Simon dimly heard everyone shuffle away. After a moment, he looked up. He was alone with Tessa. She sat watching him. Her eyes were still wet, but she was no longer crying. He still couldn’t stop himself. Slowly, she reached out and hugged him, leaning her head on his shoulder. Simon let his head drop to hers and felt his tears begin to ebb. He sniffed loudly. Tessa pulled back and looked at him.
“Are you alright?” Her brow furrowed in concern.
Simon gave a strangled version of a laugh. “Yeah, just great.” He looked up at the ceiling and wiped his eyes. “I thought we were going to die right there, I really did.”
“But we didn’t. We’re okay,” Tessa said. “I told you, I’m not going anywhere.”
“I know.” Simon nodded, head still against the wall. “I was just thinking about Zeke and Noah, and how even if we all get out of this, it won’t change anything that happened.”
“I know.” Tessa nodded. “I’m sorry.” She leaned her head on his shoulder again.
“Is your ankle okay?”
“I think so.” Tessa pulled up her jeans. The ankle was swollen, but the skin wasn’t broken. “I fell and twisted it.”
She sat back and leaned against him again.
“Do you remember your family?” Simon sniffed.
“I had a cat,” Tessa answered slowly. “It was a tabby.”
“That’s all you remember?” Simon asked.
“Yeah,” Tessa admitted sadly.
“Lucky.” Simon took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. “I remember my dad, but I wish I didn’t. I had a sister too. I wish I remembered more about her.”
“She must have been important to you.”
“She was,” Simon agreed. “She was older, and I guess I looked up to her. I can’t remember her name though. How dumb is that?”
“It’s not dumb, Simon.” Tessa squeezed his arm.
“Yeah, sure.” Simon nodded and stood, pulling Tessa up with him. “We should be helping.”
“Yeah,” Tessa said. Simon slung the duffel bag over his shoulder and put his free arm around Tessa. Together they went deeper into the lab.
23
Coda Base
Jake sat alone in the living room of the apartment he was now sharing with Scott. The doctor had retired to a bedroom almost as soon as Gabe dropped them off. He had left them with two solar lanterns, apologizing if they didn’t last long. So far they were burning brightly.
After Scott turned in, Jake looked through the kitchen cupboards. They were empty aside from dishes, but in a cupboard next to the sink he hit the jackpot. Bottle after bottle of booze stood in rows like soldiers. Jake dug through them until he found a bottle of well aged scotch. He blew the dust out of a glass and poured himself two fingers full. He swallowed that in two long gulps, wincing as warmth spread through him.
He took the glass and the bottle to the couch before pouring himself another two fingers worth. He sipped slowly, enjoying the grassy smell and smoky flavor. If there was one thing to be thankful for in this Godforsaken world it was that the scotch would last for years.
The alcohol began to make his head feel foggy, a familiar feeling he had missed in the past weeks. Grace adamantly refused to allow alcohol into the hospital, a rule the others grudgingly accepted. After so long without a hint of alcohol, the booze hit Jake like teenager’s first beer.
His mind drifted to Alice. She’d hit him like a stripper looking for tips. He leaned his head back on the couch and let his mind wander over her vanilla scented hair, perfect body, and the occasional bit of exposed midriff he had seen. She was young enough that she had probably never been with a man old enough to know what he was doing. Jake imagined taking off her shirt, the smooth skin of her stomach under his fingers.
Jake shook himself out of the grip of sleep just before it pulled him down for good. No doubt the dreams would have been good, but he thought the reality would be better. He poured himself another glass of scotch, still thinking about it.
*
“Here it is,” Cale said triumphantly. He waited for Zero and Alice to stand beside him before he started the audio. It was jerky and there was interference, but it was impossible to miss what the man said.
“We’re locked in, thought we were safe.” The man gave a ragged sigh, and then coughed wetly. “Maya and Jim are already gone, slipped into comas this morning. I don’t have the heart to kill them.” He coughed again, this time for longer. It was a wet, mucus filled sound. Alice had to restrain herself from shutting off the audio. When the man spoke again, his voice was slow and weary. “We found it though, found the cure to this damn disease. Seems like their brains-” Then there was only static.
“Damn it, that’s where it cut off for us too.” Cale slapped the desk, anger etched in his features.
“Chill out soldier.” Zero pushed Cale aside and took control of the computer. He opened a word document associated with the sound file. “Says here it was received three weeks ago.”
“Impossible. We got it a few days ago.” Cale leaned close to read. “There must be a mistake.”
“Nope.” Zero shook his head, still reading the file. “Seems they picked it up on a short wave burst, and then spent some time working on a way to send it further. I guess they were hoping to get a crazy person like you out this way, or maybe just inspire others with the knowledge that there was a cure to be found.”
“Crap.” Cale leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers over his eyes to think.
“They who?” Alice leaned in to read over Zero’s other shoulder.
“Gabe’s soldier friends I suppose.” Zero swallowed. Alice’s body was warm pressing against him. He resisted the urge to pull her back when she straightened.
“But it was a short wave burst.” Cale up excitedly.
“So?” Zero asked.
“Those bursts have a maximum radius of maybe three hundred miles. I think.” Cale stood, motioning to Zero. They switched chairs and Cale dug through files on the computer until he found a map.
“So it must have been from somewhere close then,” Alice said, almost unable to contain her excitement at the idea.
“Yeah.” Cale nodded, eyes roaming over the map as he narrowed in on the area around Coda. “Problem is, a short wave burst doesn’t have to come from military. They make ones for kids even. My nephew had one; the thing could broadcast about two miles.”
“So what, we start going through people’s homes?” Zero asked.
“No. We know it probably came from somewhere official. We start with bases, then maybe hospitals, labs. I don’t know.”
“But if this didn’t come from a someplace like that, it could have come from anywhere,” Zero said grimly
Cale sighed. “Yeah. We check out the obvious places first. After that it’s a needle in a haystack,” he said, a hint of frustration bleeding through.
Zero leaned in to look at the map. “So what do we got for bases?”
“There are three bases which could maybe be what we are looking for,” Cale said. “Mason, Culmore, and-”
“Haven,” Alice finished for him. She stared at the computer screen, breathless with the idea.
“Right,” Cale said. “Haven.”
“Alice, you can’t get your hopes up,” Zero warned, playing the voice of reason even as Alice began to stray.
“I know.” But her heart was wild over the possibility of it being Haven.
“Even if it was from Haven, it doesn’t sound like anyone is alive at this point,” Cale added. He could tell she was getting her hopes up, no matter how she tried to deny it. He knew just how dangerous that could be.
“I get it,” Alice snapped, but she was glad for the dose of reality. “Where do you go first?”
“I guess whatever is closest.” Cale shrugged. “Work our way out.”
“What about-” Zero hesitated, scratching his head. “Doesn’t each base have lists of employees or some such?”
“Yeah.” Cale’s eyes widened. “Yeah, they do. And they made it regulation that all lists are updated weekly and fed to all the bases! Zero, you are a genius. It’s not even secure data. We find the names of the people who died sending the message and we know where we’re going.”
Cale searched the computer for the familiar file. In moments he started printing the lists for each of the three bases. “These are gonna be big lists, but it’s better than nothing.” When the lists were done, he gathered them up and stood from the computer. “We should go. Gabe will be waiting on us.”
“We need to go over them tonight so you can leave as soon as possible,” Alice said. Now that it could be Haven base, she was much more eager for Cale and Zero to get going, no matter how much she would miss them.
“We’ll start it tonight, but there’s nothing we can do without a good night’s sleep anyway,” Cale assured her. He stepped aside to let Alice lead the way back to the cafeteria.
“Are you sure you won’t come with us?” Zero asked, his hand on her back as they reached the cafeteria.
“I can’t,” Alice answered with a shake of her head. When he pulled his hand away, she found herself missing the comfort of the contact.
As promised, Gabe waited patiently at one of the tables. He sat with his feet propped up as he leaned back reading. He looked up when they entered the room.
“Find what you were looking for?” He stood and marked his page in the book.
“I think we got a good lead,” Cale said. He hugged the pile of papers to his chest.
“Shouldn’t take too long for us to know where we’ll be goin’,” Zero agreed.
“Glad to hear it.” Gabe nodded to the table next to his. “I have a flashlight for each of you. I’ll walk you over to the apartment building.” They grabbed the flashlights and followed Gabe out of the rec center, walking across the street to the nearest building.
From the couch, Jake noticed lights bobbing across the street. He pushed himself to his feet, feeling the weight of scotch in his limbs. The solar lanterns were dim and he shut one off before going to stand near the window. The old man led Alice and the others to the building. A slow smile crept across Jake’s lips and he took another sip of the booze. With careful steps, he crossed the dark apartment to stand at the door. He heard voices and the creak of a door opening.
Gabe led the group to the second of four apartments on the first floor.
“I kept this one for you so we wouldn’t have to navigate the stairwell in the dark. Place gives me the willies at night. Grace and Quigley are in the apartment across from you. I’m next door and a couple of men from your party are in the last apartment on this floor. I’ve forgotten their names.”
“No worries.” Cale shrugged.
Gabe nodded and opened the door. The apartment wasn’t large. The living room and the kitchen were visible from the door and beyond that lay a hallway that led to bedrooms. Gabe swept his flashlight over all of this, breaking the otherwise deep darkness of the place.
“This looks like a good place to spend the night.” Cale’s flashlight beam played over a couch and armchair.
“Better than camping,” Zero agreed.
“Would you like your own place?” Gabe politely asked Alice. “I planned for you to stay with the men, but if you are uncomfortable I can make other arrangements.”
“No, this is just fine,” Alice assured him. The thought of spending the night in one of the apartments alone unnerved her. The zombies might be on the other side of the wall, but they were far from forgotten.
“Good,” Gabe said. “I’ll leave you then. Sleep well.” With a nod, he stepped out of the apartment and pulled the door shut behind him.