Free The 40th Day (After the Cure Book 5) by Deirdre Gould Page B

from the City?”
    Marnie hesitated, not sure what to say. “My friend is. There were some people from the Colony a few minutes ago. They said there’s a quarantine camp less than a mile away.” She leaned down and said, “Christine, c’mon, we have to move.”
    The woman looked startled and glanced at the man. “Did you say your friend’s name was Christine?” She took a step forward, but the man touched her gently on the shoulder and she stopped.
    “Yeah, she— she’s not doing well.”
    “There are hundreds of Christines, Nella,” warned the man.
    “Do you— do you mind if I take a look at her? I’m— I was a doctor,” said the woman.
    Marnie hesitated. “I don’t know if you should— I’m not sure what’s wrong with her. She’s pregnant but I think— there might be more.”
    She saw the woman give the man another quick glance. “I’ll be careful,” she said. Marnie wasn’t certain if the woman was talking to her or the man. They came closer and the woman took off her pack and began searching inside. Marnie could see the shape of a gun in one of the side pockets. She backed up a little, still nervous.
    “We aren’t going to hurt you,” said the woman. “I know that’s hard to believe with what you’ve probably been through. My name is Nella and this is Frank—”
    Christine looked up at the names and Nella stopped. “It is you. What happened? Where is Sevita?” Nella pulled on a pair of gloves and reached for Christine’s wounded hand. Frank crouched beside them.
    “She’s gone. We had to go. Nobody lef’. The whole City sick. Now, me too. Me too. Should’ve gone with ‘Vita.”
    “You said you were in the shelter. You said you weren’t exposed.”
    “I was wrong. She was wrong. I wanted the baby to be okay. I wanted to believe we’d be okay. ‘Sokay now. You found Ann?”
    Nella felt the warmth of Frank’s hand on her shoulder. “We found Ann,” said Nella.
    “So you have the Cure. ‘Vita went away one day, but she might be— maybe the soldiers are protecting her.”
    “I’m sorry, Chris,” Nella’s voice cracked. “There’s no cure this time.”
    “But there has to be. They made it, they have to know how to unmake it. You can find out. Jus’ make her talk long enough. You’ll find it.”
    Nella shook her head. “Ann’s dead. They’re all dead. Dr. Pazzo told us there was no cure.”
    “He’s a liar. A LIAR.”
    She felt Frank stiffen as Christine raised her voice. Nella knew it wouldn’t be long before she turned. She tried to stay calm. “I know. I know he was. You’re right. But Dr. Carton said it was incurable too.”
    “So thass it? What do we do now?”
    Nella tried to concentrate. “Let me see your hand. We’ll get it bandaged up and then we’ll go to the quarantine camp and get some dinner and a rest. We need to talk to the people in the Colony. Let them know how bad the City has become. You can tell them better than us. We’ll see what they say.”
    Christine put her hand absently into Nella’s gloved one. “You think they’ll help? You think they can find the cure?”
    A tear soaked into the flimsy paper mask that Nella was wearing. She tried to blink the rest away and concentrate on the ragged cut on her friend’s hand.
    “You’re the people who were supposed to come get us,” said Marnie, “We were supposed to wait until you came to help.”
    Frank nodded.
    “I thought there were a bunch of you,” said the girl. “I thought you had an army or something. Where’ve you been?”
    “Trying to figure out how to get to you and what we were going to do when we found you,” said Frank, a needle-thin tone of defensiveness creeping in. “We were going to the Colony to get help.”
    Nella finished cleaning the cut. “Why didn’t you stay? Why didn’t you wait for us? We wouldn’t have left you.”
    “I know, I know,” cried Christine, “but there were other people who wanted the shelter. They would have found a way in.