Whimper (24 page)

God, I hoped Zoe made it inside. My guts were twisting with worry. Zoe was outside, alone in the dark with no one to watch her back, while we were inside a metal can with someone who was very possibly in the secondary stages of infection.

Amie slammed her bag down on the floor and began logging in to consoles and printing out data without saying a word. Zack moved over to the security camera screen and casually placed himself in front of it.

Should I wait until we were finished before I say anything or should I find out what we’re dealing with? I worried the inside of my lip with my teeth, trying to distract myself from the inevitable. If we continued, there was a chance she could contaminate my samples and therefore skew any findings. If we didn’t continue, I may never get another chance to use the equipment here. I certainly couldn’t take it with me.

“Amie, did something happen today?” I blurted. It came out far more brusque and accusatory than I intended, but there was no pulling it back once I’d flung it out there.

She started freaking crying. Fuck. I looked to Zack for some back up, but he only shrugged. So far he hadn’t done a damn thing to facilitate her cooperation. Ladies’ man my ass.

“Amie, what happened?” I asked again, trying not to sound like a dick this time, but still being firm.

“You!” she hissed. “You are what happened. You showed up and filled my head with all of these conspiracy theories and shadow agendas. You fucked me for your own gain. Again!” She shot to her feet, marching towards me. Her face was flushed and flecked with tiny beads of glistening sweat, her eyes wild.

“I asked some questions, did a little bit of digging to see if any of the fantastical horror story you were feeding me was true. Next thing I know, my supervisor is in my room with security staff. They searched me, confiscated my computer and my files, and suggested that I be inoculated for my own protection.” Amie shoved her sleeve up, baring the angry red welt on her sleeve. “Do you think the vaccines they’re giving are contaminated, Elliott? Would you like to fucking find out? Because I figure you’ve got a matter of hours before you’ll have conclusive evidence to support your theory.” Amie dropped to the floor in a heap in front of me. I was probably supposed to catch her, but instead I stood there and watched her fall, frozen in place by my own guilt. First Zoe, now this.

Another life piled up on my doorstep. Another person I killed as surely as I’d put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger. I should have known this would happen if she helped me. Should have shouldered the risk myself.

Amie continued to sob with wet gurgling wails and choking sniffles. “Stop it. You’re only going to make it worse,” I said flatly.

“How can it get any worse? I’m dying!” she cried. “It’s not like you’re going to give me the drugs you’ve been taking. You won’t even tell me what they are.”

I didn’t have enough of my meds for two people. Even if I did, there was still a chance Zoe might need them. Besides that, the dosages were calibrated for me. It would be extremely dangerous to give Amie one of my doses. I’d built up a tolerance and was a good hundred and fifty pounds heavier than her anyway. My dose could kill her before the virus had a chance to. I couldn’t give them to Zoe either, but I had a little more time before she would show any signs. Zoe could be immune, she might never show any signs of infection. I wiped beads of sweat from my forehead, concentrated on slowing my heart rate back to gallop. I had to make a choice.

“I can’t give you meds, but I’ve got something better.” The words tasted like bile as they fell from my lips. Who knew that dying hope had a flavor?

I watched the SUV wheel in through the gates from my hiding spot behind a couple of half-full, stinking trash cans. The garage door to my right began to rumble upwards, making me jump about a foot. I shook my head, mad at myself for being so twitchy. Every little noise or crack of thunder made me freak a bit more. I needed to get a grip on myself. Geesh, get attacked by a single blood thirsty monster and I fall to pieces! I kept myself from bolting for the door the moment there was room for me to squirm under. I’d be spotlighted by the vehicle’s headlights and no matter how much Zack was distracting and charming Amie, she was bound to notice me.

I froze and held my breath as the headlights swept over my hiding spot. She must not have noticed, because she kept going right for the yawning garage door. As soon as the car was inside, I checked the area and darted for the edge of the door. It started its slow descent, and I trembled with the need to be inside somewhere safe, but I waited. I crouched down, peeking around the edge to see the parked SUV and the guys standing outside. At the last possible moment, I threw myself forward under the door and into the closest pool of darkness.

Elliott was guiding his ex into the mobile lab with a hand on her elbow. Heat flashed into my cheeks, and I felt dizzy for a moment. Were the symptoms starting already or was this jealousy, pure and simple? I watched them hustle inside and waited a moment for the dizziness to subside. Then I crept across the garage to the opposite side of the trailer. I dug around in the pocket of my bag until my fingers found the crinkly sound I was looking for. I clicked on the small red pen light, and studied the drawing Elliott had made for me of the possible access points for the mobile lab’s networking hub. I felt my way along the side of the trailer, trying not to use the pen light unless absolutely necessary. There was a light at the garage door and another small security light by the trailer door, so at least I wasn’t working in total darkness. I finally found a small panel near the hitch that seemed to match Elliott’s description. It was locked, but I managed to open it with a screwdriver. “Please don’t be alarmed,” I breathed as I popped it open. Inside there was a maze of wiring, far more complicated than I’d expected. I dropped to my knees, perplexed. Where did I even start? It took me a few minutes, but I finally found a spot to plug into, so I got out my tools and went to work.

My uncle found out my friends and I were hacking businesses when my brother mentioned how we’d changed the line up on the local radio station for a party. He went ballistic. I was grounded from my computer and the internet for weeks. It hadn’t been the grounding that upset me really, it was the look on my uncle’s face when he realized I had been doing something he considered morally wrong. It gutted me.

“This is different,” I rationalized. “He’d be okay with this.” I hoped. My computer wasn’t state of the art, and my skills were beyond rusty. Technology has sped past me in the last few years. My computer was connected, and I’d found the network but I hadn’t found my way in.

“Come on, come on, come on,” I pleaded. Every trick I tried was blocked. I groaned in frustration. Damn it! This had to work. What could I do if I couldn’t find my way in? I had no idea what was going on inside with the guys, but it felt like time was flying by while I accomplished nothing.

The trailer door on the opposite side flew open with a bang, and I heard my brother calling my name. “Zoe! Shit, Zoe!”

I started frantically packing my stuff back up and disconnecting my computer. “I’m over here! What’s going on?”

He raced around the trailer and helped me finish packing my stuff. “Hurry, we’ve got to get moving.”

“Where’s Elliott?” I asked, fear running icy fingers down my spine.

“He’s grabbing what he can from the lab and getting his readings.” Zack pulled me to my feet. “We’re probably going to have company soon.”

“Did she sell him out?” I demanded angrily. I was going to kill the bitch.

Marching around the trailer, I saw the bitch in question stumble down the trailer steps. She lurched to the side and heaved her guts out in the gravel.

Watching her violently retch took a bit of the wind out of my sails. You can’t punch someone when they’re puking.

Elliott appeared in the doorway with his bag and tossed me a white lab coat. “Hold on to this. If they show up, you might be able to pass as one of the CDC team members. You stopped her from destroying research in the lab, okay?”

I clutched the coat, wondering if I should put it on or not. On the one hand, something so bright could attract attention from the infected, but it might help us with the security people. “What’s going on?” I asked, eyeing the sniveling redhead suspiciously. “What did she do?”

Elliott closed the lab door behind him with an angry slam. “She’s infected. I ran tests to make sure. She has the virus, early stages of infection. Worse yet, when she realized she was infected, she told her supervisor she had information about me that she’d share in exchange for treatment. She stupidly believed they wouldn’t release a virus they didn’t have a cure for.”

We both looked at her hunched form in the gravel with disgust. “They’re likely tracking her. I doubt we have much time before they show up. We need to go.”

Zack headed towards the SUV. “We’ll never make it back to the tunnels hauling her if we don’t drive. But if they’re tracking her, they might be tracking her vehicle too. Do we risk it or do we leave her?”

I knew my vote was to leave her. What good was she to us now? We couldn’t take her back home, and we couldn’t cure her. “There’s no way we can take her into the tunnels if she’s infected. What about all those people? We have no idea when she’ll snap!” I argued. I didn’t want her in my house either, but it seemed petty to point it out.

Elliott’s jaw tightened. “We can’t leave her here. We can’t take her back there either. We still have the hotel room. I can’t think of another safe place to take her, unless either of you knows of a closer option?”

Zack and I looked at each other. Neither of us offered up the house. The hotel was off campus and might not even be accessible, but home wasn’t an option either. Why would we risk our lives for her? Guilt scratched a little at my brain. We were already risking our lives for perfect strangers. Why was she any different? Cause she was, damn it!

“Let’s take the SUV and ditch it in the lot by the car. Then we can take the car to the hotel,” I suggested.

Elliott shrugged, and grabbing Amie by the waist, he hauled her back to her feet. “We don’t have time to quibble. Let’s go. Can you drive, Zoe?”

I took the keys from Elliott as he roughly manhandled Amie into the back of the SUV. She looked so miserable, I almost felt sorry for her.

Zack took my bag and jumped in the passenger seat. “Let’s roll!”

I jabbed the gate opener and drove out the garage door as soon as it was high enough for the SUV to clear. The gate was slowly opening, and even though I only had to pause for a moment, it felt like an eternity.

“Do you have any idea how they could be tracking you?” Elliott asked Amie. She moaned softly in response. He threw his hands up in frustration, grabbing her purse to search through it.

“Can they still track a cell phone if it’s turned off?” he asked us.

I had no idea. Zack shrugged, as uncertain as I was. “Maybe?” he answered. Elliott rolled down the window to chuck the cell phone, but as he reared back I yelled, “Wait! She can still access her emails and the network on that thing, right? Don’t throw it away!” We might be able to use it to get the information I’d failed to hack. “Pull the battery and the SIM card. Hopefully that’ll be enough,” I suggested. I slipped on the lab coat as I pulled through the gate. Several infected came running at us, drawn by the noise of the clanking gate.

I wanted to shriek, but I bit my lip and floored the accelerator. We clipped a curb as I cornered the unfamiliar vehicle, causing us all to bounce around a little. Amie groaned loudly and made a retching sound. My brother looked at me sideways and pulled his seatbelt a little tighter, but wisely kept quiet.

Big, fat raindrops began to slowly patter the windshield as thunder continued to rumble. The storm was finally reaching us. More and more figures lurched towards our vehicle as I sped past. I ignored all traffic signs, dodging and weaving my way through the streets however possible. As we got closer to the parking lot where Zack’s car waited, it became increasingly obvious we were never going to be able to bail from one car to another without having at least one of the enraged infected to contend with.

“Do I stop or keep going?” I asked the guys, panic seeping into my voice.

“Keep going!” Elliott urged. “There are too many here. It’s too risky.”

I had to agree, so I continued my headlong dash through campus, headed for the hotel. I’d be able to drive past The Firebrand on the way. My stomach churned a bit. I had to hope that it was intact. No one had been inside, so why would anyone bother with it? Of course, there could have been rioting and looting on the other side of campus and we never would have known about it.

Whump!
The sound of a body running into the side of our vehicle was sickening. I watched in the rear view mirror as the woman who had head butted our SUV flailed in the steaming wet roadway before splashing back to her feet and trying to chase after us.

“Look out!” Zack yelled, grabbing the steering wheel. I mashed the brakes out of instinct as Zack and I swerved to miss the man standing in the roadway in front of us. We ground to a halt, barely bumping the guy with the passenger side fender. He spun, hammering against Zack’s window with a bloodied fist. Rivulets of red trickled down the window as he reared back to strike again.