After the Cure, Deirdre Gould [the beach read TXT] 📗

throat. She took a few shallow breaths to try to get used to the smell and stepped quietly inside. It was dark, not lit by artificial light at all, only the leftover glow of the sky coming through the windows. At least the curtains were open. Nella waited for her eyes to adjust as Frank and Sevita came in beside her. They were in a small, uncarpeted hallway. The smell had made Nella think the house would be filthy and unkempt but the hallway was clear of any debris or furniture and the floor shone even in the weak light. Nella walked to the left down the hall and through a doorway at the back of the house. She found herself in a small, immaculate kitchen. A light in the oven hood was turned on casting a dull gold light over the countertops. As Nella passed through toward the opposite door, she noticed a slab of meat defrosting in the sink, white and red, but odorless.

“Nella,” Frank whispered. She looked back and he pointed to the oven. It was set to preheat. “Someone is coming back.”

Nella felt panic clutch at her arm muscles making her ache, but she just nodded firmly and passed out of the door into a darkened formal dining room. She needed to let her eyes adjust again but she didn't want to wait, so she kept creeping forward, hoping she wouldn't bang into one of the massive wooden chairs. Where was the damned lab entrance? Even the outer light was failing fast and Nella knew they were going to have to risk turning on artificial lights soon or be caught in complete darkness, something she was desperate to avoid. Between avoiding heavy furniture and worrying about the light, Nella didn't notice the towering grandfather clock until she was standing underneath it. Then the tick, tick, tick was like a hammer pounding nails into her heart. She let out a shaky breath and looked up to see the pale, stern face of the clock and relaxed, her flesh feeling like abruptly dumped water. The far end of the dining room opened into another hallway. Nella opened a side door to find a tiny bathroom and she quickly shut it again, before the rancid sulfur smell could overwhelm her.

“Sevita,” she whispered realizing she could no longer see if Frank or Sevita were behind her.

“I'm here,” the answer floated back toward her.

“Do you have a light on your camera?”

“Sure, but it's pretty bright.”

Nella hesitated. Frank's voice was a low thrum behind her. “It's either that or we start flipping switches.”

Sevita gingerly slid past Nella and turned the camera light on. It was almost blinding after the natural dark. “I don't think anyone else can see down here without lights either, so there is probably no one on this floor right now,” she said.

“What about the oven?” Nella asked.

Sevita shrugged in the harsh light. “I didn't say the place was empty, just that there wasn't anyone on this floor at the moment. If we start seeing lights turn on I'll turn off the camera light.”

They walked slowly toward the front of the house. Nella began to relax in the bright light of Sevita's camera. She began to notice that the house was extremely quiet. Except for the ticking of the clock she had almost run into, there was no other sound. No dripping faucets, no humming electricity, no natural creaks. And as they passed through the second of two large living rooms, Nella noticed there was nothing out of place either. No books lying open or chairs pushed invitingly out from desks. It wasn't just tidy, the house felt completely unlived in. The oven and meat in the kitchen had been the only sign that someone existed between the walls. At last they came to the large entry hall. It was cold and bare. Nella wasn't sure if it was just because of the rapidity with which they had moved or their limited scope of vision but she didn't recall seeing a single picture or mirror on any of the walls. She was tempted to run back to the small bathroom and check there, but recognized it as foolish impulse. Frank caught her hand and squeezed. She looked at him and realised she could partially see his face though Sevita was facing another direction. He pointed up the large staircase and Nella saw a light at the far end of a long hallway. Sevita turned around. “I think I found it,” she whispered. They turned toward where she shone the light. A sleek silver elevator door waited just across from the completely unguarded front door. Nella was no longer relaxed.

“Where is everyone? Where are the guards? The owner? The cook?” Frank's hand was shaking slightly around hers. She squeezed it to calm him down.

“Should we go up or down?” whispered Sevita.

“I think the lab will be downstairs,” said Nella, “and whoever is upstairs doesn't know we're here yet, so they won't run or alert anyone.

“But shouldn't we check first?” asked Frank, “We may be able to find Dr. Schneider and she'd be away-” he looked hesitantly at Sevita, “she'd be away from any sort of weapon.”

Nella considered for a moment. But while they stood there, the silver door slid open with a smooth woosh of air. And the decision was made for them.

The man in the elevator was startled and immediately reached for the button, but Sevita sprang forward and held the door from sliding shut. “You're Dr. Carton aren't you?” she asked.

The man was in a wheelchair and his skin hung in loose folds and wrinkles as if it were slowly melting from him. This man couldn't be Dr. Carton. He had to be at least thirty years older than the pictures Nella had seen of him on the news.

“What do you want?” the man asked.

Frank stepped into the elevator next to him. “We aren't going to hurt you. We just need to find Dr. Carton and Dr. Schneider as soon as possible.”

The man sighed. “I knew this day was coming. I'm Dr. Carton. And I haven't seen Dr. Schneider in weeks.”

The man oozed the raw sewage smell from every pore. Nella forced herself onto the elevator with him. Sevita stepped in too and trained the camera on Dr. Carton.

“We know there is a lab here Dr. Carton. And we know about the incurable strain of the Recharge bacteria.” Nella said it calmly but it fell in the elevator like a steel bat across the old man's face.

He raised a shaky hand to his face. “Jesus,” was all he said. Sevita stared at her as if she too, had been struck.

“Why don't we go down to the lab, Dr. Carton? Maybe you can tell us where Dr. Schneider has gone.”

“Jesus, don't kill me. I don't know who told you about the Recharge bacteria but it isn't what you think. I beg you not to try to find it, it won't solve your problems. All it will do is make things worse.”

“We know,” said Nella grimly. Frank pressed the basement button on the elevator.

Nella wheeled Dr. Carton into a brightly lit room with lined with steel tables and unmarked silver doors that looked like refrigerators. Frank and Sevita hurried past her, moving swiftly and quietly down the lab.

“Why are you doing this?” Dr. Carton asked, “Don't you know it will destroy the world if you release it?”

Nella was startled and looked down into the choppy sea of frightened flesh that was Dr. Carton's face. “We don't want to release it Dr. Carton. We want to destroy it. Dr. Schneider was the last person to know where it is. We just want to find her.”

“What? Then why did you break in? How do you even know about it?”

“We were reviewing the evidence for the Plague Trial.” Nella held out her hand, “I'm Dr. Rider. I'm the court appointed psychiatrist for the trial.” Dr. Carton took her hand with some reluctance. She noticed his hand was still shaking and wondered if it was actually palsy and not terror.

“So Dr. Pazzo told you then.”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.”

“He didn't know the whole story,” Dr. Carton hesitated and squinted at Nella. He slowly added, “Or if he does, he didn't tell it to you.”

Frank and Sevita joined them. “She isn't here,” Sevita said, “but there is an exit. Its overgrown with weeds, I don't think anyone has used it in weeks.”

Nella looked at Dr. Carton. “Would you care to tell us what you think is the whole story?” she asked.

Dr. Carton sighed and wheeled his chair around so that he was facing all three of them.

 

 

Dr. Carton

“I don't know what Robert Pazzo has told you or how much you believe to be true. He probably told you that Dr. Schneider and I stole his version of the Recharge bacterium. I won't lie. Dr. Schneider and I did obtain a sample without permission. He also obviously told you that he and Dr. Schneider argued at length about how durable the strain ought to be. The idea was to make it resistant to most or all treatments administered to treat harmful diseases or used as prophylactics. Robert was afraid of making it too strong. He was afraid to lose control. But then, Robert Pazzo was always spineless and short sighted.” Dr. Carton shifted uncomfortably in his chair, his drooping jaw growing dark red with anger and resentment. “He couldn't see how much more efficient it would be to test the most durable strain immediately.”

“That's probably why some of us survived,” interrupted Sevita.

Dr. Carton nodded and his smile was jovial as if she had told a good joke. “Ah, you would think that. But my company offered to not only fund his research for the duration of the trials, but also to loan him state of the art laboratory space for as long as he needed, provided he test our version first. In our facility there wouldn't have been a leak. Not only would the sniffers have caught any infection present in the lab and isolated it, but untrained personnel like Miss Connelly would never have been allowed into dangerous areas in the first place. If Dr. Pazzo had listened eight years ago, all this wretched misery might have been avoided. But he is stubborn.”

Nella crossed her arms over her chest. “Ann told me it was Dr. Schneider who persuaded her to infect herself after depriving both Ann and Dr. Pazzo of sleep for days.”

Dr. Carton sighed. “Gerta can be overly impatient and has foregone protocol in the past in order to prove a point. Again, my lab wouldn’t have allowed her to sidestep the process or overwork her staff.

“Regardless of what might have been, it’s over now. Yes. We stole a sample of the weaker strain in order to develop a bacterial delivery system that was usable even in patients that required high doses of antibiotics. Their small experiment was only a stepping stone in what was