by Cass Kim
For a moment, with birds singing, and the fireflies sparkling in the fading light, Renna felt like she was in a fairytale world. She didn’t react until the man already had his hands around her shoulders, pressing a cloth over her nose and mouth.
Chapter Six
Renna heard the voices first. She woke with her head pounding and a vague sense of panic. Struggling to keep her breathing even, she took stock of the situation with her eyes closed. The more she learned before whomever was talking realized she was awake, the better. She could still feel her entire body, including her aching feet and knees from her long walking. That had to be a good sign. If they were Wilders they would have killed her.
“What were you even doing that close to their house in the first place? And why did you keep following her?” The voice was male, adult.
“We’ve told you a thousand times to stay away from the dwellings, Emerson. Just look at yourself.” The second voice was female. It sounded distinctly scolding.
“But we saved her. I saved her. Did you really want me to just pretend I didn’t know what was happening. To walk away, again?” A third voice responded.
“Yes, I did. I expect you to understand that there is a bigger picture here. And now we have a freshly changed, overly strong specimen with no prior preparation to deal with it, and one that might yet change.” The first male voice spoke again.
“What’s the point in a bigger picture when we aren’t any closer to an answer, and people are turning faster and faster?” Voice three rose with frustration.
Renna felt a shadow fall over her face. She couldn’t help flinching as warm hands rested on her forehead.
“Oh!” the female voice was right next to her, “you’re awake. And no fever yet.”
Renna cracked her eyes open to see a shadow standing over her. “Where am I?” her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth, making the words clumsy and indistinct.
The woman gestured into the gloom around them, “You’re in a cabin in the woods several miles from your home. You are safe for now. Here, let me sit you up. Slowly. The chloroform makes you feel sick as you move at first.”
“I…I can’t really see anything. Am I going blind?” All Renna could see as the woman carefully pulled her into sitting position were gray and black impressions of objects.
“Oh! Boys,” the woman clapped her hands briskly, “please light a few candles for our… guest.”
As the matches flared to life and candles were lit, Renna was able to see a little more clearly. As Renna’s eyes adjusted, she was able to take in the people looking back at her. And she could see the telltale copper pupils reflecting out of their eyes.
“You’re infected!” Renna bolted off the wooden bench she’d been laying on and abruptly collapsed back down as she was overtaken by a wave of dizziness.
“Shh. I warned you you’d feel poorly. I’m not going to hurt you. We’re,” she swung the candle toward the other two, “not going to hurt you. Oh! Well, not more than when Daniel knocked you out.” She winced slightly, and reached out to offer Renna a hand.
Renna ducked away. “Don’t touch me!”
The woman nodded brusquely and backed away a few steps. “Yes, of course. I’m so sorry. I didn’t think about how frightened you must be.”
“Where is my brother?” As the men continued to light a few more candles she was able to see that one was wearing a red shirt. “Did you kill him?”
“No.” The older man answered. “We didn’t kill him. He’s chemically restrained right now.”
“Chemically…? What?”
“He means he drugged him.” Red shirt supplied helpfully.
“That’s not possible. They tried that with the changed. It didn’t work.”
The older man nodded. “Yes, that’s what they told the public.”
“What?”
“Maybe you dosed her a little too heavy, Dad.” Red shirt set his candle down and passed over a rubber drinking pouch.
She recoiled from his extended hand, refusing to take the pouch.
“Okay,” the woman clapped her hands. “Boys, out! Let’s just give her a little space. I’ll answer her questions until she’s a little calmer.”
The red shirted guy, closer to Renna’s age than she had initially thought, looked like he was about to protest when the woman grabbed the drinking pouch and waved him out the door.
“Okay,” she sat across from Renna in a wooden chair, placing her hands deliberately on her own knees, “ask me anything.”
Renna studied her carefully. She looked nothing like the infected she’d seen on tv or in real life. The woman was calm, composed, and her long black hair was silky smooth and carefully brushed. “Who are you?”
“I’m Dr. Soo-Kyong Kim, but just call me Soo. And may I have your name?”
“Uh, yeah. I’m Renna. But I mean, like who are you? How are you infected but… human?”
“Oh! Yes, of course. Well let’s see, it’s a bit of a story. Let’s just parse it down for now okay? My husband, Daniel, and I used to work for the CDC. We were part of a high security research team. There was a conflict with our management; a disagreement in how to manage the virus. We knew we had to leave. We knew of a place where other scientists, specialists within the field, had moved.” She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. “We packed up our life, our family, and moved into the wilderness. As far from any technology, or telephone poles, or power grids as it gets. And we continued our research. Part of that included testing vaccines for the virus. We were our own specimens for a batch, several years ago. It took longer to return to our minds than I had anticipated, but Daniel’s hypothesis on the timing was impressively accurate. We are very close now, to a working vaccine.”
Renna stared at the petite woman, dumbfounded. She’d just casually announced that people could survive the virus. That there may be a vaccine coming. When, for who knew how many years after they’d discovered it, the changed were still executed on sight. “How long? How long have you known? How long have you been changed?”
For a moment the placid expression on the woman’s face morphed into a deep sadness, before she smoothed it over and spoke, “We were infected only about three years ago.” She cleared her throat. “You may have heard about it on the news.”
Renna's mind flashed immediately to the last multi-person attack directly in Cupboard Lake. Just under 3 years ago. A teenage boy, Thomas Kim from DC, had somehow gotten all the way to northern New York and attacked a group of day hikers. There was a lot of speculation on how the authorities should have handled the missing hikers, since hiking in the Adirondacks was no longer legal. They’d refused to send out search parties for survivors after one of the five hikers ran out of the forest, followed by the Wilder who used to be Thomas Kim. The Wilder had been struck dead by a car as he was tearing the hiker’s abdomen open in the middle of the highway.
She studied the woman’s face. The high cheekbones, almond shaped eyes, the smattering of freckles across her nose, “You’re Thomas Kim’s missing family.”
“Yes. That is correct.”
“The news never said anything about you working for the CDC.” The throbbing in Renna’s head was intensifying.
“Yes. As I said, it was a high security position.”
“Why am I here? Why did you guys take me from the woods?”
“Partly because my son, Emerson, involved all of us unwillingly. You were attacked. You may be infected. There are more than a few scrapes on your hands, your feet are a mess. Those are both avenues for infection. We have to be sure.”
“Wait, so you’re just going to keep me here for… months?”
“Actually, the infection to incubation period has been rapidly decreasing with virus mutations, so it should only take a few weeks to be absolutely sure. You saw how quickly your brother changed.”
“Where is my brother?”
“Somewhere safe. Please, take this water. You show clinical signs of dehydration.”
; Renna felt her voice rising with the pounding in her head, “Tell me where he is! Where I am.”
“You’re at a hidden base camp. We can’t really give you that information right now. For the safety of everyone involved in the project. Now,” she smiled softly and proffered the water again. “Please, have some water. It’s perfectly safe.”
Renna looked around the cabin. When Daniel and... what had she said? Emerson? Left, they had not taken any candles with them. The candles on the fireplace mantle illuminated a rustic cabin, simply furnished with mostly wooden furniture. There were worn socks and a few other clothing items hung from nails on the mantel, like bizarre Christmas stockings. The windows were wide open, with wooden shutters stretching invitingly into the night.
“There’s no metal.” Renna gasped, realizing what looked so very wrong.
“Naturally, no. Not in these outlier cabins. Not everyone here is hosting the virus. Some of the cabins use more modern means for light. There are even some generators in the center of camp. Those of us who have sensitivities live a bit off from the rest of the group. It’s more comfortable.”
“So it really does hurt?”
She nodded, “Yes, you should hope you never have to experience it.”
Renna opened her mouth to ask more questions but was overtaken by a yawn. Now that the adrenaline was seeping from her veins, she felt her exhaustion keenly.
“You should eat and rest. We’ll put you in Emerson’s room tonight, and bring you into the group tomorrow.”
“I don’t know if I could sleep here.”
“I think you’ll surprise yourself. Here, have a bit of jerky and the water. We’ll get you a proper meal in the mess hall tomorrow.”
Renna hesitated, then decided she’d do better sorting out the situation tomorrow, in the light. Afterall, they were the changed. She couldn’t outrun them. If they wanted to kill her they’d had ample opportunity already.
Chapter Seven
She woke slowly, her brain struggling to put the pieces of the past few days together. She felt groggy, and sore in so many large ways. Her bones ached. Could she have been infected? There had been so much blood around, and she was covered in scrapes and cuts, with no real way to discern which were from the short fight with Benjamin, and which were from her long trek through the woods. The door to the small room cracked open and a body slid in quietly, head turned away from the bed. It was the guy in the red shirt. He groped quickly through a pile of clothes in the corner and then he ducked back out the door without a single glance in her direction.
She must be in his bed. She felt awkward that she was probably laying in the same sheets this strange boy had been in the night before. If he was infected was that safe? Nothing would matter if she was already infected anyhow. She saw crisp folded lines in the sheets still, perking the stiff fabric across her waistline. She vaguely recalled the woman, Soo, bustling in and out of the room while she’d obediently consumed some tough dried meat. Weak morning light illuminated the room from a small window set high up in the wall.
Renna threw back the covers and rolled out of the bed. Her feet were wrapped in fluffy white bandages, and she had on clean loosely fitting gym shorts and a tee shirt that was about a size too large. She was embarrassed at the idea of somebody undressing her while she slept. Who slept through being undressed and re-dressed?
Her tongue was again glued to the roof of her mouth, and her head felt just a little off, like she couldn’t fully wake up.
“Oh holy hell, they drugged me again!” Renna flung the door open and stomped into the main room of the cabin, ignoring the pain in her feet.
The man was sitting at the table writing in a notebook, and didn’t so much as look up at her when he replied, “It was for your own safety. You were a flight risk, and we can’t have you running around incubating the disease and then unexpectedly changing somewhere in the woods, attacking who knows who.”
Looking around for Soo who had seemed so kind last night, Renna felt her rage growing, “You can’t just kidnap somebody and then keep them prisoner and drug them and undress them and redress them! This is still America! I still have rights.” She felt tears building in her eyes. She clenched her teeth in fury, holding them back.
“Young lady, calm down! Getting upset will not change the situation. Next time, I’ll ask you if you want a sedative first. I judged it was best to make you rest. How are you feeling? Any symptoms?”
“I wouldn’t be showing symptoms yet.” Renna gritted her teeth, feeling obstinate. Being told to calm down did not make her feel any calmer.
“Hm. I expect you would. The virus has begun the next phase.”
“The next phase? What are you talking about?”
He continued as if he hadn’t heard her questions, “We did a blood draw last night, and the results should be in soon. Let’s go down the list, now shall we? Fever?”
“Stop changing the subject. Wait, you stuck a needle in my arm and took my blood while I was asleep? Why would you think that’s okay?”
“There are bigger things to be worried about. Things of which I don’t expect your still developing brain to have the wisdom to comprehend the impact. Now: Fever? Chills? Aches? Muscle spasms? How does the sun feel?”
Renna opened her mouth to tell him that she was obviously not changing as she was having a perfectly rational conversation with him right then, but she thought of the deep aching she had woken up with. That was probably just from walking for hours on end and half sleeping curled up on a hard rock floor. Right? It had to be. Either way, his condescending attitude was absolutely infuriating.
The outside door opened and the younger man walked in, his hair wet, a pair of worn jeans sitting low on his hips. Renna stared at his naked upper half. Not because of the lean muscles rippling with his movements, but because of the enormous bruises covering his rib cage. He looked like he’d been in a car accident.
“Oh, hey. You’re up.” He turned away, snagging the long sleeved tee shirt he’d grabbed from the room earlier and pulled it over his head. But not before she saw the trail of welts, scratches, and bruises on his back as well.
When he turned back she saw how closely he resembled his mother. He had the same smattering of freckles dancing from cheek to cheek, right across his low nose. His eyes met hers, the copper pupils hardly noticeable in the watery morning light.
“You must be hungry. Dad, I’m going to take Renna to the mess hall for some chow, and show her around. Mom said she needs clothes and a job or something to pass the time.”
His father sighed, putting his pencil down beside the notebook to look sternly at his son, “Emerson, you are responsible for her. Her actions now reflect on your choices. I hope you’ve made a wise one here.”
Emerson lifted a hand to scratch the back of his neck, “Uh, yeah. Got it.” He turned to Renna and fake whispered, “Quick, jailbreak before the warden changes his mind.”
She followed him outside, where he handed her a thick pair of boots big enough to fit over her bandages. It was a little cooler, and the trees a little shorter and scrubbier than home. They must be further into the mountain region. Renna stood up after shoving her feet into the boots and was hit by the sudden urge to pee.
She felt her face flush at having to ask this strange boy where the bathroom was. “I’m sorry but I need to….” She trailed off, giving him a meaningful look.
“You need to what?” His dark brows furrowed slightly as he tried to interpret her look.
She tried again, “Where’s the…do you have a…?” She wiggled her hips a little.
“A dance floor?”
“No! Ahem. You know. Nature is calling or whatever.” Her face felt positively on fire.
Emerson burst out laughing, “You mean you need to go to the bathroom? Jeesh, why didn’t you just say so? Follow me.” He led her down a cleared pathway a few feet, at the end of which she saw a small shack.
“You use an outhouse?” Renna gulped. She hated to even use pu
blic restrooms that were nice and clean. She would hold it for hours rather than use a porta-potty.
He was still smiling, “Yeah. But don’t worry, Ma makes me clean it like, twice a week. She hates spiders. I promise, I won’t even listen.” He drew a finger across his heart twice to make an X. He seemed so…normal.
She gulped. Renna hadn’t even thought about the fact that he would probably be able to hear her natural functions through the open windows. With a weak smile she darted into the little shack and went as fast as she could. When she came out he was standing a little ways away, hands clasped behind his back, which was dutifully turned to the shack.
“Uh, do you guys not wash your hands or…?”
“What do you think we are, germ-filled monsters?” Then he paused, realizing that maybe she did indeed think of them as monsters still. “On second thought, don’t answer that. Here.” He tossed her a pocket sized bottle of hand sanitizer.
They started off down the main trail as she scrubbed the alcohol scented gel across her hands and between fingers, wincing as it stung the scrapes and cuts.
After a few minutes of walking in silence, Renna asked, “Are you the one who came out of the woods and saved me?”
He ducked his head a little, “Yeah. I mean, I guess you can look at it like that.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why’d you save me and then let your Dad drug me and imprison me?”
He sputtered out a cough that sounded suspiciously like it was covering another laugh. “First of all, you’re not imprisoned. Technically, you could go wherever you want, I would just have to follow you to keep you and the world safe. You’d probably never find your way to society again anyhow. And second of all,” he turned to her and looked her in the eye for a moment, “I didn’t ‘let’ my Dad drug you. It’s not like I have any control here either.”