Sophie Littlefield - Aftertime

“I don’t believe you,” Smoke said, but there was the faintest trace of doubt in his voice.

“Believe, or don’t believe.” Evangeline shrugged. “Now that, right there, that’s the true enemy of the future. Ignorance. Indifference. Failure to adapt.”

“As opposed to wild theories and fearmongering? Trading on people’s loss and grief to justify…” Smoke gestured around him, including the others in the room-the guns, the library, the hidden citizens. “All of this?”

Evangeline folded her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes. “You’re starting to bore me. I thought we could engage in a little intelligent discourse, but you’re nothing more than an-an agitator. You didn’t fool Skiv, you know.”

“Fool him? What are you talking about?”

“With your whole ‘they fired first’ defense-”

“That wasn’t a defense, that’s the truth, ” Smoke cut her off. “There are people who survived that day who can tell you the real story-some living here. At least, they were, unless you’ve thrown them out. For agitating, as you call it.”

“You’ll be taken down to Colima tomorrow,” Evangeline continued on, as though he hadn’t spoken. “To the detention camp until they can schedule your trial. Although it might be a while, seeing as there are a few other more pressing issues on folks’ minds. You ought to like it, though-from what I hear, it’s full of people like you.” She gave him a smile, flicking out her tongue to lick her lips. “Enemies of progress.”

“Smoke, what is she talking about?” Cass demanded in a whisper. Everyone could hear, but she didn’t care; the panic that had lodged in her gut was escalating.

Smoke shook his head slowly, not taking his eyes off Evangeline. “Sounds like they’ve built themselves a jail,” he said softly. “What does that say about your new society-you’ve built jails and an army first…”

“We’ve built a community, ” Evangeline snapped. “And a research center. In the university hospital. We’ve got the best of the best working down there. We’re the only hope for the future, and people know it. You think we’re forcing people to stay here?”

She waited, but no one said anything.

“Anyone can leave, anytime they want. We held a vote . The people here had the option to choose to go it alone. Of course, we offered protection, resources…better facilities, cleaner water. And when we do develop the vaccine, our people will get it first.” She focused her gaze on Cass with distaste. “It will be quite a while before we have enough for anyone living outside our control.”

“You aren’t developing a vaccine,” Smoke muttered. “There’s no way-the equipment, the intellectual capital, the infrastructure, none of that survived. They took it out-all of it. Berkeley’s a fucking smoking hole in the ground. Stanford got leveled. They knew where the research was going on and bombed the shit out of it.”

“I think you’ve said enough,” Evangeline said. “You speak from ignorance. And I want to talk to your girlfriend now, not you. Nyland, keep him in line.”

The man with the thin beard stepped forward, gripping a handheld wand with prongs at the end. Cass realized with dismay that it was a Taser.

“Don’t believe them,” Smoke said, not bothering to lower his voice. “No matter what happens. Promise me that, Cass.”

Cass gave him a small nod, wondering how she was supposed to know who to trust. Evangeline watched her with cold interest. “Let me lay out the future for you, sister.”

“I’m not your sister,” Cass snapped. There was something not right about Evangeline, some realignment of emotions that crackled under the surface, a tightly controlled mania.

Evangeline smiled, and suddenly Cass realized that she was actually very beautiful. If she were capable of a genuine smile, she’d be stunning.

“Of course. You are an only child. An orphan now. Your father left the family long ago and your mother… I extend my condolences, of course. The fact that so many have been lost doesn’t lessen anyone’s individual pain. We recognize that.”

Fear shivered its way down Cass’s spine. How did Evangeline know so much about her? And what about Ruthie-the one detail she hadn’t mentioned? Elaine, of course; it had to be. She tried to remember what she and Elaine had talked about, during the long hours they’d spent together in those early days in the library. Of course they must have exchanged life stories. Elaine… Cass searched her memory, trying to dredge up what the woman had told her. She’d been a gym teacher at an elementary school…she’d been dating another teacher, but she’d broken off the engagement earlier in the year, and that’s when she opened her yoga studio. She had cats. Two cats, a white one and a striped one-there had been a photo. Yes…she remembered Elaine showing her the photo, her voice trembling when she described her cats, which had gone missing shortly after the attack on domesticated fowl, when suddenly everyone became a hunter. Oh, and she had a younger brother with problems, some sort of problems that had landed him in a group home in Oakland.

So it was possible. Even Cass, who’d lost several weeks of her life, had been able to dredge up those details. It was well within the bounds of possibility that Elaine had been able to tell Evangeline the things she knew. The question was-why? How had they gotten the information out of her? Here, in this room, with the three strangers staring at her and Smoke, Cass had no trouble believing they would do whatever it took to get what they wanted.

But Elaine hadn’t told them about Ruthie. Why?

“You can’t stay here,” Evangeline continued. “If people know you returned, after the attack-there’s a lot of ignorance, a lot of fear. You wouldn’t be…tolerated well. We wouldn’t be able to guarantee your safety. Down in Colima, we have scientists, we have a way to explain things in terms people can understand. And we have the others. Like you.”

“If there are others, how come I’ve never seen them before?” Cass demanded. “How come no one has?”

Evangeline shrugged. “Simple, unfortunate circumstances. Our people think that as many as one or two in every hundred citizens is immune, an outlier. It’s nothing new, there’s a similar phenomenon with other infectious diseases-HIV, malaria, even Parkinson’s. Only, to recover, you actually have to survive an attack or live through blueleaf fever. And as you know, it’s become a lot harder to do that.”

Cass knew. Once people realized where the fever led, they stopped caring for the infected. Those who didn’t take their own lives were turned out on the streets or even killed, if their loved ones could stomach the job.

“We’re getting close to a blood test,” Evangeline continued. “Soon we’ll be able to tell who’s an outlier and who isn’t. But we need people like you for that, people for the studies. And that’s why we’re going to give you safe passage to Colima.”

She studied Cass, one eyebrow raised. “You’ll never make it on your own. There’s very little cover in the central valley, and the towns…well, I don’t need to tell you. But we’ve got a team headed down there day after tomorrow, and you can go with them. We’ll outfit you, get you a better blade. Food, water, first aid supplies-and you’ll go by truck. By truck, Cass, do you understand me? Just like in the old days. You understand that we cannot give you a gun, but your escort will be armed. Well armed.”

At this, the man called Nyland smiled. Guns were about as easy to come by as fresh meat. They’d been the first thing people hoarded, along with water and batteries. But it had been amazing how quickly they changed hands when people were stupid enough to use them. The outcome of any armed situation was generally that one person ended up dead, and the other added a weapon to his stash. Which didn’t much matter, until people started hiding their weapons stores.