This Plague of Days, Season Two (The Zombie Apocalypse Serial) (10 page)

“Yes, ma’am.” Ogilvy held his smarmy smile, at least until he spun on his heel and marched away.

Entering the suite’s air conditioning was like stepping out from under the pounding sun and into a cool, shaded pool. One glass wall put the camp on display. Despite the vista, the family’s eyes were drawn back to the hanging corpses directly below them.

A bar sat near the entrance to the room. As soon as Anna spotted it, she slipped behind it and pulled tall glass water bottles from the fridge.
 

“Anna, what are you doing?” Jack asked.

“Good guests take care of themselves. Anybody want a Coke?”

“Anna!”

“It’s ice cold.”

Jack relented. “Oh, God, yes.”

Anna grinned as she placed water bottles in her backpack. “I’ll put socks over each of them so they don’t clink.”

Jack tipped the Coke can back and swallowed, trying not to chug the cold sweetness but finding it hard to resist. “My daughter’s a thief, which apparently is a hanging offence here.”

“My daughter’s a survivor.” Theo stood by the glass wall, his arms crossed, watching another green helicopter land. Even at this distance, the music blaring from speakers mounted beneath the helicopter could be heard above the rotor chop. It was
Flight of the Valkyries
.

Anna watched soldiers scurry from the helo. Each soldier carried a terrified, struggling lamb under each arm. “Somebody missed the point of
Apocalypse Now
.”

“This
is
the apocalypse and it’s happening now, young lady.” An overweight, bald man in a white lab coat strode in carrying an iPad. His only greeting was a single nod before he sat behind a big desk piled with scattered papers.

He invited no one to sit in the suite’s many chairs and, in fact, said nothing for several minutes while he switched screens on the iPad. When he turned the device around, the video was a security camera’s view of Jaimie giving refugees masks at the west gate the night before.

“I talked to the nurse who worked intake last night. I understand James does not talk.”

Jack took her time pulling a chair from the bar. It was high and, when she sat, she looked down on the doctor. She sipped her Coke before replying. “I’m guessing you’re Dr. Merritt?”

“Oh, yes. Yes, I am! I would think that was clear. Didn’t Ogilvy — ”

“Sure. Your charm is legendary. What’s with those bodies down there, hanging in the sun?”

“Oh, that’s not my doing, I assure you. That’s on the military. If you have objections, you could take it up with General Emery. The last person who objected is over top of the sign marked ‘Sedition’.”

“This makes no sense,” Anna said. “For months we’ve been told to stay in our homes and avoid human contact. Now you’ve got us all packed tight.”

Merritt shrugged. “The situation is fluid. We know things you don’t know. If trouble comes, and I’m sure it will, you’ll be glad we are behind walls in a defensible position. If an attack were to come here, we have containment. I’m assured the military can take all comers from their fortified positions.”

“Aren’t you concerned about dead bodies spreading disease to all those people?”

Merritt smiled. “As a matter of fact, I insisted they take the convicted down every couple of days. And every couple of days, there are new criminals to take their place, hanging by a rope.”

“And what do you want with my son?”

Merritt reddened and cleared his throat. “I would think that’s also clear…
Jacqueline
, is it?”

“Mrs. Spencer.”

“Well, folks, there are dogs that detect seizures before they happen. There are dogs that detect cancer early, by smell. Or, at least, we think it’s an odor they detect. It seems your son has a similar talent that we need to fight this thing.”

Theo whispered in his son’s ear. “Can you fight the surveillance state and officious doctors, Jaimie?”

Jaimie almost smiled.
Quoth
was a great word, but he liked the feel of
officious
.
Officious…of fishes…of vicious. Of vicious fishes.

Merritt sat back in his chair, eyes darting. “I seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot with you people. The demands of my position…well…” He reached under his desk, poked around a moment and came up with a pint of fresh, red cherries. He placed them on the desk and invited the Spencers to eat with a wave of his hand. “You won’t get that in the mess tent, so I suggest you indulge while you can.”

Jack sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. “No, thanks.With all those people down there eating MREs, I wouldn’t feel good about that.”

Jaimie nearly knocked his mother over as he pounced on the box of cherries and stalked back to the window to eat alone.

Jack sighed and blew hair out of her eyes.

Merritt smiled. “Smart boy. Your son intrigues me. How often does he speak?”

“It’s sporadic and in his own time. He works on his own clock that only matches up with normal when he wants it to. Even then, unless you love Latin phrases or confusing detours, I don’t think you’ll find Jaimie is all that employable.”

“You should know, I want to use Jaimie for a very good cause.”

“If you’re looking to persuade me, Dr. Merritt, don’t use the word ‘use’ in any context that involves my son.”

Jaimie chewed the cherries one at a time. They were delicious. The way they felt in his mouth reminded the boy of words that had the same tart, yet sweet, taste under a smooth exterior: Magna cum laude, toxicity, foxglove and hemlock.

“Your son did something amazing last night, Mrs. Spencer. It’s something we can’t replicate yet. Of the five refugees Jaimie identified, four of them came down with the flu overnight. I’m still waiting on test results, but chances are excellent he identified carriers of Sutr-X.”

“And the fifth person?”

“That’s an interesting detail. The one who still seems healthy is the youngest. The child has no signs or symptoms, but we have him in isolation and we’re watching him carefully. One of the variables that has stymied us in tackling the plague is that it doesn’t have a predictable timeline. Early in the outbreak, the timeline could be as long as
weeks
since known exposure.”

“But you’re saying it’s different now?” Anna asked.

Merritt’s jaw fell slack and, for a moment, he lost his self-possession. “I’ll ask for your discretion in this matter. We don’t want panic, but our observations seem to show that the infected are displaying symptoms of the virus faster than earlier presentations. The elasticity of onset is significantly reduced.”

He took in their blank stares and tried again. “The young Hispanic man your son first picked out is already dead. Jaimie could be critical to combatting this crisis and keeping us safe as we work the problem. This is where we make our stand. There are very few labs that are still functional. If I fail, it’s likely an extinction-level event. How’s it feel to know your boy is a key component to saving the human race?”

Jaimie, who had been squirrelling cherry pits in his cheek, had run out of room. He spit the pits into his palm and scanned the room for a garbage can. Seeing none, he dropped them on the thick carpet. He stepped on the pits to hide them. He reasoned that the carpeting was so deep, it would hide the pits. He grabbed more cherries and ate.

“What about the child who isn’t sick?”

“We’ll watch him. Given Jaimie’s performance, I’m betting that kid’s temperature will shoot up any moment now.” Merritt smiled and his eyes shone. “I don’t know how your son can pick them, but I’ll let him deal with the magic and I’ll stick with the science. We’ll be a great team.”

“We only came here to tell the military about a man named Lieutenant Carron,” Jack said. “I think he might hunt us. He’s a very dangerous — ”

Merritt waved her off. “You can report your concerns to Ogilvy on your way out. That’s no concern of mine.”

The virologist caught Jack’s look and softened a moment. “Pardon me, Mrs. Spencer. Sometimes…I’m under a lot of strain.”

“Everybody’s under a lot of strain,” Anna said.

Merritt nodded. “Yes, of course. I’m sure you’ve weathered a lot to get here. However, you must understand, I have a responsibility. I’m working on the big picture. I understand you feel like prisoners.” He shrugged. “Let’s not sugarcoat it. You are prisoners. I need you. I’m fighting a war and your son is drafted.”

“Was there an act of Congress I missed while we were running from a maniac militia?” Theo stared at him.
 

“No mother wants her son drafted, but…I need him.”

“
Necessitas non habet legem!
” Jaimie said.

Merritt’s head whipped around. “What did he say?”

Jack and Anna shrugged, but Theo answered, “Jaimie’s quoting the Latin proverb ‘Necessity has no law’ but not because he agrees with you. To quote
Paradise Lost
, ‘So spake the Fiend, and with necessitie, The Tyrant’s Plea, excus’d his devilish deeds.’ Milton understood men like you, Dr. Merritt.”

Merritt stepped closer to the boy, searching for something to say. He glanced down at Jaimie’s wrist bracelet. “Jaimie’s a little boy’s name, but your name is James. What does the A stand for in James A. Spencer?”

“Augustus,” Jack said.

“That’s a big name to live up to.”

“Rome’s founder and first emperor,” Theo said. “And he’s selling you something, Jaimie. Don’t buy.”

“James Augustus Spencer. Every war needs soldiers, James. I need you to help me. I need you to be a man now. Your family will be safe from this man, Carron, as long as you all stay here. I don’t know how you do it. Sensitive nose probably. Whatever allows you to detect the disease before the rest of us, you’re special. You’re a cannon in the battle against Sutr! Will you, James Augustus, be my cannon?”

Jaimie glanced up. “Fodder.”
 

The doctor went cold. He appeared to falter, as if his mind had gone blank for a moment. When he backed away from the boy, he grasped his senses and his anger. “Do you know the word
necking
, James? Not teenagers kissing. I mean the term as it is used in agriculture.”

When Jaimie didn’t reply, Merritt turned his back and stalked to his desk. “I guess you don’t know everything, hm? On a farm, if you have a restless animal, you tie it to a tame one. From now on, you and your family will have a guard on you at all times. For your safety in the camp, of course. Your guard will escort you to the next hanging. Perhaps you’ll all feel more pliable once you see what happens to people who don’t line up with the common cause. I don’t have time for coddling you. Tell me, Mrs. Spencer, which of you is better at interpreting the boy’s outbursts? Which of you makes him more useful to me? For future reference.”

The doctor’s last name,
Jaimie decided,
suggested worth. His character suggested otherwise.

“Since the future of the human race is on the line,” Jack said quickly, “of course, we’ll try to get Jaimie to help in any way he can.”

“Good!” the doctor replied without warmth. “We’ll call you when we need you.” Merritt’s face darkened further when he saw the mess Jaimie had made of his carpet.

Theo squeezed his son’s shoulder and whispered in his ear. “Don’t worry. Not a ghost of a chance your mother means it.”
 

Jaimie gave the slightest of nods. He knew. Since the plague began, he had stopped counting his mother’s white lies. It made no sense to him to call them
white
lies, however. Jack’s lies were always jonquil yellow with touches of indigo and mesclun green.
 

His mother always lied out of fear. Everything everyone did now sprung from fear. Perhaps it had always been that way.

S
AME
APPETITES
,
PLUS
DANGEROUS
SENTIENCE

I
n the early morning hours, Desi got up to relieve Dayo of her duty at the front window. Aadi snored under the dining room table in his makeshift fort with Aasa and Aastha. Desi found Dayo huddled under a wool blanket, but looking alert.

“I can’t sleep,” she whispered.
 

“You sure? You should sleep.”

“I’ve been pulling nightshifts for months at Harrods and getting paid with shortbread cookies. I’ll need to doze in a little bit but I’ll stay up a while and help you stay awake for your watch.”

Desi pulled up a chair and took an end of the blanket to drape over his shoulders. “To share the warmth.”

“After my swim, I don’t think I’ll ever be warm again. The memory of it chills me.”

“That was pretty great, doing that for the girls. You’re a hero.”

“She-ro.”

The policeman chuckled. “How did you end up on a sailboat by the name of
Shepherd of Myddvai?”

“The dead dentist stole it so you’ll have to take it up with him, copper.”

Desi chuckled louder and Dayo shushed him so he wouldn’t wake the Vermer family in their table fort.

“I love the Garda,” Desi said. “I love the uniform. It’s slimming. But I don’t think I’ll be chasing after bad guys for quite some time. Maybe I’ll end up in Texas, become a sheriff and look after a tiny town. I’ll be the old man in
No Country For Old Men
.”

“Loved that movie. I wonder how long it will take for people to make movies again? How long until we watch anorexic girls on a red carpet, thin as clothes hangers, answering the question, ‘Who are you wearing?’”

“I don’t think we’ll have to put up with that for quite some time. We’ll have to go back to the old ways of entertaining ourselves. There won’t be any new books, but there are plenty of old ones to read.”

“And we’ll tell stories around campfires,” Dayo said. “I don’t really know any stories, though.”

“Funny, the dentist stole his boat from an Irishman.
The
Shepherd of Myddvai
is a fairy tale really old people around here tell their grandchildren at bedtime. Most of the details are fuzzy to me. It has to do with three beautiful sisters walking out of a pond. Goddesses, actually. The shepherd passes some sort of test and gets to keep one of the goddesses for a wife.”