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‘For a moment there I thought you were going to make an inbred remark.' Vassar's face held the cloudy expression she was more used to seeing.

‘It crossed my mind but I bet you've had a gut full of stupid inbred jokes. There has to be something else going on though in Tasmania, besides border control. When you were home, did you hear of anyone getting bitten who didn't turn?'

Vassar scratched his cheek and Ruth noticed he was sunburnt. ‘I was on duty until we were recalled. I only knew what I saw on the Net. My parents wrote and told me there was an incurable disease on the mainland. Told me to get home. But it wasn't just at home. I saw braindeads in the Middle East, too. World's gone to shit.'

‘I can't believe that we medical people haven't combated this. A vaccine…something. Pity you don't know more about the medical situation in Tasmania, first hand. In every case I saw at the hospital, no one got better. If the antiviral helps Mike, I need to find out why.'

Vassar tuned the corner onto the narrow road towards the cells. ‘I think Mike's fever's down.'

She rubbed her hands together with excitement. ‘I need to check Mike's temperature. It didn't seem to matter what we gave the patients, once that fever started, it only got worse. I knew my patients would turn, so I pumped up their pain relief.' Ruth wrung her hands and glanced over at him. ‘It was all I could do for them.'

Vassar looked over at her as they crossed the green to the cellblock. ‘We navy men, we're loyal. I remember a debt.'

Ruth watched as he took out his keys, unlocked the sliding door of the cellblock and slid it back.

Vassar walked into the block and over to his brother. ‘Hey, Mike. I've brought the doctor you met yesterday. Jack's woman.'

Jack's woman.
That's how Vassar saw her. That's how all the men saw her. She approached the cell, eyeing Mike through the bars. The cell had a funky smell but Mike didn't have the pallid look of a man close to death. ‘He isn't cuffed?'

Mike Vassar opened his eyes and raised his head. ‘Hi, Ruth.' He gave her a grin.

Vassar unlocked the door. ‘Mike quits responding, I'll restrain him. I promised my folks I'd look after him when he joined the navy.' Vassar's voice dropped. ‘See that stake in the corner? I know my duty. I told you before, my brother won't become a monster.'

Her throat swelled. The honour these men had for one another made her want to cry. She came and sat by Mike's side. ‘It's good to see you're still with us. Can I take your temperature and some blood?'

Mike nodded.

She inserted the thermometer under his tongue. When she took his pulse, she noticed it wasn't as rapid as yesterday. The thermometer sounded and she studied the reading. She looked over at Vassar. ‘You're right. It's down.'

Hope blossomed on Mike Vassar's face. ‘That's unusual, right?'

‘I haven't seen it before.' She shone her torchlight into his eyes. ‘No trauma, either.'
Yet.

Vassar hovered, watching everything she did. ‘Come on, Mike. You have to fight this thing.'

‘What do you think I'm doing?' Mike said to his brother. ‘I'm going to be the first man to beat this thing.'

‘That's the spirit,' Vassar said.

So many people had turned into braindeads that blood relationships were rare. Loved ones were special. She was lucky to have Sue and Lea. Jack's face came to mind. She frowned. Oxytocin, the bonding chemical, lasted longer in a woman's body than a man's, which explained her floating-on-air mood earlier. She'd been flooded with it and yet, she respected that he'd achieved so much in terms of safety, when others had failed. ‘Mike, I'm going to take some blood now.'

‘Sure,' Mike said.

Vassar watched his brother, a fond expression on his face, while she prepared the syringe. ‘That day we found you, Sue and Lea, I thought you were a difficult, stuck-up bitch.'

Ruth inserted the syringe into Mike's vein, watching as it began to fill with blood, then glanced over at him. She arched a brow. ‘Thanks, Vassar. Don't hold back.'

Vassar ran his hand through his short reddish hair and gave her a long stare. ‘But Jack didn't think that. He said you were brave.'

She gave a short laugh. ‘Me? No way. What you guys do everyday is brave. These braindeads terrify me. I made sure all patients were secured before I treated them. Guess my cautious nature kept me alive.' She pulled out the syringe from Mike's arm.

Vassar gave her that penetrating gaze she'd come to know before studying a random spot on the ground. ‘Jack respects you. He liked the way you stood up for your friends in front of the men. Don't leave. We need you. Jack needs you too. You, Sue and Lea give us a reason to keep fighting.'

When he looked up she caught the depth of his decency. She wondered if that was the longest personal speech Vassar had ever made. For a moment, the back of her eyes felt hot and she thought she was going to cry. With Jack, he was so combative she could slam back a smartarse reply to anything he said. But all Vassar had to offer was raw truth that was so deeply candid, real old-world Australian honesty, that it hit her hard. No wonder Sue liked him. Her throat felt dry. ‘I'll think about what you've said today. I'm still coming to terms with things. Sue always tells me I'm slow to accept new relationships into my life, that I like…liked intellectual jerks.'

Vassar nodded. ‘Yeah, she said that about you. She also said you were a great friend. That you learn from your mistakes.' He motioned to her with his hand. ‘Come on. I'll lock up here. I need to get you to the hospital. Some of the commandos sustained injuries when they came off rotation.'

‘Bites?'

‘No. They'd be locked in here if they were.'

‘Thank God for that.' Ruth gave Mike one last look. She stoppered the test tube of blood, stood and followed Vassar out into the sunshine and stood there blinking as he secured the cellblock roller door. ‘Here. This needs to go straight to Lea.' She handed Vassar his brother's blood sample.

‘Thanks. I'll drive it down to Lea now.' He took it from her and they walked across the green.

Parked on the street was an open top, army issue Land Rover. Vassar opened the door and climbed in.

‘Wait? Are you going to escort me back to the hospital?' What happened to her prison guard?

Vassar inserted his keys into the Land Rover then looked up at her. ‘You know your way to the hospital. I'll radio Sub-Lieutenant Carter to let him know you're on your way.'

‘What? You mean you're going against orders and actually letting me go somewhere by myself?'

Vassar let out a long sigh. ‘I don't hold with keeping a woman prisoner, not that Jack didn't have good reason to keep an eye on you. You don't know how to defend yourself. That old lady braindead you fought off, I could crush her skull with my bare hands if I had to. A big braindead the size of my brother Mike could grab a little woman like you and tear out her throat with his teeth. You wouldn't have a chance.'

‘Thanks, Vassar. Nice image to leave me with.' Ruth looked up and down the street with a new sense of alarm. Birds twittered and she saw a bush rabbit run under one of the military huts.

Vassar got out of the jeep, opened the back door and reached inside. ‘Here, I made this myself.' He handed her a metal stake.

She went to take it.

He pulled it back. ‘Wait a sec, Ruth. You grip this in the middle, right where I'm holding. See how it runs flat before the pointy end?'

‘Yes.'

‘I've sharpened it into a blade like a sword. If you get chased by more than one braindead, use it to decapitate them.' Vassar moved back onto the green grass and demonstrated with a sweeping motion, his large body becoming a fluid-fighting machine.

‘I hope I won't have to do that.'

‘Never let one get close. You don't have the strength to hand fight one off. Remember, you don't have to drive the stake right into the eye socket; you can ram it up under the chin and into the brain. That's the best angle for a short woman to use.' He demonstrated with a sharp jabbing motion.

Ruth decided not to retort to the short comment, instead she gingerly took the stake examining it. ‘Thanks, Vassar. I feel good about this.' Not.

‘You're welcome. I made one for Sue too. I even engraved her name on it. Think she'll like it?'

Ruth raised her eyebrows. ‘Knowing Sue, she'll see it as a cool gift.'

Vassar grinned so Ruth actually saw his teeth. ‘I like that. You're okay, Ruth, you know that?'

‘Yeah, I'm just great.' She gave him a wave as he drove off. ‘Sheesh.' She was so out of her depth. Maybe she should have paid more attention to sport instead of hiding in the library at school. She marched up the hill past what had been her favourite cafe dragging the stake like a javelin along the road, as she used to when forced to do sport at school. In the distance, she could hear rock music playing from the Balmoral Beach side of the base. Jack and his men must be clearing the braindeads from the slopes again. She imagined walking along the beautiful roads of Balmoral, enjoying the mix of the huge Edwardian and modern houses. Would she ever be able to do that again?

A soft moan echoed on the breeze, so light she wondered if she'd really heard it. Ruth stopped and looked around, peering carefully into the bushland on her left. Fear rippled along her spine. An old war bunker surrounded by a wire fence stood almost covered by ferns and scrub. Something clanked inside the bunker. Ruth's heart slammed in her chest. Georges Heights was full of old military tunnels. Had Jack had them cleared? Surely a man as cautious as Jack would have seen to this. Before the virus hit, most were locked but the fence gate was open, the broken padlock hanging from a chain. ‘Anyone there?' Her fingers clenched around her stake so that her knuckles turned white. No answer. Not a groan. Nothing. No bloody way was she going in that uninviting looking dark hole to investigate. A new sense of respect deepened for Jack and his men. Vassar had spooked her. She hurried past, practicing jabbing movements with her stake, pleased to sight the hospital barracks ahead.

Brave? ‘Pah!' Jack and Vassar had no idea. If she saw a braindead, she'd run damn hard. Most braindeads were slow moving and Carter at the hospital had a gun. This stake, as far as she was concerned, was a last minute resort. She knew she'd have to convince Jack to teach her how to shoot, but in the end, she'd stick to what she was good at. Healing.

‘Dr Parker, thank goodness you're here.' Sub-Lieutenant Carter greeted her, casting a glance at her stake as she walked in. ‘We have four new patients. A zoo keeper who came in yesterday. Nearly starved to death. I put him on a drip. He's picking up now since he's had nourishment.'

‘Vassar told me two commandos.'

‘Yes, Ma'am. They're waiting for you in the ward but an urgent case just came in now. Nurse will explain.' Carter had an odd expression on his face.

‘Sue in the ward?'

‘Nurse Wells has started taking patient details.' He nodded his head towards the ward.

Ruth hurried past him and was welcomed by the men. She gave them a wave. ‘I'll be back to check on you all when I can. Sounds like something's come up.'

‘Not quite the way I'd explain it,' one of the men called out.

The others laughed.

Sue raced up holding a chart. ‘Nice accessory,' she added, glancing at the stake.

‘Don't knock it. Vassar made it. It's the latest design in braindead defence. You're about to get one. Decapitates and spears. A veritable two in one.'

‘That's my Vassar. Never satisfied with one way.'

Ruth held up her free hand. ‘Spare me, please.'

Sue grinned. ‘Speaking of two in one, there's a patient you need to see. You're so not going to believe this. I've put him in the separate ward room where Darren used to be.'

Ruth raised her eyebrows and tilted her head. ‘Come on, Sue. I've seen everything at work. So have you.'

‘Can't say I've seen this.' Sue led the way to the separate ward room.

Lying on the hospital bed was one of the fittest looking men she'd ever laid eyes on. He was naked from the chest up and from the expression on his face in extreme pain.

Ruth put her stake to the side and stood next to him. ‘Hi, I'm Dr Ruth Parker.' She glanced up at the sign above the man's bed.

‘Corporal Peter Clark,' the man responded.

He looked familiar but she couldn't quite place him. Perhaps she'd seen him in the Mess.

Sue hovered close by, a ghost of a smile on her lips. ‘Corporal Clark is Helen's new commando friend.'

One of them.
Two men at one time. Ruth shuddered just thinking about poor Helen. She'd be sitting on an ice pack for a week if she took two of these modern day warriors to bed. Jack was more than enough for her.

‘Doc, you have to fix this. I'm in agony.' Peter rose to a sitting position and lowered the bed sheet that covered his torso.

Ouch. Ruth resisted crossing her legs. ‘You've fractured your penis.' Normally she'd get in a urologist for this kind of emergency and she wasn't keen to do it on her own. ‘How did this happen? Is Helen okay?'

‘Helen's the one who did this to me. There's no satisfying her. She wanted us both. “Hard and fast” she kept saying. Kept us going all night. It was like she couldn't get enough.'

‘Really? I never would have picked it,' Sue said. ‘Such a mousy-looking woman.'

‘I thought she was just interested in her elephant,' Ruth agreed.

‘She said she was “celebrating being alive”. That sex helped her forget what she'd seen. I missed a beat and slammed into the bit between.' He paused and looked from Sue to Ruth. ‘It isn't easy to get the rhythm right when there's another guy.'