Toxic (51 page)

The information caught her attention. “People go in and out of here regularly to restock?”

Her interlocutor leaned towards her, looking furtively around her. “We can’t talk about that.”

“Why not? Or else the Revered will throw us to the infected? How did that guy end up with so much power?”

“I have a brother,” Annie started, “who I haven’t heard from for months. The Reverend promised that I would find him and that he would help him.”

“Really? What’s his name?”

“Jon. He worked on an oil rig.”

There were as many of those offshore blemishes dirtying the Gulf of Mexico as there were mushrooms on the underside of a stump. She remembered having read that those behemoths on stilts needed to be constantly watched and maintained.

“Do you think he’s still there?”

“Yes. The Reverend even spoke to him.”

Elaine didn’t ask her why she believed his words. That fraud claimed to have a direct line to heaven and it was enough for him to find suckers ready to believe his nonsense. Elaine paused before starting again. “Listen, I don’t plan to rot in here. I plan on finding my friends, no matter how.”

“Alone? That’s impossible.”

“I agree. We’ll need an accomplice. A man.”

Annie’s mouth formed a surprised “o,” as if the thought was unthinkable to her, or even a sin. The nurse took a bite of her piece of bread and enjoyed the taste of the sugar and fruit. She chewed, her eyes closed, savoring each ounce of flavor.

“Delicious.”

“How are you going to convince one of them?”

Elaine opened her eyes. “I think he likes me,” she smiled.

The young woman raised a questioning eyebrow. Her forehead creased. “Who?”

“Clayton. I need to speak to him. Can you arrange that? Can you take him to my... room? Or cell? I don’t know what you call these chicken coops.”

 With that hint, Annie moved back with much surprise, as the idea seemed so shameful and misplaced, although cruelly justified, not to mention the proposal. Elaine noticed that she hadn’t refused. Now she only needed to wait, she told herself, sighing.

During his life in the military, colonel Masters took care of his soldiers like the sons he never had. Without Elaine around, he revived his former responsibilities, which he had thought had disappeared forever. The children – Bruce included – were certainly not trained soldiers, but they had survived a war too. He got on his knees beside Alison and Dewei, who were sitting in front of the main door to the clinic. The group had come back down from the roof of the shopping mall and had gone back to their quarters. Alva, Bruce and Hector were gathering their belongings to take them to the semi-sub. If the situation took a turn for the worse, they would have to get off the island as quickly as possible.

“We’re going to find her,” he assured them, looking at their sad faces.

“Do the zombies not attack Dew because somebody gave him dad’s medicine?” the young girl asked.

She may have not understood the previous day’s events because she didn’t yet have the experience of an adult, but she had a keen mind, the soldier thought. Alison had also been present at Cocoa Beach when Dew had performed for them. She was capable of putting one and one together.

“I don’t know. Ask him,” he encouraged her.

After having listened to him, the Asian took out his notebook. The tip of his tongue touched his lips as he wrote on the tiny pages, which was a sign of concentration according to the nurse. The deceiving response provoked a skeptical frown on the part of the girl.

“How can he not remember anything? He had to live somewhere before and have parents, right?”

A spark lit up Dewei’s face. He went back to scribbling and then showed them one word.

“Jiquan,” she read aloud. “What’s that?”

“The name of a launch site, in China,” Masters clarified. “Like our NASA. They sent rockets into space with satellites.”

Rockets! Yes!

“Are more details coming back to you?”

Desert, dunes, sand. Mint tea.

“Tea?”

Dewei shook his head, visibly having difficulties.

“He comes from Ji... Jiquan, in China. That’s really far away, right?”

On the other side of the planet, the colonel thought, with one question on his mind.

“Yeah, quite far. Which doesn’t really explain how he got to Key West.”

Dewei once again hid his face in his knees.

“Don’t worry; it will come back to you bit by bit.”

The sound of voices suddenly came from the entrance. Through the dirty window, he spotted Bruce’s silhouette moving quickly in front of the diva, who, instead of being on the defensive, was screaming in anger.

“What gives you the right? You son of a bitch!” she yelled.

Alva appeared first and said that she was going back to the boat, where Hector was waiting for her. The marine followed her with his gaze until she disappeared into the corner of the pharmacy, furious. He joined the biologist, who was sitting on a stool.

“I discovered this when I was packing,” he said, justifying himself by taking out a plastic bag.

“It’s empty,” Masters observed, wondering about the real motive behind the scandal.

“It’s from Hector’s stash. They’re the same ones. She’s getting high and that bastard is supplying her.”

The soldier closed his eyes. These packages were common in hospitals. He had nonetheless noticed the little game that the Latino and the artist were playing, which confirmed Bruce’s intuition, but that wasn’t their business. He took him by the arm.

“Listen. It’s best that you leave this be. It’s their business. They’re adults.”

“We have to help her.”

In reality, he wanted to help her in a way that went way beyond clinical or medical aid. The colonel repeated his advice. Right away, he realized how important the nurse was, because of her influence on the group. She could find the words to convince and rally people to her cause. He knew how to give orders and command people, which wasn’t the same even though the aim – that people did his bidding – was similar. Since she had left, they seemed to be on the verge of tearing each other apart, and this wasn’t the opportune time.

A movement close to the pharmacy caught his attention.

Masters told Bruce to go inside with Alison and Dew.

“Who is it?”

“Our visitors from last night?” the marine suggested, putting his hand on the butt of his 45.

His intuition was confirmed in the first nerve-racking seconds that followed. Four individuals armed with assault rifles came out of the shadows. They flanked Alva, her hands tied and her mouth gagged, exposed for the group to see. Hector wasn’t with them. Maybe more of them were looking for him on the island. A big, tough guy, dressed in a loose military combat suit whose belt held his stomach back told them the deal right away.

“Surrender if you want the slut to live. We know there are six of you, so don’t play games. We won’t harm you.”

“How does he know that?” Bruce murmured, detecting the colonel’s tension. “Did Alva tell them?”

With inferior numbers and weapons, reason suggested that they accept their conditions. Before the lack of a reaction, the leader of the band moved his AK under the diva’s nose. Bruce started to panic.

“You most of all, stay here!” Masters ordered him.

“But they’re going to kill her!”

Their adversary made that clear, standing up straight in his boots with his underlings perfectly positioned in a diamond shape, not budging an inch. Different from Xavier’s men, these ones here seemed disciplined and like men who followed orders. Their situation didn’t look good.

“Listen up well, you others. We’re not going to spend all day here. I want to see five people outside in less than ten seconds or I’ll kill her.”

The characteristic noise of him arming his Kalashnikov supported his ultimatum.

“We can’t face these guys with a 45 and a machete. Hector has the shotgun,” Bruce reasoned.

The corpulent man started to count down. The colonel’s cheek shook but he decided not to do anything. When he got to four, the biologist discarded his orders. Masters didn’t stop him, knowing that his position was untenable.

“Don’t shoot!”

“Three...”

“Don’t shoot, god dammit! We give up!”

“Two... I said that I wanted to see five people.”

“I...”

“Very good! Very good! They’re coming out, no need to get excited.”

Bruce, his arms in the air, turned around.

The marine appeared on the doorstep with Alison and Dewei at his sides.

“One... there are only four of you.”

“No, no, don’t do this. The fifth person left... Bruce stuttered. He took the boat to go find Elaine. You know her. Elaine, our nurse,” he repeated.

The leader lowered his gun.

“When?”

“I... she disappeared last night.”

The response seemed to satisfy the colossus.

“This place hides many surprises,” he explained, admiring Alva, whose half-closed eyes expressed her hatred.

Bruce hunched his shoulders.

“Stay calm,” Masters told him. “He’s just trying to provoke us. You played your part well. He didn’t deny the part about Elaine. They know her.”

Two other men appeared. They talked with their leader, who listened to them attentively. Then, he turned towards the group of survivors.

“Before we all leave, I would like to know who killed all my troop of hungry creatures.”

Clayton slid hesitantly between the curtains and entered the modest and very spacious cell which, even without furniture, had the look of a room in a brothel.  She told herself that the décor wasn’t a decisive factor. He lifted up his cap, revealing the hair that gave him the look of an Australian surfer covered in golden ringlets. Elaine invited him to sit down. She had put away the toga and the cross, opting for the more revealing and advantageous clothes that she had arrived in. The smell of sweat remained on the fabric, but she would have bet that he didn’t care.

“Clayton,” she started in a soft voice, “I’m sorry.”

He leaned his head to the side.

“You didn’t do anything. At least, yet.”

“I put you in a hard position with my questions and all that.”

“Ah... Don’t worry, it’s no problem.”

With a perfectly calculated gesture, not too much and not too little, she leaned towards the water jug and two metal goblets that she had asked Annie for.

“I would offer you a drink, but I don’t have any ice.”

The joke put a timid smile on Clayton’s face, and he accepted. He drank a sip.

“Annie told me you wanted to talk to me.”

“Make yourself at home. You can call me Elaine.”

“I know... Elaine.”

Clayton gave her the impression that he was uncomfortable during their romantic rendezvous. Apart from his size, he reminded her of her first boyfriend. The intimate atmosphere and the torchlight of the hallway filtering through the curtains helped the nurse adopt a relaxed attitude. She cleared her voice and put her hand innocently on the thigh of her guest.

“I’m going to need your help to get out of here.”

Before he could protest, she took his hand.

“The two of us could leave, with Annie. You will protect us. The Earth has become dangerous. We will need a strong man to ensure our safety and well-being. Do you understand?”

His clear eyes darted about and he pulled back his hand, bothered by the proposal, but not surprised, Elaine noted. She wondered what circuits she needed to activate under this mass of blond curls to make him come over to her side.

“Our time is running out,” she insisted.

“It’s very risky. If the guards ever caught you, we would end up in the zombie pit.”

Did he consider himself separate from the core formed around the delusional Reverend? Elaine found the signs encouraging.

“If we stay, we’ll end up there all the same. The Reverend has the right to say who lives and who dies here, no matter who.”

Clayton didn’t respond to her assertion.

“I don’t know... I…”

Elaine got up suddenly and kissed him on the cheek.
Not too little, not too much
, she told herself.

She hoped she had gauged him well. In the emergency room, sometimes the staff only had a little time to assess a patient. It wasn’t a given but rather a necessity that could reveal to be crucial.

Just like she expected, Clayton retreated.

“I don’t know,” he repeated, his baseball cap in his hands. “I need to think about it.”

“The Reverend has his eye on me. Tonight will already be too late.”

Her new friend slipped away.

Annie came for news only two minutes after he had left. Elaine took action. She was planning on putting pressure on the young woman.

“Clay is going to help us get out of here,” she lied. “We will clear out when night falls.”

The information caused the young woman to panic. “What? Already? No! I’m not ready!”

“You don’t have the time to ask questions. Freedom: it’s now or never.”

Annie seemed on the verge of fainting right in the middle of the cell.

“But how?”

Elaine grabbed her shoulders to reassure her. “We’ll work out the details later.”

“And if we’re captured?”

Elaine played her best card. “One of my friends has a boat, a semi-sub capable of sailing underwater.”

The information provoked clear interest. The fear was erased from Annie’s face, swept away by the glimmer of hope that lit up her eyes.

“Will you help me find my brother?”

“I promise to do my best.”