Plagued: The Ironville Zombie Quarantine Retraction Experiment (Plagued States of America Book 3) (20 page)

Thirty-Nine

“Gary,” Tom snapped, talking into his satellite phone. “Shut the hell up and listen, would you? We need to know how to drive a train engine. Get in touch with Amtrak, or Southern Pacific, or anyone you can
. Get an engineer on the phone with us and call me back. We’re on a runaway train and we don’t know what to do. What do you mean
how did we get on the train
? Just do it! We’ll talk when you call me back!”

Tom pressed a button on the phone
to hang up even as Penelope heard Gary’s muffled voice speaking through the receiver.

“Hank,” Tom said, holding the phone to him. “When he calls back, you’re in charge of the engine.”

“Why me?”

“Do you want to be in charge of the bodies?”

Hank took the phone from Tom’s hand.

“Wendy, come on. Back to the coaches. Penny, let me help you.”

“What?” O’Farrell asked, looking up at Tom. Jones’ blood smeared her cheek.

“Wendy,” Tom said, crouching low and holding a hand out to O’Farrell. “Come on. I need you to keep an eye on Penny for me.” He helped her back to her feet. “Dad, I need you to strip some beds to get enough blankets for the bodies.”

Tom crouched down in front of Penelope and reached his hands under her armpits to help her stand. “Come on, Penny,” he whispered in her ear in his comforting way. “You’ve had enough of all this shit.”

Penelope put one arm around his neck and let him guide her past the Senator and out of the
cockpit. They side-stepped through the engine bay and once again, Tom helped her across between the engine and the first coach, taking hold of the railing as he pulled her across the gap.

He set her down in their bed. O’Farrell followed them into the room. Tom moved Penelope’s hair off her forehead and leaned down to kiss her there.

“You were right,” Tom said. “We shouldn’t have come.”

She grabbed his hand as he tried to stand.

“Penny, I need to go take care of the….” He didn’t say “bodies,” but she knew that was what he meant. “Let me go. You can trust Wendy.”

Penelope nodded, letting Tom’s hand go. He backed out of the berth, gave her one more look of apology, and moved up the hallway to
search the other berths for extra blankets with his father, the Senator.

Neither O’Farrell nor Penelope said a word. O’Farrell stood at the door, listening, waiting. They heard the Senator and Tom both leave together. As soon as the coach door closed and the noise of the world outside the train settled to a dull rumbling
coming from beneath the train, O’Farrell stepped closer to Penelope, hovering over the bed.

“What happened?” O’Farrell demanded. Her flush face held
eyes that bore down on Penelope, seeking answers to confirm what she probably already suspected.

Penelope sighed. She couldn’t explain it even if she had words. She turned her head and stared out the window rather than face O’Farrell’s growing rage.
Penelope reached into one of her pockets and removed a vial of the cure, holding it with the tips of her fingers for O’Farrell to see.

“How did you get that?” O’Farrell asked, then sighed. “Oh. Who cares?
What good are they now?” O’Farrell sucked in a deep breath. “What’s the point in any of this?”

Penelope turned back to face O’Farrell, rolling onto her side in the bed. O’Farrell slumped into the chair near the door, her whole body going slack from exhaustion and her crushing loss. It didn’t take much to imagine this is how she would feel herself if she lost Tom.

Penelope pointed at the floor.

O’Farrell looked at her with
apparent confusion.

Penelope held the tiny bottle of the cure up again,
emphasizing it before pointing at the floor.

“The children!” O’Farrell gasped, her eyes widening. “Oh my God, I forgot about the children we’re hauling. They must be freezing!”

Penelope slid the vial back into her pocket and sighed, closing her eyes. O’Farrell continued talking at her, but she couldn’t focus any longer. Her eyelids felt like lead weights that raked gravel over her dry eyes every time she blinked. She thought it best to keep her eyes closed, but only for a minute. Just long enough to give her eyes a quick rest.

Forty

“You’d never know she’s part zombie to look at her,” Penelope heard O’Farrell saying softly.

“She never lets me see her sleeping,” Tom replied, equally quiet. “She’s always first up, before dawn, and last to bed, after I can hardly keep my eyes open. I was worried the first few nights she didn’t sleep at all. I’d wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and she’d be staring at me.”

Penelope opened her eyes to see Tom sitting in the chair O’Farrell
occupied earlier. O’Farrell stood in the door frame.

“Just like that,” Tom said with a smile. “Always alert.”

Penelope tried to sit up, forgetting the waves of motion swirling in her head from earlier. Tom got up and crossed to the bed, trying to ease her back down. Her head began to throb and she let him guide her back to the pillow.

“Go easy, Penny,” he said. “We’re only a few minutes out. We just passed
Ironville. Hank’s got the engine under control. We’re home.”

O’Farrell passed Tom a water bottle
for her.

“Drink it all,” O’Farrell said.

Penelope nodded and sipped some of the water. It felt so refreshing on her parched tongue. Her thirst erupted and she tilted the bottle up to drink deep gulps.

“Slowly!”

Tom put a hand on the bottle to tilt it down again. Penelope took smaller gulps, but continued drinking until the bottle was empty.

“You ready for the showdown?” Tom asked O’Farrell softly.

She nodded. “You know I can’t get in the middle of this, though, right?”

Tom nodded.

“I’m not in your position,” she said. “I need my name cleared. I need my job back. I need something.”

“Well, you’ve got the cure now,” Tom said.

Penelope patted her pockets to find them emptied.

“Sorry,” Tom said to Penelope. “She told me you had them. I gave her the four from your pockets.”

Penelope nodded, but didn’t reach for the fifth vial stuffed down her sock. Not yet. Not until she understood what was going on.

The train lurched, slowing.

“This is our stop,” Tom said with a smile.

“I’ll go back to Larissa,” O’Farrell said. “It’s been good knowing you, Tom. Penny, you take care of him.”

Penelope’s brows furrowed with confusion. Why were they saying goodbye?

“I’m sorry about Mason,” Tom said. “I really am.”

“So am I,” O’Farrell said, taking a deep, steadying breath before walking out of the berth.

Tom helped
Penelope sit all the way up. Her head rolled with the trundling sway of the train.

Tom spoke at a whisper.

“My father did something bad and he doesn’t deserve getting Larissa back. Not until he tells me what’s really going on. I owe it to everyone who’s died these past few days. Don’t be afraid.”

Penelope turned to glare at him.

“Sorry,” he said with a smile. “Don’t be nervous. I know you’re never afraid.”

Her eyes softened. She pointed at him, then at herself, linking her fingers in the sign they used to mean together. She broke the link and let her eyes and face take on a look of horror.

“You and me, together,” he said, hooking her fingers again. “Don’t be afraid.”

The train jerked to a halt. Outside, the EPS was lit up against the blackness of night, a series of flood lights shining out from the rooftop over the compound. Shades in every window along the north side
facing the train tracks were drawn and hundreds of faces peered out at the scene. A dozen or more men in military black moved with haste to replace the fence that was being lowered into place behind the train’s arrival.

“Come on, Penny.”

He helped her to her feet and walked her to the front coach. Through the windows, she saw the Senator speaking with a group of soldiers. Hamilton, his arm in a sling, stood by his side. A medic began inspecting the break, trying to pry Hamilton from the Senator’s side.

Tom pushed the door aside and helped Penelope out into the cold winter wind. She wished she still wore the ski jacket, but Tom told her to leave it
behind, that they wouldn’t be outside that long.

Hank came out the back of the engine bay as Tom helped Penelope down onto the rocks surrounding the tracks.

“You mind if I crash at your place tonight?” Hank asked.

“As long as you don’t mind Penelope’s snoring,” Tom replied.

“Tomorrow I can go bring in the duck, maybe.”

Penelope fell into Tom’s arms as she jumped off the last step. Tom caught her in his strong arms and eased her to the ground.

“Did I ever tell you how Peske got the duck in the first place?”

Tom only smiled.

“We’ll get a couple beers and I’ll tell you all about it.”

Tom nodded and led Penelope toward his father. Hank didn’t step down from the engine. Instead, he hopped across to the coach cars and ducked inside.

“Captain,” Tom called out as he approached the soldiers surrounding his father. Penelope knew the captain as the night officer of the EPS. “Captain, we have ten infectious children in the cargo cages beneath the main coach there. They need to be transferred into standard holding cages. We also have three bodies in the last coach that need to be brought in for forensics—”

“Tom, I don’t think that will be necessary—”

“And,” Tom said, interrupting his father. “There’s also a child in that coach there who needs to be put into isolated quarantine immediately.”

“Tom,” the Senator growled. “I was just telling Captain
Palmer that she was
given the curative
. She poses no immediate threat.”

“She’s fully infectious,” Tom instructed Captain
Palmer, disregarding his father. “We need standard blood tests every three days until her blood toxicity is below legal allowances.”

“Three days!?” the Senator blurted. “Tom, hold on here. What are you doing?”

“My job. She’s not crossing the channel until she passes her blood tests.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“We can talk later, sir,” Tom said to his father. “But she’s not going anywhere until her blood panels clear.”

Tom turned to Captain
Palmer and instructed her to collect the children first. Several of the men surrounding them were dispatched. Hamilton was led off with the medic, leaving only the Captain and two of her men.

“This is about
her
, isn’t it?” the Senator said, pointing at Penelope. “Because
she
can’t cross?”

Tom stared at his father
showing no sign of any emotion. It made Penelope uncomfortable to be the object of their resentment, but she reminded herself that this wasn’t about her. It was about Larissa, the girl inside the train everyone died to save.

Penelope looked back at the train and saw O’Farrell at one of the windows
, looking out at them in the same manner as all the people on the EPS. The only difference was that O’Farrell knew what Tom was up to, but Penelope didn’t.

“You can have your daughter in twelve days, sir,
if
she passes quarantine,” Tom said evenly.

“I can have you fired,” the Senator said under his breath.

“And run the risk of someone else handling your daughter’s transfer? You know, in your speeches you like to say things like ‘for the good of America’, but you’re advocating bringing an infectious child across the channel—the only barrier we have to keep the horde at bay—confident in an untested cure? Is that really the kind of leader America needs?”

“God damn it, Tom, be reasonable. This is
Larissa
we’re talking about! My daughter! Your—”

“I know! I know who she is. You don’t think I know better than anyone?”

“Tom—”

“We’ll talk later,” Tom interrupted. “I’ve got a mountain of paperwork to file for all these incomings.”

“So that’s how it’s going to be?” the Senator asked. “You know you’re turning your back on family by doing this. I have other doctors, and facilities. She can be in quarantine on the other side. It’s safe.”

“Only if you happen to have a
vaccine
laying around,” Tom argued.

The Senator stiffened
as though Tom struck him with his fists. Penelope’s attention turned to Tom, wondering how he knew that word:
vaccine!
She looked back at the train. O’Farrell still watched from the window. She must have told Tom what happened on the roof, of how Kennedy really died.

“God damn it, Dad, you do, don’t you? How could you?”

“Tom. Son, this isn’t the time or place—”

“No, you’re right about that. She was normal, wasn’t she?” Tom asked, no
dding his head toward Penelope.

Her head recoiled
away from Tom, her eyes wide in disbelief. Normal? What did he mean by
normal
? Normal like a human? The way she was before she became zombie? Her grip on his neck loosened as she tried to step away from the two of them. Tom turned to her and caught her before she fell, easing her to the rocks surrounding the train tracks.

“Penny,” Tom said. “Penny, I’m sorry.”

“I’m taking Larissa,” the Senator said to Tom’s back. He marched off, his feet crunching in the uneven stones, leaving Tom to care for Penelope alone.

“You can have her,” Tom said under his breath.