VIRGINIA STARTLED AWAKE with a horrified gasp, sitting up in her cot in a panic. Sleep had thrust upon her mind a terrible nightmare, but what the nightmare had been about she could no longer recall. She took a moment to reoriented herself with her new surroundings, having forgotten that she had dozed off in the basement room after the Conrads had retired for the night. Staring at the dark, dreary walls, she felt a sudden, intense longing to be home with her family, missing them now more than ever.
She stood up, shaking off the cold sweat that covered her body. She looked over to the other cot, noticing that Nadine was not there. She made her way up the stairs as quietly as she could, and then carefully opened the door to the foyer. Seeing and hearing no one, Virginia crossed to the kitchen. There was a service light on over the sink, and Virginia saw that there were two used wine glasses sitting on the counter beside an open bottle of Merlot.
Knowing Mr. and Mrs. Conrad would have rang the bell if they had wanted wine, and Nadine would have cleaned the glasses immediately if she had somehow heard the call and served them without waking Virginia, she wondered if perhaps Nadine was just as much the thief as the girl she had just fired. There was a commotion in the storeroom as a few canned goods fell from a shelf.
She tiptoed over to the storeroom, hoping to see something she could use to put that bossy woman in her place. As she peeked through the doorway, however, she found Nadine and Mr. Conrad together on the floor. He had his undergarments down to his ankles, and she was on her back with her legs wrapped around his wrinkled, fat, gyrating body. Neither expected the intrusion, and both were oblivious to Virginia's presence.
She hurried back downstairs, deciding to feign ignorance over the matter for at least the time being. She returned to her cot, but found herself too restless to fall back to sleep. The longer she lay there, the harder she found it to get comfortable. Nadine came downstairs after a short while, and Virginia held her eyes closed, falling still and silent. She listened as Nadine quietly slipped back to her cot.
Virginia told herself she would be extra loud when she cleaned out the pans in the morning if Nadine woke with a hangover. She shuddered at the thought of a man as undesirable as Mr. Conrad making a pass at her, and wondered why a pretty young thing like Nadine would give in to his advances like that. Virginia would just as soon quit than add Mr. Conrad to her list of responsibilities, she told herself, disgusted with just the thought of ever seeing that man naked again. Seeing Nadine with him like that took her already diminished respect for the girl down even a few more notches.
Nadine began to snore and Virginia lay awake, wishing the day would just come so she could get it over with all the sooner. The hours passed by slowly, however, and by the time morning came, Virginia had dark circles under her tired, puffy eyes. She dragged herself off the cot as the morning bell rang, perking ever so slightly when she saw Nadine wince at the light and hold her aching head.
"Time to make breakfast?" Virginia asked.
"We have fifteen minutes to put ourselves together," Nadine mumbled. "If you brew us a fresh pot of coffee, I'll owe you whatever favor you want."
"I'm going to hold you to that." Virginia started a pot of coffee in their tiny, downstairs coffee maker, and then turned to the sink to wash her face. She looked at herself in their small bathroom mirror. With her blue eyes and tired face, she could barely recognize the reflection that stared back at her. She quickly turned away before the image had a chance to induce another untimely surge of emotion.
The basement room filled with the aroma of fresh coffee, a luxury Virginia had not enjoyed for a while. She found two clean mugs and poured a generous serving of coffee for each of them. Seeing no sugar or creamer, she handed Nadine her mug and sat back down on her cot. The coffee tasted rich and bittersweet. Virginia lost herself in the comforting liquid as she slowly sipped at it, reality going on hold until her mug came close to empty.
"We should get to the kitchen," Nadine said, putting on her apron and slipping into her shoes.
Virginia followed suit, getting dressed and combing her hair with her fingers while she followed Nadine to the kitchen. There wasn't any trace of the wine bottle, nor the glasses from the previous night.
Nadine went to the dumb waiter, removing the hand-held computer and retrieving the order for the morning. She moved around the kitchen nervously, barking orders all over the place as Virginia tried to fill her part of Mrs. Conrad's massive order. She held her tongue and did as she was told, understanding that Nadine possibly had a considerable amount of influence through Mr. Conrad and was best not crossed at this juncture.
"You're doing it all wrong!" Nadine grunted as Virginia started preparing an omelet. "Chop up the onion a little finer . . . and you have to slice the cheese thin!" She demonstrated, making paper-thin slices of cheese with her knife. "Like this, see? Have a little pride in your work!" She moved out of the way, wiping her hands in her apron, shaking her head as if she had a reason to be frustrated while she motioned for Virginia to continue.
Virginia took over the cheese, emulating Nadine's ridiculously thin slicing technique, and then chopped the onions until she had reduced them to fine shards. She added them to the egg already sizzling in bacon grease, and then threw in bits of bacon and pepper. Her mouth watered, the aroma of the different foods blending as they cooked together, and she considered dropping the omelet to the ground when she was finished making it. Unfortunately, Nadine had it off the pan and on a plate before she could summon up the courage.
Mr. Conrad had sausage and eggs with his coffee this morning, while Mrs. Conrad had two omelets, hash browns, bacon, sausage, ham, and a half dozen slices of buttered toast. Two slices of toast and two liberal slices of ham somehow found themselves on the floor, and Virginia and Nadine helped themselves to the spoiled food, smiling and waving up at the camera to add to the show.
The telephone rang, and Nadine left to the foyer to pick up the downstairs line. "Conrad residence," she said.
One of the Conrads' Corporate managers screamed so loudly through the receiver that Virginia could hear him from the kitchen door: "Get me either of them, and make it fast!"
"One moment." Nadine put the man on hold and paged the Conrads' bedroom. She went to hang up her line, and realized that Mr. Conrad's conversation with the manager was still audible. She saw that the foyer camera pointed at the bulk of the artifacts displayed, and not the telephone. Placing her hand over the mouthpiece, she quietly waited to see if either could tell that she was eavesdropping. She kept quiet as the conversation commenced, seemingly without either party suspecting Nadine's presence—just as Nadine had no idea that Virginia was watching her.
"Yes?" Mr. Conrad coughed, sounding annoyed to have had his breakfast interrupted.
"We have a situation," the manager said, sounding nervous. He cleared his throat. "We've got another couple hundred people in the hospital with suspected or confirmed HD-1 infection. What's worse is dozens of deviants are claiming to be displaced humans, and honestly we've lost track of how many people have fallen victim to this thing."
"How many people in Info-Corp know about this?" Mr. Conrad asked.
"Nobody below upper management," the manager said.
"Keep it that way."
Nadine could hear Mr. Conrad explain the situation to Mrs. Conrad as the manager awaited further instructions. Mrs. Conrad grabbed the receiver. "I want a board meeting with our top Corporate representatives. Register us for a time slot around noon, and have lunch available. I'll be at my office in about an hour if you want to meet me there."
"Will do," the manager said.
"See you then." Mrs. Conrad hung up, and Nadine quickly hung up her line. Virginia slipped back in as Nadine hurried into the kitchen. Virginia washed the last of the pans, preparing for the stack of plates that would soon come down through the dumb waiter. Knowing it was best to mind her own business, she pretended not even to notice Nadine returning to the room. Nadine did not say anything to her. She moved directly to the dumb waiter and tried to look busy while she waited for the breakfast dishes to come back down.
They finally came, and the women silently worked together to get them moved and washed. They began to hand dry what they could when Mr. and Mrs. Conrad came walking in.
Mr. Conrad looked even older in the kitchen light, with graying hair and unsightly jowls framing his long face. He wore an expensive suit and hat, but fancy clothing was not enough to mask the worry imprinted deep across his face.
"Is there a problem, sir?" Nadine asked.
"We have to go to the office for a while," he said, impatiently digging his designer facemask out of his pocket. "Mrs. Conrad wants you both in the basement until we get back."
Nadine set down her towel, motioning for Virginia to do the same, and the two crossed the foyer to the door leading downstairs. As soon as they were both on the steps leading down, the door shut behind them and they could hear the click of the lock. Nadine turned on the dim light, and they both went down to the basement room.
"How often do they do this?" Virginia asked, the locked door digging up a touch of post-traumatic stress. She sat down on her cot, sweating despite the cold.
"They go out whenever there's a big issue that requires them to meet with the directors' board, once or twice a week, and then they also leave for a couple of hours every Sunday to attend Faith-Corp's weekly Sermon. You'll get used to it," Nadine said. "At least we both can have another cup of coffee." She went to the kitchenette area and poured them each a second serving. "It's not hot anymore, but it's not completely cold yet, either." She handed Virginia a mug before sitting down on her cot.
Virginia sipped at her coffee, unable to shake the anxiety she felt over their confinement. What if, by chance, a fire broke out upstairs? No one would be there to let her and Nadine out of the basement. They would be trapped. Virginia labored her mind to remember whether or not she had turned off the Conrads' coffee pot.
Nadine noticed Virginia's increasing anxiety and gave her a reassuring smile. "Enjoy your coffee. We'll be out of here sooner than you think." She savored her coffee, seemingly unaffected by their situation.
Virginia set down her coffee mug and curled up on her cot. She closed her eyes, hoping she might find a way to sleep through whatever next few hours they would be down there.
"Don't get too comfortable," Nadine said, pulling a couple of pins from her hair and quietly moving up the stairs. She listened through the door for a moment, to be sure the Conrads were gone, and then started working on the lock.
Virginia sat up, suddenly not so sure how desperate she was for her freedom. "What are you doing?"
Nadine tripped the lock in less than thirty seconds, obviously having performed the act countless times in the past. "Come with me."
"What if we get caught?"
"We won't. Trust me!" Nadine hurried out.
Not really trusting the young woman, but too curious to stay behind, Virginia followed. She entered the foyer and froze when Nadine began up the staircase. "Are you crazy?"
"They won't be back for hours. The HD-1 virus has made another appearance, it seems, and Corporate is officially freaking out." Nadine waited for Virginia to get to the top of the staircase. "Now for the real tour," she said with a mischievous smile as she led Virginia to the Conrads' closed bedroom door.
"What about all of the cameras?" Virginia asked, looking around and spotting two, then three that had likely caught them already in their act.
"I'll reset the recorder as soon as we get to the control panel."
The little dog began to bark, pawing at them from the other side of the door, and Nadine put her leg through the threshold to block the hyperactive animal while she opened it. "Be careful of the dog. If he gets out, it'll take us an hour to get him back in here."
Virginia had only seen a few dogs when she was younger. Corporate had passed a law decades ago against keeping private pets, as they sapped precious resources. Mr. and Mrs. Conrad didn't seem too concerned with the law, however, and Virginia had to wonder how many other laws rich people were allowed to violate. Were they above all repercussion? Was that the true meaning of wealth?
Virginia closed the door behind her, and the toy poodle bounced around her in a tiny fit, smelling her feet and barking at the unfamiliar scent.
"He's harmless," Nadine said.
Virginia ignored the dog, marveling at the beautifully furnished room. The bed's immense headboard was made out of real wood, and layer upon layer of down and thick silk flooded over either side of the king-sized mattress. There was another painting on one wall, and several closed-circuit video screens on another. The Conrads could see every room in their house, as well as a view of the basement door, the outside gate, and the front and back porches, from their bed.
"Why all the hardware?" Virginia asked, already getting annoyed with the incessant barking.
"Mrs. Conrad is paranoid. She thinks the world is out to steal her precious collections of things," Nadine said, a hint of disgust in her voice. "She doesn't trust anyone."
Nadine opened a door that connected the bedroom to an immense office. Virginia hurried in with her, and they got the door closed before the annoying little dog could follow them in.
Various system monitors, computers, and hand-held devices filled the room. The equipment all looked well maintained, and most of it was on. Nadine sat down at one of four desks in the room and logged onto the computer.
Virginia watched intently as Nadine opened an Internet browser window. "The Internet crashed thirty years ago!" she said, trying to figure out what Nadine was doing.
To Virginia's surprise, a web page slowly loaded.
"This isn't the Internet," Nadine said. "Only a handful of quadroplexes are connected."
"What about everyone else?"
"I don't think there is anyone else," Nadine said.
Virginia gave Nadine a suspicious face. "Pardon?"
Nadine logged into the Conrads' e-mail account, accessing newsletters that only members of Corporate were supposed to see. Nadine got up from the chair and offered it to Virginia. "Take a look."
Virginia sat down, and Nadine showed her the basics of negotiating the database.
"How did you learn to run all of this?" Virginia asked, looking over the various headlines, all arranged by date.
"I've worked in this house for a long time," Nadine said, redirecting Virginia's attention to the computer. She pointed to several decades-old newsletter headlines, which painted a very clear picture of the widespread destruction, all kept from the public, that had occurred all across the country. It seemed that, shortly after worldwide communications completely broke down, communications throughout the country had followed suit. The cause of the growing breakdown was due to more than just the change in weather patterns. In reality, only a small portion of the population still survived. The extreme weather, coupled with the waves of antibiotic resistant disease, had decimated nearly every continent.
Virginia read the headlines in disbelief, and then she sat back, shaking her head. "Why is everyone being led to believe that the rest of the world is still out there if it isn't?"
"It would be difficult to control the people if they were in hysterics over the actual state of the world," Nadine said as a matter-of-fact. She commandeered the mouse and scrolled closer to the top of the page, to the more recent newsletters and correspondences. She opened a recent notice concerning the first HD-1 virus outbreak. Virginia read with a newfound interest. The notice, which was actually a personal letter written from one Corporate to the rest, detailed Medical-Corp's preliminary report on the retrovirus. The report followed the first dozen initial infections, logging the length between infection time and deviant shift, keeping a tally of the euthanasia deaths as if they were inventory adjustments.
"This is insane," Virginia said, finishing the letter.
"You haven't seen anything yet."
Nadine pulled up a recent newsletter, sent from Medical-Corp's top representative:
Header: HD-1a Currently Under Development
Security Clearance: Red
Body Text: Preliminary tests have shown promise in the development of a new retrovirus based on HD-1. HD-1a specifically targets DNA altered by HD-1, causing cell death and eventual death of the host. Further tests need to be conducted, but there is the possibility that HD-1a could target germ-line deviants as well. HD-1a has shown so far to be virtually harmless to the base populace, causing mild flu-like symptoms in some.
Virginia finished reading the newsletter, remaining speechless for a minute or two afterward as she took in the severity of the situation.
"I wonder how many of us they plan on infecting?" Virginia finally asked.
"They can't possibly want to get rid of all of us," Nadine said. "We make up a quarter of the population . . . and everyone else has grown too adverse to manual labor. Someone has to keep rebuilding all that the weather continuously knocks down, you know."
Virginia turned to look Nadine in the eyes, her face heavy with concern. "I sincerely hope you're right." She looked back at the headlines, reconsidering her initial negative impressions of Nadine. Still feeling suspicious of her sudden sisterly behavior, however, she had to ask, "Why are you showing me all of this?"
"You don't find it interesting?"
"I find it very interesting."
"So why wouldn't I show you?"
Virginia smiled sheepishly. "I thought you hated me," she said with a shrug.
"I'm your boss," Nadine said, smiling back. "But right now, we're both off-duty."