Lethal Seasons (A Changed World Book 1)

by Alice Sabo

  “Wisp said there are people here that are frightened. I think we should round up all of the survivors right away.”

  “Wisp?” Kyle asked.

  Nick pointed to him.

  Kyle smiled. “A curious name.”

  Wisp shrugged. “It was earned.” He glanced to the left, with the far-away look in his eyes that Nick was beginning to recognize as an inward focus for his extrasensory listening. “Do you have prisoners here?”

  “No. This is a research facility,” Kyle said.

  “Subjects for experimentation?”

  “No,” Ruth said firmly. “What would make you ask such a thing? We aren’t barbarians. We use simulations.”

  “Who are the people locked in the next building?”Wisp pointed at the back wall.

  Nick was turned around from the warren of corridors. He wasn’t sure which direction Wisp was pointing, but Kyle seemed to know.

  “That's the barracks. More guards, I suppose.”

  “They don't feel like guards.”

  Nick stood. “Let's go look. We need to find anyone alive, or anyone sick and make a plan.”

  “The guards might not be the best place to start,” Ruth said. “I think we should start upstairs.”

  Wisp looked at the ceiling. “There is no one alive above us.”

  “That can't be! You can’t possibly know that!” Ruth rushed for the door.

  They followed her panicked stumbling down the corridor and up the stairs to the second floor. Nick held back, giving her time to burst into office after office. They were either empty or had a corpse. Some rooms had bodies slumped at their desks. Men and women, some in business attire, some in lab coats, all dead. The name plates all had Director or Supervisor of something on them. This was the upper echelon, and they were all gone. Nick made a mental note that there were a whole lot of bodies to be disposed of. If they didn’t act quickly, this area would become unbearable. Nick saw Wisp ease back, putting a little more room between himself and Ruth’s hysteria. He couldn’t blame her. If he’d discovered the same thing at High Meadow, he’d have been hard put to be reasonable.

  Ruth staggered into the hallway, eyes wide with shock. “They’re all dead. Kyle! They’re all dead. Bobby’s killed them all!” She lurched away from them heading for a fancy double doorway at the end of the hall. She burst through the doors leaving them swinging open in her wake. Nick and Kyle were right behind her.

  Nick walked into an elegant waiting room with thick carpeting and original artwork on the walls. It had a high receptionist’s desk and banks of chairs along the walls, a small meeting room on one side and a shiny, carved door on the other. Ruth plowed through the ornate door, making a keening sound as she panted in distress. Nick followed as far as the doorway. A brass plate, to one side, said S. S. Rutledge. Sounded like a ship to Nick. Unfortunately, this ship had sunk. In the office, a stocky man sprawled on the floor in front of a massive desk.

  “No, no, no.” Ruth was on her knees, just inside the door, rocking and mumbling.

  Kyle went to her, holding her gently. As he steadied her, Nick saw that Kyle’s biobot number was tattooed on the inside of his right forearm.

  Giving them some time, Nick moved back to where Wisp had remained in the corridor. “Why’s his tattoo on his arm?”

  “It was a request of his first keeper. I think he had a locator chip also.”

  “Huh. Didn’t know a keeper could ask for something like that.”

  “He was sold to the army. They can request anything.”

  Nick winced at the bitterness in Wisp’s voice. He gestured to Ruth and Kyle. She leaned against him with a comfort of habit. “Are they a couple?” he asked in a low voice.

  “Biobots are not allowed to.”

  “That’s not what I asked.”

  Pale eyes scrutinized him. “Why do you need to know?”

  “This is not the situation I was expecting. We’re gonna need a new plan. If it’s going to include them, I’ll need to know about them.”

  Wisp dipped his head in acknowledgement. “They have strong feelings for each other.”

  “That’ll do.” Nick raised his voice. “Let’s head back to the conference room. We need to sort this out.”

  Kyle held on to Ruth, half-carrying her back down the stairs. By the time they had gathered around the table, Ruth had settled into numb shock.

  Nick took the lead. “This is a big place, but it looks like most of the people here...didn’t make it. Wisp can help us track down the living.”

  “How?” Ruth demanded. “He doesn’t know this place. Hell, I don’t know half of it, and I’ve been here for years.”

  “He’s a finder,” Nick said with a glance at Kyle.

  Ruth scoffed.

  Kyle put a hand on her arm. “Ruth, this is Tau.”

  “What?”

  “My brother, Tau.”

  “How did you get here? Who is your keeper?” Her voice rose as she started into another panic. “Kyle, this isn’t good. He shouldn’t be here.”

  Nick raised a hand to stop her. “Easy. Let’s not worry about that right now. We’re hip deep in dead bodies. I think that’s a little more important.

  Ruth swallowed nervously. “Yes. Perhaps you’re right.”

  Nick gave her a reassuring nod. “Okay. Kyle, you got a map of this place?”

  Kyle put a map of the compound up on the smartwall. He marked each space with usage and probable occupancy.

  Nick looked at the search area with a sinking feeling. It could take more than a day to go through all the buildings if people decided to hunker down.

  “Should we split up?” Kyle asked.

  “No. Wisp and I don’t belong here. You two do. I think we should all stay together in case someone decides to shoot first and ask questions later.”

  Kyle raised an eyebrow. “Why would you phrase it that way? This is a research and production facility. Our security is not that aggressive.”

  Nick gave him a shrug and a tight smile. “Let’s just say I’m the paranoid type.”

  Ruth murmured something to Kyle that Nick couldn’t catch. It made Kyle frown at her. Nick worried that she might bolt at the first chance. He wondered if he and Wisp should just walk away from this mess. But that wouldn’t answer the questions piling up.

  They started a systematic search. Ruth had clearance for all the buildings allowing them full access. There were labs and offices, a few private homes tucked into the back corner, a warehouse and production facility, barracks for the guards and slightly nicer dorms for the staff. After completing each building, they returned to the conference room to mark that building done and drop off the few stunned survivors they found. Nick left notes at exits and stairways as to where they would be gathering. He let Ruth choose the order of the buildings. He knew that if she could feel like she had control over something, it would take some of her fear away. She was barely hanging on as it was.

  Chapter 30

  “Some industries were totally wiped out, while others were able to manage. Small farms continued as before, sometimes pulling in neighbors to replace the fallen. Religious organizations continued as before. Some factories were able to downsize production and continue output. But the fact that their customer base had diminished drastically was not as great an issue as the disintegration of currency. Money no longer stood for anything of worth.”

  History of a Changed World, Angus T. Moss

  With Wisp leading them, Nick was relieved that they wouldn’t spend more than a few hours tramping through buildings. Their search turned up a mix of scientists and support staff. Three had been sleeping and were totally unaware of the situation. The others had been isolated until they were found. All were skeptical at first. Once they crossed a body-strewn street, they had no more doubts. Shocked and panicked, they were willing to remain in the conference room while Nick, Wisp, Kyle and Ruth finished locating those still alive.

  Leaving the guards’ barracks for last, they returned to the
conference room to get a better sense of the situation. Nick paused in the hallway, signaling Wisp to join him as the last few survivors filed into the room. “Is this it? Can you feel anybody else?”

  “I need to move away from all these people to be sure.”

  “This is a lot less than I expected.” Nick stared at the lab workers talking among themselves in subdued tones. Wisp had been invaluable in finding them in the labyrinths of corridors and offices. But Nick felt that he needed one more check. “Take a weapon off one of the dead guards. Walk the perimeter. I think we will end up bedding down here for the night. I want to make sure we are secure. We’d better shut the gates. I don’t want to advertise the lack of personnel here.”

  Wisp gave him an odd look. “How long do you intend to stay?”

  “I'd like to get out of here first thing tomorrow.”

  “You think you will find answers by then?”

  Nick glanced down the hall, halfway down a limp hand lay across a threshold. “I’m gonna try.”

  Wisp gave him a nod and walked away.

  Nick went into the conference room and found all eyes on him. “Okay folks, here's the situation as we know it. Bad vaccine seems to have killed off a hell of a lot of people. Maybe a couple of cases of flu also. I’m from High Meadow Med Center. We came here to ask some questions. We got any supervisors here?”

  Heads swiveled, but no hands went up.

  “Let's go round the room real quick, and see what we've got.” Nick went over to the smartwall to make notes. Each person stood, gave their full name and position then sat down. The next person then did the same. He was amused by the formal recitation. Very orderly. Despite, or perhaps because of the tragic situation, they all seemed to be remaining calm. There were eight scientists, four guards, four lab techs, a file clerk, groundskeeper and a janitor. As they were speaking, Nick took the time to look them over. A lot of nervous faces in the group, mostly among the scientists. The guards looked surly. He expected trouble there. “How many people do you normally have around here?”

  There was a little mumbling, but no one offered him an answer. He needed more information before he could put a plan together. “Okay, let's try it another way.” He started a new column on the smartwall, calling out questions. “How many teams are there? How many scientists per team?” Several times people tried to correct him on titles, but eventually he got solid numbers. There were four basic sections: research, production, shipping and administrative. He drew a line and added them all up.

  “About two hundred people work here.” He pointed to the list of survivors on the other side. “This is all you've got. Can you still run this place?”

  One of the guards shifted in his seat for a minute before reluctantly raising his hand. Nick nodded at him to go ahead. “There were a couple of...um, groups sent out awhile back.”

  Nick kept his face passive. He was sure the guard was talking about the men hunting William and Lily. “Out where?”

  The guard turned to look at the others in uniform. He shrugged without meeting Nick’s eyes. “Some project of Rutledge’s. It’s been awhile, so I guess maybe they aren’t coming back.”

  “Found better bennies,” the fellow next to him grumbled, to which most of the guards chuckled.

  Nick’s mouth went dry. He felt a little guilty for hoping that he and Wisp had killed all of them. But he didn’t like the thought of a bunch of mercenaries out there on the loose looking for a new source of benefits. “Okay, but that was guards, right?” He pointed to the list on the board. “Do you need all these jobs filled?”

  Silence answered him, but the question was mostly rhetorical. The people in front of him looked stunned. He needed to get them thinking. “Ruth thinks this is bad vaccine. I saw boxes of it on the trucks. Did any get delivered?”

  There was a rustle around the room as people turned to look at one another.

  “I don’t think that there is anyone here from shipping,” Kyle said.

  Nick felt a pang of loss for people he'd never met. More human beings lost to stupidity. Angus would have a fit. But he needed some answers. He was going to have to break it down again. “How many delivery trucks are there?”

  “Fifteen,” one of the guards answered.

  “How many on site right now?”

  “Twelve,” another guard answered. “Ten in the garage and two parked outside.”

  “That makes three trucks unaccounted for. Are they delivering vaccine? Do we need to contact settlements?”

  “No.” Kyle stood to speak. “The shipments go to the distribution warehouse.”

  “Okay. Contact them.”

  The staff looked back at him uneasily. Kyle cleared his throat. “Who should do that?”

  Nick snorted. Geniuses didn't always make good leaders. “Don't you have some kind of contingency plan? What if a tornado had killed these people?” He saw a couple of faces brighten.

  “The disaster plan,” Kyle said. “Yes. That is exactly what we should do.” He glanced back at his colleagues. “I am not authorized.”

  One of the scientists lurched to his feet. Red Team, Nick thought he’d said. A tall, lanky fellow with long brown hair.”I can look into it, Kyle.”

  “Thank you, Jonas. Perhaps you should take someone with you?”

  Jonas gave him a half-shrug. “The dead don’t scare me. I’ll go find the procedures and report back.” He looked toward Nick, but avoided eye contact. “Okay?”

  “Sounds like a plan. If we’re not here, I’ll leave a note on the board where we’ve gone.”

  The scientist squinted at the list of survivors. Nick watched his Adam’s apple lurch as he swallowed nervously. “Right.” He walked out, shoulders hunched, hands in his pockets.

  “Okay. Good.” Nick looked at all the blank faces staring at him. “Next is probably food and shelter.”

  Kyle stood up. “I believe the first thing we should do is to remove the dead to a single location.”

  Murmuring skipped across the room. Nick heard more than one person complain about physical labor. He let them grumble, aggravation was better than shock. Kyle was right. The dead needed to be dealt with if they were staying, but Nick didn’t want to be here a minute longer than he had to. They could clear out a space for the night then leave in the morning. He wasn’t sure what should be done here, but he didn’t want to be the one in charge of it.

  Nick rapped his knuckles on the board until people quieted down. “We now have twenty-one people. Out of about two hundred. That means that there are possibly one hundred and eighty-nine corpses spread out in these buildings.”

  “That can’t be right!” A woman in a lab coat waved her arms in a violent negation. “You must have counted wrong. That’s an eighty-seven percent mortality rate. That’s...that’s...”

  “Inexcusable,” Ruth snarled.

  “Are you accusing gold team of this...this...” she waved a hand, at a loss for words.

  “It wasn’t ready, Kim,” Ruth snapped back at the woman. “He added—” she pointedly glared at Nick. “It wasn’t ready.”

  “But Rutledge said we all had to have it...” Kim took a shaky breath. “I was scheduled...I, oh God, I was supposed to get it this afternoon.”

  Nick saw the change in the room. The scientists looked worried, the labs techs looked scared and the guards got angrier. “Food and shelter,” he said, in an effort to get them back on track. “A cafeteria would work. We’re all going to need to eat before long. And we can easily bed down where we’re eating. I would recommend not going out where there are bodies until we are sure that they all died from the bad vaccine.”

  Silence answered him again, but this time it was one of assent.

  * * *

  Nick left the group discussing the best place to spend the night. There were already factions forming. A few people wanted to leave. He decided that wasn’t his problem. If people came to him for help, he’d gladly supply it. If they wanted to go off on their own, less for him to worry
about. He grabbed Kyle and Ruth and headed for the last building that needed to be searched. Wisp caught up with them as they reached the barracks. He was glad to have the biobot back at his side. It surprised him to realize that he trusted Wisp to watch his back.

  The main door was propped open. Nick led them in. The ground floor had communal rooms: cafeteria, lounge, gym and a few offices. He assumed the upper floors were sleeping quarters. Any rooms that had been occupied now held only dead bodies. Wisp led them into the main lounge with the insistence that there were living people in the building.

  “There's no one here but the dead,” Ruth said accusingly to Wisp. She pulled a corner of her collar over her nose. In the heat of the day, the bodies were beginning to stink.

  “They are in the lower levels. We need to find a way down.”

  Ruth looked reluctant, but Kyle’s quiet acceptance of Wisp’s declaration brought her around. Nick sent them off in different directions to search for stairs or an elevator. All of the staircases they found started at the first floor and went up. Next they searched offices.

  The fact that the door to the lower levels was in an odd little foyer behind the head of security’s office, set off alarm bells for Nick. He’d opened a door, expecting a closet and found a short passage. Pretty sure he’d found what they needed, he called the others over. At the end of the passage was a small room with two doors, a table and four chairs and a long row of cabinets that took up one entire wall. Three of the chairs held bodies dressed in the ubiquitous black uniform, which inferred to Nick that they were on duty. Nick opened the first door. It led into a large kitchen. A man in whites was sprawled on the floor by a walk-in freezer. He shut the door. They could look around the kitchen later. The second door was heavy steel with a keypad lock.

  “Can you open that?” Nick asked Kyle.