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

“Liar! I can see Dr. Schneider across from me. She’s slipping, Nella. She bangs her head on the glass and bites her own flesh. She’s pulled almost all the hair out of her head. And then there’s Frank next to me. You know, he thinks he’s in love with you. I told him you’d never let a monster like him touch you.” She heard a clunk as the receiver was dropped. Dr. Pazzo began banging on the glass wall. “Frank! Frank, are you still sane? Having any cravings yet?” he yelled through the glass. Frank’s face was red but he didn’t turn his head toward Dr. Pazzo’s cell. He was watching her. Dr. Pazzo picked up the phone again.

“But I was wrong about that, wasn’t I? You like that mangled behemoth don’t you? But underneath that cool, polished face he’s just like me Nella. He’s angry at the whole world. If I hadn’t done it, someone like Frank would have. Has he snapped yet? I assume it would be harder to resist the urge the second time. He already knows what it feels like to tear into a woman’s fragile skin with his teeth. And he’s wanted yours for such a long, long time . . . You’re so soft and you smell so good, Dr. Rider. His jaw must ache just thinking about it. I wonder if he’ll get to you before you get sick. You better hope that guard doesn’t let him out Nella.”

“He’s not sick,” Nella whispered, “You were too late. You didn’t infect him.”

Dr. Pazzo just laughed. Nella hung up the phone. She could still hear Dr. Pazzo laughing through the glass. She told herself he was mad, that he had sprung his trap too late. But dread began to creep up and gather in her chest.

The phone rang. She looked over and Frank tapped on the glass, the receiver in his hand. She picked up the phone.

“Did we miss something? Could he have infected someone else without us knowing? Or left a vial somewhere?”

“Nella, it’s okay. We checked everything.” She wanted to relax into the warm calm of his voice, but Dr. Pazzo had shaken her badly.

“We didn’t check his lab.”

“Other people did. Very thoroughly. If it had been there it would have been found. Think like a psychiatrist Nella. You told me he couldn’t bear to have it out of his control, that he’d have to have it nearby where he could decide when and how to use it. He used it. He failed. It’s over. The only people that may be sick are right here.”

She sat on the cold floor in front of the glass. “Don’t be sick, Frank.”

He smiled at her. “What was it you said? ‘The world will keep going’ even if I am.”

“What if I don’t want it to?”

“Even if you don’t want it to and even if Dr. Pazzo doesn’t want it to.”

 

Dr. Schneider Snaps

Another week crawled by. Nella told Frank every dirty joke she could remember. Frank made up a few more. They persuaded the guard to bring them dry erase markers and played hangman on the glass wall. Frank drew a sailing route on his. Nella was persuading him to add a stop on the coast of Africa when they heard a commotion. Nella leaned her head against the glass.

“What is it?” Frank asked.

“I don’t know,” Nella said into the receiver. “It’s Dr. Schneider’s cell I think.”

The doctor hurried by with a first aid kit. “What-”

“Listen,” said Nella pressing her other ear to the glass.

“How did this happen?” snapped Dr. Corey.

“I don’t know,” said the guard, “I heard a thump and came over and there she was on the floor.”

“Did she say anything?”

“I couldn’t understand her, it’s like she was drunk.”

There were a few moments of silence. Nella glanced at Frank. He had backed away from the glass and his face was ashen in the cold light of his room.

“Just a sprain,” said Dr. Corey, “Dr. Schneider, I want you to take it easy now. Try not to move around too much.”

Nella retreated from the glass. Frank had hung up the phone. He was pacing the small room at a frantic pace, his long hands raking his head over and over. Nella dialed his room. He didn’t answer and she hung up so that he could have some peace. Dr. Pazzo began banging his head on the glass about half an hour later. She watched it shake with the impact. Frank curled up next to the glass and covered his ears with his hands. She sat down opposite of him, her heart a high tension wire thrumming between panic for Frank and worry at Pazzo’s frantic bashing.

The banging continued into the night. Nella lay in the half dark, pressed against the glass, trying to see into Frank’s dim room. They hadn’t spoken since that morning. Dr. Schneider began yelling, a high shriek. Nella squeezed her eyes closed as Dr. Pazzo grunted and continued slamming himself against the glass. The phone rang.

“I can’t do this Nella. I’m sorry.”

“Yes you can Frank.” She sat up. “It’s okay. We knew this was going to happen. They were bound to get like this eventually. But we’re not sick.”

“I must be. If he infected Dr. Schneider then he must have infected me too.”

“No, Frank, He kissed her, he put his mouth right on her. He didn’t touch you.”

Frank sobbed and she thought she could see him rocking back and forth in the corner.

“Turn the light on.”

“What? Why?”

“I’m going to show you we’re not sick. Turn on the light.” Nella flipped hers on at the same time. “Good. Now take your marker and draw a line on the floor.” Nella put the receiver down and streaked a line across the tile floor. She picked up the receiver. “Okay Frank, you first. Walk toe to toe down the line without falling or stepping off.”

“It’s not straight.”

“It doesn’t matter. If you’re sick you’ll fall over.”

Frank walked slowly on the line. He picked up the receiver. Dr. Pazzo banged again and Dr. Schneider shrieked in response. Nella flinched.

“Now you do it,” Frank said. She walked smoothly down the line.

“Okay, balance on one foot for as long as you can, say thirty seconds if you can. We’ll do it together.”

She put down the receiver and picked one foot off the floor. She watched Frank do the same. There was a loud crash from another cell and Nella jumped and ran to the glass. Dr. Schneider had ripped the cot out of the floor and was hurling it against the glass. Dr. Corey came running with one of the guards. Nella looked wide eyed at Frank. He watched the doctor enter the cell. Nella pressed her ear against the glass.

“Do it! Fucking give her the sedative Corey,” the guard was shouting. Nella heard a shriek and Dr. Schneider came hurtling out of the room and toward Nella and Frank. Her mouth was streaming with blood and something poked out between her teeth. Most of her hair was gone, pulled out, leaving great purple scabs and she’d chewed most of the skin from her hands. She slammed against Nella’s glass wall, her fingers scrabbling at the smooth door. Dr. Schneider screamed in rage and bashed her forehead against the glass. Nella could hear Frank yelling for help and pounding on the glass wall. A gloved hand pulled Dr. Schneider’s forehead from the glass and another slid around her neck with a knife and made a bright bubbling line across her throat. The shrieking ended and what was left of Dr. Schneider slumped to the ground. Nella vomited in the corner. The soldier knocked on her wall. “You okay?” It was the friendly one. “Then get on the line and tell your friend to stop yelling or I’ll have to assume he’s sick.”

Nella picked up the receiver with a shaky hand. “It’s okay Frank, I’m okay.”

He stopped pounding on the glass. The soldier walked down to the last cell. His buddy stumbled out. “That bitch bit me,” he said. The other soldier raised his gun.

“Dan, no, it’s okay. It’ll be okay, it barely broke through the suit.” The wounded soldier held up his hands. Nella could see his arm dripping blood onto the floor. It sounded like a leaky faucet in the quiet, even through the glass.

“Sorry man, I have to. It’s better this way. Trust me,” said Dan and fired. He stepped farther into the cell. Nella heard a groan and then another shot. Dan walked out of the room and up to Dr. Pazzo’s door. It was smeared with oil and feces and blood so that he couldn’t see through it. Nella watched him take a deep breath. He flung open the door and fired. Nella was shaking. She whispered into the receiver, “I love you Frank.”

She could see the sparkle of tears on his cheek. “I love you too,” he said.

Dan was talking into his radio as he walked toward them. “I need a cleanup at St. Helena’s, full biohazard suits.” He stopped in front of Nella’s cell and looked at her for a long minute. She shut her eyes. “I also need a new doctor down here. I have two quarantined that need to be cleared asap.” He walked farther down the hall and disappeared into the elevator.

Nella heard Frank start breathing again. She cried until she fell asleep still holding the receiver.

 

The Military Governor

The cleanup took a while, but soon the hall was silent and clean, as if Dr. Pazzo and Dr. Schneider had never been there. Nella and Frank waited through another four days of the same routine, blood tests, meals and new hospital clothes. At last a doctor in normal scrubs walked up to them. “Where’s your mask?” Frank asked. The doctor grinned.

“Don’t need it. Will you open the door Dan?”

The soldier appeared and Nella was mildly surprised to see his face. He was middle aged and a great scar raked across his face and neck. He opened Frank’s cell first.

“Dan? It was you?” Frank shook his hand and the larger man pulled him into a hug. Frank looked over at Nella. “Thank you for- for everything.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything, but if I’d had to shoot you-” the soldier swiped at his eyes. He walked over to Nella’s door. “I told Frank he should be more social and that he didn’t need to hide you away.” He swung the glass door open. “Yet here we are, meeting for the first time. Sort of.” He stuck out his hand and Nella shook it. This was the large man that had helped defend Frank the night Terry