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

passed a wet cloth over her face. She felt her shirt being unbuttoned and he pressed the cold cloth against her chest. She shivered again.

“It’s too cold,” the woman’s voice floated over them again. Nella tried to remember whose it was but she couldn’t. “If you make her shiver her temperature will only go up more. You need to put her in a warm bath.”

“Is there a bath here somewhere?”

“Down on the clinical floors. There are a few patient rooms. I don’t know if the water runs anymore.”

The world tilted as Frank lifted her. “Let’s go.” Nella looked up at his face. It was pinched and menacing.

“Don’t be mad, Frank,” she said.

He looked down at her and brushed the sweaty hair from her forehead. “I’m not mad at you Nella.” The world lurched as he walked toward the elevator. Nella tried not to vomit. She heard the elevator chime.

“Not there,” she whispered, “not there, the dead people will get you.” She drifted off again into a thick drowze.

Water crawled under her legs and Nella woke up again in a dusty tub.

“We have to turn the lights off,” hissed the woman’s voice. Nella forced herself to focus. Dr. Schneider looked even more wild and angry than yesterday. “The Infected or the Looters will see.”

“Shut up. If you’re that worried go find some blankets to cover the windows. Otherwise stay out of my way. You already told me there’s nothing else you can do.” Nella tilted her head back and saw Frank kneeling by her shoulder. Dr. Schneider slammed the door on her way out. Frank looked down and saw she was awake. He smiled and held up a white cup. “Can you drink something for me?” He tilted the cup toward her before she could answer. It was cool and soft on her throat. The bath water was warm and pooling around her lower back. She vomited up the mouthful of water he’d just given her.

“Sorry,” she said.

He wiped her mouth with the cool cloth. “It’s okay. We’ll try again in a minute.”

“Why are we here?”

Frank stroked her hair and she let her cheek cool on the dusty porcelain. “I have to cool you down. Your shoulder is infected very badly and you have a bad fever.”

“Is there a tooth in there?” she asked and immediately knew that was wrong.

She saw a tear roll down Frank’s long cheek. “No, the tooth is gone. I took it out, remember?”

“Don’t cry. I’ll try to drink again.”

He held the cup for her. She swallowed a little and it stayed. Frank shut the water off. He splashed her stomach and chest with the warm water.

She closed her eyes for what seemed like a moment. When she opened them, she was back on the sleeping bag and Frank was pacing the room. She didn’t see Dr. Schneider. She was half lucid and sweating through the fabric underneath her.

“Did you find it?” she said, still not understanding why Frank was so worried.

He sat down beside her and pressed the damp cloth to her neck. “Find what?” he said.

“The lock. No the key. Dr. Pazzo’s key. Or was it Dr. Schneider’s? No. She broke out.”

Frank went pale. “Nella, are you really awake?”

“Yes, I think so. I’m still confused.”

He held up a cup and she swallowed some water. “Tell me what to do. I’m not a doctor and Schneider won’t help. What do I do?”

Nella tried to think. She was so hot. “About the fever?” she guessed.

“Yes, what do I do? You have antibiotics already. We gave you another dose.”

She tried to sit up but couldn’t force herself up. Her shoulder blazed with pain. Frank caught her and held her up. She took the cup from him and swallowed another mouthful. Everything hurt, even her teeth. She looked at his worried face. “Nothing to do Frank. It’s old medicine, no good any more.”

Frank shook his head. “She said it should still work.”

Nella shrugged and then winced in pain. “Maybe it’s not the right medicine. The fever means my body is working. It has to get the teeth out.” Nella shook her head. “No, that’s not right. Take me to the shower. It’s too hot. I have to cool down.”

He looked doubtful but he lifted her up. “Not the elevator. There’s Infected in the elevator,” she said, fading.

She woke up in the shower. He was holding her and the water was cool on her skin. “Don’t die Nella,” he was saying.

“Everything dies Frank.” Her eyelids felt heavy and sore but she was truly aware this time. “It’s okay. The world will keep going.”

“Mine won’t.”

She lifted her face with an immense effort. “I love you,” she said.

She felt a soft rumble in his chest as he laughed. “Tell me again when you’re better and I’ll believe you.”

She heard the water turn off and he wrapped her in a towel. He carried her to the sleeping bag and she fell into a deep sleep where nothing chased her.

She woke up in the electric light of the office. Frank was sleeping beside her. She shifted to see if Dr. Schneider was there and Frank woke up. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

“How many days has it been?”

“Only two. Don’t worry. We have time. I should have made you stay at the farm house. You need to rest.”

She reached an aching, heavy arm to touch his face. “So do you. Go back to sleep.”

He turned and kissed her palm. “No,” he said, shaking his head, “Schneider said you need to eat if we’re going to move you in the next few days. Do you think you can?”

“I think so. Will you go to sleep if I do?”

He sat up and rummaged through the pack. “Only if you’ll sleep some more too.” He found a can of beans. Nella made a face. “You need the protein,” he said.

She smiled at him. “Thank you for taking care of me,” she said.

Frank blushed and cranked the can opener.

 

Medical Revolution

It was almost laughably predictable. Nella watched Frank and Dr. Schneider comb through the first tapes for the third time without comment. She had tried to tell them that whoever set the fire in the vault must have had the security codes and it was unlikely that they’d left video footage of themselves behind. But Dr. Schneider was convinced that whoever it was would have missed something. There were so many power outages, that they couldn’t tell when the cameras had been deliberately stopped and when the solar cells had been depleted.

Nella tried to use the time more wisely, attempting to engage Dr. Schneider in conversation, but the videos engrossed the doctor’s attention. Nella had to wait until late afternoon, when they were all exhausted, to get Dr. Schneider to concentrate.

Dr. Schneider sat slumped in her chair not bothering to watch the video feed that never changed, where only the light moved. Frank had left, going back to the executive office to pack their gear in frustration. Nella sat, quite forgotten by both, and she watched Dr. Schneider.

“Who knew about the Recharge bacteria?”

“Huh?” Dr. Schneider looked wearily around at Nella.

“I know you and Dr. Carton knew, as well as Ann and Dr. Pazzo, but who else knew?”

Dr. Schneider pinched the bridge of her nose as she thought. “Well, if you mean the original version, the university administration had a vague overview of the project. Our funding partners had a few more details, but the in depth lab work was solely up to Dr. Pazzo, Ann and myself. I brought Dr. Carton in later. If you mean who knew about the more powerful strain, then it was only the four of us. Dr. Carton and myself didn’t want any extra attention until the trials were done. We were due to brief a team here on lab testing, but the outbreak happened first.”

Nella watched her intently, allowing the reason for her secrecy to pass by unspoken. “Do you think Dr. Carton was telling the truth about where he’s been since the outbreak?”

Dr. Schneider looked up with a sudden twitch of her head. Her eyes narrowed and her lips twisted into a nasty, secretive grin. “What has Michael told you about where he’s been and what he’s done? Not the real truth, surely?”

The question prowled between them. Nella began to revise her opinion of Dr. Schneider almost without realizing it. “He told me that he was in such fear for his life that he resorted to aping the Infected. He told me he wandered for months that way until you found him and brought him back to the City.” She watched Dr. Schneider’s grin sour slightly. “He also told me that you made him- eliminate the evidence of your experimentation with the Cure until you got it right.” Nella felt her gorge rise, a painful stone scraping along her throat.

The nasty grin was back. Dr. Schneider leaned back in her seat. “Well, Dr. Rider, food was scarce. Waste not, want not, am I right?”

Nella kept her face neutral with some effort. “I thought you cared for Dr. Carton,” she said in a casual tone.

“What does my relationship with Dr. Carton have to do with anything?”

“I think your relationships with all of your business associates are at the root of why we’re here now. After all, it was your suggestion that Ann expose herself during your testing phase was it not? And your persuasion that convinced Dr. Carton to bypass procedure and steal a sample of the Recharge bacteria in order to work on a more powerful strain- against the express opinion of Dr. Pazzo. And your extended absences from the lab was a brilliant use of passive-aggression. After all, the sleep deprivation of both Ann and Dr. Pazzo caused them to miss not only symptoms they might have caught earlier, but also your activities with Dr. Carton’s lab.”

“I thought you were supposed to be impartial. I see Dr. Pazzo has persuaded you that I am the villain here. Let me remind you that he and Ann were free to leave at any point, they weren’t my slaves or captives. I’ve explained to you that Dr. Pazzo assured me that the strain was safe, that all the experimental results were normal. What does it matter if I persuaded Ann to progress the experiment at a slightly accelerated level? What happened would have happened anyway.”

“That argument may work in court with lay people, Dr. Schneider, but you and I both know that isn’t true. If the testing went as it ought to have gone, the human testers would have been isolated and observed. The chances of an epidemic resulting from a controlled experiment would have been miniscule.”

Dr. Schneider waved her hand dismissively. “Why are we even arguing? You’ve