Lives We Lost,The by Megan Crewe Read Free Book Online Page A

contingent there shortly after nine-eleven. At least that’s what the commanders told us. There were eighteen of us, but a few got sick, the major got sick, and a bunch ran. Me and a couple other guys figured we were safer hiding out there until the virus situation was under control. Lots of rations, lots of fuel for the generator, we were pretty much set.”
“Good for you,” Gav said. Tobias winced, but he kept talking.
“We thought it was just going to be for a few weeks. But the news kept getting worse. The other guys got restless. We didn’t want to go outside the compound because we were scared of getting sick, but they couldn’t take staying inside all the time. They started going out and doing target practice through the fence: birds, deer, trees. Then two days ago this guy shows up—I don’t know how he made it there—hollering about how we had to help him, how he just took off from the god-awful island where the whole thing started, and the virus got him, and someone there would have shot him if he’d stayed.”
Tobias paused, looking at us, his expression vaguely accusing.
“We weren’t shooting anyone,” I said. “He must have been —there was a group that started killing anyone they found who was infected. He must have been with them.”
So stupid. If he’d just walked into the hospital, someone there would have done whatever they could for him. He must have thought we’d know he’d been part of the gang, that we’d turn him away.
“Well, running didn’t do him any good,” Tobias said. “He ended up shot anyway. He was coughing and sneezing as well as hollering, so there wasn’t any way we were letting him in. Moore did him in with his rifle like it was a little more target practice. And then he and Donetelli got talking about your island, about the place where the virus got started being so close, and after a bit they’d worked themselves up into a real rage. Saying if people had stayed on the island, the rest of us would have been fine, and it’d be fair punishment for them to take the chopper over and unload a few missiles. Bigger target practice.”
“There were kids,” Gav said. “There were old people who couldn’t have gotten out of their homes if they’d wanted to. We were just trying to hang on, like everyone else.”
“I know,” Tobias said, sounding miserable. “I wasn’t up in the chopper, was I? After I heard them talking, I got one of the trucks and came down as fast as I could. I didn’t think they’d do it right away. I was hoping maybe they’d simmer down and forget the whole thing. But they must have noticed I’d gone and decided they would beat me here. Which they did.”
“You knew what they were planning and you left,” Leo said. “You didn’t even try to talk them out of it.” There was no question in his voice.
“They wouldn’t have listened to me,” Tobias said. “They never did. They—I swear, you don’t know what it was like.”
“We know they blew up most of our town,” I said. “You couldn’t have said something ?”
Tobias’s shoulders hunched. “Look,” he said. “I screwed myself over coming here. You think they’re going to let me back on the base now? I did what I could.”
Meredith squirmed beside me. “Kae,” she said, “what are we going to do now? Are we going back to the island? What if the helicopter comes again?”
“Of course we’re going back,” Gav said before I could answer. “Whoever survived that, they’ll need our help.”
I glanced toward the strait, then down at the cold-storage box. Every muscle in me balked at the idea of bringing the vaccine back to the island. We’d had no idea any of this would happen. What else was coming that we couldn’t see? Going back suddenly felt like a far bigger risk than leaving.
“You can,” I said. “But I’m not. We could have lost the vaccine. I have to get it to someone who can use it, while I still have the chance.”
“You want to just abandon them?”