Lethal Seasons (A Changed World Book 1) (5 page)

“At this point, with one crisis after another, the authorities stopped hunting any escaped biobots. Those with keepers were assumed to be under control. Those on the loose were expected to succumb in similar numbers to the virus. Records concerning them are difficult to find.”

History of a Changed World, Angus T. Moss

“I will cut the ropes, please hold the boy. He is unconscious.”

Nick hesitated. It was a reasonable request, but he didn’t like taking orders from a biobot. Helping the children was the reason he was here. But it seemed he might not be alone in that. Lily looked totally at ease with the biobot, but considering her age, she couldn’t know what he was. To Nick, that was the biggest problem: what had the biobot been designed for? They ran the gamut from nursery maids to assassins, and considering what he just witnessed, this one hadn’t been built to care for babies. Nick needed to find out what their relationship was. She had obediently left when the biobot asked her to retrieve his pack.

The biobot turned to look at him, his face gave nothing away as he waited. Nick twitched a nod of assent and moved closer to the boy. He flinched when the biobot flicked open a knife, but the blade only cut rope. Nick got a careful grip on the boy, William. He smelled awful, vomit and blood and urine. The bindings fell away, and he gently lowered William to the floor. The boy needed medical care. “We'll need to make a stretcher. I think White Bluffs has a doctor.”

“No. Too close to the train station,” the biobot said.

Nick frowned, not sure why that was a problem. Lily climbed in the window, dragging a heavy pack behind her. It thumped down the brick pile scattering broken bits and rusty red fragments. The biobot took it from her, lifting it easily. He knew they didn’t really have super-strength, but this one looked especially strong.

“The stations are monitored. Until we know why the children are hunted, and by whom, we must remain out of sight.” The biobot pulled out a bottle of water and a scrap of toweling.

“You don't know who these guys are?” Nick asked. He was starting to worry about which side he had inadvertently joined. But surely the one
not
torturing children was the right one.

“No.” He wet the cloth and started wiping away the blood on William’s face.

“Why are you here?”

The biobot stopped. He turned his full attention to Nick for the first time. Nick felt his hackles rise as those pale blue eyes drilled into him. Then they turned away, and he felt sweat run down his back.

“Lily, can you go get the guns I took from the men?”

Nick watched the child skip off on her errand. He shivered.
Collect the weapons from the dead men, little girl.
This was all kinds of wrong. When he looked back, the pale eyes were measuring him again.

“I am a finder. Lily hired me to find her brother.”

“
Hired
you?” Nick shook his head. That wasn’t at all what he’d expected. Then the words sank in and a hot anger rushed through him. “What was your fee?” The biobot didn't react to the accusation, just looked him over before turning back to caring for William.

“How could I take anything from a child who had lost all? She was alone.” He nodded at William. “This is her only family. I work for whom I choose.”

Lily skipped back in to drop an armful of guns at the biobot's side. He picked up the one Nick had admired and handed it to him.

Nick's head spun. Too many oddities to put together, but the injured boy had to be the first priority. “I'm Nick.” The pale eyes flicked over to him. “You got a plan?”

“Can you drive?”

“You have a car?”

The biobot gestured to the bodies. “Theirs.”

Despite the circumstance, Nick found himself grinning. A car. He hadn't even see a car in months, much less driven one. That thought followed the usual track and dumped him into gloomy reality. Did anyone still make cars? Were there enough hands left to run the assembly plants? And that made him turn back and look at the dead men lying in the dirt. Five less humans in the world.

“Would you want their kind to procreate?”

The hair stood up on Nick’s neck. “Are you really reading my mind?” A flicker of those pale eyes again. He thought he detected just a hint of amusement in them.

“You think loudly.”

Nick ignored the possible implications there and turned his attention to William. The biobot had washed away enough dirt to see the damage more clearly. It made him sick to see this kind of injuries on someone so young. Although in the world as it was these days, adolescent might now be an adult. At a glance, it looked like no bones were broken, but the bruises were dark with blood. His mouth was cut in a couple places. His cheekbone and one eyebrow had split open under what looked like repeated blows. Both eyes were swollen shut. The bruises across his stomach could indicate internal injuries. Even with a stretcher, carrying him miles down the road to the train was a good way to make things worse. The car was the best choice. Nick could bring William and Lily back to High Meadow. Although not as quickly as the train. It would be a long drive. They wouldn't get there until nearly this time tomorrow.

“The car is over here.”

Nick trailed the biobot out a wide doorway to what had probably been a loading dock. The wind was picking up, dead leaves scudded across the parking lot in the dim light of early evening. A big black van, shiny and sleek, sat on the cracked pavement. It matched the descriptions he’d gotten in High Bluffs, but most people had agreed on multiple vehicles. That worried Nick. The others might be on the way back.

The biobot had opened a couple of lockers exposing more weapons, food and a large tool box with a caduceus on it by the time Nick stuck his head in. Then he stepped away, as if offering Nick all the booty.

“Wow.” Nick couldn’t contain his amazement at the treasure trove—guns, ammo, bottles of water, packages of food that weren’t Crunch or Stew-goo, medical supplies that were hard to find. The vehicle looked like it could hold ten adults and their gear easily. The seats were designed to easily reconfigure. He looked over to see if the biobot was as surprised. Nick saw a different look on his face, the white-haired man was assessing him.

“What is your interest in the children?”

Nick shrugged. “What’s yours?”

“I told you. Lily hired me.”

“And you chose to work for free.” Nick could hear Lily’s voice, back in the building, but not the words. She was using a soothing tone as if to a restless baby. A child of the new world. She’d hired a biobot without a second thought. But he was from the old world, and he had lots of second thoughts. “I don't know you. Why would I trust you?” Nick said in a tone he hoped wasn't offensive. It was simply the truth.

Pale eyes met his, but suddenly lurched away. “We need to go.”

“Why?”

“Something bad is happening.”

“To the boy?”

“No.” The biobot turned in a slow circle, head cocked as if listening for a faint sound. “Trouble at the settlement.” He gestured north. “We need to hurry.”

“Why?” Nick was nervous about the situation. He didn’t know this man, or his reasons for helping the children. The last thing he felt like doing was getting in the van with him and heading to a strange settlement.

“They may need help.” Pale eyes met Nick’s. “You know them. Riverbank.”

“The folks drying fish?” Nick nodded. He had just visited that settlement. They were good honest people trying to establish a settlement away from a med center. “What’s the problem?”

“Unknown.”

The statement sounded like a report to Nick, reassuring and unnerving at the same time. It would be good to work with a trained operative for once, but Nick wondered again what the biobot had been created for. And what had happened to his keeper. “Then how do you know there’s a problem?”

“Panic. Fear.” As he spoke he closed up the lockers, collapsed a row of seats and lowered a panel that turned into a bed. “If I can feel it from here, it is a powerful emotion. Many people.” He stepped out of the van and faced Nick. “You do not need to come. If you wish to remain with the children, I can investigate on my own. But I will need the vehicle.”

Nick didn’t like that option any better.

*    *    *

They loaded William into the back. Nick ran to collect his pack as the biobot made a quick survey of the camp collecting things from the bodies. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know what he was taking. Looting the dead wasn't something Nick was comfortable with. By the time they were both back to the car, Lily had stationed herself at her brother's side. He looked at the sky, clouds were moving fast. A storm might be coming in after all.

Nick got into the driver's seat as the biobot took shotgun. “What's your name?” He wasn’t about to start addressing him by the number on his tattoo.

“My kind don't have names.”

“Call him Wisp,” Lily piped from the back seat.

Nick looked at the solidly muscled man sitting next to him. “Wisp, huh?”

Wisp didn't look up as he opened a variety of controls on the dashboard. “We should go.” He pointed forward.

Nick checked the gauges. The batteries were only at half-charge. That didn’t surprise him, having seen the slap-dash camp they’d set up. He started the engine, and it purred quietly. The headlights illuminated the fractured asphalt of the old driveway. He pulled out of the parking lot and onto the river road headed further away from White Bluffs.

“I have disabled the trackers.”

Nick blinked, a shiver of unease ran through him. The biobot knew more about this vehicle than he did. “Good thinking.”

“The virus of the third year was called the Pig Flu. It devastated pig farms and had a great impact on the food supply. The government began distributing vaccine that year, but not in time to stop another season of death.”

History of a changed World
, Angus T. Moss

Tilly stood momentarily in the doorway of Angus’s office to watch her husband work. He was muttering under his breath, scribbling away as he referred to a small notebook. She loved watching him when he was unaware of her. This new life suited him so well. He was the happiest he’d been in years with too many things on his plate and a tribe to guide, which made it rare for either of them to have a quiet moment alone, or together. She tapped on the doorjamb to announce herself. “Interesting stuff?”

The look Angus gave her stopped her in her tracks. “What?” she asked, her heart racing.

He leaned back in the chair and rubbed his face. “These notebooks were in the possession of the murdered girl.”

She knew his every expression and mood. There was something very wrong here. She nodded without speaking, giving him the silence he needed to form his thoughts.

“I think...” He frowned at the notebook, shook his head and leaned forward to give it a firm tap. “Tilly, I think it’s the virus.”

“
The
virus.”

His eyes had a far-away look, but he gave her a slight nod.

“You said
girl
. She wouldn’t be old enough to have cooked it up.” Tilly tried to remember every scrap of information that was known about the virus. At first, people thought it was simply an especially virulent form of the flu. That year’s vaccination was useless against it. Hospitals filled up and overflowed. People panicked. Schools were shut down. Curfews, embargoes, the world came to a standstill as the virus circled the globe. The government announced it was researching it and released sheaves of reports on what they didn’t know. Then the rumor started that it had mutated in a biobot. Riots erupted killing innocent people. The next rumor was that someone had released it to kill the biobots. That didn’t stop the riots. Within a matter of weeks, the world had changed. Mass graves, empty cities, people looting and fleeing and fighting and hiding. Doing anything to survive, until winter brought an end to the flu season. Spring brought hope. People came together to plan, rebuild, restructure. Summer brought the disease back, and the world descended into despair and chaos.

“Angus, does that tell you how it started?”

His blue eyes were troubled when he looked at her. “It’s a bit above my understanding. I think that the person who wrote these journals was...” He looked at a loss for words. Tilly waited for him to sort through his thoughts, but the silence stretched too long.

“You’re scaring me.”

“Reading this is like a fairy tale. This person was not living in the real world.”

“Insane?”

“Too generic a classification, I think. Paranoid, definitely. Delusional, most probably. And sadly, absolutely brilliant.”

“You think that person cooked up the virus?”

“I don’t have the expertise to say. And I don’t know who I could trust to look at this. The formulas...they might have an important clue, and they might be useless. They’re at least ten years old. But there might be something in here that is worth murder.”

“Someone knows about them and wants them.” Tilly was surprised by how calm her voice sounded. Her hands had gone ice cold, and her stomach was in knots. “If they murdered the girl for them, why didn’t they take them?” A tiny voice in her head was screaming,
And how soon will they be on our doorstep?

“That might be a question for Nick when he gets back. He was there. He could tell us where he found them. Perhaps the others didn’t look in the right places.”

“Do you think he’s found the children?”

Tilly saw his eyes widen as a thought hit him. “What?” she snapped. Her heart was pounding so hard she could feel it shake her whole body.

Angus grabbed the notebook and held it up. “Children!”

“You think they’re infected? A vector?”

Angus tapped a finger against his mouth. “Perhaps inheritors.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m not sure, my dear. I am afraid there are currents in the world we are not prepared for. And I’ve sent Nick out into them without adequate warning.”