FEBRUARY 21st 2037
It was another day, with another mission, the mission was a simple one, locate the van holding the important medication and materials and bring it to the Allen, without briefing I knew that was what it would be about, Vanessa would be in charge of bio-radio frequency search and once she found it, we'd move out and get the van, or what it contains. I got up quite early and had taken breakfast when the Sarge came in, he just made some head gestures at me, I assumed it meant to follow him, Rick wasn't with him, neither was Steve or Loraine or Henry. I grabbed my jacket and followed him, we went straight to the elevator and he said
"The woman we brought in yesterday had woken up, she was really struggling so we had to sedate her for the time being, and you're a psychologist so we need you to talk to her"
"Okay sir"
"You think she knows anything about what we found yesterday? About the draugrs"
"I don't know sir, she survived out there alone for so long, so maybe she knew something"
"I see" he said "okay, just don't spook her, we need her to trust us, an extra pair of hands in medical isn't a bad idea"
"I know sir, I'll try" I stopped for a moment "how did you find her name sir, if she wasn't cooperative yesterday" I asked
"When we found her, I asked her name, she seemed cooperative when she said it, but I could tell that she feared us, she called us the bad men, she said we bring the draugrs and we brought death to her friends, then she tried to run and went in the wrong direction, triggering the explosion"
"So she didn't plant the Bomb, then who did?" I asked
"Perhaps the bad men she spoke about"
"I see" I sighed, "well let's find out" I said and we both remained in silence until the elevator got down to the med bay.
The Sarge and I got off the elevator and he pointed to an engineer in the hall,
"Get that elevator fixed, it's cranking really loud"
"About damn time" I said
"Yes sir" he left, I think his name was ken, I was always bad with names and I hated that, off all the 200 people on the base, I could only ever remember about 20, 30 names, it was hard. We got into medical and she was in an enclosed room, covered in glass, staring at us, Steve, Eric and Efomo were there already Along with Rick, who pointed his rifle at her through the glass. Sarge and I walked in and he told me to go on,
"Without a thing to say?" I asked "she doesn't trust us, and Rick pointing a gun at her won't make her trust us, ever. Stand down" I said
"Rick stand down" Steve added "she has a point" Rick dropped his gun
"Has she said anything since?" I asked
"No" Efomo answered
"Okay, I'll talk to her" I said walking in the room and closing the door behind me
"Hi Rita, I understand you're in shock and pain but we're not your enemy, we..."
"Fuck you, fuck all of you, you bastards think I don't know the truth that you're the ones using survivors as bait?" I was going to say we need to work together before she rudely interrupted me
"What, that's not the truth" I asked, she laughed in a crazy kind of way and spat on the ground
"You're just gonna feed me to the draugrs like you did my friends, why don't you get on with it" she said, then Jamie and Vanessa walked in the other room, they were completed ignored
"Look Rita, if we were going to feed you to the draugrs, you don't think we would have done that while you were passed out? We at the Allen are survivors like you, looking for food and medication and other survivors"
"No you're not, I see in your eyes, you're like the fucking devil" I stuttered a bit and looked at the Sarge, he was equally surprised
"We're working on a cure here, we want to survive like you, I don't know what happened to you or your friends but we need you, we saw your lab, we know you're a doctor, help us... Please"
"I survived on my own for over a year, I don't need you, let me go"
"You're under a lot of sedative Rita, you're seriously wounded, how far do you think you'd make it out there now? How far do you think you'd go without us, without our morphine and adrenalin supplements?"
"Whose fault is that? Who planted the fucking bomb there? You fuckin did" She looked through the Glass "let me fuckin go" they outside the glass were unsettled, I tried to ease the her tension with whatever I could say
"Look Rita, I know you're scared, I was..." She cut me off again saying
"Scared, on no, no. I was scared when you confronted me, now I'm not, you say you're working on a cure, well then where is this cure? Where is the data, what progress have you made?" She paused "the WHO couldn't find a cure, they couldn't find anything to help us, you can't anything either" I turned to the Sarge and nodded, he shook his head as if to say don't tell her, I didn't listen,
"We don't have a cure yet, but we have hope, we found someone who's immune to the infection, he's our hope" she looked at me in astonishment
"Excuse me" she said "what do you mean immune"
"God dammit the Sarge exclaimed barging in the room "don't tell her I said"
"She doesn't trust us sir, she thinks we're a threat to her, we have to be honest to show her we're not" I said "Jamie" I called, he entered the room
"Rita, this is Jamie, he's immune, we've ascertained what makes him immune and were working to find the chemical stuff we need to reverse engineer what makes immune and work out a cure"
"What" she said "what are you saying to me"
"We're close to a cure Rita" I said
"Damn that mouth of yours McCarthy, you can't keep secrets" Rick said from outside
"Well keeping secrets won't help is now would it"
"Of course, it makes sense, there's always a person or group of people who are naturally immune to the deadliest of sicknesses, either due to climate, Environment, state of health or diet, it was a matter of time before they appeared anyways" she looked at Jamie, "you, why, why didn't you appear sooner?" She asked
"I had no idea until I got here the day before yesterday, this is all still news to me" he answered
"I see" she paused "I'll help then, not for the sake of humanity or any of you, I don't trust you all, especially you" she said pointing at me
"You don't have to, we just need to find a cure and save humanity, save the people out there" I said, she hissed and turned to Jamie
"I'm working with you, and none of them, you seem honest" and in all I was a little pissed at her, she was clearly a bitch but I held it quite well. The Sarge pushed a little close to me and whispered
"Do you know this woman?"
"No"
"She seems like she has a blood hatred for you"
"I know, I don't know why", he huffed and tapped the glass behind him
"Okay so the doctor is in, Steve and Ray, you brief her on our findings, maybe she can help, Jamie, McCarthy well you go with them"
"Yes sir" we replied
"Vanessa, come, let us find those vans" he said as he left the room and led Vanessa out, Rick followed him. Steve, Eric and I went to the other part of the med bay, while Rita and Jamie walked together behind us, Loraine kept an eye on her, I'm guessing under instruction from the Sarge.
"Well miss this is the data we've gathered so far, everything we know about Relilium and the stuff we need to naturalize it's effects" Steve said opening a folder on the med bay computer, he pulled the chair in front of it for her, "I was a fan of your research into the deep understanding of the human mind, you know before the plague"
"Yeah, well so was I" she sat down "that was before I realized nothing in the damn world meant a thing" she sighed as she looked through the folder "four years was all it took to bring everything we've built for centuries down"
"Guess nothing lasts forever" I said, she looked at me and looked back at the computer, then she stopped moving the cursor over a file named 'recent discover about Relilium' she opened it, scanned through and closed it. Then she continued scrolling and went to a file named 'risk assessment and cure' then she opened it
"This is good stuff" she said "and you all figured this out yourselves?"
"Well there are actual doctors here so" she hissed at me again, I figured I shouldn't have talked, she didn't like me, I didn't like her either
"I can work with this" she said "so you are looking for these chemical compounds?"
"That is correct" Steve said
"Okay, I'll help you"
"Help us look for them?" I asked
"No, medication transport from UBTH had designated routes they follow, my late husband's hospital was one of the drop off points, so I know the route pretty well"
"That's great" Steve said, "You can direct the team on a mission to retrieve the content of the van if we find it"
"I'd be happy to" she said, somehow she had a thing with Steve but she absolutely hated me, and she just spoke about her husband like he was an animal and she didn't care about him, what a real bitch she was. She left the room with Steve and Loraine and she told him everything she knew about the route, Jamie and I followed them to the computer command center where we went to the Sarge with the information she gave us.
"Sir" Steve called him
"Yes" he answered "what is it?" Rita entered following Loraine, Jamie and I were already inside the center
"What is she doing here?" He asked
"She knows the route the van took the day it was lost, and apparently she's a chemist like Ray" Steve said, 'course she is' I said inside my mouth
"What route" the Sarge asked
"on that morning, the transport departed UBTH, taking the Benin city by pass, going through the outskirts of town to the other side of Benin, and reentering at Sapele road, at the time of the explosion, it had passed her husband's hospital but hadn't arrived the central hospital where she worked" Steve explained
"So it's somewhere in between the old forestry road and Sapele road" Eric added, the Sarge smiled
"That does narrow the search for us, we can easily take the osprey and scan the area tomorrow" he said
"That's a good idea, Henry can prep the birds and have them ready by tomorrow, let's find this thing" said Rick, I agreed
"So sir, tomorrow's mission, who's going" I asked
"Vanessa is on over watch, no one knows the computers better than she does, so I'd say Eric, myself and Jamie" he said
"You sure you want to go sir? You should take the day off after yesterday's mission and the one the day before" Loraine said
"She's right sir" I supported "you can't keep straining yourself" he looked around the room with a sigh
"Okay" he pointed to Rita "you go then, you know the van, you know the route, you go, and McCarthy and Jamie will accompany you"
"Sir, I'm not fit for grounded mission" I said, why did I object to his going, he wouldn't have picked me had I not
"Well now you're a soldier and you're going"
"Sir, I think Eric should follow them, and Rick" Steve said
"No, Efomo will go, Rick needs the time out too, a team of five should do"
"Whatever you say sir" Steve said
"You sure about this sir? We don't know if we can trust her" Rick pointed at Rita, looking suspiciously
"What does she have to lose" I asked, she looked at me and put her head down, she took a deep breath
"McCarthy is correct, what do I have to lose?"
"You don't trust us, we don't know if you'll try to run, we don't know if this is a trap you're luring us in to" Rick replied
"I don't trust you, but I believe Jamie" she leaned towards him "he's true, he's honest, he didn't seem like he lied, I want to feel hope again and that's worth something"
"Can I ask you something Rita?" I said
"Sure"
"The bad men you mentioned earlier, who are they?" I asked
"I do not know, all I know is that they walk with the draugrs, it's almost as if they can control them and they plant bombs where they think there are survivors"
"Why" Efomo asked
"I wish I knew" she answered, the Sarge look bothered, we all did, we feared everything we did and everything we'd built was facing a threat from an unknown enemy
"Sir if she's right we should warn the Nexus, a group out there could be a problem to us" I said
"I know, I'll contact them ASAP" he strolled out on us then stopped for a brief moment at the door "Rick will draw a strategy for tomorrow's mission, dismissed" he said as he left
"Well that was productive" Steve said "common Eric, let's go"
"Sir" Eric said following him
"You can stay in my quartets tonight Rita, unless you don't want to" Vanessa asked
"Thank you, what's your name?" Rita asked
"It's Vanessa"
"Okay, would you mind showing me the way?"
"Sure" she walked to me "watch the console while I'm gone okay" she said
"Sure Vanessa, sure" I answered, at least I got to talk to Jamie and Efomo while they were gone
"Okay, be right back" she said and then she left the command center, after she left, Jamie, Efomo and I got to talking for a while about the years after we finished school, then Efomo left us to prepare the gear we needed for the mission the Next day, and Jamie and I continued talking for the most of that day, catching up and laughing about the old times. I was happy he was there, happy to see an old friend again, it had been so long, after Vanessa returned, we had a drink and laughed some more, it was glorious, those few moments made us forget about the horrors that was the outside world. And I would be reminded on the next mission what it looked like, that was the truly terrifying part of my stay at the Allen.