Chapter 7: Unappreciative House Guests

Pulling up in front of the house, Alice ran out before David could even get out of the vehicle. It had turned overcast, and looked like it was about to pour. David climbed out of his SUV and waved Monique’s car up so Debbie could make it into the house without having to limp too far. Monique took in the Humvee and the military tanker parked a ways off, making her own assumptions about what David was trying to do here, though she didn’t bother to voice them out loud.

“Uh, Dad, I’ve got some bad news for you,” Alice said, ignoring the new people, new vehicles and new animals.

Those few words struck a sense of dread in David’s heart. As concerned as he was for these new people, they were still strangers who didn’t rely on him, and would likely take off as soon as they got the medication they came for. Mattie, though, was not only important to him, but he felt personally responsible for her being ill.

“Mattie?” he asked, turning to gage Alice’s reaction. She simply nodded, a lump forming in her throat as she dreaded having to explain the details to her father, who she knew wouldn’t appreciate what she had to tell him.

“Is she... ?” he asked, unable to ask the question he was dreading. His biggest fear, after watching so many people die, was that he wouldn’t be there for the people who needed him. He knew death was inevitable, especially in this new world they found themselves in, but that someone could die painfully while he was out cavorting struck him deeply. He hadn’t been there for Erica due to similar circumstances, and that memory haunted him, and flavored how he’d responded to everyone since.

“No, she’s still alive, but she’s very sick. But there’s more.” Alice took another breath, preparing what she was going to say as Monique was helping Debbie from her car. Debbie’s leg was inflamed and red, and she needed the medication as soon as they could get it.

“She’s got each of the plagues we suffered from, and it’s not the four that you keep telling everyone about. There’s at least five. If you’ll remember, we were exposed to some that had no visible symptoms.”

“You mean she got them from me? From the plasma?” David asked, making the obvious connection. Alice merely nodded her head unhappily, looking like she was ready to cry.

“Wait a minute,” Monique said, interrupting them as she helped Debbie head towards the house a safe distance from them. “Do you mean to tell me that you’re still contagious?”

Knowing it was time to face the unfortunate confrontation he knew he couldn’t avoid, David turned to face their newest guests.

“It looks like it. I hadn’t mentioned it before because we weren’t sure, but I think I infected someone recently. That’s borne out by what’s happened since. We tried to treat her with my plasma, but we ended up making it worse, giving her even more infections, so our attempt to help her has only made her worse,” he admitted, even though he didn’t know the specifics himself.

“And you expect us to walk into an active plague house with several people who could expose us?” Monique asked, backing away even more.

“That’s why I suggested you keep your distance when we first met,” David argued.

“We kept our distance because we knew better than to trust what someone told us, something you’ve just proven. If Debbie didn’t need this treatment we’d be so out of here, but I can’t take the chance. Could you bring the medicine out here and I’ll treat her so we can be on our way? We’ll get by without your assistance. We don’t have much gas left, but getting a few more miles away won’t help if we’re infected.”

“Nonsense, we’ve maintained a very careful regime of safeguards,” David protested. “Mattie only got infected because I let my guard down and gave her a very human hug when she needed one. I’d thought I was safe, but I know better now. Tom, inside, is also at risk but he’s fine. It’s going to pour in a minute, and you can’t apply the medication as well as he can. We’ll all keep our distance, but there’s no sense taking off immediately.”

“Yeah, you’re going to tell me that you maintain a sterile environment in that little wooden shack?” Monique asked, indicating the entrance to his house, which was hardly an imposing exterior. “How about we stay out here, or maybe use the trailer?”

“I think you’ll be surprised once you see it,” David offered.

“It’s really much nicer than it looks like from the outside,” Alice suggested.

“Besides, the trailer is the last place you want to be. Both it and the outbuilding over here were used as isolation wards. A lot of people have died here, and while we’ve scrubbed it down, I wouldn’t recommend using them.”

Monique looked at them doubtfully, and then turned to consider Debbie.

“Could I please lie down?” Debbie asked. “My leg is killing me. I don’t think I could stand getting back in the car again.”

That made up Monique’s mind. “I just want everyone to keep their distances. I don’t know why you people would want to purposefully infect people, but I’m not afraid to defend ourselves.”

As if to provide her with additional safeguards, David pulled his pistol from his waistband, wiped it down with an antiseptic wipe and placed it on the ground between them before stepping back. The meaning was clear; he was offering them the means to keep them at bay if they attempted anything. Monique grunted, not trusting a simple hand wipe to protect against possible infection. Refusing to pick it up, they made their way towards the house anyway. David and Alice fell in behind them after he picked his pistol back up, still maintaining their distance. Tom opened the door for them as they approached.

“I’ve got the medicine ready inside,” he said. Monique again simply grunted, still not sure she trusted these people.

“So just how sick is Mattie and why didn’t you tell me this sooner, when I could have done something?” David asked his daughter. Instead of sounding angry, apparently the discussion with Monique had tempered his own reactions and now he simply sounded resigned. Something that made Alice feel even worse, since she knew he’d eventually internalize it anyway. She felt it would be better for him to vent for a while before that occurred.

“There wasn’t anything you could do, and the fact that you arrived with two people needing help proves you needed to be there. Being here wouldn’t have helped anyone,” Alice answered, speaking with a conviction she didn’t exactly feel at the moment.

“Mattie’s very sick, but so far she’s holding on. She’s drifting in and out of consciousness, so we don’t know how long she’ll last, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed.”

“OK, we’ll talk about keeping secrets from me later; right now I need to see Mattie. If reaching out to me is what did her in, then I at least want to be there to help console her in her last remaining moments,” David said as they entered the house, closing the door just as the skies opened up.

“Shit! How the hell do you hide this from the outside?” Monique asked as they both gaped at what they saw laid out before them.

“Look, they have lights, music, all the modern conveniences we thought were gone,” Debbie marveled.

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Tom told them. “Step into my parlor, said... ,” Tom wisely shut up before finishing the badly fitting analogy he’d been about to make.

Leading them into the living room, they saw all the electronics, the huge ceiling and the tremendous view of the storm blowing outside. They also saw all the medical and testing devices that Tom had working there, as well as observing Mattie, laid out on a temporary bed on the other side of the room from them.

“Just bring the equipment, I know enough to apply it,” Monique told him. “Better yet, just point out where it is and I’ll get it myself.”

Alice leaned over, whispering to her dad. “She’s really cute. I can see why you brought her home.”

David cast a warning glance at her in response, but chose not to say anything they might overhear. He didn’t think it was an appropriate thing to say, especially now that it looked certain they’d leave as quickly as they could, ending not only Alice’s hopes of a romantic liaison, but also a further link to other survivors.

As Tom showed her where he had the medicine, David quickly introduced everyone.

“Can we get you anything?” Alice asked, playing the gracious host, even if it wasn’t appreciated. “We’ve got several things to drink, anything from hot chocolate on a cold night to a shot of bourbon.”

“We could use some surgical masks more than anything else, but I wouldn’t trust them to be unused. Honestly, if you’re still contagious, I’d rather avoid anything,” Monique replied, though it was obvious that Debbie was disappointed. She’d positively lit up at the offer of hot chocolate.

“We’ve got paper cups if that’s any better,” Alice offered.

“Just leave it on the counter,” Monique interjected, speaking for Debbie as she prepared the two syringes. “I’ll pour it myself.”

“You know, I think you’re underestimating just how safe David keeps this place,” Tom told them.

“Well apparently it wasn’t safe enough to prevent this poor girl from becoming deathly ill. Thanks, but we’d rather remain alive rather than bowing to social conventions just to be polite,” Monique responded sharply. Unseen by her, David waved Tom off, letting him know to give them their space. Meanwhile, Monique gave Debbie her antibiotics injection.

Walking up to Mattie, David took her hand in his and looked her over. He’d already put on gloves, even though he technically didn’t need them, but he hoped she could tell he was there. The gloves were actually more for Monique and Debbie’s benefit more than they were for Mattie, since David was already thinking it was too late to do much for her. After all, he couldn’t infect her any worse than she already was, and he knew just how deadly even a single strain of the Great Death was.

“There’s not much you can do,” Tom told him. “She lost consciousness a long time ago.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” David snapped in response. “We’ve been where she is now, and her consciousness comes and goes, so she’s aware not only of the pain, but also of how alone she is. I promised I’d be here for her, and here is where I’m going to remain.”

However, when he noticed Monique and Debbie looking at him, he reconsidered his stance.

“Are you still doing the plasma treatments?” he asked Tom.

“We have been, but I’m not sure they’re doing any good at this point.”

“OK, in deference to everyone else, I’ll take her out to the trailer. Alice, could you bring us some food and water, and the other stuff we used to keep outside for this. I’m going to remain by her side though this, however long it takes.” His stance was strengthened when he felt Mattie weakly squeezing his hand, showing she was somewhat conscious, and was at least aware that he was present, though he had no idea if she understood anything they’d been discussing. When Alice nodded, David picked the slight girl up and carried her out, with Alice hurrying ahead to open the door for them.

“Were they close?” Debbie asked after they both disappeared, her concern for the girl she didn’t know written across her face.

“Not until she finally opened up to him the night before she came down with the virus. She’d been infected and survived another strain before, as well as having watched her entire family die before her eyes. She was forced to abandon her home in order to protect herself, thus she was a little gun shy. But I think the way David responded to her made a big difference to her. At least for a short term,” he sighed.

“And you’re still OK?” Monique asked guardedly. “You’ve never been sick yet?”

“Oh, no, I got sick too, before I met them, but I recovered. But just like with David and Alice, my dog John-John was there for me, and having someone there when you’re that close to death really means the world to you. However, I haven’t caught the other contagions since I’ve been here, so we’re doing something right.”

“Then how did this Maggie get sick?” Monique pressed, still feeling they were trying to pull the wool over her eyes.

“The name is Mattie,” Tom pointed out, just as strongly. He was already building an intense dislike for this aggressive shrew, but he tempered his reaction, knowing how vital it would be to have someone knowledgeable about medicine available to them, even if she didn’t live there. “She’d been watching how close David and Alice were, and how that closeness allowed them to recover and heal emotionally. She decided she wanted some of that, so she cuddled up with David the other night. When she woke up the next morning, she was already showing the signs of infection.”

“And how long ago was that?”

“Not quite two days,” Tom admitted, relaxing his more aggressive stance. “About a day and a half.”

“That fits the scenario I’ve observed. She probably doesn’t have much longer.”

“Have you seen much of this yourself?” Tom asked.

“Yeah, I worked at the hospital. There we didn’t manage to keep everything quite as clean, but we also didn’t interact with the victims quite as personally.”

“Both David and Alice believe in this very strongly. Not only have they both been through it themselves, experiencing agony you can only dream of, but they also nursed a lot of friends and family through it as well. It’s very personal for them. They aren’t just warehousing them as the hospitals were doing,” Tom responded. Monique looked down at that rebuke, but then looked at Debbie again.

“How you doing, honey?”

“Honestly, I could use something to drink. Otherwise my leg still aches.”

“Yeah, I just gave you the antibiotic, so it’s going to be a while before it feels any better,” Monique told her as she got up and headed into the kitchen. “So has anyone else died since they’ve ‘recovered’?” Monique asked from the other room as she turned on the faucet with her elbow.

“Mattie and I were the first human survivors David and Alice found, though they’ve been rescuing a bunch of animals. So far, none of them have gotten any worse, although a few were sick when they found them.”

“They didn’t touch them, did they?” Monique asked in alarm as she reappeared carrying a small paper cup with water.

“They did, but they know the risks. They’ve been broadcasting to others the best approach to dealing with the situation. They always wear gloves and face masks when dealing with others, as well as using disposable clothing, though they’ve been running low of those now.

“Frankly, they’ve had enough experience to know what works and what doesn’t. They’ve been helping people for some time, and not just by sticking them somewhere and waiting for them to die, but actually taking care of them, talking to them, and constantly monitoring them.”

“Well, I’ll admit, this place looks immaculate,” Monique conceded, “and the medical supplies are certainly clean. They don’t appear to be cross contaminating anything.”

“But the animals are doing better?” Debbie asked, taking a sip of the water, but not appreciating it as much as she would have the hot chocolate.

“Let me see; they picked up a very sick wild duck, which is still weak but doing better, a rooster who was near death but is almost ready to join the several hens we have, and a horse named Aristotle that was already recovering when they found him. They’re all doing quite well.”

“Ooh, a horse. I love horses,” Debbie exclaimed. “I’d love to see one again.”

“You can forget that, missy. I want you to live through this experience. I’m not about to let you compromise your health just because you see something cute. And that goes for Mr. David too,” she whispered off-handedly to herself.

Alice reentered the house again and addressed them.

“Dad plans on staying with Mattie for as long as she needs. I’ve wiped down everything we’ve touched, like door handles. He also wanted me to tell you that I can take you to get your gas tank refilled, or if it’s more convenient, you can simply siphon enough from the other vehicles, just as long as you don’t drain any of them completely.”

“Tell him that’s very kind of him. I think we’ll do the latter. I’m still anxious to get out of here,” Monique confessed, still sounding uneasy.

“Are you sure?” Debbie asked. “This can’t be any riskier than that stupid tent we were living in; the scent of all those dead bodies wafting over us all night long. That couldn’t have been any better for us.”

“There’s a difference between unavoidable dead bodies a safe distance away and living sources of contagion in the same house,” Monique warned her.

“I don’t know if it’ll make a difference,” Alice suggested, “but we cleaned out the houses nearest us at the end of our driveway. They should be safe. We removed the dead bodies, sterilized everything and got rid of the infected mattresses. We could also supply you with some food if you needed it while staying there.”

“That’s very kind, but if you cleaned it, you may not have cleaned what you yourselves contaminated,” Monique informed her. “I still think it’s best if we keep our distance. As it is, I’m only waiting until Debbie is strong enough to walk again.”

“If you want, there’s a spare bed upstairs,” Alice offered, still hoping to make a good impression for her father’s benefit, hoping there was a chance for Monique and her father to somehow hit it off, though that was looking ever more unlikely. “It’s clean, it’s got a plastic cover on it we’ve cleaned repeatedly with a bleach wipe, and only Mattie’s used it recently before she got infected,” Alice offered.

Monique looked at Debbie, trying to gauge its relative safety versus their ability to safely leave the premises.

“Please?” Debbie asked pleadingly. “I really need to rest, and having a bed of my own to do it in would be tremendous.”

“Oh, yeah, Dad also mentioned he’s got some spare smartphones we can let you have. It’ll take some time for me to load them with stuff, but it’s probably the last source of new music you’re likely to encounter.”

“We have CDs in my car,” Monique responded.

“Yeah, with Luther Vandros and rap and rock songs from the 80s and 90s,” Debbie complained.

“OK, but don’t get adventurous,” Monique cautioned her, finally relenting. “Keep your curiosity in check and don’t touch anything. I’ll wipe down the handset and the earphones before we use them.”

“Oh thanks,” Debbie gushed, almost giving Monique a hug before catching herself, the age old human habit being very hard to break.

“Can I at least talk to Alice?” Debbie asked, pushing the issue. “It’s been ages since I’ve talked to anyone my age, and it would mean a lot to spend some time tal—”

“That’s not a good idea,” Monique insisted. “It doesn’t pay getting to know people if we’re going to be leaving soon.” It sounded to Alice like she was speaking from experience, and she figured she’d spent some time not getting to know people.

Debbie, though, looked upset; despite the good news she could stay and appreciate the nice clean comfortable house with all the modern conveniences. Alice felt for her, knowing what it was like not having anyone her age to talk to.

“I’ll show you where it’s at,” Alice offered, as Monique helped Debbie stand. Tom offered to carry her, even though she was already moving better than she had when she arrived, but Monique told him no, saying she needed to exercise the leg now. With that they hobbled up the stairs.

“I don’t think we’re going to convince them,” Alice commented when she came back downstairs without them.

“No, everyone has to make their own choices. If she worked at the hospital, she’s certainly seen a lot of people die. You can’t ask her to make the same choices you did. Yours were flavored with some degree of success. I don’t think hers have been. Apparently she only met Debbie the other day, and neither one has gotten sick yet.”

“No, you’re wrong about that,” Alice informed him. “It’s subtle, but when someone recovers from one of the plagues, they still bear the symptoms of it on their skin. It’s not as pronounced, but they never quite go away. In fact, I could even tell you what they had.”

“That may be, but it doesn’t change their circumstances. She’s more leery than we are and she has good reason to be. You’ve got to let her make her own decision.”

Alice was about to respond when Monique reappeared, descending the stairs. “If you still have that bourbon, I might just risk it.” She looked like she wasn’t weathering this much better than the others.

“Hello?” Monique called, knocking on the door of the trailer as the afternoon rain beat down, reinforcing the depressing scene occurring within.

David was anything but happy to be disturbed. He’d been sitting with Mattie for some time, and while she appeared unresponsive to the casual observer, she repeatedly grasped his hand, squeezing it weakly before loosening it again as she was wracked with pain, only to fall unconscious several minutes later. David could tell from her gasping breath she was in a great deal of pain, but knew she appeared to be in an uneasy sleep. Yet he was also conscious of just how much she was aware of what was happening to her and that someone was here for her. He really didn’t want to take any time from her during her time of need.

“Yeah?” he called back, figuring he’d better hear her out.

“We’re going to be taking off. We thank you for everything you’ve done, and while we appreciate your hospitality ... screw it. Enough with the pleasantries, while you’ve got a nice set up here, I’m terrified of dying in a ‘nice’ environment when we’re fine on our own. I wish you the best of luck, but if I were you, I’d avoid everyone else while you’re still contagious. Otherwise, their deaths will be on you,” she responded with more than a little anger, as if she blamed him personally for exposing her to something that might kill them at any moment.

“Glad I could be of assistance,” David responded sarcastically. He thought about it a moment and just had to check. “Did you get anything to travel on?”

“Oh yeah, that’s what’s taken so long. I let Debbie rest while I suctioned gas from your vehicles. Not knowing which you’d use, I tried to take an equal amount from all of them, so I don’t think you’ll be terribly impacted. But Debbie had a nice chance to recover, so we’re ready to travel again. Your daughter pointed us to some food, so I fixed some sandwiches for our return trip. We should be fine from here.”

“Well, that makes me feel a little better at least,” he responded. “Where are you going from here? Back to where you were?”