Humans Only: A Jake Dani Novel (Jake Dani/Mike Shapeck Book 2)

by Victory Crayne

  I got a tag from Dr. Newton in the evening.

  “We don’t have any vaccine yet and when we do, we’ll vaccinate the staff first. How are you holding up?”

  “We won't be needing it. Two of us have come down sick. Symptoms look like VB.”

  She paused before saying, “Oh. I'm sorry to hear that.”

  Chapter 35

  We spent another day trying to entertain ourselves. Ron and I spent several hours treating our Snaps to the drilling, filing, and acid baths.

  The next day, Leanna could hardly move. This was her third day of being ill.

  I didn’t want her breath to be taken in by everyone in the dorm so Ron and I wore breathing masks as we moved her bunk bed into the small storage room.

  Since Vincent’s bed was in there, we moved it to the dining room. It was a squeeze, but we made more room by transferring cans to the kitchen floor and removing two rows of shelves.

  Vincent said, “But if she moves into the storage room, I won’t be able to see her.”

  “She’ll be close by and you can visit her any time.”

  He said, “You’ve given up on her already.”

  “Vincent, this is the stage where she is the most contagious. I have to think of the rest of us. You can spend as much time by her as you like as long as you wear full body protection. And no kissing of any kind.”

  He looked at me, closed his eyes, and nodded.

  Ron moved a telly into her small room from the kitchen and put it on the wall opposite her head so she could watch movies. That meant we had two tellies left. One in the planning room where Zetto slept and the second in the dorm. Vincent brought Leanna her food at meal times. He wanted to check on her every five minutes but I wouldn't let him.

  “Let her rest.”

  We watched a lot of comedies. Anything to get our minds off the depressing situation.

  Zetto reported not feeling well. Ron came to his bedside every couple of minutes and yelled, “Breathe!”

  The startled Zetto took a deep breath.

  The aura of depression hung heavy. With two people ill, we had a death sentence hanging over us.

  One day I noticed Monk seemed to sleep a lot, a sign of VB. Or maybe it was the cat part of him. He seemed to be energetic enough at meal time though and he still went to the toilet by himself.

  At lunch one time, I asked Ron and Vincent, “How are you feeling?”

  Vincent shrugged. “No problems.”

  “Ron?”

  “Same here. How about you?”

  I replied, “Nothing.”

  Vincent suggested, “All three of us have Binger DNA. Do you suppose our stronger immune systems could be what's protecting us?”

  Hmm. Leanna and Zetto had no Binger DNA and were the only ones here to get sick. If you didn’t count Monk. I had spent so little time with him I didn’t know his habits yet.

  #

  On the morning of the fourth day, Leanna got worse.

  Even though she claimed she was wide awake, her eyelids said otherwise. She spoke slowly and with much effort.

  “Vin, I’m gonna die.”

  “Not on my shift, you’re not!” I exclaimed.

  That brought a short-lived smile from her.

  “Hon, please hang in there,” said Vincent. “Think of Alena. She needs your guidance.”

  With labored breathing, Leanna replied, “No. She’s an adult now. Set on her own path in life. She doesn’t need…my guidance. I can support her…but not guide her anymore.”

  “Let’s have no more talk of dying. You’re sick now but you’ll survive,” I said.

  She looked her husband in the eyes. “Vincent, I want you to find another wife. You need someone to love you.”

  “Easier said than done,” he replied with a half-laugh. “In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t have real legs.”

  Leanna gasped for air. “That doesn’t matter. You found me, didn’t you?” She gasped again. “I don’t have long. Promise me you’ll look for another wife.”

  Vincent looked down. I saw his body jerk. He was crying and trying not to show it.

  Leanna reached out to him but he didn’t notice.

  “Vincent,” I said. “She’s trying to touch you.”

  Not me, damn it. You.

  A lump grew in my throat.

  Vincent looked up. His eyes were red and watery but he reached out to grab her hand.

  I said, “I think you two need to be alone.” I left the storage room and walked into the kitchen. Thank heavens it was empty.

  I looked around for something to do and saw the sink had dirty dishes. So I rinsed each dish of any food scraps and placed it in it the warm soapy water. That kept me busy for ten minutes. To conserve energy we didn’t use an automatic dishwasher. The power company had asked everyone to help since they were understaffed.

  “Jake?” came Vincent’s voice behind me.

  I turned around. I could see he had trouble forming words. Something about his appearance told me the worst had come.

  “Is she gone?” I asked.

  He nodded. Then he puckered up and squeezed his eyes shut.

  I closed the distance between us and held him in my arms. He sobbed on my shoulder. I wished I could join him but I was the boss. Somebody had to be strong. So I postponed my own reaction.

  #

  An hour later, I called for a meeting in the planning room, otherwise known as Zetto’s bedroom.

  “I think the worst is over but to be sure, we should stay here for one more day.”

  “It should have been me,” said Vincent. “I’d give anything if I had gotten it and not her.”

  I looked him in the eyes. “You did all you could. You said yourself it may be our Binger DNA that helps us.

  We watched the news when it came on the fourth wall.

  Channel One’s anchorman spoke. “Sheila Fish couldn’t be here today. She’s sick and is staying home. She refused to have a camera in her bedroom. We wish her the best of luck.”

  He was silent for five seconds, an eternity on television. He looked at his monitors, unable to speak.

  Like thousands of viewers, I hoped Sheila would survive.

  The scene changed to show a street view. Cars and trucks filled the streets. At least commerce was moving again.

  A small crowd marched outside the Parliament Building with signs that read, “Stop the virus. Stop HO!” and “We’ve had enough!”

  Too bad it took the threat of death to get people to wake up.

  Zetto managed to keep breathing. Ron helped him go to the bathroom. I locked the storage room and wouldn't let anyone go in there.

  “What's the point?” Ron asked. “We need food from there. Zetto probably has it. The virus is in every room by now.”

  I nodded and unlocked the door. Ron and I put sheets over Leanna’s body and fastened them with clips. Ron retrieved a dozen cans. He passed each under a blast of filtered air and radiation, turning each can over several times. The larger freezer was in the kitchen, packed full of food for such an emergency.

  Vincent spent several hours in the storage room before he came out. His head hung the lowest I'd ever seen.

  I went to the dining room and tagged Alena at the mercon embassy.

  She was excited. “They get me everything I ask for. These guys are great! I have a full lab set up here. So far, I've confirmed that humans and mercons have DNA in common.”

  My silence made her pause.

  “How's Mom?”

  That damned familiar lump formed in my throat and my eyes watered. I bowed my head and put my forehead on my right palm.

  “She came down with the virus.”

  Silence.

  “How's she holding up?”

  When I didn't—no, couldn't—answer, she yelled in my ear.

  “Dad! Tell me she's okay!”

  I struggled to say, “She didn't make it.”

  This time a longer silence came.

  “Are you okay?” she as
ked with a quivering voice.

  I nodded and realized she couldn't see that. “Yeah, I'm okay. No symptoms. Vincent has a theory that Binger DNA means a stronger immune system. Which suggests you may be safe.”

  “Who's with you?” she asked.

  “Ron's here. And Vincent. And Zetto. Zetto is sick, I'm afraid.”

  “Will you have someone call me if….”

  “Yes. I'll have Ron or Vincent tag you if I get it. You should get vaccinated as soon as possible.”

  Then she broke down. I waited to the sounds of sobs.

  I wish I could put my arms around my daughter.

  She recovered enough to ask, “When?”

  “An hour ago.”

  “Did she…?”

  “No, she didn't suffer. She must have felt exhausted at the end and must have just given up.”

  God damned VB!

  “Dad! Can I…?”

  “No, you stay there. You're safer there. I'll visit you as soon as I can.”

  “Call me if there are any developments,” she said.

  “Okay.”

  “Oh, Gliituk said I should tell you the mercons seem to be immune. No mercon in the embassy or outside it has caught the virus.”

  “That’s interesting. Thank you.”

  The next day, Zetto reported he felt better. That's when Ron told him about Leanna. Which may not have been the best time. Zetto became depressed.

  “Zetto, it looks like you're going to be okay,” I said. “What happened to Leanna won't happen to you. You're gonna make it.”

  I have to give him credit. He tried to put on a happy face. Which wasn't easy since his facial muscles were still weak.

  Monk spent more time in my lap, wanting petting. Or maybe I needed him.

  There was a small freezer in the storage room. Ron and I studied it but couldn't figure out a way to get Leanna's body in the small space. She would have to stay under the sheets on her bed.

  The only good news was the crisis was over. We could leave the ops center. Except Leanna.

  I tagged the police but with so many deaths, I had to wait a long time to get through. Their dispatcher finally said, “Sorry, fella. The morgue is overloaded and won't accept any bodies except those who died by violence. The cemeteries have large pits for those who have died from VB. I’ll have a truck come by your place. Where are you?”

  I didn’t want to give him our address.

  “Where are the pits?” I asked.

  He gave me three locations, all in the south end of Zor.

  I asked Ron if he’d help me take Leanna’s body to one of them. Zetto wasn’t feeling strong yet and Vincent couldn’t help.

  I approached Vincent. “We’re going to take Leanna’s body. Do you want to say goodbye?”

  He nodded, went into the storage room, and closed the door.

  Ron and I waited a long time for him to come out.

  “Hungry?” I asked.

  “Nah,” he replied.

  “Me neither.”

  Vincent came into the kitchen.

  “You can take her now.”

  Ron and I put on rubber gloves and moved to the storage room. He carried one end of her bag and I the other. Vincent held the front door open and looked at the white sheet over her body as we carried her out.

  We carried the bag up the stairs and into the back of our van. I gave Chima the address of a burial pit. When we got there we saw a truck raise its container at the edge of a pit. When we got out, a man with a rifle and dressed in HazMat green came out.

  “Where are your masks?” he said through his light blue face mask.

  Dang. I forgot.

  Ron smirked and whispered.

  “Let’s see you get out of this one.”

  “Don’t have any,” I replied to the man.

  He sighed, went to his car, and brought back a dozen masks and handed them to me. “Dump the bag here and leave. We’ll take care of it. Who is it anyway?”

  “His wife.”

  That got a pause from Ron. He quickly recovered, put on his sad face, and lowered his head.

  As Chima drove away, he said, “My wife?”

  “Now we’re even.”

  A grin spread over his face.

  As he drove our van away, I looked out the back window. I hated to leave her in a mass burial.

  As the burial site got smaller in the distance, I realized I would never see her again.

  Goodbye, Lee.

  Chapter 36

  When we got back to the ops center, nobody spoke much. Each kept to himself. Leanna was gone from our lives.

  Zetto yelled from the planning room, “Hey, guys. The vaccine has arrived!”

  Ron, Vincent, and I rushed into the main room and scrambled to sit in chairs.

  On the far wall was the rectangular view of the Channel One newsroom. Across the bottom of the screen scrolled the words “Vaccine arrives at Meda.”

  A young woman sat behind the desk where I expected to see Sheila. She wore a blue low-cut dress with short sleeves. Despite her long wavy black hair, perhaps made to mimic the style of Sheila, it was obvious to me she was someone else.

  “This news break just came in. We take you to our reporter on the island of Meda at the Space Elevator.”

  Two men dressed in green HazMat suits lugged a gray metallic case between them. White “smoke” poured down from the case as they walked toward the camera between rows of police dressed in black, rifles pointed upward. They faced the outside of the rows but I saw faces turn as the men walked by.

  In the background, I noticed the exit doors from the bottom of the Space Elevator.

  The next thing I saw was the case with two humans carrying it between them. All three boarded a small gray jet plane with the words York Air Force above the windows.

  The scene moved upward to show two military jets as they roared overhead.

  A male reporter came into view, wearing a white face mask. Nothing below his face showed on the camera but his hair blew in the wind. He spoke with a microphone held close to his mask.

  “A case containing two hundred doses of the VB vaccine and two large tubes of the active virus arrived at the bottom of the Space Elevator this afternoon. A military jet is standing by to whisk the virus and vaccine to the Zor-Franken Airport.”

  Prime Minister Pierre Klava held himself erect in front of a dark blue curtain and behind a podium. The York flag was visible behind him.

  “I have ordered a police escort from the airport for the two men and their valuable cargo of Viral Botulism and vaccine. Orion Pharmaceuticals and Omar-Kadish Pharmaceuticals are standing by to receive the live virus and will prepare additional vials of the vaccine. The first two hundred doses of the vaccine will go to medical personnel who treat the sick. Officials from Orion and Omar-Kadish told me it would take two days to prepare the first vials of vaccine. Please don’t call them. They’ll be busy.

  “When police and military personnel are vaccinated, I will lift the curfew and martial law.”

  The view changed to show the young woman as she spoke to the darker skinned man next to her. “Any news on Sheila Fish?”

  He replied, “I’m afraid not.” He turned to the camera.

  “Next is our coverage of your local news.”

  The scene changed to show a woman racing down the gray steps in front of a glass building. A car pulled up in front of her and she stopped to look at it. Another car commercial. The wall went all white again before it got further.

  Zetto was the first to raise his left thumb up and yell, “Yeah!”

  Ron and I joined him.

  “The crisis is over,” I said. “And Zetto is feeling better.”

  Ron, Zetto, and I looked at Vincent, whose head remained bowed.

  Can't say I blame him.

  “I'm declaring the quarantine over. Anyone can leave at any time. Ruta, disregard my previous instructions on locking the operations center. Maintain normal security.”

  That should hav
e brought smiles to every face, but it didn’t.

  “Now we have to think about the future. Vincent, what do we know about the Humans Only headquarters?”

  Ron broke a smile. I looked at him and nodded.

  Yes, we’re going on a B&E.

  Vincent looked up.

  “Why there?”

  “Those bastards took Leanna and killed thousands more in the city. We need more evidence of their complicity and that’s the best place to get it.”

  After a pause, I added, “Besides, we owe it to her.”

  Ron and Zetto moved their heads up and down. Vincent stared at the floor but said nothing.

  #

  This time luck was our side. Mourtan Security had the contract for security at the Alton Building where Humans Only had offices. The snag came when Vincent found the HO office used the highest level of Mourtan Security.

  Even though I owned most of the shares of Mourtan, I was reluctant to pull my weight to get the HO plans. But we had to get in there.

  I tagged Andy using our security encryption.

  “Hi, Andy. How are you doing?”

  “As well as could be expected with half my workers gone on sick leave.”

  “You?”

  “No. Neither grandma or me is sick.”

  “Andy, I need to gain access to your security at the Alton Building. Specially the HO offices. Can you tag Elsie to give me access?”

  Elsie Mourtan was his grandmother and the firm got its name from her.

  “Why? What do you want to do there?”

  “Do you really want me to tell you?”

  “Hmm. Maybe not. I'll tell grandma.”

  Vincent and I waited for twenty minutes before I tried to access the HO security on the computer in the ops center. Sure enough, I got in easily. Vincent copied the floor plans and the security plans to our ops center computer.

  We studied the plans and went over seven different routes of access. HO rented the entire sixth floor, which made it easier. If we could get into one office, we could access all of them.

  Ron stole a van and he and I spray painted the outside to hide its label of Keller’s Grocery. Then both of us removed our stained white painter’s clothing and put on our casual wear. Ron wore blue jeans, white shirt, and black shoes. I had on brown slacks, white T-shirt, brown sweater, and black shoes.