Zocopalypse (Death Fields 1)

“They call themselves patriots. Nationalists. Whatever they are they’re extreme—outside the mainstream military for sure,” he answered.

“But what does any of this have to do with me and all the tests?” I ask. “Because trust me, I know how amazingly amazing my dad is.” I’d spent a lifetime second fiddle to his career. Even now, in the possibly post-apocalyptic world he overshadows the rest of us.

“When PharmaCorp sold the E-TR virus to the patriots that dropped the virus on Boko Haram. As horrible as that group is the virus was too unstable. Your father knew it would spread and he was right. It rippled across Africa and then across the rest of the country. Your father started to scramble to create an antidote and vaccine. He needed a test subject and he included his family. If anyone was going to have the active antibodies needed to fight this it was going to be you and your mother.”

“Holy crap. Are you saying I’m immune or something?” The intrigue only lasts a minute when I think about my mother. A lump forms in my throat. “Oh, my God, my mom. Was she immune? Did I k—k—kill her for...”

I lurch forward. Every ounce of fluid barreling up my throat. I race to the bathroom, nearly falling over twice but Cole is right behind me keeping me steady. I vomit into the toilet, a rush of water and not much of anything else.

“Alex, no,” he says pulling my hair off my cheeks. “God, no. She wasn’t immune. Remember? He excluded her from the experiments months before your final injections.”

Relief washes over me, but it doesn’t stop another wave of nausea. I steady myself against Cole, who hasn’t taken his hands off of me. Once I’ve gained my footing he wets a towel and I use it to clean my mouth and face.

Helping me back to the bed he says, “Your mother wasn’t a good test subject. But you? You were his golden ticket. Your body reacted to the vaccine, therefore altering your body to help create the antibodies needed to help others fight the virus. At least that was the ultimate hope before he got shut down.”

I try to let that sink in but it’s too big. “If all of that is true then why shut Dad down? Why not let him finish what he started?”

Cole shakes his head. “I’m afraid those are government secrets above any level I’d have access to.”

I narrow my eyes. “Yeah, you know an awful lot for a basic lab guy. Who told you so much?”

“Your dad. When we left your house that day he asked me to follow up on you. He told me about the,” he touches his chest, still aware that we’re probably being watched, “stuff. When you and your mom took off I followed.”

“Why?” I say leaning toward him. “That had to be outside of what he was talking about. He would never ask you to leave your life behind to follow my mom and me on a suicidal mission.”

“The world as we know it is over, Alex. You may be the one thing that can help us. On a professional level, I have an obligation to see this through—to your father and to humanity as a whole.” His eyes flick downward, toward his hands that have been worrying the Army green fabric of his pants. He speaks again, this time his voice rough and deep, “On a personal level? I knew I wanted to know more about you the first day you stepped into my lab. If the world is going to shit, and it’s very likely that it is, I want to at least have taken a shot.”

I blink, totally overwhelmed by all of the information he just shared—especially that last bit. I try to say something impressive and forget the fact Cole just saw me hurl my guts out in the other room. I open my mouth. “Uh—that’s uh…wow,” is the brilliant statement that comes out.

Regardless of my stupidity, Cole laughs and I see the brightness of his eyes and I realize he’s right about one thing. We’ve got one life to live here and it may be more important than I’d ever rea

lized.

“Well,” I say regaining a little composure. “We need to come up with a game plan. For my dad and Mom, and everyone else that had sacrificed.”

He nods. “I agree.”

“First things first,” I say. “Getting out of here. Dad gave me strict instructions to find Jane, not to find Colonel Asshat. For whatever reason that is not what he wanted me to do.”

“Agreed,” he says again.

“Do you have any ideas?” I ask, hopeful that he’s one step ahead of me—that he spent the day in here plotting our big escape.

He scrunches his nose and says, “Nope. I’ve got nothing.”

I sigh. “Guess we’ll have to come up with one then.”

The sharp click of the lock on our door forces us to both stop talking. Walker enters the room with a two plates of food. One has some sort of grits or oatmeal with a small piece of meat and what appears to be canned cooked carrots. The other plate is the opposite. It looks absolutely delicious—lots of meat and greens.

“Eat up,” she says handing the better looking plate to me. “You’ve got another round of withdrawals coming in an hour. They want you ready.”

“What the hell?” I ask. “Are they fattening me up for slaughter?”

Walker turns to leave without another word and shuts the door with a harsh, echoing click.

Chapter Forty-Four

~Before~