by Greg Bear
Mitch spread a sleeping bag on the floor behind a big leather couch and took down an empty hanging pot, then slung the bag of Ringer’s solution, inserted the long, clear plastic tube into the bag, opened the butterfly clamp, let the clear fluid push through the tube and drip from the needle. Kaye lay Stella on the bag, tapped her arm to bring up a vein, poked in the needle, strapped it to the girl’s arm with medical tape.
Stella could barely move.
“She should be in a hospital,” Kaye said, kneeling beside her daughter.
Mitch looked down on them both, hands opening and closing helplessly. “In a better world,” he said.
“There is no goddamned better world,” Kaye said. “Never has been, never will be. There’s just ‘suffer the little children.’”
“That’s not what that means,” Mitch said.
“Screw it, then,” Kaye said. “I hope I know what the hell I’m doing.”
“Her head hurts,” Mitch said.
“She has aseptic meningitis. I’m going to bring the swelling down with prednisone, treat those mouth sores with famicyclovir.”
They had found the famicyclovir, medical tape, and other supplies in a small drugstore near the pet hospital. Kaye had also managed to score a box of disposable syringes. Her excuses had worn thin at the last. She had told the pharmacist, perched in his little elevated booth in the back of the store, that she was using the needles for a cloth dyeing project.
That would not have gone over well in the big city.
She prepared to give Stella an injection.
“I’m not even sure about the dose,” she murmured.
Mitch was half convinced he could walk out the door, drive off, and Kaye would never notice he was gone. He looked at his hands, smooth from lack of digging. How had this happened? He knew, he remembered, but none of it seemed real. Even the shadow of grief—was that what he had felt in the Jeep?—even that seemed unimportant.
Mitch could feel his soul winking down to nothing.
The drip of lactated Ringer’s slid down the long plastic tube.
“I’ll watch her,” he said.
“Get some sleep,” Kaye said. She slipped the used syringe needle into its plastic cap for disposal.
“You first,” he said.
“Get some sleep, damn it,” Kaye said, and her glance up at him was like the slap of a flat, dull knife.
45
OHIO
“It begins,” Augustine said. “I’ve dreaded this day for years.”
Standing in the number two tower, surrounded by stacked boxes, dusty old desks, and outdated desktop computers, Augustine and Dicken—and Augustine’s ever-vigilant agent—watched the Ohio National Guard troops set up their perimeter and cut off the school’s entrance. Their view encompassed the main road, the water tower to the west, a barren gravel field broken by lozenges of bare concrete, a line of scrub oaks beyond that, and a state highway slicing through low grassy hills.
DeWitt climbed up the last flight of steps and leaned against the wall, out of breath. DeWitt nodded. “Governor’s office called… the director’s line. The governor is jumping ahead… of the feds and declaring,” she sucked in her breath with a small whoop, “a stage five public health emergency. We’re under complete quarantine. Nobody in or out… Not even you, Dr. Augustine.” She nailed him with a glare. “Main gate reports twenty more… National Guard trucks… moving in. They’re surrounding the school.”
Augustine turned to the Secret Service agent, who tapped his earpiece and made a wry face. “We’re in for the duration,” the agent affirmed.
“What about the supplies?” DeWitt asked.
“They can drop them off at the entrance and we can send someone to pick them up, no contact,” Dicken said. “But they have to get here first.”
Augustine seemed less hopeful. “Not difficult to isolate us,” he said dryly. “It’s a prison to start with. As for supplies—they’ll have to go through state lines, state inspection. The state can intercept them and hold them. The governor will try to protect his votes, act ignorant, and shift our supplies to the big cities, the rich neighborhoods, the most visible and well-funded hospitals with the loudest administrators. Stockpile against a potential plague.”
“Leave us with nothing? I can’t believe they’ll be that stupid,” DeWitt said. “They’ll have a revolt.”
“By whom? The parents?” Dicken asked. “They’ll hunker down and hope for the best. Dr. Augustine made sure of that years ago.”
Augustine looked through the tower window and did not take Dicken’s bait. “All it takes to get elected in twenty-first-century America is a mob of frightened sheep and a wolf with a nice smile,” he said softly. “We have plenty of sheep. Ms. DeWitt, could I speak with Christopher in private, please? But stay close.”
DeWitt looked between them, not knowing what to think, and then left, closing the door behind her.
“It’s worse than any of them can imagine,” Augustine said, his voice low. “I think the starting pistol has been fired.”
“You mentioned that in the car. What in hell does it mean?”
“If we’re lucky, the president can put a stop to it… But I do not know Ellington. He’s kept his distance ever since he was elected. I do not know what he will do.”
“Put a stop to what?”
“If the situation gets any worse, I believe the governor will call Washington and ask for permission to clean up the schools. Sterilize the premises. He may ask for sanction to kill the children.”
Dicken stood up. “You have got to be shitting me.”
Augustine shook his head and looked him steadily in the eye. “State autonomous self-protection, as specified under Presidential Decision Directive 298, Emergency Action Gray Book. It’s called the Military and Biological Security Protocol, Part Four. It was enacted seven years ago during a secret session of the Senate oversight committee. It gives discretion to state authorities on the scene to use all necessary force, under well-defined emergency conditions.”
“Why was I never told?”
“Because you chose to stay a soldier. The contents of the directive are confidential. At any rate, I opposed the rule as extreme, but there were a lot of scared senators in the room. They were shown pictures of Mrs. Rhine’s family, incidents of Shiver in Mexico. They saw pictures of you, Christopher. The statute was signed by the president, and has never been revoked.”
“Is there any chance they’ll listen to reason?”
“Slim to none. But we have to try. The race is on. You have work to do, and so do I.” He raised his voice. “Ms. DeWitt?”
DeWitt opened the door. As requested, she had not gone far; Augustine wondered if she had heard anything.
“I want to talk to Toby Smith.”
“Why?” DeWitt asked, as if the thought of Augustine seeing the boy again disgusted her.
“We’re going to need their help,” he said.
“They’re hardly trained for this sort of thing,” Dicken said, following Augustine down the concrete stairs. His voice echoed from the hard gray walls.
“You’d be surprised,” Augustine said. “We need answers by tomorrow. Is that possible?”
“I don’t know.” Dicken was amazed at the transformation. This was the old Mark Augustine, jerked back to life like some sort of political zombie. His skin was regaining color, his eyes were hard, and the perpetual grimace of determination had returned.
“If we don’t have answers by then, they could move in and kill us all.”
Dicken, Augustine, Middleton, DeWitt, Kelson, and Toby Smith gathered in Trask’s office.
Toby stood before Augustine with a paper cup of water in one hand. Behind him stood Dr. Kelson and the two remaining school police officers. The officers wore surgical masks. The doctor did not seem to care very much whether he was protected.
“Toby, we’re short staffed,” Augustine said.
“Yeah,” Toby said.
“And we have a lot of si
ck people to take care of. All of them your friends.”
Toby looked around the office. The square, metal-framed windows let in the bright afternoon sun and a whiff of warm air that smelled of the miles of dry grass beyond the compound.
“How many students are healthy enough to help us do some work around here?”
“A few,” Toby said. “We’re all tired. Pretty koobered.”
“Koobered?”
“A word,” Toby said, squinting at Dicken, then looking around the room at the others.
“They have a lot of words,” DeWitt said. “Most are special to this school.”
“We think,” Kelson added, and scratched his arm through the sleeve, then looked around to see if anyone had caught him doing this. “I’m fine,” he said to Dicken. “Dry skin.”
“What does ‘koobered’ mean?” Augustine asked Toby.
“Not important,” Toby said.
“Okay. But we’re going to spend a lot of time together, if that’s all right with you. I’d like to learn these words, if you’re willing to teach me.”
Toby shrugged.
“Can you put some teams together and pick up some basic nursing skills from the doctors, from Ms. Middleton and the teachers?”
“I guess,” Toby said.
“Some of them are already doing that in the gym and in the infirmary,” Middleton said. “Helping keep kids comfortable, deliver water.”
Augustine smiled. He had pulled himself together, straightened his rumpled shirt and pants, washed his face in Trask’s executive bathroom sink. “Thanks, Yolanda. I’m speaking with Toby now, and I want him to tell me what’s what. Toby?”
“I’m not the best at doing that kind of stuff. Not even the best who’s still up and standing around.”
“Who is?”
“Four or five of us, maybe. Six, if you count Natasha.”
“Are you fever-scenting, Toby?” Middleton asked. “Do I have to strap on my sachet again?”
“I’m just seeing if I can, Ms. Middleton,” Toby said.
Augustine recognized the chocolate-like scent. Toby was nervous. “I’m glad you’re feeling better, Toby, but we all need to think clearly.”
“Sorry.”
“I’d like for you to represent me and Mr. Dicken and all the school staff, okay? And ask the right kids—the right individuals—to put together teams for more training. Ms. Middleton will help us train, and Dr. Kelson. Toby, can these teams become clouded?”
Toby smiled, one pupil growing larger, the other shrinking. The gold flecks in both irises seemed to move.
“Probably,” Toby said. “But I think you mean we should cloud. Join up.”
“Of course. Sorry. Can you help us learn who’s going to get better and who isn’t?”
“Yes,” Toby said, very serious now, and both irises large.
Augustine turned to Dicken. “I think that’s where we should begin. We’re not going to get any help from outside, no deliveries, nothing. We’re cut off. As far as the children are concerned, we need to focus our efforts and our supplies on those for whom we can do the most good with what we have. The children are better equipped to determine that than we are. Is this clear, Toby?”
Toby nodded slowly.
“I don’t like giving children such decisions,” Middleton said, eyes thinning. “They are very loyal to each other.”
“If we do nothing, more will die. This thing is going through the new children like a crown fire. It’s spreading by breath and touch—aerosol.”
“What’s that mean for us?” Dr. Kelson asked, looking between Dicken and Augustine.
“I don’t think we’ll catch it from the kids unless we engage in really stupid behavior—pick our noses, that sort of thing,” Dicken said, glancing at Augustine. Damn him, he’s pulling us together. “The aerosol forms of the viruses are probably not infectious for us.”
“It has a smell,” Toby volunteered. “When it’s in the air it smells like soot spread over snow. When someone is going to get sick, and maybe die, they smell like lemons and ham. When they’re going to get sick but not die, they smell like mustard and onions. Some of us just smell like water and dust. We won’t get sick. That’s a good, safe smell.”
“What do you smell like, Toby?”
Toby shrugged. “I’m not sick.”
Augustine gripped Toby’s shoulder. “You’re our guy,” he said.
Toby returned his stare without expression, but his cheeks flared.
“Let’s start,” Augustine said.
“It’s come to them saving themselves,” DeWitt said, finding the logic bitter. “God help us all.”
46
PENNSYLVANIA
The woods became dark and still. The rooms inside the cabin were quiet, stuffy from months of being closed up. Beneath the table lamp in the living room, Stella Nova shuddered at the end of each exhale of breath, but her lungs were not congested, and the air did not go in and out of her with the harsh whicker Kaye had heard earlier.
She changed the bag of Ringer’s. Stella still did not awaken. Kaye stooped beside her daughter, listening and watching, then straightened. She looked around the cabin, seeing for the first time the homey and decorative touches, the carefully chosen personal items of the Mackenzie family. On an end table, a silver frame with characters from Winnie-the-Pooh in bas-relief held a picture of George and Iris and their son, Kelly, perhaps three years younger than Stella at the time the picture was taken.
To some, all the new children looked alike. People chose the simplest markers to differentiate between one another. Some people, Kaye had learned, were little more than social drones, going through the motions of being human beings, like little automatons, and teaching these people to see Stella and her kind with any sense of discrimination or understanding was almost impossible.
She hated that amorphous mob, lined up in her imagination like an endless army of unthinking robots, all intent on misunderstanding, hurting, killing.
Kaye checked Stella once again, found her signs steady if not improving, then walked from room to room to find her husband. Mitch sat on the porch in an Adirondack chair, facing the lake, eyes fixed on a point between two big pines. The fading light of dusk made him look sallow and drained.
“How are you?” Kaye asked.
“I’m fine,” Mitch said. “How’s Stella?”
“Resting. The fever is steady, but not dangerous.”
“Good,” Mitch said. His hands gripped the ends of the square wooden armrests. Kaye surveyed those hands with a sudden and softening sense of nostalgia. Big, square knuckles, long fingers. Once, simply looking at Mitch’s hands would have made her horny.
“I think you’re right,” Kaye said.
“About what?”
“Stella’s going to be okay. Unless there’s another crisis.”
Mitch nodded. Kaye looked at his face, expecting relief. He just kept nodding.
“We can take turns sleeping,” Kaye suggested.
“I won’t sleep,” Mitch said. “If I sleep, someone will die. I have to stay awake and watch everything. Otherwise, you’ll blame me.”
This astonished Kaye, to the extent she even had enough energy to feel astonished. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You were angry with me for being in Washington when Stella ran away.”
“I was not.”
“You were furious.”
“I was upset.”
“I can’t betray you. I can’t betray Stella. I’m going to lose both of you.”
“Please talk sense. That is loony, Mitch.”
“Tell me that’s not exactly how you felt, because I was away when it began.”
Why did the burden rest upon her? How often had Mitch been away, and Stella had decided it was time to pull something, to challenge, stretch, reach out and test? “I was stressed out,” Kaye said.
“I’ve never blamed you. I’ve tried to do everything you wanted me to do, and be everything I’ve needed to be.”
“Then cut me some slack.” At another time, those words might have hit Kaye like a slap, but his voice was so drained and desperate, they felt more like the brush of a wind-blown curtain. “Your instincts are no stronger than mine. Just because you are a woman and a mother does not give you the right to…” He waved a hand helplessly. “Go off on me.”
“I did not ‘go off on you,’” Kaye said, but she knew she had, and felt defensively that she did indeed have that right. Yet the way Mitch was behaving, the words he was saying, scared her. He had never been one to complain or to criticize. She could not remember having this sort of conversation in their twelve years of being together.
“I feel things as strongly as you,” Mitch said.
Kaye sat on the chair arm, nudging his elbow inward. He folded his arm across his chest. “I know,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry, too,” Mitch said. “I know it isn’t the right time to talk like this.” His breath hitched. He was trying to hold back sobs. “But right now I feel like curling up and dying.”
Kaye leaned over to kiss the top of his head. His face was cold and hard under her fingers, as if he were already in some other place, dead to her. Her heart started to beat faster.
Mitch cleared his throat. “There’s this voice in my head, and it says over and over again, ‘You are not fit to be a father.’ If that’s true, the only option is to die.”
“Shush,” Kaye said, very cautiously.
“If I go to sleep, I’ll let something get in. A little crack. Something will creep in and kill my family.”
“The hell with that,” she said, again gently, softly, as if her breath might shatter him. “We’re tough. We’ll make it. Stella’s doing better.”
“I’m tapped out. Broken.”
“Shush, please. You are strong, I know you are, and I apologize if I’ve been acting stupid. It’s the situation, Mitch. Don’t be hard on either of us.”
He shook his head, clearly unconvinced. “I need you to tuck me in,” he said, his voice hollow. “Put me in that big bed and pull up the frilly sheets and kiss me on the cheek and say good night. I’ll be all right in a little while. Just wake me if Stella has a problem, or if you need me.”
