Battle Lines (The Survivalist Book 5) (13 page)

“No, my dear, I’m afraid you’re wrong about that too.”

Tanner leaned forward and placed his thick forearms on the table. It was time to push a little.

“What exactly did you do? Let’s have it.”

“If I tell you, you’ll likely murder me in my own home.”

“Could be. I’m a violent man, and I make no promises.”

Dr. Jarvis brought his hand to his mouth as if trying to hold back the words.

“Do you know what a patient zero is?”

“It’s the first person infected with something.”

Samantha looked over at him, surprised that Tanner knew something that she didn’t.

“That’s correct.” He paused as if preparing to make an important announcement. “Believe it or not, I am patient zero for Superpox-99, the very first person in all of history to be infected with the engineered virus.”

“I don’t understand,” said Samantha. “How could the virus just start up in someone?”

“It didn’t,” Tanner said, eying the doctor. “He contracted it somehow.”

Dr. Jarvis nodded. “I worked with the virus as part of a biological weapons research program.”

“Oh, I get it,” she said. “You pricked your finger on something in the lab.”

He said nothing, and in that silence, Tanner finally found his answer. Dr. Jarvis had given himself the virus not out of accidence, but out of malice. There could be but one reason for such an action.

“You intentionally started all this,” he breathed.

Dr. Jarvis turned and looked out the window.

“You have to understand. I saw a planet on the brink of ruin.”

“Yeah, not healthy like it is now.”

“I thought that I could clean it, give it a fresh start.”

“Hold up a second,” Samantha said, leaning away from him. “What are you saying? That you spread the disease on purpose?”

Again, he refused to answer.

“How did you manage to survive?” asked Tanner. “I would have thought the first person infected would have suffered the worst.”

“With some diseases, yes, but not with Superpox-99. I certainly suffered. Oh, God, did I suffer. But in the end, my body found a way to live with the virus.”

“Billions of others weren’t so lucky,” he growled. “Women. Children. Babies.”

Dr. Jarvis nodded, but said nothing as small inky drops formed in the corners of his eyes.

“It didn’t only kill people,” continued Tanner. “It changed them. How’s that possible?”

“My body mutated the virus. That’s not so uncommon in the first host, but no one, not even I, could have predicted the extent of the mutation. What was passed on was…” He shook his head. “It was something unnatural.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Tanner felt anger welling in his gut. A lot of good people had died, and he didn’t hear nearly enough remorse in the good doctor’s voice.

“The virus causes rapid mutation to help the host adapt to their environment. Unfortunately, it also introduces a violent hatred for all those who aren’t infected.”

“That’s why the Backson was so big,” said Samantha. “It had adapted to a dark tunnel filled with rotting bodies.”

“That’s just great,” growled Tanner. “Thanks, Doc. Thanks for everything.”

“Can’t you come up with a cure?” asked Samantha. “If you started it, you should be able to stop it.”

Tanner was about to tell her that men like Dr. Jarvis felt no such responsibility, when the doctor surprised him.

“That’s just it. I
am
going to stop it. Well, not stop it exactly, but keep it from killing off the few of us who remain.”

Tanner stared at him, trying to sort fact from bullshit.

“How do you plan to do that?”

Dr. Jarvis pulled his swollen lips back in a smile that sent a shiver down Tanner’s spine.

“The answer is in my blood.” When no one said anything, he continued. “I am patient zero, the only person in the entire world who possesses the original pure virus. Just as George Washington used the fluids from those infected with smallpox to inoculate others, so can my blood be used to help mankind.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Doc, but it’s too late for that. The world’s already gone to shit. Stopping the spread of the disease is of little importance now.”

“You’re right, of course,” he said quickly, “but you don’t understand. My blood can do much more than just stop the spread of Superpox-99.”

“What can it do?” asked Samantha, hope creeping into her voice.

“I’m convinced that a person with even a small amount of my blood in their veins will no longer cause a hostile reaction by those who are infected.”

“Wouldn’t that only work for people with the same flavor of blood as yours?” she asked.

Dr. Jarvis raised an eyebrow.

“You mean the same type?”

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” She looked to Tanner, and he nodded.

“My blood is O-negative, the most universal of all types,” continued Jarvis. “Anyone can tolerate my blood without risk of a hemolytic reaction.”

“They wouldn’t get sick from the virus?”

“Almost certainly not. The virus in my body is severely weakened. Within hours, a healthy host would kill it off entirely.”

“If that’s the case,” said Tanner, “your magic serum would only work for a few hours. Not much use if you ask me.”

“That’s true. However, I’m convinced that a serum, if you want to call it that, can be developed that would last much longer, maybe even forever. Think about it. Man and monster could live in peace. Together, they could build a new society that truly understands the fragility of our planet.”

Tanner wasn’t buying it. “And who’s going to develop this serum? You?”

Dr. Jarvis looked up at him, hurt filling his eyes.

“Of course. It has to be me. My blood is the key to everything. I didn’t realize it in the beginning, but my role goes far beyond simply destroying the evils of mankind. I have to be the one to provide for a new beginning.”

“That’s not going to make things right, Doc. I hope you know that.”

“Perhaps not,” he said, “but it might help to make them a little less wrong.”

After Dr. Jarvis had confessed to being the world’s worst mass murderer, Tanner and Samantha quickly grabbed up their gear and prepared to leave the Abner Cloud House. He pleaded with them to stay a little longer, perhaps out of loneliness, perhaps to offer more justification for his heinous actions, but neither of them had much interest in being in his presence any longer. His plan to develop a serum that helped survivor relations didn’t involve them. That was his personal penance and not one they were willing to help pay.

Dr. Jarvis was still talking when Tanner stepped out of the front door and pulled it shut behind him.

“Let’s put a little distance between us and him.”

Samantha seemed lost in thought.

“What is it?” he asked.

“It just occurred to me that Dr. Jarvis killed my father. I’m not sure what I should do about that.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I… I don’t really know. Part of me wants to cry. Part of me wants to go in there and shoot him dead.”

“If you want him dead, I’ll do it for you. All you have to do is ask. Lord knows that man deserves it.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I think we need him.”

“Need him? I need him about as much as I need a blister on my di—. He cleared his throat. “On my big toe.”

“You heard what he said. His blood holds the key to everyone’s survival. We shouldn’t take that away from the world.”

Tanner put his arm around her.

“You’re way nicer than I am, Sam.”

“No kidding.”

He smiled. “Rest assured that Dr. Jarvis will eventually get what’s coming to him. People like that always do.”

“You mean when he goes to heaven and meets God?”

“Darlin’, that man ain’t going to heaven. Now come on,” he said, starting across the parking lot. “We need to get out of this city before dark.”

Samantha took one final look back at the house and then hurried after him. They followed the trail down to the bridge and crossed over the canal. The water was only about a foot deep and maybe ten feet across, but using the bridge kept their feet dry. At the opposite end was a blue and white sign in the shape of an anchor,
Welcome to Fletcher’s Cove
.

The path turned both left and right, with no obvious benefit to going in either direction. They opted to go left. The trail continued on, taking a lazy curve before coming to a four-way intersection. Directly ahead, the path continued to circle around, almost certainly leading back to the canal bridge. To the left was a paved driveway heading up to a large house, and to the right was a path that sloped down toward a long wooden pier, beyond which lay the Potomac River. Dozens of brightly colored canoes and kayaks rested upside down on the dock.

“This way,” Tanner said, heading down toward the pier.

As they got closer, they saw that in addition to the canoes and kayaks there were also a dozen gray metal rowboats moored to the dock. Tanner looked out across the Potomac. From the mouth of the cove, it was probably five hundred feet to the trees on the opposite bank. Two fishing poles were wedged against the dock’s wooden posts, their lines stretching out into the water. Without saying a word, he reached down and hurled them both out into the river.

“What’d you do that for?”

“I figured they were probably the good doctor’s. It’s now my personal mission to make his life a little harder.”

She nodded and turned to face the river.

“How should we get across?”

“Let’s take a rowboat. A man my size doesn’t need to be in something as wobbly as a canoe.”

“Good point. I don’t want you to sink us.”

Leaning over the water, he grabbed a mooring rope and pulled one of the rowboats up to the edge of the dock. Samantha held onto a heavy wooden post and carefully stepped down into the boat. Once it steadied, Tanner followed behind her. They set their packs and weapons on the bottom of the boat before taking seats on opposite thwarts.

“Do you know how to row one of these things?” she asked, rubbing her hands over the heavy oars.

“I don’t need to.”

“Why not?”

“That’s gonna be your job.”

“What? Why?”

Tanner untied the boat from the dock, coiled the rope, and set it on the floor of the bow.

“Because this is one of those learning opportunities.”

“I don’t need to know how to row a boat.”

“You do today. Who’s to say you won’t tomorrow?”

She struggled to find fault with his logic.

“Fine,” she said, shaking her head, “but you’re not fooling me. I know that you’re just being lazy.”

“An old man’s prerogative,” he said with a smile. “Now, take a seat between the oars with your feet together, facing the stern.”

“Backwards, right?”

“That’s right.”

She positioned herself as instructed.

“Grab an oar in each hand with your palms down.”

She gripped the worn wooden handles.

“Perfect. Keeping the blades straight up and down, push your arms out, and then dip the oars into the water behind you.”

She pushed forward and plunked the oars down into the water.

“Not so deep. You’re not trying to knock the fish unconscious. Only the blades need to be in the water.”

She tilted them so that the oars were riding a little higher.

 “Great. Now, pull both oars toward you nice and smooth, being careful to keep the blades straight up and down in the water.”

As she pulled the oars toward her, the boat started gliding out into the river.

“I’m doing it!” she said, looking back at him with a big smile on her face.

“Yep. You’re a natural.”

She rowed them out a few strokes before realizing that the river’s current was slowly pushing them off course.

“How do I steer?”

“Hold one oar in the water, and pull the other one. Give it a try.”

She kept the left oar back in the water and pulled the right one toward her. The boat started turning left as it pivoted around the stationary oar.

“Cool.” She practiced steering both direction a few times. “This isn’t so hard.”

“Tell me that when we get to the other side,” he said, grinning.

Not really understanding what he was getting at, she started rowing. To Tanner’s surprise, they made it nearly three quarters of the way across the Potomac before Samantha offered even the slightest protest.

“I’m getting tired,” she said, letting the oars hang from their rowlocks as she spun around. “And I think you gave me a blister.”

“
I
gave you a blister?”

“You made me row.”

“Take a break. It’s all right if we float for a while.” Tanner wasn’t about to try to trade positions with her. One of them would undoubtedly end up in the drink.

“We’ll drift off course.”

He shrugged. “What’s it matter? We’ll land where we land.”

She leaned back and placed her hands on the seat.

“It’s peaceful out here on the water, isn’t it?”

Tanner smiled and let the sun warm his face.

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s nice.”

She waited for some kind of wisecrack, and when it didn’t come, she leaned over to dip her fingers into the water.