Schism (22 page)

“Tim lived in our neighborhood in Queens when we first came to New York, and he and Karen clicked from day one. They spent a lot of time together, even after we moved into Manhattan. He would bike over the Queensboro Bridge every day to visit us, and after a while, he stayed with us in our apartment. He didn’t have any surviving family, so we looked out for him. Ben and I showed him how to fix cars, and he actually became pretty good at it.”

The memory formed a faint smile on Jim’s face that quickly dissolved.

“Over time, Sean became more and more obsessed with Karen. But he wasn’t in love with her. He just wanted to
own
her, and her having so many admirers only made his obsession stronger. Ben and I became afraid that he would hurt her, but we couldn’t confront him about it. She needed her insulin. So we kept quiet, made sure Karen was never alone, and decided to find enough insulin on our own so we could leave New York. So we told Sean we were going to check out the subway in Boston, which he obviously thought was a great idea, and while we were gone, Karen stayed with Tim back in Queens.

“We actually worked on the subway to avoid suspicion and even got part of it working again, but most days, one of us would disappear for hours at a time and search any hospitals, doctors’ offices, and pharmaceutical companies within a hundred miles of Boston. It took almost two months, but we finally gathered enough insulin to last Karen five years, which we hoped would buy her enough time until someone figured out how to make it again.”

“But doesn’t insulin have an expiration date?” Andy asked suddenly.

“Yeah, it does, but Karen had been using expired insulin for years without any issues. It just becomes less effective as it gets older, which just meant that she had to monitor her insulin levels more carefully as time went on.

“When Ben and I returned to New York, we planned to leave that same night and go west somewhere to start over.”

Jim let out a labored sigh that seemed to resonate throughout the room.

“But when we got back, we couldn’t find Karen or Tim anywhere. It was like they had vanished. We asked everyone, but nobody knew anything until finally someone told us that Tim had been shot.”

A collective groan erupted among the group, but Jim pressed on.

“The Infantry had tracked down where Tim lived, and they came and took Karen after killing him in his own home. It was a week after Ben and I went to Boston. Sean kept Karen locked in his apartment in Manhattan and drugged her with heroin until her body became addicted to it. By the time Ben and I reached his apartment to confront him, it was too late. The combination of the heroin and her diabetes had been too much for her to take, and she died less than a day before we showed up.”

A gasp escaped from Morgan and Susan at the same moment. Jim responded with a firm nod as though confirming this horrible news. A single tear formed in the corner of Andy’s eye, and she quickly wiped away.

“I was devastated, but Ben went into a rage when he saw Karen’s body. He would’ve killed Sean with his bare hands had others not shown up to defend that sick bastard. We were lucky to escape and take her body with us. We drove all the way to Washington DC and buried Karen in the National Cemetery in Arlington. Ben wanted her somewhere important. Someplace she deserved.” Jim briefly covered his face with his hands. “It was awful. For a few weeks afterward, we stayed in the same neighborhood in Virginia where we grew up. And then Ben started drinking. He couldn’t stop blaming himself for his sister’s death. I tried to tell him it wasn’t his fault, but he wouldn’t listen, and for a while I thought he’d never get over it.

“One day, I managed to keep him sober long enough to go hunting in the woods near our neighborhood. On the walk home, we ran into some guys driving through the area, which was strange because outside of New York and Philadelphia, most people got around by walking or biking or riding horses. There just wasn’t any gas. So we assumed they were from up north, and after we started talking to them, we realized they were Fixers. Sean had sent them to look through the Pentagon and a few other government buildings.

“We invited them to our house for dinner, and eventually one of them started spilling secrets about Fort Detrick and the virus. He said his father had been one of the scientists who’d developed the virus and described how it was accidentally released before all the testing was done. Then he said there were still samples of the virus at the Fort, which was now deadly to all survivors beyond a certain age…including most of us in this room.”

A shudder shot down Andy’s spine as Morgan curled up into a ball on the couch and hugged her knees tightly to her chest.

“Soon, Sean began sending even more Fixers to the Fort to study the virus.”

“But wouldn’t he be worried about it killing him too?” Brian asked.

Jim shrugged. “The virus is such a horrible memory for everyone that people fear it more than guns. You can survive a bullet, but no one survives the virus…no one our age. Sean probably figured the risk was worth it.”

Jim stopped to take a sip of water from Ben’s abandoned glass. As he leaned forward, Morgan placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“It was Ben’s idea to blow up the lab at Fort Detrick, and in the beginning it was his way of getting revenge for Karen’s death, but later we knew that we
had
to destroy the virus. If we didn’t, then Sean would have it, and if he couldn’t control it, it could end up spreading all over again. So we went to West Virginia, found some explosives at some coal mines, and then staked out the lab to figure out when it was usually empty.

“One night last summer, we snuck into the lab, poured gasoline everywhere, and lit the whole place on fire. Then we set off the explosives to make sure everything was completely destroyed.” Jim made a circular motion with his hands. “It was a gigantic fireball that could be seen for miles. Afterwards, we headed south, and that’s when we met you three on the highway.”

Jim finally stopped. No one spoke. It took the piercing sound of a gunshot from outside to startle everyone from their thoughts. Within seconds, everyone was out of the house.

Beneath the moonlight in the middle of the street, Ben was wrestling Kevin on the ground. Both were straining to gain control of Ben’s rifle. At the same time, Matt was kicking Ben in the ribs.

Jim and Brian ran into the scuffle. After more kicks and punches, Jim and Charlie wrangled Matt away from Ben, and Brian yanked the rifle out of Kevin’s grasp.

“They lied,” said Ben, breathless as he peeled himself off the pavement. “They’re working for Sean. I heard them talking.” He grabbed his rifle from Brian and turned it on Kevin and Matt. He was prepared to fire.

Neither denied the accusation and instead were strangely silent. Their looks of defiance were unmistakable, even in near-darkness.

“Let’s give them a ride to the desert,” Jim declared after a tense moment. “We’ll drop ’em somewhere west of here…far off the Interstate. They can walk back to New York for all I care.”

“That’s better than they deserve,” Ben snapped bitterly.

“Yeah, it is, but we’re not like them, Ben. And we’re not like Sean.”

He lowered his rifle before releasing a long sigh. “No, we’re not.”

Chapter XVIII

A
ndy woke just as the sun emerged above the horizon. Her sleep had been restless; dreams of people she didn’t know chasing her through dense forests that transformed into the busy streets of a large metropolitan city. She always managed to escape her pursuers just in time.

She tiptoed through the house as everyone slept and stepped outside. As she crossed the vacant road, she saw the outline of someone sitting on the front steps of the house across the street. Startled, she took a few stumbling steps backward as the figure stood up.

“Andy, it’s me.” It was Ben’s voice. When Andy’s eyes finally adjusted to the dawning light, she approached and took a seat beside him as he sat back down.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“When did you guys get back?”

“A few hours ago.”

“Did they tell you anything, like how many others are after you?”

“No, they didn’t say a word. We left ‘em on the side of a road about ten miles west of Route 84. They’ll have to walk for miles before they get to another town.”

“Do you think they’ll try to come back here? Should we leave?”

He bobbed his head once. “We’ll have to. I don’t think they’ll ever come back here, but if they somehow make it back to New York, they’ll tell Sean where we are.”

The idea of leaving Santa Rosa wasn’t especially upsetting, for she held no great attachment to the place. “When should we leave?” she asked as she glanced back at her house.

“As soon as possible. Though I don’t know how we’ll be able to go anywhere at all. We’re almost out of gas, and I don’t know what the alternative is.”

“We’ll figure it out.” There was so much more Andy wanted to say but she had no idea where to begin. Instead she asked, “Did you sleep at all?”

“A couple of hours.”

“It’s impressive what you and Jim did. Destroying that lab. Destroying the virus. That took guts.”

Ben shrugged off the compliment and looked down at his hands. “We just did what needed to be done.” He dropped his head down in frustration. “It wasn’t enough, though.”

“Did the Fixers ever tell you why the virus was so deadly?”

“They said it was designed to be a ‘rapid killing agent,’ which meant that from the moment one person is infected, either by injection or through the air, that person can then infect someone else within a minute or two.”

“So, if I was injected right now with the virus, and then a minute later you came and sat next to me like you are now, I’d infect you immediately?”

“Right. But people were also supposed to die within minutes and not walk around for days infecting innocent people, which we all know isn’t the way it worked out.”

“And you think he still has the virus?”

Ben cracked his knuckles before answering. “He must’ve stashed some vials somewhere away from the lab. And now he’s probably got some Fixer in another lab working to replicate it.”

“But those guys—Matt and Kevin—couldn’t they have been lying to you about the whole thing? Maybe it was just a trick to get you and Jim to go back to New York.”

“Maybe,” he conceded. “Anything’s possible.”

The daylight had intensified to the point where Andy could finally make out Ben’s face. He looked exhausted, almost ill.

“What does he look like?” she asked suddenly.

“Sean?”

“Yeah.” It was the first time either of them had uttered the name.

“I guess he’s about my height and build. Brownish-blond hair. What I remember most about him are his eyes. They’re
piercing
blue. And when he looks at you, it’s like a laser going through your skull to read your thoughts.” He turned to face the sunrise. His gaze was distant, as though he were looking at something miles away. “Karen used to say that whenever Sean looked at her, it was as if he was telepathically injecting fear into her body.” Then, with a faint smile, he shook his head slowly and said, “She was good with words.”

The remark made Andy’s heart swell, and without even thinking, she placed her hand on top of Ben’s and gave it a firm squeeze. “I’m sorry about your sister.”

Wordlessly, his gaze shifted down to her hand on top of his. He turned his hand over until their palms touched, and stared down at their contact before sliding his hand away. He slowly rose to his feet. “I’m tired as hell. Going back to bed.”

Andy stood up and met Ben’s eye level by climbing one step higher. Without thinking, she reached out and placed her hands on his shoulders. She stood up on her toes and kissed him on the forehead. When she pulled back, she met his confused gaze before turning away. She stepped down and headed back across the street.

“Get some rest,” she called back to him. “Sounds like we’ve got some planning to do.”

***

“It would be nice to stay somewhere longer than a few months,” Morgan said to Andy later that morning while feeding Katie.

“You want to stay here longer?”

“I don’t know…not really. I miss trees and green grass. I don’t think I’m meant to live in the desert.”

“Me neither, but at least we’re all together this time.”

“Thank God. This time I won’t have to wonder if I have to give birth without you because you’ve gone and gotten yourself kidnapped.”

Andy laughed. “No chance of that happening again. I think I’ve actually grown eyes in the back of my head.” Then she rose from the sofa and moved over to the window facing the street. “I still can’t believe everything Jim told us yesterday.”

“It explains a lot.”

“Like what?”

“Like why Ben’s so quiet sometimes. And why he was so determined to be the one to find you after you were kidnapped.”

“What do you mean?”

Ignoring the question, Morgan shifted Katie’s weight in her arms and rolled her eyes. “God, she’s getting heavy.” Her daughter began to coo adorably. Morgan stood up and began circling around the room, gently bouncing her up and down. “But at least now she can hold her head up.”