Brent Acuff - Undead Nation 03

by Revenge

  The man hurried off to make the call as Alex stepped up behind Theresa. She didn’t seem to notice his hand on her shoulder or the gentle squeeze of reassurance. Theresa watched the mother and son, her own tears streaming down her face.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Conspiracy Revealed

  “How’s the doctor doing, doc?” Alex had stopped at the infirmary to check on Dr. Cahn after his unfortunate run-in with the woman survivor. She had clocked him so hard, Dr. Cahn had trouble remembering his name.

  The nurse at the front desk smiled and chuckled. “Dr. Cahn? Oh, he’s fine. Been up and about — against doctor’s orders — checking medical charts and giving the rest of the medical staff grief over their care of the patients.”

  “Sounds about right,” Alex smiled back. “How about the woman survivor we brought in? Her and her son?”

  The nurse’s smile disappeared. “We don’t keep survivors here. They are over in Z block…”

  Alex interrupted her with a wave of his hand. “Yes, yes. I know the procedure. I also know this was a special case. Nurse…?” The young nurse looked around to make sure no one was watching.

  “Nurse Saunders,” she said.

  “Nurse Saunders. I am in charge of the military training for this facility. I know that there is a secure room in this building for special cases.” Alex smiled wider and leaned in closer. “I’m also the one who brought them in.”

  The nurse looked around again, checking once more for anyone within earshot. She resigned with a sigh and looked back to Alex. “She’s not good, sir. They’ve got her on suicide watch twenty-four seven. Not really for her, but…” She shook her head. “They’re worried she’ll hurt the kid.”

  The smile had faded from Alex’s face to be replaced with concern. “Thanks Nurse Saunders.”

  “Becky,” she said quickly. “Becky Saunders.”

  “Thank you, Becky. Do you know where I can find Dr. Cahn?”

  Becky smiled and gave out a small chuckle again. Not many people laughed these days, and Alex found himself enjoying the few times he heard it. “Dr. Cahn is probably in the recovery room, hovering over the patients instead of staying in his own bed. Through those doors.” Becky pointed to a set of double chrome doors which looked as if they had seen many people pass through. “First right. He’ll be in there, no doubt.”

  Alex’s smile returned and he patted the desk. “Thank you.” Alex quickly passed through the doors, turning right as the nurse had instructed him. As he approached the door, Alex could hear the unmistakable voice of Dr. Cahn. Apparently, he was engaged in a heated debate with someone.

  “Listen, Dr. Cahn,” an exasperated voice said, “I know you are just trying to help, but…”

  “But you are wrong,” Dr. Cahn cut in. “This patient…”

  “Is recovering fine.” The younger doctor cut him off. “And Dr. Cahn, you need to remember you are a patient here too. I appreciate your help, but…”

  “But nothing. You are…”

  “Dr. Cahn,” Alex called, catching the man’s attention. Alex smiled and waved the doctor over. Cahn looked back to the young man and pointed a finger at him.

  “I’m not done with this,” he threatened and turned to walk away. The young doctor rolled his eyes and returned to his rounds. Alex was laughing by the time Dr. Cahn had crossed the room.

  “You know they can handle this, right? It’s what they do.”

  “They aren’t doing it right,” Dr. Cahn snapped.

  “No, they aren’t doing it your way,” Alex quipped. “Let them do their job, doc. We need to talk.”

  The two men left the room, walking quietly for a moment before Dr. Cahn who broke their silence. “I don’t know much about the woman,” Cahn began. “I know that’s what you are going to ask. She’s on suicide watch, in quarantine until she is cleared. The watch is really for the boy, though. They’re worried she might hurt him in the state she’s in.” Dr. Cahn shook his head and looked over at Alex. He wore a pained expression on his face. “I’m more worried about the boy. He hasn’t spoken since we got him out of there, and with everything that kid’s gone through and seen…” Dr. Cahn’s voice trailed off and he shook his head. “He’s going to need some serious help.”

  “And how are you doing?” Alex asked. The doc was looking better than when they brought him in, but the long months had taken their toll on the already aged man. The doctor shook his head enthusiastically.

  “I’m fine. I’m fine.” Cahn insisted. “Don’t worry about me, I’m fine.”

  “Okay, doc, calm down.” Alex squeezed the man’s shoulder. “I just wanted to check in on you and let you know we’ve gotten some new information from our…benefactor.”

  Dr. Cahn’s eyes lit up and he looked around to see if anyone was listening. “Anything important?”

  Alex shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t know. Haven’t looked at it yet. Just got it in this morning. We’re meeting tonight after dinner to take a look at it.”

  “I’ll be there,” Cahn said enthusiastically. “I’ll see you for dinner.”

  “Sounds good, old man,” Alex ribbed. Dr. Cahn glared at him. “Take care of yourself, doc.”

  The older man chuckled. “Oh it’s not me you need to feel sorry for.” And with that, the doctor turned and pushed his way back into the recovery room. Alex could hear the man yelling for the doctors.

  –—

  The flap of Alex’s tent pulled back and Hayden stuck his head through. “Am I late?” he asked. Liam rolled his eyes.

  “Well, your membership card has just been revoked,” he snarked.

  “Uh, right,” Hayden said. “What have I missed?”

  Liam handed a stack of papers over to the younger man. “Nothing yet. We’ve just been going through the information. Haven’t really made much headway.”

  “What’s in it?” Hayden asked, taking the proffered papers.

  “More troop movements from before the outbreak, political assignments…just seems a bunch of stiff that doesn’t seem to fit together.” Liam shook his head. “Alex, I think this guy has us chasing our tails. None of this makes any sense.”

  Alex sat behind his desk, squeezing the bridge of his nose. Various papers from different packages were strewn on the desk in front of him. “I’m starting to agree with you Liam.”

  Everyone continued looking over their various papers in silence, switching with one another as necessary.

  “This is useless,” Martin called out. “None of this makes any sense.”

  Rumblings of approval spread around the room. Liam leaned closer to Alex, still hunched over his desk. “I think I’m starting to agree,” Liam said. Alex nodded slowly.

  “I think I do to. I can’t see a pattern, or even a point to all this.”

  A few more moments passed in silence before Hayden spoke up. “You got a map?” he asked casually. Alex looked at him, surprised. He indicated his desk and began clearing things from the buried and forgotten map.

  “What are you thinking?” Liam asked, helping to unearth the map.

  Hayden shook his head. “Nothing in particular. Just wanted to see these things plotted out on a map.” He shrugged. “Having some trouble visualizing it.”

  The men finished clearing the map as everyone in the tent gathered around. “Okay,” Alex said. “What next?”

  Hayden scanned through the documents in his hands. Selecting one, he handed the paper over to Alex. “Where are these?”

  Alex glanced at the document. “Troop movements? We’ve already looked at this.”

  Hayden nodded his head. “I know. But we’ve all looked at this information in pieces. I’m curious to see if anything makes sense when put together.”

  Alex shrugged and started plotting points on the map. “Okay,” Alex said, placing the last mark on the map. “What else?”

  Hayden flipped through the stack of papers in his hand. “How about this one?”

  Alex took the paper and chuckled when he saw w
hat it was. “Congressmen? Why do you want that?”

  Hayden shrugged. “Not sure. It’s one more set of data points. Plug in enough, maybe we’ll see a pattern.” He shrugged again. “Couldn’t hurt.”

  “Alright,” Alex sighed, and quickly plugged in the data points. “There,” he said and stepped back from the desk. Everyone else leaned in.

  “All of these points,” Luke Berryman said, pointing to the dots, “the Congressmen are all conveniently located in or near troop concentrations.”

  “Standard procedure,” Donovan spoke up. “Each of those are safe areas; places where government leaders can be taken in case of an emergency. Those troops are there to protect them.”

  “A lot of good that did,” Luke muttered. Everyone turned to face him.

  “What do you mean by that?” Liam asked.

  “Well, look,” he offered the report he was holding. “This is the report detailing all of the secure areas. Looks like quite a few of them didn’t make it.”

  Luke handed the paper over to Alex. “Plot the fallen safe zones,” Theresa said. “Which ones didn’t make it?”

  Alex carefully studied the paper before reaching for the map. He laid markers on their sides as he came across ones that fell. “And what does that tell us?” he asked.

  Theresa shook her head, eyes moving over the map. “Nothing. Just where some big wigs got popped.”

  “There’s got to be more to it,” Hayden said. “Something is missing, we just haven’t figured out what it is.”

  “Okay,” Alex said. “Go through everything. Every piece of data, every mention of any of these places. Let’s plug in the data points and see what we come up with.”

  Heads nodded and everyone split up into groups to pour over the stacks of data available. It wasn’t long before names began to crop up.

  “Here’s one,” called Luke.

  “More here,” Martin offered.

  “Good,” Alex said. “Let’s get everything collected and we’ll plot it out.”

  Everyone continued shuffling through papers, scanning for any mention of troop movements or secure facilities. Nearly half an hour passed before all of the data had been sifted through.

  “Okay,” Alex said, calling everyone back around the map. “What have we got?”

  Everyone looked to each other, waiting for the first to speak. Donovan spoke up.

  “More on the troops,” he said. “Supply lists. Not very consistent among the groups, but that could be due to difference in troop allotments.” Donovan handed the documents over to Alex. He shrugged his shoulders. “Would be interesting to see.”

  “Okay,” Alex said with a sigh. Grabbing a Sharpie he began quickly writing numbers next to the various troop locations. Finishing the last, Alex stood back from the map. “Huh,” he said, looking at the map.

  “What?” Hayden said. “What do you see?”

  Alex looked up from the map startled, almost as if he forgot anyone was there. “Well, the numbers don’t make sense.”

  “What do you mean?” Donovan said, leaning over the map to look closer.

  “Christ, none of us can see anything,” Theresa said and snatched the Sharpie from Alex’s hand. Pushing Alex out of the way, Theresa bent over the map and hurriedly drew visual representations of the numbers. Squares of varying sizes indicating food and supplies, circles showing ammunition and weapons shipments. “There,” she said, tossing the capped Sharpie on the map and stepping away.

  Everyone leaned in towards the map to see the new information. “This doesn’t make sense,” Hayden said. “Why do some of these smaller places have more supplies than the other?”

  “I believe that’s what I said,” Alex sniped, eyeing Theresa.

  “Yes, but now we ALL can see it,” Theresa said.

  “Okay, back to the data at hand.” Liam said, trying to get everyone back on track. “Look at the map. Those areas that received the most supplies survived the initial outbreak.”

  “And the amount of troops does not correlate to survival or supplies.” Theresa shook her head. “I don’t think there’s anything here.”

  “Now just wait,” Dr. Cahn spoke up. He had been silent the entire evening until now. “These are only three data points and we have a lot more information here. Before we just give up the ship, lets see where the rest takes us.”

  Heads nodded and everyone agreed. Each man in turn handed over their information and the data, if possible, was carefully added to the map. An hour passed without any significant revelations.

  “Yup, pretty sure this is pointless,” Luke spouted, breaking the silence in the room.

  “I’m starting to agree with you,” Dr. Cahn agreed solemnly. “None of this makes any sense.”

  “Now wait,” Hayden spoke up. “There’s still a lot more information to go through…”

  “And it’s all the same,” Luke interrupted. “We’re just going around in circles.”

  “What if we look through everything we’ve got left. Filter out anything that’s not the same thing we have already seen?” Theresa offered. No one spoke for a long time. Liam finally agreed.

  “Okay,” he said. “But only for another half hour. We could waste all night and the next day going through this stuff.”

  “Agreed,” Theresa nodded, and once more everyone shuffled through their seemingly unending stacks of data.

  “Here’s something,” Liam offered, looking carefully at the papers in front of him. “But for the life of me I can’t tell what it’s talking about.”

  Alex crossed over and took the proffered document from Liam. He studied it for a moment before speaking. “Looks like some kind of medical document. Lots of government speak, but I think there’s something about a vaccine, or a shot, or…something.”

  Now Dr. Cahn took the papers. He scanned them quickly, flipping back and forth between the pages. “These are orders for some kind of vaccine,” Dr. Cahn said. “But,” and he flipped through the pages of the report again, “this doesn’t make sense.”

  Alex looked over the doctor’s shoulder, trying to figure out what had the man stumped. “What’s the problem, doc?” The aging man shook his head.

  “These orders seem to be for the same vaccine, but they don’t quite match.” Dr. Cahn held the papers out to Alex, pointing first at one set of orders, then flipping the page to show the second. “Do you see them? Here and here?” Alex took the documents and studied the orders for a long time.

  “So just what is Etamox?” Alex asked. Dr. Cahn shrugged his shoulders.

  “Don’t know. I’ve never heard of it before. And I’m not sure why there are two different variations of it, either.”

  Alex continued looking between the papers. “Etamox-a and Etamox-c,” he said quietly.

  “How were the vaccines distributed?” Theresa asked. Alex looked up from the papers, then over to Dr. Cahn. Handing the papers to the doctor, Alex picked up the Sharpie and hunched over the map.

  Dr. Cahn began reading off the various locations and doses of the Etamox vaccines. As they continued, everyone gathered close to see if the information resulted in anything new. The more data sets that were plotted, the more everyone realized something was wrong.

  “I don’t like what I’m seeing,” Theresa said stunned. The data laid out before them showed a disturbing picture, one in which the secure areas and troop strongholds receiving Etamox-c were completely destroyed. The remaining strongholds, those which received Etamox-a, survived.

  “I don’t think this necessarily proves anything,” Dr. Cahn said. “Coincidence?”

  “That’s a pretty big coincidence,” Alex offered. “Considering everything else that’s gone on…”

  “What?” Luke interrupted. “What are you suggesting? Conspiracy? That someone did this on purpose?”

  “I’m just hypothesizing,” Alex said defensively. “You have to admit that there are some pretty big coincidences.”

  “But conspiracy?” Luke argued. “That’s big. Ar
e we really saying that someone actually planned this?”

  “Why not?” Theresa said. She stood over the map, arms crossed in defiance. “Why couldn’t someone have planned it?” Theresa’s posture dared anyone to cross her. Luke took the challenge.

  “That’s bullshit and you know it! Why would anyone want to do what you’re suggesting? For that matter, just what are you suggesting?”

  Theresa’s face was hard, and anger flared in her eyes. “I’m saying someone planned for those strongholds to fall. That they set it up, and put things in motion. I’m saying that maybe the destruction of those places was not an accident. Maybe not even this outbreak.”

  Murmurs erupted around the group, each voicing concerns or agreements to the accusations Theresa offered. Luke was the loudest and most adamant. “Bullshit!” he said once he found his voice. “Total bullshit! Do you hear what you are saying?! You are accusing people of mass murder…”

  “And why not?” Theresa interrupted. “People have done a lot worse.” The silence in the room was palpable. Luke looked around the room at each person standing around the desk.

  “Does anyone else think that all this was planned?” Luke challenged. “Does anyone else believe this all was intentional? Do you?!” Luke’s voice raised in pitch and ferocity as he challenged Alex to go against him.

  “Things are starting to look a little fishy,” Alex said calmly. “You have to admit that things are…”

  “I don’t have to admit anything,” Luke spat. “We are jumping to a ridiculous conclusion, and based on what? A few dots on a map? Information given to us from someone we don’t even know, and information we can’t even trust to be true?” Luke waved at the map, dismissing the information it displayed.

  “We all agreed to trust the information,” Alex reminded him. “If we start nitpicking every piece of paper…”

  “You mean being smart?” Luke interrupted him. “I will not blindly follow, Alex. And I for one think that this,” again Luke waved at the map, “is a load of bull. We are forcing conclusions. We’re not using our heads.”