AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The vaccine works! The vaccine works! You have had Marburg, the exact same form that’s in the flasks,” Catton said. “If we can get it out, you’ll live in a world that’s been saved, instead of one that’s doomed.”
“I know, I know…I wasn’t scared when I thought I might die, but now I am. I can’t help it,” Callister said. She’d wrapped her arms around her knees and shivered.
Scott, on the floor, rolled up on his side, propped his head with one hand, and said, “This project…our project…is the most important thing in the world. Right now, the four of us, here on this carpet, are the most important people in the world. If we’re successful, people will try to hunt us down and kill us, but there’ll stillbepeople. If we fail, a hundred years from now, or two hundred years…the planet will be a barren rock.”
“I don’t actually believe that,” Foss said. They all looked at him, and Catton tilted her head as if she couldn’t believe what she’d heard. “What?”
“If we don’t do this,” Foss said, “We’ll experience a great extinction…”
“We already are—the extinction is underway,” Catton said.
“Yes, Idobelieve that,” Foss said. “But as the planet begins to die,the chaos among humanity will be much worse than anythingwe’replanning. There’ll be wars, there’ll be plagues, mass starvation, the systems will break down and maybe we’ll get knocked back to the Stone Age. Or maybe not the Stone Age. Maybe the steam age. Or 1950. Then again, maybe Lionel is right about humanity—it might go extinct. I personally think there will be survivors. People. Even if the worst happens, and humans disappear, I believe there’ll be life in the oceans. Whales, sharks, fish. There’ll be plants, and insects, maybe enough mammals to give the world a new start. I mean, humanity may or may not end, but I don’t think the planet will. I don’t think it’ll be a barren rock. I think Gaia will have enough left to…regenerate.”
Scott: “You hope. We all hope.”
Foss: “Yes. I hope what we’re doing is saving humanity along with the rest of the world, so that humanity will have learned the lesson: you don’t kill Gaia. You preserve it at all costs.”
“I believe all that, but I still don’t want to die. Here on the floor, I feel like a hunted animal. Like a rabid dog,” Callister said, and a tear trickled down a cheek.
“Are you sorry you got in?” Scott asked. He simply sounded curious, rather than angry or resigned.
“No, no, I got in and I’ll stay in. But there are some…regrets.”
“Yes, of course there are,” Scott said. “If there weren’t, you’d be insane.”
—
Foss and Callisterplanned to walk to the store between nine and ten but wound up leaving a little after eight o’clock because theycouldn’t stand being in the house any longer. Couldn’t handle the desultory talk, the darkness.
When they were gone, Catton said, “They’ll be okay.”
“If the police don’t have their photos,” Scott said. “When I was at Fort Detrick, I talked to intelligence people from time to time. I was astonished at the level of surveillance the American government has developed—and I was told that the UK government is several steps further down that road. I lost touch out there in the refugee camps. I didn’t know how far things had gotten.”
“That somebody broke into my house…and so quickly. I can’t imagine how they did that,” Catton said.
—
Foss and Callisterheld hands as they walked to the supermarket. That felt unnatural, because they were the two members of the group who were furthest apart in temperament. Callister was impulsive and emotional and intuitive, somebody who was headed for a cult, Foss thought. Callister saw Foss as a cold, calculating, overly rational, overly intellectual computer nerd. They had one thing in common: they both needed a hand to hold on to, so they did that.
The street they were on was rough, broken blacktop with potholes filled with gravel when they were filled at all. And it was dark, the street narrow with trees hanging low overhead. They had to make two turns to get out to the main street. Five minutes from the hideout, they encountered an athletic-looking gray-haired man and a slender dark-haired woman loading luggage into a car. Foss asked, “You guys wouldn’t know where Smith’s market is, would you?”
“Sure, we’ve been there.” The man nodded and pointed: “You gostraight ahead to the highway, it’s right on the other side. Can’t miss it. Maybe a five-minute walk.”
Callister smiled and said, “Thanks. The streets here are so confusing.”
“Not going to get better,” the woman said. She had what Callister thought of as an East Coast accent. “There’s something going on. The police have all the roads blocked going out of town. I’m told they interview every single person before they let you out, and they’ve got wanted poster and pictures, and it’s taking forever.”
“Hope it’s not something awful, some criminal on the loose,” Callister said. She hugged herself and pretended to shiver.
“But it’s bound to be,” the man said.
—
Foss and Callistersaid goodbye and strolled away. When they were out of earshot from the couple, Foss took out a phone and called Scott: “We talked to a couple trying to get out of town, but they said the police have all the exits blocked with checkpoints and they’re looking at faces.”
“All right. Don’t bump into a checkpoint. You don’t want them seeing you running away.”
Foss shut the phone down and a minute later they got to the highway and saw the supermarket across the street. Foss said, “Look.”
