PRIME (29 page)

“Right.” Cale nodded. “But why wouldn’t this person tell us about the cure, or use it on the zombies? It doesn’t quite add up, if you know what I mean.”

Alice stood and began to pace. “It wouldn’t be the people from the first message,” Alice answered. “They were as good as dead when they sent that message. You heard that. These people probably don’t know about the cure.”

“Well then getting trapped with them won’t really do any good, will it?” Cale asked, anger and frustration evident in his voice. His fear had gotten the best of him, but he couldn’t help it.

“It will if we save them,” Alice argued. She frowned at Cale, surprised by his attitude. “You really could just ignore this message? There are people alive and trapped at Haven.”

“We’ll be alive and trapped here soon enough. If zombies made it over the wall at Haven, I have no doubt they’ll be climbing the wall here,” Cale said. “And I would bet money the rec center doors won’t keep them out.”

“One might see that as a good reason to head to Haven.” Zero twirled a pen, not meeting Cale’s eyes.

Cale glared at him. “Or a good reason to fly that plane to some private island.”

Both Zero and Alice gave him stunned looks.

“You can’t be serious.” Alice shook her head. “Five minutes ago you were all gung ho, ready to fly over to Haven. Now that you’ve been reminded there will be zombies and it might be a bit more complicated, you’re backing out?”

“Yeah, that’s about how it is.” Cale crossed his arms over his chest, tired of playing the hero in a game there didn’t seem to be a chance of winning.

“What kind of a soldier are you?” Alice asked, disgust plain on her face.

“The kind who is rethinking risking his life,” Cale answered, his voice rising. “What good is any of this gonna do? There’s no point in heroics when we’re all just going to die.”

Alice leaned over and slapped Cale hard.

“What the hell?” Cale gripped his stinging cheek.

“Don’t be an jerk,” Alice said coolly. Zero tried not to grin. “You’ve risked your life way too many times to stop now.” Cale sat silently a moment, a stunned look on his face as he held his cheek. Then a slow smile spread across his face.

“Intern, you are a hell of a ride.” He shook his head and barked a laugh. “Screw it, let’s go to Haven, just forget that bit of insanity.”

“You serious?” Zero gave them both a disbelieving look. “Just like that?”

“She’s right.” Cale shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. “Truth is, leaving Culex was the first brave thing I ever did, and most people would argue it was more stupid than brave. I wasn’t thinking about anything but myself. I thought taking on Haven was going to be a hell of a lot easier than it’s turned out.” He turned to Alice and smiled, taking her hand. “But if I’ve somehow convinced you that I’m everything I pretend to be, then I guess I’m gonna have to live up to it.”

“Damn right you are,” Zero said. “Running around, makin’ the rest of us guys look bad. You better keep up this hero routine.”

“The only problem is I think just as highly of you,” Alice said to Zero. She reached out and took his hand too.

Zero squeezed her hand. “Good then. How about we send a message back to these people?” He frowned. “How do you know Morse Code anyhow?”

“I took a class on base.” Alice dropped their hands and sat at the desk again. “Simon was interested in it, and we did it together.” Her eyes widened as she thought about what she’d said. “It could be him, couldn’t it? Simon? I mean most people don’t know Morse Code anymore. Right?”

“Could be,” Cale admitted slowly. “But it could be an idiot with a chart too.”

“Ask,” Zero suggested. Alice nodded and pulled both the receiver and the code device toward her.

*

Haven Medical Base

When the reply came, it was the last thing any of them expected.

Simon, Tessa, and Dodge were camped out in the computer room with Tech. Tech fiddled with the computers, while the others played cards with a deck they found in the lab. Simon had sent the message every hour since they woke up, but there had been no response. They stopped playing when the beeps started. It took Simon a moment to grab the notepad and begin to write down the message. He scribbled quickly, not wanting to miss a letter of it.

The others watched silently, hearts hammering at this first sign of contact with the outside world. Tessa bit her lip as she watched Simon, hoping the news would be good. When the beeping stopped Simon wrote for a few more seconds, getting the last word down. He read back over what he had written.

“Have plane, will find you. Do you have walkie? How many survivors? Do you have cure?” Simon looked up at Dodge. “Cure? How will they find us down here?”

“We’ll figure it out,” Dodge assured him with a wide grin. “The important thing is we aren’t the only survivors!” He gave a whoop of excitement that was taken up by Tech and Tessa. The three of them began to jump around happily, exchanging hugs. Simon couldn’t take his mind off the hurdles still standing between them and help.

“There has to be near a thousand zombies out there, Dodge,” Simon pressed. “And what do they mean about a cure?”

“Who knows?” Dodge shrugged, unable to stop smiling. “And yeah, at least a thousand zombies out there but they’ll make it through, kid.”

“I suggest we reply quickly,” Tech said. He was already searching the shelves for a walkie talkie. He pulled one down from a high shelf and flipped the switch. Static roared from the tiny speaker and he quickly shut it off again. “I don’t see how much good it will do us, but we have one.”

With a sigh, Simon began to tap a reply.

*

Coda Base

Alice wrote out the message as quickly as it came in. Zero and Cale waited impatiently beside her to hear what was happening. When the message ended, Alice dropped her pencil and read aloud.

“Seventeen survivors, all kids, have walkie. Trapped in hospital basement. Cure?” Alice glanced up at Cale, her eyes wide. “All kids?”

“Makes sense,” Cale said. “If Haven really is where this originated, it would only figure that those who survived had a natural immunity. Most of us grownups weren’t as lucky as Zero here and they didn’t have the precautions in place to deal with it yet.” He frowned. “Makes sense a bunch of kids wouldn’t know about a cure either.”

“Those poor kids.” Alice shook her head. “All alone like that, facing those monsters. If Simon’s one of them I swear he’ll never leave my sight again.”

“Well ask them,” Zero said again. He shrugged. “No use worrying about it until we find them.”

“Tell them to set the walkie to channel one. We can use it to contact them when we get close,” Cale added.

Alice nodded and quickly tapped out the message. She leaned back in the chair, head spinning at how quickly the situation had changed. There was a chance she might see her brother again. The reply to her message came fairly quickly and was short enough that she didn’t have to write it down but it took her breath away.

“What did they say?” Cale asked.

“He’s there,” she answered. “Simon is with them. He’s alive.” Tears welled up in her eyes as she thought of seeing him again. It wasn’t the time, so she brushed them aside and focused on the task at hand. “We have to tell Grace and the others.”

28

Haven Medical Base

Simon stared at the message a long time, unable to believe what he was seeing. More accurately, he couldn’t believe the memories it brought back. His breathing became quick and shallow; his lungs burned like he’d just survived a flash flood. In his mind, things were much clearer than they had been in weeks, though some of it was already slipping away. One thing was for sure though, one thing he wouldn’t be forgetting again.

“Alice.” Simon spoke more to himself than anyone else, but of course they were all listening.

Tessa put a hand on his shoulder. “What?”

Simon shook his head, clearing away enough of the fog that he was able to speak in full sentences.

“Uh, sorry, this is what it says. Put the walkie on channel one. Alice looks for Simon. See you soon.” Simon looked up at the others.

“Are you sure?” Tessa asked, sinking to her knees beside Simon’s chair. She reached out and squeezed his hand softly. “I mean, we were just talking about your family, so you might just be thinking Alice was your sister. I know how much you miss her. It could be any Alice looking for any Simon.”

“Sure, it could be, but really what are the odds?” A smiled played on Simon’s lips and he held Tessa’s hand tightly when she tried to pull away. “It was strange. As soon as I read it there was this wash of memories,” he paused, thinking things over. “I remember her now. I remember some other stuff too, about my dad,” Simon took a deep breath and looked up at Dodge. “It might be important. Maybe even about the cure they mentioned.”

“Really?” Dodge crossed his arms and leaned back against the desk. “How so?”

“You remember that Martin guy in the video?” Simon asked. Everyone nodded. It was hard to forget the man who started the end of the world. “He said something about David; I think he was talking about my dad.”

“No way,” Dodge said. “That’s messed up.”

Simon ignored him and continued talking. “I remember him on the phone when people first started getting sick,” Simon went on. “I was in bed, but he was yelling so loud I could hear him. I remember him saying they were working on it, that there would be a cure. My dad did this. He was the one working with Adam’s dad.” Simon’s heart dropped at the thought.

“A cure isn’t possible.” Tech shook his head. “Those people are dead for all practical purposes. You cure the virus and the zombies will just. . .” Tech trailed off as the realization hit him. “Die,” he finished softly, looking around at the others. They were silent as the thought sank in.

“Sounds like a good enough cure for me,” Dodge said. “And I’m guessing if there was going to be a cure, it would be down here.”

“But this wasn’t the lab from the video,” Simon said.

“It is a lab though,” Tech said. “And there were people locked in here. They could have been working on it.”

“Or they could have been hiding while the cure is in some other lab,” Simon argued. His heart sank.

“How about we all look for it? Instead of sitting around debating where it could be?” Dodge asked. “We could find the damn thing before you two old ladies stop arguing.” Simon and Tech grinned at each other.

“We have to figure out what we’re looking for first.” Tech turned back to the computer. “Let me do some research, you three look around.”

“Didn’t you just say we needed to know what we were looking for?” Simon asked.

Tech nodded absently. “Uh-huh. But looking around stops you from hovering over my shoulder and maybe you’ll find something labeled ‘cure’.”

*

The other kids watched them with wide eyes as they dug through the closets in the living room area. Dodge filled Red and Tyson in on what was going on and they dug out some board games to distract the littler kids, but the older kids watched.

Simon breathed a sigh of relief as they moved on to the other rooms and out from under their scrutiny. Dodge said it was too early to bring up the idea of a cure or rescue to everyone and Simon had to agree. He squeezed Tessa’s hand before they separated and he headed down the hall to the bathroom. There was a closet just outside the bathroom. He opened it, expecting to see nothing more exciting than a pile of towels.

Instead, the door opened into another lab. He gaped a moment before fumbling to pull the door quickly shut. He stood there, heart pounding, hand on the doorknob. If there had been a zombie at the door, he would have been dead. He let out a shaky laugh and turned back toward the computer room. He found Tessa in one of the bunk rooms.