Chapter 10: Chris and Mary

The twins sat side by side on a bench in front of the table. Normally the bench held all three of the Heeler tots, but today Lee was in a separate high chair as his cousins were the guests of honor. It was their first birthday and all the survivors were celebrating in their newly completed home. The group had worked diligently and finished the structure according to Nate and Wendy's planning, the community now protected in their fortified 'castle' in the outback.

Genetics can be fascinating in families, with certain traits remaining dormant for generations before they crop up again. This was especially telling in the Heeler family. Rad, Stripe, and Bandit were all brothers but each had a completely different coat. Bandit and Stripe had inherited elements of their parents-with Bandit getting some of his father's and Stripe some of his mother's. While to an outsider Rad looked like he was an anomaly in the Heeler gene pool-the mix of red and blue a combination that while rare wasn't impossible in the breed, but not seen in any of the current living Heelers-he was in fact a dead ringer for his mother's grandfather. This fact extended to the youngest generation of Heelers as well. Lee was the most typical of the three, he was mostly blue like Bandit, but bits of Chilli were mixed in-his hands and feet were all red and so was most of his face. His tail was blue, but it had a grey tip unlike either of his parents.

Chris and Mary were a similar story. The two bore little physical appearance to their parents separately, but were instead a fair mixture of the two. Chris was the older of the two by twelve minutes, and was slightly larger. He was mostly red like Frisky, but had a fair amount of blue and grey marking as well. He had almost an inverse of Rad's coloring with blue on his face and neck, but also had it on his back and bits on his legs. He had 'gloves' of grey and a grey snout as well, making him look like he'd been eating something sugary and smudged it on his hands trying to get it off. Mary was nearly pure white, a trait that had been dormant in Frisky's family-her grandmother having been pure white all her life. But she had a bi-colored patch across her face, blue over the left eye and red over the right.

The twins sat on the shared bench at the end of the table before Rad and Frisky presented each of them with a slice of cake. There were no eggs to speak of anywhere-either chickens had gone extinct in Australia or were excellent at hiding because none had been seen since the outbreak had caused the nation to fall-but they still managed a cake nonetheless.

"Go ahead!" Frisky encouraged as the two looked down with a puzzled expression at the cake in front of them.

"Here. Let's see if this helps." Rad took a small bit of icing off the top of the cake and let the two sniff it. Chris licked it off his finger, with Mary following shortly after. The two both smiled as soon as they did and began happily pounding the cake and licking it off their paws.

"There we go!" Rad declared, laughing as the two ate.

The other kids laughed as they watched the one year olds eat, the adults also sharing in a chuckle as they watched the chaos unfold. After a minute Frisky spoke. "I want to say thank you everyone. Not just for this party, but for everything. Most of you didn't know Rad and I all that well before everything, and to take us in…"

"We're immensely grateful." Rad smiled. "We're glad to be part of this community and to have been a part of helping get this new home built for all of us. And as long as we're around we promise we'll do our best to help it stay a safe place. Thanks."

Bandit and Stripe smiled, pulling their older brother in for a hug. "Ey! Watch it!" Rad said playfully.

"We love you too, Rad." Bandit said.

"Get off! Come on…" Rad blushed slightly at the physical contact.

"Oh, suddenly you're too macho to hug your brothers?" Stripe asked.

"What would mum say?" Bandit asked.

"She'd say I'm a grown ass man and I'm allowed to have boundaries!" Rad said, squirming as his brothers started tickling him. "Ah! Hey! Stop!" Rad laughed.

"Only when you say you love us!" Stripe smirked.

"Never!" Rad declared, breaking free and dashing across the room.

Soon the three brothers were chasing each other. Frisky walked over to Trixie and Chilli. "We really did pick 'em, didn't we?"

"Yup." Trixie smiled as she watched Stripe trip over his own foot and land face-first on top of Bandit.

"Definitely." Chilli smiled, watching as Bandit cursed at Stripe and the two were crushed as Rad landed on top of them and started revenge tickling the younger brothers. By this point the kids had gotten involved and were chasing their fathers/uncles around the room. Even Wendy chuckled as Judo and the Retrievers joined in, Chucky and Lucky deciding to make Rad their main target while Judo ran interception and herded the dads toward the other kids.

After a chaotic ten minutes the chase ended and the party returned focus to the twins, who by this point had finished their cake and had decided to attempt to break Lee out of his high chair. It was then decided that the toddlers would be put on the ground for remainder of the festivities.

As the others celebrated the first year of life for the twins Chilli pulled Bandit aside. The couple walked out of the room where the group was celebrating and up a stairwell to the roof of the castle. It didn't yet have the crops growing on it, but between the scavenged solar panels and planters it was clear that it was going to be a useful space. As they overlooked the lip out into the outback Chilli breathed out slowly.

Bandit could tell she was trying to figure out what to say, so he gave her a moment. After some time and continued silence he decided to speak. "Is everything okay?"

Chilli rubbed her hand up and down her arm. "Yes, and no…" She sighed, "Since you got back from the trip, and we talked, you know how we've been more… intimate?"

Bandit nodded. The two had made an honest effort to reconnect both emotionally and physically, and it had definitely helped the two overcome their grief. "Of course. But we're always careful." He tapped his wallet, a remnant from the old world he refused to give up, flipping it open to show the row of condoms he kept in it in the event that the two wanted some impromptu amorous time.

"Not always." Chilli said, looking down.

Bandit frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Do you remember the first time, when we first used the-"

"Yes." Bandit cut her off. He had come to enjoy his wife's attention with the device-even if it had taken a bit of getting used to and some practice stretching a few key muscles when he had the time to try-but he didn't exactly like it being so openly stated.

"You didn't use anything." She stated.

"Okay. Well, I'm sorry I guess." He said, "Is there any reason you're bringing it up?"

"I'm late."

Bandit's brow rose slightly. "Okay, well sometimes that happens."

"I didn't have any last month or this month, and the month before it was just spotty."

Bandit's breath hitched. "Um, okay. Well, admittedly that's not normal."

"I think, well, I think I might be…" She gestured to her abdomen.

Bandit exhaled. "Pregnant?"

"Yeah."

The two were silent a moment. Bandit gently took his wife's hand. He smiled as he held it. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah, okay. We can get through this, together."

"You're not the one who's going to give birth without anesthetic again." Chilli quipped.

"Admittedly no." Bandit said defensively, "But I'll still be there to help however I can. And Trix is still here to help, as is Wendy." He paused, looking down at her stomach. "So, what do you think it is?"

"Bandit." Chilli rolled her eyes.

"What?" He defended. "I want to gain the advantage. Right now it's me and Lee against you and Bluey, whatever this one is breaks the tie."

Chilli smiled as she shook her head. "I don't care as long as they're healthy."

Bandit sighed, "You always say that." He placed his hand gently on her stomach. "How long until you think we'll be able to be sure?"

"Well, without ultrasound I won't be positive until I start showing or until they start kicking." Chilli stated. "Right now I guess I'm about 14 weeks in? But that's all a guess."

Bandit smiled. "Okay, we'll wait a bit before we tell anyone." He kissed her on the snout. "I love you babe."

She snorted. "I love you too. Even if you are a cheesy galah."

***ST***

That night, after the kids had been put to sleep in their dorms-the boys and girls now in separate rooms-the adults met in the conference room to talk.

"So, how's the progress?" Stripe asked, looking at Trixie and Frisky. In recent days there'd been talk of headway and the group had been hopeful they might have some good news.

"As far as we can tell we have a good first attempt." Frisky reported.

"You're serious, you might have a vaccine?" Bandit asked, stunned.

"Yes, but we aren't sure." Trixie clarified. "We used the DNA from one of Nate's immune cells to create a vaccine. We believe we chose the correct sequence-given how it matches the same area usually affected in those infected-but without a trial we won't know 1)if we chose the right section 2)if it works or 3) if it's safe."

"So, we've got a beta, basically." Rad said, thinking back to some of the lousy video games he'd played on launch day before the massive patches dropped.

"Essentially, yes." Frisky said. "With a trial we could see how effective it is and work to refine it, but the question is, how do we test it?"

"Nate's already immune, and if it fails…" Trixie hesitated.

"There's a good chance the test subject becomes a zed." Bandit finished.

It was silent a moment before Rad spoke, "Wait. Is this the same form of the virus that's the current one?"

"Most likely, given how Nate was infected by zed's blood from the faster acting variant." Trixie reported, looking at her son and placing a hand on his shoulder, knowing how mentioning the event could lead to some negative thoughts for him.

"When we were in Darwin we saw a cat that was a zed, at least it looked like a zed." Rad stated.

"Yeah, you're right!" Frisky said, recalling the mangled feline.

"So, what, we try it on a cat?" Nate asked.

"The feline immune system is different from ours, but given how it had a similar reaction to the zed virus it could be a useful analog." Trixie proposed.

"Alright, so we find a cat, inject it with the vaccine and see what happens?" Stripe asked.

"At the moment it seems like the best course of action." Frisky confirmed.

"Okay, in the morning we'll start looking." Bandit said.

***Author's Note***

First and foremost I know nothing about vaccine development, so please don't message me saying what I said here was wrong. Do feel free to comment if you enjoyed it, or if you have constructive criticism, however. Thanks again for reading, and Happy Thanksgiving to all of us Americans out there!