Green Fields (Book 3): Escalation (40 page)

“Ah, Dr. Lewis. So good of you to join us,” Lowe said, malice dripping from his every word. Jerking his head at one of the guards who lurked next to the door, he told him to frisk me. He did a really bad job, coming not even close to my backup piece—yet trapped as it was under the heavy fabric of the lab coat, I wondered what good it would do me. Even if I managed to draw it and pass it on to Nate, I doubted that he could shoot more than one or two before they’d overwhelm him. A flicker of hope remained inside of me that it wouldn’t come to that, but I wasn’t counting on it.

“The results are in,” Stone explained. If I wasn’t mistaken, there was a hint of nervousness in his voice—and a hefty dose of the gloating that Lowe was doing more obviously. Moving to the overhead projector, he switched it on, making the blown-up projection of an electrophoresis gel appear on the wall, the bright blue bands covering the entire fifteen lanes—twelve samples, two controls, and a marker at the very end.

“That’s a protein gel,” I said, feeling my mouth dry up as my eyes skipped from lane to lane. It was the gel that Stace had been running down below—her “control.” Control, my ass. My mind ran wild with speculation—I had to admit, part of me had been dreading this since the moment Stone had mentioned needing blood samples from us—but underneath the obvious feeling of betrayal a cold, focused fear raced through me. I’d expected there to be four samples that were chock-full of whatever they were looking for, yet the gel clearly showed six. That left two more of us that had gotten the serum, besides Nate, Pia, Andrej, and Burns, but even this wasn’t that surprising. No, what was closing up my throat was the heavy cloud at the very top of the second lane, right between the marker and the first overloaded lane. I didn’t need to see the schematic of what sample belonged to whom to know that the second lane was mine, and the third likely Nate’s. Farther down to the right was another lane that had a similar cloud up there but faint—Martinez. But then it made perfect sense—most antibodies needed only a few months to be cleared from the blood, and it had been almost a year since I’d killed his boyfriend after he’d insta-converted from guzzling sugar syrup in a coffee shop.

I didn’t need to be a genius to figure all that out—and, quite frankly, I felt incredibly dumb as horror swept through me right there—because what they’d obviously done was the first thing I would have tested for if I knew that a good subset of the population still remaining alive had been infected with what was basically an inactive, dormant version of the virus.

Taking a calming breath, I forced the panic down and made myself look from the evidence of all that was wrong with the world back to Stone. I knew that I couldn’t feign complete ignorance, but I was sure that the fear I was feeling was making my face look blank rather than distressed. You could only spend so many months on constant high alert before you learned to keep it in check.

“It is a protein gel,” Lowe confirmed, looking a step away from rubbing his hands in glee. His childish display of schadenfreude was beyond annoying, and I latched on to that, trying to keep the panic at bay that way.

“Of what?” I asked, hoping that the choked-up quality of my voice would be read as general annoyance. Crossing my arms over my chest, I stepped further into the room, both to study the image better, but also to get closer to someone who might be able to make better use of my gun than I, myself. No one stopped me. In fact, from the corner of my eye I could clearly see that the guards were largely ignoring me, remaining focused on the guys instead. Stupid of them, maybe good for me. “You said you were running DNA tests.”

Lowe open his mouth to reply, but Nate cut him short with a loud, scoffing sound. “Oh, I’m sure they are. But only after finding out what they actually wanted to know—how many of us could actually be dangerous to them and their new oppressive world domination scheme.”

I didn’t have to feign confusion as I looked at Nate, but the way Stone’s jaw stood out as he gnashed his teeth was telling that I was—once again—the only one who didn’t know what was going on. Although, I could take quite the educated guess.

Nate didn’t wait more than a moment to give me a chance to speak up before he went on, his eyes boring into Stone's. “Don’t you feel you at least owe her an explanation of what you’re planning on using her for? She should know the emotional baggage she’ll have to shoulder first.”

He looked at me then, his face unreadable, but his eyes were burning with emotion. Pent-up anger that I hadn’t seen since that building had come down on us was now clawing its way free from where he’d pushed it down, and I could tell that he was about as sick as I myself was of there constantly being secrets between us. But there was also warning plain in his eyes, so I kept my mouth shut, letting him talk instead. His eyes remained on me as he started, but kept snagging to Stone and Lowe with increasing frequency.

“Why don’t you tell her about your super-soldier serum? Why don’t you tell her that the reason you can test specifically for whatever it is that fucks up my metabolism is because you’ve had a good thirty years to fine-tune your methods? Why don’t you tell her why the first thing in the briefing that we all got after surviving infection was that if we ever planned to commit suicide, we should better make sure to do it in a way that involved a complete destruction of the brain stem?”

Lowe actually blanched while Stone settled into a grim kind of acceptance. I felt my stomach drop out from under me, but forced myself to remain still as I continued to hug myself. Nate’s eyes returned to me, and he didn’t look away anymore.

“Want to know how the virus came into existence that killed most of us off? They engineered it. I don’t know exactly who ‘they’ are, but by the time I was inducted into the program, they’d already perfected the serum, so it was likely in the late eighties or something. It’s a weapon, turning any soldier into a suicide bomber. That it gives us a somewhat higher endurance and stamina with decreased pain sensation is a bonus they likely only found out about later. But the real function of the serum was to plant a nasty surprise behind enemy lines. Because, you see, when we die, we don’t just stay dead. We continue to fight as mindless, vicious monsters, rising again after just enough time for the virus to take over the dying brain and body. An unstoppable killing machine that no one expects. Sure, eventually they’ll put us down for good, but not until devastating numbers of unsuspecting enemies are claimed. Quite efficient a system, wouldn’t you say? As long as the soldier is alive, he’s a useful tool. And after he dies, he gets even more useful, more deadly, with no sense of mercy or moderation.”

I didn’t even try to deny his claim—watching what had happened to Bates was more than enough evidence to convince me. Besides, why should he have been lying to me now? Nate did a lot of things, but lying wasn’t one of them. But that didn’t mean that I didn’t hate every single word he said.

Not just because it made a different kind of horror come alive in me—the emotional impact of living with the knowledge that someone had turned you into a ticking time bomb must be beyond what I could comprehend. No—it stemmed from what he didn’t say, but what that fucking cloud in my sample was screaming at me, too loud to ignore. At any given moment that I’d been around him—waking, sleeping, fucking, eating, laughing, joking, just plain being—he could have turned into a fucking zombie, and as Sioux Falls had shown quite starkly, I wouldn’t have stood a chance. And it wasn’t like he was a closed-off system, as that cloud proved.

A year ago—or even mere months—I would probably have barfed up everything I’d eaten today. Now, I still felt the need to hurl, but there was so much else that was equally bad that I managed to retain a grip on myself, leaving it at a dry swallow as I continued to stare into his eyes.

And along with the horror came my old friend betrayal, doing a much better job choking me up. I wrenched my gaze away with a shaky breath, looking over to Stone and Lowe. Lowe was still gloating, but I thought I saw understanding and sympathy in Stone’s gaze. So, the bastard thought he could read me well enough to understand what I was feeling right now? That I’d only just understood that I’d spent the last months in constant danger, and that was what made me want to scream?

Taking another deliberate step forward—but this time away from Nate—I cleared my throat, trying hard to stop glancing at that damn protein gel.

“What exactly does that have to do with anything?” I didn’t bother with denying that I knew about the serum. I doubted Stone would have bought it.

It wasn’t Stone who replied, but Amy. I hadn’t even realized that she was there with us, but now she stepped forward, assuming a place beside Lowe, looking about as happy as I felt.

“I’m sorry, but we cannot let a menace like that run free in our towns.” Towns, plural, making me guess that there was more behind this than just her personal fear. Stone stepped in, confirming my guess.

“The government has decreed that everyone needs to be tested, particularly those that show behavior that might lend itself to someone who think he’s invincible.” His eyes focused on Nate, but when he remained silent, Stone went on. “In fact, everyone needs to be tested. I haven’t been lying to you, just omitted how widespread our testing is. All the settlements that want to belong to the strengthening network that will give rise to a new rendition of our great nation are required to do this, and so far, all of them have been happy to agree. We lend support as much as we can, and we are what remains of humankind—why would anyone not join?” It was a rhetorical question clearly, but he went on before anyone could object—which was rather likely from Pia’s sneer. “It goes without saying that when you spend months rebuilding a town from nothing, care for your neighbors and friends, you don’t just jeopardize that.”

“Meaning what?” I asked cautiously. Amy gave me a sympathetic look, while Stone continued to explain.

“Those of us who are normal need to be sure that we are not endangering ourselves by mere association with those that are not.”

Nate scoffed. “So what are you going to do with us? Kill us?”

Stone actually looked taken aback. “Of course not. We fully recognize the sacrifices you have volunteered to make for the greater good.” He stressed that enough that it was clear that he wanted it known that Nate and all the others hadn’t been subjected to whatever had happened against their will. “And we thank you for your service. We just can’t let you run around with everyone else none the wiser.”

Nate’s smirk didn’t hold much humor. “And to accomplish that you’ll do what? Brand us like animals for everyone to see?” The resulting silence made the shifting of the guards as they gripped their weapons more firmly even more obvious. Barking out a harsh laugh, Nate shook his head. “You got to be fucking shitting me.”

Stone seemed annoyed at that. “We’re not barbarians. Anyone testing positive for viral proteins in their body will be marked, yes. As will the people who have no permanent settlement and choose to continually associate with the former. But this isn’t without benefits for you, too.”

“Like what? A bullet in the back of the head as soon as I put down my weapons? But, no—you’ve already divested us of those, so we can blindly trust everything you claim,” Nate said.

“I understand your distress—“

“Oh you haven’t seen me distressed yet,” Nate ground out, but Stone continued to talk right over him.

“But this is not my decision. It is an official decree. Every town is obligated to give you shelter and food for up to five days at a time, and up to a tenth of the ammunition they have stored. It is up to the people to choose whether they want to deal with you or not. The program is quite successful so far, and many who prefer to take to a nomadic lifestyle have embraced it.”
 

Not without pressure, I was sure.

Nate continued to glare at Stone. “That’s your grand master plan? Just keep us out there, safely away from your precious little towns? As what, your beck-and-call trained monkey soldiers?”

He might have managed to get Stone riled up, but Amy ran interference once again.

“I understand that this may seem harsh to you now, but you have to see the benefits, too. Your life won’t change, much, and certainly not for the worst.” Nate seemed ready to contradict her, but Amy pressed on, her eyes pleading with him to understand. “I’ve talked to your people. They’ve all been wanting to move on, now that they’ve had some time to rest and recuperate. Already you are spending your time away from conventional settlements, raiding stores to gather the equipment and expertise that you’re lacking to survive in this world out there. Just think how many of us would die to get a few things from a supermarket. You lost a single man, and that in a situation that already claimed over a hundred people that we know of. And there are many more like you out there. We need you, but you don’t necessarily need us—maybe that will take some of the sting out of it. We can only continue to exist because of what you do, for us. And in return we can offer you a home away from home. Fresh food, mended clothes, a place where you don’t constantly have to watch yourself.”

Nate let her fall silent before he replied, his voice surprisingly soft, but that didn’t take the edge out of his words. “What you’re describing is a utopian vision that couldn’t be further from reality. Just look at how your guards are afraid of us. Do you think that anyone who bears that mark you’re so fond of will be treated with anything but suspicion? All you do is create a new lower class of society. Tell yourself whatever you like so you can stomach sentencing the people who are your only hope to a life outside of the comforts you find so very precious for yourself.”