Barely Alive (16 page)

Dr. Duncan nodded his head toward a nondescript door I’d missed in my search of the room. “She’s in the supply closet. It’s even more secure in there. That’s where we were when you started knocking. The others… they kicked and banged, but couldn’t get in.” He shuddered.

I couldn’t even imagine the horror. Someone like me, but less of a conscience, coming for them. Heather was probably freaking out.

At the door, I knocked and called out to her. A moment passed, eating at my hour. “Heather, it’s Paul. Let me in.” Poor thing, had to be so scared.

The door swung open and Heather brushed past me. She’d twisted her hair up into a sloppy bun with some pencils. Her rubber band wrapped around her wrist. She wasn’t shaking or crying or even acting a little bit scared. Like maybe she hadn’t needed me.

She turned and leaned on the closest table, her eyes bright. “Paul, you made it back.” She glanced over her shoulder and took in James. She turned back to me, shadowy recognition in her eyes. “What’s
he
doing here?”

I moved to stand between them, protect her, hell, protect
him
. “Don’t worry. He’s fine. He ate.”

She stood and faced the room. We watched her. I hadn’t been entranced by a girl before. Her graceful movements and springy step gave away her excitement. Like being trapped in a solid room with three flesh eaters and a professor was exciting. Actually, I was a little stimulated, but I don’t think she was – at least about that.

Heather eyed the doctor. “Did you tell them?”

Dr. Duncan shook his head and leaned back on the stool, a large grin removing the worry from his face. “Not yet. I haven’t had a chance.” He pushed his hand toward her. “Go ahead. It was your idea.”

Heather bopped, energy pumping through her, blushing in her cheeks. She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. She clasped her hands in front of her. “Okay, so, Dr. Duncan and I decided to get started on documenting what we know so far about this disease. I don’t know a lot but what I know and what he knows from the early research and grant requests Dominic submitted, we came up with a few theories, but we need a little bit more information to narrow down the options.” She winked at me.
Winked
! Damn, she was hot. “You didn’t know that Dr. Duncan and Dominic actually worked together on finding the cause of Lou Gehrig’s disease. In fact, Dominic’s Ph.D. was based on researching it and coming up with a viable hypothesis.”

James raised his hand beside me. “You’re a smart chick at school, aren’t you? That’s hot.”

I glared at James and hissed just loud enough he could hear me. He raised his eyebrows at the expression on my face and grinned. Short of peeing on Heather, I had to mark my territory somehow. James turning on the “flirt” was the last thing I needed when I was already fighting against a virus that I had and Heather couldn’t get.

Heather cocked her head and thrust her hand on her hip. “James, that crap might work in your normal circles, but this isn’t high school. I’m not going to fall at your feet or lay down for you either. I can’t get what you have, so back off.”

Satisfied my girlfriend – I wished – could hold her own, I grinned at James. He smiled back, having much more fun than I’d expect in our situation. Time frame. I raised my hand, mimicking James, and I had no idea why. “We need to speed this along. Short version, Heather. I have to deliver you to Dominic within the hour.” I glanced at my watch. “Scratch that, forty-five minutes.”

She gasped. “What? You wouldn’t.” Goosebumps made quick work of the shirt and my mouth went dry. She needed to get a bra on.

Look up, Paul.
“No, I wouldn’t. But we need to figure something out. If he doesn’t get you, he’s going to go at James from inside his head and it’s not pretty.”

Dr. Duncan joined the group. His wife ignored us on the far table. Small notebook in hand, he pushed his glasses up his nose and lowered the open pages to read better. “If it’s a virus, we might be able to vaccinate. I need to isolate the viral code and then we need to test it on a human.”

Connie turned to us and called across the three tables. “That won’t work, Travis.”

Startled, her husband lifted his eyes. “Why not? They do it with measles, mumps, and chicken pox, why won’t this work?”

“
A vaccination and a cure are two different things. You’ll vaccinate people who won’t have it, but what about
us
?” She approached us and lifted the book from his hands. She fingered the pencil he’d tucked in the pages and turned to write at the table behind me. She sketched what looked like a chemical compound – high school science only taught so much.

“
Travis, hand me that microscope and get me a blank slide, please.” She settled onto a chair and tapped her pencil on the paper.

Dr. Duncan scrambled to grab a scope and slides. He set the rectangular thicker glass and tiny square glass slips beside her. Unwinding a cord from a microscope, he plugged it in to a socket island and slid it in place on her right side. He looked at his offerings, then reached into his pocket and added a pocket knife to the collection.

Absently, Connie grabbed the knife and scraped the inside of her mouth, wiping the saliva and white tissue on a slide. She slapped a slip on top and tucked it into the holding tray of the scope. She adjusted the knobs and handles, her eyes pressed to the optical sockets. “Travis, I need some of yours, please, and some of the girl’s.”

Dr. Duncan wiped the knife on his shirt sleeve and scraped his cheek. He prepared his slide and gave the knife to Heather. She held the knife with two fingers, but wiped the blade off and copied the Duncans, handing her completed slide to Dr. Duncan to label.

Connie glanced at the scope and then her drawing, scope, drawing. She made notes and I felt like I was in a Japanese restaurant and no one could speak or write in English.

Over her shoulder, Dr. Duncan hemmed and hawed. “The immunoglobulin wouldn’t react like that would it?” He watched a bit more. “Really? Egg wouldn’t work either?”

My gaze volleyed between the couple. “What are you guys talking about? What is going on?”

“
Huh?” Dr. Duncan snapped from his distraction. “Oh, sorry. Connie has a Masters in genetic engineering.” He glanced at his wife, pride coating his words. “She also has a degree in law and another in psychology. She’s one of the smart people.” He didn’t dare touch her, but the desire was evident as he caressed her with his gaze.

Old people could be so creepy.

I shook off the eww factor. “Okay, so we have two of you with brains. Sweet.”

Connie looked up from her paper and pointed at the material. “Here’s the problem. This isn’t
acting
like a virus. Are you sure Dominic defined it as one?”

“
He called it a virus. Said it would recognize a genetic marker for Lou Gehrig’s disease and alter it.” I longed to turn and kiss Heather’s neck. Her scent was rising around me and I felt like a cat on catnip. Damn distracting.

“
That’s not possible. Once DNA has been established in the body, a virus can’t change it.” She pointed at her husband. “And you guys discovered the inability to pinpoint the heredity of Lou Gehrig’s. Isn’t that why you lost all that funding?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “This is acting like an enzyme stimulator with the characteristics of a viral parasite. Trav, I need a drop of your blood, please. Or it
could
be a pryon which only attacks brain cells.”

James, Connie, and I focused on the professor’s finger. He reached for his knife and poked the tip. Bright red blood colored the peachy pad. The scent filled the air. We all breathed in, visibly affected by the coppery cologne of meat. With great effort, we turned from him and refaced the project Connie had started.

Heather pressed against me. When had she moved closer? Against my arm. Her braless chest grazed my elbow. The blood I’d consumed rushed south. Oh, hell, a warmth started in the pit of my stomach. I’d give anything to be alone with her and have her feel the same way. But I’d just gross her out. At least I knew she wouldn’t dig James, he was the same as me.

She moved and what felt like a small pebble rubbed my skin. I clenched my jaw. Well, I think it was safe to say that lust hadn’t lost to hunger by the end of week two – wait the beginning of week three.

Connie was saying something and I wasn’t listening. Crap. I shifted on my feet, pulling myself a mere inch from Heather’s reach. My hazy mind cleared. Thank hell.

“…
worse than I suspected.” Connie was saying. “It’s triggered by the white blood cells. The enzymes piggyback on the cells and snip little holes in the arteries and veins as they travel by, giving doorways to the ones coming behind to get out and eat the proteins.” Connie stared at Heather, not seeing her… not seeing the same thing I did when I looked at her.

I glanced at my watch. Fifteen minutes. I had to choose. To be honest, I didn’t care about the hows, the whats, the whereabouts of the cure – not at that exact second. “Can you use Heather to make a cure for this?”

“
That’s just it. A vaccination would have to be applied
before
a person was bit. If we attached it to an egg or embryo culture, we’d take the chance it would eat the culture, eliminating the safe travel of the virus through the blood stream. If the virus is attached to a foreign protein, it stands a better chance of getting eaten by the white blood cells and creating an antibody. But this disease changes the physiology so fast, the body fails to create antibodies before it changes again.” She glanced at Heather, then back at me. “At this point, I’m not sure a vaccination could be made in time.”

Time. How had it become my deity at seventeen years old? I’d never cared before and now I was down to weeks, minutes. I needed Dominic out of Paul’s head. I needed Heather alive. I needed Connie and her husband to work on the vaccine or whatever the hell they could come up with. I needed more time.

I smacked the table with my hand, the slap resounding off the brick walls. Heather placed her palm on my forearm, her touch more explosive than she meant it to be. I forced my words in a polite tone Connie’s way. “What can you do? Can you do anything? Or are you wasting our time?”

Connie stood and faced me, leaning in close. “Listen, you little punk. We don’t have to help you here. This is a problem that we want nothing to do with.”

I pulled back and laughed. “Are you serious? You want nothing to do with this? You don’t want to help
me
? Look at yourself, Connie. You’re the
same
as me. Don’t think of it as helping me.” I pointed at my chest, tilting my head toward her. “Think of it as helping yourselves. You will die in twelve weeks, if you don’t find a cure or some way to alter the time frame.” I poked her shoulder and leaned in, my voice dropping to a whisper. “And when I say ‘die’, I mean your body will decay around you. There will be nothing of your flesh left. But your brain? That brain your hubby is so fond of? It will continue on, alive, never shutting off, never stopping. You will be stuck in a broken, dead body while your brain exists – hungry.” I pulled back. My voice returned to normal. “I’ve seen it. I’d rather burn.” The true release. If I couldn’t have Heather as a human, then I’d take the fire and its release from the constant cravings.

Connie blinked. No one moved in the room. Time ticked past. Dominic would be calling for James any minute. We had moments.

Heather or James?
My brother or the girl I was seriously crushing on?

Chapter 14

I left the group by the table to stand under the clock on the wall. The red hand swept the face as it danced to a beat defined in seconds. My fingers tingled. The meat was wearing off. I sighed. I had seven minutes. To save my brother or the girl.

I’d expected him to come in fists swinging at the warehouse. But he’d been pretty calm, not even mad at me. Said something about thinking clearer with Dominic out of his head. I spun around. “James.”

My brother turned to face me. He hooked his finger into his back pocket. “Yeah.”

“
At the meat house, did you say Dominic was ‘out of your head?’” I waited, frozen.

“
Yeah, I hit the parking lot and he was suddenly gone. He’d been roaring for all of us to find you, find you, find you. Blah blah blah. Like those damn adults in the Peanuts cartoons Mom used to make us watch.” James rubbed the side of his nose.

Was it the distance?
“Are all of you affected like that? ‘Cause I’m not. He can’t get in my head. He hypnotized me when he was human. Did he do that to you?”

We’d gained the focus of the other three in the room. James shook his head. “No, he showed up at the house and said he was looking for Mom. But she’s out of town. He pushed in and looked around. I asked him what he wanted and then the bastard bit me. After a couple seconds, his voice filled my head, not through my ears, you know?” He scrunched his forehead. “It was like anger and frustration and he turned my thoughts back on me. He was so angry with you. I was so angry with you. I couldn’t get free. After a while, his thoughts became mine. He had two others with him and we added the fourth before we found you at her house.”