Patient Z (32 page)
The hubbub rose again, and it sounded more positive this time, people shouting out questions. Mitch raised his hands. “Please, not now. Hold all those thoughts and ideas. We’ll be having many planning meetings in the coming weeks. This is a multiyear project, it’s huge, but someone has to start it, and because we happen to be lucky enough to have Doctor Burnett and her vaccine, the duty falls to us. And I know I’d like to be part of the group that history will say began reclaiming the world from the dead.”
He stopped and sat down. He must know a good closing line when he said it. The applause began. Bren was the first to stand up, clapping hard, Inez, Cal, and the rest of the council following. In a moment everyone in the room was on their feet. When Mitch stood again, they quieted and sat, waiting for him to continue.
“What I propose, and of course we all need to vote on it, is that Bren be project manager. With her military background, she’s got the logistics knowledge for that. She’ll put together the team to organize the first vaccine manufacturing and distribution center. While you’re working on that, myself and Cal, if he agrees, will go ashore and find a suitable site. It may take several weeks to find something, and then we’ll bring out some of the soldiers from the rig to help us clear and secure the site before we bring anyone else over.”
Cal stared up at Mitch, not knowing whether to kiss him or slap him.
“If he agrees”?
Of course he agreed! It was his dream come true to get time alone with Mitch at last, and moving, no longer standing still. They’d never stand still again. They were looking for a base, but then they had to get the vaccine out there. Some people would come to them, but others they’d have to go and find. Cal was sure as hell going to volunteer for that job!
“Since I’ll be away some time,” Mitch said, “I’ve decided I won’t seek reelection to the council.”
There was a stir and a murmur. Naomi, still a hopeful for the coming elections, looked thoughtful. This new plan changed everything, Cal knew. The old dispute about stay or go didn’t exist anymore. The next council would have to be united around this common purpose. And given everything Cal had seen these women achieve in the time he’d been here, he would put money on them succeeding. He’d said it to Mitch. The group loved him, but they didn’t need him anymore. Cal needed him. And soon he and Mitch would be utterly dependent on each other out there in the wilds. Moving always, but at last it would no longer be drifting. He’d have a goal. And he’d have Mitch at his side.
* * * *
One month later.
The sun was just barely up as the boat arrived at the jetty once used by Ethan’s group. The boats from there were gone now, the guarding zombies destroyed. It was as good a place to start from as any, Mitch and Cal had agreed.
Cal, Mitch, and Bren tied up the boat and unloaded Mitch and Cal’s gear, two big, well-stuffed backpacks.
“I’m not gonna stick around long,” Bren said, her voice a little gruff, perhaps trying to pretend she wasn’t choked up. Also she’d done a lot of singing at the send-off party they’d had for Mitch and Cal the night before. “Got a lot of work to do.” She certainly did, Cal thought. The council had new members to deal with, and she was head of the planning committee. She was the leader on that rig now, and she’d need all the time she could wring out of a day to manage it.
“Come here,” Cal said. He felt a bit rough too, lacking sleep. Not that they’d stayed up too late partying, but he and Mitch hadn’t exactly gone right to sleep when they went back to their room. But he smiled as he hugged Bren, and they slapped each other on the back.
No backslapping for Mitch when she embraced him. She held him tight, and he did the same. Mitch might have Cal now, but Bren had been his strength for a long time. He’d told Cal he considered her a sister. Everyone made new families in this new world.
“Take care of each other,” she said. “And don’t be away too long. The doc’s dying to get started on the immunization program.” So was Bren, her plans already well advanced, organizing the women into groups to take classes in making the vaccine, administering it, and training more soldiers to clear their base when Mitch and Cal found it.
“I want to get this show on the road too,” Mitch said. He kissed her on the forehead, and she slapped his shoulder.
“Don’t, you soppy idiot.” But she kissed him back on the cheek and then let him go. “Now get out of here. You’re burning daylight. And don’t forget the radio check-ins. Once a week, without fail, or I’ll come after you.”
She climbed back onto the boat and watched them from the deck as they walked along the jetty, waving back at her. They negotiated the bumpy ground and rotted zombies and walked out of the open gate, turning back for one last wave before they were into the trees and out of sight.
“She is going to be magnificent,” Mitch said. “She already is. She’s going to lead this project, and she’s going to go down in history. Along with the doctor.”
“Along with you, Mitch. This was your idea.” Cal smiled. Maybe the doctor had earned a Nobel Prize for medicine, but if that organization had still existed, one day it might have given Mitch Kennedy the Nobel Peace Prize. “I realized a long time ago that you wanted to change the world. I couldn’t know you’d actually do it.”
“Have you forgotten you’re Patient Zero? You’ll be more famous than any of us.”
They walked on, deep in the woods, heading for the road. It felt so strange to walk through the woods, on the alert but talking and unafraid. Other humans seeing them would think they were mad, risking attracting zombies with their voices. But should they meet any other humans, they’d explain and offer them the vaccine. They had a supply of it in their packs.
“We’re going to be a like a couple of snake oil salesman, aren’t we?” Cal said. “Offering our cure to anyone we run across?” His old conning skills could be useful there. He could talk anyone into anything.
“Except the only price we’re asking is for people to join us in getting the word out.”
Cal shrugged his pack higher on his back. Not quite comfortable yet. “Think it can really work, Mitch? We’re not just going to give the dregs of humanity something new to fight over? A new weapon to use against each other? You’re the one who tells me all men are savages.”
“I think…” Mitch paused, looking as if he was thinking it over. “I think people will behave differently once there’s hope of a new civilization. They don’t need to be savages anymore. There’ll be a society again. Maybe a better one than before. And if someone wants to be part of it, they have to change their behavior.”
“What about the people who won’t do that?”
“We’ll figure that out.”
“Maybe you’ll get to be a cop again.”
Mitch smiled and reached for Cal’s hand. Cal took his hand at once. “I never stopped being a cop,” Mitch said.
“I thought everyone got to be someone new in this world,” Cal said, teasing.
“Only if they want to be,” Mitch said. “And I never wanted to be anything else.”
Cal laughed. “I was going to say I haven’t changed either; I still want to be on the move all the time. But I have changed. Now I’ll move with a purpose. And strangest of all…” He shook his head, chuckling.
“What?”
“I never imagined I’d fall in love with a cop.”
Mitch beamed at the sound of that word. “Love.” Cal still didn’t say it often. He was still afraid of the word. Mitch on the other hand said it at least twice a day and was clearly holding himself back from saying it more often. It was nothing to be afraid of, he told Cal. It was a wonder to celebrate.
“I love you too, Cal.”
“I know.” Cal smirked. He liked that response sometimes, teasing Mitch with the “Han Solo answer,” as Bren had called it ever since she gave him the nickname.
They came through the trees to the road.
“North,” Mitch said, pointing. “There’s a town that way, where we should be able to find ourselves a vehicle.” They could have gone for their own vehicles, but Mitch had decided to leave the truck and SUV at Bren’s disposal, in case she needed to go ashore for supplies. The country was littered with abandoned vehicles. They’d find one soon.
Meanwhile they walked. The advance scouts of the new world, Mitch Kennedy and Cal Richardson, walked hand in hand to reclaim the land for the living.
Loose Id Titles by Becky Black
Patient Z
* * * *
The RED DRAGON Series
The Company Man
* * * *
The TRAVELERS Series
Liar’s Waltz
Stowaway
Higher Ground
Ganymede Tilt
Chrysalis Cage
Becky Black
A longtime science fiction fan, Becky thinks there are few story ideas that can’t be improved by the addition of the words “in space.” If the story also includes two gorgeous men unable to keep their hands off each other then so much the better. She’d happily go into space herself, but being English, would insist on there being a reliable supply of tea available.
She likes nothing more than trapping her characters in tricky, no-win situations and watching them figure a way out. When not chasing her characters up trees and throwing rocks at them Becky can be found working in an office—where she’s usually thinking about the next rock to throw.
Find out more about Becky Black at
http://beckyblack.wordpress.com/
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