Poveglia (After the Cure Book 4)

by Deirdre Gould

  “What about the lives beyond the City? Aren’t they worth something too?” asked Dan, his face reddening, “If you don’t quarantine the City, then the people outside will be infected too.”

  The Governor stood up straight, his face a gray, hard snarl, a stone gargoyle of fury. “No. The people outside the Barrier are not worth what my own are. I bled for my people, as they have done for me. Hundreds of men’s lives paid for theirs. This City is precious. We’ve held it this long because we haven’t resorted to raiding and barbarism like the people outside. Those people are animals. They aren’t even akin to us. Their fate is not my concern.”

  “But there are people from the City out there, people who were cured by the City’s doctors and who worked and lived here for years. They have friends here, family. They are especially vulnerable because our people will seek them out—”

  “Yes, they were cured by us. They ate our food and took the supplies we worked so hard to produce and then they abandoned us. Don’t talk to me about those traitors. It should be them that are getting sick, it should be them that have to figure out how to survive. Even if there is one Immune left in the City— if there is one seed of civilization that comes from here, I’m not killing it to save those wretches at the Cured colony. I’m not giving up on this City, not when we’ve sacrificed so much. The Plague didn’t wipe us out before, and it’s not going to now. We’re going to contain it. We’re going to beat it. And we’re going to survive.”

  “Yeah,” said Paul, “We survived the last time. But look where we are, sir. You’re so proud of what we’ve done to survive, what we’ve sacrificed. Look around you, what do we have to show for it all? We have a tiny population that’s so demoralized that we have to have a government department to remind them to breed. We have the most rudimentary of medicines, a communication infrastructure from a century ago, and not even enough electricity or clean water to service our small needs. We’re taking kids, like Tom here, and insurance agents and housewives, people who’ve never had any training, and we’re handing them guns and telling them to patrol the Barrier. We’re hanging on by a fingernail, Governor. And we had the Cure last time, to save us from succumbing to an unending war. What have we got left to give? Who’ve we got left to sacrifice? There’s nothing left. We’re dying. The people outside have a chance to continue on. You want to honor the people who’ve already given their lives? Then save those people, so something, some shred of what we were, goes on. Those people aren’t traitors, they left to better their lives. They didn’t steal anything, and whatever the City gave them, they returned in years of labor. The Cured are just as deserving as the rest of us to survive.”

  “They abandoned us!” shouted the Governor, “Just like the capitol, just like the rest of the world. The rest of the world will burn before I sentence my own citizens to imprisonment and death. If we have to retreat and start over somewhere new, then we will. If we have to test everyone and expel the Infected outside the Barrier before they turn, then we will. Nothing and nobody matter like the people of this City.Thank you gentlemen— and lady, for your concern. Now please report to the hospital to be cleared.”

  Paul shook his head.

  “Sir, if I could—” began Dan.

  “Stevens!” shouted the Governor over him. They didn’t wait for Stevens to show up and escort them out. When they got to the front porch they found a truck waiting for them.

  “Shit,” swore Paul quietly, “I told you we were going to be arrested.”

  Two soldiers got off the truck. They were wearing gas masks but not full biosuits. Sevita wondered if they’d run out of suits or just weren’t taking the threat as seriously as before. Either way, it was bad news. “We have orders to take you to the hospital,” said one of the soldiers, “Please don’t make this harder than it is.”

  Dan nodded and led the way into the back of the truck. Sevita sank onto the wooden bench, in some way almost relieved that the situation was out of their hands now. She was exhausted. She could see the weariness in the others too. They were already defeated. What did it matter what happened when they were gone? She could barely summon enough energy to even be worried about Christine. It was over. They’d go to the hospital, test positive for the disease and get shot or shoved out of the City or sit in a cell waiting for a cure that was never coming.

  Sixteen

  The hospital was almost empty, most halls completely unlit. They were taken into the labs where a lone nurse fumbled through her protective gear to administer a blood test. Then they were taken to the top floor. Dan shuddered as he walked down the same hall he’d patrolled just a month before. The glass cells of the quarantine ward were all empty, but three, Ned Glist and the nurse from the prison were tied to their gurneys, and the unfortunate Mr. Ryan lay in a drugged sleep in his own cell, the bites from Glist now dark curving lines of stitches.

  “Do we have to be in separate cells?” asked Paul.

  “It’s for your own safety,” said the guard. “If one of you turns, you could do serious damage to one another.”

  “None of us is symptomatic, and we don’t even know for sure if we’re Infected. We’ve all been exposed to the same things, so there’s no risk of us catching it from each other.”

  The guard hesitated. “Why would you want to? You’d have to share a bed and a toilet.”

  Sevita didn’t know why Paul wanted them to stay together either, but she knew there must be a plan. She slid an arm around Paul’s back and twisted Christine’s ring on her finger so that it caught the hospital’s dim light. “We just got married,” she said, with a shy smile. She felt Paul jump a little, but he recovered before the guard noticed.

  “That’s right,” he said, “what’s the harm, huh? We’re going to be cleared in a few days anyway, and it’ll make the time go faster if we’re together.”

  “All right, I guess it can’t hurt, you two can stay together.”

  “Bu—” started Paul. Sevita pressed her foot down on his to stop him from pushing their luck. The guard put Tom into his cell first, and then Dan. Sevita memorized the room numbers as they passed. After Dan’s room was a storage closet, and then their cell. She waited until the guard locked the door and walked away.

  “What’s the plan?” she asked quietly.

  “I don’t know. I wanted us all to be together so we could figure it out.”

  “He wasn’t going to go for that.”

  “I know,” said Paul. “At least one of us can be a lookout. But not right now. Right now we all need some sleep. You can have the bed, I’ll take the chair.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” said Sevita.

  “I don’t sleep well no matter where I am these days, one of us might as well be fully rested. I hope Dan goes to sleep.”

  “Me too,” yawned Sevita, “He seems to be fraying around the edges. Can’t blame him, he must be missing his wife.” She climbed onto the bed and looked longingly at the dead phone. Even if it worked, she couldn’t have called the bunker. Her heart ached as if it were hungry. It was a starving, needling pain. She shut her eyes and breathed in the scent of hospital soap on the linens. It soothed her a little, the smell of Christine’s ambulance and her scrubs when she’d come home at night. She fell asleep trying not to cry in front of Paul.

  Paul was sweating and gripping the arms of the chair when she woke up. The sky stained the room a light pink and she wondered if they’d slept through the day. She got up and touched his shoulder. He woke with a start.

  “Sorry,” she said, “it looked like a bad dream.”

  He leaned forward and passed his hands over his face. “Thanks,” he said, “it was.” He stood up and turned on the small sink. “Electric’s still on here, that’s good.” He splashed his face with cool water. It was a poor substitute for the pool, but it helped a little. “Dan said your wife works here.”

  “She does, down in the emergency room.”

  “Do you know anything about this floor?” he asked looking up at a
vent.

  Sevita shrugged. “Just that they kept Dr. Pazzo up here and everyone who was on the courtroom floor. And everyone who searched the prison, too.”

  “Are there any hospital codes we can use to call all the guards away?”

  “Not that I know of. Besides, these phones don’t connect to the intercom and it doesn’t look like there was anyone at reception working the switchboard. Why?”

  Paul was scraping a fingernail along the edge of the air vent. “Because it will be easier to escape if the guards aren’t here.”

  “Escape? Escape and do what? You heard the Governor, he’s not going to close off the City.”

  “Then we’ll do it ourselves. Here, help me push the gurney underneath this vent.”

  Sevita rolled the hospital bed into place and then bent to lock the wheels. “How are four people supposed to take out a heavily manned gate, a few dozen boats and a large tunnel?”

  “Keep watch while I do this,” said Paul. Sevita tried to look casual as she leaned against the glass wall of the cell. Paul pulled a small utility knife from a pocket and began unscrewing the vent. Sevita was glad they’d only confiscated the firearms and left them largely unsearched.

  “I saw a few sticks of dynamite left when I did supply duty last week, and a few grenades, but nothing else that would really be useful. I mean, there’s the heavy stuff, but I don’t want to hurt our men if we can help it. If we can break Dan out, then he can get us into the armory without drawing much attention. We can use the dynamite for the Smuggler’s Entrance, at least. We’ll make sure it’s clear first. The dynamite will collapse the concrete in large chunks. Without power tools, it would take someone several days to chop through it or climb over.”

  “That’s not very long,” said Sevita.

  Paul shrugged. “Might be long enough to discourage people from trying. That’s the best we can hope for. I mean, this was never meant to be permanent, right? Just prevent an exodus.”

  Sevita nodded. “That leaves the boats in the harbor and the gate. We’re going to have to wait until night to hit the boats, to make sure the fishermen are all in.”

  “We could just unmoor them and hope the tide takes them out before morning.”

  “Too risky. If it didn’t take them far enough, then someone could still swim out and retrieve them, and then they’d know something was up.”

  “Anyone coming?” asked Paul.

  “No, all clear.”

  He pulled the vent cover down and laid it on the bed. “Well,” he said, shining his small flashlight into the space, “that leaves sinking them somehow.”

  “They’ll just be repaired within hours. At least, with the amount of damage we could do before getting caught. They have to be destroyed. Burned maybe?”

  Paul put the vent cover back, carefully screwing it back in. “That could work if we had enough flammable material. A nice big tank of ethanol or something. Maybe Margie’s.”

  “You’re going to find ethanol in a bakery?” asked Sevita in disbelief.

  Paul chuckled. “Margie’s is more than a bakery. Don’t tell me you don’t know about the brewery.”

  “Aren’t you guys supposed to stop that kind of thing?”

  “I’m not police force anymore. Besides, a little moonshine isn’t so bad, not these days. But she’s not going to just give it to us either.”

  “If the worst thing we do is steal a few jugs of alcohol, we won’t have done our job,” said Sevita. “Anyway, It sounds like a good place to start. It’s the easiest to get to and we can use the fires as a distraction while we take out the smuggler’s entrance and the main gate. Guard coming.”

  Paul jumped down from the bed. “How many?”

  “Just the one. Rolling a food cart.”

  “Wearing a biosuit?”

  “Aren’t they all?”

  “Perfect.” He grabbed the pillowcase from the bed and handed it to Sevita. “Follow my lead and be ready to gag the guard.”

  She leaned against the side wall, hiding the pillowcase in one hand behind her back. Paul draped an arm around her shoulder. The guard came into view and the glass cell door opened. The guard wheeled her cart into the doorway and pulled off two cafeteria trays. She entered the room to put them on the side table. Just as she was setting them down Paul grinned loosely and said, “Hey, can I ask you for some extra salt?”

  Startled, the guard looked around as Paul approached her. “Mind if I check your cart?” he asked, not waiting for permission but circling around her and peering into the cart. Sevita started casually toward her as the guard turned to Paul.

  “I’m sorry sir,” came the muffled response, “I don’t have any extra condiments today, but I can make a note. Sevita was behind her now. Paul nodded. Sevita wasn’t certain if it were at her or the guard. She lifted the pillow case above her head. The guard hesitated, about to turn.

  “You’re going to be handling our meals?” asked Paul and the guard refocused on him.

  “Sure as long as you’re— you’re okay.”

  Paul was nodding again. “That’s great, so whatever we tell—”

  Sevita plunged the pillowcase down over the guard’s mask and Paul pushed her backward while she was blinded. She fell onto the bed, knocking both the mask and the pillowcase from her face. Paul didn’t waste time, covering her mouth with his hand.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, “but if you scream, I’ll have to.”

  The guard was flailing, still fighting. “Check the hallway, Sevita,” said Paul and she ran to peer out.

  “Still empty, but the guard at the end is going to notice the cart is not moving soon.”

  “Come here and take her biosuit. Get it on as fast as you can.”

  The guard shook her head violently. “Listen,” said Paul, his hand still pressed over her mouth, “We aren’t any more sick than you. You aren’t going to get infected from us. But we can’t stay. You’re going to be okay. We’re just taking the suit and in a few minutes, the other guard is going to come let you out. You understand?”

  A few tears spilled out of the corner of the guard’s eyes, but she nodded.

  “I can tie you up or I can put you out, but I can’t have you scream. If you cooperate, I’ll just tie you up, got it?”

  Sevita peeled the rest of the suit from the guard’s legs and began putting it on. Paul sat the guard up and rifled through the small nightstand with one hand. He pulled out a small pile of cloth bandages and balled one up.

  “I’m really sorry about this,” he said. The woman was crying hard now. “It’s going to be okay.” He gently opened her mouth and blocked it with the bandage, gently tying another around her head to keep it in. He pulled the head of the bed up and began strapping her arms and legs onto it. Sevita zipped up the suit and pushed the helmet down over her face. It was a little tight, but it covered her head.

  “Roll that cart in here before the guard gets suspicious,” Paul told her as he finished tying the woman’s feet. Sevita grabbed the lunch cart and rolled it quietly into the room, wincing as glasses lightly chimed and knocked each other as they bumped over the threshold. Paul pulled a privacy curtain around the gurney so that the woman couldn’t be seen from outside the room.

  “Let’s go,” said Paul, “You lead. If anyone asks, the blood tests got messed up and you’re taking us to the lab to repeat them.”

  “I’m not going to fool anyone—” Sevita protested.

  “You’re going to be fine. Take a deep breath. If you act like you belong in that uniform, people will believe it.”

  Sevita took a deep breath and then stepped calmly into the hallway. It was still clear. She pressed the door’s keypad and the glass slid shut behind Paul. “Get Dan,” she said as they passed the storage closet and she hurried to Tom’s room. She could hear footsteps on the far stairs.

  “Hurry,” she hissed to Paul. He and Dan fell into place behind her just as the other guard came around the corner. Sevita hit the button for Tom’s
room. The guard’s face mask was turned toward her. She pretended she didn’t see. “Tom Barnes?” she said. Tom nodded, unsure what was happening. “Lab needs to retest, come with me, please.”

  She could see the guard’s face mask turn back toward the hallway as he passed them by. She let out her breath as Tom came out of the room.

  “What’s going on?” he whispered to Paul.

  “Tell you later,” Paul whispered back. Sevita led them past the nursing station where another guard was leaned lazily back in her seat, trying to read a paperback through the misty glass of her mask. She ignored Sevita. They climbed down the back stair.

  “Wait,” said Paul, stopping on an unlit hall, “stay here, this is where we got the spare suits last time.” He darted into the dark hallway, pulling out his small flashlight.

  “What’s going on?” asked Tom. Sevita pulled her mask up and winked at him. Dan grinned. Paul rejoined them and they proceeded down to the dark parking garage.

  Sevita told them the plan while the others climbed back into the uncomfortable vinyl suits.

  “What about the main gate? It’s huge. And protected. How are we going to take that out?” asked Tom.

  “What about the grenades?” asked Sevita.

  Paul shook his head. “Won’t really do much to the structure. Especially in the open like that.”

  “We’re going to have to ram it,” said Dan.

  “With what?” asked Tom. “They’ll just move any vehicles we crash into it.”

  “Then we need to get a vehicle too big for them to move or one that will collapse the gate completely.”

  “There’s the Abrams sitting at the airport.”

  “What about fuel, though? We need to make it the three miles to the gate and still have enough left for a good ram or an explosion.”

  Tom shrugged. “Can’t hurt to look. Most times it’s only that mechanic, Jenkins out there, and he sleeps through most of his shifts.”

  Seventeen