Queen's Gambit

by M. Lorrox

  Then the shit—or the vomit—hits the fan. As if they were cued by a conductor, all sections of the soldier-orchestra start barfing. Everywhere. It’s like that scene in the movie about the kid’s baseball team where they ride a rollercoaster and projectile vomit onto innocent bystanders. But instead of the innocents, it lands everywhere—the weapons rack, the floor, and all over Charlie, Tiger, and Aharon.

  Each of them gets sick too. One can only be puked on a certain number of times, and by a certain number of people, before one becomes nauseous. The vampires are able to use the barf bags though, so at least the soldiers didn’t have blood puked up onto them, as Walker feared.

  Then, again is if cued by an ironic and sadistic conductor, the soldiers pass the fuck out. They drop wherever they are, some in their seats, some on the now filthy floor, and one against the port side hatch door.

  Tiger nudges Charlie. “Sir?”

  Charlie slowly turns and looks at him.

  “I never thought I’d be covered in so much vomit, sir.” Tiger struggles to hold back his own laughter and keep a straight face, but he fails.

  Charlie sighs. Thanks again, universe; this is great. I really appreciate it.

  Aharon takes one last glance around the cargo area, then closes his eyes. “This all smells bad enough; looking at it is just too much. I’m going to try and get some sleep.”

  Tiger and Charlie follow suit. They close their eyes and try to block out the reality of their current situation. Before long, all three of them are lulled to sleep by the constant sound of the engines and by the vibrations coming through their boots and their butts.

  They each dream of showers.

  The charter bus carrying the vampire kids on their field trip makes the tight turn into the employee parking area at the National Museum of Natural History. It loops around and pulls up underneath a large tent that has been set up along the west side of the building. Frank, the bus driver, parks the bus, and lets it idle.

  Katlyn walks up to the front and picks up the announcement microphone. “We’re here!”

  “Yay!” All the kids scream out; some chaperones join in too.

  “Gather up the things you’ll be needing during the day. We won’t be coming back to the bus until this afternoon.”

  Skip puts his arm around Minnie. “Do you think Valentine wants so come with us inside the museum, or would she rather stay on the bus?”

  Minnie scowls at Skip.

  “Never mind. Are you hungry? Do you need any blood before we go in?”

  She shakes her head. “I’m fine right now, thank you.”

  Skip nods and removes his arm from around Minnie, then gathers the square, fabric bag he’ll carry for Minnie during their trip.

  Katlyn’s voice comes through the speakers again. “Alright, we’re ready to go in, come along everyone, let’s go find some DINOSAURS!”

  “YAY!”

  June finishes a chapter in her book and stands up to stretch. She yawns and looks around at the empty and quiet room. Le-sigh, I wish I could sleep. She sets the book down and decides to see if Beatrice is around. She slips on a pair of sneakers and heads out the door.

  She remembers her sunglasses, goes back into the suite and grabs them, then leaves again.

  Downstairs, she finds her playing chess, like usual, and when Beatrice sees June coming, she closes her notebook immediately. “Good morning, June.”

  She sits down across from her. “Good morning Beatrice. Fancy a game?”

  She nods and starts resetting the board. “I haven’t made my move yet on this other game, but I’ll return to it later.”

  “Oh, thank you.”

  She finds June’s eyes. “No need to thank me, I’ll take a live game over a distance game, any day. And besides, I’ve been noticing some improvements to your technique. It’s fun to watch.”

  June smiles. “Thanks, I feel like I’ve been learning a ton.”

  The door to the courtyard opens again, and Beatrice glances up. Her eyes dart to June, then back to whoever is walking toward them.

  “June, is that you?”

  June turns and sees Candace, and if she’s not mistaken, Dr. Melgaard along with another man. “Uh, hi, Candace.”

  The woman smiles at Beatrice as she approaches her. “I’m so sorry to interrupt your game, I didn’t catch your name before. I’m Candace.”

  Beatrice folds her hands in her lap. “That’s alright, Candace. My name is Beatrice.” She looks at Lars.

  He recognizes her and bows his forehead.

  Candace gives Beatrice a short nod. “Pleasure to meet you.” She turns to June and motions to the man behind her. “This is Dr. Melgaard. I work in his lab.” She gestures to the other, much younger man with dark hair and glasses. “And this is Michael Turner, a researcher in his lab.”

  Dr. Melgaard steps forward and smiles. “Call me Lars, if you’d like. It’s a pleasure to meet you, June.” He extends his hand.

  June looks at him for a moment, then decides to shake his hand. It feels cold. “What can I do for you, doctor?”

  “May I sit?” He puts his hand on the back of the chair on the side of the table between June and Beatrice. They both nod. He pulls out the chair and sits down. “Thank you. My legs always ache; it’s nice to sit when I can.”

  June glances at Beatrice. She’s watching Lars.

  “June, I wanted to thank you for the help you’ve given us, and I’m here to ask for more. But beyond that, we noticed something in your blood that might put you in danger. Are your parents nearby so that we could all talk together?”

  June feels a shiver and freezes. Her eyes can’t help but lock wide open. Did they figure out that sunlight doesn’t hurt me?

  When she doesn’t respond, the doctor glances at Beatrice, then back to June. “Alright, well first, we think we may have a solution to the zombie virus. We need to test our theories, and to do so, it would require another, very small amount of blood. If our hypothesis is correct, we would need additional blood to manufacture the vaccine, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves. I’m afraid, however, that without a few more drops of your blood, we’re at a standstill.”

  “What about the part about me being in danger?” June smells something burning for an instant and then nothing. What was that?

  “When we used the last of your red blood cells for our research, we were left with a small amount of your blood’s plasma. We ran tests on its components, and it had extremely high hormone and toxicity levels. It’s so high, that your blood might soon become toxic, even to a vampire like you, and it could kill you.”

  June looks at Beatrice.

  Candace takes a step into the space between June and Lars and kneels to be near their head level. “Have you been able to sleep, June? Did that medicine work?”

  June shakes her head.

  Candace frowns and rubs June on the shoulder.

  Lars brings his hands up in front of him, leaning his elbows on the table. “I imagine you’ve been feeling quite odd recently. Perhaps, feeling like you’re not yourself, or not in control of your body?”

  Odd? Out of control? Check. And Charlie said I almost bit him this morning... She nods and drops her eyes.

  Lars frowns. “You see, June, when we sleep, our bodies are still very active, even if our minds seem to be less so. And during this time, some waking activities, such as hormone production and tissue degeneration, slow down so that we have time to process harmful chemicals out of our bodies. If you don’t sleep, they build up.” He rubs his forehead and frowns at Beatrice. “If not addressed, this can cause serious problems.”

  June studies him. He seems…intent, but what’s that other thing? Concern? Worry? Anxiety? She spreads her hands out on the table. “So, umm, what can we do?”

  Lars reaches to touch her, but he stops himself. “We need to run so
me tests, immediately. The hormone levels and toxicity we found in the sample would have made a normal human ill. That sample is days old, and by now, it’s likely those levels in you are dangerously high, even for a vampire. I don’t want to alarm you, but your systems could go into shock. You could lose consciousness, and much worse things would happen if we don’t treat this immediately.”

  “Can it be fixed? Can my blood be detoxed or something?”

  He nods. “Yes, yes, of course it can, please don’t get upset. We can definitely treat this.”

  Beatrice clears her throat. “How? What would the treatment be?”

  “If the levels are too high for her body to naturally recover from, she’d have to go through dialysis—either by hemo or peritoneal dialysis. Once her levels are back to normal, getting a good night’s sleep should keep her healthy.”

  “But what if I can’t sleep? Then what?”

  The doctor turns to her. “If you can’t sleep by conventional methods, it can be induced.” He looks at Candace. “You gave her Zolpidem?”

  Candace shakes her head. “No, just an over-the-counter antihistamine.”

  Lars scowls. “Well, we have much more powerful medicine than that. If we had to, we could even use XORROL-M, although that might be overkill.” He turns to June. “There are dozens of other medicines, and we can find one that works.”

  “What if none work?” June feels the warmth from Candace and feels comforted by it.

  Michael clears his throat and gestures with his hand. “If no sleep aid medicine will work, you may need to use more radical measures, but I assure you that you’d be able to live a fine and happy life. The danger isn’t the sleep, it’s the toxins that have built up.”

  Lars looks over his shoulder at his assistant. “Thank you, Michael.” He smiles at Beatrice, then at June. “I’m very confident that we can treat this, but I must press that we act immediately before your organs are damaged. We need to test the toxicity levels, and then if we need to, we can filter out the toxins in a matter of an hour or so back at my lab. If you’d like.”

  Candace rubs June’s shoulder.

  June glances at Beatrice, then to Lars. “I need to talk to my dad…and my, umm, cousin about all of this.” She reaches to her front pocket, but realizes she didn’t grab her phone. “Oh, I left my phone upstairs.”

  Lars stands and motions toward the lobby. “I have a car waiting out front. If you like, you can call on the way.”

  Beatrice stands and walks over to June. “Hold on now, she’s fourteen. She’s not going anywhere without her dad’s permission. And I’m staying right here with her until he arrives.”

  Lars lifts both of his palms up in appeasement. “Oh my, I didn’t mean to imply anything; I was just offering the option. I’m just trying to help… Whatever you decide, June.”

  June pushes her chair back and stands. “I at least need my phone and my bag from the room. I’ll call my dad and my cousin from there.”

  Candace nods and folds her hands in front of her waist. “Of course. I’m so glad that we found you. When the doctor showed me the results of the hormone and toxicity screens, I got really worried.” She looks at June with concern mixed with relief.

  June smiles at her. “I’m a tough chick, what can I say?” She turns to walk through the lobby to the elevators, and Lars follows. “You know, if you can reach your dad on the phone, it may help for me to speak to him directly, to explain what’s happening. I’m sure he’ll be very concerned about this news.”

  June nods, still walking. “Yeah, he’ll be a lot more than concerned.” She turns in the lobby toward the elevators.

  “And perhaps it would help if I explained to you how the dialysis process would work? If we do need to take that route, that is.” Lars walks faster than he usually would to keep up with June, while Beatrice, Candace, and Michael all trail behind the two of them. “If our presumptions are correct, the process will likely need to be started immediately.”

  June glances over her shoulder at him. “I just picture tubes and machines, and...it doesn’t seem fun.” She hits the button on the elevator, and the doors open. They all step in. June hits the button for the tenth floor.

  Lars laughs. “It’s not that bad actually. We’ve made many advances—”

  The doors to the elevator close.

  Sky shows Eddy and Jambavan how to use the library’s database search, and they each hunt for information on ancient writing systems. Eddy pulls up an article, then scans it for pictures. He snaps his fingers. “Bingo.” He reads more of the page, then pulls back to tell Jambavan and Sky what he found. “The writing is called Cuneiform. It’s an ancient Sumerian script that over time evolved from pictographs to characters.” He looks back at the screen. “This says it was adapted and used in...nine different, ancient languages.”

  Jambavan swallows. “That doesn’t make it easy.”

  “No.”

  Sky leans over to look at the screen. “Sure it does!” She skims the page Eddy was looking at then points to it. “We’ve limited it down to... Somebody write these down.”

  Jambavan spins back to the notepad he has in front of him. “Go ahead.”

  Sky reads them out. “Sumerian, Akkadian, …Eb-la-ite? Echo, Bravo, Lima, Alpha, India, Tango, Echo. Then there’s Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hattic, Hurrian, and Urartian.” She frowns. “I suppose that still is a lot, but at least we know where to look next.”

  Eddy nods. “Alright, let’s look for translation, uh, codes? I don’t know what to call them. You guys know what I mean. So, let’s split up the list.”

  Jambavan tears the sheet out from his notepad, carefully tears the list into thirds, and hands Eddy and Sky a piece of the paper. “And then there were three...each.” He smiles.

  June swipes her card to the hotel suite and steps inside. Lars holds the door open with his foot, still talking to her. “It’s almost entirely painless now, and with your healing abilities, you should be good as new in as little as an hour after the procedure.”

  June nods. “Okay, thanks for telling me. I’m gonna call my dad now.”

  Candace, Beatrice, and Michael stand in the hallway. Michael reaches into his pocket, glances down the hall, then pulls his hand back out.

  June grabs her phone from off the couch and autodials her dad. She waits, then she hears a fast, busy signal. What? She looks down at the phone and hangs up. She notices she doesn’t have any reception. That’s weird… Maybe a text will go through. She creates a new conversation on her phone, adding her dad, Charlie, Sadie, and Eddy to it. “Is there a name for this condition?”

  Lars frowns. “No name specifically exists for your condition; you seem to be quite unique. But if we don’t act immediately, I fear that you’ll experience a combination of sepsis, toxic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatic encephalopathy.”

  June shivers. “In English?”

  Lars is about to respond, but Candace places her hand on his shoulder. “June, all that means is that your blood is toxic, and if it gets worse, then your organs would fail, and you’d die.”

  “Great.” June types a message:

  Bad news, my blood is toxic. Good doctor lady says if not treated immediately I could die. Kinda thinking I’d rather live. Can’t reach dad. Somebody call me!

  She clicks send. “Where exactly are we going?” She starts typing another text.

  Lars grins. “To my lab, where we can work much more efficiently and discreetly than at a hospital.”

  June looks up from her phone and sighs. “Where’s the lab?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, it’s at the Pentagon. I didn’t mean to assume you knew that.”

  She nods. “I only want to have my blood tested for the toxicity. No samples, and nothing at all until my dad gets there.” She types another text:

  Going to mellguard lab at pentagon for test. CALL ME! />
  Lars nods. “Absolutely. The priority is to see what we’re dealing with, then we can take it from there.”

  June glances up again. “Beatrice?”

  She steps through the doorway and into the room. “Yes?”

  “You’ll come with me? I’m nervous.”

  “If you want to go, of course I will go with you, dear.” She gives her an understanding smile. She can tell that June is more nervous than she lets on.

  “Thanks.” She looks past Beatrice toward the door. Lars stands there, smiling. Behind him, she sees darkness, feels cold, and smells burning. Something’s not right... Why is that Michael guy even here? Is he the muscle? Are they going to force me if I don’t go along with them? Are they lying to me about being sick? But I feel sick… What would Eddy do? He’d play it cool. Her bag is on the ground near Beatrice. She looks at her cell again as her heart races. It still shows that it doesn’t have signal.

  She makes herself smile at it, and then she turns the screen off. “Alright, I sent a text to my dad and my cousin. They’re going to call me, and then they can meet me at the lab.” She picks up her bag, puts her phone in it, and looks at Dr. Melgaard. “Right?”

  He nods. “Absolutely.”

  June feels a chill coming off him, even though he smiles. Whoa. She pauses, then sets her bag down. “You know, maybe—”

  Lars cuts her off. “June, I tried not to alarm you earlier, but I’m very concerned for you. We need to get you to the lab immediately.”

  She looks at him, and she sees a flash of blue with the cold. Is he nervous? Michael is dark and burning. Anger? He just moved his foot and made a fist. Candace is flowers. She saw the results; they must be bad. I don’t want to die… Beatrice is green and orange—compassion.