Matteo Rossi
It wasn't supposed to be like this.
His family should have already sent a plane to take him home. He knew that his mother and father had left to visit his grandparents in Italy after the semester started. They had not even answered his calls before the lines went down. Justin had offered to take him to France with him and now he regretted his harsh words to his best friend. Matteo had been so sure that his father would send someone for him.
While he had some anger issues, his family loved him. He was their only son, their heir. They only sent him to Nemours because they knew that if he had any more fights, they wouldn't be reported. So far, the school had been a cake walk. His grades were fixed, his behavioral reports sent by the counselor were all doctored, and he had great friends. Then, the private jets and armed escorts stopped coming, most of the teachers and students left, and the faculty started to panic.
Suddenly, it didn't matter that he was legacy.
The headmaster wanted them all accounted for at all times, curfews were strictly enforced and when they learned they were thinking of rationing, he panicked. Chet had it all planned out since he had a gun. Security was a joke for legacy students, he had brought in his genuine samurai sword his uncle brought him home from Japan. Tripp had a trunk filled with party favors and one of the girls even brought botox on a dare. The panic that spread when it was rumored that they would be searching through the students rooms, rationing was just the excuse they needed to rip back control.
"They're dead." Effie's voice was emotionless, just like it had been since they were forced onto cleaning duty.
Even Herd's nerds were getting to have fun jobs like security and hanging out in the infirmary with the hot blonde chick. Matteo wasn't sure what her name was since they had been kept isolated with guards but he guessed she was around his age. One of those sweet girls who would have gotten a scholarship to fill out the register. The administration was smart enough to slip in some eye candy.
"Did you hear me?" Her voice raised, uncaring for the redneck with a missing ear who had been hovering while they scrubbed the halls. When he met her eyes, there was an emptiness he had never seen in her before. After all, she had been sent to the school because her partying had gotten out of control according to her parents. So, she always had a pep in her step, excited for the next time they would spend time in the cabins. "They're all dead."
"Yeah, they've been dead for over a week."
"No, not the other students…our teachers…the staff." Effie choked, probably because she came with own staff. Maybe she had been closer to them then he realized. "Our parents…our families, they're gone! Daddy would have come for me if he was still alive! He would have sent ships and soldiers! The-"
"Calm down." The blonde man snapped, not moving from his place resting against the wall. Matteo thinks his name was Wade, he had introduced himself but he couldn't be arsed to remember. "The floors won' mop themselves!"
"My family is coming for me." Matteo said firmly, mostly to himself. There was no way that this was going to be his life, scrubbing floors after them.
"I need to use the loo." Effie whispered, her hand clutching the soft material of her shirt over her stomach. Without waiting for a response she turned on her heel, storming away.
His thoughts turned back to his own family, Matteo missed his family. When he had gotten expelled from Eton, he worried his father would disown him. Instead, he had found a school that could accommodate him and his mother sent him weekly care packages. His extended family celebrated like it was even better than the school his father graduated from.
However, there was a nervousness the first time he came home. His father grilled him about how he was treated and when he explained how the entire faculty kissed his ass, he looked relieved. He didn't think much of it till one of Justin's little scholarship girls disappeared. The den mother in her dorm acted as if she had never met the girl and when Justin asked, he was informed she was sent home after violating the honor code. His best friend was quiet after he finally spoke to the girl almost a year after she left. Whatever she said had shaken him and he had not wanted to come back but his family insisted.
"Where' English?" The man asked and Matteo glanced around in confusion before rolling his eyes.
"I'll get her." He grunted, not wanting to deal with the man giving them another lecture about slacking off. It was worse than dealing with rationing, they kept threatening to withhold food if they didn't help out. Not that he believed them, that Amy chick was the kind of person that took in kids.
"Effie!"
He pounded on the girl's washroom door, not hearing anything but a strange squeaking. Matteo knocked again but this time the door opened slightly. The sight that met him nearly knocked him to his knees. His friend was dangling from the ceiling, her big bright eyes open and staring at him accusingly. Her cardigan was tied to something up there that he couldn't see and a garbage can was sitting on its side less than a foot away from her.
"Effie!" Rushing forward, he wrapped his arms around her legs to try and alleviate the pressure around her neck. However, he slipped, pulling the girl and the pipe she had hung herself from down with him.
"Get outta the way!" Wade shouted from the doorway over the sound of rushing water. The floor was quickly getting flooded with water but Matteo only had eyes for the girl beneath him. The pressure was so great, it made a wall between them but he could hear the man calling for help over the radio.
"Effie, wake up!" He shouted in her face, shaking her roughly by the shoulders but she stared at the ceiling as if she couldn't see it. Her normally bright, vibrant blue eyes had taken on a yellow tint. "Please! Wake up!"
Matteo moved to the side, doing chest compressions like he had been taught. She made a sound, something like a heavy wheeze and he felt vindicated. He could save her! Effie made some jerky movements after he adjusted her jaw. Taking a deep breath he lowered his mouth to-
Pain, all consuming pain.
Kid get outta the way!
Matteo fell on his ass but he could only bring his hands up to his bloody face where Effie had torn his lips from his face!
BANG!
Shit!
What the fuck?
Can someone get to the valve?
The girl's dead!
The voices didn't make any sense and he felt himself being moved but nothing compared the burn of his face. He screamed in agony, feeling the already torn skin rip when he opened his mouth. Everything around him was a blur, nothing familiar or comforting, only pain and the taste of blood.
Edwin Jenner
Edwin had heavily medicated the boy, unsure if cutting away at the skin would help him. The fever had set in quickly while he had been cleaning the wound so he hooked the kid up to an IV. Gale had been focused while she tried to save as much of his face as he could. It had been startling, to finally see her as a doctor.
"How could this happen?" Gale muttered to herself, applying ointment to the sluggishly bleeding rips around Matteo's mouth.
"She hung herself with her jacket." Edwin said absently, making notes on the boy's progress. The skin was rapidly darkening, even after cutting away at the initial bite site. "The girl knocked out a ceiling panel to secure it to one of the pipes."
"I think she was talking about the two dead kids, Edwin." Amy rolled her eyes, looking exasperated with him.
He didn't think she felt much guilt over it, not like she had made an effort to know either of the teenagers. Of course, Wade and Mitch had given reports of their tantrums when they were relegated to cleaning up the mess they made. The girl had been prone to crying fits while the boy postered but committing suicide had not been something they anticipated. Beth Green had pushed to help prepare Elizabeth's body, leaving the other babysitters and not taking no for an answer. It had shocked him since she was such a quiet girl when she came to the infirmary for training.
"I got that." Edwin glanced up at her with a raised brow before turning back to his notes. "I'm not a psychologist and beyond getting her medical history I haven't spoken to the girl. Although, her file did mention she had shown signs of borderline personality disorder. However, there was no actual diagnosis or treatment plan."
"This school…" Amy grunted, snatching up the file and seeing how it was heavily redacted. "Makes me want to murder people. You know there was nothing in the system about the nursery in the basement? Even the lawyer's computer had been wiped and the filing cabinet emptied. I've looked at some of the legacy student files, their families were paying a lot of money to doctor them."
"How much longer does he have?" Gale whispered, petting the hair away from his ravaged face.
"His fevers set in." Edwin said after he took his temperature, once again. "Already one oh six, I believe he will burn quickly."
"Poor boy." The other doctor sniffled, using her sleeve to wipe away her tears. "Atleast, he's not in pain."
"Ma'am." Greg opened the door, sopping wet with a grimace on his face. "We've got a problem."
Amy departed quickly, leaving the doctors alone with their new charge. It didn't last long before Merle sauntered in, taking the blonde's abandoned chair. The man didn't say much, just cleaned his nails with his favorite knife. Gale began to fidget before excusing herself, uncomfortable around most men.
"Damn shame." Merle whistled once they were alone and Edwin glanced up from his notes.
"She must have turned fairly quickly." He thought back to Wade's guilty confession of the girl only being in the bathroom for fifteen minutes and not being able to get a clear shot. "It is strange how the turn time varies between subjects. For example, Candace…turned after nearly a full day."
"The wife, right?" Merle gave him a long intense stare but he just nodded his head, noticing for the first time it didn't hurt like a knife to the heart. They didn't talk about personal things, mostly just the idiocy of the group. "Think he's gonna turn?"
"Definitely." Edwin studied the way the teenager's skin was turning a sickly gray except for his face.
The wound was already black, even with antibiotics and cleaning it thoroughly. During the initial trials, they had not bothered to sedate the subjects. They needed a baseline before they started with medication to fight the virus. It would be the first time that one of his subjects was not writhing in pain hours after the bite. Amy had wanted to put him down immediately, not seeing the point in collecting more data. However, Edwin was a researcher and with power and amenities, he hoped to start working on figuring out this virus.
"What' the point?" Merle leaned forward, noticing for the first time that he had secured the teenager with restraints and handcuffs. There was no point in not taking precautions.
"I don't have any of my research from the CDC." Edwin admitted softly, watching the teenager patiently. Matteo was already struggling for breath even though he wasn't in pain, his time was soon. "I only stopped to grab my personal items from my office."
"Seen your fancy name desk topper." Merle rebutted with an amused grin, raising a brow incredulously. The doctor turned away to clear his throat.
"Actually, that was Candace's." He sighed softly, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "All of the certificates were hers, I didn't bother to grab my own. I thought…my time as a researcher was over but she had the mind that should be remembered."
"That's some bullshit." Merle laughed, it was that mean laugh that could cut a person to the quick and it was the first time the mocking had been directed at him since he got sober. "You're still here, ain't ya? She got her out, got bit in tha very beginnin' 'an tol' ya to soldier on! Lookit you, already lookin' ta save the world again!"
"Don't." He gasped, wanting to lash out suddenly but he curled his fists and took a deep breath. "Candace spearheaded the research for the coronavirus. Do you get that? She was making a vaccine to fight the common cold! A virus that-"
"Yeah, yeah." Merle did not lose his grin when he waved his hand dismissively. "Nice 'nd all but that don' change what you're doin'."
"And what exactly am I doing, Mr. Dixon?"
"How'd you get all them sad sacks ta let you have your experiment?"
"Well, this is shit." Amy looked down at the flooded bathroom floor. They had gotten the water shut off but breaking one of the pipes had shifted all the others. "Don't supposed anyone in the group was a plumber, going to school, laying pipe…I would take a short italian man named Mario and his brother Luigi at this point."
"Oh, I've got plenty of experienced with laying pipe." Wade's laugh turned into an embarrassed titter at the dry look she leveled him. "How hard could it be?"
"Well, considering winter is coming, I would say it's pretty important." Greg nodded sagely, waving Jim and Glenn closer who were dragging a couple of shop vacs behind them. "We should always listen to the Starks and their age-old wisdom."
"Yeah, I guess a drip could cause some problems if the pipes were to freeze." Wade shifted slightly before he looked at her guiltily. They had already moved Elizabeth's body to a classroom and wrapped her up. Well, Beth had been adamant she did it. "I'm really sorry I let this happen."
"The next time we take prisoners, I want them in cells." Amy huffed, rubbing her face in exhaustion.
She and Daryl had had a few perfect hours together, wearing eachother out. They had hoped for a relaxing evening and maybe talk to the group about housing. Many were itching to get their own space back after being confined into vehicles for weeks. Herschel in particular wanted his daughters in his own home, that Jimmy and Glenn were not invited was left unsaid. Hell, she was looking forward to having her own bed. The largest townhouse had five bedrooms, which meant each of her children could have their own room.
"What's, ah, happenin' with the boy?" Wade asked, still avoiding meeting her eyes in guilt. "I doubt Edwin could stop the spread of the bite since it was his face."
"He and Gale were going to try." Amy didn't doubt they were trying to stop the infection but she understood that there was more to it. She was sure Edwin was taking diligent notes on how long Matteo lasted. It felt a little wrong to use him as a test subject but she consoled herself that the teenager wasn't in any pain. It wasn't like Edwin would chop up his body or anything. They would both have a funeral in the morning after he passed. "She was a surgeon so I'm sure that if he has any chance it would be with them."
"Miss Amy!" One of the teenagers was shouting at the top of his lungs and she stuck her head out of the bathroom to see Tyrone running towards her with a manic smile. "Miss Amy!"
"Tyrone?" She questioned once he slid to a stop in front of her to catch his breath. However, before he could open his mouth Mitch rushed towards them, red in the face and out of breath. He was gripping a subdued Simon by the back of his shirt, not letting him get away.
"I'm done with babysitter duty." The older man huffed, finally releasing the sullen boy to pant with his hand on his knee.
"Don't know why you're so surprised." Simon muttered more to himself, crossing his arms over his chest defensively. "I was only trying to help."
"Can someone explain why ya'll aren't in the surveillance room?" Amy put her hands on her hips with a disgruntled frown. "The campus is too large for such a small running patrol with the size of our group."
"You have to see it, Miss Amy!" Tyrone was back to dancing on his toes in excitement but it was Simon who had her attention. He was looking at her shyly from underneath his shaggy bangs before he reached out for her hand.
"I was hoping…" He bit his lip, his pale cheeks turning a deep red. "Can I show you?"
"You guys can handle this, right? I'll ask at dinner if anyone has any experience with plumbing." Amy turned to Wade and Greg who were using a step stool to see the damage done in the ceiling.
"Yeah, we'll be fine, Amy." Glenn nodded enthusiastically while he continued to run the shop vac along the floor.
"I think…it's a good thing." Simon whispered, still clutching her hand but watching his feet while they walked across he school.
The boy was practically running the surveillance room with Glenn and Tyrone as his assistants. She had placed responsible adults to supervise but, unfortunately, it was 2010. Most of the group only had a basic grasp on computers. Even Jean, who spent most of his career behind a screen, was only proficient in Microsoft Office. So, whatever language the teenager was writing, he was the only one who could understand it.
It did make her uncomfortable but worse was the way the trio of scholarship students acted towards the staff who were useless. They all avoided them like the plague and if they were forced into the same area, she could see how much they resented them. At first, she was excited to have a counselor for Sofia but she had held off on letting her so much as talk to the girl after the way Percy had flinched when she tried to touch his arm.
The school had secrets that she was desperate to understand. They had an entire NICU and nursery set up in the basement which could only be accessed by keycard. Student flies were heavily copy and pasted, so far she had found twenty that were exactly the same other than their names and family contacts. Even the way the adults had acted around the students just felt wrong. With the two legacy students, they all practically begged Amy to let them have their freedom and resume their privileged status.
From Elizabeth and Matteo's attitudes, she didn't think either of them went out of their way to endear themselves to any of them. In fact, the boy had shouted at Brian that it was his job to clean and the custodian had offered to do it! Too bad for him, he was working closely with Merle and Greg to teach them the ins and outs of the campus.
The way all five of the staff ignored the trio of sc-
"See." Simon waved his hand towards one of the walls that was covered in screens. What she saw blew her mind.
"Is that…?" Amy stepped forward to see the aerial view of the school with their convoy parked and their people moving around.
"The satellites." Simon explained, looking up at her hopefully.
"How is that possible? The internet went down months ago." Amy looked back at him, impressed that he had gotten a live feed. However, if he could see them then couldn't others?
"Well, almost." Simon sat her down at his desk that had his own computer and three screens then he was rapidly typing. "There are some servers that are still working. Google works but it's practically useless since it will just lead you to empty site fronts but if you know…"
A black screen over took all the monitors, a logo with four triangles stacked in a pyramid flashing before it led into a very simple website. There were resources for mostly sustainable living but she noticed that one button was for lone survivors looking for a home and clicked it.
It was a map of the world with pins, identifying safe zones. There were alot more little death icons, symbolizing camps that had been overrun or destroyed.
"What is this?" Amy was amazed, quickly zooming in and breathing a sigh of relief that the state of Georgia only had one pin and it was nowhere near them. Although she did recognize a very large highlighted portion on the northeast, their territory was limited above the mason dixon line. There were around fifteen pins that had the U.S. seal on them while the others were plain.
"Someone had to have known this was coming." Simon grinned when she smiled at him, his face turning a dark red. "This used to be a conspiracy message board, it's branched out a lot. With this, we can use GPS and if you want the surveillance system upgraded we can find a place where we can get the parts to build our own server."
"Hey, we can find a lot of things with this." Her eyes unintentionally glanced to the right where Europe was. Most of France was declared under a single name but there were lots of pins. She didn't think she was ready to know and had no way to communicate with them. Should she tell Andrea? "We could try to find your family. Isn't that what Brian and the others were trying to do when we found you?"
"No." He glared down at the keyboard with a stormy expression. "I don't have a family anymore."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Simon." She reached out, placing a hand on his shoulder but he flinched. "Is..there something you need to tell me? If someone has hurt you, you can trust me."
"No, nothing like that." He denied quickly, sharing a look with Tyrone who had been silent since they entered the surveillance room. "It's just the old den mothers had strict rules for us charity cases. Rosie was Chet's personal maid so she never had anything to do with us."
"He sent away his maid?" Amy couldn't help but frown at the stupidity of the teenagers who ran out their teachers and fellow students. "They really didn't plan ahead."
"No, Tripp was an idiot." Simon snorted, looking away at her raised brow. "It's just…if he hadn't come here…well, there's no way he would have passed the ninth grade."
"This school had a lot of weird practices." She commented lightly, glancing between the two teenage boys who looked tense. "You're only fourteen, right Simon? It must have been hard to leave home at only eleven."
"Not really." He shrugged his shoulders, picking up a ballpoint pen to twist in his fingers. "My parents were busy with their other children. With Nemours, I was placed on the fast track so when I graduated I would have enough credits to be considered a sophomore or further. They also offered to pay for my education if I decided to come back to the school after. That doesn't matter though…"
"Well, if you ever change your mind." Amy tried not to frown, the school was going through a lot of effort to keep the boy tied to them.
