PRIME

by Samantha Boyette

  “There has to be near a thousand zombies out there, Dodge,” Simon pressed. “And what do they mean about a cure?”

  “Who knows?” Dodge shrugged, unable to stop smiling. “And yeah, at least a thousand zombies out there but they’ll make it through, kid.”

  “I suggest we reply quickly,” Tech said. He was already searching the shelves for a walkie talkie. He pulled one down from a high shelf and flipped the switch. Static roared from the tiny speaker and he quickly shut it off again. “I don’t see how much good it will do us, but we have one.”

  With a sigh, Simon began to tap a reply.

  *

  Coda Base

  Alice wrote out the message as quickly as it came in. Zero and Cale waited impatiently beside her to hear what was happening. When the message ended, Alice dropped her pencil and read aloud.

  “Seventeen survivors, all kids, have walkie. Trapped in hospital basement. Cure?” Alice glanced up at Cale, her eyes wide. “All kids?”

  “Makes sense,” Cale said. “If Haven really is where this originated, it would only figure that those who survived had a natural immunity. Most of us grownups weren’t as lucky as Zero here and they didn’t have the precautions in place to deal with it yet.” He frowned. “Makes sense a bunch of kids wouldn’t know about a cure either.”

  “Those poor kids.” Alice shook her head. “All alone like that, facing those monsters. If Simon’s one of them I swear he’ll never leave my sight again.”

  “Well ask them,” Zero said again. He shrugged. “No use worrying about it until we find them.”

  “Tell them to set the walkie to channel one. We can use it to contact them when we get close,” Cale added.

  Alice nodded and quickly tapped out the message. She leaned back in the chair, head spinning at how quickly the situation had changed. There was a chance she might see her brother again. The reply to her message came fairly quickly and was short enough that she didn’t have to write it down but it took her breath away.

  “What did they say?” Cale asked.

  “He’s there,” she answered. “Simon is with them. He’s alive.” Tears welled up in her eyes as she thought of seeing him again. It wasn’t the time, so she brushed them aside and focused on the task at hand. “We have to tell Grace and the others.”

  28

  Haven Medical Base

  Simon stared at the message a long time, unable to believe what he was seeing. More accurately, he couldn’t believe the memories it brought back. His breathing became quick and shallow; his lungs burned like he’d just survived a flash flood. In his mind, things were much clearer than they had been in weeks, though some of it was already slipping away. One thing was for sure though, one thing he wouldn’t be forgetting again.

  “Alice.” Simon spoke more to himself than anyone else, but of course they were all listening.

  Tessa put a hand on his shoulder. “What?”

  Simon shook his head, clearing away enough of the fog that he was able to speak in full sentences.

  “Uh, sorry, this is what it says. Put the walkie on channel one. Alice looks for Simon. See you soon.” Simon looked up at the others.

  “Are you sure?” Tessa asked, sinking to her knees beside Simon’s chair. She reached out and squeezed his hand softly. “I mean, we were just talking about your family, so you might just be thinking Alice was your sister. I know how much you miss her. It could be any Alice looking for any Simon.”

  “Sure, it could be, but really what are the odds?” A smiled played on Simon’s lips and he held Tessa’s hand tightly when she tried to pull away. “It was strange. As soon as I read it there was this wash of memories,” he paused, thinking things over. “I remember her now. I remember some other stuff too, about my dad,” Simon took a deep breath and looked up at Dodge. “It might be important. Maybe even about the cure they mentioned.”

  “Really?” Dodge crossed his arms and leaned back against the desk. “How so?”

  “You remember that Martin guy in the video?” Simon asked. Everyone nodded. It was hard to forget the man who started the end of the world. “He said something about David; I think he was talking about my dad.”

  “No way,” Dodge said. “That’s messed up.”

  Simon ignored him and continued talking. “I remember him on the phone when people first started getting sick,” Simon went on. “I was in bed, but he was yelling so loud I could hear him. I remember him saying they were working on it, that there would be a cure. My dad did this. He was the one working with Adam’s dad.” Simon’s heart dropped at the thought.

  “A cure isn’t possible.” Tech shook his head. “Those people are dead for all practical purposes. You cure the virus and the zombies will just. . .” Tech trailed off as the realization hit him. “Die,” he finished softly, looking around at the others. They were silent as the thought sank in.

  “Sounds like a good enough cure for me,” Dodge said. “And I’m guessing if there was going to be a cure, it would be down here.”

  “But this wasn’t the lab from the video,” Simon said.

  “It is a lab though,” Tech said. “And there were people locked in here. They could have been working on it.”

  “Or they could have been hiding while the cure is in some other lab,” Simon argued. His heart sank.

  “How about we all look for it? Instead of sitting around debating where it could be?” Dodge asked. “We could find the damn thing before you two old ladies stop arguing.” Simon and Tech grinned at each other.

  “We have to figure out what we’re looking for first.” Tech turned back to the computer. “Let me do some research, you three look around.”

  “Didn’t you just say we needed to know what we were looking for?” Simon asked.

  Tech nodded absently. “Uh-huh. But looking around stops you from hovering over my shoulder and maybe you’ll find something labeled ‘cure’.”

  *

  The other kids watched them with wide eyes as they dug through the closets in the living room area. Dodge filled Red and Tyson in on what was going on and they dug out some board games to distract the littler kids, but the older kids watched.

  Simon breathed a sigh of relief as they moved on to the other rooms and out from under their scrutiny. Dodge said it was too early to bring up the idea of a cure or rescue to everyone and Simon had to agree. He squeezed Tessa’s hand before they separated and he headed down the hall to the bathroom. There was a closet just outside the bathroom. He opened it, expecting to see nothing more exciting than a pile of towels.

  Instead, the door opened into another lab. He gaped a moment before fumbling to pull the door quickly shut. He stood there, heart pounding, hand on the doorknob. If there had been a zombie at the door, he would have been dead. He let out a shaky laugh and turned back toward the computer room. He found Tessa in one of the bunk rooms.

  “Hey.” He waved from the door. “Come on, I found something.”

  They stepped into the computer room. Dodge was leaning over Tech’s shoulder and the two of them bickered quietly.

  “Uh, you guys oughta see this.” Simon swallowed back his fear and excitement. “And we probably should grab a couple guns.”

  Dodge jerked up. “Seriously? What did you find?”

  Simon shifted from foot to foot. He grinned. “I found another lab attached to this one. Like a real lab.”

  Dodge’s eyes widened and he grabbed Tech by the shoulders, hauling him and the chair away from the desk. He ducked under it and pulled out a box of guns and three bats. Hesitating only a moment, he handed out the bats.

  “I don’t want to scare everyone with gunshots,” he explained.

  “That’s okay, I think we’re getting pretty good with the bats.” Tessa hefted hers. The end was stained red.

  Quick as possible, they darted to the other end of the hall. With Tech at the back, Dodge opened the door and together they stepped through. Every fourth light was on overhead. It was just enough to keep any part
of the room from being totally dark and to show just how big the lab was. Easily twice the size of the area they had come from, it stretched away from the door. It smelled bad, like rot and death and antiseptic.

  Simon wrinkled his nose. “It smells like something died in here.” He lowered the bat and pressed the back of his hand to his nose, eyes watering behind his glasses.

  “Something big,” Tech agreed. His voice came out muffled from beneath his shirt that was pulled over his nose.

  “Get that bat up,” Dodge ordered. “We still don’t know if this place is clear.” Dodge’s eyes darted around the room. Simon and Tessa lifted their bats high.

  They moved a few steps away from the door, senses still on high alert. The could see straight down one side of the room, but the other side was partially hidden by a flimsy divider. The wall they could see was lined with a long counter with cabinets above and below. Wide metal tables sat in the center of the room further on.

  Simon tried breathing through his mouth as they reached the end of the divider. It was even worse than using his nose. Dodge hesitated only a second before whipping around the barrier.

  “Jesus.” Dodge stumbled back, letting the bat fall and grimacing. “Something died alright.”

  The other three peered around the divider. Bile rose in Simon’s throat and he barely swallowed it back. Tech wasn’t so lucky. He turned and took two steps before vomiting. Tessa looked pale. Before them, in a cage barely large enough to hold them, a dozen zombies lay rotting away.

  “What happened?” Tessa’s voice was thick as she bit back her disgust.

  Dodge walked close enough to study them, holding his breath with his hand over his nose and mouth. He leaned close to the bars of the cage, getting as close a look as he dared or could stand before straightening and hurrying back to the others. He took in a deep breath.

  “From what I can tell, their heads are intact. Looks like they just keeled over and died.”

  “That means there really could be a cure.” Tech turned from the gruesome scene, eyes roaming hungrily over the rest of the lab.

  “But if there is, why didn’t they use it before dying in that other room?” Simon asked.

  “Maybe they were too far gone.” Dodge shrugged and slapped Simon on the back. “Who cares? Let’s find this thing.”

  Tessa, Dodge, and Simon began digging through the lab, but only a few minutes passed before Tech found what they were looking for. A square machine the size of a car engine sat on one of the big tables. It seemed so out of place that he had been drawn to it. He ran a hand over the hard metal casing before his eyes dropped to an open notebook sitting beside it.

  Test one – Success.

  The three simple words were the last on the page, written in a scrawled, shaky letters. They made Tech’s heard pound. He flipped back through the notebook, oblivious to the sound of the others ruffling through the lab. He scanned page after page, occasionally leaning close to decipher a particularly messy word or two. Each moment that passed his excitement grew until he couldn’t contain it any more.

  “Guys,” Tech called.

  Simon looked up from the cabinet he was digging through to see Tech grinning madly. Dodge was already halfway to him. Tessa and Simon followed close behind.

  “You find it?” Dodge asked. He practically jittered where he stood, too full of nervous energy.

  “Yeah.” Tech nodded. “Yeah, I think I did. You know how I was saying the virus must have done something to our ears or brains because of how music sounds now? Well, it seems like I wasn’t far off. Looks like all the senses are heightened on the zombies. Their eyes are hyper sensitive to light, the scientists thought that was why they weren’t coming out during the day, and they have noses like bloodhounds.”

  “Uh-huh.” Dodge made a twirling motion with his hand.

  Tech hurried on. “Like legitimately better than a bloodhound actually. Same goes for their ears.” Tech lovingly ran a hand across the top of the machine. “If the scientists were right, and there’s a pile of dead zombies over there that says they were, then this machine will send out a sound pulse that will kill them.”

  “Really?” Dodge looked doubtful.

  “That sounds a little crazy,” Tessa agreed.

  Simon nodded slowly. “So it’s like a dog whistle.”

  “Exactly.” Tech latched on to the thought. “Dogs hear higher frequencies than humans so they can hear the whistle. This machine would be higher still.”

  “But it’s just noise.” Dodge frowned.

  “It’s like a sonic weapon sort of.” Tech drummed his fingers near a dial.

  “So wouldn’t it hurt people too?” Tessa took a step closer, peering at the machine.

  Tech squinted, biting his lip. “I hope not. If we can assume those zombies that were stuck in the other room were in here when they tested it, then we can assume it only worked on the zombies.”

  “That’s a lot of assuming,” Dodge muttered. He crossed his arms, staring at the machine.

  “Yeah, it really is.” Tech didn’t look nearly as excited about the idea. “But, I think it’s the best thing we have.”

  “So, do we open the door and give it a shot?” Tessa glanced at Tech, raising an eyebrow.

  “No way.” Simon shook his head. “We don’t even know for sure that it works, let alone how fast it works.”

  “Kid’s right.” Dodge nodded, eyes darting toward Simon. “We wait until the others radio us and go from there. Come on, let’s haul this thing into the other room. You need any instructions or anything?”

  Tech shook his head. “Seems like you just turn the dial.”

  “Simple and effective.” Tessa stepped aside to let Dodge grip the machine.

  Dodge gave her a grim smile. “Let’s hope it’s also deadly.”

  29

  Coda Base

  Grace and Quigley were silent as Cale finished explaining their brief communication with Haven. Alice let him do the talking; Her mind and heart were racing too fast to concentrate. Simon was alive. At least the news had pushed the memories of Jake’s attack to the back of her mind. Cale was better at explaining. The news needed to be succinct and unemotional if they hoped to get anyone’s help. Grace was eying Zero and Alice as if trying to judge how much she could trust the three of them, like she hadn’t known Alice from the beginning of all this. Beside her, Gabe shifted in his chair, uneasy in the silence.

  Finally, Grace spoke. “I can fly. I did for years. The question is how can we turn this into a rescue mission and keep it from becoming a suicide mission?”

  “We were hoping for input on that,” Cale admitted. “I had worried about that myself.”

  “There any weapons on the base? Something we could use to take out a ton of the zombies?” Zero asked. He sat backwards in a chair, arms resting on the back.

  Gabe answered, speaking for the first time since they entered the cafeteria. “Nothing I would know how to operate.” He shook his head. “There is a weapon building near the back of the base however. I was inside once, but I don’t know what I was looking at.”

  “The soldiers never spoke of using anything?” Quigley asked. “Nothing that might have given you a chance to escape?” He looked surprised.

  “And go where?” Gabe’s voice began to edge toward exasperation. “As far as we knew we were the last ones left. There was that one broadcast about the cure, but that was it. I wouldn’t have left with them even if they had come up with a plan.”

  “Fair enough.” Quigley nodded, curiosity sated. “But for the purpose of this rescue, there could be something useful locked up in there. If we’re lucky, we’ll find something even more useful at Haven.”

  “So you’ll come?” Alice asked, unable to stop her smile. She couldn’t believe how well things were coming together. As always, she was surprised by how the group acted as one.

  “Yes.” Quigley smiled back at her. “As I’ve heard before, someone needs to be the hero.”

  “We
’ll need people who can handle themselves.” Grace nodded. Alice could practically see the plan forming in her head. “But I also hate to leave everyone here helpless.”

  “I can handle things here,” Gabe assured her. “I’ve practiced my shooting and I know this base like the back of my hand at this point. If the zombies breech our wall, I can get us to safety.”

  “And if it came to it, he could release Jake,” Quigley added softly, with an apologetic look at Alice. “I’m sorry, Alice. He could be useful.”

  “No, I know.” Alice nodded. “As long as I’m not around, I don’t care what you do with him. Just keep an eye on the man.”

  “I wouldn’t let him out unless there was a real need,” Gabe assured her. “I don’t particularly like the idea of that man running around either.”

  “I’m sure I like it less,” Alice answered dryly. She turned to face Grace and Quigley. “Anyone else who can be spared?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” Grace answered. “We can’t expect Gabe to run everything alone. I’d like to leave the rest of the adults with him.”

  “What about that Ian kid?” Zero asked abruptly. He hadn’t spoken much in the meeting, happy enough to let the others work things out. “He seemed to handle himself alright.”

  “He’s just a kid,” Grace said with a shake of her head. She’d lost her own children to the virus.

  “The kid’s seventeen, almost a man.” Cale leaned back in the chair, nodding to himself. “And he handled himself well on the way here. He took out a zombie in the sewer.”

  “I don’t like the idea.” Grace shook her head. “But you may ask him. If he says no, I don’t want to hear a peep from you trying to convince him.”

  “Sure,” Zero said. The chances of a seventeen-year-old boy saying no to this mission were between slim and none.

  “I’ll talk to him,” Alice butted in, not particularly happy about the idea herself. “Let him know all the risks. I’ll try not to make it sound as glamorous as these two might.” Zero and Cale grinned at her.