Lethal Seasons (A Changed World Book 1) (14 page)

“The ether was equally useless for research. Many docks stopped functioning as staff fled and power sources failed. Those with automated power supplies continued to function for awhile, but the information quickly became outdated.”

History of a Changed World
, Angus T. Moss

After watching the silent compound for a half hour, Nick got bored. He was hot and itchy lying in the brush. “Let’s knock on the front door.”

Wisp shot him a startled glance.

“Well,
I
can. I’m just an average citizen looking for some answers. You can wait up here in case I need to be rescued,” he said with a grim smile.

Wisp frowned, his eyes wandering back to the gates. Nick could almost tell what he was thinking. That wasn’t a place he’d want to have to break out of. The stone walls were too smooth to scale without equipment. From here, it looked like there was only the one gate. They were certainly outnumbered. An installation that large could have a small army of security. The shiny new vehicles parked in the compound told him these people had access to resources that weren’t available to people like Nick.

Wisp gave a small grunt of agreement. Pale eyes gave him that sizing up look again. “It might be best if you let them think you’re my keeper.”

Nick flinched inwardly. Wisp was giving him a little too much trust. “Huh. Not sure I ever wanted that title, but if it makes you feel better.”

“It will
not
make me feel better. But it might make me safer.” With that curt comment, Wisp worked his way back through the underbrush to the road. Nick followed right behind him. It only made sense to approach from the road. Sneaking out of the woods would surely raise suspicion.

They walked up to the open gates slowly, eyes on the dark windows of the watchtowers. Nick’s back prickled with sweat. They were completely exposed. A heartbeat later he knew something was wrong. In the shadow of the wall, a body lay crumpled on the ground. As they moved into the compound more bodies came into sight. Nick automatically ducked into cover behind a large cargo truck that had stopped just inside the wall, possibly the reason why the gates were open. Wisp crouched beside him.

“That's not good,” Nick said with a nod toward the bodies. The men on the ground were in the same black uniform that the mercenaries wore. He could see the driver of the vehicle slumped over the steering wheel. He worried that they might be walking into the aftermath of an attack.

“I’m not sensing very many people,” Wisp said, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Is your brother in there?”

“Yes.”

“Is he scared?”

“Not scared, but he is concerned.” Wisp leaned around the edge of the truck, checking the immediate area.

Nick did his own reconnaissance. Just inside the gate was a large grassy area. It looked like a park, but Nick knew anyone passing through there would be visible to the guards in the towers. The entry road ended at a chest high wall that was topped by wrought iron spikes. To the right and left gated driveways headed further into the compound. He could see the roof lines of a couple buildings inside. The gate on the right side was open.

The silence was unnerving. Nick heard a bird twittering in the woods, the soft rumble of an engine, but no voices or footsteps.

“Can you tell if they are under attack?”

Wisp gave him a puzzled look. “Do you see something I don't?”

“I see dead bodies. I want to know how they got there.”

“I feel no emotions that would indicate battle or aggression. There is only worry and confusion in there,” he said, gesturing into the compound.

“That's the same uniform as the guys that hurt William.”

“Yes.”

Nick hesitated a minute before he asked the hard question. “Does your brother wear that uniform?”

Wisp shrugged. “It’s possible that he's been sold. I haven't visited him here. Last time I saw him, he was wearing civilian clothing and a white lab coat. But even if he is in that uniform, they wouldn’t give him a weapon.”

Nick had to agree with that. Arming biobots was against the law. And to be honest, against human instincts. “You’re sure he’s here?”

“I can feel him.”

Nick scanned the area. Nothing was moving. He gave Wisp a tight nod, and they moved out. The road went between the walls for awhile before taking a sharp turn inward to run straight as an arrow past several buildings. A large boxy structure on the left looked like a warehouse. The three story brick-faced building on the right looked like a barracks. In the uncanny silence, they passed more bodies and vehicles. At a branch in the road, there was a truck with the back doors open, boxes marked as vaccine scattered on the ground and more bodies. They looked as if they had dropped while loading the truck. All the hair on Nick’s body stood up. Everything he was seeing said chemical attack.

Nick moved slowly, from one point of cover to the next, a truck, a jeep, a low wall surrounding a neatly mown lawn. Wisp shadowed him. It was too quiet. Something about the bodies was off. Then it hit him. “Look.” He pointed to the nearest body. “He never pulled his weapon.”

Wisp slunk over to crouch by the body. “I see no wounds.”

A shiver shook Nick, raising goose bumps. “Can you tell how long he’s been dead?” He cringed a little when Wisp touched the body.

Wisp turned a puzzled frown on him. “Still warm.”

They both jumped at a loud clanking sound in the strange silence of the compound. Down the road was a squat building with no windows and a heavy metal access. The door creaked on its hinges as it opened wider. A tall man, broad shouldered and strong looking, with red hair and light brown eyes frowned into the sunlight. He caught sight of them and looked mildly surprised. “Tau?”

“Is that your brother?” Nick glanced at Wisp. He nodded without looking at Nick. “Why doesn’t he have a tattoo?”

“He does, but it isn’t on his neck.” Wisp stood up, but Nick shouldered him aside to look like he was leading. The man focused on Nick, his expression becoming uncertain.

“Who are you? Why are you here?”

“I’m Nick from High Meadow Med Center. We came looking for you to see if we could find the Vaccine Center. It’s gone off line.”

“Khi, he is trustworthy,” Wisp added.

His brother frowned. “High Meadow? That’s...” He turned to start down the driveway and stopped short at the sight of bodies in the street. His eyebrows shot up. “What has happened?”

Nick stared around the compound. Bodies on the ground. Trucks with doors hanging open. “I was hoping you could tell me.”

“Kyle! Kyle, Kyle, Kyle!” A woman's voice screamed the name repeatedly from inside the building.

“Come,” Khi beckoned to them as he ran toward the screaming.

Nick and Wisp followed him into the building and found a woman on her knees beside a man on the floor. They both wore lab coats. She was sobbing. She looked up when they arrived. “It's Bobby! He's dead!”

Khi knelt and put an arm around her. “I'm so sorry, Ruth.”

“They're all dead! Why are they all dead?” Her voice was high and shrill with fear.

Wisp backed up. Nick could feel the woman's panic, he was sure it was much more intense for Wisp.

“Ruth! Calm yourself. These men are here to help us.”

Nick looked sideways at Wisp. Whatever made him think that?

“We were failed by our own brilliance. Many appliances and gadgets that we used daily had a planned obsolescence built in because we all knew that in a few year’s time something faster, easier, better would arrive. And so it was that within a few years after Zero Year that all the things we were accustomed to relying on broke down.”

History of a Changed World
, Angus T. Moss

“Cannibals?” Tilly checked the bedside monitor to see if Jean’s fever had gone up. The story she was relating sounded implausible “That’s patently absurd. No, I’m sure he was wrong about that.”

“But the children?” Jean’s eyes were bloodshot. She was pale against the brightly patterned sheets of the infirmary. Although the flu wasn’t taking much of a toll on her, the memories of the past few days were.

“Just hostages,” Tilly sputtered, trying to come up with easy answers to an evil situation. “Parents will do anything for their children. They were probably holding the children to ensure that the parents would be compliant.”

“The parents...,” Jean’s voice trailed off. She had a haunted look in her eyes that made Tilly worry.

“Don’t think about them. There’s nothing to be done now. You all arrived in time to set them free. I’m sure they are very grateful. But it’s done and over, and we must move on to the next thing before us.”

Jean brightened a bit under Tilly’s insistence. “And what’s next?”

Tilly forced a smile for her. “I’ve a chore list as long as your arm. As soon as you are cleared for duty, we will find some work for you.”

“What kinds of things do you do here?”

Tilly relaxed. She was in her element now. “All sorts. There’s the basics of cooking and laundry and housekeeping. There’s the farming and animals. There’s the library and entertainment. Oh, and of course Angus’s research.”

That seemed to get a rise out of Jean. “What kind of research?”

“He’s trying to put together a census.”

Jean blinked at her for a minute. “Why?”

Tilly’s good spirits sank. The reality of the new world was always more grim than she wanted it to be. “Well, I think he’s trying to track the illness and see if there have been any changes over the years.” It was only a shading of the truth. That was part of what Angus looked for. But he was also trying to count survivors. And he worried, with the population growing so thin and isolated, of inbreeding. Although it was years too early for that to be an issue, Angus wanted to have some data in place to head it off.

“Oh.” Jean stared at the wall, lost in thought. “And what would that tell him?”

“You’d have to ask him, my dear. That sort of thing is not my forte. I feed hungry mouths and keep the floors clean. But if that interests you, when you’re up and about, you should speak with him. I’m sure he’d be glad of your assistance.”

“Really?”

“Sorting through data can be quite time consuming. I’m sure he could use an extra pair of eyes.”

Jean smiled for the first time since she’d entered the infirmary. It warmed Tilly to see her looking more cheerful. The poor thing had been through some very trying times. Tilly mourned the loss of her settlement, but didn’t bring the issue up. Jean needed time to heal. Reminding her of her losses wouldn’t help.

“Thank you,” Jean said in a shaky voice. Her eyes filled with tears. “I hope I haven’t brought any bad luck with me.”

“Nonsense,” Tilly chided her, although a chill shivered down her back. “Bad things happen whether we are there to witness them or not. It’s just the ones under our noses that hurt the most.”

“I have tried to construct population figures, but as they change dramatically every flu season, I am always trying to catch up. In Year Ten, I believe our numbers to be equal to that of the mid 1800’s.”

History of a Changed World
, Angus T. Moss

Nick looked at the dead man, the sobbing woman and tried to decide if he should leave now. No wounds on the bodies meant they died of sickness. The fact that they’d all dropped in their tracks probably meant it was too late to escape whatever contagion had taken them. He shivered, but it wasn’t unexpected. He was surprised every time he survived another round of flu.

Wisp planted himself in front of his brother. “Khi, I don't know how we can help. Neither of us have the kind of skills that deal with the virus,” he said calmly. “It might be best if we can go somewhere and assess the situation.”

Khi helped Ruth to her feet. She was panting, close to hysteria. Standing, she barely reached his shoulder. Her dark hair was caught back in a tight bun. She covered her mouth, smothering her sobs.

Nick agreed with Wisp’s suggestion. He touched Khi on the shoulder. “We need to go somewhere to talk.”

Khi looked confused. The armful of sobbing woman probably didn’t help.

“You got a conference room?” Nick asked.

The confusion left Khi's face. “Of course. This way.” He led them into a warren of corridors with offices and labs behind glass doors. Three corridors later they entered a mid-sized conference room. Khi put Ruth in a chair and turned to them. “I'm not sure what's happening.”

“The men in black uniforms, they work here?” Nick asked.

“Yes.”

“They aren't army,” Nick said.

“No.”

Nick’s frustration kicked up a notch at Khi’s terse responses. He turned a sharp eye on Wisp, who nodded acknowledgement.

“Khi, we need to know who these men are, and what this compound is. Please proceed as though we are totally ignorant of your mission here,” Wisp said.

“Oh.” Khi pulled out a chair and sat down next to Ruth, who was crying quietly. “I am rattled. Things are very much out of the ordinary.”

Nick’s irritation backed off a little. He took stock of the typical-looking conference room: long table with a dozen chairs, smartwall and controllers. In the corner, was a plant with large spade-shaped leaves trained up a stake to the height of a man, probably to help ease the lack of windows. A credenza held a water dispenser and a rack of glasses. He filled glasses for all of them and set them out on the table. Wisp took a seat opposite his brother. Nick sat next to him. “Okay, Khi—”

“No!” Ruth snapped. “His name is Kyle.”

Nick nodded calmly at her angry glare. Her heated reaction told him a few things about
Kyle
and his relationship with Ruth. He tucked away those thoughts for later. “All right. I'm Nick. I come from High Meadow Med Center. We got worried when the ether dock for the Vaccine Center went down and came to see what happened.” It was close enough to the truth for now.

“The ether dock is down?” Kyle looked shocked. “That's wrong.”

“Oh God. Oh my God!” Ruth buried her face in her hands.

The situation was a hair’s breadth from spiraling out of control. Nick prepared to wade in, but Wisp beat him to it.

“Report, Khi,” Wisp said a crisp tone of authority.

Kyle spun to look at his brother, astonishment clear on his face. “What? Why are you...” He took a puzzled glance at Nick, then shook his head hard, as if trying to clear it. “I'm not being helpful.” He took a sip of water then sat a little straighter. “Yes. Let me tell you what we do. Ruth and I head Green Team. We work on the vaccines. This is the new vaccine center. Dr. Rutledge won the contract three years ago. Prior to that, Ruth and I worked in the Vaccine Center in...” He paused, looked at Ruth, then at them. “Well, elsewhere.” He gestured toward the door. “This is a private facility. Those men in uniform are the hired guards. Ruth and I were working in the lab late last night on a new...issue that came up. We worked straight through. When we came out for breakfast, we found the bodies.”

“Can you tell me how they all died?” Nick asked.

“I don't know,” Kyle said.

“It's Gold Team,” Ruth spat. Her swollen eyes narrowed in anger. “They were working on the next layer. It wasn't ready. I knew it wasn't ready, but Bobby lied to Rutledge. He said it worked.” She wiped tears away and smoothed a few loose hairs back into the bun.”They were late. He cut corners.”

Kyle let out a long breath. “It killed them.”

“How?” Nick asked.

Kyle frowned. He looked at Ruth. “I am not familiar with this year’s composition.” He paused waiting to see if she would offer more information.”

“How come it didn’t kill everybody?”

“The guards and staff are vaccinated first.”

“What about you?”

Kyle kept looking to Ruth. She kept her head down, sniffing and sighing. He looked uneasy as he answered Nick. “We are protected here. Only people that go out into the world are required to be vaccinated. They aren’t allowed into this building. We don’t go out. Our dormitories are accessed through restricted tunnels. Therefore, we are never exposed. These protocols were established after an entire research team was lost in Year Five.”

“Well, you’re exposed now. High Meadow has the flu, and we just came from there.”

“This year’s vaccine wouldn’t help,” Ruth snapped. Her voice nearly a growl. “They tried to take it too far.”

Kyle put a restraining hand on her arm. “We shouldn’t discuss this right now.”

She pulled away from him to fetch a box of tissues from the credenza. The room was silent, making Ruth’s uneven breathing sound even louder.

Nick thought about what Kyle had said. The researchers at the Vaccine Center had done something stupid and left the country without a viable vaccine for this year’s flu. Even worse, they’d managed to kill themselves off in the process. He didn’t want to think about how that impacted future research. Nor could he see how this connected to the men who hunted William and Lily. The answer to those questions would have to wait. First, he needed to sort out the problem in front of him.

“Wisp said there are people here that are frightened. I think we should round up all of the survivors right away.”

“Wisp?” Kyle asked.

Nick pointed to him.

Kyle smiled. “A curious name.”

Wisp shrugged. “It was earned.” He glanced to the left, with the far-away look in his eyes that Nick was beginning to recognize as an inward focus for his extrasensory listening. “Do you have prisoners here?”

“No. This is a research facility,” Kyle said.

“Subjects for experimentation?”

“No,” Ruth said firmly. “What would make you ask such a thing? We aren’t barbarians. We use simulations.”

“Who are the people locked in the next building?”Wisp pointed at the back wall.

Nick was turned around from the warren of corridors. He wasn’t sure which direction Wisp was pointing, but Kyle seemed to know.

“That's the barracks. More guards, I suppose.”

“They don't feel like guards.”

Nick stood. “Let's go look. We need to find anyone alive, or anyone sick and make a plan.”

“The guards might not be the best place to start,” Ruth said. “I think we should start upstairs.”

Wisp looked at the ceiling. “There is no one alive above us.”

“That can't be! You can’t possibly know that!” Ruth rushed for the door.

They followed her panicked stumbling down the corridor and up the stairs to the second floor. Nick held back, giving her time to burst into office after office. They were either empty or had a corpse. Some rooms had bodies slumped at their desks. Men and women, some in business attire, some in lab coats, all dead. The name plates all had Director or Supervisor of something on them. This was the upper echelon, and they were all gone. Nick made a mental note that there were a whole lot of bodies to be disposed of. If they didn’t act quickly, this area would become unbearable. Nick saw Wisp ease back, putting a little more room between himself and Ruth’s hysteria. He couldn’t blame her. If he’d discovered the same thing at High Meadow, he’d have been hard put to be reasonable.

Ruth staggered into the hallway, eyes wide with shock. “They’re all dead. Kyle! They’re all dead. Bobby’s killed them all!” She lurched away from them heading for a fancy double doorway at the end of the hall. She burst through the doors leaving them swinging open in her wake. Nick and Kyle were right behind her.

Nick walked into an elegant waiting room with thick carpeting and original artwork on the walls. It had a high receptionist’s desk and banks of chairs along the walls, a small meeting room on one side and a shiny, carved door on the other. Ruth plowed through the ornate door, making a keening sound as she panted in distress. Nick followed as far as the doorway. A brass plate, to one side, said
S. S. Rutledge
. Sounded like a ship to Nick. Unfortunately, this ship had sunk. In the office, a stocky man sprawled on the floor in front of a massive desk.

“No, no, no.” Ruth was on her knees, just inside the door, rocking and mumbling.

Kyle went to her, holding her gently. As he steadied her, Nick saw that Kyle’s biobot number was tattooed on the inside of his right forearm.

Giving them some time, Nick moved back to where Wisp had remained in the corridor. “Why’s his tattoo on his arm?”

“It was a request of his first keeper. I think he had a locator chip also.”

“Huh. Didn’t know a keeper could ask for something like that.”

“He was sold to the army. They can request anything.”

Nick winced at the bitterness in Wisp’s voice. He gestured to Ruth and Kyle. She leaned against him with a comfort of habit. “Are they a couple?” he asked in a low voice.

“Biobots are not allowed to.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Pale eyes scrutinized him. “Why do you need to know?”

“This is not the situation I was expecting. We’re gonna need a new plan. If it’s going to include them, I’ll need to know about them.”

Wisp dipped his head in acknowledgement. “They have strong feelings for each other.”

“That’ll do.” Nick raised his voice. “Let’s head back to the conference room. We need to sort this out.”

Kyle held on to Ruth, half-carrying her back down the stairs. By the time they had gathered around the table, Ruth had settled into numb shock.

Nick took the lead. “This is a big place, but it looks like most of the people here...didn’t make it. Wisp can help us track down the living.”

“How?” Ruth demanded. “He doesn’t know this place. Hell, I don’t know half of it, and I’ve been here for years.”

“He’s a finder,” Nick said with a glance at Kyle.

Ruth scoffed.

Kyle put a hand on her arm. “Ruth, this is Tau.”

“What?”

“My brother, Tau.”

“How did you get here? Who is your keeper?” Her voice rose as she started into another panic. “Kyle, this isn’t good. He shouldn’t be here.”

Nick raised a hand to stop her. “Easy. Let’s not worry about that right now. We’re hip deep in dead bodies. I think that’s a little more important.

Ruth swallowed nervously. “Yes. Perhaps you’re right.”

Nick gave her a reassuring nod. “Okay. Kyle, you got a map of this place?”

Kyle put a map of the compound up on the smartwall. He marked each space with usage and probable occupancy.

Nick looked at the search area with a sinking feeling. It could take more than a day to go through all the buildings if people decided to hunker down.

“Should we split up?” Kyle asked.

“No. Wisp and I don’t belong here. You two do. I think we should all stay together in case someone decides to shoot first and ask questions later.”

Kyle raised an eyebrow. “Why would you phrase it that way? This is a research and production facility. Our security is not that aggressive.”

Nick gave him a shrug and a tight smile. “Let’s just say I’m the paranoid type.”

Ruth murmured something to Kyle that Nick couldn’t catch. It made Kyle frown at her. Nick worried that she might bolt at the first chance. He wondered if he and Wisp should just walk away from this mess. But that wouldn’t answer the questions piling up.

They started a systematic search. Ruth had clearance for all the buildings allowing them full access. There were labs and offices, a few private homes tucked into the back corner, a warehouse and production facility, barracks for the guards and slightly nicer dorms for the staff. After completing each building, they returned to the conference room to mark that building done and drop off the few stunned survivors they found. Nick left notes at exits and stairways as to where they would be gathering. He let Ruth choose the order of the buildings. He knew that if she could feel like she had control over something, it would take some of her fear away. She was barely hanging on as it was.