She hesitated. “Whatever their test is, it’s half-assed. Doesn’t prove anything. They could just throw us out based on some stupid—”
“You promised to tell me Shay. You swore you wouldn’ let me bring anything out to Randi.”
“And if I’m ever— convinced that you’re infected, I’ll tell you.”
“Been sslurring haven’t I? Noticing it now. How long have I been doing it?”
“I don’t know,” Shay admitted. “But it doesn’t prove you’re sick. People slur for lots of reasons. We’re wiped out. Just need some sleep.”
Bess and Gary glanced at each other.
“When’d you notice, Shay?” Neil asked. “Maybe you don’ know when it sstarted, but you know when you noticed.”
“Look, you’re in shock. Probably me too. We can splint your arm, that nurse we helped can do it. Eat something. Then we can talk about this— idiot test.”
Gary nudged Bess’s elbow. “Better get Toby out here,” he muttered.
“When’d you notice?” Neil insisted.
“The pharmacy, I guess,” said Shay. “I was— I would have told you when I was sure. I’m not sure Neil. You don’t just blurt something like that out when you aren’t completely positive.”
“But that wass— two or three days ago now. When Cody was still— sane. Alive.”
“Yeah. And we’ve been a little busy since then. I didn’t really have much time to stop and watch you. Didn’t really want to, either.”
“So less be sure. Take the test. Don’ wanna walk out of here if I should be in. Don’ wanna bring thish anywhere else. Do you?”
“No. But I also don’t want to be shut out here with the crazies to starve until one of ‘em gets me either.”
“We aren’t assholes,” snapped Gary. “It’s not like we’re just going to leave you. Sick people go to the staff lounge down the hall. Plenty of food and we’ll send a team to check on them every few hours.”
“Check on them and do what exactly? Clean up the carnage? Shoot whoever’s left? Decide who gets shoved out into the hallway or down to the pool?” snapped Shay.
“N— no, I didn’t mean—”
“Of course you didn’t. You just push them out and then they have to deal with each other themselves. You never have to make a hard decision at all, do you? Never have to get your hands dirty or worry about falling asleep or—”
“How many are there now?” interrupted Neil. “How many already ssick?”
“Seven,” said a man emerging from the cafe. It was the policeman who had been with the group in the maternity ward. “But we’ll do the test again on the rest of us tomorrow. And the next day. And as long as we’re here. I have no doubt the number will grow.”
“Yeah? And what happens if you start slurring next round? Are they going to boot you out too? If they’re willing to do this to us, then they’ll do it to you, too,” snapped Shay.
“Toby— these are the people who were in the security room,” said Gary.
“I recognized her voice. And to answer your question, they won’t have to boot me. If I show symptoms, I’ll go willingly. If I get sick, I’m already doomed. Why would I want to drag anyone else with me? They can’t help me. There’s no medicine to treat this or therapy to slow it. Once I’m sick, the only thing I can do is infect someone else.”
“He’ss right, Shay,” said Neil. “We both know it. Cody knew it, too. If I’m ssick, I don’t want to bring it to Randi. Or anyone else. No matter— no matter whass going on out there. Don’t— don’t particularly want to get eaten alive, either though.”
“No,” said Toby. “We’re working up a crew to take care of that. Your friend in the cafe, Maisy— she said you brought back all those medical supplies from the blood lab. Is it clear?”
“It wass, few daysh ago.”
“We’ve got a couple nurses with us. They said there should be some sedatives in the lab. Unless you already cleared it out?”
Neil shook his head. “Had a doctor with ush. She’ss— gone now. She told me the medicine cabinets are ‘larmed. We try an’ open them without the right code, it’ll attract the sick people. So we didn’t try.”
“Where did you guide the infected to? We only had to deal with a few on the way down.”
“Therapy pool. But we didn’t get them all there, as you saw,” said Shay.
“A few we can deal with. I don’t think the alarm will draw them from that far away.”
“Who’sh volunteering for this? Let me take a wild guess: the people you already ssent away, right?” asked Neil.
“All of us need that medication. And we need to make certain it gets back here. We can’t risk someone reaching their breaking point during the mission, so— no. It will be people from the cafe. Not you two. You’ve done enough, regardless of what the test results are. We’ll make sure you get some treatment for your wounds before anything else is asked of you.” He turned to Gary and began giving him some directions.
Shay shook her head. “Fuck this guy, Neil,” she whispered. “We don’t need him or his little— cult or whatever it is he thinks he’s got going on here. We’ll go back to the pharmacy. Hole up until—”
“No. We do need them. If you sstill wanna get out of here, we need as many people as we can get. Like Cody ssaid, they’ll be more hesitant to shoot if there are loss of ush.”
“He’s not going to help us. Listen to him. All he cares about is waiting out this quarantine. He thinks the government is still coming to help them.”
“Yeah, I know. But give it a few dayss. Things’ll change. Harlain will call again. More people get ssick. So less take the test. Get some ssleep and some help. You said we need to rest before we try anyway.”
“What if— what if one of us doesn’t pass? What if one of us doesn’t have a couple of days?”
“Then— iss better if we don’t go, right? Better if we sstay and make sure we’re clean. If not— Shay, I’m gonna help you get outta here, no matter what. You still have Randi’s photo?”
“I’ve still got it,” said Shay. “Cody’s too.”
“Addresses on the back, Dante’s on the back of Randi’s photo. You find them. Jus’ kids, Shay, jus’ babies.”
“I know, I know, I swear, Neil. I’ll find them. I’ll get them out of that place, too.”
“So less take the tess then. Get it over with.”
“Do we really have to?” Shay turned to Toby, a last desperate plea.
“You do. Unless you’d just like to join him in the employee lounge instead.”
She glanced at Neil, who emphatically shook his head. “You have to get out. Sstay with the group. When we’re ready, there’s a phone. You can check on me if you want. Could really use ssomething for the pain.”
“Gary’s gone to retrieve the nurse. We aren’t— barbarians. We just have to be practical.”
“Yet,” said Neil. “You aren’t barbarianss yet. Give it a day or two and talk to me again. Keep an ear out for a lady named Harlain on the phone. Ask her if they’re barbarianss out there yet. Don’t think thish is as controlled as they told your team. Shorry, man. Whole thing’s been a mess for us all.”
“Why do you think it’s out of control?” asked Toby.
“Jus’ a hunch. You find yoursself on an upper floor again, take a look out an unboarded window. Maybe iss on the television by now. Don’ know. You keep someone lissening for that phone. You too, Shay. You find out what you’re walking into.”
She nodded.
The nurse from the second floor emerged with Gary. She was carrying one of Debbie’s large medical bags. Neil again felt sorry for not feeling more grief when he saw the bag. Everything felt so… distant. You didn’t know Debbie. Course you aren’t going to be overwhelmed with sadness. Horror, sure. Outrage at what those terrified assholes outside did. But you don’t know her. She’s barely— real to you. The thought disturbed him. He wondered if it were the illness that made him think that way or if he’d always been so— c
avalier about someone’s death. He wasn’t certain which would bother him more.
“Gary tells me it was you two who got us down here,” said the nurse, breaking the awful chain of guilt and fear in his head.
“I— I’m shorry. About your friend. It wass too fass to warn you. Thought she picked up the extinguisher to fight off attacks. Not— for that.”
The nurse teared up. “It’s not your fault. But— thank you, for helping us. I didn’t think any of us were going to survive up there. I’m— sorry you’ve got this too. I— I’m not sure what I can do to help you though.”
“My arm’ss not great. Fell down the stairs. Think I ripped some stitches, too,” he offered, knowing she had meant about the infection, not his injuries. “But Shay’s all bit up. Would you help her firss?”
The nurse shook her head. “She’s going to take her test. You and I will go get you some relief, then I’ll come back to help her. Don’t worry, nobody’s going to be in pain for long.” She led him down the hallway, Gary beside them, still carrying his ax.
35
Whatever Neil had expected in the employee lounge, it wasn’t the panic he saw on the faces of the people inside when the door opened.
“Stay outside,” the nurse told Gary.
“But—”
“Stay the hell outside the room. These people have been through enough. Don’t need you hulking around with an ax. Nobody’s lost it, see?”
He eyed each of them. One woman hid her hands quickly behind her back. Gary was apparently satisfied because he left the room again. Gradually, the other people in the room relaxed and turned back to staring at the silent television that flickered on the wall. Neil glanced at it, seeing a shaky piece of news footage before the nurse motioned for him to sit down on the nearby couch. She started pulling supplies out of her bag and lining up the crinkling, shrink-wrapped pieces beside her.
“Don’t know who grabbed all this, but they did a good job choosing. Was it you?”
Neil shook his head. “A doctor named Debbie. And one of your cusstodians. Cody.”
“They’re not with you?”
“Not anymore. They were— brave. Wish I’d known ‘em better.”
She nodded. “So were you.” She pulled on a pair of gloves. “I don’t— have everything I need and I’m not a doctor, but if we immobilize your arm, it should prevent you from knocking it around so it doesn’t get worse. It’ll have to be the old plaster type cast, I’m afraid. But— in light of— of your condition, that might be for the best.”
“Maybe— maybe we should sskip it. Ssave those supplies for someone who’ll need them longer than I will,” Neil said gently.
“That’s not how we make medical decisions here. And even if it were, nothing I’ve seen has led me to believe this infection is fatal on its own. All we have to do is set you up to survive until help arrives. There will be a cure, I’m certain of it. The news says they’ve already determined it’s a variant of strep bacteria. That’s a big step toward figuring out how to kill it. So if we can treat your body’s other injuries, you have a good chance of pulling through this.”
Neil wanted to believe her, but he wasn’t so sure. He could see she needed to believe it, though, so he stayed quiet and let her unbandage his hand and clean it.
“Sstrep? Doesn’t that travel through the air?”
The nurse nodded.
“Do they— iss there any way the quarantine worked?”
She glanced up at the television. “I don’t know. I hope so,” was all she said.
“Are we— prisoners here?” he asked her.
“No,” said a man nearby, his eyes still fixed on the television. “We can go where we want. ‘cept the cafe with the high and mighty. They’re likely to freak out and whack ush with an ax if we get close though. All the easy food’sh here. And company. We might all be losing it, but for now I’d rather sleep knowing ssomeone’s watching the door.”
Neil groaned when the nurse shifted his arm. She stopped and fumbled with a blister pack of pills. “Here,” she said, putting three into the palm of his uninjured hand. “No reason to keep you in pain while I do this. It’s not powerful enough to put you out, but it should help some.”
The man who had spoken to him got up and went to the sink. He filled a paper cup with lukewarm water and offered it to Neil.
“Whass your story?” he asked while Neil swallowed the pills. The nurse measured some cloth against the length of his arm.
“He’s the one who got us all off the upper floors,” she said.
“Thought it was a woman’s voice,” the man answered.
“It wass. I thought she wanted to do it because she didn’t want to figure out the alarm controlss but now I think maybe she didn’t want you to hear me like thish.”
The man nodded. “Well, you got us down here, whass the plan?”
“You so sure there is one?” asked Neil, wincing as the nurse pulled the fabric down his swollen arm.
The woman who had hidden her hands turned around at that. “There muss be. You have to have a plan. Why risk it otherwise?”
“You won’t like it. Iss not going to help ush. Not directly. Gonna help the othersh get out. Find our families. Iss the only way.”
The nurse shook her head. “That policeman, Toby, he’s never going to allow it. His only idea is to sit in that cafe until the quarantine is over.”
Neil lifted his chin toward the television where a man in a body length plastic suit and a surgical mask was talking to a reporter. Behind him, another hospital was cordoned off by a line of police cars with flashing lights. “I don’ think iss working. Shay thinkss they jus’ left ush here to die. No one’ss coming,” he said.
“I agree. But Toby won’t and the people who were with him are terrified of him. He’s not— I don’t want you to think he’s evil. He hasn’t done anything. Barely even raised his voice. But what he represents: normalcy, authority, someone to rescue them— they need that. And if they go against him, they’re afraid they’ll lose their chance to survive. We’ll have to convince him if we want anyone except your friend and me to help.”
“Give it a few dayss. They’ll run out of hospitals to shut down. And police to keep them that way. If other sstuff don’ start happening first. No plow trucks ousside. Shay and I saw from the upstairs windowss. Shay thinks they shut the road down. But the person who helped ush reach you— she was government. Ousside. Haven’t heard from her in a while. Starting to think ssomething else is wrong out there.”
“Ssome of ush don’ have a few days,” said the woman who had hidden her hands. “Leas’ I don’t think we do. Can feel it, like the worsh ‘xiety attack ever, creepin’ up, sswallowing piecess of me.”
“Whass your name?” asked Neil.
“Doesn’t matter,” cried the woman and burst into tears. Someone nearby, put an arm around her without taking their eyes off the television. Neil could see their fingernails were already bloody.
“Matterss. ‘Cause we’re going to be heroes, unnerstand?” he pointed to the nurse who was wetting plaster bandages at the sink. “Matterss, she’ll remember it. Even if we don’t. Even if you don’t. Whass your name?”
“Nancy,” the woman answered.
“Nancy. You hold on. Won’ be long. You know anyone in the cafe?”
“I know Gary. Work together.”
“Gary’s going to find your family. Isn’t that right?”
The nurse nodded. “I’ll— I’ll look them up myself. Everyone write down your names, your addresses. I’ll let them know where you are. I’ll find them. They’ll come find you and get you out of here. Fight for a cure to get you back.”
“Thass right,” said Neil, though he didn’t believe her. Didn’t really have a reason to. Shay, he trusted. The nurse was kind enough, but he’d seen her close another woman into a room with the infected. He knew she’d had reason, but it still troubled him. It didn’t matter now. What mattered was keeping these people calm until it was time
to rush the barricade. “So you hol’ on Nancy. We’re gonna get them out to get help. Ssoon. Very ssoon.”
36
He woke to the smell of cooking ground beef and struggled to sit up without banging the bulky cast on his arm. The nurse had covered his entire hand with the plaster. She’d said it was to keep the new stitches in place, but Neil knew it was also to keep him from chewing on his fingers, at least on that hand, whenever that stage happened. He was dreading it. He could see others were too, because they obsessively scrubbed their hands. Every few minutes someone was at the sink. They’d run through two bottles of hand sanitizer in the few hours he’d been there and he wondered if it were the same compulsion, just showing up in another way.
“Hungry?” asked Nancy, seeing him sit up.
“Yeah. Haven’t had anything ssolid in days.”
“I’ll make you one, you stay there. Good ol’ tv dinner. Don’ truss ush not to burn ourselves. Microwave only.”
“Honestly, I’m not sure they’re wrong. Don’t think I’d test out my knife skillss right now,” Neil admitted.
“’S better than the nothing we were getting in the patient rooms,” said another woman from across the room. “Thank you for getting ush out of there. Would’ve been an awful way to die.”
“Don’ know that this way’sh better,” grumbled a man, picking at his tray. “Toby says they’re getting ush sleeping pills. Is it terrible?” he waved at Neil. “The bitesh. ‘S it worsh than knife or a bullet?”
“Dunno. Don’t have much experience with bullets. Only experience with knives wass for cooking. It hurt. And sslow. Not the biting, but the pain. Don’ go ‘way easy.”
“You gonna take the pills?”
“No. Gonna flood the perimeter. There’ss soldiers. They’ll shoot anyone trying to get out, but ssomeone’ss gotta get outta here. Let people know what happened. Find our familiess. Gonna use who’sh left and break through the quarantine on the pool side. Let the healthy people ‘scape through the maintenance tunnel. Distrac’ the guardss. ‘S why we shut off the cameras.”
“There’s gotta be dozenss of infected in the pool. You said you sent all of em down there,” said Nancy, handing him a limp, gray looking patty of beef surrounded by mush vegetables. Neil thought it smelled like heaven though.
Before The Cure (Book 1): Before The Cure Page 27