by Amy Miles
“How?” Ember says and throws her legs over the side of her cot to sit up. “We are stuck in this hole. I don’t know if you’d had a chance to look around yet but there is one only way in and it’s through that massive metal door.”
Now that she mentions it, I turn my head to look around me. The ceiling is low and cobwebs still hang in a couple of the corners. The space is obviously only partially converted and the cots were set up in a rush. There are none of the straight lines or tightly made beds here. This is a hodgepodge of supplies thrown into a single room and then abandoned.
The only thing that does look complete is the big ass door Ember mentioned.
Gritting my teeth, I turn away from the exit. “If Coleman is right and he did hear his dad’s voice then that means whoever’s radio he borrowed probably no longer needed it.”
“Like they left it behind?” Vaughn asks.
“As in they are dead, idiot,” Meran speaks up and I turn to look at her. There is a faint bruising around her right eye. Her skin is pale and she sits hunched over with her arms wrapped around herself, almost like she is trying to cradle an injured arm or shoulder. Flynn watches her out of the corner of his eye and I remind myself that I need to have him try to pry some information out of her about what happened after she was removed from Mrs. Gentry’s home.
Vaughn’s eyes widen and he smirks. “Right, because that seems so much more plausible than Coleman jonesing for a sugar bender.”
“Do you ever think before you speak?” I growl and turn on Vaughn.
His smirk falters and he glances at several people around him before finally shrinking back into himself. He draws his legs up onto his cot and leans back against the wall.
I take a steadying breath and remind myself that getting angry is only going to make my headache worse.
“Do you think someone went nuts and shot up the place?” Tyrel asks. Isa sits so close to him that she’s practically in his lap. Their fingers are laced together and he has a protective arm around her back.
“No.” I reach under my bed and retrieve my boots. It hurts like hell to bend over and tie them but I need to be ready for anything that comes through that door. “You can’t have a containment breach unless there is something needing to be contained. So either the docs are playing mad scientists with whatever caused the outbreak or…”
I turn to look at Coleman and see him take a long, deep breath before he finishes my thought, “or there was something in that lab that got out.”
Sammy looks back and forth between us but I remain focused on Coleman. His eyes are swollen and rimmed with red. I know that his line of thought proceeded mine long before I awoke. He’s had time to theorize what happened to his dad and whether or not his luck may have just run out.
“Either way, this is bad, right?” Darby asks in a soft voice. I look around, confused as to where she spoke from and see her curled up in a small ball on the cot directly behind Tyrel. She speaks again when she realizes that everyone has turned to look at her. “That’s why they have locked us in here? To keep whatever it is out there out?”
I can’t tell if Darby’s naiveté is genuine or if she is just being annoyingly hopeful.
Raising my hand, I point to the exit door. “That right there is a blast door, Darby. Nothing is getting in or out without us knowing about it.”
“So we are safe?” She slowly pushes up to a seated position and tucks her feet under her, pulling her blanket taut over her knees.
I meet Tyrel’s straight gaze before I shoot a pointed glance at the three soldiers standing nearest the door. “From what is outside, yes. But we are not truly safe while they are here.”
“So what do we do?” Isa asks.
I smile. “We make a plan.”
The tension in the air mounts with each hour that passes. It is impossible to feel the natural progression of the sun while buried under the ground in a windowless concrete and cinder block room, but I am sure that night will be falling soon. Sitting with my back propped against the wall, I pick at the white gauze that has been wrapped three times around my head. I'm not sure who bandaged me up but I know that I’d trade the wrap in a heartbeat for pain meds.
Not long after my stomach begins to growl in protest, our history teacher, Miss Stewart starts passing out small bottles of water and beef jerky. I can't help but smirk in response to Poppy and Willow asking for a vegetarian option out of respect to the poor innocent cows that were cruelly sacrificed as I bite off half of my stick.
I feel Ember’s eyes on me from time to time but I don't look her way. It is better not to encourage that. She seems lonely as she sits off by herself and I find myself wondering what her story is. We all have one. Flynn might even know it but I'm not about to pry, or show that I care. Ember seems just nice enough for me to know she is all kinds of wrong for me.
“Did you see anything before they brought us down here?” I ask a while later after the ringing in my ears has subsided a little.
Four sets of eyes look my way but only Tyrel speaks. “The soldiers were moving the buses to park them end to end lengthways between the two fences. They blocked our view of the street and the gate beyond when we marched past.”
“Smart.” I curl my knees up into my chest and tug the scratchy blanket up under my chin. It is cold in the basement.
The rattling of the exposed metal piping overhead ceased an hour before, which tells me that all reserves have been rerouted to supply this room from the main school, but as I look around I fail to see any heaters. The soldiers never had a chance to finish prepping this space.
“What else?” I need intel to gauge just how royally screwed we really were. “Did you see any soldiers running our way? Was there any gunfire? See smoke? Did you hear any further radio transmissions?”
Tyrel scrunches up his nose in thought but it is Isa who answers. “The soldiers appeared to be heading away from the school, apart from those already stationed here. I think I saw a fire in the distance. Maybe they were just called back to put it out and will return to let us out soon.”
“Not likely.” It would be too easy to allow myself to hope so I force myself to focus only on the facts.
Perhaps they really did lock us in as a precaution. Maybe they were able to handle whatever the breach was before it spread. It could all be over already...or it could just be starting.
“What do you really think happened out there?” Tyrel leans in closer, replacing Sammy at my side who has wandered off in search of more beef jerky.
“I think those quacks in the hazmat suits messed with the wrong thing and it came back to bite them in the ass.”
“Literally?”
To that, I do not have an answer. Everything I know about zombies came from a writer’s imagination or a Hollywood film set. How am I to know what is real and what is fantasy? It is all speculation until it becomes reality.
“My house mom was taken this morning,” Tyrel whispers as he casts a cautious glance over his shoulder. “They kept it quiet with only a small group of soldiers. I doubt the neighbors even heard a commotion.”
“So everyone went peacefully?”
“No. My mom fought back.”
I lower my head when his voice cracks. “I'm sorry.”
He wipes a hand over his mouth. “The sun had barely breached the edge of my window when I heard boots on the stairs. I was just shoving my legs into my pants when they burst in, looked around and then backed out again. I managed to get to my door in time to see my mom yanked out of her room by her hair.
When I close my eyes I can still hear her screams as they dragged her down the stairs. They didn’t even let her get dressed before they hauled her out into the street. My dad tried to reason with them, but the man with a clipboard said she was the one and they chucked her up into the back of a truck. When she tried to flee she took a hard blow to the back of her head. There was a lot of blood, Roan.”
“If she's anything like you, she's a fighter. She will make it out o
f this.”
I didn't really believe that. Not if she had been labeled as infected. More than likely she has already been disposed of.
Or maybe not. I guess a lot depends on whether or not she lived long enough to get caught up in the containment breach drama.
As I sit in silence, watching Tyrel worry his hands together, I begin to wonder if there is a period of delay before the bloodwork shows a positive result for infection. If so, does that mean that Tyrel may have come in contact with the same contaminant and brought it with him into the school?
“What about your house mom?”
I hadn’t realized that he even had one. Since his entire family and part of his father’s staff arrived together I just assumed they would be given their own house together. It doesn't make sense that his group would be split up unless…
“Of course! They are part of them.” I slam my fist down into the cot, feeling the vibrations ripple up from my fist. “Don’t you see? The group homes, the rules, the parents already in place when we arrived...these people are spies for the government!”
Tyrel frowns. “That seems a bit far-fetched,don't you think? Why would they go to that much trouble to cover it up?”
“Fear, Tyrel. Genuine, paralyzing fear. Desperation leads people to do crazy, yet brilliant things if it can lead to their survival.”
I sit back and place my laced fingers on the crown of my head and blow out a long breath.
“I think they've been telling the truth. They really don’t have a clue what caused this.”
Tyrel stares at me for a moment as I process the truth of my statement and then feel him stand. He hesitates a moment before turning back. “I know you like to do things you own way, but you might want to keep that revelation to yourself. Stealing away people’s hope, when it’s the only thing they’ve got left, might not go in your favor.”
I watch him walk away, pausing to place a comforting hand on Isa’ shoulder before moving off to sit with Coleman and Roderick.
“That was some deep shit you two were chatting about,” Teegan says.
I lean back so that I don't get baby slapped by her stomach as she sinks ungracefully onto the cot in front of me.
“Does being pregnant affect your hearing as well as that smart tongue of yours?” She laughs and then blows out a long breath between pursed lips. She looks flushed and the skin around her eyes is more pinched than normal. The way she holds her belly with clenched fingers makes me wonder if she's going to try to pop out the kid here in front of me. “You ok over there?””
“Don’t tell me that under all of that selfish bravado you actually care, Roan.”
I want to be offended by her callous tone but I know she is right. I don't really care. At least I shouldn't beyond the point where my needs for information potentially ended tonight. She seems decent enough but I know nothing about kids and have no intention of learning. Still...her suffering bothers me and I hate that.
“Don’t worry, she groans and leans back onto the cot, using the back metal frame to hold her upright. “Your secret is safe with me.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because I’m not going to have anyone’s death on my conscience. If word spread through the group that those pansy soldiers have been spying on us the entire time it would create a panic we don't need.”
She has a valid point. News like that could lead to chaos and if proven to be correct could induce possible suicides. I don’t exactly want my name stamped on any of those either, but they need to know the truth. I just have to find the right of telling them.
I scratch the back of my head. When the hell did I become the guy with that job? I never wanted any of this. I just want to be left alone, not lead. I'm the worst sort of guy for that job.
“You told me this morning that you thought the docs want my baby. You’re right, you know?” Teegan says softly. “I’ve heard them talking when they think I’m sedated. Apparently I have a pretty high tolerance for medication.”
“That must suck.”
“You have no idea.”
“Why have they been sedating you?” That was odd. None of us had ever undergone tests that needed such an extreme drain on supplies.
She wipes her forehead and shifts again, propping her arms out to the sides to try to help her balance out the weight straining on her back.
“They claim my baby has been under too much stress since I got here. Poor nutrition, inadequate diet, no vitamins...that sort of thing. They've been monitoring me daily for a while now, but I can see they are getting more anxious about the delivery with each day that passes. And here I thought that was my job,” she snorts.
At first, I want to believe that it's all bunk, that their anxiety is faked for her benefit, but as I press my head back against the wall I realize it must be true. Why else would they monitor her so closely? They need her to deliver a healthy baby, and I need to know why.
“Have you heard them say anything else? Anything that would lead you to understand why they are going to such great lengths?”
She nods slowly. “I'm one of four ladies close to term. One went into labor yesterday during my testing. Sure did create one heck of a ruckus. One minute I was prepping to have my blood drawn and the neck there was a flurry of doctors and nurses, curtains drawn and I was being escorted out to head to school early. I had a personal escort.”
That I don't like to hear. They didn’t even finish her blood work.
“We're you able to see anything?”
“Nothing. They made sure of it as they shoved me through the back door.” She pushes upright and wraps her arms around her. “But I know what they are doing, or at least what they want to do: Stem Cell research.”
“That’s on unborn babies, right?” I know the term only in one of those “yeah, I heard about that once one social media” sorts of ways. My lack of understanding must be pretty clear because she laughs and takes pity on me.
“Well, that depends on your definition of when life begins, but yes, in theory, that would be embryonic stem cells. But after a baby is born, stem cells can also be pulled from the umbilical cord, breast milk, and even bone marrow.”
“Well that’s good, right? That means your baby will live.”
She shakes her head. “They’ve already begun collecting from my umbilical cord. They just don’t know that I know.”
When she lifts her shirt I see bandaged incisions along her abdomen and suddenly understand far more about her comments dealing with sedation. I feel a pang of regret for her when she lets her shirt fall back into place. She’s alone and probably scared and I’m the one guy she’s telling about it. Dammit.
I’m no hero but the way she’s looking at me right now makes it pretty darn clear that she’s hoping I will choose to be in her case.
“I’ve heard the doctors arguing about it,” she whispers. The cot creaks beneath her as she tries to push forward. “The procedure isn’t supposed to be done until after the birth but I think they are desperate for a cure. Stem cells used to be able to treat blood disorders and immune issues. They think that whatever this virus is that’s creating the Lame Brains might be able to be reversed using those cells.”
I blink several times, feeling like I’d just suffered through an info dump of epic proportions landing on my head. When I finally focus on Teegan again I see moisture lining her lashes and shift uncomfortably. I never know what to say when girls cry.
“Do you think they could do it?”
When she shrugs I realize just how small her shoulders are. They are hollowed out and carved deep enough to see skin stretched tight over bone. The doctors were probably force-feeding her through IV tubing as well.
I wasn’t around when she arrived, she was already here, but I can only imagine the state that she was in when they found her.
“Look, Roan, I know that you’re just trying to look out for number one. I get that, I really do, but you need me just as much as I need you. If we get out of this hell hole and thi
ngs go back to normal, I’ll be your eyes and ears inside of that lab if you promise to do whatever you can to help me save my baby when the time comes.”
That is a hard pill to swallow. Promising to bust into a secure medical facility when she goes into labor isn’t exactly a small thing. Or what if things don’t improve and she is forced to give birth right here in this dank room and I am stuck having to protect her instead of escaping with my mom?
“Please,” she whispers and reaches out to place her hand on top of mine. “I wouldn’t ask unless I had to.”
“Yeah, I know that. You’re a hard-ass just like me.” I offer a small smile. “I’ll do what I can but you gotta know I can’t guarantee that I can pull it off. I’m good but I’m outnumbered. I’m sure a few of these guys would join in but they aren’t trained.”
“They’ve got hearts and that’s a lot more than I can say for those doctors. I’d put my money on you any day, Roan.”
I grimace. “You done with the mushy crap now?”
She smiles and pulls her hand back. “It’s about all I can stomach for now.”
I laugh. “You know...you’re not half bad.”
“I was just thinking the same thing myself.”
She rocks forward and clings to the front of the cot. The back two legs start to rise off the ground and it takes me a couple of seconds to realize that she’s trying to stand up. I lurch forward and grab hold of her arm, easing her up to her feet. Her breathing is labored by the time she regains her balance steady. “Thanks for that. This whole being pregnant thing is a real bitch.”
I stand watching her as she waddles back over to her corner. There is a stash of water and snacks untouched on the end of her bed. From just off to the side I see Sammy eyeing her food and I swear that if that kid takes a single bite from Teegan I will lay into him hard.
“Feels weird, huh?”
I turn to see Ember standing next to me. “What does?”
“Caring.” With a knowing smile, she saunters back toward her cot, leaving me lost for words.