Viral

by S. K. Gregory

  “That’s enough of that talk,” Tom said.

  “It was a joke. Sort of.” The only way to escape them would be to get rid of them completely. A bomb would do the trick.

  He lowered his voice. “Look, Jenna is hurting enough. I don’t need her getting it into her head that revenge is the answer. We do this the right way.” The right way according to Tom.

  “Yeah, well Jenna isn’t talking to me anyway so she’s not going to get any ideas from me.”

  “Give her time. A lot has happened, she just needs to process it all.”

  Was he actually saying that we had a chance? Or trying to manage me? “I have enough problems of my own right now. I should get back to work.” Whatever game he was playing, I wasn’t going to join in.

  9

  Jenna

  I arrived back at the apartment after more surveillance work. A bust as usual. What even was the point in following these people? If we approached them, they could run straight to Breton.

  I was looking forward to taking a shower and relaxing for a few hours. Maybe I could convince Dad to let us order some pizza tonight. He preferred to cook, but I wanted some comfort food.

  Unlocking the front door, I stepped inside to see a pair of feet convulsing wildly from behind the kitchen counter. Dropping my bag on the floor, I rushed forward to find Wesley having some kind of seizure.

  “Oh my God! Wesley,” I cried, dropping to his side.

  Scattered around him, were over a dozen Morphinal ampoules and half of them were empty. He did it again.

  “Someone help me!” I screamed.

  Footsteps thundered down the hallway and Dad rushed into the apartment. “What’s going on?”

  “Help him,” I cried.

  Dad pushed me aside, rolling Wesley onto his side. He was practically foaming at the mouth. What would that much Morphinal do?

  “Not again,” I sobbed. “Why did he do this? Where the hell did he get the Morphinal from?”

  Dad extracted brown paper packaging from under Wesley’s leg. He passed it to me. It was a box with his name and this address on it. Did he get it delivered?

  I crushed the packaging in my hands. We let him out too soon. I should have known better. Why did Dad let him use the computer?

  The convulsions passed and Wesley stopped moving. “Should I call an ambulance?” I asked.

  “No, I don’t think…shit,” Dad said. He rolled Wesley onto his back and put his ear to his mouth.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “He’s stopped breathing.”

  “Oh God,” I cried.

  Dad started CPR on him. Please don’t die.

  I sank to the floor in front of the couch, sobbing into my knees. This couldn’t be happening again. Why did everyone keep dying?

  The longer Dad worked on him, the less likely it looked that he would succeed. We needed to call an ambulance, even if it meant alerting Gene-Pharm. I got to my feet, rushing to my bag for my phone. As my hand closed around it, Wesley gave a shuddering gasp.

  “Dad?”

  “He’s breathing. Give me the phone. I know a guy who’s a doctor.”

  I handed the phone over to him. Wesley’s breathing didn’t sound good. How much damage had he done to his heart and the rest of his body? He could be brain damaged. He obviously is already if he thought taking that much Morphinal was a good idea!

  “I can’t do this anymore,” I said. This was too much to handle. Resting my arm against the door frame, I pressed my thumb into my forehead hard. Unfortunately, it didn’t have the desired effect. The wound had healed up.

  Dad hung up the phone. “He’s on his way. We can’t stay here. Did you see the return address on that package?”

  I shook my head. It was lying on the floor. Scooping it up, I flattened it out. The address was Gene-Pharm headquarters.

  “They know we’re here,” I said.

  “Or they know where Wesley is. They must have traced him through the computer. Why send someone to kill him when he can do the job himself. Grab your stuff.”

  Numb, I threw some things into my bag. Wesley didn’t buy the drugs himself, but he still took them. That didn’t make it any better.

  As we waited for the man to arrive, Dad monitored Wesley’s breathing. At one point he woke up and called my name. I stayed where I was by the door. I wasn’t going to him. I couldn’t.

  A man with black hair and a moustache arrived a short while later. Dad explained what had happened. They spoke in hushed whispers while I kept an eye out for anyone coming our way.

  Dad came over to me. “We’re going to have to move him to a safe house. The doc wants to hook him up to a machine, check his vitals. You go ahead and act as lookout while we get him downstairs to the car.”

  I nodded, glad to be doing something.

  Putting my backpack on, I removed the baseball bat and made my way down the hall. The door to 3C swung open and the old lady came out. She wore a floral housecoat and slippers, her gray hair in curlers.

  “What the hell is going on out here?” she demanded.

  Turning to face her, I rested the bat on my shoulder. “Go back inside,” I said.

  She struggled to control her tongue, but the bat seemed to scare her, so she quickly retreated inside. “I’m call the AS,” she shrieked, before closing and locking her door.

  We didn’t have much time. I made my way downstairs, while Dad and the man followed behind, supporting Wesley like he was drunk.

  We made it to the street, where a gray van was waiting. Wesley was bundled into the back. With a quick look around, I climbed in too. My heart was thumping in my chest. I almost wished that someone from Gene-Pharm would try something, send someone, so I could punish them for this. It was just like them not to get their hands dirty.

  I climbed forward into the front of the van to give the doctor room to work. Dad was driving. He had donned his baseball cap and kept within the speed limit.

  “Where are we going?” I asked him.

  “Safe house.”

  “Another one?”

  “Yep.”

  “Don’t you ever get sick of moving from place to place?”

  “Not when the alternative is a jail cell. We need to keep moving forward.”

  Keep moving forward. As mantras went, it was a good one. Because I didn’t want to think about what would happen when we stopped.

  10

  Wesley

  “My name is Wesley and I am an addict,” I said.

  “Hello Wesley,” the group intoned. There were ten of us in a room at a local rec center.

  “It’s been ten days since I last used. I almost died.” I took a breath. I could see my hands shaking, I still wanted a fix, even after everything that happened.

  “I’ve lost everything. I don’t know where to go from here,” I said.

  The man leading the group spoke. “You’ve taken the first step. You’ve admitted that you have a problem. It won’t be an easy road, but you can make it through.”

  His words were meant to be encouraging, but he had no idea. Jenna couldn’t even look at me anymore. I really screwed everything up. That part of me that craved the Morphinal took over.

  After I woke up, I felt like crap. The Morphinal showing up at the door was a cruel joke. Didn’t stop me from taking as much as I could, while I was alone.

  “Maybe I don’t deserve to. The girl I’m in love with hates me. I threw away everything for a quick fix.” I actually said it out loud. It’s about time.

  “Part of the program is about making amends…”

  I zoned out as the guy continued talking. How could I ever make amends for this?

  Movement caught my eye at the door as someone left the room. Someone had been listening to us. I caught a glimpse of red hair. Was that Jenna?

  I was ordered to come here by the doctor who took care of me, he said it was the only way. Tom wanted to move again, and it didn’t look like I would be going with them. Jenna had kept her distance since I
woke up. Was she here to say goodbye? Or did I just imagine her again?

  I couldn’t bear the thought of saying goodbye to her, but if that was what she wanted then I had to let her go. As hard as it was, she didn’t need me dragging her down anyway. I could stay with Tom’s friends, help them where I could. If I could get my life back on track, maybe one day she would come back to me.

  I can do this. One step at a time.

  ***

  Jenna

  Dad and I sat in the truck while Wesley was at the meeting. He loves me. The first time he said it and it was to a room full of strangers and not to me. Typical. He should have said that day at the farmhouse. If he had, I wouldn’t have gone upstairs, I wouldn’t have found the phone and…you would have been blown up with him. He survived, but if I had been there, he might not have.

  “You need to make a decision Jen,” Dad said.

  I sighed, resting my elbow on the door. “Why is it up to me? You said yourself that he would be helpful to the cause.”

  “Yes, but if you can’t be in a room with him then we’re not going to get anywhere.”

  So, it rested with me. I decided Wesley’s future. We either took him with us, or we left him behind to fend for himself. He’ll probably be back on the Morphinal by dinner time. That would be on me.

  “The meeting is ending soon. Make the choice,” Dad said.

  What do I do?

  Twenty minutes later, Wesley left the building. He walked along the street; hands jammed into his pockets. He looked so lost.

  Dad pulled up beside him. “Get in the truck,” he called to Wesley.

  Wesley looked surprised. He glanced at me, hope on his face. I forced a smile to show him that it was okay. It wasn’t okay, not by a long shot, but I couldn’t leave him by himself. I couldn’t let him die because of me.

  He climbed up into the truck beside me, wedging me between him and Dad.

  For better or worse, we were all in this together.

  11

  Jenna

  Our new home was an underground bunker. Dad wanted us to stay completely off the grid. It was one large room with some beds in the corner and a workstation for Wesley. There was a small bathroom in the back. I missed the apartment already.

  “Why can’t we ever hide out in a penthouse?” I asked, testing out one of the camp beds. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world. At least at the apartment we were separated by walls.

  “No time to rest. I need you to check something out for me,” Dad said, handing me a piece of paper with an address on it.

  “Let me guess, is this the address to our new summer home?”

  “Very funny. I need you to scope out the house, but I don’t want you going inside. The place has cameras and alarms everywhere.”

  “Kind of hard to check it out then.”

  “I just want you to record when the owner leaves and when he comes home.”

  “Sounds exciting,” I muttered, taking the address from him. “How am I going to do this without being noticed?” Especially in the neighborhood he was sending me to. An alley I could loiter in without too much bother, I couldn’t do the same in this street

  “There’s a house under construction further up the hill. No one is there at the moment; a contract fell through. It will give you a good vantage point.”

  “Well it can’t be worse than this place.”

  “Don’t let this guy see you. Understand? Just record when he leaves.”

  “Yes.” I could follow simple instructions, I wasn’t stupid.

  I held out my hand.

  “What?” he said.

  “I need some money for snacks. If I’m going to sit around all day, I’m going to get hungry.”

  Rolling his eyes, he handed some over. Grabbing my backpack, I left the bunker and headed to the address. At least I didn’t have to endure hours of Dad dishing out instructions and listen to Wesley clacking away on the keyboard.

  I stopped at a small grocery store on the way and bought myself some chips, soda and other sugar laden goodies. I kept my head bent as I paid, hiding my face under the brim of my cap. The clerk barely looked up from his phone.

  The trek to the house was a long one. It had rained recently, making the ground damp. I was dressed in black leggings and a gray t-shirt that Dad got from Goodwill. I really needed to talk to him about getting a better wardrobe. I had nothing of my own.

  I wondered who Dad wanted me to watch. The area I was heading too was an expensive neighborhood. It had to be a higher up in the company. Maybe it was someone on the board.

  It better be worth it, I thought as I trudged up a hill. I wished that I had a car but could never risk getting pulled over. Plus, I wasn’t exactly the greatest driver, as Wesley was witness too when I nearly trashed his car escaping from Gene-Pharm. If Dad spent more time at home, he could have taught me to drive.

  Checking the address again, I found the house at the top of the hill. When Dad said it was under construction, I thought he meant it was getting an extension added or something, when in reality it was basically a shell covered in scaffolding.

  I squeezed through a gap in the fence and went inside, hoping that it at least had floors. It did, but little else. I found the stairs and headed to the second floor. A breeze was blowing through the house due to the absence of windows. It was a huge house though, must be nice if you could afford it.

  I moved to the scaffolding on the south side of the house and looked out. I could see the house I was supposed to watch. Or the front driveway at least, which held a black car. It was surrounded by a high wall and a huge gate. Fancy.

  Grabbing a bag of chips, I settled on the scaffolding to watch. This was going to get old real fast. A faint beeping came from my backpack. I retrieved the comm from inside and placed it in my ear.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Charming. I was just checking in,” Wesley said.

  “Well I’m here. And I’m bored. No sign of this guy yet.”

  “Want me to keep you company?” Wesley asked.

  “I don’t think we would have much to talk about,” I said.

  He was silent for a moment. “Understood. Let me know when he leaves. Out.”

  I felt a stab of guilt. I didn’t mean to be a bitch about it, but I was worried that if we talked, he would start talking about us getting back together and I just couldn’t handle that right now. I need more time.

  I needed to just focus on the work. Even if it was torturous and dull.

  An hour passed, then another. I was getting tired. Resting my chin on the bar in front of me, I closed my eyes for a moment. How important could this really be? Dad could set up a camera to watch the house, why did he need me to do it? I opened my eyes. Did he send me out here to get rid of me for a while?

  I tapped on the comm. “Wesley? Is Dad there or is he out?”

  “He’s out. Why? Is something wrong?” he replied.

  “No, I just want to know why he sent me here, instead of setting up a camera or something.”

  “Uh, I’m not sure. I think he is just taking the chance since no one is there. If someone found a camera, they could try and trace it back to us.”

  In other words, he didn’t know either. “Well I’ll give it another couple of hours and then I’m coming back.”

  “Suit yourself.” I always do.

  I grabbed a soda and downed it for some energy. When I turned back to the window, there was a man in the driveway, walking toward the black car. I moved closer to try and make out his face.

  He was about thirty something, with fair hair and a beard. He wore a dark gray suit and he was carrying a briefcase. I knew his face. I’d seen it several times on the news – this was the new Breton. Did Dad know this was his house? Why send me to watch him? Or did he think I wouldn’t know who he was?

  My hands balled into fists. What was stopping me from going down there now and pummelling him? The answer came a moment later when a large man opened the car door for Breton.
The guy was built like a tank, clearly his bodyguard.

  I could probably take him. Okay, that was being delusional. I watched as they left the house and drove off toward the city. No doubt he was going to Gene-Pharm. Going to murder some more people probably.

  I wondered what secrets he hid inside that house. Did he have files, evidence of Gene-Pharm’s wrongdoings? It would make sense to keep the worst stuff locked away where he could keep an eye on it. He probably had a safe inside.

  Grabbing my bag, I left the house and hurried across the road. The gates were locked, but I could climb the wall. I moved around the side of the house so no one would see me. Tossing my bag over first, I took a running jump at the wall, catching the edge with my fingers. I hoisted myself up and over.

  Landing on the other side, I paused, looking for cameras or a guard dog. I couldn’t worry about cameras now. It was an alarm I needed to worry about.

  The front door was impenetrable, but around the back, I found the sliding door leading to the pool, was unlocked. That was lucky.

  When I opened the door and stepped inside though, the alarm immediately starting beeping.

  There was a console on the wall. I rushed to it, tapping the comm as I did.

  “Wesley, I need your help. How do I turn off an alarm?”

  “What? What alarm?”

  “I’m in the house. The alarm is beeping, I need a code, what do I do?”

  “Get out of there!”

  “No, I’m not leaving, now help me.”

  He swore loudly. “What kind of system is it?”

  I told him the name of it. He walked me through taking the front panel off and disconnecting it.

  “That won’t buy you very long. He’ll be told that the box has lost its signal. Get out of there now.”

  “I only need a few minutes,” I replied, rushing to check the rooms. There had to be something I could grab.

  “Whose house is it?” Wesley asked.

  “Breton’s.”

  “What? Jenna seriously, get out now.”