Jen stammered. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"
"It's all right. I should've remembered what you told Hal about spending a lot of time in the field." He gave her a grin. "And you're twenty-five. Far from a kid."
Jen opened her mouth to thank him, but Hal rushed out of the house and they piled into the truck. Jen sat in the back, wheels turning in her head. She'd expected Devin to be combative and too set in his ways to change, but he'd shown her different. Was there hope for them to establish a relationship after all the time they'd been estranged? While he certainly wouldn't be a 1950s' TV dad, maybe there was room for mutual respect.
"What's the story with Raymond and his nephews?" Devin asked. "They seem extremely close."
Hal kept his eyes on the rutted road. "Their father left the village when they were still toddlers and never returned. Their mother, Raymond's sister, died in an ATV accident when they were in their early teens. Raymond raised them as his own."
Hal parked in front of the lab trailer and stared out the windshield. "Look, I don't agree with what you're doing, but I can't stop you." He got out of the truck. "Just be careful." Without another word, he disappeared into the trailer.
Jen shrugged. "Isn't he Mr. Happy?"
"I'll go get the equipment," Devin said. "Can you get the ATVs?"
Jen hopped out of the truck. "Can do."
A peal of thunder boomed nearby as she hurried into the admin trailer. Still hunched over the radio in the office, Pete put a hand up as she walked in, then keyed his mic. "Wallace Science One to Barrow Control. Come in, please." He sat back and a garbled voice came over the speaker, but Jen couldn't make it out.
Pete wiped his hand down his face. "How's Leo?"
"Not good, but Hal's working on him." Jen scanned the wall. "Where are the ATV keys?"
Pete raised an eyebrow.
Jen sighed. "Hal knows. It's OK."
Pete hitched a thumb over his shoulder. "Next to Hal's desk. The gas tanks should be full, but check them just in case. Don't want to come up empty out there. Especially not in this weather."
"Do you have a couple of ponchos we can borrow?"
"Sure," Pete said. "That closet next to the file cabinet."
Jen grabbed the ponchos and two sets of keys and stepped into the hallway. She almost ran into Devin. She held the keys up and jingled them. "I'll check out the four-wheelers and pull them around."
He nodded. "I'll get the supplies and meet you out front."
Ten minutes later, Jen parked the second four-wheeler as Chris pulled up.
"How much stuff does your father have?" Chris asked.
Jen shrugged. "No idea. I've never been on one of the Great Corpse Hunter's safaris."
Chris grunted and went inside. He and Devin loaded the trailer on the back of Chris's four-wheeler.
Jen nodded at the ATV trailer. "There's still plenty of room on that thing."
"We'll need it," Devin said. "I plan to bring one of the bodies back for examination."
Jen and Devin started their ATVs. Chris cupped his hands around his mouth. "Stay close enough behind me to see my lights."
He took off down the hill. They followed him as he threaded his way through the village and out onto the tundra. The rain had slowed, and the thunder and lightning had stopped. A couple of miles out of town, Chris slowed to a halt and waved the others forward.
When they caught up with him, he pointed ahead. "See that ground there?"
Jen looked out where Chris's headlights shined. About ten feet ahead, the ground was pitted, and beyond that there appeared to be several large holes. "The heat is melting the permafrost," she said, "and the ground's collapsing."
"Would Leo have gone this way along the coast?" Devin asked.
Chris nodded. "This is where he would've turned toward the mountain."
Jen peered out into the tundra. A large shadow rose in the distance. "So what are we waiting for?"
Chris smiled and gave her a thumbs up, then gunned his throttle and headed toward Fear Mountain. Jen hesitated long enough to make sure Devin was coming, then she followed Chris, ignoring the queasy feeling in her gut.
5
They reached the base of the mountain without incident and turned right, their headlights exposing the tundra as they rode along. A few minutes later, Chris slowed and gestured for them to stop. "We need to take it easy here," he yelled over the engines. "Leo's been riding this tundra all his life, and something caught him off guard. Stay behind me."
Jen and Devin nodded, then followed Chris as he eased the throttle open. They drove at a slow speed for another hundred yards, their headlight beams sweeping the ground, before the tundra ended and blackness lay beyond.
They stopped and turned off their engines, but kept their headlights on. "What the hell is it?" Jen asked.
Chris hopped off his four-wheeler and shook his head. He picked up a flashlight from the trailer and shone it back and forth on the edge of the darkness. "It's a big pit. Looks like the tundra caved in here."
Devin opened a large box on the trailer. "Help me with these."
Jen and Chris joined him, and he pulled out a pair of cordless twin halogen lights on tripods. Jen and Chris both took one, and Devin grabbed another from the box. "I'll set mine up straight in front of the ATVs. Jen, plant yours twenty feet to my right, and Chris, plant yours twenty feet to my left."
Chris and Jen nodded, and Devin walked straight toward the pit. "Don't get too close to the edge, since we don't know how stable it is."
Jen set up her tripod a few feet back and waited for the others. When they'd finished, Devin pointed to the back of his light. "The switch is on the bar between the lights. Let's get these on."
Jen flipped the switch, and the halogens flooded the pit in bright light. Devin's and Chris's also came on. Jen peered into the pit and her heart skipped a beat.
The pit wasn't deep, maybe four feet, but was filled with hundreds of bodies. It reminded her of pictures she'd seen of mass graves, except the bodies weren't just lying there. They seemed to have been flash-frozen in the middle of some action, their arms askew and their legs ready to take a next step. She focused on a body just in front of her. Dressed in what looked like old-fashioned clothes, it had a chunk of its neck missing as if something had taken a bite out of it.
Devin hurried to the trailer and back. "Everyone puts these on now."
He put a surgeon's mask on his face and handed one each to Jen and Chris. Jen placed hers on and Devin tossed her a pair of latex gloves. "These, too."
Devin was the most animated she'd ever seen him. His brow furrowed and his posture stiffened. It took a minute before the reason hit her. The great Devin Reed was scared.
Devin picked up a shovel and handed it to Chris, who'd already donned his mask and gloves. "We have no idea what killed these men, but if it had anything to do with Leo's illness, we need to find out."
He headed back to the pit. "Jen, you're with me. Chris, bring the body bag out and spread it out on the ground."
He shined a flashlight at the edge of the pit, then stomped a foot along it. The ground remained solid. Jen peered into the grave. All of them had the same type of archaic clothes on. How long had they been there?
Devin pointed to the corpse of a bearded man in a cotton jacket and overalls. "Chris, point those two sidelights here."
When Chris had adjusted the lights, Devin lowered himself into the grave, almost tripping over a frozen leg. He waved Jen on. "Come."
She eased into the pit and placed her feet in the only two clear spots she could find. That's when the smell smacked her in the face. Nothing she'd ever encountered smelled as thick and as foul as the bodies and the thawing muck they lay in. She coughed and prayed she wouldn't puke in her mask.
Devin put a hand on her shoulder. "Easy. First time you've smelled something like this, isn't it?"
She nodded.
"It's the smell of death. Not the cleaned-up, funeral home kind of death, but the raw, un
sanitized, natural version. It never leaves you once you experience it."
Jen breathed through her mouth. "Thanks for the warning."
Devin pointed at the bearded man. "What do you see?"
Jen coughed. "A smelly dead guy."
Devin sighed. "Get closer and look. You're a scientist, so act like one."
Jen frowned, but he was right. She took a deep breath and bent down to examine the man. He looked to have been in his early thirties and was short, about five and a half feet. The fabric of the coat was torn down his entire left arm. She moved the torn fabric to the side and found a wound on his shoulder. "He's got a hell of a hickey here."
Devin squatted next to her and ran a gloved finger over the wound. "A bite."
Jen looked at him. "Is it possible some animals fed on these bodies?"
Chris stood on the edge of the pit, just above Devin, watching them. "Sure could. Grizzlies have been active lately."
Devin examined the bite. "Not big enough for a bear. Besides, this bite isn't recent. It was made before he died."
"How do you know that?" Chris asked.
Devin pointed at dried blood around the wound. "Wounds inflicted on a frozen body don't bleed."
The bearded man appeared to be atop the frozen soil and not trapped in it, so Jen pulled on his petrified arm to see if she could roll him over. She braced her right boot against another corpse's leg and pulled. The damn thing wasn't moving.
"Next time wait until I tell you to touch a body," Devin said. "This is an archaeological site and needs to be treated as such."
Jen felt heat rise in her cheeks. Why am I always screwing up around him? "OK."
Devin attempted to roll the corpse, but it didn't move for him, either. "In a normal dig we'd take days or weeks to carefully unearth a body, but Leo doesn't have that luxury, so we'll need to be a bit more brute force." He turned to Jen. "Grab a shovel. Chris, is that body bag ready?"
Chris's head popped up over the lip of the pit. He handed a shovel to Jen. "Ready when you are."
Jen tested the soil with the tip of her shovel. "Hard as a rock. We're not digging anybody out today."
Devin placed his shovel under the corpse's injured shoulder. "We don't have to get the shovels too far in, just enough to pry him up. Get yours under his upper thigh."
Jen jammed the tip of her shovel under the corpse's thigh. Devin pushed down on his shovel with his foot, driving the blade a couple inches into the permafrost. Jen did the same to hers, and it moved further under the body's thigh.
Devin wiped his brow. "You ready?"
Jen nodded.
Devin gripped the handle. "Ready, one, two, three."
Jen pushed down on her shovel. The corpse wasn't budging. Devin strained so much that tendons popped out in his neck.
The body raised a quarter inch. "Hold up," Devin said, letting go of his shovel.
"I think I have it." Jen grunted and pushed harder.
Just as she was about to give up, the body rolled over with a great ripping sound. The corpse's left arm tore off, still frozen into the ground.
Jen leaned on the shovel, panting. "Shit."
Devin threw his shovel down. "I told you to stop."
Jen took a deep breath and coughed. "If it helps, I don't think he felt a thing."
Devin put a hand to his forehead. "OK. OK. No big deal. Let's get him bagged and out of here."
Jen grabbed the corpse's legs. Devin had its upper body. They lifted and rolled it onto the body bag. Chris zipped it up while they climbed out of the pit. The three of them carried the body bag and placed it in the trailer, then threw in the shovels and went to get the lights.
Before turning hers off, Jen shined the lights further out into the pit. What the hell?
There were several body-shaped depressions, as if someone else had removed bodies, too. Who the hell would do that?
Devin called to her. "We've got everything packed except your lights."
Jen turned off the lights, plunging the pit back into darkness. She listened. Crackling and crunching like ice melting in a glass of tea. The tundra was thawing at an enormous rate.
She picked up the lamp and turned to bring it back to the trailer, but from somewhere not too far behind her came scratching sounds. She peered over her shoulder into the darkness, and the scratching stopped.
"Jen," Devin snapped. "Let's move."
Jen darted to the trailer and dropped the lamp off, then climbed onto her ATV and followed Chris the hell out of there.
6
After what seemed like hours, the shadowy outlines of Point Wallace houses appeared ahead. The sky had opened up again and the driving rain made it hard to see much detail beyond several yards. Jen adjusted her poncho hood in a doomed attempt at keeping the rain out of her eyes.
They wound their way through the village and climbed the hill, their tires working to gain traction.
"All this rain has softened the ground," Chris said. "There's more grass and less mud on the right side of the hill, so come up that way next time."
Lightning flashed, painting the trailers in momentary daylight.
Devin hopped off his ATV. "Let's get the body inside. Everything else can wait."
Devin held the science trailer door open as Jen and Chris stumbled inside with the body. He led them down the hallway to the archaeologist's room and gestured to the autopsy table. "On there."
He helped them lift the body onto the table and wiped his hands on his pants. Jen felt filthy and wanted nothing more than a hot drink and a shower. "I'll go see if Pete has any coffee brewed."
She stepped into the hallway and almost collided with Hal. He tried to look past her and into the room. "What did you find?"
Jen moved aside and Devin waved Hal in. "A mass grave. The bodies are well preserved, but old. Late nineteenth century is my guess. We brought one back for examination."
Jen slipped back into the room. No way would she miss the conversation.
Hal removed his glasses and wiped them with a handkerchief. "I've got something as well, but I'm not exactly sure what it is. Want to take a look? It's over in the lab."
Devin nodded.
Hal strode from the room without a word, Devin on his heels.
Chris passed by Jen. "I'm going for that coffee."
"Catch you later." She hurried from the room and over to the lab trailer.
The lab looked as clean and antiseptic as it had when Hal had given them the tour earlier. Hal and Devin hovered over a microscope in the corner. Hal gave Devin an arched eyebrow when Jen joined them. Her heart skipped a beat. They weren't going to throw her out, were they? She was a scientist, too. Not as experienced or lauded as them, but so what?
Devin met Hal's gaze with an unblinking one of his own. "Whatever I can see, Jen can see."
Hal shrugged, and Jen let out a breath. Devin was really trying to connect with her. It wasn't quite enough for her to forget his years of absences, but she felt a connection to him she hadn't before.
Hal pulled a vial of blood from a small refrigerator beneath the table. He tilted it so one drop landed on a glass slide, then pressed another slide onto it and placed them under the stage clips.
Hal peered into the eyepiece and adjusted the focus. "I wasn't sure what I was seeing at first." He straightened and stepped back. "Take a look."
Devin looked into the microscope. "Looks normal to me."
He straightened and motioned Jen over. She peered through the eyepiece and saw hundreds of donut-shaped red blood cells. "Same here."
"Watch closer," Hal said. "The outer boundaries of the cells."
Jen squinted and adjusted the focus. It took a minute, but she found a cell with a membrane that didn't look right. "Looks like it's blackening."
"Keep watching," Hal said. "Now that you've found one, you should see more."
He was right. She noticed dozens of cells in the same condition. The blackening of the membrane seemed to be spreading. She straightened and let Devin
look. "What the hell is it?"
"It's not bacterial," Hal said. "We'd see that. My guess is some type of virus."
Devin looked up from the microscope. "You can't see it?"
Hal removed the slides, placed them in a plastic bag, and sealed it with tape. He tossed it in a biohazard waste bucket. "As well supplied as we are, we don't have an electron microscope." He rubbed his eyes. "Besides, I'm no virologist. We'll have to get the samples to Anchorage once the weather clears. There's an associate of mine, Dr. Wilson, who's staging labs for a new study on the effects of cold temperatures on the human body. He has contacts in the CDC." He sighed. "But for now I have nothing new to help Leo."
Devin clasped him on the shoulder. "You've done what you can."
"No." Hal strode toward the trailer door. "I haven't. Let's take a closer look at that body you brought in."
Jen jogged to keep up with Hal and Devin. "Not much you can do with a frozen body."
Hal ignored her. She followed them into the headquarters trailer. Hal stopped at the admin office door. Pete sat at his desk, shuffling papers, while Chris leaned against the wall, coffee mug in hand, talking to him.
"Still no radio?" Hal asked.
Pete shook his head. "I gave up for now."
"Keep trying," Hal said. "We may have a contagion, and need to let the state authorities know. They can contact the CDC and get the ball rolling."
Pete's eyebrows rose. "Contagion?"
Hal nodded. "Just a precaution, but Leo's blood may contain a virus, so we need to play it safe. And the logical place for him to have contracted it would be at the mass grave."
Chris frowned. "So are we infected, too?"
"Doubtful," Hal said. "I suspect Leo got it from his wound. Most likely, it's not airborne, but passed on through fluids."
Jen pursed her lips. Hal was making a lot of assumptions. Did he believe what he said, or was he just trying to keep everyone calm? "What good does it do to tell Wainwright? It's not like they can get the state troopers or anything."
"They might," Pete said. "They have newer and more powerful radio equipment and can cut through outages we don't have a hope to."
The Zombie Uprising Series: Books One Through Five Page 3