“But Randi or Joan might be one of those Infected that freezes to death if I wait that long. Or run out of supplies or— or I don’t know, have another healthy person attack them for supplies. Does that happen?”
“Less than you’d expect, but— yes. It happens,” said Simon. “Though, in your current condition, what is it you’re going to do to stop that? I don’t know what kind of hardship your wife and daughter have faced during the past few years, but to be frank, their health is likely in a better state than yours. You were, and are still, in serious danger of dying. Look at this map. Your plan, I assume, is to take the highway, here? Up to Lynnfield, at least. Otherwise, you’d add weeks to the trip.”
“That’s my first thought, yes,” said Neil.
“The flood last spring has caused the Ferry Bridge to become unstable. It’s still in the safe zone, but we don’t have the crews or material to fix it this year. You’ll need to detour, here. This is the road our people are taking for now. That’ll add twelve miles. When you get back to the highway, there’s a pileup here, near the route 16 exit— now, if you’re on foot or a bike, you might be able to skirt around it, but some of the scav teams have reported there are some unsavory people using it as an ambush point to rob passers-by. The governor has ordered it cleared this fall and the thieves will either be caught or abandon the site when our work crews get there, but again, you’d need to wait a few months.”
“Then I’ll take the side roads,” protested Neil. “I’m just one guy. You have to move a lot of people when you go. You’re more of a target. And less able to find another road.”
“Sure,” agreed Simon, “You might get past that pileup without even seeing anyone at all. But that’s at the edge of our zone. Beyond it, a few scav teams are pushing in that direction when there’s a specific need, but it isn’t often. You’ll be on your own. There are still too many Infected out that way. I wish I could tell you how to avoid them, but we aren’t sure where the main concentration is. Possibly a fallout shelter in one of the old apartment complexes there. Three Cure teams are slated to start heading toward that area any time now, but I’m not certain of the schedule. Depends on the rotation and how the past few missions have gone. We won’t have the report until we get back. At best, it’ll be another month before they start. If there are more Infected than we expect or problems establishing the camp, it could be spring before it’s safe. And beyond that— look, Neil, you’re going to have trouble just traveling those miles. That’s not saying anything about sustaining yourself. To the edge of the cleared zone, you’re not going to find much of use. Every major building and most of the houses have been thoroughly scavenged, those supplies were needed to support the City. Any house that still has supplies in it probably has a settler living there. Right now, there’s a lot of sympathy from other Cured. You might get some help, at least from them. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of all the Immunes. Some of them will run you off as a looter at the slightest excuse. Or worse. And once you get outside the cleared zone, you’ll face other people trying to survive by scavenging as well as the Infected.”
Neil pushed the map away. “I’ve been starving for months. I’ll be able to handle a few days of light eating.”
“Maybe, brother,” broke in Elijah. “Maybe you would. A few years and a couple dozen pounds ago it might not have been a problem at all. But you’re all used up and try as we might, it’s going to take months of recovery to get you back to that point. Besides, it’s not just the food. It’s finding clean water. You got lucky in the hospital. You aren’t going to be able to rely on luck out here.”
“We’ve also had reports of animals,” added Simon. “Packs of dogs looking for easy prey is the most immediate danger, but not the only one. Hordes of mice are eating whatever is left in the houses. Unless it’s bottled or canned, you’re not going to find much even outside the scav zone. And who knows how many cattle have died near water sources and polluted them. We had an outbreak of typhoid last year, tracked it to a farm upriver. I know you aren’t going to believe me, you have no real reason to. I get it. You woke up in this strange place with people telling you terrible things and you’ve seen very, very little of it for yourself. I know you’re going to go, regardless of what any of us say, because it’s your family. I’m just telling you, if they’re out there, if they aren’t in the City already and you truly want to save them, you have to be prepared. You need to get your own body ready. You need to figure out where and how you’re going to get food and water and warm yourself. And how you’re going to protect yourself and them. Otherwise, if you even reach them, you’re just going to be a drain on their resources while they struggle to keep all three of you from starving or being hurt.” He stopped and waited.
“Okay. Okay, I get it,” said Neil. “But all I’ve seen is this field and the tent. I don’t know why you want me to go to this city of yours so badly, but you do. So I don’t know that I think it’s as bad as you say out there—”
“If we’re lying, then you don’t need to worry about your family, right?” asked Elijah. “If outside this camp, life is going on as you remember, all the lights coming on at dusk and the cars zipping by on route 1 and the firemen are opening hydrants for kids to play, then you don’t need to panic. You can stay and heal and your daughter’s going to be fine.”
“Y—yes, I guess that’s true,” said Neil.
“And if not, if what we’re saying is right, then she’s going to need you to be healthy when you find her. So you should stay and heal up.”
Neil couldn’t see much to argue with. Their points were good, though he chafed at the thought of waiting for weeks. “I don’t suppose I really have a choice in this, do I?” he asked.
Elijah shook his head. “Not for a little while. Like we’ve been telling you, you’re not a prisoner, but I’m going to do my damnedest to keep you where it’s safe until I don’t think you’ll keel over twenty steps out of camp. And I’d sure appreciate not having to fight you every day or chase you when you try to sneak off. I know how hard it is to wait. Before we got sick, everything moved so fast. Information was so easy to get. You could get an answer to almost any question within seconds. Doesn’t work that way anymore. I know how frustrating that can be. But do you want to risk all of the hazards Simon was talking about only to find out your family’s already accounted for in the City records? Can you wait that long, at least?”
“I’ll wait for Shay,” said Neil. “She’ll tell me the truth. She’ll know what happened.”
Elijah just broke into a surprised grin.
“You know Shay?” he asked. “How on earth did you meet Shay? We just woke you up— you know what? Never mind. It’s good. Shay’s good, brother. You make a deal with me. Heal up until she gets here. Shouldn’t be more than a couple of days. Listen to what she’s got to tell you. Then, if you don’t like what she says or she tells you it’s time to take off, I’ll take you down to the road myself.”
“Because you think she’s going to just tell me what you did?”
“No, Neil, because she’s been out there since the start. She knows what the hell’s going on, as much as anyone else. More than the governor maybe. She tells you something’s so, you can bet she probably saw it for herself. I trust her. You trust her. Let’s rely on what she says, deal?” Elijah stuck out his hand.
“Yes,” said Neil and shook.
“Good,” sighed Simon. “Let’s get you some lunch. If you want to go hiking all over the state, we need to get some fat stores onto you first.”
9
There’d been a small trickle of people visiting the camp over several days. Some had come to ask questions. Neil had had one of those types of visitors. It felt like the oddest job interview he’d ever been through. Or like the silly test he’d taken in middle school to determine what sort of job he should get when he grew up. It seemed more serious now. Like his answers might determine whether he ate or not. Simon had told him it didn’t work like that, it was onl
y so the City could figure out where best to use him. As if he were some puzzle piece that had been missing a long time. He’d told Simon he wasn’t certain if he’d go to the City, so why waste the interviewer’s time? Simon had only encouraged him to answer the questions anyway.
There’d been others. There was a pair of workmen with a large cart filled with odd pieces of wood. They’d sat with the Cured who were missing limbs. One of them had measured, the other had sat in the sun and carved and sanded. A good portion of the camp had lost a limb to gangrene, so the workmen were there for almost a week. When they were done fitting the crude prosthetics, they got onto their bikes and pedaled the cart down the road, headed for the next Cure camp. A military truck arrived with food. The first solid stuff the Cured had seen since they’d woken. The bread was grainy and rough, but after the first bite, Neil craved it intensely. It was the first time he’d really felt hungry since waking.
A few, a very few, had been families looking for their loved ones. Most had gone away again, crushed when they could not find who they were searching for. Two had found someone. Watching the reunions had been hard. Both the Cured and their families had shown a terrible mix of horror and grief and love, all the things that had been done since the plague hidden just barely beneath the surface. Neil knew it would be the same with Joan and Randi when he found them, but still longed for his own day with them anyway.
The day Shay had arrived, Neil had asked Elijah for something useful to do, tired of the near-endless waiting. He’d been sent to the kitchen and after arguing with Elijah about the safety of giving a Cured a knife, the cooks had deemed Neil capable of hulling an enormous bowl of peas. He’d been a quarter of the way through when Shay had arrived. He’d seen her come into the tent, squinting and blinking as her eyes adjusted to the dimness, but hadn’t recognized her. She’d only drawn his attention because she wasn’t in the drab canvas uniform that the camp workers wore. And she definitely didn’t recognize him. Or any of the others she’d come to find. She spoke with Elijah and he led her to a small knot of Cured who sat across the cafeteria from Neil. He’d looked up once or twice, curious about anyone new, just as he had been with all the other visitors. It was obvious that she had been looking for the people at the other table, but the Cured were far more emotional than she seemed to be about it. He wondered if she’d just come to relay a message and then forgot about her as Elijah came to sit across from him and began to help. Neil was surprised when the woman came to sit next to him and dug into the pile of unshelled peas as well, peeling them open for a few minutes before saying anything. “Slower than cold molasses at this,” she said quietly. “It’s been too long. I miss cooking sometimes, you know?”
He glanced over at her and noticed Elijah watching them both. “You used to cook?” he asked her, more to make conversation than anything else.
“Sure. Over at Wing Memorial. Either the plague scrambled your brains badly or I’ve lost more weight than I thought,” she said with an easy smile.
Neil stopped hulling the peas and stared at her. Her face was familiar but harder than he remembered. It looked as if she’d aged ten years in the space of the two since he’d last seen her. And the way she’d carried herself was different. But then, he hadn’t known her long. Or under normal circumstances. Not that the Cure camp were normal circumstances either. But even with the lack of context, Neil suspected the change in her was profound.
“You really don’t remember me?” she asked. She held out her arm, showing him the puckered crescent scars where she’d been bitten in the hospital.
“No, of course I remember. I just— it took me a minute. Things from when I was sick aren’t all— there. Not yet.”
Her smile dropped and she nodded. “I’ve heard that happens sometimes,” she said.
“But I remember you, I’ve been waiting to see you since Mateo met me. I’m so glad you got out.” He opened his arms, intending to hug her, but hesitated, held back. He’d done things since he saw her last. He couldn’t remember them all, but he remembered enough. She wouldn’t want— The thought broke off as she leaned in and hugged him. “I hurt people,” he said, trying to warn her.
“I know,” she said.
“Killed them. More than one.”
“Know that, too. So did I.”
“A— ate them, Shay.” He was startled to hear how close to a sob it sounded.
“You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t.” She rocked slightly and tightened the hug as if he were a child. “You know what else you did, Neil? You saved twenty-four people. And those twenty-four went on to save a lot more.”
He shook his head.
“Including our kids, Neil. Our kids in the library.”
“All of them?” he asked, pulling free of her. Elijah went on calmly shelling the peas as if it were the most common conversation in the world.
“N-no. I’m sorry. Your friend, Dante? His wife and son were already sick. And two of Cody’s daughters. But his wife and his youngest, they’re in the City. Randi was in the library still, too. I met your ex-wife and her— her husband trying to reach it. And my three. And about fifteen more, along with most of the staff, though the soldiers had been called away or ran before we got there.”
“But Randi and Joan? They’re Immune?”
“Yes,” said Shay, grinning broadly.
“Were they— was Randi attacked? Was she cornered somewhere? I promised I was going to come get her. That I wouldn’t let anything happen—”
“The library was very quiet. They’d done a good job isolating people showing symptoms, even then. I think Joan and I got there only a few hours after the guards deserted their posts. The staff was frightened, but Randi seemed okay. A little bored maybe. She was happy to see her mom. I— did tell Randi that you sent me, but I left it to Joan to explain why you weren’t there yourself. She’s a sweet girl. And tougher than you know. The library was safe. Afterward— there were some dark days, Neil. But she had her mom and— and Harry with her during those. I don’t know if she truly understood why you didn’t come at first, but after a few weeks, she knew what it meant to be Infected. She knows you would have been there if you could.”
He nodded, though he doubted Shay’s assessment. It wasn’t her fault and it was easy to accept the comfort she was trying to offer him. He wiped his eyes and tried to push away the idea of a nine-year-old trying to survive a city full of violent and desperate people. “Are they safe now? In this city I keep hearing about?”
“Ah,” she said, becoming quickly serious, “Well. They were safe when I last saw them, but— no, not in the City. I tried to persuade them to stay with us— they weren’t the only ones who left. You have to understand in those days, the City was barely hanging on. It was just a small— well, it was about five blocks worth of buildings that were protected by walls of junk and about a hundred soldiers. There were just so many Infected. We were overwhelmed. There were rumors. Lots of them. At first, it was that the federal government would send help. And then it was that the CDC had some kind of cure and there were areas free of the disease. After that, it was that the plague was limited to our continent and other countries were sending aid. All false, of course. Most of the stories were dismissed almost as soon as you heard ‘em, but one— one stuck around. Maybe because it made a sort of sense. Maybe just because people missed home. Or maybe it was the utter despair of waiting to be overrun. Just waiting for attacks.
“The ones we saw in the hospital— that was nothing Neil. Easy to dodge or divert. When there were hundreds and hundreds at a time, it was like a— a swarm. They’d attack each other, sure, but there were so many the few they picked off didn’t make much difference. It was miserable, waiting for a horde of Infected to be attracted by our lights or our sounds or the smell of food cooking. Then hours of panicked fighting. We’d hide the kids up on the roofs. Figured they’d be safest up there, but they still saw everything. And then after, clearing the bodies. Burning them, which would sometimes attract more. M
onths of it. Joan’s hus— Harry, got caught in one of those attacks. I— I’m sorry.” She said it slowly, as if she were uncertain whether it was the right thing to say. As if maybe it might not be such a bad thing in Neil’s eyes. Though Neil had been jealous and even angry at the man who had appeared in his place a few years ago, he couldn’t feel happy about Harry’s death. He’d been just what Joan needed when he came along and Neil could only imagine she’d have needed the support even more after the plague. It disturbed him to think of Joan and Randi all on their own.
“Me too,” said Neil. “He made her happy. He was— a good person.”
She nodded. “He seemed to be, for the little I knew about him. And your family was crushed. I think Joan started to give up on the City after that. When people started to say that things were better out in the rural areas, far outside the City, it made a sort of sense. Fewer people living there, so there’d be less Infected. More room to run if you needed. Livestock and farmland, because our supplies got extremely thin for a while. That rumor never quite died. A group got together, decided to try to get out, to flee the City. It wasn’t as crazy then as it seems now.” She touched his hand. “I tried to persuade them to stay, but I didn’t try hard, Neil. I really thought we were all dead, it was just a matter of where it happened. I think— I think that’s what Joan had started believing, too. For me, being among more people in buildings I knew by then was a more comfortable way to go than somewhere on the road. Joan wanted to take Randi to a cabin up north. She told me about that cabin an awful lot. Tried to persuade me that we should all go and— I don’t know. Build some kind of town or something around it. We never got that far. But when things were at their worst, one night we were on watch together and she started talking about it again. It was different that time, though. More about how she wanted to go, the way she wanted to die, no more wild daydreams or plans. About how badly she wanted Randi to just have a little quiet. Not the constant reek of burning bodies or the shrieks of Infected when they tried to scrabble over the junk. A few nights of peaceful sleep without the constant gunfire. ‘Just a few hours to remember she’s a little girl, Shay. Before the end.’ That’s what she told me. I stopped trying to talk her out of it after that, and she stopped trying to persuade me to go with her. She said it was her dad’s cabin. That if they could make it there, she knew it’d be better than waiting in the City, no matter what happened.”
Before The Cure (Book 2): The Infected Page 9
