Defiant: Quantic Dreams Book 2

by Elizabeth McLaughlin

  I counted to five and slammed my fists into the wall. The concrete reflected the force back through my arms, but I held them still and let loose the rage and anguish that had been building inside of me. I didn’t care if Gabriel was listening outside; it didn’t matter anymore. There was nothing he could do to me that I hadn’t already done to myself. There was a perverse relief in knowing that just a few brief hours separated me from relinquishing this burden. When Gabriel was elected, I would be the first one walking into a hibernation pod. Gladly.

  The minutes passed into hours. Finally, my name was called. I donned the gown and mask they had provided me. The mess was cleared out except for two people standing behind the rod and token system. I picked up the token indicating a vote for myself and placed it on the according rod. Neither attendant spoke a word to me, only nodding when I had placed my token. The piles were closely matched. Too closely matched for my comfort. I turned and returned to my quarters to wait for the final tally. I paced around the little square of space I had allotted to me, and the thoughts of the previous night returned. When Gabriel won, I was certain that I would suffer an unfortunate accident soon after. There was no place for me here, not after the upheaval I had caused.

  A knock sounded on my door and I opened it, expecting to see one of the impartial people chosen to count the votes. Instead, I found Sophia Caruso.

  “It’s Daisy. She lost consciousness while we were waiting for the call to vote. They’ve got her in the infirmary. Jacob, please. What’s going on?”

  “It’s a respiratory virus. So far we’ve lost two. Neither of them were children.”

  “Fuck Jacob, why the hell didn’t you come straight to me?”

  “Sophia, I haven’t time to hit the bathroom since I found out.” I knew as the words left my mouth that I had just made a huge mistake.

  “That’s cold, Jacob. Even from you.”

  “Yes. I’m sorry. I can’t imagine what you must be feeling right now.”

  Sophia didn’t reply. No one could ever fully comprehend the horror of a mother in danger of losing her children. The best I could do in the moment was to try to save everyone else. “We need to quarantine, Sophia.”

  “If it’s airborne, you’re too late. You might as well triage the patients as they come in.”

  “We don’t even know what it is yet. I’d rather quarantine and maybe save a few more people. I know this is too much to ask, but will you help me?”

  She pursed her lips. “All right. But you need to let me fill in my family, first. Is the infirmary set up for a quarantine?”

  “We don’t have the space.”

  “Sounds like you had some warning after all.” I cringed at that. “What is your suggestion, then?”

  “Keep everyone in their quarters. I’ve got a few days’ worth of camera footage to go through. In addition to quarantine, I think I should do as much contact tracing as possible. If we can get in front of this at all, it’ll help to preemptively identify and treat.”

  “And the vote?” She had a point. The news of quarantine couldn’t arrive at a worse time. Any voting that had been done could well be thrown out the window if enough people blamed me.

  “We still have to honor the results. If George won, this is all his problem.”

  I bade her goodbye and ventured out of my room to assess the situation. I was met with a scene of chaos. Staying put temporarily had gone well enough, but with the news of the virus panic broke out. Crowds roamed the corridors, voices competing to be the loudest. It didn’t matter who spoke over the others; the questions were the same.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Are we all going to die?”

  “Where the hell is Jacob Alvaro? Why weren’t we told about this before?”

  I hid myself behind a corner before the crowds could spot me. Forget any notion of contact tracing. The entire shelter was now a hot zone. I turned to leave and smacked into a massive chest. Gabriel pushed me away by the shoulders and held me in place, an insane grin on his face.

  “Well done, Jacob. I’ve got to hand it to you. You’ve taken the possibilities for fucking up and just taken them to a new level! The vote is almost superfluous now. There’s no way these people are going to trust you with their lives.” The tattoos on his neck danced as his smile grew. “Maybe I’ll just take care of it for them. After all, no one knows you’re out here, right?”

  I was getting too predictable in my old age. “Sure, Gabriel. You can murder me if you’d like. God knows that in that body I don’t stand a chance against you. It’ll probably be like breaking a twig when you snap my neck. Two problems with your little plan, though. The first is that if you kill me right now, there’s no glory in it for you. No way for you to show off that you killed the man responsible for endangering the whole shelter.”

  “And the second?” He quirked an eyebrow and narrowed his eyes.

  “The second is that you’re getting predictable.” I ducked out of his grip and drove my fist toward his face as hard as I could. The punch connected, and I felt a crunch underneath my hand as his nose broke. Just as I hoped, blood spurted from the wound and Gabriel did what every man does. I didn’t look back as I sprinted away. I figured he would be busy holding his face for at least ten seconds and the blood would slow him down for another twenty, maybe thirty. That gave me a window of escape just big enough to turn myself over to the crowds.

  “Fuck!” I heard him bellow and smiled to myself. I might have fractured a finger or two in the process, but damn, that felt good. My victory was short-lived as someone from within a crowd spotted me.

  “Jacob! You owe us some answers!”

  I wiped the blood staining my hand on the back of my pants. “And I’ve got them for you. I’m sorry that this has all been so sudden and confusing. I’m going to ask everyone to return to their rooms. I swear to you I will personally visit each one, but for now I will give you the short version.” The crowd’s shouts died to a murmur. “There has been an outbreak of an unknown type of respiratory virus in the shelter. Thus far we have had three people show symptoms, two of whom are now deceased. Their remains have been removed and quarantined for cremation.”

  “Who died?” A young woman made her way from within the crowd to address me. Cold settled in the pit of my stomach as I recognized her. She was Allison’s niece. Jane? Or was it Jessica?

  “Out of respect for the families involved, I will not be announcing the names of the dead until their families have given their consent for me to do so. Until then, your votes are still being counted, and I have mobilized the entire medical team to prevent further spread of the virus. I have a request that I’d like you to spread. Any able-bodied man, woman, or person who is willing is needed to assist the medical team. We have few physicians and those who are present are doing their best, but we need help.” To my amazement, five people stepped forward.

  “We’ll help.”

  “Thank you. Please report to the infirmary. Tell anyone else you see that we’re looking for volunteers. I won’t forget this.” The small group trotted off. “Please, everyone, return to your quarters.” Grumbling and scowling, the crowd gradually dispersed. I grabbed the arm of Allison’s niece. “Hang on. Are you Allison Garvey’s niece? Jessica, right?”

  Jessica looked puzzled for a moment, but comprehension dawned on her. “Is she sick?”

  “I’m so, so sorry. Your aunt passed away.” God, how did anyone deliver this news tactfully? It felt horrific. Tears welled up in Jessica’s eyes, but she remained stoic.

  “Did she suffer?”

  “No.” That much I could at least offer her. “She passed in her sleep, late last night.”

  She nodded. “Thank you.” She turned to leave but stopped a few feet away. “I voted for you, you know.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me. Fix this. Make it so my aunt didn’t die for nothing.”

  “I’ll do my best.” Another nod, and we parted ways.

  Chap
ter Eleven

  It took them a couple of hours to tally all the votes. When I inquired as to the delay, I was informed that Gabriel requested that each vote be counted again. Trying to cheat the system? Or just delaying the result, in case he lost? The whole notion of an election was a tactic in and of itself. Meaningless distraction meant to pull me away from the task at hand and divide the people. Rather than ruminate on whether I would remain leader of the shelter, I spent the time shoring up my room the best I could. The air circulation system had some filtration in it, but it was meant to capture dust and debris, not viruses and bacteria. The Founders had chosen to rely on UV-C sanitization for that. Throw a robot into a room, shut the door, and wait for the all clear. I wish we had more devices with those capabilities at our disposal. As it was, we were going to have to make do with what was available. I didn’t know if the 3D printers could even fabricate a filter fine enough to protect from an airborne virus. Masks were easy. Large-scale industrial filters weren’t. I used the knife of a utility tool to cut a spare blanket I had in half. Then I made small holes in each corner of the fabric. Standing on tiptoe, I unscrewed the grate from the wall and shoved the blanket against the vent. Holding the screws in my teeth, I forced the grating into position and screwed it back into the concrete. It wasn’t a perfect barrier, but now there was more of a chance that viral particles would hit the fabric instead of me.

  I still had my emergency supplies, but they were scattered since my fight with Gabriel. I organized and counted what I had. It was little. Too little. I vowed that I would replenish them, but not before everyone else could be supplied similarly. The shelter was going to face a number of shortages in the coming weeks, and I could hardly consider myself an honorable man if I hoarded supplies. When I had finished that task, the clock on the wall informed me I had been working for almost three hours. I stank, I was tired, and I wanted five minutes of peace. I stripped myself off with every intention of grabbing a long shower. That’s when I heard the announcement system crackle to life.

  “Could Jacob Alvaro and George Sloan please come to the mess hall. Jacob Alvaro and George Sloan.” It surprised me that they would call the both of us together. At least this way I could ensure that Gabriel wasn’t holding a knife to those responsible for announcing the winner.

  We made it to the mess hall at roughly the same time. Gabriel had cleaned up his face as best he could, but his nose still carried an unnatural angle. I smirked and snuck the tip of my tongue between my teeth to keep from laughing. Gallows humor, I suppose. I had to find something funny while the world burned around me. I could hear the wheezing of his breath from several feet away.

  “You should really get that looked at, ‘George’. Looks like you had a nasty run-in with somebody.”

  “Fuck you, Jacob.” I wonder what pain felt like to someone who had never experienced it before. I bet it wasn’t fun, making my blow all the sweeter. I held the door open for him.

  “After you.” Gabriel grit his teeth but there was no way for him to gracefully refuse my offer and he walked ahead of me. Underneath my mask I grinned at the sight of him noticeably limping. Being a human’s pretty rough, I guess.

  “Gentlemen, thank you for coming.” One of the masked counters gestured towards a table a few feet away from them. Instead of sitting with me, Gabriel chose a table directly opposite and thunked his colossal frame into the metal chair. The unknown person cast a curious glance at him and continued. “I have to tell you both, it was a close race. Clearly you are both well respected. I owe you my thanks, Mr. Alvaro. Your idea of using the counters helped make the task of tallying up the votes more simple. Mr. Sloan, we thank you for your help in enforcing a free and fair election. We didn’t have a single problem with anyone trying to interfere.”

  “Yes, yes, just get on with it.” Gabriel’s scowl had disappeared from his face, replaced with a twinkle of predatory anticipation in his eyes.

  “Jacob wins.”

  No way. After all the interfering Gabriel did, I had won? How the hells was that possible? I hardly believed my ears. “I’m sorry?”

  “You win, Mr. Alvaro. I’d shake your hand in congratulations but...” they gestured to the PPE.

  “How?” I had almost forgotten Gabriel was sitting there.

  “Votes are votes, Mr. Sloan. If I recall, you were the challenging candidate and the very person who suggested this vote, yes?” The question was punctuated with a sharp edge. Clearly whoever was underneath all that equipment didn’t approve of the waste of time. I completely agreed.

  “...yes.” His hands balled themselves into fists on his knees. It was just for a moment, but all of us caught it. Those pesky human emotions must really have been getting in his way.

  “Thank you again for your attendance, gentlemen. Mr. Alvaro, if you wouldn’t mind staying behind, I’d like to discuss something with you.”

  My elation at winning the election was cut short by remembering that I was still responsible for a thousand lives and we had an epidemic. I could laugh at Gabriel’s plan failing later. “Of course.”

  Gabriel stood up suddenly and stalked from the mess. From the poisonous glare he shot me on his way out, I doubted that this was going to be the last battle in the war. For now however, he was toothless, and I could take advantage of that. One less ball in the air, so to speak.

  “The truth is that you did win...by one vote.”

  “Oh? Huh. I wonder who it was.” One vote was still a victory but it gave me pause to know that the race was that close. I was definitely not as safe as I imagined myself.

  “It was me,” they said. “I was there that night at the club.”

  “You were? Hah.” That night with Shannon seemed a lifetime ago. “Please, I did what anyone else would have done.”

  “And yet so many did not, sir. You earned my respect that night. You have my trust in dealing with this virus, but I have to warn you that trust is spread thin. There are many who will still oppose the results of the vote. For your sake, I hope you have a good plan.”

  “I’m still working on it, but I’d rather sacrifice my own life than let someone else die for me. That much I can promise you.” I didn’t have a lot to guarantee, but I did have that.

  “That’s good enough for me, sir.” Their eyes crinkled in a smile underneath the protective equipment.

  There was one pressing task ahead of me I had to attend to. The bodies of Allison and Tarik had been prepared for cremation and waited for me. One of the people who stepped forward from the crowd earlier stood at the door, playing a movie on his tablet. He snapped to attention and shoved the tablet into a pocket when I walked in.

  “Relax, kid. I’m not military.” I waved at him dismissively. Allison and Tarik’s bodies had been wrapped in clean white cloth and placed into airtight bags. I touched each of the bags gently and felt a fresh pang of guilt in my chest. I had killed these people. Two brilliant, kind, beloved individuals who were lost to their families forever. My thoughts were interrupted when the young man spoke.

  “Hah. You’re right. Sorry, Mr. Alvaro. My father is a strict man. He raised me to hold myself like a soldier, even if none of us have ever been one.”

  “I’m sure he’s a good man. It’s Jacob, by the way.”

  “Sir?”

  “And ditch the ‘sir’ stuff, too. I appreciate that you all are trying to show me respect now that I’m your officially elected leader and all that, but all you’re doing is making me feel old.” At least I could still dredge up some humor. That was something. The kid laughed.

  “I’ve already got the furnace to temperature, Jacob.”

  “Then let’s get this show on the road. Are you a religious man?”

  “No si-no. I always admired the spirit of the godly folks but never felt like I could buy into it myself.” He shrugged.

  “Neither am I, but they raised me to believe in God. Out of respect for folks when they passed…before, when I was the only one to look after them, I used to say a couple
of words. You mind if I drag out some of the Bible for these people?” The kid shook his head. I positioned myself between the twin gurneys carrying the first two casualties and lifted my head towards the ceiling. “We commend you, Tarik and Allison, to almighty God, and entrust you to your creator. May you rest in the arms of the Lord who formed you from the dust of the dearth. May you see your Redeemer face to face, and enjoy the vision of God, forever. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.” I opened the door to the furnace and the two of us transferred Allison’s body to the table. I slid the remains inside and pressed the button to ignite the fire that would burn the disease, and her bones, to dust.

  The young man and I stood in silence as we waited for the process to finish. It occurred to me I should have asked for his name, but I didn’t want to. It didn’t make it any easier to forget a person if you knew their name. We repeated the same procedure with Tarik’s remains. Once both bodies had burned, I told the man to go back to his duties. There was nothing more for him here. I pressed my fingertips to the thick glass of the cremation furnace window and watched the last of the flames dancing within. More death was coming, but I wasn’t fighting this battle alone. I thought of my family, and all those who had stepped forward and volunteered to risk their lives for me.

  I vowed to myself that no matter what happened, we wouldn’t go down without a fight. My time was coming, there was no doubt; but I still had the chance to do something with the time I had left.

  Chapter Twelve

  The next day there were twenty more who had fallen ill. The medical team and their assistants had instituted a complete quarantine for anyone who had come into close contact with the individuals within the last forty-eight hours. Twenty sick meant that more than a hundred were now confined to quarters. No one doubted that the number would double in the next twenty-four hours. The numbers were staggering. No one imagined that a virus could spread this quickly. We scrambled to keep up with the needs and demands of the population. I programmed the 3D printers to churn out personal protective equipment as quickly as they could. The exploration team had converted themselves over to pitching in. All efforts toward settling the outside world were stopped. I learned that Jason and Nicole were spearheading a campaign to divest everyone of excess materials that could be turned into PPE. We fed every spare piece of plastic and metal to the printers.