Dead Soil | Book 3 | Dead World, page 4
part #3 of Dead Soil Series
“No, I’m sorry,” Olivia said through tears and sweat. It took everything in her to drag her gaze up to meet him again. “I’m sorry for all of this. For everything. I should’ve just told you and then none of this would have happened.” Suddenly, she pulled her knees into her chest and groaned, her eyes squeezing shut in a silent prayer for mercy from the pain.
It was one of the first time in his medical career that Lee felt helpless. Even when he couldn’t save his patients before he could help them pass in comfort, ease their pain. His breath hitched in his chest as he fought back the tears that quickly gathered in his eyes. He took her hand in his and let her squeeze as hard as she needed until the pain was gone. “We have ta get yeh antibiotics right away. If we don’t…” The nurse in him wanted to rattle off the diagnosis and the battle they were facing to get her well again, but his love for her stopped him. He didn't even want to allow the very thought to enter his mind.
“What is it?” Olivia said, her eyes widening. “What’s going to happen to me? Am I going to die?” Lee could tell there was a dark fear rising up in her but she was doing her best to hide it from him. Her jaw clenched as it threatened to shake. Tears gathered in her eyes but remained behind the dam of the brim, threatening to spill over at any moment if she lost her concentration.
Lee sighed. He had to tell her. Hiding things from each other in the name of protection is what got them into this mess. “If we don’ get yeh antibiotics sepsis will start ta take over and eventually yeh’ll go inta septic shock.” He knew from training and personal experience what the chances of surviving sepsis was once it started. Even if they had an emergency room to head to for treatment, once it gets that bad a third of the patients die. They were in the middle of nowhere, hidden beneath the surface in a makeshift bunker town with no medicine and no noe to help aside from him. “Yehr organs will start ta shut down after dat pretty quickly.”
Her lips quivered as she fought with all her might not to cry.
“But we’re not gonna let dat happen,” Lee said, turning off the side of his brain that held all his medical knowledge and turning back to his human side. “I’m gonna save yeh. I’m gonna get yeh the medicine yeh need and yeh’re gonna get better. I promise.”
“I didn’t understand a single word you said,” Olivia said, forcing a smile across her face. “You sound like a damn leprechaun.”
The two laughed together, finally letting their tears break free to tumble down their flushed cheeks.
“Hang in dere, lassie. We’ll get yeh through dis.”
Olivia went into a writhing fit again, turning her face away from her friend and the growing crowd of onlookers.
Lee sniffed and wiped the wetness away from his face before standing up to face the others. Involuntarily, several of the strangers from the bunker took a step back as if Lee were going to lunge at them. He wanted to roll his eyes and make a statement but there wasn’t enough time. He had to act fast.
“I have ta get her antibiotics,” was all Lee said, stating what was going to happen more than asking for permission.
“We can’t just send him up there alone. What if he decides to run away and never come back?” a woman said in a panic from behind the couch.
The man next to her spoke up. “Yeah, then it would be our fault if he went ahead and killed someone else. I can’t live with that on my conscience.”
“Kill again?” Lee turned to the man and stepped toward him, his legs bracing against the couch. “I haven’t killed anyone!”
“Not yet you haven’t, but there’s no way that boy is going to make it!” the man shouted back.
Mac stepped in and raised his hands to silence the room. “All Right, all right, you two. Let’s figure out what needs to be done to save this here girl because that is what’s most important.”
The arguing man backed down, stepping away to stand next to what Lee assumed was his wife, their hands intertwined and the woman holding onto his arm in groping fear.
“I need ta get antibiotics for her,” Lee said again, knowing he was wasting time standing there and arguing. He didn’t understand why these people were delaying him when Olivia’s life hung on the line. Could they not see the state she was in?
“Now I don’t think Lee here would leave his Olivia to die just to escape his punishment for what he did to Rowan. Isn’t that right, son?” Mac said, his face calm and friendly though his eyes were turned down in pity.
“What?” Lee said, barely listening to what was going on around him. All his brain could think of was the path he’d take to find the medicine Olivia needed. “Yeh, no, I wouldna leave her ta die. Never. I’m comin’ back wit da medicine. Yeh have my word.”
Someone in the group scoffed audibly. “And what does your word mean to us?” the young man challenged Lee. “You come in here, a stranger to us, but we welcomed you with open arms and then you beat one of your own bloody and blue for no reason at all. I don’t trust you any further than I can throw you,” he said with a huff of irony. The man was average in height and weighed about half of Lee.
“I’m na askin’ yeh to forget whah I did,” Lee said with a resigned sigh. “All I’m askin’ is yeh let me save Olivia. Then, I will face whateva yeh feel is fair.'' It was hard for anyone watching to deny the sincerity in his big green eyes as they glossed over with pleading tears.
“I don’t know,” most of the onlookers grumbled to each other, still not budging from their fear of Lee.
With his fists balled, he spoke through strained lips. “If yeh hesitate any longer yeh’re condemning her to die. Da loss of her life will be on yehr hands!” he growled with a pointing finger. “Then none of yeh will be any betta dan me!”
Mac placed a settling hand on the large Irishman’s shoulder, reaching up to do so. He didn’t have to say anything. The look in his eyes said it all. Lee backed down, silencing himself as he’d done since the apocalypse started. Talking to people, getting to know them, caring for them, it only led to trouble. Look at what he’d gotten himself into. If he’d just stayed away from Olivia in the first place none of this would have happened. He thought it but his heart didn’t feel it.
“I think it’s pretty clear we have to let this man go and get what he needs to save this young girl,” Mac appealed to the audience. They mumbled their disagreements in return but Mac continued on as if he hadn’t heard them once more. He was good at turning his hearing off like a parent with inconsonant children. “But we can send others to go with. They can aid in the retrieval of the medicine and also ensure Lee here makes it back to the bunker as promised.”
Lee nodded his head vigorously, his dark wavy hair falling in front of his eyes. “Yeh, and da medicine might help ta save Rowan too,” he threw in for good measure. It was true. If any of his cuts got infected he would need antibiotics as well to get through it. That was if he wasn’t also bleeding internally. They had locked Lee away immediately after it happened. He never got the chance to examine Rowan to see what state he was in exactly. If he was being honest with himself, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. The thought of his hands bringing such destruction to any human being made his stomach lurch with sickness.
After precious minutes were wasted in discussion, the people of the bunker finally decided Lee could go if accompanied by volunteers. Mac couldn’t bring himself to appoint anyone the dangerous task of going up to the surface if they didn’t feel fully in their hearts that they were ready. His people had been hidden away in the safety of the bunker for so long he wasn’t sure they remembered how to wield weapons for their survival.
“I’ll go,” Imani spoke up immediately, raising her hand as if she were back in her freshman high school class.
Luke snatched at her wrist and dragged her hand down to her side. “Are you crazy, girl? You are not going out there again! Not when we’ve finally found safety here.”
Imani’s dark eyes narrowed at her father, burning his insides with their contempt. He physically took a step back from her, his shoulders hunched in submission.
“I’m going,” she hissed through her teeth, holding his gaze.
He cowered like a kicked puppy, his eyes finding hers but then turning away in shame. “Fine,” he finally said. “But if I have to go then I’m taking that guy with me,” he said pointing at Svend, the massive Dane standing at the back of the room leaning against the wall again with his arms crossed over his broad chest.
Svend brushed his braid behind his shoulder and ran his hands over the shaved sides of his head while he thought. His muscles rippled under the tightly pulled skin of his arms. In one swift motion he shoved his battle axe into the holder on his belt and took a few pounding steps forward. “Sure. I go, too. Protect the little man.”
Luke’s brows furrowed as he stared up at Svend. “Little man?” he retaliated on instinct. “Who you callin’ little man?”
The Dane’s leather boots hit the ground with each bounding step he took, dust from the dirt flying up around his legs. He stopped in front of Luke and looked down at him hard.
“You know what?” Luke said nervously, “Now that you’re here standing over me like this, looking all menacing, I see that you’re right. Little man. I like it. I might even make it my new nickname.”
Svend didn’t say a word. He simply turned and walked away toward Lee who was already hovering in the shadows of the hallway that led to the hatch.
Luke looked around at the others to see if he was being judged harshly, if they could see right through his act. They could. He wrung his hands. His daughter rolled her eyes and huffed loudly as she turned away from him and followed the other two through the passageway. “I guess I’m gonna follow them,” Luke said with a chuckle.
No one was amused as they watched the misfit group disappear into the shadows of the dark hall. A few muttered good riddance because they did not believe they would come back at all.
V
Christine paced the employee lounge on the first floor that had been converted into her and Zack’s living quarters. She wrung her hands together, speaking low to herself, and a little to the Liam she knew was always listening as well.
“The odds are not good. I’m not ready to take that kind of chance on my sister’s life. Fifty-fifty? What if her body doesn’t agree with it and she turns into a pile of nothing? What if my decision kills her? What should I do? I don’t know what to do. I wish I could see one of the doctors working on the serum. All we’ve had communications with is that Jonathan.”
A voice answered her in the shadowed room, making her jump. “The intern. Yes, he’s not worth much is he?” Liam asked as he stepped into the light of the setting sun coming in through the closed blinds. “Twenties. Smiling. Laughing. Joking. At a time like this? He’s insensitive to your feelings is what he is.”
Christine didn’t break stride as she walked up and down the length of the room and back again. “You’re right. He is. He doesn’t care about me or Gretchen. He’s just their messenger boy.”
“What are these scientists hiding anyway? Why can’t they come see you face-to-face and give you answers? Something is up. I can feel it,” Liam said from the middle of the room where he was rooted.
“But maybe Jonathan is really just trying to get through the day like the rest of us. Maybe he’s trying to keep things positive and keep his chin up because if he didn’t he would be swallowed up by the grief of losing his loved ones,” Christine reasoned.
Liam turned to her and immediately she stopped in her tracks to lock eyes with him. His irises were as green as the rolling hills of his homeland. They held her and pulled her closer, offering her comfort and a safe place to rest. She wanted to give into him, to go to him and wrap her arms around his tall, thin body and never let him go. But she didn’t. She knew it wasn’t really him. That the real Liam was dead and gone and she’d been the one to end his life.
“Maybe it’s a front, but more than likely these people are hiding something from you. There’s something about their serum they don’t want you to know. I think you should make it your mission to find out what that is.”
Christine didn’t answer him. Instead, she turned her back to him and closed her eyes, wishing him away. “Go away, go away, go away,” she repeated barely above a whisper. She felt a peaceful silence wash over her as the muscles in her neck and shoulders relaxed downward. She let out a long, slow sigh from her lips.
But then a hand grabbed her gently on the shoulder. She felt hot breath beat against her ear as he whispered, “Together we’ll find out what they’re hiding.”
She whipped around but there was no one there. He had left her just as she wanted, but she didn’t feel any better. The loneliness, the worry, the fear, everything this monstrous world awoke in her was still there and it felt as if it were eating her alive.
There came a knock at the door. She jumped and then quickly walked toward it as it opened. It was Jonathan with his usual annoying smile. She couldn’t decide if she hated him or if she felt pity for him.
“There you are,” he said, somewhat meekly, “I felt bad for the way we left things earlier and I wanted to talk to you a little more about everything. Where’s Zack? I thought he came back here with you after we talked.” He peeked his head in further to glance around the room, not daring to come inside fully in case Zack was hiding in a corner ready to pounce. “He must be wandering the halls. It’s quiet. Good place to think and what not.”
Christine rushed her hands back through her blond waves to whisk it up into a ponytail. “No,” she said, matter-of-fact. “He’s not wandering.”
Without another word she strode from the room leaving Jonathan to jog to catch up to her, following in silence.
Meanwhile, down in the basement, Zack approached Gretchen’s observation room. As he rounded the corner, she immediately banged her palms against the thick glass, scratching at it until her fingers were bloody and raw leaving dark streaks. Her once delicate mouth wrenched open to let out a blood-curdling howl until the corners of her lips split, dripping blackness down the sides of her face.
Zack couldn’t remove his gaze from her. He wanted to. Every fiber of his being wanted to look away and never set eyes on her in this form again. He wanted to run upstairs and grab a vial of that serum to give to her himself, even with the uncertainty of it working with her or not. Death would be better than a life as one of these things, and Gretchen would have agreed if she were able. But he stood rooted several feet from her; staring, watching, waiting. For what, he didn’t know. The muscles in his face grew tighter with every second until his jaw clenched and quivered under the pressure. His vision blurred as wetness gathered in his eyes. He sniffed, trying to shove down the feelings that were creeping up on him; to maintain his cool, calm demeanor that had gotten him this far.
The urge to talk to her overwhelmed him but he was sure she wouldn’t understand. He took a step closer and placed a finger on the glass. Without hesitation, Gretchen bent down and bit at the wall ravenously, never once learning that the finger she wanted to devour would always be out of reach.
He thought back to the brief time he’d spent with Gretchen and what he’d learned about her. He knew without a doubt that woman could irritate him. In fact, she irritated him more often than not, always knowing just how to make that vein in the side of his neck pop out in frustration. She always argued everything. He couldn’t open his mouth without a follow-up from this woman he’d just met and barely knew. And once she made up her mind she never budged, no matter how wrong she was. She could know she’s wrong and still she would stand her ground against Zack just to be against him. But when they got themselves into a jam with a horde of creatures just like her now she was always there, fighting her damnedest to make sure they all came out of it alive. He could still see her, swinging her knife, the hint of a smile curling on the edges of her blushed lips. He realized she didn’t remind him of anyone from his past, anyone he’d ever met before. Gretchen was so uniquely Gretchen.
He leaned in and placed his whole hand on the glass, resting his forehead against the cool wall. His eyes closed and then there was silence. It startled him to hear nothing when Gretchen had been making so much racket just a moment ago. Slowly, he opened his eyes to see her standing still in front of him, her shoulders rising and falling in huffs of wheezing breaths. Her mouth hung open to reveal all her teeth, which were still white and beautiful. One foot shuffled forward and then the other followed clumsily behind. She reached up a hand and Zack’s heart seemed to freeze within his chest. He didn’t dare breathe as he waited to see what would happen; if she would place her hand up to his to let him know she was still in there.
Instead, she jabbed her hand forward, smashing her fingers in a grabbing motion at him. A hissing growl escaping her dried lips. She groaned and tried again in vain to grab him. But then something happened that was not expected. Instead of vigorously attempting to break through the glass she calmed again and a single finger touched where Zack’s hand rested.
“Zack!” a voice exclaimed from the stairwell, echoing down the hall. Gretchen immediately went into a fit, throwing herself at the glass and scratching to get to the fresh meat on the other side. Zack let out a sigh and pulled himself away reluctantly. Whoever it was better have a good reason for disturbing him.
“Zack!” the voice called again as Jonathan and Christine approached him. “There you are. I’ve been looking for you.”
“Well, you found me,” Zack said gruffly and shoved past the kid to disappear up the stairs again.
Jonathan ran to follow closely behind, his lips never ceasing for a moment. “I felt bad about the way our last conversation ended. I know it’s upsetting when I just throw those odds out at you. I mean, this is your friend and Christine’s sister after all. I know you both care about her. So, I thought maybe if I tell you a little more about the work we’ve done, our process, the doctors behind the scenes maybe you’d feel a little better about the work we’re doing here.”
