"What?" Five yelped as the gates closed behind her. "Dr. Myers, I—"
"Shh!" she hissed. "Five, I need you to get Sam and come to the comms tower immediately. Did you find the files?"
"I think so."
In the comms, Dr. Myers opened the VS-72 files and spread them all out across Sam's desk. Sam and Five watched curiously over her shoulder as she worked.
"So we're supposed to be looking for the records of—" Sam began.
"Patient 29," Dr. Myers reminded them. "The patient Paula told us about on the recording. Patient 0. Now, just look through the files."
Sam and Dr. Myers shuffled the papers, taking them out one by one and examining them.
"'Kay," Sam said, patting a small stack of the files. "They're in order with photos attached." He picked up the middle of the pile carefully and read the patient profiles out loud. "Patient 27, Tom Evans. Patient 28, Parvati Sh—Wow." Sam's eyes widened. "Look at that photo. Hello, Parvati."
Five peeked over. A girl with flowing black hair framing large, doe-like eyes smiled from the picture. Sam's eyes trailed to the bottom of the frame, where the young woman—quite well-endowed—wore a low-cut blouse.
Five frowned.
"That's not—" Dr. Myers interrupted irritably, but her eyes fell on the picture as well and she stopped. "Oh, yeah…" she trailed off, gazing at the picture as well. "I hear that… Mmm…" Five pursed her lips and cleared her throat loudly. Dr. Myers jumped and glanced a little sheepishly at her. "A—anyway, just carry on."
Sam stole another small glance at Patient 28 before continuing. "Patient 30, John Bishop. Patient 31—"
"Did you miss anything?" Dr. Myers interrupted.
Sam looked back at the previous pictures. "Well, apart from Parvati's—"
"Patient 27, Patient 28, Patient 30, Patient 31—"
"No patient 29," Sam realized. "Or did you… take the file out already?"
"No. But someone did." Dr. Myers and a rather disgruntled Five shifted through the papers to make sure they had not missed anything. "Someone knew this file was important and got there ahead of us. And I think I have an idea who."
"Who?" Five asked, discreetly plucking the patients' files out of Sam's hands and putting them back in their proper folder.
Dr. Myers bit her lip. "Well, one night after listening to Paula's recording again, I left it playing, and at the end of the recording there's a—a last track. I thought it was blank, but actually there's a long gap—maybe 15 minutes, and then there's… well, I'll cue it up for you so you can hear it yourself."
After a quick preparation of the CD player once more, Dr. Myers stood back and gazed out the window.
"I haven't got much time." Paula's low voice sounded through the comms office. "Listen. Something weird is going on. We're down to our last few people here. They choppered some out yesterday, and they said they'd come back for the rest of us, but so far we haven't heard anything." There was a pause. "And this morning, I woke up early. Can't sleep with that blasted noise. And I found one of the researchers burning his notes. I stopped him, asked him what the hell he was thinking—even if we die here, we leave them in waterproof bags, someone else might find them, and he said that Professor Van Ark at Pandora Haze had been on the radio overnight and told him to destroy them. To destroy all the evidence that we found that the zombie virus is linked to our VS-72. Our cell regeneration research.
"It—makes no sense. That's not true, it makes one kind of sense. That Van Ark is trying to cover something up. So look. Try the lab first, but that's Van Ark's lab; if he's told us to destroy our research, then he's told them to get rid of theirs as well. So otherwise go to the Keeley Center, the government place. They were supposed to look over our files and just return them, but I know that more than once they actually copied files before giving them back. Try there.
"We need to find Patient 29 in the VS-72 trial. If you can find out what was different about him, you might find out how all this happened."
The recording crackled and died. It was done.
"Hmm…" Sam said. "Okay, that's simple enough." He looked up at Dr. Myers, apprehensive. "And did she say they were being choppered out? Well, you can't think that—"
"We can't think like that, Sam." Dr. Myers's voice was short and reprimanding. Sam snapped his mouth shut.
"Yeah," he relented. "Uh yeah, yeah. I know, sorry."
"The next thing we have to do is send you to the Keeley Center, Runner Five," Dr. Myers said seriously, changing the subject. "I know it's terrible that you're the one running all these errands, but—"
"It's fine," Five insisted. "Really. I get that we have to keep all of this secret for now, and I'm the only runner that really knows everything. I just… you both really need to have my back when I'm doing all this, all right?" She reddened a little. "It freaks me out going there alone after what happened… that night."
Dr. Myers nodded. "We'll be here for you, as usual. Now, go get some rest, all right? Tomorrow we'll have you over at the Keeley Center to look for Patient 29's information." She stopped and blinked. "You're fine with that?"
Five nodded. Dr. Myers had never asked her about going on a mission before, and she felt honored to have been asked this seemingly trivial question.
"Yes, Dr. Myers."
"Good. I think they're about to serve dinner, so you'd better head to rationing."
Five and Sam left Dr. Myers at the comms—she had wanted to listen to Paula again.
"Do you think she's all right?" Five asked, glancing back at the comms tower. "I can't even count how many times she's listened to that recording."
Sam sighed. "I dunno. It takes time to get over losing someone like that. I'm just glad people aren't suspecting something strange is going on."
Five nodded. Sam had been telling everyone that Dr. Myers's free time had recently been spent poring over maps of abandoned hospitals and medical sites in order to figure out where to send Five for more supplies. And, dutifully, Five had gone out to collect said "supplies."
"Hopefully I'll be able to find the right supplies tomorrow," Five said cheerfully as they sat down with the others for dinner—canned beans over the precious little rice rations Abel still possessed.
Sam grinned. "Hopefully."
"You two were gone for forever today!" Jody, Runner 4, piped up. She sat beside Rajit, the self-proclaimed-author-turned-shower-controller, who was studiously scribbling on a scrap of paper with a half-chewed pencil. "Did your run really take that long, Five?"
"Yeah, unfortunately," Five replied smoothly, spooning some rice into her mouth. "What did I get for checking that abandoned pharmacy on Woodside? Nothing but condoms."
Sam choked on his beans, and Jack had to turn around and slap him on the back before he recovered.
"What a waste." Jody shook her head, setting her empty plate aside and pulling out a needle and some yarn. "I ended up finding a lot today," she continued as she began to knit. "A ton of yarn and fabric. We can definitely start making some new clothing with it. The kids are already growing out of theirs."
"That's great," Five smiled, turning to her bunk mate. "Did you find anything, Ells?"
Runner Eleven shrugged. "Some old microphones and head sets. They were on some dead zoms no one recognized."
"Who's on break tomorrow?" Eugene asked. He sat down in between Jack and Eleven, groaning a little as he set down his crutches. "I've got to know who's ass I'll be having to haul if we somehow get attacked."
Eleven, who was, in fact, off the next day, poked him good-naturedly.
"What about you, Five?" she asked as Eugene rubbed his arm, complaining. "Do you get a break tomorrow, too?"
Five shook her head. "No, I have another meds run."
"Another?" Jody asked. "You've had so many this week!"
"Yeah, well, maybe I'll get a break once I find something besides contraceptives."
"Maybe I can help you out," Eleven suggested. "I can choose to be on duty, if you want."
"No," Sam and Five said quickly at the same time.
"You need your rest," Five replied.
"She has it covered all on her own," Sam said.
"Oh, I'm sure she has it covered," Jack chuckled in a low voice. Eugene snorted loudly.
Eleven laughed. "All right, if you say so. But you need your rest too, Five."
"Which is why I'll be heading to bed now," Five smiled, standing up and returning her bowl to the rations area. Sam stood and followed suit. "Good night, guys."
A murmur of replies called back to her, and she and Sam disappeared from sight.
"They're starting to suspect something," Five said nervously. "Don't you think?"
"Don't be silly, they're just messing around. Saying you only found condoms was brilliant."
"Yeah, well, I was starting to think you'd actually need some after you kept drooling over Parvati," Five responded dryly.
Sam rolled his eyes. "Just because I can appreciate a looker when I see one doesn't make me a drooling caveman."
"No, you're right," Five grinned. "You were always a drooling caveman in my book."