Z-Minus (Book 6)

by Perrin Briar

  “Thanks,” he said. “I’ll do the same.”

  Kate extended her hand. Hamish took it and they shook hands with smiles on their faces.

  “Let’s just make sure it never comes to that,” Hamish said. “Speaking of which… Follow me.”

  Hamish approached Daniel. He didn’t want to have to consult with him, but with Patrick and Carl in a state of denial he needed all the help he could get. He tapped Daniel on the arm. He’d finished his coffee and stood looking out at the snowstorm. Hamish nodded toward the corridor. Daniel and Kate followed him toward it.

  “What’s up?” Kate said.

  Hamish turned to the empty morgue drawer.

  “Doesn’t anything seem out of place with this?” he said.

  “Are you shitting me?” Daniel said with a withering look.

  “With the morgue drawer itself,” Hamish said.

  “Except for the fact it’s empty and there was a body in there not more than a few hours ago?” Kate said.

  “Yes,” Hamish said.

  His expression was serious. Kate frowned and took a closer look at the drawer. She shrugged.

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  “Morgue drawers like this don’t have handles on the inside,” Hamish said.

  “What are you saying?” Kate said.

  “I’m saying someone opened the drawer from the outside,” Hamish said.

  “Someone…” Daniel said, before shaking his head. “I don’t buy that. Why would anyone do that?”

  “Maybe they heard a noise like I did and got up to check on it,” Hamish said. “They would have thought it possible Ian wasn’t dead after all and opened it.”

  “If that was true, why didn’t someone admit it?” Daniel said.

  “Exactly,” Hamish said.

  “You’re saying something more sinister might be afoot,” Kate said.

  “It might,” Hamish said, nodding.

  “Someone may have opened the morgue drawer on purpose?” Kate said. “But why?”

  “I don’t know,” Hamish said. “We need to keep everyone close by. Make sure no one goes for a wander or is by themselves for too long. We go in pairs everywhere. It’s the only way to be safe.”

  “What do we tell Jeff?” Daniel said.

  “Nothing,” Hamish said.

  “Don’t you think he deserves to know the truth?” Kate said.

  “We don’t know if he’s infected yet,” Hamish said. “If he is, and there’s nothing we can do for him, he’s better off not knowing, don’t you think?”

  “What about when he asks about Lindsey?” Daniel said. “What then?”

  “We tell him she’s sleeping,” Hamish said. “It’s the kindest thing we can do.”

  None of them liked it, but what else could they do?

  Z-MINUS: 2 hours 16 minutes

  Hamish walked down the corridor, peering into each room as he passed them. He tore his eyes from the morgue drawer, now firmly shut, and moved on. He passed Kate’s room. To think Ian’s rotting corpse could have stumbled into her room instead of Lindsey’s… That it could have been her body Ian feasted on… It was too much for Hamish to imagine and left a sour taste in his mouth. He shook his head of the grisly images.

  He came to Jeff’s door and knocked.

  “Jeff?” Hamish said. “Are you there?”

  There was the sound of rustling movement inside the room.

  “Yeah,” Jeff said. “I’m here.”

  “How are you feeling?” Hamish said.

  “I’ve been better,” Jeff said. “It’s like the worst flu I’ve ever had. And the headache… I’ve never had migraines before. I studied them, of course, prescribed medicine to others, but never with much thought to how the patient really felt. Boy do I have sympathy for them now.”

  “Do you have any other symptoms?” Hamish said.

  “Sore stomach,” Jeff said. “Slight dizziness. Blurred vision. Lethargy. Bloody nose, ears. Everyone might share the same symptoms, but they might be a little different too. They’ll be variations on a theme.”

  So, Jeff was infected after all.

  “Something happened to Lindsey earlier, didn’t it?” Jeff said. “Something bad.”

  Hamish hesitated for only a moment. Jeff was a good man. He couldn’t lie to him, but to tell him the truth was enough to make anyone crazy. He decided to only tell him more if he genuinely wanted to know.

  “Yes,” Hamish said.

  He didn’t elaborate. On the other side of the door, Jeff was silent.

  “I see,” he said.

  He didn’t ask more questions. He didn’t really want to know the truth.

  “Are you hungry?” Hamish said.

  “Starving,” Jeff said.

  “I’ll bring you something to eat,” Hamish said, turning to leave.

  “You can’t bring me what I need,” Jeff said. “I need blood, fresh blood.”

  “I’m sure we have some meat somewhere,” Hamish said.

  “No, you don’t understand,” Jeff said. “It’s not just any blood I want. I crave human blood. I can feel it deep down inside me, calling. It can only be sated by human flesh.”

  “What’s calling you?” Hamish said.

  Jeff was silent a moment in an attempt to put the feeling into words.

  “There’s only one way I can think to describe it,” he said.

  “How?” Hamish said.

  “An all-consuming hunger,” Jeff said. “Every part of me needs to feed.”

  Z-MINUS: 2 hours 10 minutes

  “Oh man, I have a sore stomach,” Patrick said after Hamish revealed the symptoms Jeff had listed. “Maybe I’m infected…”

  His eyes were big and round with fear.

  “Oh, man…” Patrick said. “This is just what I need.”

  Hamish had deemed it prudent not to tell them all the details of Jeff’s symptoms. I want human blood. What was he? Some kind of vampire? There was no need to scare them for no good reason. If any of them got to the point of craving human blood there would be little they could do to alleviate their symptoms, besides opening their veins.

  “This is Palmer Station, over,” Patrick said into the radio, more frantic now. “Come in, over.”

  “Any luck?” Hamish said to Patrick.

  Patrick accepted the cup of coffee Hamish handed him.

  “No,” Patrick said.

  His voice was rough and raspy, worn and weak with hours of use.

  “Do you think we’ll get through to anyone?” Hamish said.

  “We won’t if we don’t keep trying,” Patrick said.

  “Don’t let me keep you,” Hamish said, slapping Patrick on the back.

  Hamish surveyed the mood of those remaining. There was a general feeling of malaise, like a thick blanket. Their immune systems would be weak and shot to shit. They wouldn’t be able to fight off a virus or any other infection well. They needed to be bright and positive, though that was difficult with the oppressive darkness and raging storm outside.

  “What can we do for Jeff?” Daniel said.

  “We could give him drugs,” Hamish said. “Things to help boost his immune system. There’s no guarantee it would work, but it won’t do any harm either. It might slow the virus down. But otherwise…”

  “Nothing?” Kate said. “There’s nothing we can do?”

  “What did you expect?” Hamish said. “With the facilities we’ve got, the limited time…”

  “Then what do we do with him?” Kate said.

  “We keep him locked in his room until help comes,” Hamish said. “Scientists and doctors might be able to come up with some kind of treatment for him.”

  “A treatment for death?” Kate said.

  “This isn’t death,” Hamish said.

  “We give him a choice,” Daniel said. “The same choice to anyone who gets infected. We give him a quick death or he takes his chances in one of the empty rooms.”

  “Oh, man,” Patrick said, running his hands
through his hair. “We can’t do this. I can’t do this. This… This isn’t human.”

  “It’s the situation we’re in,” Hamish said. “They’re not human after they turn. It has to be done.”

  “Then you do it,” Carl said. “I can’t do this.”

  “We have to be together in this if we’re going to do it,” Kate said. “We have to back one another other up.”

  “You back him up,” Carl said. “I don’t want any part of it.”

  “Me neither,” Patrick said, turning back to the radio and repeating his message.

  “How long do we have after we’re infected before we turn into one of those things?” Carl said.

  “So far as we can tell, based on the others who turned and the rate of change in Ian’s blood,” Hamish said, “about eight to nine hours.”

  “Eight hours,” Carl said, disbelieving. “Well, it beats getting slammed into by a bus, doesn’t it?”

  The attempt at levity fell flat. Carl turned and marched away.

  “Sorry about him,” Kate said. “He can be highly strung.”

  “I don’t blame him,” Hamish said. “This is a nightmare.”

  Carl stood at the opposite end of the common room, beside Patrick at the controls of the radio.

  “I’ve been thinking about Dr. Scott,” Kate said, lowering her voice. “Do you think he was infected too?”

  “What do you mean?” Daniel said.

  “I mean, he committed suicide, right?” Kate said.

  “He’s not dead,” Daniel said.

  “All right,” Kate said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “But he wouldn’t have ended himself if there wasn’t need. We thought he might have done it because he had cancer or a serious illness. What’s more serious than an eight-hour death sentence?”

  Hamish nodded.

  “It makes sense,” he said. “Him leaving all the bubbleheads behind were a kind of suicide note. But then, if he knew he was infected, why didn’t he tell you all about it? That way, he could have prevented the virus from spreading.”

  “Because he didn’t want to take the risk that it might infect us, that he was responsible,” Kate said.

  “What about the specimen?” Daniel said. “And all the documents? Why would he destroy all those?”

  “I don’t know,” Hamish said.

  “I still don’t understand why he wouldn’t come to us for help,” Daniel said. “Jeff might have had something to help him.”

  “Because maybe he knew it was something serious, perhaps even life threatening,” Kate said. “He might not have known what he had, but he knew enough to know there was no cure. Hamish said he saw Ian throwing up outside. Maybe Dr. Scott was doing the same. If it was blood…”

  “Then maybe he deliberately killed himself to protect us all,” Daniel said.

  They all sat in silence, processing the information.

  “He was a hero,” Daniel said. “With no cure, and if it was as deadly as he thought it was, it was the only way to ensure none of us caught it.”

  “What was Dr. Scott working on before he left?” Hamish said.

  “I’ve told you,” Daniel said. “The ice cores. The same thing he’s been working on for the past couple weeks.”

  “You said someone found a fossil,” Hamish said. “Buried in the snow.”

  “That’s right,” Daniel said.

  The idea was just beginning to sprout in Hamish’s mind, blooming to its logical conclusion. Hamish leaned forward and spoke in a conspiratorial voice.

  “Isn’t it possible something was inside that fossil?” Hamish said. “Something still alive?”

  Kate’s eyes moved to the side, in the direction of Dr. Scott’s former office.

  “If something was inside it, had managed to survive all those years…” Hamish said.

  Daniel shook his head.

  “The fossil we found couldn’t have survived all those years,” he said. “It was dead. The longest a fish species could survive in suspended animation is decades.”

  “Not the specimen itself,” Hamish said. “Something inside it. A virus.”

  “Oh my God,” Kate said, wrapping a hand over her mouth. “That’s it! That’s why Dr. Scott took it with him. To protect us. If there was something inside the fossil, then maybe he found it. It infected him. He was the first. Patient zero.”

  “It’s a nice theory,” Daniel said. “But where’s the evidence?”

  “Dr. Scott took it with him to his grave,” Kate said. “That’s why he took the specimen with him. So we wouldn’t find the virus or get infected ourselves.”

  “He’s not dead,” Daniel said reflexively. “I meant the evidence on the computer systems or paperwork. I found nothing about the fossil, or any virus inside it.”

  “Maybe Dr. Scott wanted no record of it and deleted it all,” Kate said.

  “That doesn’t sound like Dr. Scott,” Daniel said. “The Dr. Scott I know wouldn’t have deleted information like that. He was always planning forward, preparing for the worst. He would have wanted the world to know about a new virus, to protect themselves against it. And if he was infected, I would have noticed. I would have noticed he was sick and dying.”

  “Not if the virus works fast,” Kate said. “What if Dr. Scott knew he had hours, not days? What if Dr. Scott only learned about it shortly after he’d contracted it? What if he knew he didn’t have much time to research and find a cure… Which is why he went away, taking the fossil with him, so neither he nor the virus were discovered. He locked the door knowing we wouldn’t enter, giving time for the virus to die, so none of us would be infected.”

  “Hamish, when you searched through Dr. Scott’s files did you see anything about the fossil or the virus?” Kate said.

  “No,” Hamish said. “Only a few early reports describing the fossil. Photographs. Nothing concrete.”

  “But he worked on it for a few days,” Kate said. “He was convinced it was going to be a big new discovery – he’d even had Carl make him a new figurine for his collection. There should have been something to show for all that time and work.”

  “Whatever it was, if there was anything at all,” Daniel said, “it’s long gone now.”

  “Assuming this is true,” Hamish said. “What do we do now?”

  “We need to know with certainty who among us is infected and not infected,” Kate said.

  “That’s relatively easy,” Hamish said. “We just need a blood test.”

  Z-MINUS: 1 hour 59 minutes

  Hamish extracted the blood from Patrick’s arm, who rubbed the puncture hole.

  “That hurt!” Patrick said.

  “Don’t be such a baby,” Hamish said, handing him a cotton bud.

  Patrick bent his arm at the elbow.

  “When do you think you’ll have the results?” he said.

  “Within a few minutes,” Hamish said.

  “That fast?” Patrick said.

  “It’s not difficult to identify,” Hamish said.

  “I’ve got a bad feeling I’m infected,” Patrick said.

  “We’ll soon see,” Hamish said. “In the meantime, try not to worry too much.”

  “How can I not worry?” Patrick said. “Knowing I’ll turn into one of those things if I’m infected.”

  “We’ll take care of you,” Hamish said.

  “Like we did with Ian?” Patrick said with a scowl.

  Hamish looked toward the empty doorway.

  “Keep your voice down,” he said. “Kate already feels bad about it. Hopefully you’re not already infected. Can you send Kate in, please?”

  Patrick scrunched up his mouth. He wasn’t happy about being kept waiting for his test result. Hamish put Patrick’s vial of blood into the tray beside his own. By looking at them you couldn’t tell if someone was infected. Hopefully that meant no one was. With any luck, that would turn out to be the case.

  Kate entered. She took a seat and pulled up her sleeve.

  “Everyone’s nervous
,” she said.

  “There’s no need to be,” Hamish said automatically.

  He prepared a needle, inserted it into Kate’s arm, and drew blood.

  “There is another solution to all this,” Kate said. “I didn’t mention it before because I didn’t want Daniel to overhear.”

  “Hear what?” Hamish said.

  Kate checked over her shoulders for prying ears.

  “Maybe Dr. Scott did it on purpose,” she said.

  “Did what on purpose?” Hamish said.

  “Infected Ian,” Kate said. “He could have left something here, for Ian to find, so he would catch it.”

  “Then why would he leave?” Hamish said. “If he just stayed here, everyone would catch it.”

  “Maybe he set up a system so everyone would catch it later,” Kate said. “So he wouldn’t have to be here for when everyone died.”

  “And the specimen?” Hamish said. “Why would he take that with him?”

  “So we wouldn’t be able to make a cure in time,” Kate said. “We’d only have what an infected person had left behind in their blood, and by then it would be too late.”

  Hamish would never have believed Kate was capable of such dark thoughts before. It was deeply disturbing if at all true. It was a compelling argument, direct from the imagination of mystery thriller writers.

  There was no denying all the pieces fit. There was only one question Hamish had no answer for…

  “Is Dr. Scott capable of such a thing?” Hamish said.

  “Up till yesterday I didn’t think dead things could get up and start walking around again, but here we are,” Kate said. “Whenever a maniac does something in the world, people are told afterwards and can never believe it was their neighbor that had done it. We know Dr. Scott as a professional, a scientist, but we never knew him on the inside. Who knows what he was capable of.”

  “Then we can never really know anyone,” Hamish said. “And anyone is capable of anything.”

  “No,” Kate said. “No one can ever really know anyone. Look at all the infidelity happening in the world. Do you think any of their partners could believe they would marry someone who could do that to them? No. Because they don’t know everything that goes on in their minds, behind their eyes, and no one ever can.”