Contamination

by Ryan Casey

  “What?”

  “It doesn’t matter. Probably being stupid.”

  “If we’re carriers or something?” Noah said.

  Jasmine glanced at him.

  “Yeah,” Noah said. “All the time. But… but we can only keep going. Fact is we don’t understand a thing about this virus. About any of it. And there’s no point pretending we do.”

  Jasmine was quiet for a moment. “I know how much you want to get to Broughton. To find out what’s going on with Eddie. With Kelly. And I want that too. Believe me I want it too. But we need to get you better right now. We need to help ourselves. Or else, what good are we to those two if we’re dead?”

  “If I’m dead.”

  “What?”

  “You’ll still be here. You’re the fucking Terminator. Honestly, I think you’re gonna be the last damned person standing in this whole mess.”

  Jasmine tutted. Rolled her eyes. “If I am, it’ll be down to you.”

  Noah frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  She looked away. Stared into space.

  And she looked like she was going to open up. Like she was going to come clean on something.

  But in the end, she just closed her mouth, looked at Noah, and smiled.

  “Come on,” she said. “Stop delaying. Let’s get your beaten arse down to this medical center. It’s just around the corner.”

  Noah wanted to probe her for an answer.

  He wanted to ask what she was talking about.

  But in the end, he just took her hand and stood.

  “In the name of my fucked up face,” he said.

  “In the name of your fucked up face. Is that what your mum said when she first saw you?”

  “Bitch.”

  “Ogre.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Jasmine saw the medical centre in the distance, and a strange feeling of uncertainty crept up on her.

  It was getting late. Not quite dark yet, but getting that way. The air was cooler, fresher. The birdsong was easing. Her stomach churned with hunger, and her mouth felt dry. She was ready to settle down and rest for the night. Even though the plan was to get some supplies from this medical centre, then move on to Broughton again, where Kelly and Eddie were, deep down, she wanted to shelter for the night. She needed a rest. Noah needed one, too.

  Sure. The thought of sleeping out here filled her with fear. She missed her own apartment and her own bed as it was. But she’d just about got used to Kelly’s place. Just about grown comfortable with it. And now they were out here on the streets, in the middle of nowhere, homeless for now.

  She looked at Noah. He looked pale. His shoulder wasn’t bleeding too badly, but Jasmine was worried about him. Infection was bound to be rife in this world. Sanitation had gone to shit. All the dead bodies on the streets, all the uncollected rubbish, all the rats scurrying around. He was asking for trouble if he didn’t get some antibiotics down his neck.

  “What d’you reckon?” Noah asked.

  Jasmine looked back down at the medical centre. There were cars all around it, like delivery vehicles. The building itself was white, modern. Tall metal fencing surrounded the place like it was some kind of prison. Really, it was the perfect place for a centre like this. Visibility around it was great for miles. The chances of junkies breaking in and stealing supplies were limited.

  And there was something else.

  “It looks quiet,” Jasmine said. “No signs of anyone around.”

  “And you’re sure about that?”

  “Well, what do you reckon?”

  Noah sighed. Looked back at that medical centre. “I still think we’re taking a risk we don’t need to take here. Look. My shoulder’s fine. It’s not sore. No sign it’s infected at all.”

  “Well, we’re here now,” Jasmine said. “No point just turning back after all this way, right?”

  Noah shook his head. “You’re hard work sometimes. You know that?”

  “Yes. And if it stops you dying of infection, you’ll thank me for it in the long run. Now come on. Let’s get this place checked out before we see something we don’t like and run a mile.”

  She walked ahead of Noah. Crept over towards the metal fence. When they reached it, she scanned it for openings, things like that. But there was no sign of tampering at all.

  She cut the fence open. Nudged Bruce through it, then climbed through herself.

  She looked back. Saw Noah standing there. Hesitant.

  “You coming or what?” she asked.

  Noah nodded. “I just have a bad feeling about this.”

  “You always have a bad feeling about stuff, so that’s nothing new.”

  They walked through the fence. Climbed further down this grass verge until they reached the car park of the medical centre. When they reached it, Jasmine couldn’t deny she had a funny feeling about all this, too. The wide glass windows of this medical centre, silent darkness behind. It just seemed too still. Too quiet.

  “You seen this stuff?”

  Jasmine turned around and saw Noah in the back of one of the delivery vans.

  She walked over to him. Saw him delving through the back of the vehicle. Pulling out medical supplies. Medication. Bandages. All kinds of things.

  “This place is a goldmine, Jasmine,” Noah said. “Think of what we could trade with this kind of stuff.”

  “What’re you talking about?”

  “This medication. We could... we could use it. Not just for ourselves, but for trading with other groups. We could use this stuff as a kind of bargaining chip in the long run. Think about the kind of power it gives us.”

  “I’m um... I’m not sure I like this version of you. The power-crazy Noah isn’t someone I’m particularly familiar with.”

  “I’m just thinking long-term. Think beyond today. Think beyond that wound of mine and whatever. We could use this stuff. For ourselves. And others could use it, too. We can’t just let an opportunity like this slide.”

  “So what are you actually suggesting?”

  Noah looked at the back of the vehicle.

  Then he looked around at Jasmine.

  “This place. It’s well-located. It looks like it’s the kind of place we could guard well. There’s woodlands nearby we could hunt in. Streams we could fish in.”

  “But we don’t know how to hunt, Noah. We don’t know how to fish.”

  “We’ll learn,” Noah said. “We have to. Think about it, Jas. The way I see it... nobody’s coming to help. At least not for a long time. The sooner we can accept that and face up to it, the better. So we’ve got a choice. Kelly’s place is good. But I’m not sure about it in the long term. It’s too exposed. And there’s no way we can get supplies as easily there as we could here.”

  “I think you’re getting carried away,” Jasmine said.

  “And I think you’re not getting carried away enough. Hear me out. We get these antibiotics. Then we go find Eddie and Kelly. We... we do everything we can to find them. And then we come back here. We really study this place. And if it looks possible... we make it our home.”

  Jasmine looked around at this place. Felt the cool breeze against her skin. Saw the sun easing over the horizon. And she wondered, what if? Could she make this place her home? Could they make this work?

  She looked at Noah and went to say something else when she saw movement around the glass of the medical centre.

  She saw a man walk out.

  Bulky. Dark-haired. Bearded. Dark circles under his eyes. Looked exhausted.

  And he looked mad, too.

  He was holding a knife.

  “Get the hell away from this place,” he said. “And don’t make me tell you again.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Get the hell away from this place. Right this second.”

  Noah saw the man standing opposite him with the knife. It was just typical, wasn’t it? This place was a goldmine. He’d allowed himself to get carried away in fantasies of making a home here, o
f learning to hunt, of trading. Maybe even growing a community here, as scary a thought as that was.

  But seeing that man walk out of the medical centre. Knife in hand. It was like a knife to the throat of all his ambitions. All his hopes.

  And a part of him wanted to back down. A part of him wanted to listen to this man’s orders. Follow his commands.

  But there was another part of him, too.

  A part of him that wanted to stand up.

  A part of him that wanted to fight.

  “We don’t want any trouble,” Noah said.

  “Then you’ll turn the hell around and get away from this place. It’s not yours.”

  “So it’s yours?” Noah asked.

  The man shook his head. Kept on walking towards Noah, holding that knife in hand. “Don’t challenge me on this, pal. We found this place first. If—if you come a step closer, you’re making a mistake. A fucking huge mistake.”

  “Where’s the rest of your army, then?”

  The man stopped a few metres from Noah, from Jasmine. He looked between them with these tired, bloodshot eyes. And Noah sensed he was on to something. He sensed he’d hit a nerve.

  He wasn’t used to standing up for himself like this. He wasn’t used to fighting like this. He was in unfamiliar territory. Uncharted territory.

  But it felt good.

  Maybe he was infected. Maybe he’d re-caught the frigging virus. He didn’t know.

  But whatever it was, he was kind of enjoying this new-found confidence.

  “I’m warning you both,” the man said. A strange desperation in his voice now. “You can stay here. But if you do, you’ll regret it. You’ll both regret it.”

  “Noah,” Jasmine said. “We should—”

  “No, Jasmine,” Noah said. And it felt strange, standing up for himself like this. It felt unusual, seeing the roles reversed in such a way. He was usually the one to back down from conflict. Jasmine was usually the one to show a ruthless streak.

  And maybe there was something in that, too. Maybe he got something from that.

  A sense that things were changing.

  He walked towards this man. Kept his eyes on him at all times. Even though his heart raced. Even though every instinct in his body told him to turn around, to walk away. Even though his head still ached like mad from his beating, and his shoulder.

  He saw something in this guy’s eyes. A weakness. A sense that he was putting on a front. That he wasn’t as strong as he pretended.

  He stepped right up to him. Kept his eyes right on him.

  “We just need some antibiotics,” Noah said. “Some painkillers if you have any. And maybe a bandage or two. That’s all we ask for. We’re not here to raid your home. We’re not here to take anything from you. We just want a hand here.”

  The man kept his eyes on Noah. Really studied his gaze like he was trying to figure out how honest he was being just from a look. “I don’t believe you.”

  Noah nodded. Truth be told, he wasn’t sure he believed himself. He had plans for the future of this place. But maybe they were just a figment of his imagination. Maybe they were just a fantasy, too.

  Maybe he needed to ground himself. Think about what was most important right now, at the moment.

  And that was Jasmine’s safety.

  His safety.

  “It doesn’t matter whether you believe me or not,” Noah said. “Just hand over some antibiotics. Some bandages. It’s like I say. There doesn’t need to be any trouble here.”

  “So you leave this place. Then you need more medical supplies. What then? You come running back here. You tell people about this place. And before I know it, I’ve got a ton of people on my doorstep. No. I don’t think so.”

  “That’s a risk you’re going to have to live with,” Noah said.

  The man looked at the ground. Stared into space.

  Then he took a sharp inhalation and shook his head.

  “No,” he said. “Maybe it isn’t.”

  He looked at Noah then, and Noah realised something.

  Something had shifted in this guy’s face.

  Something had changed.

  A glassiness to his expression.

  He looked more distant.

  More detached.

  “Maybe you’ve left me with no choice at all,” he said.

  He lifted the knife.

  Noah braced himself.

  And then he heard something.

  A cry.

  The man’s face dropped. He lowered his knife. It was like that cry stopped his whole world. Snapped him out of whatever rage he’d been in and brought him crashing back to earth.

  A cry from somewhere inside the medical centre.

  “Sadia?” he muttered.

  And then he turned around.

  As if Noah wasn’t there.

  As if Jasmine wasn’t there.

  As if they’d faded away. Disappeared into nothingness.

  Noah watched that man run into the medical centre.

  He watched him race through, into the darkness, and all he could do was stand there.

  All he could do was watch.

  He wasn’t sure how long it was until he felt the hand on his arm.

  He turned. Saw Jasmine looking at him. Holding some antibiotics, and a few bandages.

  “Let’s get away from here, Noah. It’s not our fight. Not now.”

  He looked back at the medical centre.

  He wanted to stand up for himself.

  He wanted to secure this place for himself. For Jasmine.

  He wanted to fight.

  But then he heard that cry.

  That wail of disdain.

  And something about it told him this wasn’t where he needed to be right now.

  He swallowed a sickly lump in his throat, and he walked up the grass verge, away from the medical centre.

  He heard another wail.

  “Sadia!”

  And as he walked across the fields, Noah thought he’d never heard such agony in a man’s cry in his life.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Bruce heard that scream, and his whole world faded around him.

  He had a vague sense of the man standing opposite him, threatening him. Noah, he was called. He had a vague sense of the girl beside him, Jasmine, staring at them both like she desperately didn’t want anything to happen here, to spiral out of control. He had a sense of the dog between them. He had a sense of the vans. Of the insulin. Of all this medication, and his need to preserve it. His need to hold on to it. His need to protect this place. To defend it.

  He had a sense of all of these things.

  But that sense faded into the background.

  It slid into irrelevance.

  Because he heard that scream, and he knew exactly who it was.

  He turned around. Looked back into the darkness of the medical centre. “Sadia?”

  He didn’t want to go inside that medical centre. He didn’t want to find the source of the scream. Because that scream, it sounded like she was in agony. It sounded like she was in pain. Like she was suffering.

  And he didn’t want to think about her in agony. In pain. Suffering.

  He’d rather deny it as a possibility completely.

  But then that overriding instinct kicked in.

  That instinct to help her.

  To protect her.

  To save her, like he’d promised her so many times before.

  He ignored all his other surroundings, and he raced towards the medical centre.

  His heart pounded. His chest was tight. He couldn’t stop thinking about what he might find. Maybe this guy had come with more people. Maybe he was just a distraction, and they’d found their way inside the medical centre.

  Or maybe she was sick. Maybe she wasn’t well.

  He didn’t want to think about any of it.

  He just needed to find her.

  He just needed to save her.

  “Please, Sadia,” he muttered. “Please.”


  He rushed inside the doors of the medical centre. Looked around to the left. Past the abandoned reception desk. Past the cardboard boxes filled with medical supplies to be delivered. He rushed across the blue carpeted floor, through these white tiled corridors, and towards that small storage room he’d told Sadia to stay inside, not to leave, no matter what.

  He opened that door, and he froze.

  Again. That voice in his head. That voice telling him he didn’t want to find what he was about to find. He didn’t want to see what he was about to see.

  But he was a dad.

  He was a father.

  His daughter needed him.

  He opened the door, and he saw Sadia right away.

  She was lying back on the floor. Her eyes were rolled back into her skull. Blood pooled from her nostrils. Her body shook rapidly, violently. Her mouth frothed bloody saliva.

  She clutched hold of her Mickey Mouse teddy, tight in her grip.

  Blood surrounded her head.

  And by her side, a cabinet had fallen over.

  A cabinet a rocket ship had been sitting on top of.

  She must’ve tried to climb it. Must’ve fallen off. Shit. Fuck.

  “Sadia!”

  He rushed over to her. Grabbed her. Held her like he had a healing touch or something. Like holding her could make her better. Like it could bring her back.

  “Sadia,” he shouted. “Please. Please, baby. Don’t. Don’t.”

  He held on to her rapidly cooling body as she twitched in his arms.

  He held on to her, and he told her she was going to be okay. He told her everything was going to be okay.

  Even when she let go of her Mickey Mouse teddy.

  Even when she grabbed his hand.

  Even when her eyes rolled back to normal, and she looked up at him with that red, bloodshot gaze and opened her mouth and said something.

  Something he couldn’t hear.

  Something he couldn’t make out.

  “Please,” he said. “Please.”

  He kept on holding his daughter’s hand as her kicking and shaking slowed.

  As the blood stopped flowing from her lips.

  Her nose.

  And as her eyes twinkled, sparked back to life for a moment, and then faded.