The 40th Day (After the Cure Book 5) by Deirdre Gould Read Free Book Online

chew of raw skin between their teeth. They never woke up and found themselves ripe with filth, rotting in all the broken places. They’re soft. Shielded. Not ready. They spent the past decade being fed and cleaned and doctored in a hospital where they couldn’t hurt anyone. Not even themselves. You are more like the Immunes than you are like these people. They are practically pets, Henry. They aren’t going to make it. They’ll only drag the rest of us down. But they don’t have to. They can be useful. But only if you let them be. Let them have their delusion. None of them would thank you for telling them the truth. They’re happier this way.” Gray held out the dart in his palm, offering Henry the choice.
    Henry had a fleeting wish to snatch the dart and stab it viciously into Gray’s grinning face. He picked it up carefully between two fingers instead. “I need your people on the wall. It needs to be finished this week. When you are finished, you’ll report to me or to Amos for your next task. I’m keeping this.” He held up the dart. “I might need that wall up, but it’s not going to come at the price of slavery. If I see you misusing anyone—”
    Gray shrugged. “I’m just a simple, devout man, remember? If ‘foreman’ is too ugly, think of me as a caretaker instead. This needn’t be unpleasant, Henry. I think we understand one another now. You’ll see I’m not so different from you in time.”
    “Just get to work. I’ve my own tasks to attend,” Henry growled and stepped out of the tent.

Seven
    Henry swiped a crusty rag over his forehead, but it only pushed the dirt and sweat around rather than lift it away. Amos was on the other end of the trench angrily stabbing at the dirt with his shovel. “It’s not right,” he said.
    “Nothing is anymore. I don’t like it either, but what are we supposed to do? He’s right. If we tell them, they’ll fall apart. Some of them will come around, sure, eventually. But we don’t know what kind of things were demanded of them in the name of ‘faith’ before they got here. We don’t know anything about them at all. Gray compared them to house pets, said they’d just be a liability if we didn’t use them the way he saw fit.”
    “That’s a bullshit excuse Henry, and you know it. If a child came to us, you wouldn’t throw it out just because it couldn’t kill to defend itself, would you? If Marnie came— the Marnie you remember from Before, what would you do? We can’t operate that way. I didn’t come along for that.”
    “I’m just trying to be practical. Children grow up, they learn. And maybe these people will too, but what if they don’t? Are we just supposed to keep feeding them while they cower behind a wall and pray? They’ve already been kept that way. That hospital held them for almost a decade. The way they remember living, the way they know from Before, it doesn’t work anymore. Even if we all want it to. I don’t make the rules. We’re back to survival of the fittest now, and these people are weak.”
    “No. You’re wrong. The world needs peaceful people. The world needs innocence. If we go back to might makes right, we may as well put down our shovels and lie down in this pit, because we’re already done. Survival of the fittest, Henry? The Plague won . We should be extinct. And we will be if we don’t protect people like them. We should be happy that these people didn’t have to do what we’ve done. I’d say that’s a miracle in itself. One I’d give my life protecting. These people aren’t useless. They might be the most important ones here. These are the people that are going to rebuild civilization, not old worn out soldiers like me, or shell-shocked survivors like you. We’ve forgotten how it’s supposed to be. If everyone is a fighter, then who is raising the crops? Who is treating the injured and helping babies be born? Who’s digging the latrines?” Amos held up his shovel. “We can’t do everything