Population: Katie
Page 23
The Passives are piling up on the other side of the fence, trying to push their way through. I’m losing ground.
Suddenly, one of the soldiers is at my side. He grabs the fence with his bare hands and begins pulling it toward me. The Passives inside the fence are closing in, grabbing for him.
“You have to get back!” I shout, trying to push them away.
“You can’t do this alone!” With a wild growl, he pulls the fence closed. “Seal it!”
I pull the rope tight, and I begin winding it back and forth between the two pieces of fence, tying them tighter and tighter.
The soldier’s trying to kick the Passives away, but there are too many. The fence shakes as one grabs and tears into his shoulder with her teeth.
He reels back, pulling the fence with him. I cry out as the rope slices into my palms. I tackle the Passive woman from the soldier and he jumps up, finishing the fence as blood drips down his shoulder.
If I’d just let the soldiers clear them all out first...
The Passives push and shove, but the fence holds. The soldiers begin shooting the Passives inside the fence. They crumple all around us, but I keep my eyes on the soldier who helped me. He’s turning.
It happens so fast with the Passive strain of the virus. His shoulder and arm twitch, his lips turn up, his eyes are squeezed shut.
I want to ask him his name, but it’s too late. He turns to his team and forces his body to straighten, then brings his hand up to his forehead in a rough salute.
I barely hear the actual shot, but red splatters against the Passives behind the fence as he drops to the ground.
I must be in shock. Everything is bright and slow. I look up and see one of the soldiers pointing his gun at me. I don’t have the will to protest.
The shot knocks me off of my feet, and suddenly I’m staring up at the sky. Tim’s face swims into focus, his eyes wide with concern.
Hallucinating… that’s probably not a good sign. I reach up and touch a bloody finger to the tip of Tim’s nose. I smile up at him as the sky turns white and consciousness evades me.
Chapter 20 – Brand New Day
Following several short and incoherent conversations that may or may not have been imagined, I wake up in earnest to find Tim sitting at my bedside.
“Hey, you’re really here,” I say groggily, stretching out my arms. Only one extends, and I look down to see that the other is fixed to my side with a sling. I flick the sling up and down a little with my elbow, getting a feel for the thing. It already annoys me.
Tim looks up from the book that he’s been reading and smiles at me. “Yeah, I’m here, Katie. We all are.”
“Mm hmm,” I mumble. “What time is it?”
“You mean, what day is it?” Tim corrects. He folds down the corner of his book and sets it on the edge of the bed. “It’s almost dinner, but you’ve been in and out since yesterday.”
“Oh,” I reach across my chest to prod at the bandage that’s wrapped round me. “Shouldn’t it hurt more?”
Tim grins. “They have all kinds of meds here. Doc gave you the good stuff.”
“That’s nice,” I say with a sigh. We’re quiet for a while, or maybe not. Everything’s kind of fuzzy and warm. “Tim? I think someone shot me.”
“They did,” he replies. “You were bloody, in the thick of it; they were being cautious.”
“Why did they only shoot me in the arm?”
Tim’s grin gets even bigger. “Kimberly tackled him. Just in time too, made him miss. Well... miss enough, I guess.”
I nod and lie back against my pillows. I look up at the ceiling and once again take in the electrically powered light. The room is bright and almost cheery, and when it’s quiet, like it is right now, I can just hear the faint hum of the fluorescents. As I lie there, staring at the lights, Tim fills me in on the last few days.
He begins the tale when the soldier’s truck slammed shut and they drove off with Derek and me inside. He tells me how, because of all the commotion Derek was making, Erin was able to follow the truck unnoticed. When she saw them stop in front of the hospital, she made her way back to the base to tell everyone what had happened. He recounts, in brilliant detail, how Deirdre’s group and the housers joined them, how they had sent word to other groups. Together, they had overwhelmed the soldiers at the borders and fought their way to the hospital.
I don’t have it in me to ask who made it and who didn’t, and Tim doesn’t bother to pause the story to tell me. I hope that means that they did well, and not that he’s avoiding breaking the horrible news that another person I care about is gone.
He continues. “In the end, four soldiers and the doctor stayed. I guess anyone else who was here took off in the commotion.”
“What happened to the captain?” I ask. The last time I saw him, he was in the hospital. I’d assumed that he’d join his men outside, but he wasn’t there.
“Not sure,” Tim admits. “The doctor said that his vaccine research and blood samples are gone. He thinks that the captain took them when everything hit the fan.”
The captain is out there somewhere with a vial of my blood. That’s a chilling thought.
There’s a light tapping at the door, which creaks open, as a familiar face peeks inside. “Is she coherent yet?”
“Ask her yourself,” Tim tells his wife.
Kimberly steps completely inside the room, carrying a tray and smiling. She hurries over, depositing the tray onto the table at my bedside, then throws her arms around me in a careful hug. I reciprocate with my good arm.
“I’m so glad you’re alright,” she says quietly.
Her tone reminds me of what we’ve lost, of whom we’ve lost, and I hug her more tightly. “Me, too.”
When she lets go, Kimberly immediately repositions the table so that it’s set over the bed where I can reach it. I peek into the bowl and am relieved to see a hearty soup, and not more of the brown mush.
I stare at the tray for a moment. Memories threaten to spill into the forefront of my brain, but I hold them off. I don’t want to think about what happened with Derek. There is, however, something I need to know. “Did anyone go back for Kyle?”
Tim and Kimberly exchange a look, wordlessly deciding who should respond.
“Yes,” Kimberly says. “A couple of us went out yesterday to get him. We found... we...”
When Kimberly falters, Tim speaks up. “There’s this little chapel in the Gov’s territory – well, in our territory now, I guess.” He pauses, taking in that adjustment. “It’s a really nice little cemetery. We buried him there last night. We talked about waiting for you, but...”
“It’s okay, I don’t know if I could have taken another burial anyway.” After a few moments of wordless silence, I ask another question I’m not sure I want the answer to. “So, what now?”
Tim speaks up again. “There actually are a lot of people living under the Gov’s protection here.”
“Protection?” I ask with a snort, thinking of the people in A Block.
“Technically, I guess. The Gov just collected people, made sure they weren’t infected, then locked them up. The doc says there’s a gated community nearby that they were hoping to integrate them into, but anytime they tried, people would revolt against them.”
“I wonder why.”
“It’s kind of been a reunion here in the past twenty four hours. Everyone wants to stay. They’re talking about using the gated community after all. Representatives are working on sorting out some ground rules. There’s gonna be a big meeting tonight to decide how to deal with... with the infected ones that the Gov was keeping. Most people think it’s not safe enough to bring the kids yet. Most of them are back on our side, with Glory.”
“But, Derek....”
Kimberly puts her hand over mine. “I know.” Her voice cracks and she hastily rubs her eyes with the back of her hand before continuing. “There’s a spot at the church, next to Kyle... for when it happens.”
Th
e room goes silent again and I hear that faint humming of the florescent lights.
Finally, when I can’t stand the sound any longer, I ask another important question. “How did you get everyone to come here? I know that reclaiming the city has always been in the plans, but... everyone working together? How did you convince them all?”
Tim and Kimberly exchange another, happier look. Tim responds, proudly this time. “We told them that the Gov had you.”
After Tim and Kimberly leave, word gets out that I’m ready to receive visitors, and so I spend the rest of the evening talking to a variety of people, some of whom I know well, while others I only ever met once, during the hospital run. I glean little pieces of information here and there from each of them, helping me form a vision of how the battle came to be, and why these people cared enough to join it.
I wake up early the next morning, climb out of bed shakily, and make my way out of the room and down the hall. It’s not until I’ve reached the little crossroads that lead in one direction down to the cafeteria, and in the other down to B Block, that it occurs to me that I have no idea where I’m going. This is the first time that I’ve been allowed to wander around the hospital freely. I stand in the middle of the hall, looking down the two identical paths, and contemplate what each leads to. I can head down to the cafeteria, which is currently serving as a common room, and chat with friends, or escape into a book... or, I can go to B Block, which could very well be the least restful place in the entire hospital.
Instead of being decisive, I sit down and lean back against the nearest wall, waiting for the answer to come to me.
It shows up in the form of Dr. Bradley. He nearly walks right past me, lips moving as he talks to himself.
“Doc?” I say, causing the distracted man to jump as he turns to spot me sitting on the ground.
“Are you alright?” he asks, kneeling down quickly. “Did you fall?”
“No,” I assure him. “I just wanted to get out of my room. I was thinking about going to B Block.”
“Oh,” Bradley says. He bites his lip, and I get the sense that he’s hiding something from me. “I thought you’d still be in your room.”
“I was starting to feel a little cooped up,” I admit. “I thought I might go and visit Derek one last time.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Bradley says. I notice that he’s holding a small cooler. I look down at it, but he doesn’t seem to notice. “The uh... what were you calling them? The Aggressors? They don’t do so well. I was going to... I mean... we discussed it, and uh...”
“Discussed what?” I ask, but I’m already starting to figure out where this is going.
“The meeting was last night, of course. We’ve decided to bring the children here tonight, and then everyone will begin settling in. Some people are working on cleaning up and securing the unused portions of the hospital. It’s a great place for everyone, very safe.” Bradley furrows his brows, struggling with that last idea. “Very, very safe. But... it could be safer, if we didn’t have...”
“If we didn’t have a wing full of infected people?” I finish.
“Yes,” Bradley agrees. “There’s only one really sure way to stop them... but, I had a different idea; a more peaceful one. I would really like to give them peace.”
I look down at the cooler again, and this time, Bradley follows my gaze. He gives the cooler a little shake. “You should probably go back to your room.”
But I don’t want to. Derek had it wrong; they’re not nothing. They’re something. They’re someone. But I understand what he meant now; not everyone gets to live.
“I’ll help you.”
Bradley nods, and helps me to my feet, and we walk down the hall towards B Block together.
We enter the long hallway, stopping in front of the first room. Bradley opens up the cooler and pulls out a prefilled syringe. He tells me the details of what he’s filled them with, but I don’t hold onto any of the chemical names. All I gather from his explanation is that the combination and potency will shut down the recipient’s brain. This, Bradley tells me, is the clean alternative that he had suggested at the big meeting. Before he had spoken up, everyone had been in favor of the quick and dirty options, like headshots, or decapitation, but they had readily agreed to this more humane approach instead.
Bradley puts on thick protective gloves, then knocks on the first door, immediately attracting the attention of the Passive inside, who stalks slowly toward us, then runs his hands uselessly against the window for a minute before he manages to find the slot in the middle of the door.
I grab hold of both of the Passive’s hands, holding them firmly in place. Dr. Bradley injects the man’s arm with the entire content of the first syringe.
I push the Passive’s hands back through the slot, and he continues to grab at the window, teeth bared and jaw clicking back and forth for another minute or two. Then, just as Bradley had predicted, he begins to slow down, finally sliding down against the window into a heap on the floor.
It doesn’t take long for the occupants of the other rooms to notice our presence, and by the time we reach the second door, we’re surrounded by so much noise that we remain tactical and silent as we move from room to room, repeating the process with similar results. It takes longer for the bigger ones to go down, but in the end, they all do - even Derek, who attacks his door so savagely that I can’t help the doctor. I stand against the wall and out of sight, silent tears streaming down my cheeks as Bradley loops some rope around Derek’s wrists so that he can hold him still enough to inject him without my assistance.
Once it’s done, and the noise from the cell has quieted to a low growl, I turn to look through the window. I can’t reconcile the image of the creature on the other side of the glass with my memories of training, or of the night at the brewery, or even that angry man who found me in the street that first day. I decide not to try. I’d rather keep the happy memories, engrain them into my subconscious, and push what I see now away. I turn from the door, take a deep breath, and lead the way across to the opposite wall so that we can take care of the other half of the wing.
When we reach the final door, the doctor hesitates, his hand shaking as he picks up the last syringe. I don’t have to look into the room to know why.
Jenny. I hadn’t understood right away - it was only when the doctor ran for B Block that I realized how his daughter could be gone and also not. But I know now why the doctor stayed here and worked for the captain. How could he leave with her trapped here like this?
I lift my hand and offer it to the doctor, palm up. It takes him a minute to understand what I’m offering to do, and even when the light goes off in his eyes, it takes a while for him to deposit the syringe in my hand. We turn to the door together and peer into the window.
Jenny stands in the middle of the room. Her brown hair is matted and dirty. She has deep dimples and dull, empty eyes. Although she’s much taller than me, the resemblance is chilling. This is what I would look like as one of them.
“Why isn’t she attacking the window?” I ask.
“I’m not sure,” Bradley says. “If we’re far enough apart, sometimes she doesn’t.”
“How often do you visit her? “ I ask, watching as Jenny stares at us, unmoving.
“Every day.” Bradley begins to lift his hand to the window, but drops it back at his side again. “We volunteered, you know. Right at the beginning, they were offering immunizations to anyone with medical experience who could help with the cure. She talked me into it… thought we could help.”
“Do you want to say goodbye?” I ask.
“I said goodbye to my daughter a long time ago,” Bradley says, and there’s a sense of relief in his voice. I can’t imagine how draining it must have been to know that she’s here. Like this. “Here, I’ll get her to -”
“No,” I say, cutting off the doctor. “Don’t provoke her. Let me go in.”
“Katie...” Bradley says, shaking his head.
I take Jenny’s hand and lead her slowly over to the corner of the room, then push her gently down into a seated position. I sit down next to her so that we’re now both facing the window. This is the longest that I have ever been this close to a Passive. Jenny watches in silence as I pick up her arm and lay it across my lap, then carefully inject her with the needle. She doesn’t flinch, or react, she just watches me for a moment, then loses interest and goes back to watching the window, where Doctor Bradley stands.
I look up at him and offer a reassuring smile. He lifts up his hand and presses it against the window. I nod, and pick up Jenny’s hand, holding it in my own. Her hand is neither warm nor cold, and she doesn’t hold mine back, but Bradley smiles and at the moment that’s all that matters.
When she closes her eyes and slumps into the corner, I place her hand at her side, then stand up and leave the room.
“Thank you,” Bradley says. He closes up the cooler, now full of empty syringes, picks it up, and then looks over at me. “What are you going to do now?”
I get the impression that he means this in the larger sense of the word, and reply accordingly. “I’m gonna go.” I tell him. “I’ll find Bennett, and deliver the journal. I’m gonna make Dale proud.”
Bradley nods. “You know, the captain was going to separate Jenny and me - send me off to another station. Colonel Bennett stepped in and arranged for another doctor to take my place. He didn’t have to do it, but Dale asked him to. They’re the reason we were able to stay together.”
I smile and think of the people here, and how, just for a moment, they all stood together. All of the people that I care about have a home here now. They have food and supplies, and a safe place for their children. They have hope. And so do I.