“Hey,” I hear and the mattress shifts under me. The springs creak. “You awake?”
Cole sits next to me, peering down with a worried expression. He’s hunched under the upper bunk, relief mixed in with the tension. I struggle to sit. He helps, pushing the pillow behind my back. “Yeah, I guess. God, my head.”
He runs his hand over his face. “Tell me about it.”
“Where are we?” I ask.
“Not sure. Maybe the Air Force base? We weren’t that far away.”
“Why do you think that?”
He stands and points to an emblem on the foot of the bed.
USAF034.
“Right.”
Cole moves to the wall and slides down until he is sitting on the ground. The room is bare, other than two sets of bunks and an empty closet. An open door leads to a small bathroom.
“Does the water run?” I ask.
He nods.
“The
power?”
He reaches over his head, straining and pushes the light switch. The bare bulb shines. He turns it off and sits back down.
“So they have electricity and water.” I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and fight a wave of nausea. “You going to tell me what’s going on?”
“They could be listening.”
“I have a feeling they know more than I do. It would be nice to catch up.” From the look on his face my sarcasm is not lost on him.
“I never meant for any of this to happen,” he starts.
“I’m sure no one expected any of this to happen, Cole, but I don’t like being left in the dark, by you or my father. I need you to tell me what you know.”
He frowns, clearly conflicted. I roll my eyes and sigh. This is ridiculous.
I lie back down, my head is about to split. When I’m not looking at him he says, “The E-TR virus was developed as one of the many possible weapons to be used against the War on Terror. Part military—part private contract.”
“The E-TR virus was a weapon? Holy crap.”
“The theory was to infect terrorist cells in isolated areas. Primarily the desert. The US missed some opportunities early on to strike major groups—while they were in transition. They didn’t want that to happen again. They also couldn’t risk using nuclear warfare, so they started pushing bio weapons. One infected person would turn on the others effectively wiping out their entire group.”
“They would spread the virus to one another.”
“Yes and die quickly from the parasite infection. Military personnel would be given a vaccine and survivors an antidote. Your father was brought in to keep track of the process.”
“So my father was working for…”
“Both sides,” he says. “PharmaCorp and the government.”
“Wow.” I thought about the papers I’d seen on his desk. PharmaCorp was definitely mentioned.
“According to him the virus was years from being used in any sort of military project. They’d managed to manipulate the virus for warfare but the antidote was taking more time since the virus mutated easily.”