by Leyton, Bisi
“Where are you going?” He followed her.
“Can you wait here?” Putting on her coat, she headed to the door. “I’ll get the doctor. If my brother comes home, tell him what happened.”
“Why do you not let me go?”
“No, no, stay with her, so I’ll know she’s safe.”
She felt him squeeze her hand.
“I love you,” he whispered.
At the moment, all she wanted to do was fall apart in his arms and have him take care of everything. Sadly, she knew that wasn’t going to help her mother or stop the Family from doing whatever it was they were planning. Peeling herself away from him, she left the house.
She rode her bike toward Sabine’s house. On her way, she noticed James, Jason’s dog, running through the street alone. It was odd because Jason never let the mutt roam alone, afraid one of the residents would catch him and use him for food.
Arriving at Sabine’s house, she banged on the high gate surrounding the compound.
After a few minutes, Yvette came out. “What are you doing here?”
She hadn’t seen Yvette since they were outside the walls of the island. The girl had been excused from school for a week. “I’m looking for Dr. Morel.”
“Please, it’s Mrs. Morel, not Doctor,” Yvette corrected. “My stepmother is a surgeon.”
In England, once doctors became surgeons, they were no longer referred to as Doctor. Calling a surgeon ‘doctor’ was a sign of disrespect. Why that mattered right now was a wonder to her. “My mother is sick and I need to talk to Sabine,” Wisteria pleaded.
“Can’t it wait until the morning? Sabine is busy.”
“No, it can’t.” She tried to push her way through, and saw Sabine standing at the door.
“What is it?” the woman slurred, like she’d been drinking.
“My mother still hasn’t woken up,” Wisteria explained. “You said she’d be awake in a couple of hours.”
“I’ll be there shortly,” Sabine called out and stumbled. “Yvette, make me some coffee.”
“Whatever, cow,” Yvette sneered at the older woman and stormed into the house.
“I’ll be there soon.” Sabine staggered away.
Not convinced Sabine would be in any condition to help her mother that evening, Wisteria headed over to Jason’s. Sure, he was a vet, but he might be able to do something.
When she reached the tower, she saw James trotting in through the open main doors. Again, it was weird to see the dog running around, because Jason always kept a good eye on him. Following the dog in, she found the building completely dark. Shining her flashlight around the hall, she made her way to the main apartment when saw something out of the corner of her eye.
There was a body lying on the middle of the floor a few feet away from the stage.
The body had sandy blond hair and she knew it was not Jason. Hurrying over, she rolled him over and saw it was Steven. “Steven.” She shook him, but he didn’t move. Something grazed her in the dark and she jumped back. “Oh!” Shining her light around in fear, she heard something run past, and it licked her arm. “Oh, James.” Relieved, she gently moved the dog aside and turned back to Steven. She wasn’t sure what was wrong with him, but she wondered if it was the same thing that had happened to her mother.
Getting to her feet, she searched the tower for the vet, but she didn’t find him or anyone else. Now she needed Sabine for her mother and for Steven. She hurried back to the doctor’s house. Getting to the gate, she heard yelling and crying from inside. Curiously, the gate and front door had been left open. Everyone in Smythe locked their doors because they were afraid of biters attacking. Now the home of the new head of security was wide open? There was something seriously wrong and she wanted to run away, but she needed Sabine to help her mother.
Wisteria reached for her sword, but realized she’d left it at home. Looking round, she picked up a large rock, and carefully entered. Spread out on the floor in the dining room, she saw Sabine collapsed on the ground, unconscious.
Bruno was kneeling over her, trying to perform CPR.
“You did this, you bitch,” Yvette hissed when she saw Wisteria. “She was fine until you came here.”
“No, she was drunk when I came,” she replied.
“Sabine’s allergic to alcohol, so I don’t know what you saw. Just get out.” Yvette pointed to her. “Get out of my house now.”
She backed out, but stopped when she heard a loud thud.
Hearing the sound as well, Bruno leapt up. “Porter.”
“My brother.” Yvette hurried after him.
Following Yvette, Wisteria saw Yvette’s ten-year-old brother unconscious on the ground. “What happened?”
“Get out! You’re doing this!” Yvette screeched at her.
Walking out of the house in a daze, Wisteria headed back to the bungalow.
A passing patrol car cruised to a halt in the middle of the street. The driver just sat in the car.
Walking by, she saw the driver was asleep behind the wheel. “What’s going on?” she muttered.
“He’s unconscious, right? Passed out?”
Wisteria jumped, surprised to see Hailey standing behind her. “You scared me. I don’t know.” Moving over to the driver’s side door, she knocked on the car window, but the man didn’t respond. “How did you know he was unconscious, Hailey? Did something happen to your father?”
Hailey was too far away to see the person inside the car. “People are passed out on my street, too. I came to find Sabine.”
“I was coming here about my mum—”
“Well, after she’s seen my mother. My father is the head of the leadership council. We’ve got to make sure she’s okay first.”
“Hailey—”
“This isn’t an argument. If my mother dies because Sabine was looking after your garbage family, your mother will get evicted. And without Coles to protect her, I don’t know how long you’ll survive.”
“Garbage?” Wisteria gave her an intense look. She didn’t have the energy to deal with this girl today. “If you ever—“
“What are you doing out after curfew?” A guard approached.
“I think that guy needs help,” Wisteria told the man.
The guard peered at the man through the car window. “He’s probably sleeping. Wisteria, get home now!”
“I don’t think he’s asleep—”
“Go home now, both of you,” the man ordered.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“How is she?” Wisteria’s mathematics teacher, Silas Cheung, caught up with her on her way home. He’d been able to set up IV drips for the residents, so at the very least they were getting fluids and some basic nourishment, but that seemed to be the limit to Cheung’s abilities.
“The same,” she admitted. “Fortunately, Bach’s here, plus David and I aren’t sick yet. How bad is it out there?” She and David had been looking after their comatose mother for almost two weeks and there was no sign of improvement. When she went to get more rations, she discovered that more and more people were falling into comas.
Bach had tried to use his blue light to cure some of them, but it had no impact and it only exhausted him.
“Last count, 700 were sick.” Cheung sighed. “It seems to be affecting everyone: scientists, soldiers, farmers, young and old. Are you okay? I imagine you’re in a tailspin with everything that’s going on.”
“I’m okay.” In truth, she was ready to pull her hair out.
“Listen, Poppy told me what happened when you two were in Woolmer and I’m grateful for what you did,” the man told her. “I can’t believe you risked your life like that.”
“I don’t believe it either—” She leapt out of the way of an SUV as it sped past, almost knocking the pair over.
The SUV slammed to a halt.
At first,she thought the driver was sick, but the vehicle reversed. Sir Charles alighted. The Mayor was also uninfected, but she heard Hailey and her brothers were sick too.
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“Cheung, why aren’t you at my house?” Sir Charles demanded. “My family’s not getting any better. If they die—”
“Sir Charles, I’ve got a lot of people to see,” the teacher answered. “Seriously, I don’t know how much help I can be. I’ve told you before, I’m not that kind of doctor and the best I can do is check their vitals.”
“You’ve been experimenting on biters in Mulberry Orchard and the biters are very similar to people. I don’t see the difference,” Sir Charles said.
“Biters are people,” Wisteria pointed out.
“Sir Charles. I wasn’t responsible for keeping those people alive. Tom Hindle and his team did that. I created the sample antidotes and it killed the biters we were testing, more times than not.”
“There’s no one else.” The Mayor sighed heavily.
“When I’ve seen Lara,” the man replied.
“That’s one person. I’ve got children.”
“And she’s pregnant,” Cheung pointed out.
“She’s still one person.”
“Are you mad?” Wisteria shouted. “My mother is important.”
“I’m going to see your mother first,” Cheung assured her. “Unless the Mayor’s going to shoot me? Or perhaps, Charles, you can keep an eye on the gate, since we’ve almost no soldiers left.”
Sir Charles swore to himself and sped off in his SUV.
“What did you mean, ‘there’re almost no soldiers at the gate?’” she asked Cheung,
“Eighty percent of the people are down,” he replied. “There’s almost no one at the front or rear gate.”
“No, there were seven soldiers there this morning.”
He shook his head. “Only two are conscious now.”
“So, anyone can just get into the island?” Fear pulsed through her.
“We can’t defend the town and help the sick. And if I can’t find a way to help these people, there’ll be no town to protect.”
“I can ask Bach to watch the entrance,” she suggested. “At least that will be something.” She sprinted through her gate and entered the backdoor of the house. Pausing, she wondered if she should even bother to ask him, because he was reluctant to involve himself with the wider town. She’d managed to convince him to try and pulse two of the residents, but that had been in exchange for considering leaving Smythe with him. Her answer had been no.
Bach was in the kitchen, trying to cook something.
It actually smelled good and her stomach rumbled. “How is she?” she asked.
“No change.” He glowered when he saw her.
“Hi, Bach,” Cheung said in greeting, entering the kitchen.
“What do you want, Dr. Hu?” Bach asked, referring to Cheung by his real name.
He’d saved Cheung’s life, and while Cheung was grateful, Bach didn’t seem to trust or like the man. This was because Cheung had been part of a group of scientists who’d tried to kill him. It was not until Bach saved his life and hers, that Coles finally assured Bach he’d be protected if he remained in Smythe.
“There’s no one at the gates,” she whispered to him.
“No one?” Bach echoed.
“Will you go watch?”
Without warning, he took her arm and led her out of the kitchen into the living room at the end of the house. “Can we talk?”
“What is it?”
“There is something making everyone sick and if you stay behind, you might get sick too. So, we are leaving now. We are going to my den in Forrester.”
“You don’t have a den in Forrester. It’s…” Shaking her head, she couldn’t remember where it was. Bach had told her she wouldn’t remember, but she was sure it wasn’t in… Where did he just say?
“I can try to pulse you and you probably will not get sick.” He ran his hands through her coarse braids.
From their reflection in the window, she saw his hands were glowing blue now. “I don’t know if my mum’s well enough to travel.”
“Only you.”
She broke away from him. “You’re asking me to abandon my family again?”
“I am asking you to survive.”
“Survive? What kind of life will I have if I left them here to most likely die, either from this sickness or when the infected break through the gates?”
“You will be alive and you will be with me. I do not understand what more you want? I have to keep you safe.”
“And I need to stay here. I’m not leaving my mother and I’m not leaving David.”
“You are making this hard for me.” His eyes darkened.
She heard a thud. “What was that? Was it in the kitchen?”
Racing back, she saw Cheung out cold on the floor.
“Wisteria, it is spreading,” Bach said coldly. “You need to leave with me now. You are coming with me. This is not a discussion.”
“What? Maybe you should leave.” She moved to Cheung and checked his pulse. “If that is what you’re going to talk about. If you want us to go anywhere, we take as many as we can, sick or not. The end.”
“Fine.” He grimaced and in seconds, he threw her over his shoulder, sprinting out of the kitchen.
The next thing she remembered was him racing through the island. “You do this and I will hate you,” she screamed as he carried her. “Colista-Bren-Navida-Dor, you’re scaring me!”
At her use of his native language, he halted and lowered her off his shoulder.
She was embarrassed because she wasn’t the thinnest girl in the universe. She was also mad. “What the hell is wrong with you? What are you going to do, imprison me?” Seething, she wanted to strangle him.
“Do you want to die? If not from this deep sleep, then when the empirics come. You expect me to wait for that to happen, when I can protect you?”
“I don’t need protection.” Though she tried to sound firm, she was afraid. Looking around, she realized the main gates were around the corner. She realized how easily he could just take her from everything she knew. As much as she wanted to be with him, this new reality terrified her.
“I am sorry you are angry, but we have a Mosroc. So eventually, you would forgive me. I would never get over it if anything happened to you!” His black spots darkened and grew around his neck as he spoke.
“And so you act like an animal?”
“You would do the same thing. You would happily risk me hating you, if it kept me alive,” Bach declared.
“My family’s here. Don’t you get that? I mean, you’d never walk away from your Family, even though they might kill me. How can I?”
“I cannot imagine a world without you.” His head dropped. “I am sorry; I was not thinking.”
Reaching up, she cupped the side of his face, and they stood in silence. Standing on her tiptoes, she tried to kiss his cheek.
He didn’t lean or bend, so kissing him was a physical impossibility because he was so tall. “I will watch the gates.” He moved away from her.
Suddenly, the last guard opened the main gate.
“What’s going on?” She knew there was no one on patrol because so many people were sick. So, why were the gates opening?
Two enormous black motor homes cruised in. Each of the vehicles had the green letters RZC painted across the side. RZC, or Raubacher, Zahl, and Conrad Biotechnologies, was where her father and many of the scientists on Smythe had worked before Nero. It seemed Sir Charles also knew them, because moments later, his SUV sped up and he disembarked alongside Bruno.
The door of the lead motor home opened and a tall man with white hair stepped out. He was dressed in a T-shirt and jeans.
“Mr. Logan! When they radioed me, telling me you were here, I didn’t believe it.” The Mayor approached the white-haired man and shook his hand. “What the devil are you doing here? We thought you all were dead.”
“I don’t believe it.” Bruno hurried to meet Mr. Logan. “You’re a sight for sore eyes.”
“Charles, you know I do not believe in miracles, but if I did—w
ow. Our last safe haven was overrun and we barely made it out.” Mr. Logan sounded like he was American. “How an accountant, of all people, can survive the end of the world? Makes no sense to me.”
Bach pulled her back until they were concealed behind a van.
“Who is he? How did these RZC employees find this place?” she asked.
He didn’t answer.
“Speaking to your man at the gate, we got here just in time,” Logan added. “We hear some of your people might have a Sleeping Fever?”
“No one has a fever,” Bruno explained. “They are just unconscious.”
“The fever will come.” A tall, tanned woman with bright red hair emerged from Mr. Logan’s motor home. She was also unusually well-dressed for a survivor. “We saw this at Windermere, before it was infested with biters. We don’t know how or why, but people start falling into comas.”
“So you’ve seen this before?” Charles asked.
“Not only that...” Mr. Logan grinned broadly. “We know how to treat it.”
“Seriously?” Wisteria exclaimed.
Bach covered her mouth and whispered, “Trust me—you do not want them to know you are here.”
“How do you treat it?” Charles asked.
“Amazingly, penicillin,” Mr. Logan replied. “We’ve got some left and for those who are allergic to penicillin, we were able to get a hold of some antibiotics that have worked in the past. We don’t have a lot.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem. Once our scientists are up and about, we can make more. I never thought I’d be happier to see a Chief Financial Officer.” Charles exhaled happily. “Thank you. In just five minutes, you’ve saved our lives.”
“Mina is the chemist.” Mr. Logan pointed to the tanned woman. “She is the one saving you.”
“I hope you don’t mind, I’m going to ask some of our people to watch the main gates. You only have one guard out there and he looks like he’s about to pass out too,” Mina said to the Mayor. “We ran into some biters on the way.”
Two teenagers emerged from the other motor home.
“Mr. Logan, who are these children?” Sir Charles inquired.
One of the kids was Bach’s friend, Alba. The girl’s eyes were not green, but blue this time.