The Rabid (25 page)

From the
Desk of Dr. Lisa
James
Reynolds

December 26

Monday
morning approached with both an excitement and dread. I didn't want to venture
back out into the diseased world for fear of death, but I knew I had to get
that sample over to the doctor. If there was a doctor.

Jack
and I had set an alarm for six a.m. so we could travel in daylight. But my
brain wouldn't shut off during the night. I somehow managed a few hours of
sleep, but woke just before the alarm.

As I
lied there thinking about all the possibilities that could arise during the
journey, I felt a bit frightened. But I wasn't frightened for myself. I was
frightened for Jack.

I
turned my head to watch him sleep. He looked peaceful. With the need to make
him feel safe, I cuddled next to him as close as I could.

He
responded by — almost instinctually — wrapping his arm around my waist and
pulling me into a hug. Then he snuggled into my hair. I thought I'd woken him,
but his breathing remained steady and deep until the alarm sounded.

"Five
more minutes..." Jack mumbled.

"We better get going if we want to make it before dark."

"But I'm tired from all the sex."

"I never believed I'd hear you say that. Ever. Is your libido dropping
already?" I teased him with a poke.

"All right, all right. I'm up." He nearly whined the words, but there was a
hint of annoyance in them as he pushed himself up onto both hands. But before
he could even get out of the covers, he fell onto his back and put one arm over
his eyes.

"I'm coming... Get the kids ready?"

Something about what he'd said struck me in the chest. It was a warming feeling
as if we'd established a family all of a sudden.

"Sure."

***

Saying goodbye to everyone — as difficult as it was — felt liberating to an
extent. It felt as though we were off on a journey. In a way, we were. Jack and
I were married. My last name was different. We were starting a life together.

Raychel promised that she and Gregg would come visit whenever it was possible.
After all her travels, she wanted a place to call home. And I didn't blame her.

We'd taken an old work truck left behind by a previous visitor. With all of our
belongings, it was barely enough room to fit the four of us. It was snug, but
comfortable. And the diseased victims had found somewhere else to go. They were
no longer littering the grass outside the mansion.

We picked the fastest route of six hours and drove as fast as possible without
frightening Rex, but he still needed a break halfway.

We stopped at an abandoned home just off the highway. We were right in the
middle of the Rocky Mountains so the views were breathtaking. The white house
stood atop a small hill with a large desk wrapped around the back. From there,
we could see bison roaming about, snacking on grass in a valley a few miles
away.

I touched a few Halloween decorations still hung in the windows. Suddenly, I
felt frozen in time. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas had passed and I
hand't even given it a second thought. Not even when writing the dates down in
this very journal.

A cloud passed over the sun, shrouding the house in a dark quiet. I found
myself wondering where the occupants were — if they were dead or diseased.

"Wow..." Jack's words came to me from the living room. He was in front of the
media player, holding a disc in his hand. "Blink 182."

"What's that?" I approached him.

"Blink 182." He showed the disc to me. "Haven't heard them in years. Wonder if
their all still alive."

We were quiet for a few moments before Rex and Alex scrambled into the room
shouting nonsense.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Jack held up both hands, the CD wedged between the thumb
and forefinger of his right. "One at a time."

"One time! One!" Rex bounced up and down, clearly unaware of how to express
what was so exciting.

"Good. Lexi?"

She began pointing out the sliding glass door while spewing excited words.
"There's a big buffalo outside! It's hurt!"

Jack and I glanced at each other before turning and heading for the door.
Outside, the world was quiet. A peaceful breeze shifted the leaves in each tree
with a subtle whisper.

Beyond the large wrap-around deck, a dog began to bark. Then, it came around
the side where we were, rearing up on its hind legs.

"What is it, boy?" Jack approached the mutt slowly. It continued barking for a
few more seconds, then ran off in the opposite direction. We followed without a
discussion.

The barking hit a crescendo as we rounded the corner of the house to see a
large bison lying on its side. The breathing seemed labored, but it seemed to
still be fighting off the dog whenever it came too near.

I
stopped first in front of everyone, holding out my arms to signal they
shouldn't get too close. I used caution when approaching the beast. It eyed me
with suspicion, so I slowed my pace even more, holding out my hands to show I
had nothing in them.

"What, uh...what do we...?" Jack's sentence emerged in broken pieces before I
shushed him.

Near the bison's front right haunch was a wound infested with maggots eating
away at the necrotic flesh. From where I stood, it looked like a bite mark.

"Someone
get me gloves." I didn't wait for an answer before stroking the coarse fur of
the animal. The bison closed its eyes when it noticed I wasn't posing any
threat.

Upon closer inspection of the wound, I determined all I could do was clean it
and hope for the best. When Jack came back with the gloves, I asked him to find
rubbing alcohol as well. He disappeared again, so I began my analysis.

I made sure the clear as many of the maggots from the wound as I could. The
bison grunted and flinched several times, but I made sure to run my hand along
its haunch, calming it.

"So what's the diagnosis, doc?"

I stood, facing the animal. "It's been bitten." I turned back to Jack. "
Weeks
ago. By a human."

Jack's face screwed up. "How do you know it was a human?"

I held up my hand, unfurling my fingers so he could see what I'd found inside
the poor bison"s wound.

"That...that's a..."

"A bicuspid."

Jack's tongue made a quick pass over his top teeth before he shuddered.
"Goddamn."

"Indeed." I took the rubbing alcohol from him and turned back to the animal.
"The stranger aspect of this whole epidemic seems that humans can't infect
animals with this particular strain of rabies."

"Meaning?"

I
finished dressing the wound. "I have no idea. That's why we need to keep
going."

It
was time to get back on the road.

The only information I had about Braycart was that it was in a little town in
Colorado. I had no idea where in the town it was, but Jack insisted we'd know
when we saw it. And he was right.

The entire town was surrounded by a large brick wall that must have stretched
up about ten feet. Someone had hand-painted the word Braycart across the stone.
As we drove quietly down the highway leading to the town, we noticed abandoned
cars gathering in strange spots. The most unsettling thing was that the only
diseased within a mile of the city were all dead.

"Haven't seen that before." Jack couldn't keep his eyes off some of the bodies
littering the road. "I'm pretty sure everywhere else has a Biter clean-up
crew."

"Like the Ghostbusters?" Alex chimed in.

"Precisely."

The gates of the city loomed ahead of us. They were made of what looked like
steel. I could see faint shapes of people on top of the wall. They had very
large guns.

Jack rolled down his window as the gates opened. A man with armor crisscrossing
his chest walked out.

"Do you know where you are?" He asked, ducking his head and checking us all
out.

"Yes. Rumor has it you have a doctor here."

I let Jack do the talking.

"Yup. Dr. Holmes. Someone been bitten? We have rules. No one who's been bitten
is allowed inside."

"No, none of us have been bitten. But I have something the doctor may find very
interesting." I leaned over Jack to speak to the man.

After a moment's pause, he seemed to lighten up. "You folks need a place to
stay?"

"Yes."

"Welcome to Braycart." He stepped aside and waved to someone on top of the
wall. The gates opened fully and another man ushered our truck through.

The city was breathtaking. I had expected a desolate and run down dump of a
place, but the sidewalks were neatly paved and the homes were cookie-cutter. The
man who'd let us in gave us directions to the lab, and on the way there, we
passed a grocery store looked to be well stocked and a working gas station.

The lab looked more or less like a hospital. And it seemed to double as one as
there were people with broken limbs emerging past us. A woman at the front desk
informed us that she'd been told to let us see the doctor and instructed us to
go to the fifth floor.

Rex struggled a bit on the elevator. He was getting hungry. But after bouncing
him a few times, Jack was able to quiet him.

The elevator let us off on a quiet floor with glass doors on both sides of the
hallway. Beyond them, we could see white-jacketed workers bent over steel
tables littered with samples. None of us had talked since we'd been let in, but
we hand't noticed until I spoke.

"I guess we wait here." There were benches lining a wall across from an office
with Dr. Holmes etched into its window. We sat and I held what was left of
Gregg's leg tightly in my lap. I'd made sure to wrap it so no one could take a
guess what it was.

Finally, the door to the doctor's office opened. An older man with white hair
and a beard to match stepped out.

"You must be Dr. James." His voice was gruff with a hint of an English accent.

I stood. "Actually it's Dr. Reynolds now. it's lovely to meet you." We shook
hands as I introduced him to Jack, Alex and Rex.

"You have a lovely family, Doctor. I hear you have something you'd like me to
see?"

"Yes." I handed him the wrapped leg. "I removed a limb from someone who'd been
bitten. This is the limb."

Behind his spectacles, the doctor's eyes widened. "May I?"

"Absolutely."

He walked back into his office and we followed, sitting in a few cold metal
chairs across from his polished desk.

He unwrapped the package carefully while we stayed silent. After studying the
leg for a few moments, he looked up at me.

"This is very important, Dr. Reynolds."

"Yes, I know."

"Did you have proper medical equipment for this job?"

"No. I had a paring knife, dental suction, a flame torch and a binder clip."

"These incisions are superb."

"Thank you."

He stopped studying the leg and gave me a hard stare. "Did the man survive?"

"Yes."

Dr. Holmes sat back in his chair. The leather stretched under him. "I'd like to
study this specimen further. I'll give it to my assistants to dissect. Thank
you very much."

He stood to show us out, but the wheels began turning in my head. "Just a
moment." I stood as he rounded his desk. "I would like to supervise the
dissection."

Dr. Holmes's eyebrows pulled together and he frowned. "I'm afraid I can't allow
that. This facility is not authorized to the public."

"But, we—"

"I must insist that you leave now. If you have any questions, please speak to
the information assistant at the front gates."

With that, he ushered us out of his office and into the dark hallway. I was
fuming. My heart was hammering in my chest and I could feel blood creeping into
my cheeks. Jack laid a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"Maybe we should go talk to the information assistant."

December 26

I
knew Lisa was pissed, but I didn't know how pissed until we got out into the
open. She hand't said a word the entire way out, but once we stepped onto the
sidewalk, she let loose.

"That was
my
discovery."

"I know."

"If they mess it up, I swear on all that is good and Holy..."

"Yeah."

"I will take them to court and he'll lose his license."

I refrained from mentioning the fact that courts and licenses no longer held
much weight, because she looked like she'd bite my head off if I differed from
her opinion. She continued to rant under her breath from the moment we got in
the car until we stopped in front of a little strip mall. The word
Information
was scrawled in all capital letters above a glass door.

I turned to her. "You okay?"

"No."

We were all silent until Alex spoke. "What do we do now?"

Lisa sighed through her nose. "Maybe we should just go back to Huntington
House."

"Well...we're here. Let's just see what they can do for us."

We stepped out of the car. I was almost worried Lisa wasn't going to budge, but
she eventually unbuckled her seatbelt to join us. Inside, the office was warm,
cozy and inviting. The walls were painted a dull blue as if trying to shelter
people from the outside world. A woman sat at a desk in the front.

"Can I help you?"

I looked at Lisa, but she was still pissed off. "Yeah, we just got here and
have no idea what we're doing." I figured I'd be honest.

"I knew what I was doing..." Lisa said under her breath.

The woman at the front desk glanced at her, then back to me. "No problem. We
invite all kinds of people to our city. I'll just have one of our reps ask you
a few questions and you can get settled."

I wanted to ask, "Get settled with what," but before I could, the woman jumped
out of her seat and scurried down a narrow hallway. Lisa took Rex from me. I
hesitated, but she gave me a look assuring she was capable. Well, it was more
of an I'll-murder-you-if-you-so-much-as-say-something look, so...

"Hello!" A chipper dark-haired woman came down the hallway and greeted us. She
introduced herself as Margaret and invited us back to her desk down the narrow
hallway. I still had no idea what was going on.

"Does that work?" I asked, nodding toward the computer monitor on the woman's
desk.

She smiled. "For Solitaire." No one laughed. "It's more for record keeping than
anything else. Has anyone told you what we do?"

"Not a word."

"Okee dokee." She folded her hands together. "Braycart was established with one
thing in mind — a cure. Dr. Holmes is a very intelligent man who was able to
section off what used to be the hospital of a small town here and create a
laboratory. we've had all kinds of doctors come from all around to try and
help. we've gotten close, but no dice yet.

"After the construction of the lab, the doctor decided to build up some walls
to keep out the infected."

"I call them Biters." I was trying to lighten the mood, but Lisa was still sour
at the mention of the doctor's name.

Margaret smiled. "Dr. Holmes was able to secure a HAM radio and he set about
telling everyone he could to come to Braycart. Now, how it works is that we
take your skills and assign you a job. In turn, this job denotes what type of
housing you receive. Lower levels such as secretaries or trash collection will
be granted apartment homes and higher-level jobs will be granted higher level
housing."

"Makes sense. Right, Lisa?" I elbowed her gently.

She cleared her throat. "Yes."

"Great! So, let me start off with a series of questions. Are you two married?"

"Yes."

"Are these your children?"

"Well...kinda. This is Rex," I said gesturing to him. "And this is Alex. She's
our—"

"They adopted me." Alex finished my sentence for me with a smile. I tossed her
a thumb's up.

"Wonderful. I love when people can help out wherever they can. You sound like
great parents. What did you do before the outbreak?"

"I was a mechanic for seventeen years," I said.

Margaret perked up. "Oh. Wonderful! we've been needing another one. People come
from all around to get repairs since this is really the only place for
thousands of miles. Our system is wonderful, too. Our mechanic repairs the
vehicle and we either trade something for it, or gain a new citizen. Can you
start immediately?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"Great! And how about you, Mrs. Reynolds?"

Lisa scooted to the edge of her seat and took a deep breath. "I graduated summa
cum laude from John's Hopkins University with a bachelor"s degree in Anatomy,
and three associate's degrees — one in chemistry, one in biology and another in
physics. I scored a fifty-two on my MCAT while studying certifications in
narcotics, microbiology, veterinary sciences and psychology. I received a
Doctor of Medicine in Anatomy when I was twenty-five. After working alongside
some of the best doctors in California, I scored a 270 on my USMLE. By the time
I was twenty-eight, I had completed my residency at Tehachapi hospital and was
attending there up until two months ago. We just returned from delivering a key
piece of information that can possibly lead to a cure, but I was kicked out of
Dr. Holmes's office."

Yeah...Lisa helped me write that out.

Margaret's smiled faded the slightest bit. "I'm sorry to hear that. Dr. Holmes
takes his work very seriously. Unfortunately if he didn't invite you for a job
in the hospital or lab, we'll have to find you some other work to do. Do you
like gardening?"

"I'd rather be unemployed."

The plastic smile faded even more. "If you insist, but your housing will be
minimal."

"Uh...how minimal?" I leaned forward.

"We'd put you in an apartment."

And they weren't kidding. The apartment they'd put us in was one bedroom, about
600 square feet and old as hell. Lisa was even angrier than before. I didn't
mind the apartment, but she'd gone from living in a very nice house in
Tehachapi to a tiny apartment in the middle of Colorado. What was worse was
that there was only one bed — which Rex and Alex had to share. We got the sofa.
Or rather Lisa got the sofa and I got the floor.

"This is no way for a newly married couple to live."

I reached up to hold Lisa's hand. She sighed and rolled onto her stomach so she
could look at me.

"I know. I'm sorry."

"I think we should go back to Huntington."

I was quiet. There were no words that came to me in the form of a response. I
wanted to make her happy more than anything, but...

"You want that job." She already knew.

"I've been dreaming about cars for months now."

She reached down and touched my face. "I'll go back to the lab tomorrow and
wait there. I'll wait all day if I have to."

I smiled. "Atta girl."

***

My thoughts of worry about Lisa melted almost instantly when I arrived at work
the next day. The garage was perfect. The concrete floor was dirty and grimy,
the shelves were lined with crap and nothing was labeled. As I drew in a deep
breath, smelling the exhaust and grease, I felt good. Great, in fact.

"Ah, shit, dude. You my replacement?" A large and intimidating blond woman
approached me. And by large, I meant she was buff. Her voice was commanding as
it bounced off the walls.

"That'd be me. Jack Reynolds." I held out my hand for her to shake. She took it
and practically yanked it out of my shoulder socket.

After eyeing me for a moment, she squinted. "Reynolds, huh? Anyone ever tell
you—"

"All the time. Where should I start?" I started to walk toward one of three
cars in the shop, but she held out a strong arm and stopped me.

"Whoa, there, cowboy. I don't know nothing about you. You're too pretty. Can
you even fix cars?"

I gave a condescending chuckle. "Can I fix cars...?"

She stood back, folding her arms. "All right. How would you fix a hard cold
start?"

"Depends," I said. "Chokes may need cleaning or I might need to replace the
spring."

She sucked her teeth. "Okay, that was an easy one. Replace an engine."

"Really?"

"Show me, movie boy."

I rolled my eyes. "Mark the bolts and remove the hood. Disconnect the ground
cable on your battery. Drain the coolant and disconnect the hoses. Loosen
tension or alternator pullies and remove all the belts. Then take out the
radiator. Disconnect the intake and fuel lines. Gotta make sure the A/C and
steering hoses stay connected when you unbolt the pump. Take out the exhaust
manifolds and all connects to the transmission — unless you have a four-wheel
drive. Because then you have to break it out with the engine. Jack up the—"

"I got it, I got it. You're good. Now help me figure out why this bad boy is
knocking." She walked over to a 1975 blue Camaro in amazing condition. I could
hardly contain my excitement as I looked under the hood.

"How's it breathing?"

"Fine. Dyno shows the right horsepower and all that shit. But it just fires
wrong. Can't even describe it."

"How many cars have you turned on in here today?"

"Just this one."

I nodded, removing myself from under the hood and rounding the back of the car.
The woman asked me what I was doing, but I didn't answer straight away. Upon
opening the gas cap, I took a whiff.

"It's knocking because this dude put diesel in the fucking tank."

"No shit." The woman came around and put a hand on her hip. "You know I've been
working on this thing for three days and you just solved it in five seconds by
smellin' it."

I shrugged. "What do ya know?"

"Okay, familiarize yourself with the garage and then we'll fix more shit."

Before I knew it, five o'clock rolled around. I was so involved in what I was
doing that I didn't even notice Lisa waiting for me at the front desk. Instead,
my new intimidating friend Kelli yelled it at me from across the garage.

"Hey, Foxtrot. how'd it go with the doc?"

She sighed. "He wouldn't see me." Her features had gone from stressed to anxious.
I could tell she was worried about something. "I sat there all day, but he
never came into his office. They wouldn't let me roam around because the whole
damn lab is off limits."

"Sheesh. Maybe you should go on a hunger strike."

One corner of her mouth curved into a smile. "I might."

"Well, if you do, wait one more day, okay? I have a surprise for you tonight
and it involves dinner."