Plague Nation (6 page)

“I’m guessing you’re a teacher.”

“It’s rather painfully obvious, isn’t it?” she said. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I’d have killed to have a teacher like you in high school.”

She laughed. “Try college.” Responding to his surprised expression she added, “I’m older than I look.”

“So what’s a college professor doing at a military base in Kyrgyzstan?”

“Research.” She smiled at him over the rim of her mug, those startlingly green eyes wide and ingenuous.

I’d hoped to have a chance to talk to Gabriel before going to bed but he was nowhere to be found, and I was just too tired to go hunting for him. Besides, it was painfully obvious he wasn’t interested in dealing with me. Hey, I could take a hint. I didn’t have to like it, but I could take it.

So I decided to retreat to the room I shared with Lil to lick my metaphorical wounds, and make sure Lil was doing okay. Or at least as well as could be expected. I was an only child so I didn’t have any experience dealing with the angst of a younger sibling, let alone the sort of shit she was going through.

The elevator smelled like bleach and antiseptic, that very special fragrance of decontamination that we all went through after any encounter with the walking dead. I’d gone through an entire case of body butter and facial moisturizer in the last few weeks.

I could see light bleeding from under the bottom of the door to our room, which meant Lil was either still awake or had fallen asleep while reading. I’d found her sacked out once or twice, a book flopped face down on her chest.

Cracking open the door, I peered around the edge to find Lil awake and reading the Brooks
Zombie Survival Guide.
Her cats Binkey, a long-haired brindle tabby, and Doodle, a glossy black short-hair, were keeping her company. Binkey was coiled around the top of her head like a whiskered fur hat, while Doodle snuggled against Lil’s side, head buried in her armpit. Both cats were hefty, bringing to mind furry blimps. We’d almost lost our lives retrieving them from Lil’s apartment in Redwood Grove. Only Nathan’s timely intervention had prevented us from becoming zombie chow.

Still, I’d do it again to give Lil something to fight for, and bring a smile to her face.

She looked up, and I could see that her sea-green eyes were red-rimmed with recent tears. I crossed the room and sat on the edge of her bed.

“You okay?”

She shook her head. Binkey opened one eye and yawned.

“You know you will be, though. Right?” I offered.

She gave me a wan smile.

Binkey stretched and patted Lil on the face with one paw as if in agreement, before coiling back up in a ball.

“See? Binkey says so.” I gave my feline ally a scritch on the head, making sure to pet Doodle, too, just in case he was paying attention.

I wasn’t sure if it was better or worse to see Lil go from gleeful slayer to this less manic but totally depressed state. Lately there didn’t seem to be much of an in-between, and I didn’t know if it was the continued emotional strain of not knowing what had happened to her mother, or something else. I’d started thinking of Lil as the little sister I’d never had. We looked enough alike to be related, both of us with green eyes and brown hair, although mine was a few shades darker. She had a lot of hair, that girl, like a fairy-tale princess.

“I’ll be okay,” Lil said, staring off at the wall. “As soon as I find Mom.”

Not knowing what else to say, I patted her on the shoulder, got up, and went into the bathroom to brush my teeth.

As I reached for the toothpaste, I knocked a pill bottle off the sink. The lid popped off and a tablet skittered on the tiles behind the toilet. Grumbling, I scooped up the pill and put it back in the bottle, making sure the lid was screwed on tightly this time. I glanced at the label—it was Clozapine, prescribed to Lil. Something else she’d retrieved when we’d gone to her apartment for Binkey and Doodle.

I brought the bottle with me when I left the bathroom and shook it.

“Lil, you’re almost out of these. Do we need to get you more?”

She glanced up from her book. “Nah, no big deal.”

“Are you sure?” I must have sounded doubtful, because Lil abruptly threw her book down on the bed and sat up, dislodging both cats. Okay, Doodle just rolled a few inches down the pillow and went back to sleep, while Binkey looked up, yawned and jumped off the bed in search of food.

“I’m sure!” she snapped. “I can handle it. It’s none of your business anyway, okay?”

Whoa.
I held up my hands in a “no trouble here” gesture. “Easy, girl,” I said. “I’m just gonna put these back in the bathroom, okay?”

“Fine!”

Obviously it wasn’t.

“Look, I’m not trying to be nosy,” I said. “I just worry.”

“Well,
don’t.”
With that, Lil retrieved her book, threw herself back on the bed, and cracked it back open. “I’m fine, okay?”

That was up for debate, but now was not the time. Without another word I went back in the bathroom and put the pills in the medicine cabinet, telling myself it would be okay. I mean, she wasn’t popping pills and going on about needing her “dolls.” That was a good sign, right?

When I came back out, Lil was sitting up, hugging her knees to her chest with both arms, staring at me remorsefully.

“I’m sorry, Ashley.” She sounded miserable.

I sighed and sat down on my own bed.

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not.” Lil sniffled, wiping her nose on one sleeve. I handed her the box of Kleenex we kept on our nightstand.

“Even if I say it is?”

Lil shook her head.

“Especially then. You’re too nice to me. All the time.” She blew her nose, quietly. “Even when I don’t deserve it.”

I shook my head, failing to hide a smile.

“You’re easy to be nice to,” I said truthfully. “And you’ve got plenty of reasons to be upset. You should let yourself. Okay?”

Lil burrowed her head against her arms and knees. Binkey gave a plaintive meow and bumped his head against her back.

“But it’s not okay for me to take it out on you. I mean, that’s what Gabriel is doing, whatever’s wrong with him. He’s taking it out on you.” Wise words from a eighteen year old.

“Trust me when I say that you have a long way to go before reaching Gabriel’s current level of asshat behavior.” I shot her a grin. “You’re not even in his league.”

Lil gave a shaky laugh and propped her chin up on her knees. Then she looked serious.

“Do you think it’s his meds?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Could be. Or maybe it was finding out this shit has spread out of the quarantine zone. Could be that’s upped his stress level, so he’s permanently set in jerk mode.” Even as I said it, I felt bad. So I hastily added, “In which case I’ll give him at least a partial ‘get out of jail free’ card.” I looked at Lil and grinned again. “Same with you, kiddo. No one should have to put up with the shit you’re dealing with.”

Lil jumped out of bed and gave me a bone-crunching hug.

“You’re the best, Ash.”

Binkey jumped off the bed in a huff, giving me a look as he made his way into the bathroom. It was obviously my fault he’d been disturbed. A loud, vigorous scratching followed his disappearance—another way for him to express his opinion.

I hugged her back as the pungent odor of cat poop wafted out into the room. Lil and I both winced.

“I’ll go scoop that out,” she said, waving a hand in front of her nose.

“Good idea,” I said, grabbing a handy bottle of citrus room deodorizer and giving a generous spray. The result was orange-scented cat shit. “You might want to re-think his diet, too.”

Maybe I’ll see if I can find Gabriel, after all.

We needed to have a heart-to-heart.

I didn’t want Lil to think Binkey was chasing me away— even if it was partly true—so I told her what I had decided to do. Then I went looking for Gabriel.

He wasn’t in his room on the first basement level, where our living quarters had been set up. There was a chance he was in the med ward. But not even my desire to speak with Gabriel could get me to venture further down into that house of horrors, with all the people dying of zombie bites and the experiments being done on the undead specimens in the labs. Oh, for the naive days when I was just a student. Before I learned that the DZN had top-secret research facilities in an equally secret sub-level of Patterson Hall.

I was fully expecting to find a Bat Cave on campus, one of these days.

So I headed for the main floor where the lecture halls were, ending up in front of Room 217, where Simone had taught her courses. The door was cracked open and the lights were on, and as I drew closer it was easy for me to pick up the sound of voices coming from the room. I stopped, not wanting them to know I was there.

“So, what have you heard?” Nathan’s tone held barely concealed impatience.

There was a pause before an answer came. It was Simone.

“The news isn’t good,” she said. “Confirmed sightings in all the locations where Dr. Albert’s vaccine was sent for testing.” There was silence for a moment, then she continued. “We’re still waiting for the reports from more distant locations. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?”

Eavesdropping is a time-honored method of acquiring information you otherwise wouldn’t be privy to. And it wasn’t like I
meant
to stumble across their conversation. Therefore I felt very little—if any—guilt.

“What are you doing about it?” This was Nathan.

I peeked through the crack in the door just in time to see Simone shoot Nathan a look that should have shriveled his man bits. They were both at the front of the lecture hall. She was standing by the lectern as if preparing to teach a class, while he leaned against the “command central” table that Paxton usually occupied during our briefings and debriefings.

“Are you referring to me personally,” she asked testily, “or the
Dolofónoitou Zontanóús Nekroús?”

“I consider you interchangeable.” Nathan crossed his arms and stared at her.

“They’ve already sent people to each of the locations, to attempt damage control before the general populace can become aware of the situation.”

Nathan snorted. “General populace. No one talks like that unless they’re on the BBC.”

Simone glared at him. “Not everyone is limited to words of one or two syllables, Captain Smith.”

I held a hand over my mouth, trying to hold back my amusement. Something about watching the two of them was just too much fun, even given the undeniably serious situation. They were like overly erudite junior high school students. Ones that had been kept back a decade or so.

“Fine, Henrietta Higgins.” Nathan walked to the other side of the lecture area, then back again, pacing like an irate puma. “So how is the grand scheme working?”

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep things under wraps,” Simone admitted, looking uncomfortable. “A few of the smaller, more isolated locations have been quarantined using similar cover stories as the Ebola outbreak we used for Redwood Grove.”

I could almost hear Nathan rolling his eyes as he responded.

“How many escaped laboratory monkeys do you people think the—” He did the most sarcastic finger quotes I’d ever seen “
—general populace
will buy before they begin to catch on?”

“We’re not using Ebola for each cover story,” Simone snapped. “Throw in the words ‘terrorist plot,’ and enough people are willing to accept it. That buys us some time.” She didn’t sound too happy about it, though.

“Wow,” Nathan said with a smirk. “The DZN and the military really think your average citizen is pretty stupid, huh?”

“No doubt there are plenty of conspiracy theorists like yourself who will be questioning the stories, and coming up with even more fanciful explanations than a zombie outbreak.” Simone’s snippy tone could’ve cut through paper. “More often than not, those work in our favor.”

“What about the towns that aren’t isolated?” Nathan countered. “What will you use as an excuse under those conditions? ‘Oh, we’re just filming an episode of
The Walking Dead
. Would you like to be extras?’ That should do it.”

Wow. Nathan watches
Walking Dead
?

“You watch
The Walking Dead?”
Simone said. “I’d have thought you were more the type for The History Channel, or perhaps old
Star Trek
marathons.”

“Know your enemy,” Nathan replied. “After Kyrgyzstan, there wasn’t a lot on the subject that I didn’t read
or
watch. I also watch
Game of Thrones
and
The Borgias.
Those help me understand the DZN.”

There was a long pause, and I wondered if Simone was taking a few deep breaths while contemplating homicide. When she finally spoke, however, her tone was nothing I’d heard from her before.

She sounded scared. And if Simone sounded scared, that meant things really were bad.

“They’re still looking into solutions. For now, they can play it off as necessary precautions taken against a possible pandemic of Walker’s Flu. But that will only hold for so long, especially if we can’t bring things under control. Martial law is the next logical step.”

“And then come the helicopter gunships, napalm, cluster bombs, and artillery, right? Tactical air strikes, anyone?” He paced back and forth, frustration and anger radiating off of him with each step.

“Don’t forget the tactical nukes.”

Shit.
I nearly jumped out of my skin. The voice, worthy of a Shakespearean actor, came from directly behind me.

“Excuse me, Ashley.” Colonel Paxton smiled, an expression that always looked out of place on a man with a face like a tragedy mask.

I wondered if there was a penalty for eavesdropping. The colonel seemed like a fair man, but after Lil and I had gone AWOL to rescue her cats, he’d pretty much told us that if we stepped out of line again, he’d lock us up. The way he’d said it, I didn’t doubt he’d carry out his threat. For all that he looked like some comic book character named Master Thespian, he was someone to take seriously.