by Matt Ryan
The elevator stopped and the doors slid open. “Not good, Alice destroyed much of the systems around the world. My net people said this year for Sanct, but I fear the rest of the world will be far behind. Harris is building net drones to provide the net to further reaches of the world as well.”
Hank coughed as he left the elevator. “You okay, big guy?” Gladius patted him on the back as he kept coughing. She hit him so hard, Poly thought about saying something, but Hank just smiled.
“I’m fine, just a bit of a dry throat.”
Gem ran past Poly to what she thought was Gladius’s new desk, but Douglas sat behind it now. He shrieked and pushed away from Gem as it got behind the desk with him. The doll waddled out from behind the desk, holding a bottle of water. It looked huge in its tiny hands as it staggered over to Gladius.
“Gem, you are such a sweetheart.” Gladius plucked the water bottle from its arms and handed it to Hank.
“Thanks,” Hank said.
“Travis, we wanted to talk to you about something we found on Earth,” Poly said, looking to Julie.
“Yes,” Julie took over, “I believe I found him.”
“Come, let’s get back to my office and discuss this. Douglas, can you hold my calls and meetings for the time being?”
Douglas took a deep breath, then released it over what felt like a full minute before answering. “Fine.”
Travis opened the plain white doors to his office. There were no weapons on the walls, or fancy furniture. The only thing Poly recognized was the picture of Maya sitting on the wall behind his desk.
Travis sat down in the new lounge area with a couch and many chairs surrounding it. Poly sat on one of the chairs and Joey stood behind her.
Lucas jumped on the couch and laid out next to Travis. “This is one nice couch.”
“Thanks,” Travis said. “So, what did you find, Julie?”
“I can get into any system on Earth with ease, until I found something that looked very familiar to MM’s old security protocols on a server. I danced at the edges of it, but I knew it was him. There isn’t another person on the planet who would have a system like that.”
“Tell him the worst part,” Hank said.
“The company that has this system is ZRB, which is also the same company where our friend, Samantha, is currently employed.”
“Samantha . . . I’m sorry I never got to meet her. Are you sure of this?”
“Without a doubt.”
Travis leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin. “What are you planning to do?”
Poly’s mouth hung open. She thought maybe he might be the one suggesting a plan. Maybe an offer of some assistance to help stop the man who ruined Vanar and Ryjack.
“We don’t really have a plan yet.”
Hank started coughing again and took another drink from the water bottle. Gladius raised her hand to start hitting his back, but he waved her off.
“You alright there, big guy?” Travis asked.
“Yeah, just a cough.”
“You know, I could have my medical staff take a look...”
“No, I’m fine,” Hank said and took another swig of water.
“If I could, I would help, but we don’t have the resources. If you can expose him, I will personally come to your aid.”
“Dad, we can’t just leave them to the whims of Marcus, the dude’s a complete psycho. You know he is up to some evil shit.” Gladius put her hands on her hips.
Travis regarded Julie and stood from his chair. “I’ll travel to Earth when you can show me this is indeed Marcus. It is possible the company developed this technology on their own. After all, we share a similar history, it would make sense if your planet ended up developing the same technology.”
“By the time Marcus shows himself, I fear it will be too late,” Julie said.
“I have the same fear, but I can’t leave my world on a suspicion. Get something solid, and I’ll be there for you guys.”
“And if he kills us before then?” Lucas asked.
Travis shook his head. “If he wanted you dead, you wouldn’t be here right now. The man always has a plan.”
POLY TURNED UP THE CAR RADIO.
“The crap hit the fan and if I wasn’t on the radio, I’d say a lot worse.” The radio stopped playing music and had switched to a constant news feed. The DJs seemed uncomfortable discussing such a heavy subject, but what else could they do in the circumstances?
“I bet this came from terrorists, some biomedical people,” the other DJ said. “You just mix influenza and small pox and bingo, pandemic.”
“This is a cough...”
“But it’s killing people, Jerry, this is going to kill us all if we don’t get a handle on it.”
Poly turned off the car radio. She hated being right, but her gut was rarely wrong. Something terrible had happened while they were gone and it covered the entire planet with panic. She gripped the steering wheel and glanced at Julie working on her Panavice. They were sick with worry, waiting for any news about Samantha. She needed to know if she was okay. Really, Poly wanted to grab all the family and friends she had and gather them around her.
It’d been two days since they left Travis’s office and at first, the goal had been to find proof of Marcus. Then their priorities shifted when they realized all they wanted to do was get the Six back together.
When they left for Vanar, a new strain of the common cold had been on the news here and there, but now the Cough was the news. Every major TV channel had turned off all regular programming to concentrate on twenty-four hour coverage. A telethon had started, with a rolling list of celebrities making appearances in support of the cure. Schools were closed, along with some businesses. Preston had daily meetings on the Cough, designating groups to check in on the elderly and such. All people with symptoms were asked to head to the medical treatment center, previously known as the high school gym.
“Have you heard back from Travis?” Poly asked.
“No, he’s in some area without net and Harris is MIA as well.”
Poly didn’t like the timing of Julie finding who they believed to be Marcus and the emergence of the Cough.
“I can’t find her,” Julie said.
“What do you mean, you can’t find her? I thought you could find anything?” Poly said.
“I don’t know, she’s not leaving a digital trace anywhere.”
Poly squeezed the steering wheel and glanced at Julie running her fingers over her Panavice. “We need to get the others.”
“Look out!”
Poly turned to look out the windshield and slammed her foot on the brake. Hank stood in the middle of the dirt road. He jumped to the side and the car missed him by inches. As the vehicle stopped, they got out to find Hank hunched over, coughing into his fists.
“Hank, you okay?” Poly called out. Hank didn’t answer but continued to cough.
“He’s got it, I knew it,” Julie said in a panicked fit. “The Cough.”
Poly didn’t want to hear it. She grabbed Hank’s shoulder and shook him. “Hank!”
He knelt on the dirt, then looked up at Poly. He blinked, as if only now registering her face. “I’m okay, the walking wiped me out I guess.” He put on a weak smile.
Poly put her hands over her eyes. Her mother coughed this morning but dismissed it as nothing. Poly herself felt a tickle in her throat and hoped it was just the dust swirling in the air. Hank was the first of the six to get the cough. The first she knew of at least. They’d been unable to contact Samantha.
“Come on, Hank, we can give you a lift to the town treatment center. We were on our way to get you anyway,” Poly said. Hospitals were filling up so the government had stepped in to many of the worst cities and even a small town like Preston got some help with treatment centers.
“No, I don’t want to infect you. I was just going to town to the,” he coughed, “treatment center.”
“Like we’re going to leave you on the road like this.” Poly a
nd Julie helped Hank get to his feet and then into the car.
With Hank tucked away in the back seat, Poly rushed into town, only slowing down when she neared the treatment center. Cars filled the spaces and many people walked around the cars and stood in clusters outside the gym. Poly hopped over the curb and found an unused spot on the grass.
Julie raised an eyebrow.
“Let them give me a ticket,” Poly said and opened the door.
Hank climbed out of the car on his own and stood at the door. “Whoa, that’s a lot of people,” he said before going into another coughing fit.
Poly took a deep breath and looked at the line wrapping around the outside of the gym. Many more people took to sitting on the lawn, lounging around the bike racks and loitering near the stairs to the school. She recognized some faces but many more she didn’t know. It broke her heart to see so many in her home town suffering. Just yesterday, there had only been a few people near the front door. If this much changed in one day, what was going to happen over the next week?
A woman in all white stood at the front of the line. She had an American flag pin with her name under it. The government had sent these nurses here a few days ago to help set up the treatment center.
“Excuse me, I have a sick friend here,” Julie called out.
“We’ve all got sick ones here,” a man in line replied and the rest of the line grumbled in agreement.
“I’m so sorry, Frank,” Poly said. “It’s Hank, he’s doing awful.”
Frank nodded and gazed at Hank. “We’re all waiting to get in, but you can go the nurse up there and have him checked in.”
“Thanks.”
Frank wrapped his arms around his coughing wife and nodded his head. They walked up to the nurse sitting behind a folding table. She looked up and saw Hank leaning on Julie.
“Do you know what stage he is?” the nurse asked.
Poly shook her head in confusion.
Julie stepped forward to answer. “I think he’s in stage two.”
“Is he coughing blood yet?”
“Hank?”
Hank shook his head, which turned into a coughing fit. When he could breathe, he took his hand away from his mouth and a spatter of blood covered his palm.
The nurse got up from behind the desk and walked to Hank. “He’s entering stage three, we need to take him in.”
The line protested Hank’s acceptance as they entered the gym. Poly stopped at the doorway, taking in the chaotic looking gym where she had once played basketball. Cots covered the gym floor while many people curled up on their beds, coughing. She put her hand over her mouth and stumbled after Hank and the nurse.
The summer heat permeated the gym and the smell of rubbing alcohol and sweat flooded her nostrils. Another nurse ran up to them with masks. They put the masks on while Hank was placed on a cot.
“I’m sorry, what’s your name?” Poly asked one of the nurses.
“Sherri.”
“Hello, Sherri, I’m Poly. Could you tell me what happens after stage three?”
“Honey, the only thing after stage three is the end.”
Poly grabbed at her chest and stared at Hank lying on the cot. She got closer to Sherri and whispered, “How much longer does he have?”
Sherri shuffled Poly away from Hank’s hearing distance and whispered, “I won’t sugarcoat it for you, sweetie, your friend probably has a day or two left.”
Poly wanted to fall to the floor and scream, but she just looked at Hank, tears building in her eyes. Julie saw her face and shook her head. Poly wiped her nose and opened her eyes wide, trying to dry them out. She needed to pull it together because they couldn’t tell Hank. What good would it do to tell someone they’d be dead in a day?
“What can we do for him?” Poly asked.
The nurse shook her head. “There’s nothing to do but make them as comfortable as possible. He is still the man you love, so make sure you treat him as such. The last thing you want to do to a person dying is stop treating them like a human.” She looked around the room and her face sagged in fatigue. “It might not matter much at this point though, this whole place is going to Hell in a hand basket if we can’t get more help. And this stuff is spreading like a prairie fire in October.”
Poly grabbed her phone and called Joey. The conversation was quick, but she got him to promise not to come down and to tell everyone else about it. Hank had coughed the whole ride over and she didn’t think the mask was going to help her or Julie anymore. If they were going to get it, they would have it already. “What can I do to help?” She tapped the nurse on the shoulder.
“Sweetie, if you can stomach it, we need blankets changed, bed pans...” The nurse looked doubtful. “If we don’t get this place clean, we’ll have a whole different pandemic on our hands.”
Poly nodded and looked to Julie. Julie looked terrified and pulled out her Panavice—she wasn’t going to be any help. Over the last year, Poly had been to Vanar several times to make appearances and hand out food and supplies to people. She’d begun to get used to seeing people suffering, but this was her home town, she knew the people on those cots.
“Can I get some gloves?” she asked.
“Sally, can you get this angel some gloves? She’s gonna help out.”
Poly spent the next few hours cleaning the bedpans and sheets of the patients, but in between each moment, she rushed to check on Hank. Julie never left his side. He wasn’t the only person they knew on the cots. Many of the faces were familiar, some from school and others from town events.
She felt torn; she wanted to help her town, but she wanted to be at Hank’s side. She needed to hold his hand and tell him everything was going to be fine. She started to regret telling Joey not to come. She’d gotten used to him being her leaning post. Just his presence would make her feel better. But if he got sick, she didn’t know if she could handle it.
A woman moaned near her and reached out her hand. She coughed as Poly approached. Poly didn’t recognize her pale face at first. As she got closer, she was stunned. “Mrs. Nires?” she asked.
“Poly,” she sounded weak and coughed at the end.
“Mrs. Nires, I’m so sorry, what can I do for you?”
“Water,” she rasped.
Poly rushed to grab a water bottle from the pallet and brought it back to her. Mrs. Nires took a drink and coughed much of it back up. Water and cough sprayed over Poly’s face and body. She wanted to jump out of her skin, to run away screaming and gargle with antibacterial liquid, but she kept still. She knew if she was going to get the cough, she already had it.
“Thank you,” Mrs. Nires said and the bottle in her hand tipped, spilling out.
Poly took the bottle and twisted the cap back on. She placed it at her side and looked to Hank across the room. Julie stood next to him, splitting her attention between him and her Panavice.
“Child, I put you down for ten, maybe fifteen minutes of this, and look at you still at it. Bless your heart,” Sherri said, coming up behind her. Poly’s phone rang. “You better answer that.”
She glanced at the screen. Joey. “Hello.”
“You need to leave there now. You’re exposed. It’s a freaking zoo here.”
“Listen, Joey, I am not leaving Hank and Julie alone in this place.”
A long pause. “Fine, but then I’m coming in.”
“No.” It was too late. He’d hung up.
In a few minutes Joey managed to get past the door nurse guards with Lucas in tow. He searched until he spotted her. He took a mask the nurse offered and rushed past the cots and people to get to her. “Where’s Hank?” Joey asked as Lucas pushed up against him.
“Over there, with Julie. He’s sleeping at the moment.”
Lucas squinted at Hank. “Jesus, he looks terrible.” He darted over to Julie.
Joey looked past Poly to Hank and ran his hand through his hair. He paced for a second before stretching his hands out and looked at the floor. “My mom’s been coughing,�
� Joey said. “She said she’s not coming here though.”
Poly gasped. She hated the selfish thought, but she couldn’t help thinking if Karen was sick, it meant Joey would have been exposed, same as her. “Yeah, I can’t blame her. All they’re doing is giving some cough medicine and IV’s. I don’t think this thing is going to stop. We need help.” Poly gave him a look of you-know-who.
“Harris?” he whispered.
“Yes. They might have something for this.” She wanted to guarantee it, but she didn’t feel as confident as she sounded.
“They aren’t what they used to be.”
“You know they’ll help us.”
“Fine, but I’m taking you with me,” Joey said, and they glanced back at Hank. “I think it’s the best chance he’s got.”
Poly agreed and they checked in with Hank before leaving. Their friend woke up and smiled in between coughs and told them good luck. Lucas said they would stay with Hank, and Julie said she would try and find out more about her leads to Marcus. She thought Marcus could be behind it all—too much of a coincidence.
They stopped by Poly’s house and Joey waited in the car while she changed and took a quick shower to get the treatment center filth off her. They parked and ran through the forest to the Alius stone. The forest around the stone was still charred, but the smoke smell was gone and the undergrowth had sprouted green ferns and plants.
“You ready?” Joey asked kneeling next to the stone.
Poly took in a deep breath and placed her hand on a knife. Joey held a gun in his hand. They’d had so many terrible trips with the stone, even going to Harris’s house seemed dangerous. She nodded her head and he typed in the code.
The forest changed to the old residence of Marcus Malliden. Harris had originally taken it over as his interim headquarters but as time passed, it became the base of operations for the fractured MM.
A few guards greeted them with raised guns. Once they saw who the visitors were, they lowered their weapons. Jack ran from behind the staircase. His face brightened with a smile as he greeted them. “I thought I heard the stone. Poly, Joey, what a great surprise.”