Free Tammy and Ringo by N.C. Reed

Hiram encouraged. “You don’t have to do this, Ringo. No one can make you and someone else, somewhere, can get it done, I’m sure.”
    “How will we get the samples out?” Ringo asked, thinking ahead.
    “Helicopter,” Hiram told him.             
    “That’ll need to be picked up somewhere far from here,” Ringo pointed out. “You don’t want that kind of attention. From anyone,” he added darkly.
    “We’ll work it out,” Hiram promised. “Like I said, think it over. I figure you’ll wanna talk to the girl about it anyway. Let me know what you decide.”
    “Do you really think this’ll help?” Ringo asked, looking the older man in the eye.
    “No idea,” Hiram answered honestly. “Like I said, not my area. The squints at CDC think so, though. And some of them are pretty smart.”
    “Squints?”
    “Nickname. Squints, geeks, nerds. You know, smart people. They squint at stuff and then tell you all about it.”
    “Ah. Nice.”
    “Wasn’t meant to be,” Hiram snorted. “All too often their bullshit gets you into a mess in the field. But like I said, these at least seem to know what they’re talking about.”
    “You’re a very jaded old man, Hiram,” Ringo grinned in spite of himself.
    “You have no idea, kid,” Hiram replied. “I better get up to the house, see what’s doing.”
    “I think I’ll just hang out here a while,” Ringo said, seeing a bench near the waterfront. He wandered over to it as Hiram departed and sat down. He rubbed his hands down his face in a scrubbing motion, looking out over the water.
    Of all the things he was thinking about when he woke up this morning, crazy as some of them were, this had not been on the list. Leaning back on the bench, he took stock.
    Ringo knew he was able and fit. His training, the only thing that had mattered to him for a long time after his parent’s death, had seen to that. He could do this.
                 
    Probably, he qualified. A lot of that depended on exactly what Hiram’s ‘squints’ would want from him. Kill an infected, take a blood sample and slip away, that sounded pretty uncomplicated. Not easy, but straightforward.
    Hiram had also mentioned observation, though. Watching, taking notes, trying to determine what was happening to the infected as they roamed the countryside. How would he know what was important and what wasn’t? How would he figure that out?
    “Hey,” Tammy’s voice broke him away from his thoughts. He turned to see her walking toward him.
    “Hey, yourself,” he smiled. “Have a seat,” he waved to the bench he was sitting on, offering to share. She sat down, placing her hands between her knees, looking out at the water.
    “How you makin’ it?” he asked.
    “One foot in front of the other,” she admitted. “You?”
    “Just peachy,” he shrugged. “Made any kind of decision?” He needed to know that before he could answer Hiram.
    “I don’t see that I have one,” Tammy shrugged. “This is a good place, off the beaten path and they’re nice people. It’s safe here, at least for now. We can earn our keep and help them out. I don’t see many other options.”
    “True,” Ringo nodded, a ball of dread settling into his stomach. Until she had said that, the idea of going out looking for ‘answers’ had been just that. An idea. Now, it was a plan waiting to be put into place. But there was no way he was going to tell her that.
    “Well, it works for me,” he settled for saying. “I like it here and they are good people.”
    “So what were you and Hiram talking about?” she asked. He froze for just a second but relaxed before she caught it.
    “Stuff,” he shrugged.
    “Man talk?” she laughed gently, and he grinned in spite of himself.
    “Right. Super-secret man-type things. I could tell you, but. . . .”
    “Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard how that one ends,” she held up a hand, laughing outright now. “He passed me on the way down. Seemed pretty