Whimper (9 page)

“So? Am I in the clear?” I finally asked. He jumped, almost as if he’d forgotten I was in the room. Maybe he had; he was very engrossed in his work. He pushed away from the microscopes and turned to face me at last.

“I don’t see any sign of the virus thus far, but there is something unusual about your sample. I’m still trying to determine what exactly I’m seeing, I’d like to run some more tests.” He didn’t seem scared though, more excited really. That seemed kind of odd. I’d learned from family history that when anyone from the medical profession said that your test results were “unusual” that was a very bad sign.

“Unusual how exactly? Am I sick? Did you find something else?” I pressed, feeling even more anxious than I already had.

“No, from what I can tell, you seem extremely healthy. The unusual part has more to do with your T and B cells. It’s almost like you’ve
inherited
a resistance to certain types of viruses. Like I said, I need to run some more tests, but it could be a very good thing.” Distracted, Elliott turned back to one of his microscopes, before spinning back around to face me.

“Do you think you could get Zack to give me a sample too? I’d like to see how his sample compares with yours.”

I nodded dumbly, not sure how to react. I’d never had anyone get excited about my immune system before. Whatever. Elliott seemed to have forgotten all about me as he prepped more slides with blood samples, so I went upstairs to try to find Zack.

In the kitchen, I paused to listen for voices. Voices travel in our old house really well because of the old registers and air return system. Every room is connected to those beside and above it by open grates, making secret keeping difficult. It was a design flaw that Zack and I had exploited since we’d come to live here as mischievous five-year-olds.

I was about to go searching for him when I remembered what Elliott and I had been doing when Zack so nearly interrupted us. I didn’t need to embarrass Brianna or see my brother that way. Again. Yuck! Like I said, the house wasn’t built for privacy. So instead, I yelled, “Zack! Where are you? I’ve got a question for you!”

“Why don’t you ask me then?” he yelled back, about four inches from my ear. I shrieked and punched him, my heart pounding.

“Gah! Don’t do that, jerk!” I gasped.

“You’re the one bellowing around when I’m standing right here.” I’d totally missed him standing in the kitchen somehow. I’d been so focused on my own thoughts. I wasn’t about to admit fault, though.

“Where’s Brianna? I called out because I didn’t want to walk in on something inappropriate for ‘mah innocent eyes,” I drawled in my best genteel southern lady voice.

Zack laughed. “I don’t believe
I
was the one giving you the vapors
or
behaving inappropriately earlier.” I started to deny, but Zack put a hand up in my face. “No, I’m not criticizing. I’m only calling it as I see it. Oh, and Brianna went to take a nap. I don’t think she’s had much sleep lately.”

We both paused, thinking back over Elliott’s story. Of course, Brianna wouldn’t be sleeping well. She probably hadn’t slept more than a few hours in a row for the past six months at least. Zack drove me crazy, but if I thought I might lose him… I didn’t even want to consider what all I’d do to keep that from happening. He was all I had left.

Zack broke the silence, raising his eyebrows in expectation. “What was your question?”

“Elliott wants to know if he can get a blood sample from you too. He wants to compare it to mine.” A brief look of panic crossed Zack’s features before he masked it off.

“Why? Did he find something wrong with yours? Brianna said he was overreacting.”

“He said that it looks like I have some kind of immunity to viruses that he wants to look into, that I might have inherited it. As my twin, you are a logical comparison.”

“
Alleged
twin,” he joked, giving me a quick hug. He must really have been worried if he was hugging me. “Come on, I’ll give your new boy toy a chance to see what a real man is made of.”

“Blood, muscle, bone, and stuff? Just like everyone else?” I scoffed, pushing him away.

“And charisma. Don’t forget that.”
      

“Oh yeah, you absolutely reek of charisma.” I rolled my eyes as we reached the basement. “Elliott, I brought you another pin cushion.”

Elliott finished labeling something and snatched up the supplies he’d laid out for Zack’s blood draw. I noticed he wasn’t quite as gentle with Zack as he had been with me. No bandage rubbing or anything. I guess that was good, or it’d be more than a little weird otherwise. He was purely professional with Zack.

Zack tried to joke around, but I knew that he was secretly squeamish about blood. He made sure to look anywhere but at his own arm once Elliott started to draw his blood. Two more vials were filled and a bandage stuck to Zack’s arm in less than a minute. Zack looked a little pale and wobbled a bit in the folding chair.

“Maybe you should lie down for a minute?” Elliott suggested, pulling the air mattress away from the wall. Zack tried to shake his head, but almost fell over.

I helped Zack lay down and ran to grab him some juice. I donated blood pretty regularly once I turned eighteen, but I knew Zack never had. This was exactly why he’d always been too busy! He’d always hated blood as a kid, obviously he’d never grown out of it. He just tried to hide it now.

If he hadn’t hugged me, I probably would have teased him mercilessly about being a fainter. Instead, I gave him a glass of orange juice and one of the sugar cookies from the stash I’d kept hidden in the cupboard behind the flour.

“Feel any better?” I asked after he finished his snack. The color was returning to his face at least. He didn’t look like he was going to pass out or puke any more.

“I’m fine. Must have been those eggs you made. You trying to kill me?” he joked sheepishly.

“You know I’m a terrible cook. You took your life into your own hands the moment you picked up that fork!” I pulled him back to his feet. “At least Brianna didn’t see you swoon like a little girl,” I whispered in his ear, unable to resist a little jab. It felt unnatural not to tease him.

“You are evil,” he deadpanned, throwing his arms up in the air dramatically. “Run from this one, Elliott. She doesn’t have a soul!” Then he caught sight of one of the vials of blood Elliott was tinkering with and dashed for the stairs.

I hoped he made it to the downstairs bathroom before he wet himself or barfed. Either way,
I
wasn’t cleaning it up.

“He might be right about the soul thing, you know,” I said, trying to draw Elliott into a conversation. “I read somewhere that they used to believe that if a woman gave birth to twins or triplets, that only the first baby possessed a soul. The others would be born without one or they would all share part of a single soul. Zack was born first, and I was born eight minutes later.”

“Who’s
they
?” Elliott asked, pausing over a slide.

I cocked my head to the side, trying to remember where I’d read the idiotic little tidbit. “You know, I don’t think I remember. It was in a book, but I read it so long ago that that’s all I recall about it.”

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about. If anyone has a soul, it’s you. I can see it in your eyes.” Elliott paused for a moment, and I waited for him to say more, but he shook his head and went back to work on Zack’s sample.

“So, what are you looking for exactly?” I hovered over his shoulder, trying to figure out what all the slides were for.

“How familiar are you with immunobiology?” he asked, but at least it didn’t sound condescending.

“Assume that I’m a twenty-one year old bartender who dropped out of community college,” I drawled, unable to resist. He might as well know what he was getting into up front. If he was expecting a higher level of intelligent conversation, I was woefully unprepared and out of practice.

“Okay, the T cells and B cells are part of your body’s immune system. B cells secrete antibodies and T cells help regulate immune responses and attack foreign cells. They work together and with the rest of your immune system to fight off infections. Both the T and B cells can ‘specialize,’ or target only specific antigens. The body will have a few of these special cells floating around in the blood, sort of searching for whatever it is that triggers them. If they come across it, then they go into hyper drive, so to speak, and multiply rapidly so that they can fight off the infection.”

“Okay, I’m following you so far. But, what’s wrong about mine?”

Elliott laughed. “There’s nothing wrong with yours. I actually found several that seem to closely resemble the cells I’ve been trying to create. I think there is a chance that you’ve got a natural immunity to something very similar to my virus.”

“That’s a lot of hedging going on there, Elliott.” I smiled, glad he was at least finding something to be excited about instead of scared of or guilty about.

“Well, I’m a scientist. I don’t make promises and I’m not going to jump to conclusions. I haven’t had enough time to examine all the samples and I need some more equipment. You don’t happen to know someone who has access to a genetics lab do you?”

I was about to say no, when I remembered someone. “Not a genetics lab, but I do know someone who is working on her degree in Microbiology. She does her work study in several of the labs. She might be able to get us access.”

“Seriously?” Elliott’s face lit up, the dazzling grin had returned. “Could you call her up and see what you can arrange for tomorrow? I should be ready by then. I can get you a list of the equipment I’d like to get my hands on.”

“Well, there is one small problem,” I sighed. “She’s Zack’s ex-girlfriend. We were on good terms, but it might take a lot of convincing to get her to break rules for me.” I watched the wattage fade from Elliott’s smile.

“Well, I could see what contacts I can come up with, but since I’m technically dead…it’s going to be difficult.”

Damn Zack’s crazy love life anyway. “Write me the list. I’ll make some calls and see what I can do.”

The longer I stared at the slides, the more convinced I became. But, it didn’t make any sense. It was simply too far-fetched to believe that
Zoe
could hold the key to developing a cure for the virus that I unleashed. It boggled the mind. Even if these cells were meant to defend against another virus, one too similar for me to determine without more advanced testing, I could still use them. It could save me months of experimentation.

I
had
to be seeing things. Maybe I was delusional. Anyway, it wasn’t like I could call in a colleague to verify my findings. Brianna would not have a clue what I was talking about if I got into the technical details. The statistical improbability of this happening… I couldn’t even attempt to calculate it. Impossible. It had to be statistically impossible. And yet…

Zack’s sample held the same results. They both had the same anomalous cells. It could be a mutation, but since I was sitting in the stronghold of a house designed hundreds of years ago to fend off armies of the dead, well, it seemed unlikely. Maybe my mother had been right all along and there really was no such thing as a coincidence.

I needed to perform more extensive testing to find out exactly what I was dealing with. Regardless, hope was coursing through my veins in a way that it hadn’t since before I’d infected myself.

“You look awfully pleased with yourself, Big Brother,” Brianna chuckled beside me. “I take it that Zoe is as healthy as I predicted she would be?”

“She’s perfectly healthy. No sign of infection. There’s something else that I found, though. Something very intriguing.”

“I think that’s just your sex drive, Elliott. I know it’s been dormant since high school, but when a guy finds a girl attractive, it sets off a series of chemical reactions in his brain.”

I cut her off, not waiting for the Sex Ed lecture to wind down. “This time it’s her immune system that I find intriguing, not her body. Zack’s too for that matter.”

“Ew. Kinky. Don’t expect me to be involved in any of that.” Brie gets a little slap happy when she’s under stress, so I simply stared at her until she got her adolescent giggling under control.

“Done now?” I asked, once she’d finally slowed down.

She heaved a giant sigh, wiping the tears from her eyes. “Thanks, I needed a laugh and it’s always nice to find one at your sibling’s expense. So, what
is
so ‘intriguing’ about the gorgeous Clark twins? Other than the obvious, of course.”

I ignored everything else but the invite to explain myself. Sometimes I could work out a problem more easily by explaining it to someone else than I could by mulling it over alone. I talked Brianna through the process step by step, describing each anomaly I’d found along the way. Then I launched into my possible hypothesis. By the time I was done, Brie looked a little glassy eyed, but my brain was racing ahead. There were so many potential possibilities!

“Okay. If I’m understanding you correctly, you think that they somehow inherited immunity to a viral strain in the same class as yours?” Brianna asked slowly, her head tilted to one side like she did whenever she was thinking.