Books of the Dead | Book 9 | Dead of Winter

by Spears, R. J.

“Really?” Alex asked with real surprise in her voice.

  “Maybe.”

  Chapter 30

  Making the Call

  “I want to get Doctor Richter on the horn,” I said as we gathered back in the lab again.

  Everyone was present but Naveen and Nathan. He was still quite traumatized, and Naveen had become like a protective older sister even though she wasn’t much older than him. Between both Lori and Naveen, it had been best to proceed with Nathan out of the room. No one knew where the conversation was going.

  Alex scrunched up her face and said, “On the horn?”

  “Hey, get off my back,” I said. “I saw someone in a submarine movie say that once.”

  She continued to look at me as if I were some kind of bug.

  “I was nine-years-old,” I said as I raised my hands in the air in a gesture of surrender. “I thought submarines were cool.”

  “Joel, what are we doing here?” Doctor M said as he let out a long breath of air. “I have things I could be doing.”

  “I want to try my plan to get to the river again,” I said.

  “Whoa, whoa,” Richard said. “We tried that, and everything nearly went sideways. Trying again is a huge risk.”

  “But we made it to the bulldozer,” I said.

  “And it was as dead as a doornail,” Richard said.

  That was Richard’s trump card. What made it worse was that I didn’t have a counter-argument. I knew we could use the tunnels if we were very, very careful and avoided any nests of zombies. And if none of us screwed up. And if Kara didn’t decide to wipe us out in the meantime.

  That was a hell of a lot of ifs, but the biggest problem was that damn dead bulldozer. With a massive horde standing between us and the river, that bulldozer was the only way we’d make it to the canoes. That is, if they are still there. We had pulled them ashore when we landed, but maybe the river had come to sweep them away? Or the zombies had nudged them into the river?

  The more I thought about this plan, the more I thought it had so many holes in it that I might just call it my Swiss cheese plan any day now.

  Brother Ed tapped his fingers on the table and said, “Remember, we just need one of those batteries from the solar chargers, and we should be good to go.”

  Richard leaned forward in his seat and said, “You don’t know that for sure. The bulldozer could have some kind of mechanical problem. You can see how it had slammed into the building down there.”

  “It didn’t slam into the building,” I said. “It just sort of nudged it.”

  “Still, the only way to get to that dozer is through the tunnels,” Richard said. “I mean shit. Those tunnels seem like death traps to me. We barely made it there and back once. One wrong move, and you’re up shit creek without a paddle.”

  “Then we just have to be very careful,” I said. “We made it once. We can do it again.”

  “Barely,” Richard said.

  Doctor M cleared his throat and said, “Joel, really. What am I doing here?”

  “I need you to call Doctor Richter and see where he is with his experiments,” I said.

  Doctor M rolled his eyes, “I don’t care what he says. He’s nowhere. My vaccine is the best course forward for everyone. For the whole world, if you really want to know.”

  Let it never be said that Doctor M was afraid of tooting his own horn.

  “Okay,” I said, “but he said he might be able to use your vaccine to accelerate his research.”

  “Or just waste it on frivolous experiments,” Doctor M said. “You do know that in our current state, we can’t make any more of it, right?”

  “Yes,” I said as I stuck a finger in the air like I was Sherlock Holmes, “but he could use your vaccine to create more of it.”

  Lori sat forward in her seat and said, “Doctor M, Joel has a point. With the lab basically destroyed, we are a month or two away from being able to generate any more of your vaccine. That is, if we even can do it at all. Doctor Richter has a working lab and might be able to use what we have to advance his work, too.”

  “His work is a fool’s errand,” Doctor M said.

  “But he could make more of your vaccine,” I said, dangling that carrot out there. “Why don’t we call him and find out?”

  Doctor M slowly shook his head back and forth. “I’m just not sure.”

  I had officially reached my limit. “Well, whether you agree or not, I’m taking your vaccine to Doctor Richter.”

  “We only have four doses left,” Lori said.

  “I’ll only take two,” I said.

  “I don’t like this at all,” Doctor M said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I’m going, and that’s final.”

  Alex said, “Hey, Big Man, I could shoot you in the foot, you know.”

  “You won’t,” I said.

  Alex crossed her arms and shot me her best cop stare. It almost worked.

  “Let’s call Doctor Richter, shall we?” I asked.

  Doctor M sent me a look of disdain, then said, “Lori, let us get this over with. Please call Doctor Richter.”

  For some reason, Doctor M may have been brilliant in the fields of epidemiology and virology, but when it came to figuring out the satellite phone, he was lost. The job of making calls always fell to Lori. She also kept it charged with one of our solar chargers.

  Of all the long-distance communication left on the planet, satellite phones were the only thing that still worked. Of course, with no one down on terra firma managing the high flying satellites, there was little doubt that they would someday fall out of the sky. For now, we used them to contact Doctor Richter and his team.

  She dialed, and the satellite phone began chiming away, and we waited for someone on the other end of the line to pick up. The chiming went on for longer than usual, and Alex raised an eyebrow and looked my way, a concerned expression on her face.

  We had become so accustomed to them to answer that we had taken it for granted. There was always a chance that Doctor Richter and his team had been wiped out. Of course, Doctor Richter could have been taking a dump for all we knew. Still, the delay stretched out, and an uncomfortable quiet tension filled the room.

  “Should I hang up and dial again?” Lori asked.

  “No, no,” Doctor M said, “We will give them a little more time.”

  As if on cue, Doctor Richter picked up.

  “Yes, Doctor Richter here,” he said over the tiny little speaker on the satellite phone.

  “We were getting concerned,” Doctor M said, wringing his hands.

  “I do apologize. I was working with Doctor Jenkins, and he was able to make some extrapolations on the data you sent us on your vaccine. It’s becoming more and more apparent to us that we must have your vaccine in hand to move forward.” He hesitated and added, “We are this close to making a significant breakthrough. Really, you can’t imagine how close. If we just had your vaccine in our hands, I’m positive it will make a huge difference for us.”

  Doctor M cleared his throat and said, “As you know, I’m skeptical about you being able to make any kind of cure.”

  “I’m well aware of your reservations, but you aren’t on the ground down here,” Richter responded. “I shared our preliminary data with you. As an esteemed scientist, you have to see that we are onto something.”

  “Yes, yes,” Doctor M said, puffing out his chest, “I can see that it has potential promise, but as I’ve said many times before, my vaccine is proven. Yours is still in the hypothesis stages.”

  That was my signal to break in. “Doctor Richter, this is Joel. I’m on the team up here. I have a question for you.”

  Doctor Richter paused, then said, “Yes, what is your question?”

  “Could you replicate Doctor M’s vaccine if we got it to you?”Again Richter hesitated before answering. “I’m sure it’s possible. We have Doctor M’s early data, and we would have the vaccine if you brought it to us. But you need to know that taking the vaccine apar
t and replicating it from its component parts is not an easy task. It would be somewhat like trying to make a pumpkin pie after trying to determine what it is made of.”

  “But you could do it?”

  “It’s always possible,” Richter replied.

  “So we just have to get you the vaccine, and then you can give it a try?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “But you’d also look into using it as a jumping-off point to finish your cure, right?” I asked.

  “I haven’t held back at all in my conversations with you. My goal is a cure,” Richter said.

  “Then we’re going to get the vaccine to you,” I said.

  Richard practically leapt out of his seat and said, “What is this ‘we’ shit?”

  Alex reached out a hand and yanked Richard back into his seat, and said, “Don’t get your panties in a bunch. It’s going to be me and Joel. ”

  “You’re going with him?” Richard asked, looking as incredulous as anyone could be.

  “Yeah,” Alex said. “He needs a chaperone on his trip south. You just have to get us back to the dozer.”

  “Well, zombies almost chowed down on us the last time we were down in those tunnels,” Richard said. “Besides, those tunnels give me the heebie-jeebies.”

  “Do you still have balls?” Alex said. “Me, I’m not so sure you do.”

  Richard started to rise from his chair again, and this time his fists were clenched.

  Doctor M beat him to it and knocked his chair over as he shot to his feet. “You two need to calm down, and do it now.” He held Alex and Richard in a hard stare and it worked, which surprised me. I didn’t think anyone could intimidate Alex.

  Doctor M said, “I will let Joel have two of our remaining doses. We need the rest to continue our efforts.”

  “Obviously, I would prefer more,” Doctor Richter said, “but beggars can’t be choosers, now can they?” He seemed almost giddy.

  “Then we have a plan,” I said as I clapped my hands together in satisfaction.

  Doctor Richter spoke again and said, “There is one more thing.”

  “Yes?” Doctor M said as he leaned in over the satellite phone.

  “I want you to bring the young girl who has taken the vaccine.”

  Well, that was a real show stopper.

  Chapter 31

  Deal Breaker

  “That’s a deal breaker,” I said.

  Doctor Richter took a moment to respond, “Please listen to me for a moment. Joel, that’s your name, right?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “There are so many elements involved in trying to break Doctor M’s vaccine down,” Richter said. “Having the vaccine will only take me part of the way. Having someone who has taken the vaccine, been bitten and infected and protected by it will give us a much more complete picture.”

  “We’ve already talked about this,” I said. “This whole plan I’m talking about is a total crap shoot. I really think I have something that is survivable to get us out of Columbus, but the rest is a blank page. I have no idea what we’ll run into. From our past experience, getting across the rural areas could be safe, but we’ve run into trouble in the middle of nowhere. Once we get to Cincinnati, well, shit, I don’t have a clue about what it will be like. If it’s anything like Columbus…” I drifted off because we could all fill in the blanks.

  “Hey, doc,” Alex said, “you’re on the ground down there. What’s it like? Is the place crawling with a bunch of fucking deaders?”

  “Well, as for myself, I don’t leave the facilities, but we have people that go out to explore and obtain supplies.”

  “Oh, you have people,” Alex said. “I wish you could get those people to come up here to get this vaccine.”

  “Excuse me, but we’ve been over this,” Richter replied. “We simply don’t have the personnel to take something like that on.”

  “Okay, okay, okay,” Alex said, “but what do your people say about the landscape down there?” She drew out the words, your people.

  “I’m going to be upfront with you,” I said. “This is too big of a risk. I can get you the vaccine, but getting...the subject there. I’m not good with that.”

  Static came from the sat-phone’s speaker, and I started to think that Richter might have hung up on us.

  Richter said, “Joel, in our earlier conversations, you mentioned wanting this cure for someone you cared about. I would like to think that you’d want to do whatever you could to save her. Don’t you think?”

  “But I’d be putting our subject at a terrible risk,” I said.

  That’s when a voice spoke from behind us. “I’ll do it.”

  When I looked around, Naveen stood in the doorway. Nathan was behind her with a sheepish expression on his face.

  “Naveen, you can’t go,” I said. “It’s just too dangerous.” I turned back to the sat-phone and said, “Listen, what do you need from the subject? Do you just need a blood sample? I can bring a dozen of those.”

  “I’m not sure about that,” Richter said. “It would be best to have a fresh sample.”

  Doctor M said, “The sample would have to be stored at a fairly cold temperature.”

  “Well, I’m going to be outside with it, and it’s going to be pretty damn cold out there,” I said. “What’s the shelf life of a blood sample, say at around freezing?”

  “That’s pretty iffy,” Richard said. “You don’t know how long you’ll be on the road.”

  That’s when it hit me. We had another option. I slowly turned toward Doctor M and said, “Doctor M, you’ve taken the vaccine. You can go.”

  Doctor M’s mouth came open, then closed and opened again, but no words came out. He repeated this process a couple of times and finally found his voice. “That is out of the question. I’m needed here to continue my work on replicating the vaccine.”

  Richard began to cluck like a chicken.

  Doctor M turned toward him and said, “You stop that right now. It is much more logical for me to stay here to do this work.”

  “So, you’ll let a little girl go in your place?” Richard asked.

  By then, Naveen had slipped up close to the table we were sitting around. Nathan followed behind her like a lost puppy. “But Joel, I can go. If it saves Kara, I would do anything.”

  “No, no, no,” I said. “I’ve already lost…” I decided I had better not finish that sentence. “It’s just too dangerous. Besides, we can take some blood samples.”

  “That is, if you can keep them intact and safe,” Richard said.

  I lowered my head a little and glowered at Richard. I’m not sure it worked because he just smiled back at me. I wanted to punch him into the next county.

  “I don’t want you to go,” Nathan said, clutching Naveen’s arm.

  She looked down at him and said, “Kara was like my mom. I have to do whatever I can to save her.” She turned and looked to me and said, “Please, Joel, let me help.”

  “I’m sorry, honey,” I said. “I can’t let you go.”

  Alex broke in and said. “Listen, Joel’s plan is a steaming pile of crap, but Naveen, I’ll go along to make sure he’s okay, and I’ll make sure we keep your samples safe.”

  I leaned toward Naveen and said, “I will do everything I can to be safe and find a way to help get Kara back. Can you please take Nathan out of the room? This is just getting him upset.”

  Nathan was close to tears. I’m sure all this was bringing back the death of his parents. I’m certain I would have been a blob of tears every single minute had I gone through what he had.

  Naveen gave me one more pitiful look, but I maintained my resolve despite wanting to hug and reassure her. She lowered her head and led Nathan out of the room.

  I let out a long sigh and said, “How the hell did this whole thing become a shit sandwich.”

  “Excuse me,” Doctor Richter said. “Are you people coming down here or not?”

  “We’re coming,” I said. “We’re coming
.”

  “That’s such good news and such a relief,” Richter said. “I can’t wait for you to get here. You have no idea what this will mean for my research. I can see--”

  “Doctor Richter,” I said, cutting him off. “Stick a sock in it. We’re coming. That’s good enough.”

  “Well, okay,” Richter said, seeming a little put-off.

  “We’ll call you when we start your way,” I said.

  “Again, I can’t tell you how much this means to me,” he said. He started to say something else, but I motioned for Lori to end the call, which she did by pressing the end call button while Richter was in mid-sentence.

  “Why did you hang up on him?” Doctor M said.

  “I had enough of him,” I said. “He’s going to be safe and sound in his little facility, and I’m going to be risking my ass.”

  “And my ass, too,” Alex said.

  Brother Ed sat up in his seat and said, “I can go. If it helps Kara”.

  “You can barely stand up most of the time,” Richard said.

  “Are you volunteering to go?” Brother Ed said, locking in on Richard.

  “That’s a big hell no,” Richard said.

  Now it was Alex’s turn to cluck like a chicken while making flapping motions with her arms.

  “Hold up,” Richard said, “that’s my thing.”

  “So you’ve copyrighted chicken noises?” Alex asked.

  I slapped my hand down on the table and said, “That’s enough of that, folks.”

  Neither Alex nor Richard looked happy that I was acting like the adult in the room, and, frankly, I was somewhat shocked by it.

  “Are we bringing a battery along to start that dozer?” Brother Ed asked, making an effort to get us back on track.

  “Since we aren’t going anywhere without it, that’s a big hell yeah,” I said.

  “Well, then you need me,” Brother Ed replied. “Neither of you knows how to drive a bulldozer, do ya’?”

  Alex and I gave him blank stares.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Brother Ed said, savoring his superiority in this area.

  “But you’re giving me and Alex a crash course on how to do it in case something happens to you,” I said.