The Queen of the Dead

by Peter Meredith

  She needed them to go to San Francisco and she needed them to get there quickly. If Jenn’s vision could be used to get them there faster she would have to embrace it. If not, she would resort to logic. In other words, she had to “play” Jenn like an instrument and it would take a delicate hand. Jenn was no fool.

  “Yes, and we have one more after him, and we’ll need Mike’s help to hold them still.” Jillybean laid out a recently sterilized surgical set beside her and for just a moment Jenn had the hope that she would just go ahead and do the procedure herself. Instead she held out a scalpel. “We start with the first incision. Feel for the pulse as a landmark.”

  Her soft fingers, sensitive as they were, had great difficulty picking out the boy’s faint pulse. Jenn didn’t need to ask to know this was a bad sign. He was fading into death. “Maybe you should do…” Jenn began to beg. Jillybean shoved the scalpel into her hand without saying another word. The naked meaning of the movement was obvious: the boy’s life was her responsibility.

  The room was silent and Jenn could feel the eyes on her once more. She made her first incision, barely drawing a line in the flesh—it wasn’t deep enough, forcing her to cut again.

  Jillybean only nodded, her lips perfectly sealed. With the incision made, Jenn looked up at her, expectantly. Jillybean only gazed back, reflecting the same look right back at her until Jenn said, “Can you hand me the retractors, please?”

  A nod and the retractors were handed over. This was how the entire procedure went. Jillybean made not a single sound forcing Jenn to do everything. When she finally reached up to turn on the IV she felt like passing out all over again. The fluid ran into the boy and the small bleeder caused by her shaking hand clotted over with just a little pressure.

  “And now you sew him up,” Jillybean said, her first words in half an hour. Suddenly everyone was talking and smiling. Mike handed her a handkerchief which she used to wipe the sweat from her forehead which had been hanging there in growing beads.

  Jillybean made her work on the next child, a girl of seven who was awake. She stared at Jenn with languid, apathetic eyes before the procedure, but came alive with a shriek of pain at the first incision. Once again, Jenn had cut too lightly and was forced to cut again. The girl cried out again and Jillybean tut-tutted her.

  “Screaming will only bring the dead,” she said. “Do you want that?” It was a hard thing to say to a frightened sick little girl, and yet they lived in a world where stoicism was an absolute necessity. All the adults around them—they were pressing in close again—nodded and gave the girl disapproving looks.

  The girl bit down on the collar of her shirt and Jillybean gave her a smile. “Only the tough grow up to be beautiful young women. You are tougher than you look, I can tell. And either way, the hardest part is over. There’ll be a little pinch here and there and a poke, but soon we’ll have you fixed up and feeling better.”

  Jillybean then turned to Jenn. “It’s why we work quick and smart. I don’t know if you attended me when I said the scalpel blade should be inserted a quarter of an inch.”

  “I did, I swear, but…”

  The “but” was sadly obvious. “But you didn’t want to cause pain. This is understandable but not laudable in that it demonstrates a true weakness of character. Sometimes as a doctor or say a queen, we have to set aside those feelings. Sometimes we have to cause some pain and suffering if we wish to save the body as a whole.”

  Jenn found it an odd thing to say and what was even more so was the way Jillybean stared, her eyes boring in at her with unrelenting ferocity, almost as if she wished to imprint the words physically into Jenn’s mind. “I get it,” Jenn told her, wishing to get back to the surgery.

  “I hope you do,” Jillybean said, “because it’s the hardest lesson of all.” She cast a furtive glance Mike’s direction and saw he’d been paying close attention—and that was good. The lesson had to be heard and understood by him as well.

  Having laid her foundation, Jillybean nodded to Jenn to proceed. As the girl’s leg had been bleeding in a steady trickle this entire time, Jenn was happy to. This time the procedure went quickly. Jillybean kept up a constant dialogue with the girl, chatting easily and taking her mind off the dipping scalpel and the fishhook needle.

  The only complaint the girl had was: “It’s cold,” as the fluids rushed into her system. Mike hurried to get another blanket and had to push through the little crowd to get back. He covered all of her except her single leg which he just noticed was bowed. The boy’s had been as well.

  “Can you fix that,” he asked, pointing.

  A momentary flash of anger washed over Jillybean and Sadie nearly leapt out of her to snap at him for being so crass, because now everyone was pointing and whispering, making the girl go red with embarrassment. Fortunately, the cure for the disease in one so young was easy.

  “Yes. It’s only a case of rickets.”

  Having her disease named was something at least and the girl was guardedly optimistic. “What’s a rickets? Are those worms? There was a boy named Milty who got with worms that made his legs getted bowed worser than mine and he died.”

  “You don’t have worms. What’s wrong is that your bones have become soft due to a vitamin D deficiency. That means you haven’t been eating right or spending enough time running around and playing out in the sun. The cure is to get you outside as much as possible as well as for you to supplement your diet with Vitamin D pills which I picked up this morning. It’ll take a few months to a year before you’re good as new.”

  “Good as a new what?”

  Jillybean did a double take, thinking that the question might have come from inside her head but there was only the stirring of vulgar whispers in there. “It’s an expression meaning you’re going to be okay.” She stood as she heard Stu’s boots approach. They came at such a tired clip that she feared to see his face. He’d been up for over thirty hours, working doggedly to make sure her new reign went as smoothly as possible. When he came into the light of the candles he was as haggard and drawn as if he had just walked across a desert.

  His face lit up when he saw her. “It’s working. Come see.”

  Because of the heavy curtain he had erected, they could hear the splash of water before they could see it. He pulled back the curtain and there, jutting from a break eight feet up on the warehouse wall, was a hanging hose that poured water in a continuous stream.

  “Willis and the Corsairs are getting the empty water bladders. But it works. It really, really works.”

  “I don’t understand your surprise,” Jillybean said, putting her hand out and touching the cold water. “Hmm,” she murmured, as she envisioned a simple manner to heat it without first removing it from the hose. “No, copper piping, duh. Coiled of course…”

  “Is it raining?” Diamond was suddenly at her elbow, gazing at the end of the hose.

  Again Jillybean felt the slippage in her mind at the sheer stupidity of the question. It’s not that stupid, she berated herself. A primitive culture such as this would indeed collect rainwater and funnel it inside.

  “Look out!” Willis snapped as he and one of the Corsairs dragged in a stack of empty bladders. Diamond skipped out of the way. Jillybean did not and was nearly stepped on by Willis who went on, “And no, it ain’t raining. That there is the working end of a pump I built. Uh, I mean we built.” He had just caught sight of Stu and Jillybean.

  Stu’s stare was so hard that Willis wouldn’t look up until it softened. “We didn’t build anything,” Stu said, speaking loudly. The crowd that had been watching the minor surgeries had followed them and were now gaping at the running water as if they had never seen such a thing in their lives.

  “The Queen built it,” Stu told them. This had eyebrows shooting up since they had all seen her just as plain as day working on the sick folks. “She built it in her mind,” Stu explained, touching his head. “I watched her take a pencil to a barren piece of paper and just like that she drew this.”
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  He held up the drawing she had made. The little crowd jostled to see it better as if they were in the presence of a Rembrandt and not a quick sketch. Sketch or not, Stu had been impressed at the time and when that water came bubbling up he had been doubly so. In his twenty-one years he had never seen anything like it or her.

  When she had crowned herself queen, he had thought the worst, but it seemed that with every passing minute she earned the title more and more.

  “How’s it work?” Mike asked, taking the drawing and puzzling over it. “Is this water from upriver? All that way?”

  “Yes,” Stu answered for Jillybean who was tired and could hear the whispers growing inside of her. She knew that soon they’d lay siege to her mind. She needed rest, but her people needed some sort of explanation.

  “It’s clean water. It runs through a dozen filters so there’s no chance of contamination. The pump action is simple physics based on the properties of direct lift powered by the kinetic energy of the river. Anyone could have done it. Now, if you don’t mind I have a big day tomorrow.”

  She caught Stu’s eyes as she started to push through the small crowd. “Take me to bed.” This caused a general whispering from the crowd that mingled with the voices in her head. “I meant put me to bed, you know walk me out to the boat.” When he fell in beside her, the whispers quieted.

  The two stopped next to Jenn who was fetching soup for some of the weaker patients. “We’ve set up a shower of sorts in the corner,” Jillybean said, jerking her thumb back over her shoulder. “Once Willis has filled the water bladders I want everyone to shower. I don’t want you running around so appoint a shower captain who will make sure everyone comes out squeaky clean. Tell them it’s the Queen’s orders.”

  Jenn stopped, the hot soup brewing steam into her pale face and turning her auburn hair limp. How did they have so much water everyone could shower? That thought was almost swallowed up by the next: Was a shower part of the sign she had seen? The feeling, no the certain knowledge of coming death was so great that she was afraid that everything was connected to it, somehow.

  “I’ll put Johanna Murphy on it.”

  Jillybean was about to yawn but the choice made her choke on it. With eyes dripping she said, “Johanna? She’s not very assertive. We have two hundred and forty people that need to be showered in the next day. That’s ten an hour; six minutes a shower. It needs to run like clockwork.”

  So we can all rush to our deaths? The question bubbled up from deep inside. It went unasked because Jillybean would only laugh at the question or she would demand to know its basis and if Jenn couldn’t come up with a logical reason—and signs of smoke and crows were far from Jillybean’s sort of logic—she would simply dismiss it.

  “Johanna is smarter than she looks and she’s been a big help. Though you are right, she’s not very loud. She still thinks everyone looks at her like a you know what.” Jenn didn’t like saying the word whore. It sounded mean.

  “Is that right?” Jillybean asked. Jenn nodded reluctantly and Stu shrugged which was the equivalent of an apologetic yes. Jillybean put a hand to her mouth and began tapping her full lips with a finger. “I was thinking about using James Smith, the ex-slave. He’s big and assertive, but he has a bitter edge and probably will for some time. Maybe we can use him as Johanna’s assistant? It might change people’s opinion of her if she’s seen to be in charge, while he needs to have someone with the authority to restrain him, for want of a better word. Hmm, definitely use a better word when you talk to him.”

  “Like what?”

  Jillybean yawned. “You’ll think of something. I know it. Look, I’m dying here. I have to get some sleep.”

  Jenn wished her good night, but it was with a crooked smile. The words “I’m dying” felt like a nail in a coffin.

  The crooked smile had not been missed and its meaning guessed at with amazing perception. She knows, Sadie whispered. She’s seen a sign, or a black cat did a cha-cha along her path.

  A crooked smile, one that matched Jenn’s crossed over Jillybean’s face. She cleared her throat, making an “uh-uh” noise which she hoped would end the conversation. She didn’t like talking to Sadie when anyone was around. She doesn’t know anything, she thought. How could she?

  She knows things. She knew to come here and now she’s right to be afraid to go back.

  Jenn must know you’re going to screw this up, Eve said.

  “I’m not going to screw anything up!” Jillybean snapped before feeling Stu stiffen next to her.

  “Do you want to talk about anything? Maybe God or umbrellas or something?” He always had a lean, long and dusty appearance except when he smiled at her. His obvious affection made him look his age. When she shook her head he ventured, “What about pig farming? Or periscopes?”

  She laughed. “Periscopes? You sound crazy, you know that? People will talk if two crazy people spend too much time together. And besides I’d want to discuss parasols, not periscopes.”

  The dock passed beneath them in silence as they walked to the Saber, Stu wasn’t sure what a parasol was. He knew it was a word from the old days, but couldn’t quite put his mind to it. Jillybean noticed the pause and wished she had chosen a different word.

  “You should’ve gone with penguins,” Sadie said. “Everyone knows what they are.”

  It wasn’t until she saw Stu cast her swift sideways look that she realized that Sadie had said that out loud. “A penguin is a kind of teacup, right?” he asked with such a straight face that she was all set to believe that he really didn’t know what a penguin was when he suddenly burst out in laughter. They were now at the Saber which rode high enough that they had to climb over the rail. Still smiling, Stu sat on the rail as though it were a saddle, before reaching for Jillybean.

  “I’m glad you’re crazy, too,” she said, one leg slung over the rail.

  “I’m crazy for you.” With dead bodies rotting in a cloud of stench not fifty feet away and the moan of lost zombies serenading them, it was the least romantic place in the world and yet it worked. He kissed her softly and she melted into him, their bodies so entwined that not the least drop of moonlight could find its way between them.

  They were kissing still when they heard Mike heading towards them from the warehouse. They both knew it was him by the rambling way in which he walked. Inadvertently he was loud, scuffing his shoes over every break in the concrete, kicking stones or pinecones and even old cans.

  Suddenly embarrassed, the two scurried into the small cabin which Jillybean shared with Jenn. There they were trapped as Mike came aboard, sighed loudly as only he could, and made himself a bed of blankets in what was the direct center of the main cabin. To get past him they would have to step over him and the cabin was so overlaid by shadows that it was impossible to tell which part of the blankets he was under, precisely.

  “It looks like we don’t have any choice,” she said. Stu was pretty sure it was Jillybean in the dark with him right up until she added, “You’re going to have to sleep here with me.”

  Chapter 30

  All through the night, the new shower was in perpetual use. In groups of five, Johanna Murphy roused sleepers, explained the situation and sent them stumbling off to the curtained area where James sent them through in matched pairs.

  He kept a strict watch on the time. Nine minutes was the maximum they were given and five the minimum. People couldn’t get properly clean in less than five minutes. Had the water been warm he would’ve had to flush out many more lingerers that he did. The water was well beyond brisk and he was soon tired of hearing the complaints.

  When he’d been a slave he hadn’t been allowed to complain and he made sure to remind those of them who’d been the most brutal to him of this.

  Complaints were made and Jenn had to step in. This wasn’t the easy going Jenn that the Hill People had taken for granted. This was the queen’s friend who had, up to this point, worked tirelessly in the sweetest mood. Her patience had worn thin, h
owever.

  She took one look at a few of the damp, but still filthy people and ordered them back into the shower. “You’ll go in wearing nothing but chains if I have to hear one more word. People are trying to sleep damn it!”

  If they had been asleep, they weren’t after her explosion which rang from one end of the warehouse to the other. Jenn didn’t regret her outburst for a second because from then on the shower ran smoothly and by morning they were well ahead of schedule and the place was a good deal less foul.

  Jenn slept in brief snatches and wasn’t nearly as bleary-eyed as Jillybean expected when she finally made a late appearance an hour after sunrise. Stu had hung back and came in a few minutes later, no one noticing the skip in his step as he headed for the shower to check on the water pressure.

  “We’re getting low on IVs,” Jenn said. “We got only twenty-two bags left.”

  “Have twenty-two bags left,” Jillybean corrected without thinking. She was walking along the line of patients gazing down at their faces. “That might be enough. We’re going to DC most of these lines. I want each to drink two cups of water before we release them. If they can keep it down it means they’re well on their way to being fine.”

  Jenn’s shoulders slumped from weariness. “DC? Does that mean take the IVs out?”

  “Yes, but the water first.” She glanced around to see who was in attendance and as usual there were a number of people nearby. “Diamond grab a few friends and help Jenn. I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”

  “Twenty minutes?” Jenn grumbled. “Water for two hundred people in twenty minutes?” With ten helpers they were done with one minute to spare as Jillybean came fast marching back. Sometimes it seemed to be the only speed at which she moved.

  She ignored the patients and went right for Jenn, grabbed her hand and went back the way she had come, going just as fast. “Mike has a surprise for you.”