The Z Word

by Bella Street

  “This is great. Thank you,” Seffy said, trying to appear gracious. “Am I near my friends?”

  “Yes, they are in these two rooms.” Fiona pointed to a couple of doors on the same wall as hers.

  “Not several rooms?”

  “Well, Gareth, Jared, and Trent are in one room, naturally.”

  Hmm, Fiona didn't seem to have trouble with anyone else's names.

  “And the four other girls will share. Their room is larger, with four twin beds.”

  “Why do I get my own room? I can share.”

  Fiona's not-so-guileless eyes widened. “Well, you're the one they're specifically interested in so I guess they needed to have easier access to you without disturbing the others.”

  Seffy scowled. “Why do they need 'access' to me?”

  Fiona touched a hand to her frail neck. “I'm sure Fenn will let you know as soon as is best.”

  It took every ounce of Seffy's self-control not to make a gagging motion. She took a deep breath and realized how exhausted she was. “I think I'll lay down for a bit. Thanks for everything.”

  Fiona reached out, laying her tiny hand on Seffy's arm. “You're so welcome.”

  Once she was inside with the door snapped shut behind her, she mimicked Fiona's high voice. “You mean, 'you're so welcome, bitch'.”

  The connecting room door opened and Addison strolled in, followed by Gareth and Lani.

  Addison snorted. “Sounds like you've met Fiona.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Seffy pushed away from the door and sank onto the end of the bed. “Looks like it. This Fiona obviously thinks she's all that and then some.” Lani sat next to her and smiled.

  “I thought she was pretty and charming,” Gareth said, taking one of the room chairs.

  Seffy shook her head. Men.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked, obviously to distract her from his unsatisfactory answer.

  She shrugged. “Mostly tired, I guess.”

  Gareth stared at her like she was under a microscope. He gave her a rueful smile. “It's so weird seeing your natural eye color. I'd almost forgotten about that.”

  He'd almost forgotten? It had been his idea. Damn. Did they have a contact store at the compound?

  “Looks like your hair will be reverting soon, too,” Addison said, pointing. “I can see your roots.”

  “Thanks, Addy. You're always so helpful.”

  “And observant,” she said, smirking.

  Gareth opened his mouth, but Seffy put her hand up. “Don't even bother. Anyway, you're forever shunned for thinking anything nice about Fiona and that's the end of it.”

  He grinned sheepishly.

  “So,” Addison said, hands on her hips, “who'd you have to sleep with to get your own room? Obviously not Fenn, since he's 'spoken for'.”

  “Addison!” Gareth snapped, all humor gone.

  Her brows went up. “I was just joking. Chill.”

  Seffy's cheeks grew hot and she didn't dare look at Gareth. “Fiona just said they wanted 'access' to me. And in light of that little tidbit, feel free to hang out, sleep, whatever here all you want.”

  “I'll be taking you up on that,” Addison said. “Cynthia and Eva are kinda whiny and very secretive.”

  “I think they're just upset about being in a strange place with strange people,” Lani said.

  “Ditto.” Seffy laid back on the bed and turned her head toward Lani. “How are you doing, by the way? I mean, about Malone.”

  The brunette straightened her shoulders. “Well, I'm going to take Gareth's advice and assume he'll make it through this.”

  “I agree,” Seffy said. Lani smiled gratefully.

  “Those wily Irishmen,” Gareth said.

  “Fenn sounds like an Irish name,” Addison said. “Yummy.”

  Seffy eyed the redhead. Her hair was all natural, along with her eyes. What was it like to look good without trying?

  “So what's the plan?” Lani asked.

  Pulling at the robe belt, Seffy said, “You mean when will we get some real clothes? I thought you implied they were decent, Lani.”

  “I was just trying to humor you because you almost died.”

  “Yeah, what was up with that?” Addison asked. “Did it have anything to do with the way you were acting when we got to the compound?”

  Seffy didn't exactly remember what had happened and was afraid to ask.

  “They said they tested your blood and that you're clean,” Lani said. “Right?”

  Seffy nodded. “So they say.”

  Gareth looked at Seffy, his brows furrowed. “You don't believe them?”

  “No, I do. It's just that they said they didn't know what caused the fever, only that I didn't have the 'suspected' virus.”

  He looked at his hands. “Maybe you got a tiny, tiny bit of zombie exposure from Clay but your body was able to fight it.”

  Oh, God.

  Gareth met her eyes. “And maybe they want to see if they can develop a vaccine to protect people from becoming zombies and need your blood to do it with.”

  “What?” she said, alarmed. “Do you know something I don't know?”

  “I've just been trying to figure this place out, why it's here, how it works. Maybe it's some kind of research lab.”

  Seffy straightened. “Yeah, well, I'm not going to be one of their rats.”

  “That's the spirit,” Addison said, her brow lifted.

  “Seems it'd be a waste even if that was their intention,” Lani said. “From what I've seen this place is seriously dated, too dated for any kind of reasonable medical research. Everything looks about—”

  “Thirty years old?” Gareth said.

  “Yeah, something like that.”

  Seffy wondered when everyone else had gotten the tour. She'd seen the inside of a hospital room, a bedroom and a bathroom, so far, and the biggest descriptor she could think of was 'generic'.

  Gareth tapped his chin. “It's actually twenty-six.”

  “What?” Lani said, frowning.

  Addison tilted her head. “Yeah, real specific there, G.”

  “Girls, haven't you put it all together yet? Why is everything retro or old? Have you seen one modern item..anywhere?”

  They shook their heads. Gareth sighed. “Baxter took me on another tour of the compound today. He kept going on and on about their having the latest technology and most up-to-date systems. But I was seeing old IBMs and Hewlett-Packard 85s with five inch screens.”

  “English, please,” Lani said.

  “Dinosaur computers. You can't even find these things today except from nerdy collectors.”

  “Do you have any dinosaurs?” Addison asked.

  “Just a Commodore 64, but that's beside the point.”

  “Gareth!” Seffy scolded. “You told me you'd gotten rid of it.”

  He rolled his eyes. “I lied. Listen, there was a newspaper in a break room we went past. I looked at the date. It said 1980.”

  “Could've been old,” Lani said.

  “Yes, it could've been old. Really old,” Gareth said, pawing a hand through his hair, “if it was the only clue. But in this case, every clue adds up to the fact we're in 1980, not 2006.”

  “That's impossible,” Seffy said, her tone flat. God, she was exhausted.

  “You said zombies were impossible.”

  She shot a sharp look at Addison.

  Gareth rubbed his face. “I don't think you realize what this means.”

  “I'm too tired to think about it.” Seffy closed her eyes and curled up into a ball.

  “You all need to come to terms with the fact that we are in a different decade, in a different state with no knowledge of how we got here, which means we don't know how to get back.”

  “It just doesn't sound realistic,” Addison said, yawning.

  Gareth jumped up from the side of the bed. “This is important.”

  Lani went to him and threaded her arm through his. “I believe you.”

&
nbsp; “No, you believe in me. Big difference.”

  Seffy squeezed her eyes shut. “Okay, so let's get this straight. We're in a different state in a different time.”

  “Right.”

  “Why 1980? None of us were even born yet.”

  “That's the scary part.”

  “Why?” Addison asked.

  Seffy sighed. “Gareth, I swear to God, if you use the phrase 'space-time continuum' I'm going to scream.”

  He grinned at her. “Uh, what you just said.”

  “Ugh.”

  “So how do we get back?” Lani asked, looking up at him with concern.

  Gareth blew out a breath. “Obviously it will require more than borrowing a car from the compound and just driving to L.A...”

  “Oh! I know!” the brunette said. “We need a Delorean!”

  Seffy grabbed a pillow and mashed it over her face. That was another movie Gareth had forced her to watch. Really, she needed to consider why her friends had such weird taste in movies.

  “What if we really can't leave?” he said. “What if they want us here for good? They're gonna figure we're from the future eventually, especially now that they have my cell phone.”

  Addison began humming Hotel California.

  “Have you mentioned this to Trent and the others?” Lani asked.

  “No, I wanted to discuss it with you first.”

  “Okay, Gareth,” Seffy said, pulling the pillow away from her face, “I get that this is a big deal. But after being blasted into space or something—”

  “I'm thinking it was probably more of a wormhole.”

  “—and after being chased by zombie disco people and being dragged from one hovel to another, we're just wiped. And I apparently keep trying to die all the time. It's too much to take in right now. Can we talk about it tomorrow?”

  He walked over to the bed and tugged the pillow from her hands. “Okay. I'll cut you some slack. Just this once.”

  Seffy smiled, knowing he'd done that and then some all the years she'd known him. He took her hand and squeezed her fingers. “And no more dying, okay?”

  “I'll try,” she said in a soft voice, thankful for his contact.

  Addy jumped off the bed and left the room in obvious disgust, followed by Lani. When they were alone, Gareth looked down at her for a long time. He leaned down and brushed a light kiss across her forehead. “Get some rest.”

  And then he was gone.

  Sudden tears sprung to Seffy's eyes and she brushed them from her face. Despite fighting some bizarre illness and coming out on the other side, a sensation of bereftness filled her when the door latch clicked into place. Sleep was a very long time in coming.

  ***

  Jostling brought Seffy from up the depths of unconsciousness. She opened her eyes a little and saw a shadowy form above her in the dim room. She remembered that she was at Fugere but wasn't clear on whether she'd consented to be one of their guinea pigs. Not like it mattered.

  “Have you come to harvest my organs?” she asked in a sleepy voice.

  “Rubbish!”

  Seffy recognized the nurse Olga's gruff but kind voice and relaxed a bit.

  “I came in here to take your temperature and found you on top of the covers. I've managed to get your shoes off, so be a good girl and get under the blankets for Olga.”

  “Okay,” Seffy said, still groggy, and not wanting to lose the insulating cocoon of not obsessing about Gareth.

  “Open your mouth so I can get your temp.” Seffy obeyed and soon had a glass thermometer under her tongue. She wondered why they didn't use the new digital types, then remembered Gareth's assertion that they were many moons in the past.

  Huh. That would be something.

  Olga peered over the edge of half glasses, her mouth pursed. With her graying blond bob haircut and brusque manner, Seffy felt a bit of her tension ease. This lady was probably the least sinister person she'd met so far. And that included Fenn, what with his taste in women and all.

  The nurse looked at a watchface pinned upside down on her lapel, then pulled out the thermometer. “You still have a low grade fever, but not too high.”

  Could the woman be trusted? Seffy needed a source of information not tied up with old apprehension or new. Hoping she was not way off when it came to judging character, she took a deep breath. “Olga, what year is it?”

  The nurse's kind face frowned. “What kind of silly question is that? It's 1980 of course.”

  Next she strapped a blood pressure cuff and proceeded to squeeze the life out of Seffy's arm. “85 over 55. Hmmm.”

  “That's kinda low, right?”

  Olga regarded her for a moment. “It's a bit concerning but you let the doctor worry about that. And I'm thinking it might have something to do with your strange questions.”

  “I just asked one question,” Seffy said with what she hoped was a winning smile. “I actually have a lot more though, if you're game.”

  Olga glanced at her watch again. “I probably have time for...three more.”

  “Oh, do you have other patients besides me?”

  “There have been some casualties from the fighting with the infected.” Olga put the thermometer in her uniform pocket. “That was one one of your questions.”

  Seffy sighed. She still felt a bit loopy, but at some point she needed to get back home, so figuring out what the heck was going on seemed like a good starting place. Plus, if the compound was interested in them and they had Gareth's cell phone, they probably had their own questions. But maybe she should ease into it. “So what brought you to Fugere?”

  “I was hired as a medical professional.”

  “Oh.” Subtlety wasn't gonna work this time. “Why are the people here interested in me and my friends?”

  Olga stuffed the blood pressure cuff into a small black bag. “I'm not inside that loop. I'm just here to tend to any medical needs that might be present.”

  Seffy nibbled her bottom lip. “Do you know they suspect we're from the future?”

  The nurse frowned. “Yes...I'd heard something about that.”

  “Well, if it's 1980 here, it was 2006 where I'm from. But then again, L. A. always was ahead of the times.”

  Olga was silent. Seffy decided to try a different tack. “So how many people live here at the compound?”

  “Give or take, about five hundred.”

  “Wow.” Seffy smoothed the blankets. “So Fenn is, like, the leader?”

  “That's four questions.”

  “I can't believe you're keeping count.”

  Olga smiled. “Yes, he is. Him and his, his...”

  “I'm guessing you can't make yourself say Fiona.”

  The nurse's smile disappeared and her lips thinned. Seffy nodded. “Yep, I've met her, too, and I know just how you feel.”

  Olga grabbed her bag. “Well, you need more rest, so I'll be on my way.”

  “Hey, will I get real food in the morning? I'm sick of green Jell-O.”

  “I'll see what I can do.”

  “Thanks. And Olga?”

  The nurse stopped with her hand on the door. “Yes?”

  “If you need me to give you any hot tips so you can do a little betting, you know, make some extra coin on the side, remember, I'm from the future and all.”

  Olga's brows went up. “Who wins the archery event at the Summer Olympics this year?”

  “Uh, you mean the 1980 Olympics?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yeah, well, that might be a problem since I wasn't technically born yet. But anything after that, I'm your girl.”

  Olga smiled and shook her head. “I think that fever did some damage.”

  “Probably,” Seffy mumbled as she sunk back the covers. When she was alone, she burrowed her head in the pillow. A pillow. How long has it been since I've had a pillow? She tried to calculate the days since she'd left the Old Country. Her memory was fuzzy, but she figured close to a week.

  At least she was no longer on the run, hiding o
ut in dives and using poor Gareth for a pillow. Actually, that last part wasn't so bad. Sadness filled her again, but she fought it. What was done was done. For now, they could all rest up here and figure out their next step. And the compound people seemed okay. A gorgeous leader didn't hurt. An adequate doctor on staff was there to save her when she tried to die. Add to that a matronly nurse who seemed kind.

  Seffy lurched into a sitting position.

  Unless Olga was an evil nurse using a motherly persona sent to extract information from her loose lips.

  Damn. I've should've thought of that.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Seffy scrambled from the bed and banged on the connecting door. After several moments, Addison opened it wearing yellow polyester pajamas.

  Seffy stared. “You look like Jan Brady with red hair.”

  “Do you know what time it is?” Addison groused, her face lined with sleep.

  “No, but I need to talk to you guys.”

  “It's seven a.m. Go away.”

  “It's important.”

  “My sleep is important and since I don't get my own room like some people, sleep takes on an even more desperate importance.”

  In the dim room, Seffy saw Eva and Cynthia tossing in their beds. She lowered her voice. “Fine, go back to sleep.”

  Seffy preceded her into the room and sat on the edge of Lani's bed. She shook her shoulder. “Hey, wake up and meet me in my room.” As Lani stirred and smooshed her hair from her face, Seffy went out into the hall and knocked on the guys' room door. Gareth answered right away. He was freshly shaved and dressed. She paused to take in his delish glory, then cleared her head. “We need to talk.”

  “I know. We'll meet in your room.”

  She offered a weak smile, wishing she'd made herself at least somewhat presentable. “See you in a few.” Seffy rushed back to her room to wash her face and brush her teeth and hair, wishing she could get her hands on some makeup. Without her blue contacts, she needed cosmetic help all the more.

  Noises could be heard outside the bathroom. Seffy came out and found all three of her friends coming through her door. Even Addison couldn't bring herself to miss anything.