When at last she arrived at the intersection with Highway 98 to Lakeland, she saw why there had been so few creepers. Highway 98 was clear as well, and a barricade of tractor trailers had been put across the entrance to the swamp road. She was firmly in Collector territory now. She would have to be very careful. The ride on the trail had been stress free except for the one incident, and the swamp road hadn’t been too bad, but traveling on the highway she was now on was stressful. There were almost no creepers, but being on constant alert for approaching vehicles was wearing her out quickly. She hoped Honey would alert her somehow, but she couldn’t leave it all up to the dog. After riding only a short distance, Marilyn decided to find a place to stop, to recuperate, to rest. She rode a bit farther, keeping an eye out for a convenience store or some means of getting water. Her supply was dwindling quickly in the heat, and she knew she needed to keep hydrated. She stopped at a few houses, but they must have been on wells, because when she turned the outside faucet there was nothing. When she stopped, Honey would lap at puddles to take care of her thirst. Marilyn was jealous. She looked through her gear, but she must have left the water purification tablets in the Hummer. Bottled water had always been so plentiful that she hadn’t thought she would need it. At one house she went inside, looking for anything to drink, but there was nothing. The smell from the refrigerator when she opened the door caused her to run back out into the yard gagging. She didn’t stop at any more houses after that, saving her energy and what precious little water she had until she could find a sure source for more.
Her hopes soared when she saw a large paved driveway in the distance, but as she drew nearer it wasn’t the convenience store she had been hoping for. It was a carpet wholesaler in the middle of nowhere. Still, it was close to the road, she was tired, and even if she didn’t find water, she needed to rest and get out of the sun. She parked the bike and trailer behind a small outbuilding and walked across the parking lot to the main store. The first door she tried was unlocked and she entered, Honey following. She looked quickly through the showroom, but there was nothing for her there. Then she found an employee break room and a water cooler with a plastic jug still full of water still resting on top. The water was flat and tepid, but she wasn’t sure she had ever tasted anything better. She drank until she couldn’t hold any more. There was a snack machine in the break room as well. The front glass had been broken and someone had rifled through what was in there, taking mainly candy. There were still chips and packages of peanuts. Marilyn wondered when that had happened, and it made her a little nervous. She filled as many of her water bottles as she could from the jug on the cooler and left.
Marilyn loaded Honey up and rode for just a little longer when she came to a small house set back off the road a ways. There were cars in the driveway, but she decided to check anyway. There were no creepers inside, so she made her pallet on the living room floor, the bike and trailer hidden in the garage. After another light dinner of canned foods for her and the last of the dog food for Honey, they slept.
At dawn she was awakened by the sound of trucks and Honey quietly whining. She jumped up and peered over the bottom of the picture window at the front of the house just in time to see three bobtail tractors go by. After a bit, the truck pulling the flatbed with the backhoe passed. She waited for more, but that was it. Nothing else. She wondered if she had missed any, and was pretty sure she had. The trucks had been moving quickly, and in the time it took her to fully wake and get to the window more vehicles could have passed. Gun crews? Clean up? Probably.
She was pretty sure this was going to be a daily thing, people leaving the base to go to their assigned tasks. Those soldiers couldn’t stay away from the base too long in those suits. They’d have to go back somewhere, eat, sleep, drink. How did they drink? They couldn’t go all day. She shook her head. It didn’t matter. What mattered was finding the base. She had a granola bar breakfast, some water, and a handful of raisins, and then she started riding again, Honey now riding along in the trailer like an old pro. Marilyn knew she wouldn’t have a full day riding. Before the day was out, they would be close enough to actually start looking for the base. Besides finding the base, Marilyn knew she had to start thinking about what happened next. She would have to find hiding places, weapons, a means to get out with Sonya and Chase, and hopefully Sonya’s dad. She needed a base camp, she needed alternate camps, and she needed resources. Today was the day everything started. Traveling time was over. Every move from here on out had to be carefully considered.
Chapter 27 – Sonya
When the soldiers came for them, Sonya and Chase were still talking to Theresa in her room. Several of those Theresa had named as possibilities for leaving had joined them. Sonya still could not believe Chase. She had wondered what he had happened to the spores he had gathered, but what he had actually done shocked her. And when had he…retrieved them? Putting the spores in children’s balloons, swallowing them, and then…she shuddered. What if the balloons had broken inside him? But due to the risk he had taken they now had the means to escape and the ball was rolling. Chase had done most of the talking to the small group, his eyes flashing, speaking quickly but authoritatively. One of the immunes had tried to interrupt, to offer a better plan, tried to tell Chase they should go as soon as the soldiers opened the door again, but Chase had cut him off.
“We’re here mainly to find Sonya’s dad,” he had explained, “anyone else besides him we get out is because we’re nice people. So we have to get down to the labs. We will come back for you if we can. But I want you to know this. Loosing the spores is not an empty threat. I’m going to try to get out of here without doing it, but if I have to, I will. And if I do, that means everybody has to go or we have to leave them behind. Leaving anyone behind is a death sentence. That’s going to be tough. So when I leave, you all need to start thinking and talking to them and trying to get them up and moving.”
There had been more discussion, but in the end they had seen the wisdom in Chase’s ideas. What choice did they have? He held all the leverage. Sonya wondered if they were really going to be able to save everybody, but her main goal was her father.
Then there was a pounding at the door in the hallway, the warning for everyone to stand back, someone was coming in. The door opened, and a soldier called down the hall for Sonya and Chase: “Newbies, to the door!” When they walked out of Theresa’s room, two soldiers stood outside, looking in. Sonya and Chase walked toward the door, holding hands. One of the soldiers held up a hand as they approached the threshold. When they stopped, Koeller stepped between the soldiers.
“Time to check you two in. We’re going to walk you down to the labs where Beaker and Honeydew are waiting,” Koeller said. One of the soldiers snickered, earning a dirty look from Koeller. “There are certain rules you follow outside of containment. No sudden moves. Stay at least two paces in front while walking. Follow directions exactly. Any questions?”
Sonya shook her head, and to her surprise, so did Chase. She expected him to say something, ask something, but there was nothing. She decided he was as nervous as she felt, maybe more. His grip on her hand was almost painful. They walked through the door, crowding together. Koeller and the soldiers backed against the walls and waved them ahead, falling in behind them. They walked back down the stairs to the barracks room where the soldiers were still napping and playing cards. Then they turned again at the base of the stairs and went through a door to another flight of stairs going down. A doorway at the bottom of the stairwell opened onto yet another corridor. The walls of this passageway looked older than those above, but the cables and hoses running along the walls looked newer. The passageway extended in both directions.
“Turn right,” Koeller said from behind them when they paused. “Almost to the end on the right.”
The doors down the corridor were solid with no windows. Each had a heavy handle and locking mechanism. Sonya couldn’t help but wonder if her dad was behind one of those doors. Just before the
end of the corridor Koeller told them to stop. She heard a clunk and turned to see him opening a door they had just passed. One soldier walked through the door while Koeller and the other soldier waited in the hallway. Koeller indicated Chase and Sonya should go through. They walked into another, shorter corridor with four doors on each side. A door at the end stood ajar. Through it Sonya could see a large lighted room full of countertops covered in beakers and tubes and other things she didn’t recognize. It reminded her of a scene from Frankenstein, but without the lightning.
“Dr. Green!” Koeller called. “New arrivals!”
Footsteps sounded, and then a man in a lab coat stepped through the doors. He was small, slightly overweight, bald, and wore round, wire-framed glasses. As he drew nearer she realized something was missing. A moment of studying and she saw what it was. He wasn’t just bald. He was completely hairless. No eyebrows, no eyelashes. His eyes were a startling green. When he spoke, his voice was soft, almost feminine.
“Ah, very good. Young. Strong.” He was looking at Chase. He turned to Sonya. “Female! Good. Young, but thin. I’m sure she’ll fatten up on the high starch diet, though.” He seemed to be speaking to himself. Sonya was certain he wasn’t talking to her and Chase, and the soldiers and Koeller didn’t respond. “Dr. Rogers!” Dr. Green called. “In here please. Initial exam. We’ll want the full range on these two. I’ll take the young man. You take the young woman.”
Dr. Rogers came through the open doorway, pulling on surgical gloves and carrying two small cases. After handing one of the cases to Dr. Green, Dr. Rogers indicated she should enter one of the doors along the corridor. Sonya looked at Chase. He nodded slightly, blinking twice slowly. Patience. She walked into the room with one of the soldiers following. The room looked almost exactly like the emergency care examination room she had been in when she was ten and cut her chin by falling onto a floor vent in one of the old houses they had lived in after her mother had died. She had always hated going to the doctor’s office after that. Her dad had been there for her then, though, and she had been brave for him. She would be brave for him again today.
The soldier told her to sit on the examination table. Dr. Rogers stepped into the room with his case and closed the door behind him, but before the door closed, she saw Chase, Koeller, and the other soldier enter a door on the other side of the corridor. Dr. Green followed them.
“I’m going to have to ask you to strip down,” Dr. Rogers said. “We want to give you a full medical exam to make sure you are healthy.”
“Take my word for it, Beaker, I’m healthy,” Sonya said. She saw how the name stung Dr. Rogers and was a little surprised. “If you need to draw blood or something, okay, but I’m not letting you and G.I. Joe get your jollies looking at me naked.”
“I’m a doctor, so I can assure you I won’t be getting my jollies. If you would like me to have him leave the room, I would be willing to do that to make you more comfortable.” Sonya looked at the soldier, who seemed slightly put out at this suggestion. She looked back to Dr. Rogers. He seemed to be a nice guy. She wasn’t completely comfortable with it, but she knew she had to go along until Chase made his move.
“Okay. If you have to. But get rid of him. Why aren’t there any female nurses or doctors, anyway?” she asked.
“We don’t really have any nurses. We’re research,” Dr. Rogers replied. He indicated to the soldier that he should leave. The soldier protested.
“No new immunes alone with science personnel,” the soldier said. “You know that.”
Then Dr. Rogers surprised Sonya again. He faced the soldier so that his back was to Sonya, and in a flat, toneless voice said, “That procedure was set up by science personnel, Sergeant. By me specifically. And I will walk out of this room and interrupt Dr. Green in his examination of the young man to let him know there will be a change of procedure. He will then instruct First Sergeant Koeller about the change in procedure, and you will be out of the room anyway, likely with a tour of duty in the laundry to help remind you not to waste the time of people with a lot better things to do.” The soldier reddened, gritted his teeth, seemed about ready to say something, but Dr. Rogers continued. “Or, just maybe, Dr. Green decides that he needs something from you to make up for the lost time. Maybe he needs you to serve a more important purpose.” At this, the soldier paled and abruptly turned to leave the room.
When Dr. Rogers turned back to Sonya, he was all innocent charm and smiles again. She decided to fish around for information. There was a lot more to Dr. Rogers than met the eye. “So…the soldiers call you Beaker. And they call Dr. Green something else, too. Why do you put up with that?”
He smiled, but his eyes were humorless. “Because it doesn’t matter. Please strip and lie on the table.” She did as he asked. She thought he was done talking, but he continued as he examined her from head to toe. And she didn’t feel he was getting his jollies. She felt like a patient, or even less. Something to be studied. A lab rat. “The soldiers have their little jokes. It helps ease the tension. And there is tension. They are under an immense amount of stress due to the circumstances. They don’t understand what we are doing, and from their point of view, maybe we aren’t doing anything. We send them out on missions to collect…I mean help people like you. Bring you to safety. And then they don’t see results. So they distrust us, and the tension grows. But soon, we’ll have something for them. Very soon.” He finished his initial examination. While he had been speaking, he had been inspecting her skin, feeling her muscles. He picked up a light and asked her to watch his finger. As she followed it, he pointed the light in her face. He then switched to the other side and did the same thing.
“So, like a cure?” she asked when he was finished.
“Hmmm?” He suddenly ran his thumbnail up the sole of her foot, startling her. “Sorry. Had to test reflexes.”
“A cure. Can you cure the plague?” Sonya repeated.
He chuckled drily. “Oh no, there’s no cure. The fungus kills, and that’s it. But we may have a vaccine of sorts. We have managed to isolate the antibodies that you immunes make that we don’t. Of course, the antibodies you make can only fight the fungus when the spores are present in limited numbers. Relatively limited, anyway. For us, it really only takes one spore. For you, we haven’t really found the limit.” Finally he opened the small case he had carried in. “But, if there is a direct transmittal of the active fungus you still get sick and die. If you are bitten, in other words.” He removed a set of vials and a needle from the case. “But you have the ability to produce enough antibodies to fight off the airborne version. And we have been able to isolate those antibodies and are close to producing a vaccine. We don’t produce those antibodies naturally, though, and never will. We’ll require booster shots fairly often. And we need a source for all those antibodies. Then we can go outside without fear, without the masks, without the suits. Please sit up.”
Sonya sat up and Dr. Rogers asked her to extend her arm. She looked away as he readied the needle. There was a sharp pain, and when she looked back, a little plastic tube attached to a needle hung from inside her elbow. He filled vials, one by one. A source for all those antibodies? She tried to think that through. She thought about the immunes that had been taken elsewhere. How much blood would they need? When he was finished, he removed the needle. A glimmer of understanding came to her then. A source for the antibodies: so much blood. She hunched her shoulders and crossed her hands over her lap. She wasn’t cold, but she suddenly felt very exposed.
Chapter 28 – Chase
The soldier walked in the room first. Koeller motioned Chase in and then followed. The last to enter the room was Dr. Green. Chase noticed immediately that Koeller and the soldier were doing their best to keep their distance from the odd looking man. And he was odd looking. His lips were thin to the point of being non-existent, but what there was had an odd, purplish tinge. His skin was very clear and white, almost porcelain, and light traces of the vein-work beneath was obvious in
places: his temples, his hands. And he looked to be completely hairless. His arms were covered to his wrists, but his hands were visible and as smooth and pale as the rest of him.
“He will strip and sit on the table, please.” The doctor spoke to no one in particular. Chase looked to Koeller for some sign of what he was supposed to do, how he was supposed to respond, but Koeller was watching the doctor with a look of slight revulsion on his face and paying little attention to Chase. Chase decided to play along. The time to play his ace in the hole was soon, but something told him to wait, to find out as much as he could. He wanted to be in a much better position than he was now just in case he was forced to release the spores. He pulled his sweatshirt over his head, running his hand up to his armpit where the spores, still in the balloons, were stashed. He made sure his secret surprise stayed out of sight when he placed the shirt on the table next to him. He then pulled down his sweatpants and sat on the exam table. The paper crinkled loudly as he sat.
After Everything Else (Book 3): Creeper Revelation Page 19