea. We’ve had a rough day,’ Raine said.
‘Oh, nonsense, Miller. Why stand on ceremony? He never stood on us, did he?’ Ethan replied.
‘Fuckin’ A! Rack ‘em up, Twilight,’ Salty said.
‘Oh, we aren’t doing shots, my friend. I may have a much better method of delivery.’
Ethan moved over to a set of cupboards next to the breakfast bar and searched through them.
‘He shoots, he scores,’ he said with the biggest grin on his face.
‘What?’ Salty asked.
Ethan spun around to face him with a cocktail shaker in his hand and a bottle of sugar syrup liqueur. ‘Looks like someone in this place knew how to party in style.’
Salty frowned at the sight of them. ‘Oh, hell no! I ain’t drinkin’ no pansy-ass fruit juice. Give it to me as God intended.’
‘Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. And I’m pretty sure it never said anything in the Bible about God being a bootlegger,’ Ethan said.
‘Huh?’
‘Just give it a chance, you miserable old bastard.’
‘What the hell,’ Darla said. ‘I’ll give one of your gay drinks a go if he won’t.’
‘Excellent! One “gay” drink comin’ up, little lady,’ Ethan said, as he scurried around the food prep area looking for the other components he needed. ‘What say you, Reverend?’
“It’s Father,’ Edwards said. ‘And no. Thanks all the same. I do not partake, except for a glass of red wine every now and again.’
‘Of course,’ Ethan said excitedly clicking his fingers. ‘If I see any blood of Christ around, I’ll let you know.’
Edwards took a seat again at the back of the room, his blank expression indicating he was completely unimpressed with Ethan’s joke.
‘And I suppose you’re going to turn me down too, right, Miller? But I warn you, I spent hours perfecting my signature cocktails. You see, it’s all about getting the measurements just right.’
Ethan continued to work away, pouring a measurement of vodka into a stainless-steel jigger he’d found, and then tearing the lip from a carton of cranberry juice.
Raine leaned over the breakfast bar to whisper in his ear.
‘You might be fooling the others with this Tom Cruise act, but I know you only want to get hammered to forget what happened on that beach.’
Ethan’s playful exterior disappeared and he gave her a sideways glance.
‘It seems you’re pretty handy at killing lots of things, including the mood.’ He knocked back a shot of vodka from the jigger, swallowing hard, and turned away to face the back wall where Father Edwards was sitting. ‘Well, well. What have we here?’ He noticed something that helped to cheer him again.
Ethan left the breakfast bar and strolled over to the colourful-looking jukebox. It had the classic smooth shape of older models, but it was clearly packed with the most modern technology. The exterior sparkled with a red glitter finish and its interior flashed with neon blues, greens and yellows of its LED lights. There were no records to be switched onto a playing arm. It was all digital and amplified, containing hit songs that dated from the 1960s up to present day.
Sitting next to it on a coffee table was a huge jar full of coins. The label below the slot on the jukebox read ‘One quarter per play’.
He grabbed a handful and pushed five coins into the slot. He seemed to hit the selections too hastily to have made considered choices and soon the music filled the room with the kind of clear, crisp sound that could only be possible during the last decade.
Ethan began to dance around, hopping from one foot to the other, not taking himself entirely seriously. When he attempted to pirouette and almost fell on his ass, Salty and Darla both laughed.
‘Are you gonna make these drinks or not?’ Salty said.
‘Comin’ right up.’ Ethan danced back to the breakfast bar and recommenced his cocktail mixing.
Near the jukebox, Edwards winced at what he deemed to be a garish noise and Raine was unmoved as she watched the rest of the group indulge themselves with alcohol and the illusion of safety.
‘Goddamn, that’s sweet!’ Salty said as he took a sip from a glass containing the red and orange concoction. ‘Tastes like a kiddies’ popsicle. Don’t drink too much of this, Darla. It’ll rot your… Oh, my bad.’
Darla knocked back her drink and simultaneously flipped Salty off.
‘You mock, but I don’t see much left in your glass,’ Ethan said. ‘It’s nice to go back to making cocktails that don’t burst into flames.’
‘Alright then. I admit they’re passable. Now make me another one,’ Salty said.
Within twenty minutes, they were all onto their third cocktail, laughing and joking over the music like they didn’t have a care in the world. They never noticed Edwards slip away to the living quarters.
Raine did. And she had a mind to do the same. Before she made the move, a stranger entered the rec room. Startled by the commotion and laughter, he stood and stared at the group by the breakfast bar. Then he turned to Raine.
His eyelids seemed heavy. Like he was half asleep. His grey shirt and jogging pants were covered with creases, and Raine noted how odd it was to see someone with slippers on their feet again.
‘Hello,’ he said apprehensively.
‘Hello there, my man,’ Ethan said. ‘Jason, isn’t it? McCaffrey mentioned you.’
‘Erm, yeah. That’s me.’ The black man scratched the top of his hairless head. It hadn’t been shaved like Raine’s. He’d clearly gone bald some time ago.
He approached Raine as she was closest and held out his hand.
‘Jason Schaffer,’ he said.
Raine responded with a simple nod, and then walked past him and out of the doors leading to the living quarters.
Bewildered, Jason watched her leave before turning his attention back to the others, wondering how he could have done something to upset her in such a brief moment.
‘Don’t take it personally. Or, it would be more accurate to say, don’t take her personally. She’s like that with everyone,’ Ethan said.
‘OK,’ Jason said, unsure what to make of any of it. ‘I was sleeping in my room and I heard music.’
‘Sorry if we woke you,’ Ethan said.
‘No problem. Can’t say as I sleep much anymore,’ Jason said.
‘Ain’t that the truth,’ Salty said.
‘Seeing as you’re here.’ Ethan lifted his glass filled with the colourful cocktail mix. ‘Shockabuku?’
‘Excuse me?’ Jason said.
‘It’s my own special invention—the drink, not the word. It’s a Buddhist term. It’s about breaking negative thought patterns, or if you’ve seen the movie: a swift, spiritual kick to the head that alters your reality forever.’
Jason looked at Ethan blankly. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be rude, but I’ve got absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘It’s like blowing a Gummi Bear,’ Darla said. She stared into her glass, suddenly unsteady on her feet.
‘It may taste like something I used to order for my ex-wife, but it does what liquor should do.’ Salty gulped what was left of his third glass and slammed it down on the breakfast bar. ‘Keep ‘em coming, Twilight!’
Ethan gave Salty a refill and made one other from what was left in the shaker. He slid the drink over the bar to Jason, even though he’d never accepted his invitation.
Ethan raised his glass to Jason and then the others. ‘To our new acquaintance.’ Before he could get the drink to his lips, Salty grabbed a fi
rm hold of his wrist. He stared at him intensely, as if Ethan had caused offence by forgetting something vitally important.
‘To absent friends,’ Salty said.
His sobering remark gave Ethan pause for thought and ignited a sense of guilt for feeling so sorry for himself. ‘To absent friends,’ he repeated.
5
Darla peered through the observation glass into the room where O.B. lay sleeping.
His leg was elevated in a harness, the wound dressed neatly. Two intravenous lines from his arm linked up to the blood and saline bags hanging from the drip stand next to his bed. On the opposite side, the ECG machine beeped away as it monitored his heartrate.
She could barely even remember making her way there from the rec room. Ethan’s cocktails had numbed her brain to the point of operating on autopilot. Nevertheless, she could still feel the gripping anxiety of her withdrawal ready to creep up her body and take hold as soon as the effects of alcohol wore off. No number of cocktails could dull the edges indefinitely. There had to be something more. After all, they were in a medical facility.
She stepped away from the glass and wandered along the corridor to the next room. The dim lights cast an eerie spell over the lab equipment inside. She recognised some of it. Microscopes, centrifuges, incubators, cupboards marked with biohazard warnings, all of them locked.
At the back she located the refrigerators and freezers. There were also glass-fronted cabinets packed with drug vials and bottles of pharmaceuticals.
She traced her trembling finger across the glass, attempting to read the complex wording on each label, searching for something that sounded even vaguely familiar.
‘Visiting hours were over a long time ago.’ The whispered voice came from the shadows behind her.
Darla nearly jumped out of her skin and spun around to see Osgood standing a few feet away.
‘Jesus, Doc. You damn near finished me off.’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, but then again, I’m meant to be here,’ Osgood said.
‘Just came to look in on the kid before I turn in for the night. Got curious about this place is all.’
‘Curious about anything in particular?’
Everything Dies [Season Two] Page 6