The Cured (27 page)

The world swirled and warped to Henry. As if this better place, this City, were just a dream in the unending misery of his illness. Just a vision of food and warmth and human contact that his brain had erected as an escape. A dream he was about to wake from.

“Thank you Dr. Lang,” said the Governor, shaking the nervous man’s hand. “A few last things. First, everyone who is not already assigned to the Farm, Medical, or the Electric and Water Plants will report to All-Work Station tomorrow. We need to make sure the lights stay on and the people in the hospital get fed. Everyone will be assigned essential tasks until this is over–”

“Shit,” whispered Stephanie.

“What?” said Henry.

“Bernice was at the courthouse. That means you and me and the ten guys that aren’t in the hospital have to manage all these people.”

“Me? I don’t know anything about– well, anything.”

“You’re two days ahead of everyone else,” she hissed, “be there early tomorrow, we’re going to need to organize.”

“–and lastly,” Henry tuned into the Governor’s voice again, “I will remind everyone that our rules will be enforced even with our smaller patrols. Looting will not be tolerated. Brawls, riots, vandalism are not acceptable. We are all that’s left. We won’t survive by adopting an ‘every man for himself’ attitude. Everyone must pull together for us to get through.” The Governor took a deep breath. “All right, we will broadcast again when we know anything new. Goodnight everyone.”

Thirty-one

Margie’s cleared out pretty quickly after that, each customer looking at the people around them as if they expected each of them to already be crawling with infection. Stephanie decided to get home early and warned Henry to be ready for the morning. Amos finished his beer and clapped him on the shoulder. “Hope you get assigned the Farm some more, Henry. We need more like you. Going to have to hear your story sometime. Some better day than this.” He nodded to Vincent and Rickey and wandered out into the dark. The bakery workers wiped tables and counters with tired, frightened expressions.

“Let’s go home,” said Vincent, “These folks want to go to bed.”

But suddenly Henry was afraid to be alone in his house. They stumbled out into the dark street, the wheat beer overwhelming their reduced frames. “I’m not going home,” said Henry to Vincent.

“Me either,” said Rickey, “Time to get out of Dodge.”

“What? You can’t leave– these people need us,” said Vincent, “Even if you haven’t made friends here yet, there’s Pam and Molly. They’re both at the hospital. Are you going to leave them?”

Rickey shoved his hands into his baggy jean pocket. “You want us to stay and do what? Get sick again? Eat them? I’m done Vincent, I’m not going back to that. I’ll kill myself first.” He drew a shaking hand out of his pocket. It was holding a cigarette.

“Where are you going to go? It’s a disease, if it’s out it will spread everywhere.”

Rickey shook his head, the burning red eye of the cigarette making tiny trails in the dark. “Not anymore. I’ll go as far west as I can, to the coast if I have to. There aren’t many people left, it can’t travel if it doesn’t have people to infect. Maybe I’ll live in the Great Empty, wherever I can find it. Maybe find another city, just as isolated. Where there aren’t insane scientists trying to murder us all.”

“What about bandits or wild animals or other Infected?”

“Sorry to break it to you, Father, but I’m pretty sure we’re the last survivors of the Infected. Everyone else starved or killed each other a long time ago. Sure, there’ll be the odd camp like Phil’s or someone nursing along an Infected hoping for a cure and never hearing of it, but most of them are gone. Alone, or with Henry, we’ll be able to avoid most big camps and we can stick to rural areas, places no one wants. There’s probably enough stuff out there that a man could live out all his days never needing to go near another person for help or to trade.”

“You’ve
seen
what’s out there. There’s nothing left. Nothing. You’ll starve.”

“I’ve seen what’s a few miles from here, Vincent. That’s it. There’s a whole big world out there–”

“It’s a dead world!” cried Vincent.

Rickey sucked on the cigarette.

“Maybe,” Henry said, “but even if you’re right, I’d rather starve than go back to what I was. It wasn’t so bad. The starving, I mean. It didn’t hurt so much after a while. But waking up was the worst thing that’s ever happened to us. We have to relive the eating every day. Forever. I don’t want anymore of it.”

The three of them began walking toward the Barrier.

“You could come with us Vincent,” said Henry quietly.

“And abandon the people who took us in, fed us, healed us? I can’t Henry. You shouldn’t either.”

“Is it better to turn back into what we were?”

“We don’t know that’s what will happen. Maybe we’ll be resistant to it, since it’s already happened to us once. Maybe it’s our turn to take care of others.”

Rickey snorted. “You mean like Phil ‘took care’ of us? Feed them to each other, cage them, beat them? No thanks.”

“Henry’s friends cared for him when he was sick. They made a choice to protect him even when they knew what was likely to happen.”

“But they didn’t!” Rickey was shouting and waving his arms for emphasis. “They turned him over to a thug. They turned us all over to him. They were cowards. So was everyone here,” he turned around pointing to the dark houses with his glowing cigarette. “They sat behind this wall and let the world tear itself apart. And now, when they are set up nicely, they can’t even be bothered to clean up the mess that’s left. Can they Henry?”

“What are you talking about?” asked Vincent.

“The Military Governor said he couldn’t spare the men or the resources to go after Phil’s camp. He won’t even give me a weapon so I can go myself.”

“Well, at least someone here has some sense,” grumbled Vincent.

They could see the lights of the Barrier now, could hear a bustle from its direction.

“We’re not the only ones who are leaving,” said Henry, pointing to the big gate where a small crowd milled around.

“Henry, you asked me if you were damned for what you had done while you were ill. But you are not ill now. You know what is right. And the man who knows the right thing and does not do it– that is sin. A good man would not leave.”

Henry stopped and turned to face Vincent. “I’m not a good man any longer. I don’t know if I even
want
to be a good man any longer.”

Vincent shook his head. “Then you are truly lost. Is there anything I can say to persuade either of you to stay and do your duty to these people?”

“I’m sorry Father,” said Rickey, “I can’t do this all over again.” He shook Vincent’s hand. “Coming Henry?”

Henry nodded and began to walk after Rickey into the lighted street in front of the Barrier.

“Henry,” called Vincent, “if you want to find the girl, you have to stay.”

Henry stopped. “Her name is Marnie,” he said over his shoulder.

“Fine. The only way you’re going to find Marnie is if you stay.”

He turned around. “How do you figure?”

Vincent sighed and his shoulders sagged. “Because Phil is in the City.”

Rickey spat a stray thread of tobacco. “Lying now, Father? I don’t think that’s allowed,” he said. But something in Vincent’s manner made Henry’s heart hiccup.

“It’s not a lie,” Vincent said, his voice weary and cracking, “He’s a gravedigger for the City. I saw him when I went to help with some church repairs this morning.”

“Shit.” Rickey spat on the pavement again.

“Does he know we’re here?” asked Henry, his skin tingling and sparking with adrenaline.

“I don’t think so. I mean, I barely recognize myself and he never paid attention to any of us particularly. You maybe, but I doubt you look the same. I wasn’t even sure I recognized him, but Melissa saw him too, on one of her deliveries.”

“You weren’t going to tell me.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“Why are you telling him now? Why are you so desperate for him to stay? Why couldn’t he have come with me? What’s it to you?” Rickey walked quickly toward the priest. It looked like he was going to start a fight. Henry wasn’t sure he wanted to stop him. But Vincent grabbed Rickey’s shoulder before he could swing.

“Because Rickey, as tough as you think you are, as bad as you think you’ve been, I’m confident you’re good at heart, that you’ll do the right thing eventually. And that you’re lonelier than you say. If Henry refuses to leave, then you won’t go. But Henry– I’m not sure he’ll come out right in the end. He’s far too concerned with damnation to deny that he feels himself already headed there.”

Henry shifted uncomfortably and felt anger heat the center of his belly. Vincent glanced past Rickey at him. “I know it’s a risk telling him that Phil is here. But if he ever wants to see Marnie again, he’ll have to restrain his taste for revenge. And if he stays, it will give me–
us
more time to convince him to stay a good man.”

Henry walked off into the dark in the direction of his house without speaking to either of him. A small part of him regretted not saying goodbye to Rickey, but Vincent was probably right. Rickey wouldn’t leave alone. The greater part of him raged. He was angry with Vincent for not telling him immediately about Phil. He was angry that Vincent had seen Phil but not Marnie, even though he knew it was irrational. He was angry that he was being manipulated. He was angry with himself for not just walking out the City gate and never looking back, for not forgetting Marnie or the past decade of his life.

What was he supposed to do now? Vincent would know if Phil died who had killed him. And he probably knew where Marnie was. Henry struggled with himself, trying to convince himself that he cared more about where Marnie was than about revenge. He didn’t quite succeed. But as he tripped over the dark stoop outside his door, he suddenly grinned. Grave digging wasn’t essential. Phil was going to be at the All-Work Station in the morning. And somehow, no matter what he had to do, Henry was going to get himself assigned to the same job. He flicked on the living room light and looked around. He had to get the house ready. In a few days, he was sure, Marnie would be living with him and he wanted to have her room ready.

Henry collapsed on the couch, falling asleep without even considering whether Phil would see him coming or not.

Thirty-two

The sun was barely leaking into the horizon when Henry arrived at the All-Work Station. The work bell wouldn’t ring for another hour, but there were still a group of people milling around the station. A few of them belonged there, the few who had taken a vacation during the slack time instead of attending the trial. Most of them were new people who’d been too nervous to sleep. Henry wondered absently whether many had fled the City overnight, or if most everyone had friends in quarantine to keep them. There was a little lonely chime in the back of his head as the Barrier passed through his thoughts. He wished he knew what Rickey had decided. The small crowd was silent, not even a whispered conversation or greeting as other people drifted in. Normally, it would have sent a chill through Henry, but now he was too absorbed in trying to recognize Phil among them to even notice.

Stephanie arrived a few minutes later and herded them all into the warehouse. He wasn’t there. Henry fought an irrational rage.
It’s still early. Calm down
, he told himself,
It’s been eight years. Wait just a little longer. Just a little while. Have to do it right. Have to do it so I don’t get caught, so I can take care of Marnie.

He helped Stephanie sort tool bundles, all the while watching the door for a sign of Phil. The warehouse was soon crammed with people and the work bell was still ten minutes away. “We have to get these people moving. There are a lot more coming. Hank, can you take most of this group to Electric?” Stephanie asked one of the men helping them. He nodded and moved off, bringing people bundles and directing them out the door.

“You want me to do the farm today, Steph?” asked a lean, tanned woman. But Stephanie shook her head.

“I think Henry and I will take people to the farm. Why don’t you get a security team together. The Barrier is short because of the hospital barricade. And Gwen, try to find people who at least know how to hold a weapon without shooting themselves.”

The woman grinned and lost herself in the crowd. Henry was becoming anxious. It didn’t get any better when Vincent and Melissa walked up to him. “Let it go,” hissed Melissa.

“I can’t. Simple as that. Is Rickey gone?”

Vincent shook his head, “At the power plant. Can we be on your crew?”

Henry shrugged, but Stephanie overheard. “What’s your normal assignment?” she asked.

“Postal service,” said Melissa.

“Perfect, we need someone to head up food delivery to the hospital. You won’t have to go inside or anything, just deliver a truck of prepped meals to the soldiers at the barricade. You interested?”

“Sure, how many people do I need?”

“You better grab ten or so, there are a lot of people in there and some of them may make requests for items from relatives or their homes. Again, don’t go into the hospital, just give it to the soldiers.”