H10N1 Page 15

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The early morning sun was already heating up the truck’s cab when Taeya snapped awake. She glanced over at Rick. His mouth lolled open, though he wasn’t snoring. She swung around to see if Devin and Judith were still asleep, but the back seat was empty. Her gasp woke Rick with a groggy, “Wha-a-a?”

  That’s when she noticed Judith and Devin quietly talking outside by the tailgate. Were they changing their minds about the Biosphere? If so, what would Rick do?

  He squinted at his watched, then banged his head against the headrest. Three hours sleep. He rubbed his eyes, and when he spotted his friends in his mirror, he rolled out of the cab. Taeya got out on her side and joined them in the already oppressive heat.

  Judith passed her a jar of spiced apples. Digging a slice out, Taeya slurped it down.

  “So, what’s the plan?” she asked.

  “We find the Emerald City,” Judith said.

  Rick handed her a box of Froot Loops. She crunched on the stale cereal and washed it down with water.

  As Devin drove along the desolate two-lane road, the others scanned the wasteland for any sign of the Biosphere. There was nothing to see in any direction but small scrub and cacti. No roads, no buildings, no fences, no nothing.

  “We’ve gone too far,” Rick said, looking up from the map book. “Turn around.”

  “We already turned around.”

  “Well, do it again.”

  “No wonder they stayed locked up inside for so long,” Judith said without taking her eyes off the barren landscape. “If they ever went out for burgers, they’d never find their way back.”

  “Hang on.” Devin took his foot off the gas. “What’s that?”

  “Looks like a wash,” Rick said. “It must have rained recently.”

  Devin stopped and the guys got out. Taeya opened her door to catch any available breeze.

  “No tire tracks,” she heard Rick say.

  “That doesn’t mean anything.” Devin squatted down. “It definitely looks worn here. Let’s try it.”

  They must have gone a mile when Rick and Devin started arguing about whether the road veered to the left or went straight.

  “Okay, just stop,” Judith ordered. She got out and trudged up a small rise, with Rick and Devin right behind. With a sigh, Taeya got out. How had Mai ever found this place?

  Up ahead, Rick groaned. “What the hell is that?”

  Taeya trotted up to see. A small town sat in the middle of the desert like someone had photo-shopped it into the scenery. “Maybe that’s the town of Oracle?”

  “Not according to the map.”

  “There’s a couple of cars down there,” Devin said. “Let’s check it out.”

  As they drove closer, Taeya studied the town over Rick’s shoulder. “It looks more like a shopping center.”

  He angled his head close to hers. “Why would they put a shopping center out in the middle of nowhere?”

  “And why are there cars here?” she asked.

  “A summer madness sale?”

  They all grabbed guns and climbed out. Devin took the lead, his gun aimed at the closest car. “Empty,” he said when he drew alongside.

  The car in front was empty, too.

  Taeya whispered to Rick. “Maybe one is Mai’s. She drove here from Chicago.”

  Like a member of a SWAT team, Devin crept toward the buildings, his rifle sweeping from side to side. Judith brought up the rear, walking backwards, checking roofs.

  It could hardly be called a shopping center. But in its heyday years ago, the Biosphere must have attracted enough tourists to support a small café, a couple souvenir shops, the obligatory fudge and candy store, and a Starbucks.

  “We’ve got to be close.” Taeya pointed to a window display with a faded beach towel featuring a picture of the structure. She wiped the grime from a window to get a better look.

  The illustration on the towel showed the Biosphere in sections, like Quonset huts; three white humps in front with three taller greenhouse humps behind. A giant glass pyramid to the front and left dwarfed the Quonset sections.

  “Why did I think it looked like a giant glass igloo?” Rick asked.

  The shops had been looted. One door hung open at an angle. Glass from another shimmered on the pavement. A tangle of clothes lay on the floor. Sand had blown in, covering other scattered merchandise.

  At the end of the shopping area, Taeya spotted two motorcycles. Devin motioned for Rick to check it out while he covered him with his gun.

  They were both touring bikes, with the wide windshields and black saddlebags. Unbuckling a strap, Rick poked around inside, found a couple shirt, with a bottle of Captain Morgan wedged in between.

  “Rum.” He held it up for their inspection. “Not my first choice, but then beggars can’t be choosers.”

  When he didn’t find anything else of value, he climbed onto the first bike, raised up and jumped down on the starter pedal. The first time, it didn’t crank, but the next time, the bike roared to life.

  “That ought to get someone’s attention,” Rick said. He left it running, but climbed off and crunched through broken glass in front of the snack bar. He waited just inside the door. Judith picked a spot across the plaza, and hunkered down at the corner of the gift shop. Taeya darted into the souvenir store with Devin.

  They all expected someone to come running when they heard the motorcycle, but five minutes later, they were still waiting.

  “What do you think?” Devin asked Taeya.

  Taeya shook her head. “I don’t have a clue.”

  Leaving Devin at his post, she wandered through the store to a rack of shorts and tank tops. That wasn’t a bad idea. Her duffle bag had been stolen with the van so she had no clothes. She held a pair of khakis up to her waist. She’d selected a couple tank tops as well when Rick stomped into the store.

  “Judith’s over there shopping,” he snarled at Devin.

  Devin jerked his head back toward Taeya. Busted, with an armload of clothes.

  “Oh, for the love of God,” Rick snapped. “Come on, man.”

  He and Devin stormed off. The rumble from the motorcycle stopped.

  Out on the plaza, Taeya and Judith compared their finds. Halter tops, sun visors, shorts with lots of pockets.

  “Where did the guys go?” Taeya asked.

  “Let me guess.” Judith nodded at the Starbuck’s across the way.

  When Taeya walked in, Rick was nowhere in sight, but Devin was leaning over the coffee counter, and she could hear Rick moaning. She and Judith dashed to the bar.

  There sat Rick, cross-legged on the floor, with a pile of foil-wrapped pouches raked into his lap. He held one of the coffee bags to his cheek as he faked a dramatic sob.

  After he’d stuffed every bag into his pockets, and Taeya’s, the four strolled toward a plaza at the end of the stores. A few pitiful trees struggled to survive without a groundskeeper. Through the branches, Taeya caught a glimpse of glass.

  She and Rick were already tearing down the sidewalk when Devin yelled at them to stop. “You two knuckleheads just tripped a sensor.” He pointed at a blinking light at the edge of the sidewalk. “I would suggest we proceed with caution.”

  Like naughty children, Rick and Taeya crowded behind Devin as he led the way. They bumped to a stop when the whole structure came into view.

  Taeya was awestruck by the size of the glass pyramid. Inside, tropical plants, tall trees, and vines jammed their leaves against the glass as though trying to push their way out.

  “Oh, Mama.” Devin wrapped an arm around Judith’s neck and pulled her close. “I’ve got to admit I had my doubts, but this is unbelievable.”

  The huge front pyramid was linked to a smaller pyramid farther back by a long glass-covered enclosure about a hundred yards long. To the right of the pyramids, the three white domes that looked like Quonset huts sprawled, with a tower rising out of the middle section like a giant white mushroom. The larger semicircular greenh
ouses loomed behind the white sections, just like in the photographs at the visitors’ center. In front of the structure was an area the size of a soccer field, now under a couple inches of water. So it had rained recently. Taeya’s euphoria over the mammoth structure was cut short by the unmistakable odor of carrion.

  She spotted the first body—face down, arms sprawled—about fifty yards out from the closest white Quonset. From the cloud of flies, she’d guess he’d been dead a while. To the right, another corpse. And on the far side of the building, what looked like skeletal remains. In this heat, and with the help of buzzards, a body would decompose quickly.

  Taeya pulled a surgical mask out of her back pocket and tied it on.

  Rick stifled a grin. “What? No gloves?”

  She dug into her front pocket and pulled out a pair.

  “Okay, nobody moves,” Devin barked. His thumb rubbed up and down the barrel of his rifle as he studied the scene through his scope.

  Judith’s rifle turned with her as she scanned the area. “Got a dead deer at one o’clock. Another carcass at four o’clock, maybe a rabbit?”

  Devin nodded. “Give me one of those hangers.”

  Unclipping a pair of shorts, Judith handed him the piece of plastic. When he tossed it toward the building, the hanger burst into flames, the metal clips sparking.

  “Holy shit!” Rick jumped back, knocking into Taeya.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  Devin snapped his fingers for another hanger. “Keep your eyes on that little box over the front hatch.” He tossed the plastic and a bolt of light flashed from the box. The hanger disintegrated. “That’s a laser sensor.”

  Squatting on his haunches, Devin pondered the situation. “I wonder if they can hear when the lasers fire?”

  “They must know we’re here from the sensor those two tripped back at the shopping center.” Judith turned to Taeya. “Do you think your friend will recognize you out here?”

  Taeya hesitated a moment. “I hope so.” She pulled the mask off just in case.

  Moments later, the small hatch door in front of the Biosphere swung open. Mai came tumbling out, dressed in a dark blue jumpsuit.

  “Mai!” Taeya ran to her friend and they flung their arms around each other in an awkward embrace. Taeya was close to a foot taller. She wrapped her arms around Mai’s neck and Mai clung to Taeya’s waist.

  “I can’t believe you came,” Mai squealed.

  Taeya pushed her friend out to arm’s length. “You look great!” The ill-fitting jumpsuit was tight around Mai’s waist and thighs, the pant legs rolled up several times. But Taeya thought she looked thinner.

  It took a moment for the odor of death to catch up with Mai, but when it did, she squinched her face. “Oh, my God.” She fanned at the smell with her hand. “Let’s get inside.”

  Tightening her hand gently around Mai’s arm, Taeya stopped her. “All four of us?”

  “Sure!” Mai smiled briefly at Devin and Judith before giving Rick a more thorough inspection. Then she winked at Taeya. “You’re all more than welcome.”

  Everyone packed into a small antechamber as Mai chattered non-stop about how great the Biosphere was, and no one was going to believe how many different foods they were growing. Devin barely had the outer door shut when a vacuum sucked out the air, and the inner door sprang open.

  Taeya found herself face to face with a man sporting a manicured goatee and equally well-groomed black hair combed straight back. “Greetings!” he said.

  “Michael!” Mai pushed her way out of the small airlock. “This is my friend, Taeya Sanchez.” She nudged Taeya in Michael’s direction. He shook her hand, dazzling her with a perfect-teeth smile.

  He was dashing in his crisp blue jumpsuit with a stitched Bio2 logo. And it looked tailor-made to his frame, not like the suit Mai wore.

  His voice carried a warmth that shone in his eyes as well. “How good to meet you. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about you from Mai.” He didn’t really pump her hand in a shake, he just held it. “She certainly was taken by surprise when she saw your little band of nomads out front.”

  “Sorry to barge in like this.” Taeya pulled her hand away, embarrassed that she was gawking at Mai’s boyfriend. She tipped her head to include the others. “We took a chance that you could use some extra hands.”

  “Farming hands.” Devin reached out to shake. “Devin Barnes. This is Judith Goldman. We’ve been living off the land in Arkansas for the past five years. We can grow food, weave clothes, build furniture.” He leaned in for a stage whisper. “I can even brew moonshine.”

  Behind him, Rick snorted.

  “Well, now, that’s impressive.” Michael glanced at the Devin’s rifle. “And I see you’re handy with a gun. What is that?”

  “An M-4. U.S. military.”

  “I used to have a Cooper with some sweet glass. A Swarovski scope.”

  Devin nodded. “What did you hunt?”

  “Mostly deer and elk,” Michael said. “Couldn’t bring the gun with me, of course. A stray bullet in here would be disastrous.”

  “Definitely.” Devin popped the clip out of his M-4 and stuck it in his pocket.

  Judith popped the clip out of her own rifle.

  Michael smiled and took Judith’s hand to shake. “Pleased to meet you, Judith.”

  He quickly yanked his hand away, as if Judith had squeezed too hard.

  “Just wanted you to know that we’re not a bunch of freeloaders,” Devin said. “Well, except for Rick here.”

  Rick gave Michael’s arm a couple vigorous pumps. “Don’t listen to a word this man says. I’ll do anything you need me to do.”

  Slipping his hands into his pockets, Michael rocked back on his heels. “I appreciate that. We’ve fallen on hard times here. Our agricultural specialist ran off with our chief medical officer a few months ago, and we’ve been doing the best we can since.”

  Mai snuggled an arm around Michael’s waist. “That’s how I found out about this place. He was looking for a doctor, and I was the next best thing.”

  “Come on upstairs.” Michael swept his arm toward a dramatic curving staircase. “We were just having breakfast. Have you eaten?”

  “Oh, yes, don’t worry about us,” Judith said.

  Rick’s eyebrows shot up. Taeya knew the jar of spiced apples and stale cereal they’d shared earlier hardly constituted a meal for a big guy like him.

  “Well, you must come and meet the rest of the crew.” Michael took a step toward the stairway, but Taeya and the others gravitated to the glass double doors across from the landing. Through the doors, they could see the mainframe of the huge greenhouse and the vast garden. It didn’t exactly look like the lush farm Taeya saw in the pictures back at the shopping center.

  “I promise to take you all on a tour of the facility just as soon as we’ve eaten.” Michael stood at the landing and waited. After another long look, they grudgingly followed him upstairs.

  Rick punched Devin on the arm as they lagged behind. “Thanks, pal.”

  “What did I do?”

  “We weave our own clothes,” Rick mocked, “grow our own food.”

  Devin chuckled. “We do.”

  “Yeah, well you could have at least let me carry the pot. Now I look like a loser.”

  Judith held onto the railing and leaned back. “You are a loser.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  At the top of the stairs, Rick got another glimpse of the three humps of the greenhouse through a second set of glass double doors. But they were up too high to see the garden. Michael turned to his left and led them along a short corridor with two numbered doors on the right.

  “Here are two of our apartments. The rest are back the other way.” He knocked on the only door to his left. “Sickbay, good doctor. We’ll get back here eventually. But right now, I’m sure the others are dying to see who’s here.”

  Michael trotted down three steps.

  “Okay, you can relax,” he sai
d as he strutted to the head of a long table. “We have some wonderful new guests.” With a wave of his hand, he coaxed the newcomers into the dining room. The only other people seated at the big table were some old dude with a shaggy beard and a haggard woman who could have been forty years old, or sixty-five. Neither of them felt the need to wear the dorky jumpsuits Michael and Mai wore.

  “Come and sit down,” Mai said. “Surely you could eat a banana.” She picked up a bunch from the middle of the table and broke one off for each of them. Rick unzipped the peel and shoved half the banana into his mouth. He glared at Judith but she wasn’t paying attention.

  Michael sat in the head chair and scooped up a big bite of something beige and gooey. “Please excuse Mai and me while we finish. Meals have been rather sparse lately.” He waved a spoon like a king urging a jester to perform. “Why doesn’t everyone introduce themselves?”

  Taking a seat, Rick gave the woman across from him a perky smile, but she wasn’t interested. Her frizzled hair hung over sunken eyes. She wrapped her hand around her bowl, as if Rick might try to take it from her. It was empty.

  The man beside Rick sipped from a cup, his little finger poked in the air. He was Jerry Garcia at finishing school, with shaggy gray hair and a full beard sprouting from his fat cheeks.

  Mai reached over and laid her hand on top of Sanchez’. “Since Taeya is my very dear friend, let’s start with her.”

  “Well, I’m Taeya Sanchez, and I’m a doctor. My specialty was epidemiology, but I’m pretty good at diagnosing illnesses and stitching people up.”

  Rick sniggered. “Oh, she loves those needles.”

  The old man chinked his cup down on his saucer. “Epidemiologist? Then perhaps you can enlighten us on the progress of this pandemic.”

  “That’s John Parker,” Mai threw in. “He’s been here a couple years.”