We lost Kaboom and Nadia today.
The day started out fair enough. We managed to sleep better knowing that there was something that could save us if we ever got off this roof. The first thing we’ll do when we get rescued is get that rabies vaccine. I’m even more proud of Houston than I was before for figuring it out, and I didn’t think that was possible. KC may be the book-smart one, but Houston has common sense and is good at visualizing how things relate to one other.
I think he’s looking forward to the chance to present his find to the world just as KC would like to present her Lake Vostok theory, but I have a feeling that by now the world has made those connections. Still, it is an amazing find for a stranded group of refugees without a lab or the Internet at their disposal.
We took advantage of the warmer weather by shedding some more layers of clothing and hanging out on the roof. Everyone seemed to be in better spirits once they could move about and soak up the sun. KC started teaching Jesse and Sarah how to play Suduku and the others were engaged in a conversation about what they were going to do with their life when they got out of here. I didn’t pick up on all of their ideas but I couldn’t help hearing the one that KC came up with in jest because it made everyone laugh: buy up a franchise of port-a-potties and call it “IPlop.” With any luck all the lawyers are dead, or else both Apple and IHOP would sue her for that.
At some point KC and Nemesis noticed that Kaboom and Nadia were no longer with us. I knew they were off on their own, but I wanted to give them some space. Heaven knows Nadia needed it. The poor thing became everyone’s punching bag as they got more and more frustrated with her helplessness. I think she was just a product of her environment. She wasn’t raised to be flexible or to adapt and not all of us are built to be a rough-and-tough survivor. Nadia was more the Look-At-Me type of girl who dreamed of growing up and getting her own reality TV show. That didn’t make her a bad person. It just made her look like a bad person when everyone else was bent on survival instead of attention.
So KC and Nemesis looked around and hopped up to the roof where we found the tent. I followed them at a distance, ready to diffuse whatever argument would arise between the four of them. Before I knew it, Houston had joined me, walking wordlessly by my side and wearing the same anxious look as I did.
We found Kaboom and Nadia looking over the side where we had to drop Dorothy. At first I thought they were trying to pay their respects to our departed friend, but instead they were lying down on their bellies while dangling their heads and arms over the side like they were trying to pull something up. This set off alarm bells and the four of us quickened our pace. “There’s nothing down there they should be bringing up here.” I thought to myself. They were so engrossed in what they were doing they didn’t notice us until Nemesis called out, “Hey! What are you two up to?”
Nadia jumped to her feet to face her accusers, but not before she pushed Kaboom back down. “You’ve almost got it, don’t stop now!” she hissed down at him. In a voice laced with guilt she said, “If you must know, I’ve found a way to get us more food and water.”
As I walked over to the edge of the roof I asked “How? There was nothing there when we lowered Dorothy down into the bushes.” I looked over the edge at what Kaboom was fishing for. The first thing I noticed was that the dead were nowhere to be seen. That was odd because the Infected tend to gravitate to wherever we are, and Kaboom and Nadia aren’t exactly good at silence and stealth.
The second thing I noticed was the backpack. Kaboom had a length of rope, probably from one of the packs, and he had attached a rudimentary hook made out of one of the bulldog clips that once secured the tent to the roof. Before I had a chance to protest, he had hooked the damn thing and pulled it up onto the roof.
Nadia pounced on the pack and tore it open. “Were you ever intending on sharing that with the others?” Nemesis asked suspiciously.
“Why?” pouted Nadia as she removed a bottle of water. “Why should I? I’m the one who found it, not you!”
“She’s speaking out of hunger,” Kaboom said apologetically as he looked sheepishly at us. “Of course we would have shared it.”
I didn’t care whether she intended on sharing it or not, what I cared about was that no one drank it. I took a step towards them and bent down to grab the backpack. “Hey!” shouted Nadia in surprise. “That’s still mine!” She reached out to take it back, but I threw it as far off to the side as I could. I probably should have thrown it over the side of the roof, but even I was curious as to what was inside.
Houston ran to where I threw the pack and scooped it up in one swift move. “What’s the matter with you?” he said in exasperation. “Can’t you see it’s another trap? If it wasn’t there yesterday then it was planted there for you to find today!”
I stepped closer to Nadia, summoned the calmest voice possible, and said: “Nadia, that water isn’t safe. Please hand it over to me.”
“No.”
KC was tired of this standoff. With way too much sarcasm she asked, “Please will you hand it over to us? Pretty please with a little umbrella in it and a cherry on top?”
“No.” Nadia braced herself on delicate legs like a spoiled child that had just been told off. She quickly unscrewed the cap and brandished the bottle like a weapon. It was the worst threat she could have made, and we all jumped back to get out of the splash zone. Nemesis started to needle Kaboom into helping us out. “Come on noodle-spine; you know we’re right! Talk some sense into your girlfriend before she gets us all killed!” Kaboom stayed by Nadia’s side, but there was a look of concern on his face as he turned to Nadia and asked, “Baby, are you sure that water’s safe to drink?”
Those were his last words.
“Of course it is—it’s in a bottle!”
Those were Nadia’s last words.
Everything that happened afterwards was like a choreographed dance with something dreadful happening on each beat. But instead of kick-ball-change-kick-ball-shuffle it went like this:
Kaboom reached out to Nadia, supposedly to take the bottle away from her.
Nadia took a swig from the bottle.
Nadia’s eyes died.
Nadia turned to Kaboom and bit him on his outstretched arm.
Kaboom’s eyes died.
Nemesis and KC rushed forward.
Nemesis pushed Kaboom off the roof.
KC pushed Nadia off the roof.
And all that was left in the silence was the shocked and the dead.