Break of the Six (The Preston Six Book 4) (3 page)

“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.”

The house still took Poly’s breath away. Everything seemed so nice, clean, and perfect with the huge windows looking over the ocean. The dual marble staircases wrapped around the stone area. A smaller stone path led downstairs. She remembered when they were on that very staircase and Joey hurt himself saving Julie.

His hand shook, as if she needed a reminder. He clinched his fist and shook his hand. She wrapped hers around it and gave him a smile.

“We have a problem on Earth we were hoping you could help us with,” Joey addressed Jack.

“You’ve done so much for us, I don’t think we can say no to anything you request.”

“There’s an illness spreading, a cough.”

Jack’s eyes went wide and he took a step back. “A cough, like
the
Cough? Is it killing people?”

“Yes, and Hank has it; only has a day left they said,” Poly said choking up.

“And my mom.”

Jack shook his head in disbelief, staring at his Panavice. “I don’t . . . Harris is expected to be back any second.” He talked into his Panavice and Harris appeared, kneeling next to the stone. His smile changed to a concerned frown as he took in their looks. “What’s wrong?”

“Earth’s got the Cough,” Jack supplied.

Harris slid his hand down his face. “Jack, have Sanct check their vault for vaccines. If it’s the same thing we dealt with, we may have a few stored.”

“Can you make more?” Joey asked.

“We’re barely managing to keep up with food production here, nor have we made a vaccine in hundreds of years. I’m afraid we aren’t equipped to help much.”

“He’s dying.” Poly’s voice cracked. “Hank, he needs our help.”

“I’ll do everything I can.” Harris held his Panavice to his face and then seemed to change his mind. “Maybe you should talk to Travis, you’d get a better response.” He offered the Panavice to Poly.

Poly took the Panavice and pressed the call button.

“Yes,” Travis’s voice was filled with venom, he must have caller ID.

“This is Poly.”

“
Poly
,” his voice changed instantly. “How are you, is everything okay?”

She filled him in on the details and he said he’d check on it himself, immediately.

They waited an hour. Poly spent much of the time standing next to the glass windows, gazing down at the ocean feeling the guilt of being a possible carrier of the cough. The stone hummed and she whipped around. Joey held his gun out and Travis appeared, holding a black case.

“This is all we have.” He rushed to Poly and handed her the case. “There might be a hundred in there.”

Poly winced at the number. She needed a few billion. Now she would have to choose who lived and who died. She didn’t want to play God, but she would if it meant curing those she loved. Extending her hand for the case, Travis pulled it back.

“I’m not giving it up until you promise to take the vaccine. It’d be just like you two to give it to everyone else but yourself.”

“Fine,” Poly huffed.

“It works as a cure as well,” Travis said, handing it to her. “I wonder if one of you transmitted it to Earth. How else could it have gotten there?”

Poly hadn’t thought about it that way. She looked down at the case and the back of her hand holding it. That hand could be transmitting stuff from world to world. Astronauts were quarantined when they came home from the moon, how was what they did any different? What they were doing was actually much worse, as people and grinners lived on the planets they visited.

She felt a tickle in her throat. She tried to push it down, but it forced itself out in a cough. The looks of fear spread across each of their faces. Were they scared for themselves, or for her?

“You feeling okay?” Joey asked and put his hand on her shoulder.

“Yeah, just got a bit of a dry throat.”

“We better get you back to Earth.” Travis ushered them to the stone. “How’s Julie?”

“Good.” There was something in his eyes, like he wanted to ask another question, but didn’t. “Thank you for getting us what you could.”

“We’ll keep looking, there might be some stored elsewhere.” Travis stepped out of the designated circle area.

“I will as well,” Harris added from the edge of the circle. “But hurry, you need to get that to Hank and your mom.”

Joey slammed in the code and the stone hummed.

“Come on,” Poly said. With the cure in her hand, she felt an urgency building.

Jogging through the forest they got back to their car. Poly dropped the pedal to the floor on her way to the gym. Joey held on to the case with one hand and the grab bar with the other. She glanced at the case, trying to think of a plausible explanation of where she would get such a thing.

After a brief discussion, it was obvious they couldn’t make a public announcement about having a cure, they would be trampled. So they decided to do it on the sly. They wouldn’t tell anyone what they were doing.

Poly switched the headlights on as she pulled into town. Cars lined the road as she approached the gym. They’d only been gone a couple hours, yet the line had turned into a large mob. Hundreds now stood outside, some waving their arms, others were collapsed on the ground.

“Things are getting worse,” she said, parking the car a ways down the road.

She got out and eyed the case in Joey’s hand. In it, one vial gun and about a hundred vials. Each vial represented a saved life, but it also represented a choice. Who lived and who didn’t. Would they be the only people left in the world after this? Would the rest of the world perish but the hundred they chose? If that was the case, should they save multiple family members, or spread it out to strangers with different bloodlines? Her head began to throb under the pressure and enormity of it all.

Joey took a step onto the sidewalk, but Poly stood in front of him. “I’m not doing anything until you take a shot,” Poly said.

“I was going to tell you the same thing, but I don’t need it. I feel fine. You are the one who coughed.”

“You’ve been around your mom and I’m not going to be changing your bedpan in a few days, Joey Foust.” She’d said it louder than she wanted but it worked, he looked hurt.

“Fine, but you first.”

“No, I know you’ll run off with it or something stupid after I’ve got mine.” She coughed to drive home the urgency. Her throat started demanding another cough, but she suppressed it.

Placing a vial in the chrome metal gun, Poly shot it into Joey’s shoulder. His hand shook as he placed the end of the gun on her arm. As soon as the vaccine was injected, guilt spread over her.

“We should save one for my mom.”

“Agreed.” Though it hurt to use the words. They were already playing God and it made her feel queasy.

Making their way through the mob of coughing and yelling people, she couldn’t help but wonder if a civil place like Preston was starting to lose it, what were big cities with anonymous faces doing?

The place had filled the cots and now people lay on the floor, on the stage, sitting against walls, coughing. Poly spotted Trip hovering over Hank’s body. They rushed to him, being delicate enough to avoid the people on the ground. One person grabbed Poly’s leg and begged for help. She pulled her leg from him and apologized. She wanted to open the case and cure the man right there, but she needed to get to Hank first. If anyone knew they had a cure, the mob would turn into a full riot. She hated making the decision, but she pushed on to Hank.

Trip greeted them. “What are you doing here?” His voice cracked and he rubbed his nose.

Lucas and Julie pushed off the wall to join the group around Hank. Julie stared at the black case.

“How’s Hank doing?” Joey asked.

“I think he’s sleeping. Though, I can’t get him to wake up.” Trip rushed the last words out and took a deep breath.

Poly gripped Hank’s hand and felt warmth. Breathing a sigh of relief, she knew they had made it in time. Stage three put the person into a coma state, where they slowly drowned as their lungs filled. She listened to Hank’s wheezing. “We have a gift from Harris.”

Trip’s eyes brightened as he stared at the black case.

Poly opened the case on the floor and set a vial in the gun. She shot the vial into Hank’s arm and placed another vial into it. She then shot it into the arm of Trip without asking.

“Hey,” he protested.

“I know you would have said no.”

“Dang right I would have. Look at the people around me. They need it.”

“We don’t have enough,” Poly whispered trying to drive home the information.

Lucas walked over, pulling his sleeve up. “Hit me up with some of that.” He cleared his throat. “I’m feeling it coming on.” He did look a bit on the ill side, but he had ever since he’d been bitten by that grinner. The only person in all the worlds to be immune . . . did Lucas even understand how many lives he saved on Vanar?

Poly shot him in the arm and then did Julie as well. How selfish of her, she was glad to be saving the ones she loved, but it hurt her soul to let the rest die. The sounds of wheezing, coughing, moaning, and crying crashed into her. There were hundreds in the gym, hundreds outside. She shook her head. “I don’t think I can do this.”

“The president just announced he’s shutting down all airports and putting the country in a state of emergency.” Julie held her Panavice so they could see the headline on the screen.

Poly looked around the gym, thinking of how she would distribute the last of the cure.

“Please tell me you have more than this?” Julie asked, looking in the case.

“It’s all they had,” Joey answered.

“This is going to cause a riot,” Julie said eyeing the people nearby.

“Do you know how much people would pay for this stuff?” Lucas said. “What? I was just joking.” He rubbed his shoulder where Poly injected him.

“Do you have a cure?” A man next to Hank asked and then went into a coughing fit.

Poly felt the brick in her throat as she stared at the man. “It’s just a cough suppressant.” She hated lying, but she couldn’t have the entire gym hog piling on them.

“We should leave here,” Julie whispered. “If we can get this into the right hands, they can copy it and mass produce a cure.”

“And where should we say we got this?” Poly asked.

“I don’t know, maybe we can just mail it to the CDC or something.”

“They’ll find us and ask questions we can’t answer. Like, what’s that device you have, miss?” Poly pointed at Julie’s Panavice.

“Guys,” Hank sat up, “how did I get here?”

“Hank,” they said in unison, rushing to his side.

“We found you on the road,” Poly said. “You don’t remember?”

“I remember leaving my house.” Hank took a deep breath and then coughed. “Did they find a cure?”

“This one’s better! They have a cure. Give it to me!” The man fell off his cot and went into a coughing fit, blood flung from his mouth as he did. The rustling of the man caused a stirring in everyone nearby.

“We better get out of here,” Julie said.

“We can help them,” Poly said. She pulled the case out and loaded a vial in the gun. She rushed over to the man on the floor. “This will make you better.” She shot it into his arm.

“Please, help me.” A woman, looking like a grinner stumbled forward and Poly shot her in the arm.

In less than a minute, Poly found herself in the middle of dozens of grabbing hands, coughing faces surrounding her like a horde of grinners. She reloaded the gun and fired into the nearest person, but someone else grabbed the gun and tried to shoot the empty vile into her own arm.