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There are very few statistics that can be relied upon. Cities tried to keep track. They shut down services as neighborhoods were abandoned allowing them to consolidate personnel. Rural areas turned inward. Mayors that were also farmers, shopkeepers or businessmen found more important things to do than send reports to the government. Some small towns managed to rally under strong leadership.
History of a Changed World - Angus T. Moss
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WISP TAPPED ON THE door to Kyle’s room, having prudently timed his arrival with Ruth’s departure, just minutes before. He’d been waiting for a moment alone with his brother. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Ruth, although he felt she was overly protective of Kyle’s time. This matter was about the brothers, about a time before any outside relationships. He wanted to talk without interruptions and explanations of their past life in the lab when they were all together and recently awakened. He didn’t know how much Kyle had shared with Ruth about that time.
Kyle called a distracted permission to enter. Wisp went in, fighting a grin. He knew that Kyle was immersed in research, could feel it in the fuzziness of his focus. He was ensconced at a small table that was covered with books, papers and tablets. The furniture looked even smaller in comparison with his brawny frame. Head bowed over his work, thick-fingered hands spread across his papers, it seemed like he was reading several books at the same time, which was entirely possible.
“Kyle.” Wisp sent a little mental poke along with the verbal.
His brother sat up abruptly, making the chair squeak. “Tau? What did you just do?”
“Got your attention,” Wisp replied smugly.
Kyle huffed a laugh. “Yes, you did.” He rubbed his forehead, a puzzled frown crimping the corners of his amber eyes. “How did you do that?”
“I can’t explain how because you don’t have the capacity for it.” The words might sound rude to another, but his logical brother took it in stride. “I prefer Wisp,” he reminded his brother.
Wisp sat opposite him. The table only had two chairs, a statement of inclusion that Wisp found hurtful. He wondered if Ruth realized what that said to others; how territorial it appeared. She was Kyle’s legal Keeper. It made him wonder about their relationship. He knew all of the furnishings chosen and their arrangement were hers alone. Kyle would be sleeping on the floor in his lab, if left to his own devices.
“You’ve removed the dressing,” Kyle said gesturing to the bullet graze on Wisp’s temple.
“I did that three days ago. The wound is shallow, and there’s no sign of infection.”
“And the concussion?”
Wisp could feel the familial affection laced around Kyle’s concern. It wasn’t something he was accustomed to and found it a little invasive. He was used to being on his own, with no one to care about his well being. On the other hand, the fondness Kyle felt for him had a sweetness he’d long missed. “I’m well,” he said.
“Then what’s wrong?” Kyle asked. “You’ve got an odd look to you.”
“I’m worried about Theta.”
Kyle rubbed his face, then ran his hands through his rust-colored hair making it stand out in unruly clumps. “I didn’t even know he was still alive.”
The statement sounded a little callous, but Wisp felt the underlying disquiet in his brother.
“Is he still...” Kyle faltered, a tangle of emotions fluttered through him.
“He has stabilized.”
“Good. Have you seen him?”
“I’m not sure that I would be welcome.” Wisp tried not to think of the incident that had traumatized Theta so badly. It had deeply wounded them all.
“He was so...in such bad shape when they sent him away. Up to that place in Maine, wasn’t it? Was he in that hospital when...it all happened?” Kyle’s focus drifted away. Sadness percolated through his thoughts. “We lost so many.”
Wisp let his brother wander in his memories for a moment, but there weren’t any from that time he cared to revisit. “I think Theta stayed at the hospital in Maine. He seemed content for awhile. I was in the Tetons the year the world changed. Too far away to feel him clearly. But he moved shortly after that. I imagine the hospital was overrun, maybe shut down. He went west at first. He’s been traveling slowly for years.”
“Like you?” Kyle said. “Keeping out of sight?”
“Probably.”
“But now something’s changed.”
“He’s coming closer. And he’s very worried. Frightened sometimes. Angry.”
“How close?” Kyle seemed intrigued.
“Couple weeks walk for me. He doesn’t move very fast.”
“Injured?” Kyle asked.
Wisp shook his head. “I’m not aware of pain.” Which wasn’t exactly true, but the slight discomfort Wisp registered from Theta could be associated with sore muscles or an empty belly, nothing alarming.
“Are you going to go find him?”
“I would like to. But I don’t know if I should bring him here.”
“He’s not violent,” Kyle said firmly.
“When did you see him last?”
“Right after Sigma was terminated. You?”
Wisp flinched. He avoided the memory so rigorously that it startled him to hear Kyle say it aloud. “About the same.” He pushed away the voices and images that rose unbidden. “A lot can change in a decade—“
“Twelve years,” Kyle corrected. “It was two years prior to Zero Year when Sigma was terminated.”
The scientist in his brother would not allow for casual rounding, especially not concerning an event that so horribly impacted their lives. Wisp bowed his head in acceptance of the correction. “After this much time, all his new experiences...we don’t know who he is now. I would not bring such an uncertainty into this place.”
“Do you want someone to take responsibility for him?” Kyle asked, his frown deepening.
“No. I want you to tell me where I can take him if he can’t be here.”
Kyle’s eyes lit with understanding. “I’ll work on that. Although you have a greater knowledge of the outside world than I do.”
“We have disparate knowledge,” Wisp concurred. “You know of places that I avoided.”
“Most of which are gone now,” Kyle said glumly, the sadness seeping in again. “So many lost. So much work to no avail. If we’d only known...” He patted a stack of dog-eared notebooks.
A shiver went through Wisp as he thought about the sequence of events that brought those notebooks to High Meadow. If Nick hadn’t looked into the death of Lily’s sister, he and Wisp might never have met, and William might have died of his wounds after being tortured. Their mother Melissa might have died in Rutledge’s basement prison, and they would never have known that those notebooks were written by her husband, the madman who released the virus.
Wisp didn’t ask Kyle about his work. The whole community was waiting to hear of his progress in sorting out how the virus and vaccines had altered human DNA. It was obvious in the eye color of children born after Zero Year that something had changed. Kyle was charged with finding out how significant that change might be.
“What of the others, Epsilon and Lambda?”
“I can sense them, but haven’t noticed much change in them.”
“Probably well situated and best left alone.”
Wisp wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Perhaps he should plan a trip to check on them, but first he needed to deal with Theta.
“When are you leaving?” Kyle asked.
“There’s a storm tonight,” Wisp said. “I’ll go tomorrow as soon as it’s safe.”
“Does Angus know?”
“I have no actual duties here. If I leave, nothing is left undone.”
“It would be a courtesy to tell him.” Kyle straighten a pile of papers, his mind going fuzzy at the edges. “He’s a good man. Brilliant in his own field, but surprisingly capable in a number of others. I feel...” Kyle pursed his lips, searching for a word. “Relieved. He asks the questions I want to answer.”
Wisp nodded, also feeling relieved to know that Kyle shared his impression of Angus. “I will speak with Nick tonight.” He stood, the conversation complete.
“Be careful,” Kyle added. “This year’s flu has an extremely high mortality rate, and it may not have run its course in other parts of the country.”
“If I didn’t catch it before, why worry now?”
Kyle tapped his papers. “No. I meant that with so many deaths, people will be unpredictable. More raiders maybe. Definitely more people on the move.”
Wisp shrugged. “I stay out of sight.”
“Yes, well, I just...”
Wisp smiled at Kyle’s awkward attempt to express his affection. He could clearly feel his brother’s concern and mixed emotions at his departure. “I am skilled at what I do. Don’t worry about me.”
“Before you go, I’d like a sample of your blood.”
The request was typical of Kyle. He was pursuing some train of thought and didn’t think about what this might mean to Wisp. It brought back a brief flurry of memories of their early days in the lab before any of them had discovered their specialty. There were tests every day, some physical, some mental, some just required the taking of bodily fluids. Wisp didn’t mind providing blood for Kyle. He was equally curious about the interactions of the flu and vaccines. “I haven’t had any vaccines,” he reminded Kyle.
“Yes, that’s part of it. I’ve tested my own DNA repeatedly over the years, and it hasn’t shown any change, but I’ve been isolated. You have been exposed to the virus and yet had none of the vaccines. Your blood will give me an excellent comparison.”
“Now you need someone who had the vaccines but wasn’t exposed to the virus,” Wisp said as Kyle took his sample.
“I have Ruth,” Kyle said in a distracted tone. Already he was preparing the blood and making notes.
“She’s never been exposed?”
“Just Zero Year, as far as I can tell. I don’t think there is anyone left on the planet that wasn’t exposed that year.”
Wisp pressed a square of cotton over the dot of blood left behind on his arm. “And this year,” he added. “You were both exposed this year.”
“Of course.” He held up the sample. “Must get this to the lab.”
Wisp followed him out, feeling oddly unsettled by their conversation.