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Martin lined up the gear on the table checking and rechecking unnecessarily. Wisp was the first to arrive. “I don’t know about this,” Martin said.
“Nick and I can check into it and be back in a day,” Wisp said.
“Right.” Martin wanted to go, but he knew that he needed to stay in town. There was too much going on here for all three of them to leave. “How’s Bridget?”
“Still sleeping,” Wisp said without looking at him.
Martin felt bad for him. Five more women had woken this morning, and none of them had been people he knew. He wanted his friends to wake up. Each day that passed with them asleep stole away a little hope that they would eventually return. He assumed it was worse their partners. He’d see despair turn lethal after Zero Year. He made a note to let Tillie know about his concerns.
Nick stomped in with an angry frown. “Is this really important right now?”
“Peter thinks it is,” Wisp said in a flat tone.
Martin could see that neither of them wanted to leave. “If it’s kids, should you take Ted?”
“He said no,” Wisp said. “I asked Peter. He said Ted needed to stay here. He’s still got about a dozen infants that he’s taking care of, so he can’t come anyway.”
“Peter called them the helpless ones but apparently they aren’t kids,” Nick said sourly. “This better not be a waste of my time.”
“Did he give you any better directions?” Martin asked.
“’You’ll know,’” Nick spat back. “What kind of answer is that?”
“It’s probably the guys that attacked the warehouse by Creamery. They must have found a small community outside our borders,” Martin suggested.
“So we’ll head for that warehouse and search outward from there,” Nick grumbled.
Wisp just nodded as he was checking the packs that Martin had already thoroughly checked. They gathered the gear and headed out without any further grousing.
Martin watched them go feeling very much left behind. There was plenty to keep him busy here, but he’d rather be out gathering intel with them. Tall Joe hailed him from down the hall. “We’ve got another report of a drug death.”
Martin swore. “I thought we were past this.”
“Three kids this time, but only one died,” Tall Joe said. “I’ve got most of my men around the warehouse. Someone started a rumor that there’s going to be rationing, and I’ve got a lot of restless men in town. Can you check in with James while I sort this out?”
“Sure,” Martin said glad for the distraction. He double checked that James was at the clinic before heading over there. It still felt very odd to be using the phone system. It was very rudimentary, but some days it saved him chasing around town after people.
The waiting room had a man with a bloody cloth wrapped around his hand and two kids with rashes on their faces. The desk was unmanned, but the gate was locked. Martin was peeking over the divider trying to find the buzzer when a young man came out from the back.
“You need help?”
Martin wanted to smack him, but he wasn’t close enough. Luckily, James called out from the back to let him through. He stomped past the kid. Once again he missed the days when everyone knew who he was, and he didn’t need to tell people.
“You’re here about the deaths?” James said from the sink where he was washing bloody hands.
“Tall Joe said only one was dead.”
“Make that all three now. They came in right after they drank it because they thought I could stop it in time,” James said bleakly. “I don’t even know what it is. We can’t form any kind of antidote without knowing what’s in it.”
Martin had an unkind thought about not mourning the loss of idiots. “Did they say where they got it from?”
“Something about a green house on the other side of town. I’m not sure what that means.”
“Could it be Greenie’s house?” Martin asked.
James shrugged. “They were not overly coherent.” He headed to the hallway. “I’ve got a severed finger and burns from a soup pot that exploded. Are we done?”
“Who’s your helper?” Martin asked.
“His name is Bug. I think he just got here, but he’s been a big help. He definitely knows his way around an operating room.”
“Where are the bodies?”
James took him down to the back room where three shrouded gurneys sat in the dark. “There was nothing I could do.”
“It’s not your fault,” Martin said gently.
“It doesn’t feel that way,” James said sadly as he left.
Martin looked at each of them, disturbed to find that he recognized all three. They were Ted’s kids but part of a bunch that had started causing trouble. They had been stealing food, scaring the chickens and racing through town on cobbled together go-carts. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that they were among the first to try out a new drug.
He wondered if their deaths were a failure on the part of those in charge. If these kids were dead because of something that should have been done. In the constant rush to keep the lights on and people fed, had they forgotten something more important? These kids were troublemakers, but he’d been impressed with some of the go-carts. Noisy, goofy, rude and crude, but they were just kids. Their deaths would crush Ted. He worried about all of the youngsters that he’d collected. And Angus would be concerned about three more lost from the next generation.
There wasn’t anything to be done now. Martin carefully put aside his emotions. He wrote their names in a notebook before heading over to the mortuary.