by Kirby Howell
Shad and I looked at each other, unsure how much to tell him. Then Shad piped up. “This guy here is a recovering bastard.”
Karl frowned, displeased. “You’re forgetting who saved your life less than an hour ago.”
“What? I said recovering.” Shad stood and directed his attention at Kevin again, “So, how about a tour?”
Kevin showed us the control room first. It was smaller than I expected it to be, but also far more complex. There was a bank of three computers at a table near the front and several meters and levers spread throughout the room. He used words like “the kick,” “cold venting,” and “core samples.” I was surprised Shad seemed to understand the majority of it. His time spent studying with Ben was paying off. He snapped a picture of every dial and screen, just like Ben had asked him to.
“And what about the bell nipple?” Shad asked. He snickered at his own question, but quickly stifled it.
“You sure your daddy wasn’t a roughneck, kid?” Kevin asked, smiling. “Seem to know your stuff. I don’t think I knew what a bell nipple was after getting my masters in engineering. Wasn’t until I started working the rigs that I figured all that out.”
“Our friend Ben has been studying the schematics to Castor and Pollux, and he’s been teaching me what he can.”
“Why isn’t your friend here?” Kevin asked.
Shad and I frowned, then looked at each other. “There was an accident at a town meeting a few months ago and he got hurt,” I said.
After we left the control room, Kevin took us to the main section of the deck, where a massive steel rod went down through the middle of the floor grate and deep into the ocean below.
“Careful there. Don’t want to slip and fall,” said a scratchy voice behind me. I turned and saw a grey-haired man with bushy eyebrows. There was something deeply familiar about him.
“Do I know you?” I asked. The man stared back at me, his watery blue eyes examining my face and then my hair with equal curiosity.
“Can’t say that you do, but there is something familiar about you.”
A seagull wailed overhead as it flew by, and suddenly I remembered. A dead seagull, its beak broken from flying into a boat mast in the Marina. The old man. He’d warned me something was coming.
“It’s you,” I whispered. “From the Marina, the day The Plague appeared. You were packing your boat.”
His face lit up. “The little red-haired girl,” he said, now softening. “I knew you’d make it. Knew it when I met you.”
“You knew about the Crimson Fever before everyone understood how big it was. How did you know?"
“Had a dream about my wife, Eleanor. Told me to head out to the rig, save myself. So I did.”
“Your wife?” I asked, confused.
“She died more than ten years ago.” He smiled, remembering, “Always did everything she asked when she was alive, so I wasn’t about to stop just because she’d passed on.”
“You had a premonition about The Plague?” Shad asked.
“Suppose so. She always was the one taking care of us. She knew. I didn’t, but she did.”
“Teddy used to handle the drill string down in the mud room. One hell of a chain hand back in the day.” Kevin clapped the old man on the back. “Teddy’s been a roughneck longer than most of us have been alive.”
Teddy smiled. “I suppose that’s true.”
“Surprised the hell outta all of us when he showed up the day everyone was leaving for the mainland,” Kevin said. “Had a sailboat filled with food supplies that kept us going all this time, along with all the fish we catch. Good man. Little creepy with his premonitions, though.” He winked at me.
“I just do what Eleanor tells me, and everything seems to work out just fine.”
“Like I said, creepy,” Kevin said with a broadening smile. “That’s about it for this one, other rig’s pretty similar. Wanna see it?”
Crossing the bridge between the two rigs was unnerving. While there was a safety railing on both sides of the bridge, it was open air, letting us look straight down to the angry sea below. I saw a shadow under the water and realized it was another shark... maybe even the same shark that had taken Diego. My hand slipped from the rail. Suddenly dizzy, I stumbled, nearly falling to my hands and knees, but a strong hand caught me.
“Careful, Autumn,” Karl said. “You don’t want to go tumbling over the side, now do you?”
I shook off his hand off like it was a spider and pulled away. He didn’t seem hurt by my reaction this time. In fact, he had virtually no reaction, which was almost more unsettling. As he turned away, I noticed Kevin watching us.
That night, I couldn’t have slept if I’d wanted to. My mind kept replaying the sight of Diego disappearing under the surface of the pink-tinged frothy water. I tossed and turned restlessly in the small bunk until I heard the seagulls wailing and it was finally daylight again.
After yawning through a breakfast consisting of more of the fish we’d had for dinner the night before, I stood and left the group to clean my plate in the galley sink. I looked through the window over the sink and watched as Teddy helped two workers I’d been introduced to last night, Zak and Andrew, climb up from the ladder. They each had a knife holder attached to their belts, and Zak held the remains of the fish net the sea lion had been caught in. I hoped the sharks were gone. Teddy said something and clapped the other two on their backs as they all laughed.
Since The Plague, their world had been limited to this oil rig. It reminded me of The Water Tower, and while Ben, Rissi, and I were alone at the top of it, we’d been safe.
Kevin walked up beside me and began to clean his own plate.
“So... Karl?” he said quietly. “We don’t like him much, do we?” Kevin grinned his thousand-dollar smile, and I couldn’t help but return at least part of it.
“He’s dangerous,” I whispered. “Don’t trust him.”
“What aren’t you telling me, Autumn? I don’t need to know everything, but I would like to know if my crew is in danger. There aren’t many of us now, but I’m still responsible for them.”
This time his smile faded, but his face was still gentle. It was no wonder everyone aboard this iron island looked to him for leadership.
“He’s killed so many people,” I said under my breath. “He’s manipulative, and he takes what he wants. We have to work with him now, but it’s only a matter of time...” I stopped, wondering if I’d said too much.
Kevin nodded, and I appreciated that he didn’t press me for more information. He rinsed his plate and set it in the dish drainer to dry, and then did the same with mine.
“Thank you,” he said. “For letting me know.”
A sharp knock on the window startled me. It was Zak, squinting in the bright morning sunshine, and waving at Kevin. “One of their boats is gone,” he called through the window. “Looks like it wasn’t tied properly.”
I sighed. Nothing about this trip had been easy.
An hour later, I was saying goodbye to Shad. He and a few others from New Burbank had decided to stay with Kevin and the majority of his group to continue their crash course in working an oil rig.
“Now don’t lose this,” Shad said, handing me the memory card from his camera. After he closed my fist around the card, he popped a fresh one in his camera. “Ben’s gonna want to see this.”
“I know, I know,” I said, faking exasperation just like Rissi. Shad grinned.
“And don’t leave me out here too long. I got a few days in me, for sure, but beyond that and, well, I gotta see a feminine face, if you know what I mean.” He winked and gave me a sideways grin.
“Take care of yourself,” I said. “We’ll be back soon for you.” I hugged him tightly and took Kevin’s hand as he helped me down the ladder.
The old man from the marina, Teddy, along with his friends, Zak and Andrew, were among the oil riggers who decided to come back to the mainland. For some reason, I found Teddy’s presence comforting.
“We’ll be back soon,” I promised Kevin, and he smiled.
“I’m counting on it. You tell those folks in New Burbank I want a house with a humongous fireplace. I’ve been on a cold-ass oil rig for too long now.”
I held my breath for nearly the first full mile we put between us and the rig. We hadn’t seen any sharks, but I knew they could be there. I felt calmer the farther we got from the rig, despite Karl’s unsettling presence directly in front of me, and was thrilled when we reached the shore. Karl said his goodbyes and promised to be in radio contact soon, making sure to remind us he wanted to join us when we went back out to check on Kevin and the others. Only then did it occur to me he could astral project there... and possibly hurt them. Before Karl left, I ran up to him.
“If anything happens on that rig between now and when we go back next week, I will kill you myself.”
Karl smiled, not threatened at all. “So brave.”
“I’m serious. Grey and I will find you, and that will be it. No mercy.”
He bent down, his face dangerously close to mine. “I could kill you, or your boyfriend, any time I wish to,” he murmured. “Remember, it is only my mercy that keeps the pair of you breathing each night.” He paused for a moment, not breaking eye contact. “Besides, it’s not me Kevin and the others should be worried about.”
My blood ran cold, but I tried to keep the fear from showing on my face. I hoped everyone would be safe on the rig until we came for them. What had Karl meant? Was there some other threat, or was he just trying to scare me? I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t like the smug look on Karl’s face as he turned and left.
It took the entire day to get back to New Burbank. We arrived as the night sky shone bright overhead. I could see the Big Dipper and Orion in the stars. The first people who saw us waved us in, and a few ran ahead, alerting the town to our return. We assembled near the main gate of the old Baker Brothers Studio, the brightly lit water tower casting light across us. It was constantly lit these days, standing as a beacon over the gateway to our new city. It could be seen from practically every point in New Burbank. The crowd around the iconic water tower grew, and the shocking news about Diego quickly spread.
I saw Daniel’s bright red hair cresting just above the crowd before he broke through with Connie and Rissi. They hugged me and immediately wanted to know where Shad was. I set everyone at ease and told them about him staying back to learn from Kevin. Then I gave Daniel the memory card from Shad’s camera. “For Ben,” I said.
“Is it true about Diego?” Connie asked. I nodded. She covered her mouth with her hands and shook her head. “How horrible. And you saw it all.” She hugged me again. Over her shoulder, I saw another familiar sight. Sparkling blue eyes. I smiled and pulled away from Connie. Grey cut through the crowd and came straight to me, hugging me tightly.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to get here. I was at the lab,” he said through my hair. “I was so worried about you. If you’d been another few hours, I would have come looking for you... Who are they?”
I pulled back and saw him staring at the newcomers. I told him about Kevin and the oil rig, and then pointed to the men who’d returned with us, trying to include as many details as possible. “I’m worried about Kevin, though,” I said, wanting to tell him about my concern over Karl.
“Wait... stop,” Grey said, holding up his hands, a terrified look on his face.
“What?” I asked, taken aback.
“There were people on the rig? And they’d all been there since before The Plague?”
“Yes—”
Grey cut me off, looking in horror at the oil riggers greeting everyone who had come out to welcome us home. “And then you brought them here?”
“Of course! It’s understandable — they’d been on that rig for so long, we weren’t going to leave them—”
Grey pulled me away from the group, not taking his eyes off Teddy and his friends.
“Grey! What?!” I pulled on his arm to slow him down. Once we were out of earshot, he stopped and turned to me.
“They’re going to die, Autumn,” Grey said quietly, watching the small group. “All of them.”
I followed his gaze and watched Teddy shaking Daniel’s hand. Teddy motioned toward me, and I could tell he was reciting the story of how we’d run into each other in the Marina so long ago. “I don’t understand.”
“Being on that rig kept them alive. Don’t you see? They were never exposed to the Crimson Fever. Didn’t you wonder why none on the rig had died from The Plague?”
The pieces started to come together, and I swallowed, my mouth dry.
“Just by interacting with them, by going near them... we’ve sentenced these men to death.”
CHAPTER NINE
Over the next twelve hours, all of the men became sick. I’d never witnessed the symptoms of the Crimson Fever first hand before, because I’d spent the initial outbreak hidden away on the top floor of The Water Tower. Now I saw the disease up close.
Emotions I’d carefully buried over the past two years resurfaced like creatures in a horror movie. Images of what my parents must have gone through flickered through my head, uncontrolled: my mom, her face as bright as her red hair, her pretty green eyes closed forever. My dad, his delirious mumbles heard by no one inside the car that became his tomb. I hoped he’d had a view of the Pacific.
Grey managed to corral all of the oil riggers at the hospital immediately after their arrival so he could run some tests. Teddy was the first to show symptoms. He insisted he was fine and wanted to leave the hospital to visit his house in Venice.
“Eleanor’s things are still there,” he pushed. “And I’d like to check on my rose bushes. They might still be alive.”
His temperature spiked four hours after he’d tried so hard to leave the hospital, and in another two, he was unconscious. His breathing became shallow, and his face, neck, and chest shone cherry red. His cheeks were like a piping hot stove.
The other men from the oil rig were confused and frightened. Grey insisted they be split up and quarantined. They yelled through the walls to each other, banged on the doors, and tried breaking out of their rooms.
On the third day, Connie found me sitting in a plastic chair in the hallway of the hospital. I still hadn’t been home. I’d stayed at the hospital, helping where I could. Connie sat down in the chair next to mine and handed me a sandwich encased in holiday print plastic wrap. The red holly berries looked like dots of blood against the brown bread. It turned my stomach, and I looked away without taking it.
“Teddy just passed,” she said quietly.
I continued to stare at the wall. A banner with a pink and peach floral pattern ran along it, waist high. I followed the curling, peach vines with my eyes, somehow never landing on a pink petal. My eyes strained to follow once the vines became hard to see. I gave up, squeezing my eyes shut. I’d been playing this game for a while now without success, but some enduring curiosity to see where the vine led kept luring my eyes back.
Connie touched her hand to mine. “This is a pretty ring,” she said, tracing the intricate design down the side of the band. “Was it your mother’s? I noticed it before but kept forgetting to ask.”
I looked down at the ring encircling the fourth finger on my left hand. “Grey gave it to me,” I said, my voice cracking. I hadn’t spoken for a few hours. I cleared my throat. “He gave it to me right before you told me you were pregnant.”
I didn’t want to look at Connie. I knew her lips would be pinched together in worry, not just over her own pregnancy, but also over Grey and I getting too close.
“Did he... are you...” she began. “Oh God, did you have news to share with us when you came in that night? And then I had to go and ruin it by announcing what I did.”
“If we had news to share, we would have shared it by now. Your news is more important anyway.” I finally looked at her and immediately felt awful for ignoring her attempts to make me feel better. Her round stomach balloo
ned from her waist, and one hand rested on top of the mound, palm down and fingers spread protectively across it. The sandwich she’d made for me was balanced on one knee. I took it and tried not to look at the pattern on the plastic wrap as I peeled it open.
The bread was fresh and packed with zucchini and squash from my garden. I took a bite. It tasted like a summer afternoon spent among my plants.
I smiled at her and said, “Thanks, Connie. This is really good.”
She smiled back and patted my knee. “So Grey gave you a ring that you’re wearing on your left hand, and it doesn’t mean anything?”
I took another bite and rolled my eyes. “Well, it doesn’t not mean anything,” I said around a mouthful. “I mean, we’d like to... you know, get married and live together one day. Just not right now. There’s... too much going on. And once we’re ready for it to be just the two of us, we’ll find another place to live in Hoover Hollow, and we’ll plan a party.”
“Promise me one thing,” Connie said sternly.
My shoulders sagged, and I looked at her wearily. Here it comes again, I thought.
“Would you relax?” she said, shoving my shoulder. “All I wanted to ask was that you let me help you plan the party.”
“Oh,” I replied, a little dumbfounded. This was not the reaction I’d expected after all her warnings and lectures. “Of course. You know I wouldn’t be able to do it without you. Besides, how could I follow an event like your wedding without your help?”
“That was just a little party,” she said, modestly waving her hand.
“A little party?” I scoffed. “The entire town was there.”
She covered her mouth suddenly, and I thought she might be upset and trying not to cry, but when I put my hand on her shoulder, a snort escaped from between her fingers.
She blushed scarlet and looked around the empty hallway, then began fanning her wet eyes. “I shouldn’t be laughing, not now and certainly not here, but it just seemed so funny all of a sudden! The entire town being invited... It sounds so... Little House on the Prairie.”