Apocalypse: The Savior with System

14 Inside Judith's Pockets

The ride going to Rahu’s house and former headquarters was unremarkable and fairly smooth until the car jerked to a stop in the middle of the freeway, the battery has gone to zero voltage. Granted, the freeway was deserted by other vehicles, they were still too far from their destination.

“If we’re walking, it might take us a week at the most,” Paul said to Judith, consulting the navigation console of the system and then giving Rahu a surreptitious glance. Rahu walked over to the edge of the freeway, eyes darting this way and that. “He’s not well.”

After getting their food earlier, Paul sat in the passenger seat, allowing Rahu to take up the entire rear and sleep. Judith drove the entire way. Enlivened by the food, Paul tried to strike a conversation with the scientist but he found himself floundering. Beyond the events in Pakistan and the institute, he really didn’t have anything or any experiences in common with Judith Merkel. He didn’t want to talk about sad things either.

Rahu, or Rahu’s condition, seemed to be a good enough topic now.

“He’s holding up well despite the virus,” said Judith, hands in her coat pocket. “But we can’t bank on that being the case forever.” Moments later, she fished out a small vial from her pocket and handed it to Paul just as Rahu came trotting back to them.

“It’s a serum,” she explained. “Off-label but a special precaution all researchers and personnel from the institute and subsidiary Pearse-Sachly laboratories were required to take every two weeks to prevent infection within Vitro virions. It’s never been tested for disease retardation but a small number from the population we tested showed signs of viral delay. He should take it.”

Rahu looked at her then the vial doubtfully.

“I can’t—won’t—kill you,” she said firmly, taking out an insulin syringe from another pocket.

How deep do those pockets go? Paul wondered with amusement, watching her remove the protective tin foil covering of the vial and uncap the syringe.

Judith plunged the needle into the rubber stopper, extracted less than one milliliter and offered the needle to Rahu. “Should I do it or would you rather do it yourself?”

Given Rahu’s history with drugs, Paul didn’t know if Judith was being cruel on purpose. But Rahu only rolled up his sleeve and showed Judith his bulging bicep, into which she plunged the needle and pushed the serum. Done, she re-capped the needle and replaced it into a hidden pocket inside her coat. “Can’t dispose of infected needles out here,” she told them matter-of-factly.

Paul opened his mouth to ask the burning question of how many pockets her coat has but Rahu spoke first.

“It won’t take us a week to get to my place if the serum does work on me,’ he said to them, lowering his carbine which seemed always on the ready to shoot at anything that even moved. “Five days at the most, three if we don’t stop often.” At this, Rahu looked Judith up and down.

Judith’s spine straightened. “Don’t mistake my appearance as weakness, Mister Knight. I can walk three to five days if I have to.”

Afraid that a verbal war might arise between the two, Paul quickly interrupted, “A walk is good! I need sun exposure anyway. To Judith, he asked, “On top of the virus, I won’t get melanoma or any of that skin cancer s**t, too, would I?”

“At this point, would it still matter if you did?”

Paul thought for a moment. “No, I guess not.”

Judith sighed. “Don’t worry; you won’t get skin cancer from the exposure.”

“Really? How would you know?”

“She would because she looked after you in Pakistan,” Rahu snapped, obviously chafing at the bit, intent to get moving. “I don’t want to be out here where we’re too exposed. You can get your sunlight while we’re moving.”

Paul grinned. “Well, he said it! Okay, let’s go!” Patting the hood of their electric car, Paul tenderly said, “You’ve been a big help, buddy.”

Rahu shook his head at Paul and walked off towards the treeline bordering the road. Judith took their remaining meal packs and followed after him with Paul taking up the rear.

Though relatively hidden by the foliage, Paul was able to soak up precious sunlight and energy, watching with pride as the indicator in his system’s energy panel slowly began to rise. Every once in awhile he also managed to pick up bits and pieces of iron, copper, and silicon. The conversion level did not improve much but at least he knew his stores weren’t completely empty.

After a few more hours of going up hills, they had to rest, more for Judith’s sake though neither of the two men badgered her about it. Anyway, they had to relieve themselves, too, and eat.

When night came, they positioned themselves on a rocky but generally flat and isolated outcropping. Paul was already looking for twigs to make a fire but Judith advised them against building one. Fire meant warmth, she told them, and warmth meant human presence. Zombies lingering in the area would be able to feel and sniff them out.

In the army, men huddled with other men regardless of gender identity or orientation. One wouldn’t even care when shivering in snow or the desert nights. So it was not such a big deal to lie back to back with Rahu. They were both infected already.

Judith Merkel was the concern.

One, she’s a girl.

Two, she’s not infected—as far as Paul knew.

Three, even if she was, he didn’t know how to tell her it was okay to huddle next to him—because she obviously wouldn’t huddle next to Rahu who was wrapped around his precious guns and already snoring behind him.

So he told her in a roundabout way, instead.

“If you have an unlimited stash of that serum in one of your many pockets, you should take some,” he advised. In the dark, he felt more than saw her head swivel to him. The faint moonlight made her eyes behind her eyeglasses glow.

“Not unlimited,” she said. “I only have two more unopened ones and a few tuberculin syringes.”

If it was even possible, they stared at each other in the dark for a long time before he felt her shift…and her small body lied down a hand-width from him, facing away.

Paul understood somehow why she declined the serum for herself. No matter what her prejudices and biases were, Judith Merkel had kindness in her, as evidenced by what she did during the meal distribution fiasco. She was not the cold and calculating scientist he knew in Pakistan. She couldn’t be.

The night was too cold in the south and lying down on hard stone ground felt like punishment. Without waiting for her to agree, Paul wrapped an arm around her and pulled her back flush to his front. The stiffening of her body and it trying to reject his closeness was a telltale sign of her discomfort.

Geez, has anybody ever held this woman before? He wondered.

“Relax, Doc. I’m not a predator. It’s just for warmth. I need you alive to keep Rahu alive,” he whispered, grinning at the top of her head.

“Fine,” she gritted out, managing to relax her body enough to sag against Paul. “Just so you know, I still have that gun you gave me.”

“I know because it’s right under my hand,” he teased, earning him a hard nudge to his solar plexus that made him bump against Rahu. Rahu only snored louder.

“If our smell doesn’t act like an alert signal for zombies, Rahu’s snoring will,” Paul muttered. But he received no answer from Judith. By the weight of her body and the steady, quiet sound of her breathing, he knew she had quickly fallen asleep. The woman was probably too exhausted and too proud to say anything about it.

For a long time, Paul couldn’t sleep, his mind brimming with memories and thoughts that were both unwanted yet he felt were also needed. As far as he knew, Judith was his last link to Pakistan, since Eric Mayer was kept away from him by safe zone rules. He had many questions back when he was released from the testing center but during his three-year stay in other quarantine facilities, he had forgotten about the urgency of the answers.

Now, with Judith Merkel around and all the strange events he’d been involved in since the attack on the train, those questions came rushing back to Paul.

Why was he implanted with the system?

Are there others like him out there?

Why is he still alive?

He didn’t know if Judith can answer all his questions or if she will even answer. He didn’t know where her loyalties lie or if she is also beginning to doubt the status of her employment and value under Pearse-Sachs.

Something sharp jabbed into his forearm but it wasn’t a needle. It was the wireframe of Judith’s glasses.

He stretched out and plucked the spectacles away from her face, careful not to pull on the frizzed curls that got trapped between the hinges. Released, the glasses were laid aside. She moved and burrowed deeper into his arms.

Tomorrow, no, one day I will ask about Pakistan, he promised himself, moving closer to Rahu’s side and taking Judith with him. But I have to earn her trust first. Now, I really need to sleep.

Soon, Rahu’s snoring and rumbling breath turned into a lullaby of a sort, a vibration in his bones that lulled Paul into drowsiness.

Sleep as if there are no zombies in the world, was his last thought as Paul drifted away, feeling warm and strangely, comforted.