Feast of Weeds (Books 1--4)

by Jamie Thornton

  “What does that even mean?” I said.

  “It means she’s a bitter old woman who couldn’t care less about what happens to other people. Especially her son,” Gabbi said.

  But even I knew that wasn’t fair. Tabitha was here because her son was trapped in the fevers like Ano.

  “You can try to bait me all you want,” Tabitha said. “I won’t bite.”

  “Dr. Ferrad wasn’t lying,” Jane said. “She has a cure. She cured me.”

  “Dr. Ferrad has always been lying.” Tabitha shook her head as if disappointed in a student that required her to repeat a lesson. “I tried to work with all of them. Sergeant Bennings, Dr. Ferrad, the council. They repaid me by imprisoning us, by experimenting on us, by creating this hell in the first place.”

  Tabitha nodded in the direction of the fire and the Vs walking out in front of it. They weren’t dark blobs anymore but individual shapes. “Who’s to say how long we have until we’re all like that.”

  Another group of dots on the gas station side formed into people—our people. Ricker and Sergeant Bennings and the others were returning.

  “That will never happen to me,” Jane said.

  “Time to go,” Gabbi said, helping me up. “I don’t want to listen to this crap anymore.”

  She was careful of my injured wrist. I could look at it now all wrapped with a torn-up shirt from somewhere. I wiggled my fingers. It hurt, but they all moved.

  Gabbi had believed me. Gabbi had always listened even when she pretended not to.

  “Why am I not in the fevers?” I asked it desperately. I wanted her to explain everything and tell me it was all going to be okay.

  “You should tell Dr. Ferrad when we find her,” Jane said. “She’ll figure it out.”

  Gabbi squinted her eyes and set her lips in a grim line. “There’s probably something REALLY wrong with you.”

  I couldn’t help it—I barked out a laugh. It was a long one that brought tears to my eyes. The salt and the ash stung me, but I didn’t care. I had wanted Gabbi to say something soothing. I had wanted her to lie to me. Instead she said exactly what I needed to hear.

  “NOW you tell me,” I said between gasping breaths.

  Gabbi smiled, and even though it didn’t reach her eyes, it was enough. “Ask a dumb-ass question, get a dumb-ass answer.”

  The Vs followed the truck or moved out in front of the fire. It didn’t really matter the reason because the result was the same. We piled back in and drove off—and the Vs followed.

  The world burned around us. Flowering bushes towered along the edges of the road, catching fire sometimes just after we passed. Scraggly oaks flared up as the fire jumped the grass and greedily consumed the trees like a favorite snack. Vs who were once Feebs who had once been uninfected streamed ahead of the fires.

  Not all of them.

  Many let themselves burn like Matilda and her family had done back in that cafe along the train tracks. Back when it had been just me and Corrina, newly infected. Back when the fairgrounds had been a place that was going to save us. Back before I’d known Gabbi or Ricker or Ano or Jimmy even existed.

  We finally reached a stretch of road that allowed our pitiful group to gain some speed. The uninfected crowded against the truck cab, away from us Feebs. Tabitha could sit up now, which made room for Gabbi and Ricker. She rubbed her swollen ankle a lot and mumbled under her breath.

  Part of me worried she was plotting something. Another part of me thought she must be worrying over her son.

  Hours later the truck sputtered to a halt. Hugh jumped out. He lifted the front hood and a huge, white column of steam billowed out. Sergeant Bennings left the truck bed and the two of them banged around under the hood, cursing, until finally the hissing stopped.

  Sergeant Bennings unfolded the gas station map on the ground. Moisture beaded on his face. He’d lost his mask back at the compound. The other uninfected hovered around him. Leon, Bernice, and Nindal helped Tabitha off the truck. She took a few careful steps and nodded like she was proud of her body doing what she told it.

  “We’re close.” Sergeant Bennings folded the map and stuffed it into a pocket. “We can walk the rest of the way.”

  “The Vs will catch up.” Leon’s voice was low and full of gravel, like it had been years instead of hours since he’d last spoken anything out loud.

  “Not if we get moving,” Sergeant Bennings responded.

  A spark lit up in Leon’s eyes like he wanted to start a fight. His beard was peppered black and white. His hands were too big even as he tried to stuff them in his jeans pocket. He was at least as old as Sergeant Bennings, probably older.

  Sergeant Bennings told him to go for a walk.

  Hugh got twitchy on his rifle. It was several long seconds before Leon listened.

  My little miracle bite didn’t change anything about what was around us—people on the verge of going V for no reason, a hidden research facility, Dr. Ferrad and the cure.

  We left the truck. The hours and miles of being crammed together meant sore muscles—we moved like a bunch of Vs. At a four-way intersection in the middle of nowhere, just a bunch of dead fields in every direction, Sergeant Bennings led us to the right. We passed over a small levee road and down the other side. Off into the distance, something like black metal glinted for just a moment and then the smoke covered it. All of us Feebs had used shirts or whatever cloth we had to put over our mouths as a poor man’s filter. All of us still coughed. Even the uninfected behind their plastic masks.

  This gravel driveway appeared out of the smoke. Next came the black metal fencing and then—

  Green.

  A watered lawn—so bright a color while the world burned around us I thought it must be my imagination.

  “Do you see this?” I said. “Ricker, do you see this, this…lawn?”

  “I see it,” he said, almost in awe.

  The grass was almost a foot tall. In the middle of it a brown sign had ‘California Primate Research Facility’ carved into it.

  Sergeant Bennings motioned for us to crouch under the shade of a bush. Broken glass and multicolored headlight plastic littered the asphalt from some long ago car accident.

  “This is the place.” Sergeant Bennings’ gaze rested on Jane for a long moment, drawing everyone’s attention to her pale face, the ghostly tint to her skin that hinted at what she had been, at least for a short time—infected.

  “You recognize this place, don’t you?” Sergeant said carefully.

  She shook her head.

  He tilted his head. “Hear that?”

  We all held our breath. A high moan echoed across the landscape, like machinery going bad but still managing to do its job. A hundred yards behind us, pulling out from the gravel driveway, a white van appeared. It drove back the way we’d come.

  “Uninfected,” Hugh said. “I saw them.”

  Sergeant Bennings motioned to Hugh and two of his people. “Go introduce yourselves. Don’t tell them who I am.”

  “Why not?” Hugh demanded.

  “A certain doctor might not think so fondly of me.”

  Hugh looked about to ask more.

  Sergeant Bennings held up a hand. “Enough.” He looked over us Feebs. “Tie them up.”

  “Hey!” Ricker said. “We’ve done nothing but follow your orders. Every instruction.”

  “You’re still infected.”

  “Like your wife and probably your son,” Ricker said.

  Sergeant Bennings held himself so still it was as if he’d turned into a statue.

  We waited for what seemed an eternity.

  He blinked and motioned for the rope. “Tie them up and out of the way.”

  They took us seven Feebs further down the road, onto the cool, green grass and under a tree. We were now lower than the road by several feet. I sat next to Ricker and kept myself calm as they tied us up. I hoped Gabbi, I hoped all of us Feebs could keep it together for just a little longer. The cure must be so close now.

/>   “Why did you say that,” I whispered to Ricker. “You knew it wouldn’t do any good. You knew it would make him want to hurt you.”

  Sergeant Bennings waited at the top of the road. Watching. The rest of the group came over to wait near the tree. From our position there was no way to see through the smoke or what was happening to Hugh and the other two uninfected.

  Minutes passed.

  There was only silence except for the groan of machinery.

  There was time to wonder how far back the V mob was.

  Shouts.

  A scream. Shots.

  More screams.

  Silence.

  Chapter 26

  I woke up in a white room. White light blazed so brightly it hurt my eyes. White walls blended into the floor so that I couldn’t tell where one began and the other ended.

  I tried to roll over. I was in a hospital bed. My wrist hurt, my head hurt. The last thing I could remember was being outside. We had been surrounded. These uninfected had worn no safety gear and they’d shot us one by one, but the shots hadn’t sounded right. We fell, but there was no blood. When it was my turn the bullet stung, but it wasn’t really a bullet. The metal capsule had stuck out where it entered my thigh and the end was this pinkish sort of fluff ball. It made me miss my pink sweatshirt. The sweatshirt had been the very last gift my uncle had given me, but the cloth had fallen to pieces a year after the infection started. I’d fallen into a heap on the ground, thinking about that pink sweatshirt, and then I’d woken up here.

  There was a bed next to me. Everything smelled like bleach. I swore I could even taste it on my tongue. I pushed myself up. This room was full of beds. Gabbi’s spiky shock of hair was dark against one pillow, Ricker’s dirty blond hair peeked out of a set of sheets. Tabitha, Leon, Bernice, Nindal. We were all together.

  A door clicked open.

  Someone came in with a clipboard. I didn’t know if I was seeing things right. Could it really be Dr. Ferrad? She wore large, orange-rimmed glasses. Her bright blue eyes were wide as she looked us over. Her skin was clear. Uninfected.

  Gabbi hissed and jumped off the bed. Her face twisted in this terrible grimace. She ran for Dr. Ferrad with her hands shaped into claws.

  The clipboard flew into the air and tumbled out of sight under one of the beds. Dr. Ferrad threw up her hands to cover her face. “Stop! I can cure you!”

  Leon scrambled from his bed. The sheets he left behind were coated in dust and ash from his clothes. I thought he was going to join the fight against Dr. Ferrad. He threaded his arms through Gabbi’s and pinned them behind her back. This only enraged her. She spit, kicked out, and bucked against him until I feared she might break an arm.

  “Gabbi!” I shouted. Ricker and I ran to them.

  I didn’t know if I should help Leon or Gabbi. She was wild, uncontrollable, gone V. Just gone.

  Another uninfected rushed in, slamming the door open. This white coat held a large needle and plunged it into Gabbi’s arm. She bucked against Leon again. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and then all of her muscles relaxed as she fell unconscious.

  “Put her away.” Dr. Ferrad readjusted her glasses.

  “No!” I shouted it the same time Ricker did.

  Both of us stood over her unconscious form, back-to-back. I crossed my arms. My chest shook from trying to breath. This was all happening too fast.

  “There’s no time for this,” Dr. Ferrad said. “The infected you brought with you have finally arrived.”

  “What are you talking about?” Bernice said. Sweat stood out on his forehead and his face was flushed even though he hadn’t left the bed.

  “The Vs have come,” Nindal said. “That’s what she means.”

  “Yes,” Dr. Ferrad said.

  “I don’t see why we should help you.” But there was something in Leon’s voice that said he didn’t really mean it. “What’s in it for us?”

  Her blue eyes raked him over with disdain. “I came here in good faith, with no weapons, no guard, to prove to you we are here to help. Anyone who helps us fight off the Vs will get the cure.”

  Ricker stiffened behind me.

  Leon looked stunned.

  She had said it as if it were no big deal, as if the cure was a cookie she could just give out when someone acted good.

  “You need to move.” Dr. Ferrad’s gaze shifted back to me. I almost flinched but forced myself to stay still. “Gabbi must go to a different room now that the Lyssa virus has taken a stronger hold in her.”

  “She’ll come out of it,” Ricker said.

  “She always comes out of it,” I said, even though deep in the pit of my stomach I feared maybe she wouldn’t, maybe not this time. But I couldn’t believe that, not after all that she had done for me or all that we had been through together. We were so close to a cure. My brain was frantically lining up the final pieces of the puzzle, laying them out in a line in front of me, analyzing how to rotate them to lock perfectly into place.

  “We do not have time—”

  Another white coat rushed into the room. “Dr. Ferrad, they’re massing at the East Gate!“

  “Just give her the cure now,” I said. “Then we’ll help.”

  “Very well,” Dr. Ferrad said.

  “I must disagree,” the newest white coat said.

  “Dr. Stoven, do not waste time deliberating this decision.”

  “I must insist—”

  “We’re going with her,” I said. Neither doctor had brought weapons or guards. We could rush them if we needed to. We could force them. “Stop wasting time.”

  Dr. Ferrad bent over and retrieved her clipboard. She brushed off imaginary dust from it with one hand. “Dr. Stoven, please escort them to the secondary treatment center.” She did not look at Dr. Stoven but it seemed like a message had passed between them.

  Dr. Stoven closed his mouth and looked hard at Gabbi’s unconscious body. “Help me with her, and hurry it up.”

  Dr. Stoven and Ricker picked Gabbi up from the floor and left. I went to follow them and the room plunged into darkness. Sirens blared. Red lights came on and cast a terrible glow everywhere.

  “Anyone who wants the cure, get yourself to the East Gate.” Dr. Ferrad yelled this while running out.

  Leon, Bernice, Nindal—everyone followed her.

  The sirens cut off, leaving my ears ringing. The red lights stayed on, playing tricks with my eyes. There was a creaking sound behind me. I whirled around, my heartbeat speeding up.

  I thought I was the last one in the room, but there was Tabitha, bathed in a red glow. Fire sparked in her eyes, but in spite of that, she held herself so still, like a statue. I realized she wasn’t going V like the rest of them. She was going Faint like me and she had just come out of its spell.

  Tabitha sat up and placed her bare feet on the cold floor. “You can’t possibly be stupid enough to think she’s telling the truth.”

  The compound was huge. Acres and acres of buildings, outdoor areas, one tall fence that surrounded the entire facility, open fields for miles in either direction. I catalogued all of this as I ran after Ricker, Gabbi, and the white coats. No one tried to stop me. Everyone else was headed in one direction. I assumed it must be the East Gate.

  I passed by an outdoor enclosure and the chatter from it made me stumble. There were groups of chimps behind the fences. Their dark faces and human-like hands and bodies freaked me out even as my brain said this made sense. This was a primate research facility after all.

  Ricker, Gabbi, and Dr. Stoven disappeared into the next building. I followed on their heels. A hallway veered right and dumped us into an empty cafeteria.

  Ricker shouted. Something large barreled into me. I flew through the air for an eternity. The impact knocked the breath out of me. My injured wrist hit the floor and exploded in pain. My ankle throbbed. I swore the ceiling panels swayed as I fought to get back my breath. A large shadow loomed over me, hot stinking breath, wild eyes, saliva dripping in long yellow stran
ds from his mouth. It was a V, inside the building with us, inside where one bite would drown us in an eternity of fevers.

  Except V bites didn’t trap me in the fevers.

  I slammed the heel of my good hand into the underside of the V’s chin. Ricker picked up a chair and threw it, sending the V tumbling into another group of chairs.

  As the V began to rise a shot rang out. Dr. Stoven had fired the shot. He walked up to the V and fired a second shot. No blood. Only tranquilizers again.

  Two more Vs burst in from outside. He took them down methodically. Gabbi was a crumpled pile on the ground, unaware of the chaos around her.

  Ricker shook my shoulder. “Help me with Gabbi!”

  She moaned as we dragged her away. Red lights obscured signs and made the hallways all look the same. We burst out a Fire Exit door into the bright afternoon sun. The disconnect from inside stunned my mind. I couldn’t recognize what I was seeing. People in white coats and tattered clothing all running, some toward buildings, others away, still others toward each other, and then falling to the ground. Blood everywhere.

  Gabbi moaned again and tried to hold her head up. We left the white coats to fight the Vs. It was the only thing we could do until Gabbi was safe. She was coming out of unconsciousness now, but would she be herself or like one of the Vs?

  “Where are you going, Maibe?” Ricker said.

  “I don’t know,” I said, breathless, but it was almost as if a magnet pulled me forward, away from the noise and the violence behind us, ahead to the screams and chatter of another set of chimp cages. We rushed into the next building, plunging into the red darkness. This hallway had a number of doors lining it. A steel door at the end was slightly open.

  Inside it was dark, but at least not the ghastly red of the previous buildings. The air smelled of hay, urine, animal. A play structure’s primary-colored plastic sat off to one side behind glass walls. The chimps, maybe half a dozen, all stood or hung from the play equipment, hooting and making noises while staring at us.

  Gabbi jerked suddenly. I lost my grip and she fell to the ground, but she caught herself at the last minute with her hands. Her eyes were wide as she took in the hallway, the glass walls, the chimps, the playground. “What’s happening?”