Drew
The president of the United States of America had killed Matias’s entire family, and his team had killed several innocents from the village in the process.
No wonder he had a vendetta against the US.
“So, why go after the entire country? Why not just target the president?”
“Because, my dear, I want him to know that he is responsible for the deaths of all these young Americans. I want him to feel the grief every day and know that had he just paused, or verified the intel he was given forty years ago, this all could have been avoided.”
The Vicar slammed his fist on the table, and I jumped, my heart beating wildly against my rib cage. “I want him to agonize over what he’s done.”
I kept my mouth shut, too scared to say or do anything that might further upset him. It was clear that he was unstable, eaten up with vengeance and vitriol. My hands shook violently in my lap, so I stuffed them under my thighs to contain the tremor.
The Vicar held up his hand, took another swallow of wine, and inhaled deeply, blowing it out in a slow, measured breath.
“I’m sorry. I’ve worked myself up into quite the frenzy. Please forgive me for speaking of such unpleasant things. Can I offer you dessert?”
I shook my head, not yet trusting my voice.
“I’ve scared you.”
“No, of course not. I, um, I understand. It must have been terrible to lose your family like that. I’m truly sorry.”
“So, you understand why I must have my revenge?”
I knew I should agree with him, give him the answer he wanted, but I just couldn’t. There was no excuse for what he’d done and was planning to do that evening. I hesitated too long.
“I see. You judge me.”
“I’m not judging you. I just don’t think innocent people should pay for a crime they didn’t commit.”
“You see it that way. But if the shoe were on the other foot—if it were Hunter who was gunned down unjustly—”
“Then I would fight to change the laws. But killing innocent people wouldn’t bring Hunter back.”
The Vicar downed the remaining wine in his glass, and I threw up a silent prayer of thanks that my plan had worked. Now all I had to do was give him the wrong antidote, and my plan would be complete.
I’d yet to consider what would happen when The Vicar woke up with the virus. How would I explain it away? It was a risk I’d been willing to take, but sitting there, hearing him speak of the lengths he’d gone to for revenge, I was starting to rethink my plan.
I stood, knowing that if I were to sit there any longer, my guilt and conscience would give me away. The chair made a terrible sound as it flew backwards, and I giggled to cover up my nerves.
“Oh, my. So sorry. I need to get some rest, though. If I’m going to finish enough vials of the antidote, I should turn in.”
“Yes, of course. I’ll walk you back to your room.”
The Vicar led the way down the winding corridors, and I tried to take notice of where we were. I had a feeling that Hunter was being kept close to The Vicar, and it made sense to me that he’d stay close by the place where he ate. Once everyone was asleep, I’d sneak out tonight and find Hunter.
We reached the door to my room, and I opened it and turned back to face The Vicar. “Thank you for dinner. It was lovely.”
Lie. Lie. Lie. It was disturbing, was what it was.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it.” The Vicar put his hand above me, closing the distance. What was he doing? Was he coming on to me?
“You should get some rest. I’ll be needing your assistance quite early this morning.”
“Why?”
“We will have some guests soon. Patients I’d like for you to examine.”
“What have you done?”
“Exactly what I told you. If the president meets my demands, then some of these young people will live. If he doesn’t, then I’m afraid they will all be sacrificed.”
Anger lit me up from the inside, and I pressed hard against him, shoving him away, but he didn’t budge. He laughed, wrapping both arms around me tightly and drawing me closer to his chest.
“You know, you and I could make quite the team.”
I kept my mouth closed, my head turned away, unwilling to look him in the eye or give him the satisfaction of my reply.
“With your scientific brilliance and my superior vision for the future, we’d be extremely formidable.”
“No.”
The Vicar leaned in, his mouth inches from mine. My stomach roiled, and I wanted to run. If he kissed me, I was at risk for contracting the virus. It was no longer airborne, but still highly contagious. After everything I’d done, the risks I’d taken that evening, would I die as a result of my own plan?
I put a hand on his chest and patted lightly, hoping to placate him and extricate myself from the situation.
“I’ll think about it.”
I could fight, possibly even get away momentarily, but how would he react? Would he kill Hunter?
An idea pricked my mind, emerging as the moments ticked by.
It had to work!
I leaned in, pressing my lips to The Vicar’s. It took him off guard but for only a moment, before he pulled me closer, deepening the kiss. He tasted of wine and mint, but it was all wrong. I tried not to be sick, to try and think about something else as The Vicar kissed me, as he passed on the virus to me. I knew in a few hours’ time, I’d be living on borrowed time, but it seemed to be the only way.
When he was done, he pulled away, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. “You are truly a beautiful woman, Drew. The eyes—” He chuckled lightly. “They are very unnerving. Freakish really. But the rest of you. Mmm…”
Just what every woman wanted to hear. Hey, you’re a freak. A beautiful freak, but still a freak. Nice.
I smiled, but I was sure it didn’t meet my eyes. “Thank you.”
The Vicar kissed me again and then let me go. Relief flooded through my veins, and I sank against the doorjamb as he walked away.
“Five a.m., Dr. Bellamy. Get some rest.”
I knew I needed the rest, especially if I’d just contracted the slower version of the Black Death virus. My symptoms would begin a few short hours after I saw the first victim of the attack, and that was exactly what I was counting on.
***
Cue Ball came to get me at exactly five a.m., right after I’d tucked the final remaining preloaded syringe of the mutated virus in my bra.
I hadn’t slept that night—although I hadn’t actually tried to. After The Vicar had left, I’d snuck out of my room and down the corridors, looking in every room, but I’d found no traces of Hunter.
Once I’d reached the corridor where I thought The Vicar was staying, there had been too many guards to risk it. I’d have to wait to rescue Hunter once I’d killed The Vicar. And I would kill him. There was no other choice.
I’d returned to my bed, but my mind had raced with the possibilities of what the day would hold.
I wondered off and on throughout the night what Levi and the team were planning. By now, they should have an idea of where I was being held, unless they were wrong about the van heading east.
If they didn’t find us, I wasn’t sure what the guards would do once they found their leader dead. I could only hope Hunter and I would have time to sneak away and get help.
The symptoms of the virus had begun somewhere in the middle of the night. They were subtle at first. My skin felt a bit touchy, as if it was raw and exposed, but I’d yet to start running a fever. If The Vicar slept soundly, hopefully he wouldn’t notice, or would think it was due to fatigue or something similarly benign. It was only because I knew I’d been exposed that I was in tune with my burgeoning symptoms.
I followed Cue Ball down the corridors to a wing of the hospital I hadn’t seen yet. It was the ICU area, and The Vicar was waiting for me. Today he was in a red suit and seemed completely whole and well. Perhaps the effects of the virus hadn’t begun yet. They’d hit him soon.
“Ah, Dr. Drew. How lovely you look today.”
I was dressed in another clean set of scrubs, my hair was in a messy bun on top of my head, I had no makeup on, and the dark circles had reached severe-head-trauma status. I smiled as best I could.
“Why, thank you. I like your suit.”
The Vicar laughed. “You’re a terrible liar.”
Let’s hope he was wrong, since my role and ultimate survival would be based on how well I could lie my way through the day.
“What can I do for you?”
“These are the worst cases. We’ve put them here in the ICU so you can work on them. I had my men bring the vials of the antidote down. I’d like to see it work in action.”
“It’s not instantaneous.”
“Still, it will make me feel better to see you administer it to the victims.”
Ah, so he didn’t believe that I’d been working on the actual antidote. Fine; it would only help further my plan.
“Are those the vials?”
I pointed to a tray across the room.
The Vicar dipped his head in agreement and swept his hand forward for me to go ahead.
A young woman who appeared to be in her early twenties lay still on the bed, her face scrunched in pain. When I touched her arm to check her pulse, her eyes flew open, and she scooted back against the bed.
“It’s okay. I’m here to help you.”
“What happened to me?”
The woman struggled to keep her eyes open, the fatigue wearing her down.
“You’ve contracted a virus, and I’m going to give you something to make it go away. You’ll feel much better in a couple of hours, okay?”
The woman nodded, closing her eyes again, too weary to say anything else.
“What’s your name?”
“Melanie.”
“Nice to meet you, Melanie. I’m Drew.”
I finished taking her vitals. Her temperature was over a hundred and four; she was burning up. There was no IV to administer meds, and it was doubtful I could get Melanie to swallow ibuprofen in her condition. I retrieved one of the vials of the antidote and pulled it into a syringe. Tapping it twice to remove any air bubbles, I injected the antidote into a vein at the crook of her arm.
Turning, I discarded the syringe in the proper bin, and faced The Vicar.
“Happy?”
“Very.”
We made the rounds to all the beds in the ICU, each one full, and I repeated the same procedure: vitals then the antidote.
“How many total patients are there?”
“Almost two hundred.”
My stomach sank. Two hundred young lives at stake. I didn’t have enough antidote to cover it yet.
“Okay. Take me to them.”
“Oh, we won’t be giving them the antidote.”
“What? Why?”
“I told you last night. Leverage. I just wanted to ensure you were properly motivated to continue to make more.” The Vicar walked me to the lab where I’d been working the last three days. When we stopped in front of the door, he smiled and leaned in, placing a kiss on my cheek. “I’ll be back to check on your progress later.”
The virus was starting to take hold. Chills racked my body, and I knew my fever was starting to climb. My body ached, and I had several sore spots on the backs of my hands. If the virus progressed, those would turn into boils. Soon I’d start coughing, and as my body started to shut down, capillaries in my lungs would burst, filling them with blood and fluid.
It was a terrible way to die, and I had no intention of allowing it to go that far. But if I didn’t allow the virus to take hold, The Vicar would never believe that we had both been contaminated at the same time.
Several hours later, the virus had fully taken hold. I’d been in and out of consciousness after retrieving blankets from a hall closet and crawling on top of one of the tables to rest. I shivered violently, teeth chattering, muscles spasming.
This virus was different from the one that the victims had received—slower to onset but once it took root, the progression of the disease was quite fast.
“What did you do to me?”
I lifted my head to find The Vicar entering the room, his arm wrapped around his middle, his skin a pale green. Still, he was upright, and I was not. I could barely hold up my head to look at him.
“I–I–d–d–didn’t do–do–do anything. I’m s–s–s–sick too.” I tried to get the words out through the chattering of my teeth, but it took multiple tries.
“How? How did this happen?” The Vicar stumbled in, gripping my upper arms and pulling me upright on the table.
“We must have contracted it from the ICU patients.”
“That’s not possible. It’s not airborne.”
“Viruses are sneaking little bastards. They mutate in order to stay alive. That must be what happened.”
“Give me the antidote.” The Vicar searched the room for vials of the antidote that were all locked away in a cabinet. I’d left a couple of vials out on a table across the room filled with saline to throw him off the scent. Matias Vicario would not get the antidote if I had anything to do with it.
“Fine, but I need to take it too.”
“Not until you cure me. Is that clear?”
I struggled to get to my feet, glaring at him with all the hate I had in my heart.
“Okay.”
I moved to the table where the saline vials sat, barely able to stand on my own two feet. With my back to The Vicar, I pulled the syringe from my bra and turned around to face him. I knew immediately I’d made a grave error. Something was wrong. The Vicar had murder etched on his face.
“What is that?”
“The antidote.”
“Stored in your bra?”
How had he known? I turned around to face the table, just then noticing my reflection in the glass cabinet on the wall. Dammit. In my fever-addled brain, I’d not checked my surroundings, and it was clear he’d seen me remove the syringe.
I whirled back around as The Vicar staggered closer, backing me up against the table. I glanced at the door, ready to make my escape, but he took two steps to his left and blocked me.
“Please.” I wasn’t above begging; my body was shutting down, and I could barely stand. I didn’t have the energy to fight.
“What is that, Drew? How did you infect me with the virus?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m sick, too.”
“Yes, you are. But not from the patients, as you said before. It was from that kiss last night, wasn’t it?”
I shook my head, trying to find a way to escape, looking for an out.
“You put it in my food while I was distracted telling you about my history. Sneaky. A little game that will kill you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I—”
“Shut up!” The Vicar screamed, spittle flying from his mouth. He was desperate.
The sound of gunfire sounded outside, and I knew the cavalry had arrived. Thank God. All I had to do was stay alive, and Levi would find me. I knew it.
The momentary distraction was just what I needed. I made a dash for the door, but was pulled back by my hair. The Vicar pulled me up against his body before throwing me to the floor.
The syringe flew from my hand, skittering across the ground. I belly-crawled towards it, reaching out, stretching to reach the one thing that would save me.
“You stupid whore! You’ll pay for this.”
I flipped over, just as The Vicar’s foot slammed down on my shin. The pain was instantaneous, hot fire racing up my leg. I screamed, blinded by the agony of the broken bone cocked at a right angle.
The Vicar laughed. “You are like the whores in the Bible. ‘Graceful and of deadly charms. Betraying nations with your whorings and peoples with your charms.’ ”
The Vicar’s words made no sense to me, weird Biblical references that I tried to ignore. I shook my head, tears blurring my vision as I crawled backwards toward the door, the syringe still out of reach. If I could just get to it—
Shots were fired, followed by shouting and the pounding of feet.
“He won’t find you alive. I won’t let him.”
Vicario grabbed a fistful of my hair and dragged me backwards away from the syringe, away from my salvation. I was blinded by rage. Levi was here. So close.
“You’ve lost. You thought you were a god, but you’re nothing but a mortal thug who will die from the very virus you created to enact your revenge.”
The Vicar laughed, his head thrown back in glee.
“You stupid girl. Did you think you could beat me? Death will not hold me. I will rise again.”
The man was crazy. Delusional. Whether from the virus or if he’d already been that way, it was hard to say.
“As we speak, the virus is on its way to the water supply in Atlanta. The president refused my demands on behalf of the two hundred souls dying in this hospital, but he won’t be able to stop me from killing over half a million people with very little effort.”
“How?”
“I have my ways. A successor. A son of sorts. He will carry on my mantle. Atlanta is first, but there will be more. And without enough of the antidote, or the person who knows the formula, well, I’m afraid my revenge will wipe out enough people that the dawn of a new age will be among us.”
I was fading. I could feel my strength lagging, my leg numb from the knee down, my body failing. I blinked rapidly to keep my eyes open, needing this man to pay. If I could kill him, give myself the antidote, I could warn Levi about the water supply. I could save those people.
With a renewed strength that was almost supernatural, I ripped myself free of The Vicar’s hold and scrambled towards the syringe, just as banging sounded at the door to the lab. I heard Levi’s voice calling my name, but I couldn’t give up.
My hand wrapped around the poison, just as Vicario’s body slammed down on top of mine. We fought, his hands wrapped tightly around my neck, squeezing, my vision fading.
The syringe was slipping from my sweaty palms as I struggled to flick the cap off and keep myself awake. Finally, it broke free, just as the door burst open. Shouting commenced, Vicario’s name ringing in the air, his face determined as he choked the life out of me.
With the last bit of my strength, I jabbed the needle into his neck and pushed the plunger in. For a moment, Vicario’s eyes went wide, shock and disbelief marring his evil face. Foam bubbled up through his lips and his breathing hitched, before he fell dead on top of me.
Relief was short-lived as I tried to push against his heavy body, but he wouldn’t budge. The weight was suddenly lifted off me, and Levi was there, his light-green green eyes shimmering with tears.
“Angel, hang in there, okay? I’ve got you.”
I shook my head, my mouth working to find the words to tell him about the upcoming attack. To tell him I needed the antidote.
I pointed to the locked cabinet. “Help.”
“What is it, baby? What’s wrong?”
“Virus. Help.”
“You have the virus?”
I tried to nod my head, and when a string of cuss words left Levi’s lips, I guessed I’d communicated it effectively. I tried to point to the cabinet again, but my arms wouldn’t work. My vision narrowed to a small pinprick of light.
“Hunter.”
“Hunter is fine. It’s you we need to worry about.” Levi’s lips moved, but I couldn’t make out any other words. I heard shouts, cries, pleas. “Cruz, get Lydia. I need the antidote, now!”
Something cool touched my forehead, followed by jostling. I wasn’t sure what was real anymore and what was a dream. I needed to tell Levi something—something very important.
The thought hovered just outside my reach before I didn’t think anymore.