Whimper (18 page)

Brianna sat on the guest bed in the room next to mine, tapping away at her laptop and chewing on a pen cap.
She smiled at me when I peeked in the doorway, unsure if I should interrupt her work.

“You have an amazing family history, Zoe. I’m trying to focus on where the house plans would have come from, but I keep getting pulled off into these other stories and pieces of the past. Have you ever read any of this?” She held up a bundle of yellowed letters tied with a faded purple ribbon, and gestured to the rest of the decaying paperwork that covered the bed.

“I went through a phase in middle school where I was really interested in genealogy. My uncle pulled some of the family records out for me then. That was always one of his big interests. I haven’t looked at any of it in years though.” I thought about that time, when Rick had gone out of his way to prove that Zack and I belonged to a family with a rich history and proud heritage. The kids at school had been teasing us for not having parents. It was hard enough not having a mom to turn to about all the weird changes I was going through, but the teasing made it all that much worse.

“What were you focusing on?” she asked, curiosity shining bright in her eyes. “That’s pretty early for most people to have any interest in their family tree unless it’s for a school assignment.”

“I don’t know. A sense of belonging, I guess. By the time we came to live here, everyone was gone but Uncle Rick. We were really too young to remember if Mom told us about the family. I think that’s what I wanted, proof that we really were part of a family,” I explained, picking up one of the old portraits that showed Grandma and Grandpa McGuire with a surly looking brunette teenager, and a knobby kneed prepubescent, Mom and Uncle Rick. I’d seen this one before. I always wondered what my mother had been so irritated about. Rick said she always had that look on her face as a teenager, as if the world annoyed her. She couldn’t wait to get away and go do big, dramatic and exciting things somewhere far away from small town Indiana.

I bet the girl in the picture never dreamt that she’d come crawling back with twins in tow. Or that she’d choose to leave them to be raised by her widowed brother rather than care for them herself. Some people never grow up. I flicked the picture back on the pile, irritated that thinking about my mother had managed to make my mood even darker. “What did you find?” I asked Brianna, wanting to change the subject.

“Well, you were right. I don’t think your family ever threw anything that could potentially be important away. There are birth certificates, marriage licenses, and in a major stroke of luck, the original blueprints, construction materials list, and expenses for the house. Now the house plans were based on an older sketch that is mentioned by the architect in some of his letters, but doesn’t seem to be included. It did mention that the sketch was written in French, so that gives me some more clues. The letters themselves are goldmines. Your great-grandfather was evidently following through on plans that one of his great-grandfathers originally patented. If I only had internet access, we’d be flying through history.” She smiled, fanning herself with her notebook.

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like we’ll get that back soon. I still don’t understand what knowing the house’s history is going to help you find?” I asked, looking for the blueprints she’d mentioned. Maybe I should check and make sure there weren’t any more hidden rooms I knew nothing about.

“While we were trying to find a suitable location to search for a viral specimen, Elliott and I looked for anything and everything we could find that documented reports of walking dead, reanimated corpses, zombies, and the like. I researched for months. One of the documents we found was an engraving of a special house that could be built to protect your family against all forms of attack, even by ‘armies of the dead.’ The engraving was all we could find about this company and we couldn’t find any evidence that one of the houses was ever even built. Until we came home with you that is. It’s eerie how similar your house is to that engraving. It’s simply incredible! So, I’m trying to see if there is some connection between your family, the original engraving, and a documented outbreak. You have these antibodies pumping around in your blood, maybe we can find out where they came from. It’s a theory anyway.”

I shook my head, baffled. “That sounds like the longest shot ever. Even if you find a connection, what will it matter?”

“It won’t. It isn’t going to do a damn thing but give us some tentative answers. But, I can’t create a serum to fix everyone who is sick. I can’t cure my brother. I can’t tell you or Zack why your blood is different or even how it’s different exactly. I don’t have a clue how to contain the chaos I helped unleash out there. But, I can do this. I can research, and it might keep me from being sick with worry or going crazy from guilt. It’s what I can do.” She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt, hiding the misty teardrops that had suddenly formed there. I hadn’t realized how on edge Brianna really was.

“Answers, even tentative ones, would be very much appreciated at this point, Bri. I want to know how everything ties together,” I assured her, and really it was the truth. I would love to know how I fit, one piece in a giant unfinished puzzle.

“I have lots more boxes to go through and I’m taking notes like a fiend. If the information we need is here, I’m going to find it,” she answered solemnly as she opened up another letter. “Oh, one thing that I’m curious about. Your last name is Clark, but I didn’t find anything about your father or your mother’s marriage…” She broke off, perhaps realizing that our parentage might be a sensitive topic too late.

“You won’t find anything about our father. Mom never married him, and we never knew him. I’m not even sure if Clark is really his last name or one she randomly picked to put on the birth certificates. Nobody here knew. My uncle thought maybe he was married, or that it was possible she’d never even told him she was pregnant. He may know even less about us than we do about him. Who knows?” I shrugged.

Brianna’s big doe eyes looked watery again as she stammered, “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was like that.”

“It’s okay. Our uncle was amazing. We had a great childhood once he took over. I had a wonderful father, he was simply called uncle instead.” I let the topic drop, ready to escape. “Can I bring you a drink or something to eat?” She refused, promising to help herself if she changed her mind.

I wandered downstairs looking for Zack and found him glued to the television coverage of the outbreak. He fidgeted, scrubbing his hands together and rubbing them up and down his arms. Glancing up as I walked in, he said, “This is totally unreal. People are going nuts. Not just here, but everywhere. The riots are getting worse, spreading to new cities. They barely mention that, but they’re showing this shit over and over again!”

I glanced at the TV screen and briefly watched footage of a police officer being chased down by a kid in pajama pants. The video cut off when the kid hurled himself onto the officer’s back, dragging him to the pavement, and started tearing at him. I swallowed hard, cringing. The video cut back to a reporter and panel of commentators.

“Parents who can’t reach their kids are freaking out, demanding answers and open communication lines. I guess the landlines are even down. That has all the conspiracy nuts on a rampage too. They’re guessing it’s bio-warfare. Some are blaming terrorists, some are blaming the government, everybody’s accusing the President of doing too little to keep it from spreading. There are riots in some of the bigger cities. The whole country is losing its damn mind. They’ve got our whole area on lockdown, National Guard and everything. People are scared and they’re trying to get away. They shot a guy who ran through a barricade in the family van. They made his wife move the body and drive the kids back into the quarantine zone with his corpse in the van,” he said hoarsely, his eyes never leaving the screen. “Zoe, they’re calling it the Armageddon virus.”

I sat down next to him, holding his hand as we watched videos shot by the CDC, National Guard, and various news agencies, all documenting the world we knew melting down right outside our doors. We watched every clip, no matter how many times they aired it, studying them all for clues. Was it someone we knew? Where was it?

The media had no estimates on the number of infected at this point, but repeatedly assured everyone that the rate of transmission was low and they were confident that the CDC would have the problem under control very soon. Then they’d discuss all the previous outbreaks and speculate about where the virus came from, why it seemed to be popping up on college campuses, and what should be done to prevent further outbreaks.

I sat, numbly absorbing all the information. “Even if he finds a vaccine, there’s no way for us to get it to the people who need it.” I said slowly. “They’ll never let us break quarantine. Even if we could get to the National Guard, there’s no way they’d believe
we
came up with it. We’re nobodies. Elliott would have to expose himself, tell them who he is really. Even then…”

“They’re probably going to kill him,” my brother finished for me.

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” I sighed. “Well, that and the possibility that we won’t be able to get this under control at all and it will keep spreading. It really could be Armageddon.”

Zack shook his head once, still staring at the carnage on the screen. “No, that isn’t going to happen. This isn’t the way the world ends. I won’t believe that.”

I considered asking him how he thought the world
would
end, but allowed the dark thought to dangle unspoken between us. Instead, I asked the most practical question I could think of. “What can we do to prove they’re involved? What evidence could we theoretically get past the quarantine?”

We carefully considered the question. “You know, all the government scandals lately seem to involve leaked emails and texts. Even Elliott said he found out about the other projects when he read an email he wasn’t supposed to get. What if we could find electronic evidence of some kind?” Zack asked hesitantly. Electronic information
would
be the easiest to release publically if we could ever get a data connection again.

I nodded slowly, warming to the idea as I considered possibilities. “They have a private network. It’s possible I could hack in and download some documents before they could detect and locate me, but it’d be a long shot. I haven’t tried something like that in years.” I wound and unwound a piece of my hair around my finger, twirling it as I thought all the possible security measures a network like that could have. I hadn’t even attempted a hack since high school. I used to dabble around with a group of techie friends, but my Uncle Rick found out and I lost my laptop and Wi-Fi privileges for a long time, not to mention all the “scared straight” speeches.

It was very unlikely that I had even a hint of the skills it would require to successfully pull something like this off. My computer wasn’t good enough and I wasn’t talented enough. There had to be a better way to get information off their servers.

“We wouldn’t even know what we were looking for,” I said aloud. “Or recognize it as a smoking gun if we found it. The documents we’d need would be so far over our heads, we’d probably find it and not even realize.”

“So, what evidence does Elliot have? He’s obviously convinced they’re behind all of it. Doesn’t he have
anything
solid?” Zack asked, finally peeling his eyes away from the television screen to look at me.

“I think it’s all based on his observations and expertise. If he had anything material, I think he would have shown it to that bitchy scientist while we were in the mobile lab,” I replied. Maybe he had copies of the emails and various test results from his time within the CDC? “Wait a minute! The mobile lab! It’s connected to the server, and she had a cell phone that was working. If we can figure out what to look for, we may be able to use their own network to find it. She’s not going to give me access, but she might be willing to help Elliott. Or a handsome stranger?” I suggested, batting my eyes at my brother.

“You want me to go out there with Elliott? After you’ve already said that it’s probably a trap anyway?” Zack snorted. “Nice. What happened to sisterly protection?”

“I think it’s supposed to be ‘sisterly affection’ and if you can help me pull this off then I’ll love you even more,” I promised. “Now, the question is this: Why would the government want to kill off a large portion of the under 35 crowd? What’s their agenda?”

“I don’t know. Aren’t college kids supposed to be the next wage earners who keep the whole system afloat? They can’t keep paying out to support all the retirees and orphans if no one is paying taxes. It doesn’t make much sense,” Zack pointed out, scratching his ear. “Maybe it is terrorists and they’ve infiltrated the CDC. It could be a mole, working from within.”

“Our problem is, the only experience we have investigating government corruption comes from watching Jason Bourne movies.” I sighed. “We need to talk to Elliott and see if he can suggest where and how to look for evidence. Once we have the files then we can worry about how to share them with the outside world.” It wouldn’t cure anyone, but maybe it would get us some real help. One thing was obvious from the news footage, people outside the quarantine zone might feel bad about our plight, but they weren’t sympathetic enough to allow anyone to leave for any reason. Public fear had us trapped like rats in a cage until the outbreak either stopped or claimed us all.

Zack shrugged, his eyes flicking back to the TV screen. “You know, the one thing the government is probably happy about is that this outbreak has pulled all the media attention away from the riots and demonstrations that have been going on since they cut education funding and dropped the student loan program. Nobody is quite as pissed about not being able to afford college if it means they’ll catch a super virus while they’re there.”