Sanctuary

by Pauline Creeden

  “I’m afraid not. It’s for the best. If he shows symptoms, he could be a danger to you, and if you were to show symptoms…” The sergeant let Jennie draw her own conclusions.

  She nodded, her fingers knotting together in front of her to keep her hands from shaking. Mickey stepped in and started searching through the toys available. The walls were painted with a rainbow of colors and a border made of cute teddy bears holding hands. Jennie couldn’t stop staring at the large mirror hanging on the wall, knowing that they would be watching him from the room on the other side. “Mickey, will you be okay in here for a little bit while I get checked? You’ll be safe, I promise.”

  “Will Alicia and Aaron come in here, too?” He turned over a plastic duck full of building blocks and started arranging them by color without looking up.

  “No, they will be in another room. I’m just making sure you’ll be okay here while I get checked on, too, okay?”

  He nodded agreeably, focused on separating the colors and joining the reds together.

  “I’ll be back in just a little bit, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  She nodded and swallowed the lump down again. The tension in her shoulders made her neck stiff. She had a hard time turning her head either direction. Sgt. White led her down the hallway to the very next door on the right. She led Jennie in and turned on the overhead light. Within, the walls were a plain, windowless white with a white table and two upright plastic chairs. One wall had what Jennie could only assume was another observation mirror. If there were not a small stack of magazines in the center of the table, she would nearly assume the room was for interrogation.

  “Will you need to use the restroom facilities before we begin?”

  She shook her head and sat in the nearest beige chair, her back to the mirror. She did not want to think about the eyes that might be watching her. The plastic pressed cold against her back, making her shiver. A click signaled the closing of the door. The buzzing of the overhead florescent light reminded her of the white noise the aliens made outside, but this was almost more invasive, filling every corner with the constant sound. Without a second thought, she reached for the stack and pulled it toward her. The room must have been specifically for female refugees like herself. The magazines focused on women’s issues, including Marie Claire and Cosmo.

  After looking through the pictures of two magazines, she found she could do nothing more than browse. She couldn’t concentrate enough to read a single article. Gooseflesh rose on her arms because the room’s temperature was just a bit colder than she would have liked. The chair scraped the linoleum tiles as she pushed it back to stand. She paced the room in a circle from corner to corner, counting the number of steps across each side. In her growing boredom, she longed for a clock on the wall.

  Hugh

  HUGH NODDED AND SAT BACK in the orange plastic chair, his hands clasped in front of him. He had only been waiting about five minutes when he began to stare at his own reflection in the mirror. The long rectangular speaker above the mirror spit static before the Colonel’s voice came through. “Mr. Harris, our best men haven’t come up with the same theory you have proposed, but they believe it is worth looking into. In the interest of science, we have decided to keep Bryant in one of these rooms without chair or table. He will be under surveillance for five days along with any other member of your party who shows symptoms during this quarantine.”

  Hugh nodded, hoping he might have saved his new friend’s life. “I can assure you that no other member of our party will need to be kept. I’ve been with each member for over twenty-four hours with the exception of Phillip Bryant.”

  “This is not the time to judge the weight of a man’s words or honesty. There can be no room for error. Therefore, we subject everyone to the same quarantine.”

  “Understood, Colonel.”

  “If you should be released after this short separation, it would be useful to our team if you are willing to join and observe.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good to hear. One hour and forty-five minutes remain. Please rest and relax for that time.”

  Hugh stifled a yawn, nodded, and put his head in his folded arms on the cold plastic table. With his eyes closed, he let the tension leave as he relaxed his shoulders. His mind wandered, visually revisiting the video footage he’d seen and reconsidering the theories that he’d come up with. Could he be wrong?

  He must have dozed off. It seemed almost instantly that he heard a buzzer, and the door opened. Colonel Wesley and an armed MP entered the room. “Mr. Harris, this is Sgt. Liles. He’ll be escorting us to the watch room for Phillip Bryant. His infection has brought on the change. If it’s not something that you’ve experienced fully, it would be good for you to see, scientifically speaking.”

  Hugh nodded, stood, and followed the two camouflage-clad soldiers. His eyes felt dry and itchy, and he wiped a bit of drool from his chin. Even though it had only seemed like seconds, he’d definitely fallen asleep. The narrow hallway had a row of doors to each side, always in pairs, a room for the quarantine, and another for surveillance. Every one of the white doors had a number and a letter in gold lettering on black placards. He walked between the two men as the Colonel approached a door marked 14B.

  He knocked twice and opened it. The wailing struck Hugh before he even stepped inside the room. Within, a dim light exposed two lab-coated men and a woman. Each of them had tall black boots peeking underneath their long smocks and held clipboards in their hands. The wall appeared as a window and could only be the mirror from the other side.

  Phillip had become a full-on wailer. If his skin hadn’t been so very black in color, it would have been as red as his bloodshot eyes. Foam frothed from the corners of his mouth, and he pressed his lips against the mirror in an attempt to bite it. And then there was the moaning. Blood dripped down in rivulets from his head and fleshy pieces of scalp were underneath his fingernails.

  It had been one thing to watch the infected women from a distance, another to see them on television. But this. What Hugh saw now caused a visceral response reminiscent of a punch in the gut. His theories ran out the window, and he felt a combination of pity and fear.

  “We’ve observed from other infected parties that this behavior lasts a full five days. No matter what sort of injuries they incur while in this state, they continue to move and behave as if alive.” The female lab coat was the nearest to him and had begun talking. She was about a full twelve inches shorter and a decade older than Hugh. Her ash-blond hair was pulled back in a tight bun. A blue ink pen poked through it like a hair pin.

  “What happened to the others after five days?”

  “They all died,” the taller of the two men answered with a deep baritone. He pushed his glasses up his nose and wiped his brow. “However, if your theory is correct, they may have died of injuries incurred rather than the disease itself.”

  “Yes,” the woman nodded hard. “Most of the bite victims have huge gaping wounds. They would have easily bled to death if the infection hadn’t caused this strange zombie-like behavior. Additionally, many of the ones we’ve gotten for experimentation were either shot or injured in other, possibly fatal, ways. This specimen appears to be almost uninjured all together.”

  Hugh furrowed his eyebrows at how the scientist called Phillip a specimen. He looked back at the man he could have become friends with if given more time. The quiet strength Phillip possessed had become a terrified panic. His calm demeanor transformed into a contorted chaos of swollen features and bloody scars. But still, Hugh could see the human underneath. Deep in those pupils, Phillip still remained. And as long as he didn’t injure himself in a mortal way, maybe he could be saved. Hugh breathed deep and let the words come out barely above a whisper. “I believe he’ll make it. It’s only five days.”

  Brad

  AS BRAD STOOD AT THE end of the hallway and watched Jennie and her brother reunite on the other end, he changed his mind. He was bored with her. In the close quar
ters of the church, she’d been an interesting way to mess with his brother. But in reality, he could see a relationship with the girl going nowhere. Her virginal ways and empty checking account wouldn’t feed any of his needs. In fact, on the broad expanse of the island military base, he didn’t need to even look his brother in the face again, if he wanted. He turned away and headed for the marked exit.

  The wind greeted him as the door opened out, and the oversized sun dipped low in the sky. Only an hour or so until sunset, he imagined. Out of habit, he pulled out his cell phone, but it had died days ago. And, he had no charger. A crowd of soldiers jogged past, chanting in an even rhythm with their footsteps. Those were people who would likely leave the safety of the compound to fight the battle outside. The losing battle.

  Brad looked around and considered where he might go from here. Behind him, the door squeaked open again. A woman in a lab coat stepped out. Her fire-engine red lipstick stuck out in contrast to her black hair pulled tight in a bun and the common camouflage garb worn by every Tom, Dick, and Harry at the base.

  She had an unlit cigarette dangling from her lips and was rummaging through her purse when she walked right into Brad. She looked up with her amber eyes and smiled wide. Lipstick stuck to her top teeth in a provocative way, and she smiled. “Oh, excuse me.”

  Now this was something interesting.

  HUGH TOOK A DEEP BREATH and tried to roll the tension from his neck. The film over his eyes made it hard to see clearly, and he tried to blink it away so he could watch and stay alert. He yawned, and his jaw clicked.

  “You look pretty tired.” Sgt. Jones smiled and put her petite hand on Hugh’s shoulder. “I know this guy is a friend or something, but he really won’t show any change for a few days. You just got here. Why don’t you go get something to eat and get some sleep? I promise he’ll still be like this in the morning.”

  He snapped his jaw shut and nodded. “You’re right.”

  “Besides, you kinda look like you could use a shower and a change of clothes.”

  Hugh looked down at himself. She was right there, too. Still wearing his sweats, a t-shirt, and the jacket he’d gotten from Pastor Billy, he looked and smelled pretty much like a homeless man. “So where’s the mess hall?”

  Jennie

  JENNIE SIGHED, AND PEERED ABOUT her new quarters. The small room had two twin-sized beds with white sheets, a dresser, and one window. Similar to her dorm room last year. She had planned on moving off-campus, just to get some space, but here she was again, back inside a small, white box.

  “Which bed is mine?” Mickey’s voice shook, peering in. All through dinner, he’d leaned on her and had been afraid to let her go again. Although he’d been brave and didn’t cry during his isolation, he had clung to her when she returned to collect him.

  She smiled. “We could push them together if you want?”

  His eyes grew big and hopeful. “Can we?”

  Without another word, she stepped in and pushed the closest metal frame bed against the other. Mickey giggled and helped as much as his little arms could push. They tumbled on the bed together once finished and wrestled. Jennie held her brother close and smiled at him because she knew that’s what he needed from her—reassurance. He needed someone to make him at least feel like everything was going to be okay, that someone was looking out for him. Jennie stared up at the ceiling and felt the gnawing at her gut. She had to be his parent now, not just his big sister. Could she do that for him? She had to; there was no one else. She shifted and sighed. There was no one there to smile at her, to put an arm around her, and to make her feel like everything would be okay. She sat up and looked down at his trusting eyes. This was her new life. She would have to figure out how to do this parenting thing… alone.

  The half-lit sun in the sky outside their second-floor window shone in their faces. Even in its dim, dappled light, she needed to squint her eyes. She stood up and went to the window. Outside, only a street stood between her and the huge boulders that lined the shore of the Chesapeake Bay. A lone seagull danced back and forth in the wind like a kite, never rising or falling much, and making no progress forward.

  No wailers. No Shisa. She could really use a walk, some kind of freedom. After she took a deep breath, she asked, “Do you want to go outside?”

  Mickey stood on the bed. The white sheets and light brown blankets rustled underneath him. “Can I ask Alicia and Aaron to come?”

  She smiled. “Sure, why not?”

  THE WIND BLEW JENNIE’S HAIR in her face the moment she stepped outside, and she pulled a tendril of it from the corner of her mouth. Had they really only been there a few hours? The lapping of the waves on the shore and the roaring of the wind almost completely drowned out the droning of the aliens. She couldn’t help but strain her ear for the possibility of a wailer.

  Her shoulders tensed, and she followed the children toward the rocky shore. She glanced about, never relaxing. This wasn’t like family trips to the beach she remembered, where she’d lay in the sun, oblivious to everything and her mom constantly on her feet, peering out in whichever direction her brother had run.

  The three children walked along the crags and sandy cracks, looking for seashells. Under the overwhelming fresh, salty odor of the breeze, the smell of dead fish still wafted in occasionally. But it was so faint, and so infrequent, it was forgettable. And Jennie determined to forget it.

  On the horizon, a large boat barely moved in the choppy waves, and more seagulls danced in the late afternoon sun. “Hey!” a voice called behind her.

  Mr. Harris jogged across the street toward her with a goofy grin on his face. Her eyebrows rose, and she said, “Uh, hi.”

  His hair was wet, and he no longer wore the t-shirt and grey sweatpants. Instead he wore a light brown jacket, an Army hoodie, and jeans. The Converse hi-tops remained. “I thought I’d go for a walk. Is that what y’all are doing?”

  Jennie shrugged. “Kind of. I just wanted to be outside now that I could be, you know?”

  He nodded. “Definitely. I know.”

  For a few moments, they stood in silence, watching the three children collect their seashells. The oversized sun dipped low in the sky and drew an orange line across the water. “So where did you get the clothes?”

  He tilted his head. “They opened up the chapel for donations and supplies to refugees. Pastor Billy and his wife are there.”

  “Really? I wonder if they need any help.” The idea genuinely appealed to Jennie; she hated being idle when others were working.

  “Most likely.”

  She eyed Mr. Harris and wondered at how this seemingly nice guy couldn’t get along with his brother. The man next to her didn’t seem to be the violent, steal-your-woman type, but what did she know? It really wasn’t any of her business, anyway, was it? She was too tired to think about all that right now anyway.

  The tension in her neck loosened, and she yawned. For the first time in days, she felt like she actually might be able to get real sleep. But, she’d want to stop at the chapel first and talk to the Crawfords. “Hey, Mickey, are you guys ready to go?”

  “Can’t we stay just a little longer? Alicia found five seashells, and Aaron only has three.”

  “I guess, but we need to go when the sun goes down, okay?”

  “Okay.” Her little brother never even looked up.

  “Are you guys settling in okay?” Mr. Harris asked. His voice was serious, and his eyes sparkled in the fading sun.

  Did he really want to know? “The room’s about the size of the dorm I had last year. Only now, I’m doing it as a single mom. I don’t think I ever realized all the things my parents worried or thought about each day. Now, it’s all on me in the middle of the end of the world.”

  Mr. Harris looked her in the eyes and smiled. “You’re a smart, young woman. The fact that you worry about this shows it matters. He’s lucky to have you.”

  Jennie swallowed the lump in her throat. She wasn’t sure if he really meant it or was ju
st being nice, but the reassurance was still good to hear. She stifled another yawn.

  He yawned in response. “Thanks a lot.”

  Jennie laughed. It felt good. “I doubt either of us has slept much lately.”

  “That’s for sure.”

  She glanced up at him and shivered. It wasn’t just because of the breeze. She remembered why they all called him Hot Mr. Harris and being this close to him made it difficult to look Hugh in the eyes. Jennie swallowed and let her thoughts turn toward the last few days. “Do you think we’ll really be safe here?” Her voice shook.

  His hands were on her shoulders, draping his jacket over them. It was the kind of thing guys did in old movies. None of the college boys she had gone out with would have even noticed she was cold. The heat from his body still radiated within the coat. She turned and looked into his soft but worried brown eyes. A frown tugged at the corner of his mouth. “As safe as we can be, I guess. But honestly, I don’t know if we’ll ever be safe until those things leave.”

  She nodded, pulled the jacket tighter around herself, and watched the children. The jacket held his masculine scent mixed with cologne or deodorant. Yes, he was right. Even in the warmth of his coat, she shivered again. “Thank you, for the jacket…and for not lying to me.”

  His hand still rested on her right shoulder, and she took comfort in it.

  “Okay, we’re ready to go!” Mickey jumped up, and the threesome ran toward them.

  She laughed.

  Hugh knelt down to their level and said, “Hey Mickey, Alicia, and Aaron. Did you guys get enough seashells, then?”

  Mickey smiled wider. “We each got six!”

  “Awesome!” Hugh stuck a hand in Mickey’s direction. “Give me five.”

  They slapped hands all around, and Jennie just shook her head. She shrugged the jacket from her shoulders and handed it back to Mr. Harris. “Thanks again for the jacket. See you around?”