Under Darkness (A Sci-Fi Thriller) (Scott Standalones Book 1)

by Jasper T. Scott

  “No, sir, but while he’s here, he can save me some time by giving samples.”

  “Very well.” Into the radio, Coben said, “Escort him to the clinic, but make sure he doesn’t enter it until Doctor Carter joins you.”

  “Yes, sir. Over.”

  Chapter 42

  Beth sat in Math class, pretending to listen as Professor Abbot taught them how to solve polynomials. She had bigger problems than learning algebra—like being forced to share a six-hundred-square-foot hotel suite with her dad and his fiancé, Melanie. It was driving her crazy, and thanks to the quarantine she couldn’t run away to live with her mom in LA. Christmas break was coming up—the perfect excuse to leave—but it was impossible to even buy a plane ticket.

  The alien invasion was a distant memory; she was one of the lucky ones who’d been able to get over it without lingering effects from the trauma, but she’d been left with a different kind of trauma. Ever since that horrifying night when she’d walked in on her dad and Melanie—no, not her dad, Bill; he was Bill to her now—she’d had to watch the two of them walking around on a cloud and making everyone feel uncomfortable with their public displays of affection. The last straw had come with her dad throwing a big party at the resort, inviting strangers off the street to enjoy snacks and an open bar to celebrate their engagement. He’d gone through all of the Koa Kai’s canned goods and their remaining supply of liquor in a matter of hours. There must have been a thousand people at the resort that night, and they’d trashed the place.

  It was all Melanie’s fault. She was only twenty-one, so of course she’d thought it would be cool to throw a kegger at her dad’s place to celebrate the engagement. It was like her dad had lost his mind. He was acting like a teenager, leaving Beth to be the adult.

  And somehow, neither of them had even given a second thought to Melanie’s dead husband. As far as Beth was concerned, that was all the characterization she needed: twenty-one-year-old widower hooks up with divorced forty-three-year-old resort owner one week after her husband died. It was a pathetic joke, and Beth felt like she was the only one who wasn’t laughing.

  “Beth Steele!”

  She blinked the glaze from her eyes to see that Mr. Abbot was staring at her. “Yes?”

  “Your uncle is waiting for you in the Main Office.”

  “My Uncle?” Beth asked. That was impossible. Her uncles were all living in LA and on the east coast. Had the quarantine been lifted and she’d somehow missed hearing about it?

  “Yes, a Don Steele, I believe. He needs to speak with you. He said it’s urgent.”

  Don. Beth jumped to her feet, sweeping her notebook and math textbook off her desk in one smooth motion.

  The teacher watched with a disapproving glare. “I hope you’ll be back, Miss Steele. You can’t afford to miss any more of this class.”

  “Yes, Mr. Abbot.” Beth burst out of class and hurried down the hall. She had to force herself not to run. The last time she’d seen Don, he’d been on his way with his grandmother to his bug out shelter in the mountains. She couldn’t begin to imagine why he had come to see her at school in the middle of the day. The only thing she could think of was that it had something to do with their mutual suspicions of her dad and the others at the Koa Kai. That gave her hope. Maybe her dad’s crazy behavior really was a result of some alien infection messing with his head, and if so, maybe there was some way she could get him back.

  * * *

  “Is there somewhere private we can talk?” Don asked Mrs. Newman, the office clerk. Beth was bouncing on her feet with the burning need to know why he was here, but so far Don had refused to say anything.

  “Well...” Mrs. Newman glanced around. “I suppose you could use Vice Principal Morgan’s office. He’s out at the moment.” She pointed to the darkened door.

  “Thank you,” Don replied, and practically dragged Beth over there.

  Once they were inside with the door shut, Don stepped out of view of the door’s window and ushered Beth into the corner of the room. She backed into a filing cabinet with a noisy thump.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “Keep it down and listen up, kid. You need to get out of here. Now. Is there some way you can cut class and meet me in the parking lot?”

  “What? Why?”

  “I can’t explain here. Yes or no, Beth?”

  “I can, but—”

  “Good. I’m driving the same old white Chevy. You remember it? You’ll find me parked out front in the far corner of the lot, northwest of the main entrance. The engine will be running.

  Beth nodded absently, then shook her head. “Hang on. I’m not going anywhere until you tell me something.”

  Don glanced around, checking the ceiling, and Beth realized he was looking for cameras.

  “Relax. No one’s listening,” Beth said.

  But Don shook his head. “We can’t be too careful.” He glanced behind him to the door, as if worried someone might have their ear pressed to the other side. “Are you going to meet me or not?”

  His mysterious behavior left her no choice. “Give me five minutes.”

  Don nodded. “Good call.”

  As they emerged from the vice principal’s office, Don pasted a sunny smile on his face. Beth’s heart pounded in her chest, and she was afraid some of that tension had bled through to her features.

  “Everything all right, Mr. Steele?” Mrs. Newman asked.

  “Just peachy, thank you.”

  “Glad to hear it...” She replied with a bemused expression. “Beth you’d better get back to class.”

  She nodded quickly and hurried out after Don. He headed straight for the main entrance, while Beth arced right to the girls’ bathroom. The window in there was small and hard to reach. It was locked from the outside, but the lock was old and easy to jiggle loose. It was also one of the few places in the school with no security cameras, making it the perfect place to sneak out.

  Chapter 43

  Beth jumped down from the jimmied window and raced around the side of the school, staying clear of windows and darting between trees. With the wind in her hair, she felt like she’d broken out of jail. It reminded her of when she and Toby used to sneak out together—before he’d dropped out and found a job at her dad’s resort.

  Beth’s throat tightened at the memory, and shook her head to clear it. She ran down the side of the gymnasium to reach the parking lot. There, shadowed by an umbrella-shaped tree and the soaring window-less edifice of the gym, Beth scanned the northwest end of the parking lot.

  She found the glowing red tail lights of Don’s truck peeking out behind a green minivan at the furthest extent of the parking lot. Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, Beth darted out of cover to reach the cars. She crouched low to hide behind the vehicles and not be seen through their windows. At the end of the parking lot, she sneaked between Don’s truck and the minivan.

  “That was ten minutes, not five.” Don regarded her with a look of strained patience. He had his windows rolled down, and to Beth’s surprise someone in a familiar canary-yellow suit sat beside him.

  “Ashley?”

  “Hi, Beth,” the doctor replied.

  “Get in,” Don added, waving her around to the passenger’s side.

  Beth pulled open the door, and the doctor shuffled over to sit in the middle of the bench seat.

  “Thanks,” Beth said, then climbed in and shut the door. “So, now can you explain what’s going on?” Beth asked. She tried to lean around Ashley to catch Don’s eye as he began reversing out of the parking space.

  “I’ll let Ash tell it,” Don said. “Ash?”

  “It’s Ashley,” she replied. Turning to Beth, she said, “He’s been working with chickens.”

  “Chickens?” Beth asked.

  Don hit the accelerator, and the Silverado’s engine roared as he left the parking lot and joined the street.

  “He infected a group of chickens by mixing blood from someone he believes t
o be infected into their food.”

  “Not someone I believe to be infected. She is infected. That woman is not my grandmother.”

  “Sarah?” Beth asked. “What’s wrong with her?”

  “She’s off,” Don said. “Everything she says and does is just a little off like she’s trying too hard to be herself and put me at ease.”

  “How did you get her blood?”

  “Slipped a sedative into her tea and then I took it.”

  Ashley went on, “Anyway, he infected the chickens and then studied their behavior over the past nine weeks, all the while comparing them to a control group of uninfected animals.”

  Beth shook her head. “And?”

  Don chose that moment to interject: “And, I discovered the same synchronized behavior we saw at the resort. It wasn’t a coincidence, Beth. The difference is, the chickens can’t help themselves. Maybe their brains are too tiny; I don’t know, but I’ve got a whole coop full of them playing follow the leader in groups of four—well, except for the immunes, Donnie and Bethy.”

  “You named your chickens after us?” Beth asked. She was beginning to wonder if maybe Don had lost his mind.

  “You’re missing the point,” Don sighed. “This is important, Beth.”

  “Do you have any proof?” she asked, her eyes flicking between him and Ashley.

  “He showed me videos,” Ashley said. “He came to the CDC to turn over his notes, the recordings, and all of the samples from his work, but Director Coben brushed us off. He’s going to lift the quarantine tomorrow if we can’t find proof of a dangerous pathogen in humans.”

  “Isn’t lifting the quarantine a good thing?” Beth asked.

  “It would be if there were no reason for alarm,” Don replied.

  Beth watched as Don drove them past a suburban development in Lihue. She recognized where they were; he was heading for the airport, or rather, for the CDC complex in the soccer field next to the airport.

  “He thinks the Crawlers have secretly taken over the minds of almost everyone on the island,” Ashley explained. “He thinks they’re all doppelgängers.”

  “That’s crazy...” Beth said, but her voice sounded unsure even to her own ears. Maybe that explained her dad’s and Melanie’s madness. “By taken over, you mean... what exactly?”

  “I think they’re pretending to be the people they were while consciously pursuing the Crawlers’ agenda.”

  “What agenda?”

  “Infect as many people as possible as a prelude to a real invasion. Then when they come, instead of going to war with them, the infected people will all be bending over backward to give them whatever they want like good little slaves.”

  “But...” Beth shook her head. That explanation didn’t make sense to her. She looked at Ashley and asked Don, “How do you know she’s immune? Or me?”

  “Because both of you described your suspicions to me before I had to say anything. You, Beth, at breakfast that day, and Ashley now when I went to see her at the CDC. If either of you were infected, you wouldn’t be trying to draw attention to the Crawlers’ business.”

  Beth’s eyes flicked to Ashley. “Does this make any sense to you?”

  “I might not be immune,” Ashley said. “I’ve been observing all the protocols. It’s possible I just haven’t been exposed yet. And he’s just guessing about this being a prelude to a bigger invasion. But I do think that something is going on.”

  “It’s a damn good guess,” Don said. “And it fits with everything else that the Crawlers have done.”

  “Not everything,” Ashley replied. “If this is phase one and it’s designed to spread a pathogen to as many people as possible, then the Crawlers should have invaded the mainland—not an island in the middle of the Pacific. If you’re right, then it’s almost as though they wanted the spread to be contained, and that doesn’t make any sense when you plug it into your theory of an alien bioweapon.”

  “Maybe it’s a weapon test, to see if they can get away with it, or to lull us into a false sense of security while we knock ourselves out trying to find their invisible weapon. Hell, if they made their whole damn spaceship invisible, they can probably do it on a microscopic level, too.”

  “Not necessarily,” Ashley replied.

  “Well, maybe you missed something. Besides, you said yourself that the quarantine center might have been compromised, which means you could have people on the inside actively working to hide evidence.”

  “The center was compromised?” Beth asked. “How do you know?”

  “I saw the same thing this morning,” Ashley explained. “The director and three other doctors were all syncing up, just like Don found with his chickens—and like you saw with your dad.”

  Unease crawled through Beth’s gut, making her feel queasy. She could see the white canvas tents of the CDC complex growing larger in the distance. “If the center is compromised, then why are we going there?”

  “Because I need to run more tests, and because Don found a cure, and we need to see if it works.”

  “You found a cure?” Beth asked. She stared at Don with wide eyes.

  “Damn right.” He nodded absently as if it were no big deal.

  Hope exploded inside of Beth like fireworks. “What is it?”

  Chapter 44

  “What’s the cure?” Beth asked again just as Don parked in the lot outside the center. A pair of Marines immediately peeled off the fence to intercept them.

  “Radiation,” Don said.

  “What kind of—”

  “Not now, Beth,” Ashley said, cutting her off.

  “Does the director know?” Beth whispered.

  “No. I told Ash to be careful, just in case. Seems I was right.”

  One of the Marines came up to Don’s open window.

  “Is there a problem, Corporal?” he asked.

  “This is a restricted area,” the Marine replied.

  “It’s okay, Lee,” Ashley said. “They’re with me. I’m taking them to the clinic for testing.”

  Beth saw the man frown, but then he nodded and stepped back. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Don shut off the engine, and they climbed out of the truck. Corporal Lee escorted them all the way to the entrance of the clinic tent.

  “You can leave us now, Corporal,” Ashley said when it looked like he wanted to enter the clinic with them.

  “My orders are to keep eyes on any civilians you bring to the center.”

  “Since when?” Ashley asked. “Whose orders?”

  “The director’s. Since this morning, ma’am. I’ll be sure to stay out of your way.”

  Ashley looked like she wanted to argue further, but she gave in with a nod. “Very well, you can help with the testing.”

  “Help, ma’am?”

  “I could use another test subject.”

  “My orders are—”

  “You’re not hiding something are you, corporal?” Ashley asked.

  Beth felt her whole body go cold, and Don appeared to tense up, but then the Marine shook his head. “No, ma’am.”

  “Good. Then let’s get started.”

  Don caught Beth’s eye and gave his head a slight shake. They followed Ashley and the Marine inside the tent and each hopped up on one of the examination tables while Ashley dug around in a box on one of the metal shelving units.

  “You first,” Ashley said, nodding to the Marine. She had a needle and a stretchy blue tourniquet in her hand. He frowned, but shifted his shotgun to a one-handed grip and allowed her to roll up one of his sleeves. Beth watched his blood pour into the vial at the end of the needle.

  “Thank you,” Ashley said, marking the vial and placing it in a clear plastic stand.

  It was Beth’s turn next. She winced as the needle went in. Don didn’t even blink as Ashley took his blood.

  “Now what?” the Marine asked.

  “Now, we get a look at your blood counts to see if there’s any sign of an infection.”

  “Right.” He
nodded slowly, and his gaze strayed to Beth and Don.

  They spent a long time waiting while Ashley studied slides of their blood under a microscope and made notes on a pad. Then she placed the slides on a padded table under a machine that Beth vaguely recognized as an x-ray machine. Radiation. That’s the cure.

  “What’s that for?” the Marine asked.

  “Just a routine diagnostic test,” Ashley said, but Beth could tell she was trying too hard to be nonchalant.

  Ashley stepped away and ducked behind a screen. The machine buzzed once, twice... three times before Ashley stepped back into view to retrieve the samples. She returned to her microscope to study the samples. Don got up from the table and stretched his back and legs while they waited. Beth noticed that he was getting closer to the Marine in the process.

  At some point, Ashley grew very still.

  “Is everything okay, Doctor?” Corporal Lee asked.

  But she didn’t reply.

  “Doctor?” The corporal shifted his grip on his shotgun.

  Don inched a step closer to him, and Beth held her breath. The tension in the room was stretched to the limit, just about to snap. The Marine was definitely acting suspicious.

  “Everything is fine,” Ashley said, retreating from the microscope and turning to them with a frown. “You’re all clean, but I still have a lot of tests to do. It could be a while. Corporal Lee, would you please escort these two to the waiting area? I may need them for more tests later.”

  Lee nodded slowly. “Of course.”

  Beth frowned, wondering if Ashley was telling the truth or hiding something because of the Marine. “How long do you think you’ll need?” she asked. By now the school would have discovered her absence and reported it to her dad.

  “A few hours,” Ashley said.

  “A few hours!” Beth echoed.

  “I’m sorry. I’ll try to be as quick as possible.”

  “This way,” Corporal Lee said, gesturing to a tent-flap door opposite the one that led outside.

  Beth and Don followed him through and down the hall to the waiting room where Beth had met Don’s grandmother for the first time. But unlike it had been back then, the room was empty now.