Apocalypse: The Savior with System

45 Cold Soup

Two days after the hospital was built, all of the sufferers were transferred and segregated. Using Judith’s tests, they were able to identify the old cases from the database as well as identify new ones, those who were infected by prolonged exposure to the sufferers, whether a family member or another train passenger. To say that it was an easy job to tell families they had to be separated and to tell those who were not infected their new and horrible diagnosis was to be an ass.

Unfortunately, that task was left to both him and Judith, as they were the only ones who had full access to their new database and the test results. Judith reasoned that while she handled the biological side of the project, she needed someone else to handle the computer and tech aspect.

Eric sighed wearily as he typed continuously into a computer terminal dedicated to making their own database of cases. Separated from him by a glass wall was the laboratory where Judith, though still wheelchair bound, tinkered with everything related to her research. Samples she took with consent from the sufferers were now housed in that space—a space she bravely entered daily after painstakingly dressing herself up in what Paul called a “space suit”.

He glanced at his watch. It was lunch hour already. He pressed a button on the intercom that connected his pod to the main laboratory and spoke, “Judith, time for lunch.”

Judith glanced up and nodded once to him but did not move away from what she was doing.

“Judith, I know it’s hell taking off and putting that suit on but you have to eat,” Eric scolded. “You’ll heal faster if you eat properly.”

He saw rather than heard her sigh in frustration as she pressed her own version of the intercom and said, “Fine! I’m eating!”

Eric smiled in victory. “Just eat here on my side. I’ll get your ration for you.”

She raised a thumbs-up sign and left the laboratory for the doffing room. Eric left his terminal and headed out of the hospital only to encounter Quinn coming on and expertly balancing two trays of food in both hands. A strange sight, since Quinn never let either hand empty of any sort of weapon even in the company of non-enemies.

He stopped. She stopped.

“Um, I’m just going to get food for Judith…”

To ask what she was doing inside the hospital would be weird. It was obvious she was bringing food in…but the sufferers and others isolated in the hospital were already provided for by the hospital’s own kitchen and pantry.

“Er, need help with that?” was the only thing he could ask, which was even worse than asking her the obvious. Quinn Vega could have balanced the other tray on her foot and not wobble a millimetre while shooting someone point-blank with a handgun.

Based on the expression on her face, that someone could very likely be him.

She did not answer the failure of a question, only tilted her head slightly and looked at Eric as if he was a bug that caught her interest…made her interested enough to squash him.

“I like you.”

Okay, that was the last thing Eric expected to come out of Quinn Vega’s mouth. Greek fire, maybe.

“Er, thanks?” He couldn’t very well say the words back. Sure, she was sexy as hell but there was nothing remotely close to the word “likeable” about her.

Well, he did like her fighting skills. Period.

She tilted her head down to laugh, the angle allowing the indoor lighting to touch the top of her head, which was now showing hints of red…she’s a red-head?

“I like the easily influenced, especially in men,” she declared, giving him an impish grin.

Eric blinked, trying to will away the warmth of embarrassment creeping up from his neck to his face. “Excuse me? Did you just say I’m gullible?”

He did not expect her to take the words back or apologize but she could at least deny she meant to hurt his feelings…

“I’m not a Hooter’s waitress so you can stop looking at my t**s now,” she drawled. Eric’s face finally heated and he looked up guiltily. Shaking her head, she handed him the trays. “You are gullible, Eric. You don’t have to lock yourself up in here just to cater to the Doctor’s whims.”

‘Hey! That’s low even for you!” Eric snapped, calming himself down when the rapidly-cooling soup in their bowls sloshed. “I’m not here for anybody else’s whim! It’s important work we do here, I’ll have you know!” He’d probably go up in her face, throwing away years of gentlemanly conduct, but the trays in his arms hindered that. So he stayed apart and said scathingly, “Judith is trying to develop a vaccine, something that can save lives, including yours, hopefully in the near future. And if I have to stay here so that future comes even nearer, I will!”

“A vaccine, huh?” Quinn scoffed, eyebrow raised. “You really believe that the virus can be avoided, if not cured?”

Eric nodded. “It’s her life’s work and something she’s really passionate about. Saving lives is just as important, even more so, than taking them, you know.”

It was a jab against Quinn, Eric knew. Sure, so far she’d used her skills to help their team but if Rahu was to be believed, Quinn Vega was not a woman to be trusted.

“Oh, I know,” she said in an almost off-hand manner and for some reason, Eric wanted to believe he saw something almost human pass over her features, only to be replaced in a second by a look of utter indifference. “But some lives don’t need saving. Some lives need to end for others to live. Don’t you learn that in soldier school or something?”

Eric couldn’t quite believe his ears. How could anyone be so…cold and apathetic?

“And I suppose you think you know who deserves to live and who doesn’t? You think you’re like an Angel of Death?”

Quinn gave him a lopsided smile. “Oh, no! I’m obviously no angel. But I like Death. Death is a sure thing. Once you cross it, it’s over. It’s final. No hemming and hawing.” Unhindered by the trays, Quinn had more space to move around and lean over closer to Eric’s ear. “Actually, I don’t give a s**t about your ideals or a vaccine or even a cure. If I get infected, so be it, get my just desserts, as you will probably say. There are many people outside of this arsenal who will see that vaccine and look at it, even use it, in every which way than for what it was intended. I think all of you expect this breakthrough will finally end this invisible war we’ve been fighting for so long. It won’t. It’s just another source of power for the already powerful.”

She straightened and sniffed haughtily. “Even your good friend, Paul, is not safe for all his special skills and abilities. In fact, they’re the reason he isn’t even safe to begin with.”

Eric frowned. “You don’t trust anyone, do you?”

Quinn shook her head “I only trust myself.”

Before Eric could argue more, she looked pointedly at both trays and said, “The soup’s cold. Better feed your mistress before she runs low on sugar.” With a dainty wave of her fingers, she exited the hospital.

Still steaming from the exchange, Eric went back to his office where Judith was typing into his computer.

“Sorry if the soup’s cold,” he said sheepishly as she wheeled away from the computer and went to another table where Eric set the trays down. “Had quite an encounter downstairs.”

Judith just hummed and started eating, finishing her meal in silence while her eyes kept darting from the computer to her plate. Eric likewise ate, stewing over the things Quinn said.

“Thanks for bringing the food, Eric,” she said minutes later, wiping her mouth with a napkin, and immediately wheeling herself towards the door. “Sorry for the inconvenience but I can’t spare minutes…”

But she was already distracted by her laboratory and out of the door before Eric could explain that he wasn’t the one who brought the food with her.

He was guzzling down water when the phone rang. He picked it up and heard Andie on the other end of the line asking for Judith since she’s not answering the laboratory phone.

“Any problems?” he asked, gathering the used plates, bowls, and utensils onto the trays.

“Well, she hasn’t eaten her lunch yet and her ration’s gone cold here.”

Eric pursed his lips for a moment. “We’ve both just finished lunch, though. How’s her ration still there?”

“You’ve eaten? ” Andie asked. “With Judith?”

“Who else?” he asked back.

“That’s weird. I thought I heard Eli say Quinn was having lunch with you. Or maybe I heard wrong. Anyway, if you’ve eaten, then we have one extra tray.”

“Wait!” he exclaimed before he could think. “Save it for Quinn!”

There was a long pause at the other end of the line. Then, Andie spoke. “What for? She’s already had a meal of her own.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah! She just went out with her stuff and came back in minutes with a large rabbit she skinned and prepared herself. Paul used it for target practice for his firepowers. So Quinn had roasted rabbit and Paul for company, which is even weirder because who’d want to be around that woman at all, right?” Noises in the background erupted and Andie huffed. “Gotta cut this short. Eli just dropped a large pot to the floor. Talk to you later, bye!”

 Eric blinked once. Twice. Thrice.

Judith, back in her space suit, probably waved to him on the other side of the glass. He probably waved back.

And, Quinn, probably, had wanted to eat lunch with him, and he probably gave her lunch to Judith.

Huh.