Cassie Alexander - Deadshifted

Undeterred, Raluca continued. “I’ve put out rations for anyone who wants them. You have to take care of yourself, so you can take care of your loved ones. Remember to wash your hands. That is all.”

She clicked off the megaphone and stepped down.

The volunteers who were mobile staggered up and queued to go outside, and I followed them. I needed to break free from here and look for Asher—or find Nathaniel and get him to tell me more. I scanned the room for him and didn’t see his sneer.

Outside, we walked past the food table en masse. Grilled cheeses all around. My stomach turned green. Without thinking, I sagged forward, bile rising, and Jorge caught me.

“Hey—hey.” He set me upright as I looked for something nearby that I could puke into. “You’re sure you’re not sick?”

I waved away his concern. “Not like that, no. The ocean. It gets me.”

“Raluca’s giving out Dramamine like candy. You should take some,” he advised.

“Thanks, but—” I began.

It was too late; he’d already started to wave for her. “Raluca, she needs Dramamine—”

There was nowhere to hide. What was the worst that could happen—she’d take me into the next room over and tie me to a table?

Raluca came over to give me the nursing once-over—I recognized it, nurse-to-nurse, in her eye. I tried to pretend that everything was okay, for the currently low values of okay we all shared, as she touched my forehead with the back of her hand. I thought I still felt like an icicle from my time in the morgue, and I could tell from her face relaxing that she did too.

“Where did these come from?” I gestured to the table.

“There’s still healthy people crewing the last kitchen, as best they can. We can’t let everyone starve.”

Which begged the most obvious question I hadn’t asked yet. “How many people are left on board?”

She inhaled to answer me, then paused, and I saw my opportunity.

“You don’t know, do you?” I asked. It was hard not to sound excited.

Raluca shook her head. “We haven’t gone room to room yet—”

“So there could be sick people up there.” I pointed above us, to indicate the rest of the rooms. “Too sick to call.”

“We’re overwhelmed as it is—”

“But what if the medical ships come, and they don’t take everyone? There could be hundreds of people, feverish in their beds, trapped.”

Her eyes narrowed, and she gave me another look, nurse-to-nurse. “Just how big do you think the medical ship will be?”

Not big enough. “But shouldn’t we know?” I pressed. “Maybe we could move them down, or put X ’s on the doors—something.” Anything that would get me permission to do a room-to-room search. I would pull the entire ship apart to find Asher if I had to.

“If you don’t authorize it, I’ll go do it anyhow. You can’t stop me.” My voice rose as Raluca frowned.

“I’ll go with her,” Jorge volunteered.

Dr. Haddad emerged from behind his desk at the commotion and eyed us all with equal displeasure. I had Asher’s word he was competent, but I doubted the man had ever had a decent bedside manner. Raluca leaned over to whisper something in his ear, and he sighed. “Five people can go.” He held up two fingers and pointed at Jorge and me. “The troublemakers. Then—” He began to look around. “Her.” He pointed at the woman whose son was Rory’s age—I assumed he’d passed by virtue of being away from him—“and him, and you.” He jabbed his finger at a man with a startlingly bad self-tan, and at Nathaniel, who’d been standing in the back. I felt a silent thrill at his being included in our number. Maybe I’d get a chance to talk to him alone.

“I want to go too,” Rory volunteered.

“No.” Raluca shook her head immediately. “We need you here.”

And I realized what the doctor was doing: giving us people he, or Raluca, wanted gone.

“Don’t I get a choice?” the tan-man asked.

The doctor narrowed his eyes. “I caught you trying to steal Valium.” He looked around and spotted someone. “Marius—you’re in charge of this mess. Take a master key and a radio. And this.” He disappeared back into to the curtained room, returning with a paper list that he handed to Marius. “Check the manifest as you go. Putting X’s on the doors is not a bad idea,” he said, glancing at me with a grunt, then turning to our small group as a whole. “The medical rescue ship will be here in three hours. That’s all the time you’ve got. Wash your hands before you go.”

Then the doctor darted back into his room like a moray eel. Raluca gave our group a pained look. “The medical team’s on radio station five. Good luck,” she said, and walked after the doctor.

I gave Marius a sympathetic glance as the rest of the volunteers followed Raluca back inside, grilled cheeses largely uneaten. He shrugged. “The doctor’s always disliked me. Where is your man, my countryman?”

I shrugged back at him and tried to look competent, but with a side of damsel in distress, just in case it helped my cause. “I’m not sure.”

“Ah. So that’s why you want to do this,” he said, and then turned to address all of us. “We’ll go up and search room-to-room, breaking up into groups of three and doing both sides of the floor simultaneously.” He started making hand gestures to indicate what our plan of attack would be, which sealed my assumption that he was ex-military, and began directing us down the hall. “Head out.”

Marius opened up a door that said STAFF ONLY and loaded us into the freight elevator behind it.

“I can’t believe we have to do this,” said the tan-man who’d been roped in. The woman was still sobbing quietly beside me as Marius pressed number 9.

“No one’s holding a gun to your head,” Nathaniel said, then after a dramatic pause, “yet.”

Tan-man leaned forward, pressing the crying woman back, until she stepped on my shoe.

“If we have to do this, we’ll be doing it in an orderly fashion,” Marius said before a fight could start. “We’ll use X ’s for rooms that we’ve cleared, O ’s for rooms that are empty, and S ’s for ones with people who are sick.” He paused to look around and make sure we weren’t all idiots. “Knock first—give the guests a chance to answer. Some of the fancy rooms are big, and some of the guests are slow or deaf. Then, if no one answers, go in and look around. Clear from room to room, including bathrooms, closets, and balconies. Okay?”

“There’s only one master key?” Jorge asked.

Marius nodded. “And it’s mine. I’m in charge of this expedition.”

The elevator doors opened and we spilled out onto the ninth floor’s very nice carpeting. “Outside rooms—you, you, and you.” He pointed to me, the other woman, and Jorge. “Inside rooms, us three.” He pointed to himself, Nathaniel, and Tan-man.

“Boys versus girls,” Nathaniel said with a shark-like grin.

“Quite,” Jorge said, aligning himself on our “ladies” side.

Marius looked at the sheet the doctor had given him. “You all have the Averys. We’ve got the Steinmetzes. Start knocking,” Marius commanded, leaning in to unlock our door and rap loudly on it while doing so by way of example.

Jorge clicked his heels and saluted him ironically.

Our door didn’t open all the way; there was still a latch closed at the top. That was good, I guessed—it meant someone was still inside.

“Hello?” I called through the gap as Marius’s group disappeared into the room behind us.

“What’s your name?” Jorge asked the crying woman.

She sniffled some. “Kate.”