Earthfall

by Mark Walden

  5

  ‘Any improvement?’ Rachel asked as she looked down at Sam’s deathly pale face. He lay on a camp bed with a drip feeding into one arm and a dressing covering the wound on his chest. The fine tracery of pale green veins still covered his torso.

  ‘Same as yesterday,’ the boy kneeling beside Sam’s bed said as he removed the blood pressure cuff from Sam’s arm. He had a bushy mop of blonde hair, wore a pair of thick-rimmed spectacles and his thin face bore an expression of tired resignation. ‘He’s not getting any worse, but he’s not getting any better either. Stirling’s running some tests, but I get the impression that he’s as puzzled as the rest of us. He just does a better job of hiding it.’

  ‘OK, thanks, Will,’ Rachel said with a sigh. It had been three days since she and Jay had brought Sam back with them and he had been in a coma ever since.

  ‘I’ll let you know if there’s any change, Rach,’ Will said, pushing his glasses up his nose. ‘But I’m afraid that it’s just a case of wait and see at the moment.’

  ‘I suppose you’re right,’ she replied. ‘I’m not known for my patience, though.’

  ‘You know, I had heard that about you,’ Will said with a lopsided grin.

  ‘Visiting our patient again, I see,’ a voice with a deep Scots accent said behind Rachel.

  She turned to see Dr Iain Stirling walking across the room towards them. He was tall, with short grey hair and a neatly trimmed beard. His brow was furrowed by the slight frown that never seemed to leave his face. Rachel had heard rumours that some of the others had seen him smile, but she wasn’t sure she believed it. He was also the reason that she and the others were still alive.

  ‘Yes, Doctor Stirling,’ Rachel replied with a nod. ‘Will was telling me that Sam’s condition hasn’t changed.’

  ‘I heard,’ Stirling replied, taking the clipboard with notes attached to it from the foot of Sam’s bed. ‘I also heard that William thinks I am hiding my own ignorance of what is happening to young Mr Riley and that I don’t really understand it at all.’

  ‘I didn’t mean . . .’ Will said quickly.

  ‘Oh, you’re quite right, William,’ Stirling said. ‘I really don’t know how he’s managed to survive this long. Besides which, there’s nothing wrong with concealing one’s own ignorance. I just wish you did a slightly better job of concealing yours occasionally.’

  Rachel tried very hard not to laugh at the sudden look of embarrassment and mild indignation on Will’s face. Stirling pulled a pen light from the pocket of his lab coat and gently lifted one of Sam’s eyelids, shining the light into first one eye and then the other.

  ‘Pupil dilation is still good,’ Stirling said, ‘which hopefully means that there hasn’t been any neurological damage.’ He pressed lightly on one of the green veins covering Sam’s chest. ‘The spread of the toxin appears to have halted, but I’m still not sure why, or how he managed to resist its effects for as long as he did. Unfortunately, I lack the equipment I need here to really try and get any detailed answers as to what’s going on inside Mr Riley. I do have a theory that might explain it, but I need to speak to him to be sure.’

  ‘Do you need me to draw any more blood?’ Will asked.

  ‘No,’ Stirling replied. ‘I’ve completed my tests. I’m afraid that all we can do now is wait for our patient here to wake up.’

  ‘I should go,’ Rachel said. ‘Jackson wanted me on the range ten minutes ago.’

  ‘I’ll let you know if his condition improves,’ Will said as he walked with her towards the door.

  Behind them, Stirling looked down at Sam.

  ‘What did you do to him, Daniel?’ he whispered under his breath.

  Suddenly Sam convulsed, his back arching off the bed and his arms thrashing wildly.

  ‘Help me!’ Stirling yelled at Rachel and Will as he fought to hold Sam down. They ran over to the bed just as Sam’s eyes flew wide open, staring at the ceiling. He let out an unearthly howling scream. Will lay across his legs while Rachel and Stirling took a firm hold of an arm each, trying to pin him to the bed.

  ‘Good God,’ Stirling said, staring wide-eyed at Sam’s chest. The green veins that covered his torso were vanishing as they watched, retreating rapidly towards the site of the original wound. Within just a few seconds the traces of the toxin had almost completely faded and Sam relaxed, settling back on to the bed, his eyes closed again and his breathing ragged.

  ‘What happened?’ Rachel asked, eyes wide with amazement.

  ‘I have no idea,’ Stirling replied, shaking his head and relaxing his grip on Sam’s arm. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’

  Moments later Sam’s eyes fluttered open and he looked up at Rachel with a confused frown.

  ‘Morning,’ Rachel said with a worried smile.

  Sam lifted his head from the pillow and looked slowly around the room.

  ‘Hate to sound corny,’ Sam said after a few seconds, his voice croaky, ‘but I have to ask. Where am I?’ The room he was lying in had bare concrete walls with no windows and was lit by fluorescent lights protected by wire cages mounted on the ceiling. There were a couple of other camp beds against the opposite wall and at the far end of the room was a long bench that was covered with medical equipment.

  ‘Safe,’ Rachel said. ‘Don’t worry.’

  ‘Safe, that’s good. You’re real too. Also good.’

  ‘I’m happy to say that, yes, I am in fact one hundred per cent real,’ Rachel said as Sam lifted his head from the bed and looked around. ‘You had us worried for a while there.’

  ‘Indeed you did, Mr Riley,’ Stirling said. ‘How are you feeling?’

  ‘Like I got beaten up,’ Sam said with a slightly pained smile. ‘By a gorilla.’

  ‘Well, you appear to have made a truly miraculous recovery,’ Stirling said with a slight frown. ‘The problem being that I don’t believe in miracles.’

  ‘How long have I been out?’ Sam asked, rubbing his eyes.

  ‘Three days,’ Rachel said.

  ‘Really?’ Sam said. ‘I don’t remember anything after we headed down into that Tube station, to be honest.’

  ‘You passed out just after that,’ Rachel said. ‘Me and Jay managed to get you back here in one piece, but you’ve been unconscious ever since. It’s nice to see you with your eyes open again.’

  ‘Allow me to introduce myself,’ Stirling said. ‘I’m Doctor Iain Stirling and this is my assistant, William, and we’ve been looking after you for the past few days.’

  ‘Hello,’ Sam said, ‘and thank you.’

  ‘You’re quite welcome. Now, if you don’t mind I’d like to take a look under here,’ Stirling said, pointing at the dressing on Sam’s chest.

  ‘Help yourself,’ Sam said, letting his head fall back on to the pillow. Stirling carefully peeled back the dressing.

  ‘How extraordinary,’ he said as he examined Sam’s injury. The wound, which had been showing no signs of improvement just a couple of hours ago, had now fully closed and scabbed over, as if it had been healing for days.

  ‘That’s impossible,’ Will said, shaking his head.

  ‘Clearly not,’ Stirling replied, raising an eyebrow. ‘William, would you be so kind as to take another sample of Mr Riley’s blood for me. I believe that I might have some more tests to run after all.’

  ‘Of course,’ Will said. He picked up an empty syringe from the tray on the table next to the bed and turned towards Sam. ‘Is it OK if I just . . . ?’

  ‘Go ahead,’ Sam said, extending his arm. He winced slightly as the needle went in, watching as Will drew a small quantity of blood. ‘So how far did you and Jay have to carry me?’ he asked Rachel as Will busied himself with taking the sample.

  ‘A few miles,’ Rachel replied, sitting down on the edge of the bed. ‘It could have been worse – at least you don’t weigh that much.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Sam said with a smile. ‘I think.’

  ‘You’re welcome,’ Rachel said. ‘There’s not
many of us left with minds of our own, so we kinda have to look out for each other, you know.’

  Will finished taking the blood sample and Sam sat up in his bed, holding a tiny square of gauze to the pinprick in his arm. He watched as Will took the sample tube over to Stirling who was seated at the long bench. He took a pipette and placed a single drop of Sam’s blood on to a glass slide, which he then put under a microscope.

  ‘So this is the rest of the gang,’ Sam said quietly to Rachel, nodding towards the others.

  ‘Some of them,’ Rachel said. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll get to meet everyone soon. They’re all very keen to meet you. It’s been a while since we found a new recruit.’

  ‘Recruit?’ Sam asked. ‘You make it sound like I’ve joined the army.’

  ‘Actually,’ she replied with a half smile, ‘you kinda have.’

  An hour later Sam was sitting on the edge of his bed, pulling on his battered boots as Dr Stirling walked back into the room.

  ‘Now, you must promise to take things slowly,’ the doctor said as Sam finished tying his laces and slowly stood up.

  ‘I told you. Honestly, I feel fine,’ Sam said. ‘In fact, I feel fantastic.’

  ‘Be that as it may,’ Stirling said, ‘you are still recovering from the effects of a toxin that has proven invariably fatal to all of its previous victims. Until we have a clearer understanding of why you have not suffered the same fate, I would like you not to exert yourself. You don’t want anything to interfere with your full recovery.’

  ‘I understand,’ Sam said with a nod, ‘but I’ve not spoken to another human being for a year and a half. I thought that I was the last person on earth that hadn’t been turned into a mindless zombie, so there’s no way I’m just going to lie here in bed. I want to go and meet the others.’

  ‘Of course,’ Stirling said, ‘that’s perfectly understandable, but if you begin to feel unwell again or even if you just start to get tired I want you to come back here immediately. Agreed?’

  ‘Agreed,’ Sam said with a nod. Behind him, the door opened and Jay walked into the room.

  ‘How you doing?’ Jay asked with a smile.

  ‘Not too bad,’ Sam said. ‘Considering what was supposed to happen to me.’

  ‘Yeah, you look pretty good for a dead guy,’ Jay said. ‘He good to go, Doc?’

  ‘Yes, Jacob, he appears to be well enough to meet everyone,’ Stirling replied, ‘and please don’t call me that.’

  ‘Sorry, Doc,’ Jay said, ‘force of habit. So, Sam, Rachel asked me to show you around. She’s on the range at the moment, but she told me to tell you that she’d see you later. You ready?’

  ‘I think so,’ Sam said. ‘Let’s go.’

  He followed Jay out into the corridor. It was as featureless as the room they’d just left, with the same grey, concrete walls and caged lights.

  ‘So, you ready for the tour of our luxurious accommodations?’ Jay asked as they walked.

  ‘Sure,’ Sam replied. ‘What is this place anyway?’

  ‘Closest thing we’ve got to home,’ Jay said. ‘The Doc brought us all here. Apparently we’re underneath the place where he used to work. Don’t know much about it, to be honest, just that it was some kind of government research laboratory. He doesn’t talk about what he used to do.’

  ‘How long have you been down here?’ Sam asked as they walked past a door leading into a dormitory lined with bunk beds.

  ‘Jackson found me about a year ago,’ Jay said as they reached a set of double doors at the end of the corridor.

  ‘Jackson?’

  ‘Yeah, he’s the Doc’s right-hand man. Taught us how to fight, proper bad ass. He used to be in the special forces – Royal Marine, I think. Do what he tells you and you’ll both get along just fine.’

  Jay pushed the doors open and led Sam into a much larger room beyond. There were just four people in the room, but Sam still hesitated. It might only have been four people, but that was four more people than he’d seen in the past eighteen months. He was still feeling overwhelmed by suddenly meeting all these new faces. Jay saw the look on Sam’s face and smiled.

  ‘It’s OK,’ he said, putting a hand on Sam’s shoulder. ‘I felt just the same when I first arrived. It was all a bit much to take in at first. I’d kinda got used to being on my own. You know what I mean?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Sam said quietly. ‘I know exactly what you mean.’

  On one side of the room there was a short dark-haired girl and a tall red-headed boy who were looking at a map on the wall and having what looked like quite a heated conversation. Sam followed as Jay walked towards them.

  ‘Guys, I’d like to introduce you to our latest recruit,’ Jay said. ‘This is Sam. Sam, this is Kate and this is Adam – they’re our resident scavengers.’

  ‘I prefer the term reclamation technician, actually,’ Adam said with a sniff.

  ‘I dunno, I quite like the sound of scavenger,’ Kate said, offering her hand to Sam. ‘Makes us sound cooler.’

  ‘Nice to meet you both,’ Sam said, shaking Kate’s hand.

  ‘If you need something, but you’ve got absolutely no idea where to find it, these two are the people who’ll get it for you,’ Jay explained.

  ‘Assuming the Lost haven’t got there before us, of course,’ Adam said with a sigh.

  ‘The Lost?’ Sam asked.

  ‘You know,’ Kate said, ‘everyone else. All the people who got wiped by the signal.’

  ‘Oh, yeah right,’ Sam said. ‘I call them Walkers.’

  ‘Walkers, Lost, whatever,’ Adam said. ‘The fact is that they’re stripping the whole city bare. It’s getting harder and harder to find the things we need. We’re going to have to move further out of the city soon. Stirling knows it even if he doesn’t want to admit it.’

  ‘OK, Adam,’ Kate said, shaking her head slightly, ‘don’t lecture the new guy. Everyone’s already heard what you think, but you know it’s not as simple as that. Not all of us can just leave.’

  ‘I wasn’t saying that we should all . . .’ Adam began.

  ‘OK, OK, enough,’ Jay said, holding his hands up. ‘Much as I would love to have this conversation again, I was actually hoping to introduce Sam to everyone else at some point today.’

  ‘Fine, whatever,’ Adam said, turning back to the map on the wall. ‘No one ever listens to me anyway.’

  ‘That’s not true,’ Kate said. ‘I listen to you. How else would I be able to tell you exactly why you’re wrong?’

  ‘Come on,’ Jay said, nodding his head towards the three battered old sofas arranged in a U-shape in the middle of the room where two girls were sitting chatting while another boy was reading a book.

  ‘OK, Sam,’ Jay said, pointing to each of the others in turn, ‘this is Liz, Nat and Toby.’

  ‘Hi,’ the boy called Toby said, lowering his book. ‘Welcome to our burrow.’

  ‘Toby runs the kitchen,’ Jay explained. ‘He’s the one who makes sure we all get fed.’

  ‘Only because if I let anyone else do it we’d all be dead of food poisoning within a week,’ Toby said with a crooked smile before retreating behind his book again.

  ‘So, Sam, tell us, is it true what Rachel said?’ Nat asked. ‘Did you really get stung by a Hunter?’

  ‘Um . . . yeah, I suppose I did,’ Sam said, sounding slightly uncomfortable.

  ‘Got to tell you, then,’ the girl called Liz said, ‘you’re a whole lot more alive than you should be.’

  ‘Yeah, that’s what everyone keeps telling me,’ Sam said with a sheepish grin. ‘I’m just lucky, I suppose.’

  ‘You can say that again,’ Nat said, shaking her head slightly.

  ‘Nat’s a surface operative like me and Rach,’ Jay explained, ‘and Liz is in charge of the stores.’

  ‘So, you’d better be nice to me if you ever want anything,’ Liz added.

  ‘Yeah, but don’t forget that’s the only reason anyone’s nice to you,’ Nat said with a smile.

 
‘Anyway, much as we’d love to stay and chat all day,’ Jay said, ‘we’re on our way to see Jackson and you know how he hates to be kept waiting.’

  ‘Ooooh, you don’t want to make Jackson angry,’ Liz said, shaking her head. ‘You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.’

  ‘I’ll tell him you said that, shall I?’ Jay asked.

  ‘Actually, no, probably I’d rather you didn’t,’ Liz said.

  ‘Thought not,’ Jay said. ‘Come on, Sam.’

  Jay led him out of the room and along another corridor.

  ‘Dining area and the storerooms are down there,’ he said, pointing to a corridor that branched off to the left. They continued, passing a couple more closed doors. ‘Those are the Doc’s and Jackson’s rooms,’ he added as they walked past. They continued walking and soon reached a T-junction at the end of the corridor where they headed left, towards another set of double doors. ‘And in here,’ he concluded, pushing the doors open, ‘are the labs.’

  Jay walked down the room past the benches covered in scientific equipment to the far end where Will and a tall girl with long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail were both staring at an LCD monitor.

  ‘I still don’t get it,’ Will said as Sam and Jay approached. ‘I mean, I understand the basics, but I don’t see how Stirling isolated the waveform in the first place without . . .’

  ‘Sorry to break up brainiac club, Will,’ Jay said, ‘but I wanted to introduce Sam to Anne.’

  ‘Oh, hi, Jay, Sam, of course. Sorry, I was just trying to get my head around this training exercise,’ Will said, pushing his glasses back up his nose. ‘Anne, this is our walking miracle. The one I was telling you about.’