Chapter Nine

CHAPTER NINE

LATER ON THAT day, she found out where Dr. White's body was, because she helped Jonathan move Bub's body into the same cold storage room.

They lay the body out, and Jonathan was ashen and quiet.

She didn't know what to say.

So, she said nothing.

And when they shut the door on the refrigerated room, she said, "We could all contact anyone, though, couldn't we? We all have access to the internet. How does Harris really think he's going to control us?"

Jonathan blinked at her. "You have someone you can contact who has the funds to charter a helicopter out here to pick us up, Riley?"

Her lips parted. No, of course she didn't. She looked away.

He started walking away from her, down the hallway.

She went after him.

"Are you having any… symptoms from what Bub did?"

"What? No."

"You feel normal?"

"I don't feel normal, no, because everything about this situation is horrific. But I can't say it has anything to do with being stabbed by Bub."

"Good," he said. "Well, as long as that holds true for Nancy, she'll break within a few days, and we'll all be packing up and heading out of here. I wouldn't worry about her scare tactics. Anderson Scott does not murder people to shut them up."

She fell into step with him. "But what kind of symptoms could I really have? What would he have done to me?"

"I have no idea," he said. "I'm a biologist, obviously, so I'm not ignorant about anatomy, physical changes, but mammals aren't my specialty, and human women are definitely not my specialty."

"Well, even amongst mammals, we're not typical," she said. "Our monthly cycle, it's different than a lot of mammals, who are only fertile once a year."

"Right," he said. "Maybe it was exploratory. Maybe he plunged those things into you to see if there was any compatibility. When he realized there wasn't—"

"Why capture me again, then?" she said. "When he knocked you down in the evening, he picked me up and brought me to where he was keeping Nancy."

"Hmm, good point," he said.

"So, he thought he did something."

"Or he thought he could do something," said Jonathan. "But maybe he was wrong."

"Do we have any equipment here?" she said. "Anything that might be useful to determining or diagnosing? An ultrasound?"

"Actually, we do," he said. "I don't know if it'd be any use, though. I've never looked at a woman's body internally before. I couldn't say if something looked wrong."

"I might be able to," she said.

He shrugged. "Worth a try, I guess."

RILEY TUCKED THE bottom of her shirt into the band of her bra. She was reclining on a stainless steel table, propped up on her elbows.

Jonathan stood next to her, running the ultrasound wand over her belly, around the places where she'd been punctured yesterday.

They were a little sore today, each one a red bump. She probed one with a finger, worry going through her.

He furrowed his brow. "It's… something…"

"What?" She tried to sit up.

He fixed her with a look that made her freeze.

"What?" she said in a different voice.

"I don't know if you want to see it," he said, no bottom to his voice at all.

Now, she had to see it. She sat straight up and pushed him out of the way. She looked at the screen, and she could see what he meant.

A shudder went through her.

There were long protuberances going from the puncture wounds, going deep into her body, and it looked as if things were growing on them, growing in a very unpleasant-looking way, like blisters on top of blobs. She let out a little noise.

She took the wand from him, exploring all over, looking at each one of these strange areas of growth.

As she pushed on her belly, a bit of something green seeped out of one of her wounds.

She dropped the wand, letting out a horrified cry.

Jonathan shut off the machine.

"Wait," she said. "Wait, I didn't see—"

"I don't think you should," he said. His face was very pale and his eyes were very wide. "This is some kind of nightmare."

She touched her skin. She ran her finger through the green goo and held it up in front of her face. "What is this?"

"An infection, maybe?"

"Test it." She thrust her finger at him. "Get samples. Let's look at them under a microscope. Let's analyze them."

He shook his head at her, back and forth. "I'm so sorry, Riley. You have to believe me, if I'd ever thought something like this—"

"Get some slides, for fuck's sake, Jonathan," she said. "Stop apologizing."

IT WAS BUB'S DNA. Under the microscope, it looked like Bub's blood.

Jonathan was in an ecstasy of horror about it. How could this be happening?

She wanted him to cut her open and get a sample of the growths, but he said that he wouldn't dare do such a thing. He wasn't going to cut her.

She said she'd do it herself if she could, but she didn't think she'd be able to manage it.

She was fierce and angry and obviously terrified, and he didn't know what to tell her.

They argued about it for some time and then he suddenly had a sharp pain in his stomach. It felt as if something inside him roiled up and rippled through him, like a whip cracking inside his internal organs.

He doubled over, teeth gritted, in too much pain to think or speak.

Then, gripped by the intense urge to vomit, he hurried across the room to one of the utility sinks, where he vomited coffee that looked too green for his liking. He stared at whatever had come out of him, blinking hard, feeling lightheaded.

"And you vomit," said Riley from the other side of the room.

He straightened, looking over at her, wiping his mouth. "Yes, I'm sorry. I don't know what's become of me."

She tried to engage him in the argument again, but he got another wave of pain, and he had to tell her that he wasn't sure he was well enough to be here.

"Seriously?" she said, gesturing at her stomach. "I'm turning into a lizard here, and you're too sick to help me?"

"Not a lizard," he said faintly. "An amphibian. It's very, very different."

"Oh, fuck you," she said. She came across the room and dragged him out of there, taking him back to his cabin and thrusting him inside.

He would have protested, but once he was there, he was in such agonies that he couldn't do anything at all.

He fell to the floor and went into a fetal position as waves and waves of pain wracked him.

How long that went on, he couldn't say.

But it was some time later when someone was banging on his door.

He barely managed to call out. He couldn't get up to answer it.

It was Ramirez, who opened the door, swore, and said, "You, too, huh, doc?" And then ran off, leaving his door open to the muggy air, which wafted inside as the pain went on and on.