Blink of an Eye: Beginnings Series Book 8

by Jacqueline Druga

  Frank rolled his eyes. “Immune?”

  “Yep.” Dean nodded. “Society Soldier. We’ll find out more whenever he wakes up.”

  “You seem, too upbeat, Dean,” Frank commented.

  “In a way I am,” Dean explained. “Though this hall is divided like a grade school dance.” Dean pointed to how, by his request the men went nowhere near the women or children. Except Henry, because he was immune. Men on one side, women on the other. “I’ve checked with your guys through the course of the day. We should have had symptoms, at the very least complaints. Nothing yet, Frank. And with a direct exposure, that is a good sign.”

  Frank didn’t want to buy into it, not yet. “What happens though if they do. How is this going to affect the community health wise?”

  “We’ve kept them separated. And this is not an airborne virus so, no contact, no exposure. We’re good, and we’ll keep them separated for five more days to be on the safe side. The men will have to sleep in one of the empty storage buildings. But they can go about their jobs.”

  Just as Frank nodded in acceptance of this, Joe walked in.

  Silence entailed as Joe made his way up the segregated group and stood before his people. With seriousness and somberness he spoke, “We faced one hell of a battle today, ladies and gentleman. And our men, our men pulled us through it.” He nodded proudly at the group of men who were separated. They excluded very few men in Beginnings. “But as you know, our men may have been exposed to this virus that we have feared.” He heard some whimpering, a few sobs. “Dean tells me, the longer they go without symptoms, the better their chances that the gas masks worked. We have them separated to keep them from any physical contact. We’re doing this with the men who were at the front gate, the back gate and standing center town. The rest of the men, the ones in the tunnels, John Matoose in the air, and the one in the Living Section, Dean believes were at a low, very low risk of exposure.”

  Hearing that, Jenny clenched to John’s arm, burying her head against it.

  Joe continued, “We’ll keep you apart for five or six more days. Now, moving on to other aspects that we have in this bat ...” It was like it happened in slow motion to Joe. His head swayed to his right at the sound of it. It bounced through his soul, causing his heart to pound, then drop. The deadened ‘thump’. It was coupled by the immediate panic filled noise of people scurrying to their feet and chairs springing back as everyone in the hall watched the fifty-six men who were separated from everyone else. Their eyes rolled, their heads swayed, and their knees buckled. Then one at a time, like dominos, they dropped hard and motionless to the floor.

  Dean sprang up, calling out his loudest, holding some of the women back who rushed to their men. “I need everyone but the people who know they’re immune to move out of here. Frank! Get them out!”

  Frank and Robbie rushed through the driving crowd of women, pulling them back gently, handing them their children to move along. They were helped by John Matoose and some of the older men who tried to clear the confusion filled hall.

  Dean stopped Joe who arrived to aid the fallen men the same time as Henry. He let Henry through. “No, Joe. Leave.”

  “Dean, I can’t,” Joe explained. “They are my people.”

  “No, Joe.” Dean shook his head. “Right now these are my people and I am telling you to stay away. Go!” Dean pointed. “Go! Ellen! I need you over here!”

  Ellen handed Nick to Jenny who held her own baby. “You’ll watch them for me?”

  “I will.” With the exchange of the child Jenny laid her hand over Ellen’s. “Take care of our men.” she spoke tear filled.

  Ellen crossed her hand on Jenny’s. “With everything I am.” Giving a firm squeeze, Ellen kissed Nick then rushed back to help Dean.

  Dean looked up to see Joe had ignored him and bent down to one of the men. “Stop.” Dean sprang out to him grabbing Joe’s hand. “I told you.”

  “I have to help,” Joe scolded back.

  “You wanna help. Go and get some people together, head to the clinic. Get me the east wing set up for all these men. I need beds and cots. Blankets and fluids. Andrea can help with that, so can Melissa. Get it ready stat, Joe, then move the hell out of there, we’re bringing these men in.”

  Joe stood up. “I’ll get on that, Dean.”

  “I need them as centralized together as you can get them. Six in a room if needed.”

  “I’m on it.” Joe rushed out, laying his hand on Frank’s shoulder in his pass of him.

  The first order in the hall was to pull the ill men who moaned and shook, from the piles in which they laid upon each other. Getting them comfortable enough to wait until they could carry them out. There were six to handle all of the men. Dean, Ellen, Frank, Robbie, Henry, and Johnny. And they all worked fast and together toward some sort of organization. Though everyone of the six worked diligently, everyone of the six worked with their hearts racing in fear.

  Dean helped Ellen as she tried to turn over Bentley, a man too heavy for her to handle. “You doing all right?” he asked her.

  “I’m fine.” She grunted, as she knelt, sliding back as Dean helped her get Bentley to his back.

  “As soon as we’re done turning them, I need you to head to the clinic. Make sure everything is ready, you know what we need. I’m gonna send Henry to the cryo where we’ve stored a bunch of Agent Seventeen. We’ll administer some doses, keep our fingers crossed that they have the host strain, if not, try to buy us more time. Slow down the virus reaction.”

  “We did make enough Agent Seventeen, right?”

  “To help the community ten times over.”

  Ellen looked to Bentley. Not ten minutes earlier he looked normal, now his face glistened with sweat, paled in color and his eyes rolled. “Tell me this isn’t happening, Dean. Please tell me this isn’t happening.”

  Dean looked up at Ellen while loosening Bentley’s shirt. “I’m sorry, Ellen. It is.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  AUGUST 17

  It wasn’t daylight yet. The sky cast that darkened blue, just before the sun would suddenly appear. Ellen sat on the steps of the clinic, her body drained, feeling exhaustion creeping up on it. The sound of the creaking clinic door opening , made her spin around. “Dean.”

  “I thought you were going home to get a few hours rest.” He sat next to her.

  “I will.”

  “Go home, Ellen. You made me take a three hour rest.”

  “Yeah, but I can go without sleep. Living with Henry has taught me that.” She propped her elbow on her knee and rested her cheek in her hand. “What happened, Dean? How did they get so sick all of a sudden. We’ve worked with it. We’ve given the virus to the rabbits.”

  “Yeah, but we haven’t given the virus to humans.” Dean pulled at her hand holding it. “Direct exposure to humans is something we could have only predicted, not known with certainty.”

  “And they don’t even have the host strain. They have a third mutation. Why? Why, Dean?” She looked at him so lost.

  “Throw us off. Come on, George had to know we got hold of those SUTs that were after Robbie. Maybe he knew we got the antiserum. Maybe he figured if we had that, we had the host. I don’t know.” He shrugged then felt her fall into his arm. “I just feel at such a loss.”

  “I know how you feel.”

  Dean felt her head suddenly spring up. “What’s wrong, El?”

  Ellen looked out to the street. She heard the loud, rumbling coughing coming closer. “Frank’s coming. Why is he coughing like that, Dean? He’s been coughing like that since this evening.”

  “He doesn’t have the virus, El, I checked.”

  “So why does he sound so sick. Look sick?”

  “Exposure to the gas?” Dean lifted his shoulders. “Perhaps the smoke inhalation. But he’s not dying, get that out of your mind. I know what you’re thinking. You’re remembering what we saw when we went to the future.”

  “Dean.” Ellen breathed slowly out. “I
’m not only remembering what I saw with Frank. I’m remembering everything I saw.”

  “Unfortunately.” Dean pulled her closer to him. “So am I.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Joe’s head was killing him. It felt as if it were going to split down the middle, but he pushed on. He had to. In a empty town where no one worked, Joe had to follow up on Supplies and Distribution. There wasn’t a single division that was in full operation. Security was on a skeleton staff. Frank and Robbie helped run it in between working at the clinic. Mechanics was shut down, Henry worked the clinic. The school was closed. The nursery too. It was the biggest crisis Beginnings was ever faced with and Joe feared it was only going to get worse.

  <><><><>

  The sound of it burned through Ellen, gnawing at her, not in annoyance but in fear. She finished administering medication to Cole and she stormed from the small room that was packed with six men. “Frank,” she called to him as he headed into another room. “Wait.”

  Frank turned around, covered his mouth and coughed. His whole body shook as he did. “What’s up, El.” His strong voice was hoarse and weak.

  “You have to stop.”

  “I have to help.”

  “Frank, listen to me. You have to rest. Please rest.”

  “Ellen, you, Henry, Dean and Johnny can not handle all the lab work and these patients. You can’t. I have to be here.”

  “You have pneumonia, Frank. Dean told you an hour ago you had to stop. Your left lower lobe was filling up.” She reached her hand to his face. “You’re so warm. Please, Frank. Please.” She closed her eyes in a begging manner.

  “Ellen.” He slid her hand from his face. “I’ll rest as soon as I catch you up.” He kissed her hand. “I love you.” As he leaned down to kiss her he lifted his head quickly to the sound of Henry racing down the hall.

  “Frank,” Henry called out. “El, where’s Dean?” Henry ran by them looking in rooms. “Dean!”

  Dean came flying out of one. “What’s wrong, Henry?”

  Henry caught his breath. His eyes filled with terror. “We have problems. We have really big problems.” He shook his head slowly. “Come with me.” Waving his hand to them to follow, Henry sped back down the corridor.

  Dean caught up to Henry and as soon as he turned the corner to the main hall, his pace slowed down to a crawl. Nine people sat on the floor against the walls. Johnny knelt before them trying to administer care. “Henry, tell me they aren’t sick.”

  “I can’t, Dean. They are.”

  Dean closed his eyes. “Nine more?”

  “I wish.”

  Dean’s eyes widened. “What?” He felt Henry pull his arm toward the waiting room. The moment Dean walked to the doorway was the moment he stepped away, backed up into the wall and banged his head back in frustration. His hand harshly covered his own face and his whole body trembled. “No, no. This can’t be happening.” Lowering his hand and peering through his spread fingers he looked at seven-year-old Kimmy, she curled up in a ball laying on Cindy’s lap. Looking just as ill as Cindy did. And he knew the horrifying reason why those nine people waited in the hall, when he walked back into the waiting room. Those nine had to be in the hall, because there were so many people in the waiting room, there just wasn’t any room for them.

  <><><><>

  Jenny spoke in the soothing mother’s voice as she held and rocked Caroline. “No, you’re not sick little one. You are not sick.” How painful it was to Jenny as her baby whimpered so close to her ear. Jenny tried to tell herself it was only the baby’s teeth. That she didn’t have what everyone else had. She couldn’t, she was never around any of the men.

  Trying to go through her day so as not to think about anything, Jenny teetered holding her daughter and pulling laundry from the washer. In her awkward balance she bumped into the trash, knocking it over and spilling its contents across the floor. Whining, Jenny reached down to pick it up. Her hand secured the baby’s head, and as she lifted the can back up, the odd look of the paper caught her eyes. It was crinkled up, and it had a slight shine to it. Grabbing that ball of paper, Jenny unwrinkled it and smoothed it out on the washer. “What? What is this? It looks like ... a fax.”

  <><><><>

  All Ellen kept asking kept asking herself was how did the numbers go up? How did the amount of patients nearly double in less than twenty-four hours. She walked by Henry who worked so hard, she paused to grip his hand, then Ellen, emotionally and physically drained moved to the clinic lab. “Dean.”

  Dean spun on his stool to face her. “Hey, El.”

  “They’re all situated.” She laid a tray of blood before him. “Forty-four,” she spoke sadly, her lip quivering. “Eleven are children.”

  Dean walked to retrieve the tray from her and he grabbed hold of her hand. “We’ll get through this. We will,” he spoke with confidence.

  Ellen looked to Johnny who worked on the lab’s computer. “Johnny, did you need to check your daughter?”

  “I just did a little bit ago. How’s she doing now, El?” Johnny asked.

  Ellen shook her head.

  “Maybe I better go be with her and Denise.” He walked toward the door. “I’ll be back.” He stopped before leaving. “El, Jenny called here about an hour ago, really upset. She was rambling, something about a fax. I think she’s lost it.” He shrugged with a sad look and left the lab.

  “A fax?” Ellen asked looking to Dean. “What do you suppose she meant by that?”

  “I don’t know,” Dean answered.

  “Should I go see her?”

  “No, she’ll be fine. You’re needed here.”

  Ellen looked so in debate, standing there at the oddity of Jenny’s call. But like Dean had told her, she was needed at the clinic. And putting the thought of going to see Jenny out of her mind, Ellen moved on back to the patients.

  <><><><>

  Jenny rubbed her pain filled eyes, holding her daughter who barely moved, trying to focus better on that fax she had read a hundred times as she sat at her dining room table. Her hand gripped to the edge of it, and in a startle, she crinkled it when she heard the front door open.

  “Jenny.” John walked in.

  Jenny swallowed and folded the fax.

  “What do you have?”

  Jenny shook her head. “It’s nothing, honey. Don’t worry about it, it’s just another Ellen-trick on you.” Folding the paper, Jenny placed it in the front pocket of her jeans, it protruded slightly. “Why are you home?”

  John ran his hand down Caroline’s head. “God, Jenny, she’s burning up.”

  Jenny held her baby tighter and began to cry. “I know.”

  “We’ll get her to the clinic, then I need to speak to you. I really need to talk to you.” John grabbed hold of Jenny’s arm and helped her to stand. “Just know, that no matter what I tell you, I love you.”

  Jenny faced John, pulling from his hold. “Then maybe you should tell me now.” She stood before him and waited.

  <><><><>

  Ellen straightened the long intravenous tubing that led into her arm. She grabbed the cloth from the basin and wiped it slowly over Andrea’s forehead. Slowly and comforting, looking down to her. She pulled the covers farther up her, hoping it would stop her shaking. “You’ll be all right,” Ellen spoke softly.

  “I remember,” Andrea said through her shaking. “You once told me you’d let me suffer.” Her hand reached up to Ellen’s. “I’m sorry we fought so bad back then. I’m sorry for that.”

  “Don’t you apologize.” Ellen grabbed tightly to Andrea’s cheeks and lowered her face within an inch of Andrea’s. “Don’t you dare say you’re sorry to me. We got past that you and me. We did. And I’m sure, Andrea Slagel, you and I will get beyond many, many more fights. You hear me.”

  “I’m so sick, Ellen. I’ve never been this sick.”

  “Then fight,” Ellen spoke strongly, tears in her eyes. “You fight damn it. We can’t beat this alone. We need you to help us too.”
She lowered her lips and kissed Andrea on the forehead. “Fight.”

  As much as she wanted to stay with Andrea, Ellen knew she had to move on. With her head down some, she walked toward the lab to get more supplies. When she saw the silhouette by the sun-filled front door, Ellen raced forward.

  Dean looked up as he placed a needle in Jenny’s arm. “She just got here. Her and the baby.”

  “Oh my God.” Ellen grabbed Jenny’s arm.

  “Ellen, four more came in too. I need you to take their blood.”

  Ellen’s head swayed back and forth, she saw Jenny open her eyes. “Jenny.”

  “Ellen,” Jenny spoke weak.

  As Ellen lowered her head to look closer at Jenny, her eyes caught the slight shimmer of it as it hung from her pocket. The white paper. And immediately Ellen’s mind flashed to what Johnny told her. Fax. She snatched the paper from the pocket and unfolded it.

  Dean looked up as the tube filled with blood. “Ellen, what the hell are you doing?”

  Ellen’s eyes skimmed the words with horror. “I’ll be back!” She stormed to the door.

  “Ellen!” Dean called out, pulling the filled tube from the hub and sticking it in his pocket. He pulled the needle from Jenny’s arm, calling out as he chased Ellen. “Someone finish Jenny, I need another tube.” He ran as fast as he could to catch her. “Ellen!”

  “Dean, let me go.”

  “Get back in there.”

  “This is important. This is our lives.” She held up the fax. “Jenny found this. Read this.” She slammed it into Dean’s chest. “I have to get Joe. We have to find John. He did it to her. She found him out and he did it to her.”

  <><><><>

  John Matoose sobbed. He literally cried his eyes out, his face buried in his hands. “I’m sorry,” he cried to Joe. “I am. I don’t care what you do to me. You can shoot me, you can oust me, do what you want. But I am begging you, Joe. I am begging you please do not do it until I help you bring him down. Use me to get to George. Use me. He doesn’t know I told you. He promised this wouldn’t happen.” John’s head moved back and forth. “Let me help get him. Let me help you find him.”