Page 10

TEN

KITTEN

Cipher was not himself. He was… something else.

Rabid. My boyfriend had turned Rabid less than twenty-four hours after being bitten. It was too quick, way faster than my mother. I had to think rationally and stay calm. What if I couldn’t help him? What if no one could?

“Artemis? Macon?” I said into my radio. It was the middle of the night, but I needed backup.

“What’s up?” Macon said, sounding groggy.

“Here,” Artemis said right behind him.

“I need you both up here. My bedroom. Now.”

Soon enough, I heard the pounding of their footsteps as they bounded up the stairs. The three of us filled the small room, looming over Cipher where he was still strapped to the narrow bed. The only light in the room was from the moon, filtering in through the window.

“Don’t get close to him.” I raised both arms to prevent them from getting any nearer as Cipher’s head snapped to attention, nostrils flaring as he scented us from across the room. His eyes had already developed cobwebby spots in them, which meant he was likely relying on his hearing and scent to determine where we were. His skin was waxy and beaded with drops of sweat, his body burning up with a fever, and that wasn’t even the most terrifying part.

“Hun…grr…yyy,” he growled. “Hun gry ,” he said again, something between a plea and a cry. The sound was so pitiful that it hurt my heart. He jutted his chin forward and opened his mouth like a baby bird wanting to be fed as the tendons in his neck pulled taut. When none of us moved toward him, he tilted his head in a curious way. “Baa, baa, little lamb,” he cooed, “baa, baa.”

“Fuck,” Macon said. He ran both his hands through his short hair and tugged on the ends.

“This is not good,” Artemis said, and for the first time since I’d met her, she looked scared.

“He was burning up with a fever, but he wouldn’t take the pills. He doesn’t know who I am or who he is,” I told them.

“Fuck,” Macon said again.

“He’s Rabid,” Artemis said. “That happened so fast. Damnit.” She sat down in the armchair I’d slept in.

“What’s that he keeps saying?” Macon asked.

“He called me little lamb. He’s trying to get me to come closer so he can bite me. He almost did already.” Even in his current state, Cipher was still hyper aware, which made him all the more dangerous.

“I’m so sorry, Kitten,” Artemis said.

I was all cried out, emotionally drained as I was, and falling apart wasn’t going to help Cipher.

“So, what’s the plan?” Macon asked.

“We can’t keep him here like this. It’s not safe. And I don’t want to put him in a cage either. I don’t know what Rabids eat, except for humans. I wouldn’t even know how to care for him…” I said in a rush.

Macon laid a hand on my shoulder. “Deep breaths, buddy. Let’s take this one problem at a time.”

“Has anyone gotten a hold of Captain Crenshaw?” I asked.

“No, nothing yet,” Artemis said.

But their base had a hospital with doctors who specialized in Rabbit Fever. Breakthroughs are happening all the time, Crenshaw had told me.

“I think we should sedate him, load him into the Humvee, and take him to the base,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. I’d been entrusted by the group to make decisions on Cipher’s behalf. I couldn’t properly care for him here, and we couldn’t risk our family’s safety. I was in over my head.

“I thought we told them there was no vehicle,” Macon said.

“I’ll figure something out, or I’ll tell them the truth, I don’t know. One problem at a time, okay?”

Macon nodded. “I’ll go wake the boys and have them fill up the Humvee. We’ll have it ready and waiting for you outside. I’ll be back to help you move him, and I’ll go with you to the base.”

“Thank you. Artemis, can you keep an eye on him while I get the drugs?”

“Yeah,” she said, still sitting there frozen with a vacant look in her eyes, staring at Cipher as if he were a stranger. I didn’t have the energy to ask her what she was thinking, probably some mixture of terror, shock, and sadness, same as me.

I went into the bathroom where I kept my medical kit and lit an oil lamp so I could see what I was doing. I couldn’t risk putting my hands near his mouth, and he’d probably spit out whatever pills I tried to give him anyway. I’d have to inject him with a sedative. Trying to steady my trembling hands, I filled a syringe with two cc’s of a barbiturate that I hoped had the same effect on Rabids as it did on humans. As I re-entered the bedroom, Cipher’s head snapped in my direction, and he started baaing and clucking his tongue, beckoning me closer with his hands, wrists still bound to the bed. His foot was the only area of his body I felt comfortable approaching, the only place where he couldn’t grab or snap at me.

I took hold of his ankle, and he immediately tried to yank it back, rocking so violently on the bed that the headboard dented the wall. Artemis sprang into action, leaning on his shin with both hands to hold him still. I plunged the needle of the syringe between his first two toes, aiming for the dorsal vein. Artemis and I stood there in tense silence as we watched Cipher’s struggle slowly come to an end. His eyelids drooped and his body slumped against the pillows. I nudged him a few times, then squeezed his side where I knew he was ticklish. I checked his heartbeat, slow but steady. Taking advantage, I wiped his face with a damp cloth, clearing away the frothy spit from around his mouth. Almost immediately more gathered, pooling and dripping from his lips. I braced the back of his head and tried pouring a little water into his mouth to hydrate him, but most of it dribbled out the side. It had been an effort to get my mother to drink water or eat food when she was sick. How long could he survive without water?

Meanwhile, Artemis circled the bed, checking his restraints, pausing to take a closer look at the bite on his neck. The pockets of pus had grown, gooey and green with infection. The veins surrounding the wound were swollen and black with rot. I didn’t know how fast a body in this condition could metabolize the sedative, which meant we needed to move quickly.

“We need to bind his wrists together and remove his leg,” I told her. I hated to incapacitate him like that, but we couldn’t risk him waking up while in transit and attacking one of us.

“I’ll help,” she said, so I gave her a set of gloves and a mask and we worked together to secure him. I placed a mask on Cipher as well. “How are you staying so calm?” she asked me.

“I’m not. I’m terrified that we’re making a mistake. I don’t know what’s going to happen to him once we get to the base, and part of me still doesn’t believe that he’s sick, but we have to keep moving forward, right? I’m not giving up until we’ve tried absolutely everything.”

“You’re right. He’s lucky to have you, Kitten.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. Seemed like I was breaking my promises to him, left and right. “Yeah, we’ll see.”

The two of us worked in silence, watching our beloved leader as he waged a silent war inside his body. His chest rose and fell with every wet, wheezing breath, muscles twitching as if trapped in a bad dream. This was a nightmare for all of us, one we wouldn’t be waking from anytime soon. Cipher whimpered, then growled, guttural and low.

Neither of us needed to say it. Even in slumber, he sounded like a Rabid.

I had Cipher’s map of Greenville along with the recruitment flyer Crenshaw had given me. That, in addition to my memory of how we got there, would be enough to find the United Forces’ base again, despite it being the middle of the night. Macon drove the Humvee down the darkened, abandoned roads while I navigated. We’d laid a bedroll in the back and placed Cipher on top of it, using Jeremiah’s rigging to strap him down. Overkill, maybe, but we weren’t taking any chances. When the road became too hard to pass, we took the Humvee off-road, mowing down whatever shrubbery and small trees stood in our path. We saw packs of Rabids hunting in the nighttime, their opaque eyes reflecting the headlights of our vehicle, but the sounds of the engine must have made them wary because they didn’t come any closer.

It was hard to imagine Cipher becoming one of them. If I saw him in the woods or found him gnashing his teeth outside our gates, would I kill him? I’d killed other Rabids without any concern for who loved them, who missed them, who desperately wanted them back.

Stay positive, Kitten. You’ve got this.

It was still dark when we arrived at the base, and it wasn’t immediately clear where the entrance was, so I directed Macon to a fenced gate and shot a flare into the sky. The flare lit up like a firework, leaving a huge plume of red smoke in its wake. I remembered watching the fireworks show from our backyard when I was little. Every summer on the Fourth of July there was a neighborhood barbeque. Hot dogs and hamburgers and ice cream pops that dripped down your fingers and left your hands sticky for hours, running around in the endless twilight with my brother and Lucas and whatever other kids were around. All of it topped off with a brilliant display of fireworks that lit up the sky.

Would Cipher make it to the Fourth of July?

Soon enough we heard a siren wailing, likely alerting the base to our presence, and four military Jeeps appeared out of nowhere boxing us in on all sides.

“Drop your weapons and step out of the vehicle,” one of the soldiers barked at us via megaphone while aiming his rifle in our direction. I dropped the flare gun in the seat of the Humvee and slowly exited the passenger side with my hands raised to show them I was unarmed. On the driver’s side, Macon did the same. They herded us together, four rifles pointed in our direction. I was sweating and nervous, but my need to save Cipher canceled out all other fears.

“I’m Joshua Perrin-Rogers, a civilian, and I’m here to see Captain Crenshaw,” I told them without being prompted. Their floodlights were aimed in our direction, which made it hard for me to see their faces.

“How do you know the Captain?” the soldier asked.

I slowly reached into my pocket and pulled out the recruitment flyer she’d given me. The soldier gave it a once-over and said, “Crenshaw’s in the field.”

“Can you radio her to come back to base? It’s an emergency.”

“What’s the emergency?”

Could I trust them with this information? Would they consider Cipher turning Rabid a true emergency? What if they decided to kill him on sight? I had to take the risk. “Our friend got bit by a Rabid. He’s in the back of the Humvee, sedated and restrained. We came here to see about treatment.”

The soldiers exchanged a look, hard to know if they believed us or not, but honestly, why would we lie? The same one from before said, “Take five steps toward us, away from the vehicle. Slowly.”

We both did as instructed while another soldier slipped in behind us. Three more trained their rifles on the cab door of the Humvee.

“Please don’t hurt him,” I said.

A soldier threw open the door to reveal Cipher, now conscious, his opaque eyes squinting as he shrank from the floodlight, still whimpering with hunger. He was strapped down and lying on his side just as we’d left him, mouth covered with the mask. He looked sick and so helpless but beautiful still. God, please save him.

“Can you help him?” I asked the soldiers. “Please?”

“We have a protocol for anyone entering the base,” the soldier said. “We need you to strip down so we can look you over for any signs of the disease.”

Macon and I complied, discarding all of our clothing, even our underwear. One of the soldiers angled the floodlight on us while the others inspected us from head to foot, making us turn around and bend over. I didn’t care enough to be embarrassed. I’d do whatever it took to get Cipher some help.

Finally satisfied, they told us to get dressed while they huddled together in a tight group and discussed it. I tried to guess what the soldiers were saying from their body language alone, but the light in my eyes was still blinding me.

“It’s going to be okay. We’re going to get you some help,” I said to Cipher. His head turned sharply toward me and maybe I was only imagining it, but he glared at me as if I’d betrayed him.

“How’d your friend get infected?” the same soldier from before asked me.

“He and my brother were out picking strawberries in a field. Rabids attacked them in the daytime. They ran away but Cipher fell behind, and one bit him on the neck.”

I should have gone with him. I shouldn’t have trusted Santiago to protect Cipher. When had he ever saved anyone but himself?

“We’re going to take the two of you inside. Lieutenants Reed and Sonders here will drive the Humvee and transport your friend to a secure location within our lab.”

“Can I go with him?” I asked.

“No, it’s not safe. The two of you will stay in the barracks until we’ve had time to discuss this matter.”

“When will Crenshaw be back?” I asked, needing more information. I had to keep Cipher safe.

“We can’t tell you that at this time.”

“You’ll take care of him, right? You won’t hurt him, will you?” I was begging, glancing between Cipher and the soldiers, afraid to let him go. Macon laid a hand on my shoulder, probably sensing my growing desperation.

The soldier’s stiff composure softened ever so slightly. “We’ll do what we can.”