Mass Extinction Event: The Complete Fourth Series (Days 54 to 61) by Amy Cross Read Free Book Online

worried. “It's probably nothing, but as I'm sure you'll understand, we have to take every possible precaution. If the infection got loose in the base, we'd have to completely evacuate, and we want to keep this place running for a few more weeks.”
    “And you definitely didn't see anything unusual?” Patterson asks me.
    I stare at Rachel. She's been through so much already, and I refuse to believe that she might have been infected, even though she started to scare me the other day in the farmhouse. “No,” I say eventually. “I didn't see anything.”
    “Poor little thing,” Patterson mutters, watching as Rachel wriggles in her plastic crib. “What has it come to when even the children end up suffering like this?”
    “She might be absolutely fine,” Kennedy replies, setting her clipboard down. “Let's focus on the positives, okay? With the limited resources at our disposal and the need to err on the side of caution, false positives are absolutely possible. We just have to wait and see, and hope that over the next few days she just turns out to be a normal little girl.”
    With that, she turns and heads out of the room, leaving us alone for a moment to contemplate Rachel's predicament.
    “What future does she have?” Patterson asks. “If the world stays like this, is she just going to grow up and face misery?”
    I shake my head.
    “You're an optimist?” he asks.
    “I just can't imagine that things won't get better,” I tell him.
    “I wish I could say the same,” he replies. “I'm the opposite. I can't imagine things improving.”
    “Do you have a family?” I ask.
    “I had a wife and two daughters.”
    “And are they -”
    “Dead,” he replies, interrupting me. “I haven't actually seen the bodies, but they were living near the Ocintro nuclear plant in California, which is one of the two plants that have ruptured so far. The chances of them having made it out alive are next to zero.”
    “But you could still -”
    “And I can't leave my post to go look for them,” he adds. “Only the very top people are able to go looking for their family members, only the council members who are running the show in Boston.” He pauses for a moment. “This Toad person... Does he mean something to you?”
    “We were friends,” I reply, still watching Rachel.
    “But does he mean more than that?” He pauses. “I shouldn't say this, but if it's really important to you, I could maybe send an extra patrol out today to take a more detailed look for him. Obviously the chances of finding him are next to zero, even just finding a body would be almost impossible, but it's the best I can manage.”
    “Please,” I reply, “you have to find him.”
    “But if we do find him and he's not...” He pauses again. “Well, you know what I mean. If we find a body, do you want to know, or would you rather be allowed to think that he's still alive?”
    “I want to know the truth,” I reply. “Whatever it is.”
    “Of course,” he continues, “if he's really smart, he'll just come here anyway, under his own steam.”
    “I doubt it,” I reply. “He told me he wanted to keep well away from this place.” I pause for a moment, imagining Toad out there somewhere in the wilderness. “What if he goes back to the farmhouse and finds that I'm gone?” I ask, turning to Patterson. “Did you leave anything behind to let him know that you brought me here? He might just think that I upped and left, that I abandoned him!”
    “I'm sorry, Elizabeth, we didn't leave anything. If this guy is smart, though, he'll rethink his decision to keep away from the base. We're the only people who can help him.”
    On the other side of the window, Rachel starts to cry.
    “Can I go in and hold her?” I ask.
    He shakes his head.
    “She sounds so scared,” I continue. “Please, even if it means I have to stay in there until we're both cleared, I'm willing to take the risk. I can't just let her cry like that.”
    “I'm afraid I can't