Dead Frontier/Issue 131

This is Issue #131 of Dead Frontier, titled ''What You Don't Know. ''This is the fifth issue in Volume 22.

Issue 131 - What You Don't Know
“Are you sure you can deal with a child?” Heidi asks, and it comes off more offensive than she meant it to. Natesh stands across from her, his hands in his pockets. They’re currently in the corridor of a building that acts as part-laboratory, part-hospital. The room behind Heidi holds Lucy, and Ivy occupies the room behind Natesh.

“Of course I can deal with a child,” he says. “Who do you think I am?”

“I think you’re Natesh.”

He actually smiles, surprising given the revelation of this girl’s test results. He spent an entire day in the lab, refusing sleep as he looked over Ivy’s blood samples again and again. The findings are unmistakable. She has the virus in her system, just like everyone else. Except...it’s different. It was almost jarring to look at under the microscope, compared side by side with the virus he’s so used to studying.

He didn’t want to believe it, but when he extracted blood from one of the new infected they have locked up--the stronger ones that emit that blood-curdling scream--the samples were nearly identical. He’s not entirely sure what this means for Ivy--if she’s safe, at risk, able to live just like everyone else. He’s dead set on finding out.

“Be nice. Be happy,” Heidi advises, and Natesh nods his head.

“Yes, yes, I know.” She gives him a comforting smile, and they both turn to enter the rooms directly behind them.

Lucy sits on a hard hospital bed and taps her foot nervously. Ever since those men shoved her in here about a half hour ago, she hasn’t seen a soul. She’s getting restless and considers just walking out. But the door opens, and she turns her head toward it. A pretty blonde woman with a lab coat walks in with a clipboard. She smiles at Lucy, but after being forced to wait here for so long, Lucy’s not really in the mood to return it.

“Sorry to bring you here on such short notice,” the woman says. Lucy notices that she has a slight accent, but she can’t really pinpoint where she hails from. Germany, maybe? “Heidi Kastner.” The woman holds her hand out, and Lucy shakes it hesitantly. She’s a lot different the guys that brought her here--she appears to have emotions, for one, and she doesn’t give off any type of hostility.

“Lucy Brinkley.”

“Yes. Ms. Brinkley. Gave us a bit of the scare in the lab.” Heidi says. She walks toward a small desk and sits on the plush red chair next to it. The chair has wheels, so Heidi rolls over to the bed.

“What’s wrong?” Lucy asks.

“There was a slight discrepancy in your blood test results. I think those two blockheads might have told you that, yes?”

“They did. Am I sick?”

“No. However, we were surprised by a...very excessive amount of hCG in your blood.” Lucy obviously has no idea what this means, so she expects Heidi to continue her explanation without her having to ask. “It means you’re pregnant. Congratulations,” Heidi says with a beaming smile. It’s nice to be able to deliver some good news for once--or so she thinks. When Lucy fails to react at all, though, Heidi’s face falls.

It feels like a punch to the gut, but really, fate has just flashed her its most wicked smile. All Lucy really wants to do is run out that door, back to her temporary apartment, and slide under her blankets. To hide from this revelation. Maybe if she denies it enough it won’t be true. But all she can muster up is a simple “Oh.”

Heidi swallows hard. “If--if this isn’t what you want--”

“No. It’s not...that. I--I wouldn’t.” She’s tries to hide her repulsion at the suggestion. Then, she takes a deep breath. Before she even says it, she can feel the pain at having to reveal what really is so sick about this entire situation. “It’s just that my boyfriend died two days ago--when the herd hit.”

“Oh, my God. I’m sorry,” Heidi says, and she puts a hand to her chest. She’s shocked at the cruelty of it, and suddenly, she isn’t so happy she got to present this news. “Were you...planning?”

“No.” She says it so emotionlessly, her expression hard and stoic. “Is that all?”

“Yes. I’ll have someone bring a car out front to take you back to your apartment.”

“How long until Ivy’s out?”

“Her session might take a little longer than yours. But you’re free to wait if you’d like.” Lucy rises from the bed without another word. Heidi notices that as she walks to the door she brings her hands to her face, wiping away a couple of tears. “If you ever need any help--please. My office is on the top floor.”

Lucy hesitates before opening the door and exiting out into the hall.

Natesh opens the door with a smile that looks more like a grimace to Ivy. “Hello, there,” he says with forced cheerfulness. He walks over to the hospital bed where she sits and bends forward until his face is level with hers. “I’m Mr. Verma.” He holds his hand out, but Ivy just stares at it.

She can’t believe he’s talking to her in that stupid voice, like she’s a dog, or an infant. “I’m not five,” she says harshly. She didn’t mean to sound as rude as that, but she’s tired, and this is the last place she wants to be.

Natesh’s hand falls, and he nods his head slightly. “Okay. My apologies.” He stands up straight and grabs a chair and a clipboard from a nearby desk. He brings the chair over and sits next to the bed. The air has gotten sufficiently awkward, and she sees Natesh pull on his collar. He opens his mouth to speak, but Ivy cuts him off.

“Where are you from?” she asks. His accent is thick, but traced with clues that he’s lived in America for a while.

“India,” he says, looking up from the clipboard. “What do you know about it?”

“Not a lot. Just that you’re from there.”

Natesh chuckles and taps his pen on the surface of the clipboard. “I don’t want to keep you long, Ms. Harris--”

“What’s wrong with me? One of the guys said something’s wrong with my blood.”

“There was an issue, yes. I just need to ask you a few questions.”

“What’s the issue?”

“We’ll...get to that. Questions, first,” he says.

“Why can’t you tell me what’s wrong?” she asks. He sighs and scratches his head with his pen. He can’t decide if she’ll understand or not, but how can he get through this smoothly without her prodding him for information every second if he doesn’t tell her? He thinks of simpler terms to put it in--and he suddenly feels nervous. Children aren’t really his specialty; it’s why he decided to teach at universities instead of elementary or high schools. But this girl is only 12, yet she seems so much different than many of the children he’s met. He can’t put his finger on why, but he knows he shouldn’t keep this from her. Hiding the truth from her would seem almost...patronizing.

“We did several inspections on your blood sample,” he begins. “It was very different from what we’re used to seeing...do you know those...those very scary infected? The screaming ones, and they run?” She nods. “What we’re used to seeing is people being infected with...the normal virus. So when they die they turn into one of the normal, slow ones.”

“Yeah…”

“But you--it looks like your body is carrying the...new virus. Now, we’ve never seen this before. So we don’t know what it means.” He pauses. “But we would...like to know more about it.”

“Are you going to lock me up and do tests on me?” she asks. Natesh almost wants to laugh, but he holds it in. Wouldn’t really be appropriate.

“Of course not, no, no. We won’t do anything you don’t want us to. But Ms. Harris, it’s very important you cooperate with us.” He nods his head to make sure she understands, and she reciprocates the gesture.

“If there’s anything you don’t want to answer--anything you don’t want to do--you don’t have to,” Natesh says. “But remember, you are very important to getting the answers we want.”

He smiles at her--now he seems much more sincere than when he came in. “Okay,” she says quietly. “I’ll try to help.”

Lucy and Ivy’s departure has only worsened the mood more in Lienne’s room. Lienne sits at the counter with Duke; he rotates his wrist slowly, with a grimace. He takes a quick glance at Lienne. She's tapping her fingertips on the surface of the counter, but she stops as soon as she feels Duke's eyes on her.

"It's been too long," Lienne says. "She's been gone too long." She starts to bite on her thumbnail anxiously.

"She'll be alright," Duke says. "Lucy's with her...it'll be cool." She doesn't reply, because of what Duke assumes is an overwhelming amount of nervousness, so he puts an arm around her shoulder. "Let me teach you the art of being chill like Duke Curry."

"The art of being chill like Duke Curry?" she repeats with a grin.

"Wrote a book on it. Bestseller."

"Never heard of it. I wonder why..."

“Then you don’t know rule number 1: Don’t give a fuck.” She throws her head back and laughs. A few odd looks are thrown her way, but everyone soon continues with whatever they were doing before. Before she can reply, there’s another knock at the door. This completely ruins Lienne’s brief moment of positivity, and all eyes turn to the door. After last time, no one is really eager to answer it.

“Not doing that again,” Duke says, rubbing his wrist. “Let Dean do it.”

From one of the couches, Dean turns his head. “Me? Why me?” Dean asks.

“Because I said so. Go.”

Dean doesn’t bother arguing, so he pulls himself from the couch and trudges over to the door. However, when he opens it he’s met with Karl’s beaming smile, in his arms a crate of DVDs and pamphlets. “Took me a while, but I got ‘em,” Karl says, and Dean moves out of the way to give him room for entry. “Someone turn on the TV for me.” Adam complies, and Karl takes a few minutes to set everything up. He blows some dust off of the DVD player and puts one of the discs inside. The machine makes a weird sound, but TV ends up illuminating with a blue screen.

“Watch, watch, watch,” Karl says. He turns off the lights as everyone takes a seat somewhere around the room.

Adam isn’t sure what he was expecting. Something nice, of course, but the pamphlets really don’t do Los Angeles justice. Compared to Denver, the walls surrounding the city seem so much more secure, but somehow, not confining. He knows most of it has to be propaganda--the smiling people, the gleaming buildings, the almost utopian-like civilization. But when the DVD ends, he finds himself wanting more. Everyone else seems to be in a similar state when Karl flips on the lights.

“That was such bullshit,” Dean says. He’s the first one to break the silence. “Don’t tell me you believe this. Come on.”

“Why do you always have to ruin the mood, man? Damn,” Duke says from across the room, sitting at his same spot at the counter.

“I’m serious. There’s...there’s no way this can be real.”

“And what if it is?” Adam counters. “You know you’re still gonna try to get there, along with the rest of us.”

“Yeah, but...don’t get your hopes up. That’s just gonna make it worse if we do get there.” He stuffs his hands in his pockets and looks around. He doesn’t think anyone’s going to respond. “I’m gonna get some sleep. Long day.” He turns, just as the door opens. Ivy enters looking the same as she did when she left.

“Ivy,” Duke says. “Hey. How’d...how’d you get here?”

“Those guys dropped me off,” she says, and she closes the door behind her. “Why do you guys look like that…? I’m okay.”

“And where’s Lucy?”

“She went back to her room. She’s okay, too.”

They’re slightly confused by her excessively calm demeanor, and she continues to give them that odd look because of it.

“So nothing’s wrong?” Lienne asks, standing up from her stool.

“No. The doctor guy told me it was a false alarm.”

Ivy swallows hard when she meets eyes with Lienne. Lienne catches the signal easily and she clears her throat before speaking. “I think everyone should go. Long day,” she says, echoing Dean.

Dean departs from Lienne’s apartment, preparing to head to his own. Then he remembers Lucy’s decision not to return and to go directly to her own residence instead. Something doesn’t seem right to him, and he might be the last person she wants to see--he’s not sure. She hasn’t spoken a word to him since Cole’s demise, but he almost feels obligated to check on her at least once. He makes a detour to the fifth floor of the building, all the way down the hall to where he knows she’s staying.

His fist hovers over the door for a few seconds before he decides to knock. There’s no immediate response, so he tries again. “Coming. Hold on,” Lucy calls from inside. “Who is it?” Her voice sounds closer now.

“Dean.”

He hears the locks being undone, and the door opens slightly. She only pokes her head out.

“Hey,” he says. “Wanted to make sure everything’s okay.”

“Everything’s fine.”

“Everything went okay? With your tests and everything?”

“Yeah. They got mine mixed up with someone else’s. I’m okay.”

He’s known her long enough to know that there’s something she’s not telling him. There’s a short pause, and the look on his face tells her that he knows something’s not right. Her eyes avert to the ground quickly before she looks up at him. “I’m gonna go to bed. Goodnight.” She begins to shut the door, but he presses his palm against it.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “For everything.”

He removes his hand from the door, and instead balls his fists up at his sides. He wants to say more, but he can’t figure out how to put everything into words. He feels terrible that she probably thinks he doesn’t care that Cole’s gone. The harsh truth is, he never liked the guy, and he feels more pity for her than he does for him. And all she’s been is nothing but nice to him--but he’s made it hard for both of them. “I’m sorry,” he repeats. He’s about to turn and leave without another word when she opens the door completely.

And she does the last thing he expects by giving him a hug. He’s not sure how to respond at first, especially because she doesn’t say anything. He assumes this is a thank you, or maybe she needs some kind of emotional anchor because she sure isn’t getting one anywhere else. All he knows is that the simplest thing he can do is return it.

Lienne listens intently as Ivy explains the situation to her, both sitting on the couch. Ivy spills all the information quickly, stumbling over her words occasionally. Lienne doesn’t interrupt her once, and Ivy takes a deep breath when she’s finally done. “They said I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone yet,” Ivy says. “They didn’t want people to freak out or anything. But I...I had to. They said they’re gonna make me take tests and stuff, and take more of my blood and--” She’s not sure why she has a lump in her throat, but she can’t speak anymore. The whole situation is too overwhelming, and even though Natesh gave her the most reassuring words possible, she’s still apprehensive of all this.

And Lienne isn’t okay with it, either. “Tests? When?” she asks.

“I--I don’t know. They said I don’t have to if I don’t want to...but I’d be helping them if I did. That’s what the doctor told me.”

“But we’re not staying here.” They’re supposed to be leaving early next week, and this is obviously going to hinder those plans. “I’ll go talk to them.”

“They’re not gonna listen.”

“I’m gonna go anyway.” She stands from the couch and wraps her arm around her aching abdomen. She grabs her jacket from the counter, and Ivy stands, staring at Lienne with a perplexed expression as she walks to the door.

“Now?”

“Yeah. Lock the doors, don’t open up for anybody,” Lienne orders as she slips her jacket on. “I’ll be back.”

Heidi, after finishing up with the final person who showed some issues in their blood results, grabs her coat from the back of her chair. She turns off her computer and flips off the lights before leaving the office behind. She descends down the elevator to the lobby. When the doors open, she sees a frantic young blonde woman talking to the guard sitting at the desk near the front doors.

“I need to speak to someone. Anyone, for just a second,” Lienne says.

“Can’t let you up there. Sorry,” the guard says flatly.

“Excuse me,” Heidi calls out. “Is everything alright?”

Lienne and the guard turn to her, and the guard speaks up. “I think this young lady wants to speak to you.” The guard gives Lienne a disapproving look before muttering, “Would get her out of my fucking face…”

Lienne pretends as if she doesn’t hear his remark and walks toward Heidi. Before Heidi can even introduce herself, Lienne gets straight to the point. “There was a girl here earlier. Ivy,” Lienne begins.

“Yes. Did she get back alright?” Heidi asks. Lienne is surprised by the sincere concern in her voice.

“Yeah. She’s fine but she told me everything.” Heidi doesn’t looked surprise. Who could expect a twelve year old to keep a secret? “I get that you guys want to find out about this virus or whatever but we...we kind of have to leave in a few days.”

That’s definitely not good. Heidi hesitates, and contemplates trying to explain the importance of Ivy staying. But she’s too exhausted to even bother with the details. “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but the situation is very complicated and it’s...it’s very important that Ms. Harris helps us figure out as much as we can about the new virus. She could give us amazing insight--”

“What are you planning to do?”

“Just a few tests.” She’s relieved that Lienne doesn’t question her ambiguity. “We’re not forcing Ivy to do anything, or stay, but if you could please...just extend your visit. I’d be more than grateful.”

Lienne should have expected another setback in their journey. And after those videos of Los Angeles, she’s not entirely sure about this offer. She could care less about finding out about this virus--it’s not going to eradicate the infected. No matter what happens, they’ll always be here. “I--I don’t think we can do that. I’m sorry,” Lienne says. “I hope you understand.”

Surprisingly, Heidi smiles. “Of course.”

As Adam walks around in the darkness of the apartment building, his hands shoved into his pockets, he hears the faint murmuring of a television from one of the rooms. He just needed to clear his head, and it’s easier to do that out here than in his cramped room. The familiar sounds of a television snap him out of his thoughts, especially when he realizes the audio comes from one of the DVDs of Los Angeles. The room number is 434, and he recognizes it as Karl’s room.

For some reason, he decides to knock. He waits patiently as the audio pauses and the shuffling of footsteps commences as someone walks to the door. Karl stands there with tired eyes, and he scratches his beard at the sight of Adam.

“Mr. Dugall,” Karl says, and his voice counters the exhaustion in his face. “What brings you here so late?”

“Just roaming around,” Adam says. “Heard the TV and thought you’d be up.”

“Come on in. I’ll make you a quick cup of coffee or something.”

Adam accepts the invitation and walks into the room. It looks almost identical to his own, and he decides to take a seat at the table. He turns to the television, which is paused on the face of a Los Angeles resident being interviewed. “You’re really into this place, aren’t you?” Adam asks as Karl walks to the kitchen.

“You could say that. Nothing else to be interested in, really.” He opens the fridge and groans. He reaches in and grabs a jug of orange juice. “Hope OJ’s alright with you.”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

Karl grabs two glasses and pours them both a drink. He sets one of the cups in front of Adam, and takes a seat himself as he gulps down some of the liquid. “I saw how you were watchin’ that TV earlier. When I brought the tapes in,” Karl begins.

“Yeah?”

“Uh huh. You didn’t say nothin’, but I can tell...you’re thinkin’ just like me.”

Adam creases his eyebrows and takes a sip of his drink. “Not really sure what you mean.”

“Maybe you don’t even know it. But you think this place--” He gestures back to the TV. “--you think it’s all true. Or maybe you know in the back of your head it is. But you’re believin’ it nonetheless.”

Adam pauses as he looks at the screen. Then he looks down and rotates his cup slightly, watching the juice slosh about inside the glass. “Nah…” he says with a shrug. “It’s fun to think about but Dean’s probably right so…”

“That shit head?” Karl says, and Adam laughs.

“Yeah. That shit head.”

Karl waves his hand through the air with a chuckle. “Don’t listen to him. I haven’t heard one bad thing about LA. Haven’t heard one person with evidence that shows it’s not what everyone says it is. Until that day comes, I’m gonna believe it. You should too.” Karl gives him a friendly nudge on the shoulder and downs the last of his juice. He sets his glass down and looks at Adam with a frown. “Missin’ your friend, ain’t you?”

Adam takes a second to respond. “Yeah,” he says. He stares down at the table with a sigh. “These DVDs and shit are making it worse, man. He just wanted some good in his life. LA could’ve been it but…”

Karl’s frown turns into a soft smile. “Let me tell you something,” he says, and Adam looks up at him. “It’s rare, especially now, to meet someone and know...and know immediately that they’re good, inherently good. That’s all I saw in that boy...good.” Adam suddenly feels like he’s been hit with a ton of bricks, so he turns his eyes down again and finishes his drink.

“I think I’m gonna head out, Karl,” Adam says. “Thanks for the drink and--” He plans on saying more, but stops himself. He’d feel like an idiot for crying right now. “And...yeah. Thanks.”