Phage: Deluge Book 2: (A Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival Story)

by Kevin Partner

  She rubbed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Yeah, I know. It won’t help Maria if we run out of gas before making landfall. The prevailing wind is easterly, so we won’t make it by sail.”

  “So, let’s go get some petrol.”

  She groaned. “It could take days, Pat. I mean, it’s not exactly a huge island, but…”

  “Then we’d best get on with it. I’ll go and ask Buzz to lend us a quad bike or two, and we can rustle up some containers, I’m sure.”

  “Why would he lend us anything?”

  Reid smiled. “Oh, I think he’ll be glad to see the back of us. We’ve fulfilled our purpose by bringing his precious niece here. Right now, we’re only two extra mouths to feed, and I don’t think he particularly likes either of us.”

  Ellie raised her eyebrows in mock surprise. “Really? I hadn’t noticed. Well, anyway, I can’t get any more information out of Jodi’s map, so we might as well start scavenging. But I’m taking a shower first, so why don’t you go and track down the Wizard of Oz, and I’ll meet you downstairs when I’ve freshened up?”

  She noticed Reid’s blush, even though he tried to hide it, and knew where his imagination had teleported to as she said it. The truth was that she’d warmed to him over the past weeks, but now was not the time for any complications. She was glad he was coming—the thought of traveling across the country on her own terrified her—but she wanted a comrade, not a lover.

  #

  Patrick cleared his mind of inconvenient thoughts and left her there. He felt like a mouse sniffing a block of cheese, knowing that it’s connected to a trap and yet unable to resist. But he had to. This was not the time for complications and, in his experience, what he was thinking about always caused complications, however much he thought it wouldn’t.

  He knocked on the internal door and opened it without waiting for an answer. The boy sat in the corner, slouched over the small screen of a laptop, the only light in the room coming from the small dormer window near the entrance. Patrick walked over and opened it to waft away some of le parfum de adolescent, but Max didn’t acknowledge his presence until he stood behind him and peered at the screen.

  “What did you go with, in the end?” he said, looking at the lines of indented text. “Max?”

  The boy’s head snapped up, as if he’d been woken from a trance. Or sleep. “What? Oh, Python, with Basemap. I used the NOMADS dataset to get elevation information. Took me ages to find a live server I could connect to to download the code extensions and data. I’ve created a map, but I’m not sure whether the Albers projection is the best. What do you think?”

  Patrick, who’d understood every second word (and none of the technical terms) leaned over Max’s shoulder and watched as the code was replaced by a recognizable map of the continental United States that drew line by line.

  “It’s slow because Buzz only gave me this old Pentium laptop.”

  “Wow, that’s amazing, Max. And you’ve built this yourself?”

  Max beamed up at him. “Well, I wrote the custom code, but as I said, I used Basemap. Would you like to see the sea level overlay?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  Max pressed esc and the map disappeared, to be replaced again with the page of code. He found a particular line and deleted a hash symbol to turn the code from gray to color. Then he pressed a key combination and Patrick watched as the map redrew itself, then, once it had finished, a blue layer appeared, cutting into the familiar lines, and turning the eastern side into a blue expanse with, near the eastern seaboard, a long island with a myriad of smaller dots around it.

  “Good God,” Patrick said. It looked a lot like Jodi’s map, but somehow the clarity of the lines made it more realistic.

  “I’m just working on overlaying a street map. This is where we are,” he said, pointing at a tiny dot on the screen.

  “Can you zoom in?”

  Max gave a derisive grunt. “This isn’t Google Earth. I can redraw the map at different scales, but, as you can see, it takes time, so I’m concentrating on getting all the data in place first.”

  “And is this just for the US or could we see anywhere in the world?”

  “The data is global.”

  Patrick felt his chest tighten. “The UK?”

  “Sure.”

  The boy looked at him silently.

  “Well?” Patrick said.

  “Well, what?”

  “Can you show me the UK?”

  As if the penny had just dropped, Max turned back to the computer. “Pass me the atlas.”

  Patrick took the atlas off a chair and handed it to him.

  Max opened it up at the page containing the British Isles and read off the longitude and latitude from top left and bottom right. Moments later, the screen refreshed and the recognizable form of Great Britain appeared followed, moments later, by the water level overlay.

  “Oh my…”

  The island of Ireland had almost disappeared, and most of England had gone with only the Pennines visible as a series of small islands. The only major landmasses were the Highlands of Scotland and the Cambrian mountains of West Wales. Everywhere he’d lived, everywhere he knew, was beneath the waves along with everyone he loved.

  He shook his head, wiped his eyes, and stared at the light flooding in through the dormer window.

  “Thanks, Max,” he managed. “Have you eaten anything?”

  “Not since yesterday.”

  “You should take a break, you know.”

  “No. I’ve nearly got this.”

  Reid sighed and left the boy there. “What can I bring you?”

  And he went down the stairs mechanically, unable to clear the image of a vanished country from his mind. He went in search of eggs.

  “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “What? Oh, sorry, Anna.” He’d made it into the kitchen, where she was clearing away the mess made by the children. Now that he’d reemerged into the land of the living, he heard the giggling and chatter of them outside playing.

  She patted him on the shoulder. “Would you like me to fix you something?”

  “It’s fine,” he said. “Looks as though you’ve got your hands full as it is.”

  She glanced out through the door. “True enough. I wish Jo was here.”

  “How’s she doing?” Patrick asked. He hadn’t met the teaching assistant properly, only seen her lying in bed, ghostly white.

  Anna shook her head, her gently oriental eyes curving downward. “No real change, which I suppose is better than…the alternative.”

  “I wonder why she got it so bad?”

  Anna took the last batch of bowls over to the sink and dropped them in. “I’m no scientist,” she said, and Patrick saw the meaning in her dismissive expression, he could only imagine how Buzz had been with her, “but it seems to me she had more exposure to it than the rest of us. She took on the laundry for everyone. Wouldn’t let me help her.” Anna’s head dropped. “Oh, who am I kidding? I didn’t volunteer. I left her to it.”

  Patrick opened the pantry door. “Don’t beat yourself up too much. We all feel guilty, even if it’s only that we’ve survived when so many others haven’t. Oh, Jes—” He felt the tears flooding his eyes and she pulled him to her.

  When she disentangled herself, he saw that she’d also been crying. “My parents live in Atlantic City, my brother too. And his wife and three kids. And her family. All dead. I’ve spent the past two weeks focusing on the children, and…and that’s been good. But every now and again I just can’t keep it down. The grief.”

  “It’s okay, love. It really is. You’ve got to look after yourself if you’re going to look after them.”

  She nodded and wiped her eyes. “I know. They’re asking questions all the time, and most have figured out that something bad’s happened, something really bad. I don’t know what I’m going to do when the truth finally hits home for them or for me. I haven’t got anyone to talk to without Jo. And you’re leaving, aren’t you?�
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  For the first time, he truly regretted his decision to keep moving. He couldn’t help feeling that if he spent long enough here, he’d find healing for the grief he was running from. But he’d made his bed and now he’d have to lie in it. Integrity had always been negotiable to the old Patrick Reid. Now it was the only currency that mattered. “Yeah. I’m sorry.”

  She shrugged and gave a weak smile. “You’re nothing like the characters you play in the movies.”

  “Is that a good thing? I can’t help thinking the world could do with an action hero.”

  She shook her head. “No, what the world needs is good people.”

  For the second time, he felt his face warm. But this time, it wasn’t because he was thinking shameful thoughts, it was that he couldn’t help feeling he couldn’t measure up to the impression this young woman had gotten of him. But then, if nothing else, the deluge had offered a fresh start. It was a tiny silver lining in a black cloud, but he’d take it.

  She smiled and pecked him on the cheek before heading outside. Finding no eggs in the pantry, he made his way to the chicken coop.

  “Hey, how’s the movie star today? Get a hold of the lid, will ya?”

  Patrick took hold of it and waited as Hank shoveled chicken droppings from the pile he’d made in the corner of the coop into the trash can.

  “That’s better. It sure does stink,” he said. “I guess you’ve come out lookin’ for eggs for Max?”

  “Yeah. He’s been shut up in that room in the attic all night, and he won’t come down.”

  Hank smiled. “He’s like a dog with a bone, that boy. Once he gets his teeth into somethin’, nothin’s gonna stop him till he gets to the marrow. And that ain’t always a good thing.”

  “What d’you mean?”

  Hank looked around him as if checking for eavesdroppers. “Well, he’s got a theory that Buzz is involved in all this.”

  “All what?”

  “Everything. The flood.”

  Patrick nodded. “Well, we guessed he must have known about it in advance, otherwise he couldn’t have warned us to take Jodi out to deep water.”

  “Ah, is that right? That’s mighty interestin’. Well, if there’s any truth in it, Max’ll find out. That’s why Buzz tries to keep him busy on other stuff.”

  “Like the map?”

  “Yeah. Not that it ain’t gonna be useful, I suppose. Anyway, here’s a couple of eggs fresh laid. Shame to scramble them, but that’s how he likes ’em.”

  #

  Patrick found Buzz in the makeshift hospital ward that had once been the far end of the stockroom. The scientist pulled a digital thermometer from Jo’s mouth and straightened up to write the reading on a sheet at the foot of her bed.

  “How’s she doing?”

  Buzz blinked as if he hadn’t been aware Reid was watching. “High, but not getting higher. The antibiotics seem to be preventing her getting any worse, but she’s not getting better.”

  “And the kids?” Patrick said, gesturing at the beds, most of which were now empty.”

  “Most of them have recovered enough to rejoin the others, but two of them are the same as Jo. One of them—she’s called Harper—just doesn’t seem to be responding.”

  Patrick looked down at the small figure in the nearest bed. “Does she have some other condition that’s making it worse?”

  A hint of irritation flickered across Buzz’s face, but he quickly mastered himself. “That’s my suspicion, but if it so, Anna doesn’t know about it, and I don’t have the sort of testing facilities to make that determination. Neither am I a medical doctor.”

  Patrick sighed and patted Buzz, who flinched a little. “I’m sorry, Buzz. I guess you’re like the pediatrician on a plane when someone has a heart attack and the captain asks if there’s a doctor on board.”

  For a moment, Patrick thought Buzz was going to snap back, but he paused for a moment, and his expression cleared as his face relaxed a little. “Yes. That’s exactly it. Everyone looks to me.”

  In for a penny… “Isn’t that because you push people away? Hold on, let me speak!” he held his hands up, palms outward. “Anna’s a bright young woman, but I’ve seen you give her the brush-off, just as you have with Ellie. They can help you. And Max is a bona fide prodigy if I’m any judge. Boy, Jodi and him would make quite the team.”

  “She’s bright, isn’t she?” Buzz said. “At least I’ve managed to save her. I’ll get that…what’s his name…Tom?”

  Patrick nodded.

  “I’ll get him to help me transfer her and the boy here. We’ll use the car you salvaged.”

  “Sure, no problem,” Patrick said, as if Buzz had asked his permission. “By the way, Ellie and I are going to siphon off every drop of petrol we can find so we can power the boat. Can we use the quads? They’re solar charged, aren’t they?”

  Buzz made his way to the bedside of the sickest child, wiped the digital thermometer and put it gently into her mouth. “I suppose so. But they’ve only got a short range. If they run out of charge, you’ll have to go get them.”

  “Cool, thanks.”

  “You’re definitely going, then,” Buzz said, as he scowled at the reading on the thermometer and wrote it down.

  “You made it pretty clear that there’s no room for us here. And, in any case, Ellie wants to go look for her daughter. You can understand that. You went to a lot of trouble to have Jodi brought here.”

  “The difference is that I made plans. Ellie has no idea where her daughter is, even if she did survive.”

  Patrick turned to go. “I’ll tell you this, Buzz. If there was the slightest chance my lad was alive, I’d swim the Atlantic to get to him. So, I’ll help Ellie, even if the chance is next to zero.”

  #

  Buzz watched him go. He’d always thought everyone connected with his brother Joel was either a hanger-on or a straight-up waster. But this guy puzzled him. Buzz had seen a few of his films, though the one he remembered most was Asteroid, which, as a scientist and geek, was so outlandish that he didn’t even make it to the end. Now, if only they’d made a film about a global flood, maybe people would have heeded the warning. If only.

  He made a dismissive noise and took the temperature of the final remaining patient—a young boy called Daniel. The boy looked better than he actually was, probably because his dark skin hid how little blood was circulating in his body. Lewis had been the same, though he was undeniably getting better.

  He wrote the measurements down—almost identical to the last set and the set before that—then glanced around to make sure no one else was there before sitting down at Jo’s bedside. He brushed the hair away from her forehead and ran his fingers down her cheek. He knew it could be considered a violation of her personal space, but he felt a connection to her and wished, in some ancestral way, to call her back. And yet he couldn’t figure out what to do other than to sit there and watch, and to stroke her cheek.

  Chapter 19

  Blood

  They were now as far away from the farmhouse as it was possible to be, and Ellie was getting nervous. “The battery’s down to half charge, if the gauge is accurate. Jeez, if we have to push these back very far, we’re going to regret it.”

  Patrick got off the ATV and rubbed his rear end. They’d reached the point where the highway wound down from the hills and met the sea. Waves lapped against the foot of a metal road sign while two cars sat with their front wheels under the surface, as if they’d been racing in the wrong direction when the wave caught up with them.

  “I wonder where they thought they were going?” Patrick said.

  Ellie shrugged. “Who cares? Sorry, I know that sounds callous, but right now all I want to know is whether they’re gas cars and, if so, they’re intact so we can take their fuel.”

  Patrick turned the ATV and reversed it until it was within a foot of the first car’s bumper. They’d lashed large plastic containers to the back of each ATV and both were around half full. Patrick had been
deliberately ignoring what this would do to their battery reserve. As long as there was enough to get them to the boat, he didn’t care that much.

  “The flap’s locked,” he said.

  Ellie went around to the other passenger door. “I’ll check inside, see if there’s a key in the ignition.” She pulled the door open and peered inside. “It’s so weird. As if they’d parked the car and gone off for a walk. Jeez, they left their iPad on the back seat.” Two car seats sat unoccupied, their straps flung aside, the floor littered with juice boxes and candy wrappers. The front passenger seat was covered with junk, and the driver’s side an untidy mess with cigarette ash in the footwell. Ellie suddenly felt claustrophobic, as if she were disturbing a tomb, and only just remembered to flick the flap release before reversing back out. As she unfolded herself into the fresh air, the iPad came to life. For a few moments, she saw a freeze-frame of a cartoon before the battery gave out.

  “Dora the Explorer,” she said. “That was Maria’s favorite.” And then she dropped the tablet onto the road and instantly began sobbing. Patrick, who’d been unscrewing the fuel cap, ran around and pulled her to him. “She’s dead, Pat,” she wailed into his shoulder. “I knew it all along. That’s why I didn’t go straight to her.”

  “Oh, Ellie. You can’t know that for sure. Come on, love. Don’t give up hope just yet.”

  She withdrew a little and wiped her red and puffy eyes. “But what’s the point? We could stay here and maybe be useful. It’s idiotic to go sailing off on a wing and a prayer, hoping we can somehow get across the country, hoping we can find her. She’s dead, Pat. I’d have to be deluded to believe anything else.”

  “Listen,” he said, wiping her tears as he blinked his own away. “Clinging on to hope, even if it’s faint, isn’t the same as being deluded.”

  “But you don’t really want to come, do you? You could stay here, help out.”

  Truth was, only a few hours ago he had been thinking exactly that. He could be useful here, at least until the illness had passed. But he shook his head. “I’m coming with you, Ellie. And we’re going to find Maria. If it’s a fool’s errand then I’m perfect for the role.”