Tim Lebbon - Coldbrook

What he saw existed in a fold between realities. It was beautiful. It was terrifying. And he shut off the camera, remembering what Holly had said the one and only time she had looked. It’s like seeing into the mind of God .

‘He’s having a nightmare right now,’ Jonah muttered, and he stared at his list. There were the names of a dozen people, most of whom he had not seen for many years. He hoped they could all help. He flicked on the radio again as he started dialling, keeping it low, a background theme to his culpability.

‘. . might well be a form of rabies. No one has yet been able to run tests, but from the descriptions that have come in — somewhat glorified and exaggerated, I suspect — it seems that the attacker is possessed by some kind of madness, and the victim is quickly infected. I believe one commentator has referred to them as. . zombies? Well, let me tell you, science completely precludes. .’

‘We need to stop and rest,’ Lucy said.

‘I’m fine.’

‘You’ve been driving for hours.’

‘Really, I’m fine,’ Vic said. ‘Just a bit longer.’ Lucy had been scanning the radio, sometimes settling on a station playing sterile love songs, sometimes finding a news channel, occasionally encountering religious or talk shows where the theories were becoming more outrageous by the minute. Zombies , someone had said, and she’d snorted and scanned away. And, all the while, Vic had been absorbing the information and knowing for sure that it was ten times worse than anyone claimed.

He remembered a few years ago when the terrible earthquake had struck the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Haiti had been devastated, but for a long time the only firm news coming out of the country had been from individuals on blogs, independent radio stations and mobile phones. Confusion had reigned about how bad the quake had been and how many were affected, and even fly-bys by the US Coast Guard had given only a vague idea of the power and severity of the quake. It had taken almost twenty-four hours for outside agencies to penetrate to the affected zones, and another two weeks before the full, terrible human cost had been realised. At the time it had shocked him that, in a world so interconnected through the media and various forms of instant communication, a tragedy such as the quake could have caused such confusion for so long.

That was happening now, in the USA, and it was not a confined incident. But he could still hear that level of shocked confusion in most of the voices he heard, those of some of the newscasters most of all. How long until the big picture emerges? he wondered. He did not want to be anywhere near when he found out.

The satphone buzzed. He’d plugged it into the cigarette lighter to charge, and now he plucked it up and checked the screen. Holly! But no, of course not. Holly had gone through. Glancing sidelong at Lucy, offering her a weak smile that she did not return, he answered.

‘Jonah.’

‘Vic. Where are you?’

‘Heading north on 75.’ He saw no reason to lie.

‘How far are you from Cincinnati?’

‘Two, maybe three hours. Jonah, are you okay?’

‘Do you care?’

‘Of course I care!’ Vic glanced at Lucy. She was looking at him with something like pity. She signalled to the side of the road and mouthed at him to pull over. He nodded. ‘Hang on, I’m driving.’ He pulled over and switched off the engine. Olivia stirred in the back seat and then snuggled down again. Lucy leaned back to arrange their daughter’s blanket.

‘Do you have any idea what’s happening?’ Jonah asked, and Vic could picture the old bastard’s stern expression, his intelligent eyes narrowed to slits beneath the weight of his frown.

‘Probably far worse than anyone’s guessing,’ Vic said. A big truck powered by, rocking their car slightly.

‘The radio’s bad enough,’ Jonah said. ‘News is sketchy, and the eyewitness accounts are mostly hysterical. It’s spreading, and fast. Some people are almost treating it as a joke! And some of the websites I’ve glanced at. . But anyway, that’s beside the point. There are people I’ve spoken to who might be able to help us.’

‘Us?’ Vic asked. Lucy was looking at him, eyebrows raised, but he held up one hand.

‘Don’t you want to put this right?’ Jonah’s voice sounded strained, even through the static of the fluctuating connection.

‘You’d ask me for help?’

‘I’m not asking — I’m demanding. You need to fix this. There are things you know that will be invaluable to the people I’m sending you to, and-’

‘Sending me? You’re not sending me anywhere.’

‘So where are you going?’ Jonah asked. Lucy had already asked him that. Vic had not replied, simply shoving the question to one side with a succession of delaying moves: he was tired, let’s talk when we stop and eat, don’t worry so much. .

Where exactly were they going? If they reached Cincinnati and the chaos spread north, they could drive to Detroit, and head north from there: Canada was a ferry trip away. But after that? He’d only considered it briefly, unable to deal with anything other than getting his family to safety.

‘Somewhere. .’ Vic said, and his voice suddenly faltered. ‘Somewhere safe.’ Lucy reached over and held his hand. She knew when he needed contact, just as she knew when he needed space, and that was another reason why he loved her so much.

‘I had a wife,’ Jonah said after a pause. ‘You know. I’ve told you. She was beautiful, and I’d have done anything for her. In a way, that’s what I still am doing.’ He paused, and Vic wondered, What have you been doing down there? ‘But you also have responsibility, Vic. Don’t you understand?’

‘Not really. I’m an engineer, not a friggin’ genius quantum physicist.’

‘The effort will need overseeing. To battle this thing, find a cure, stop it. We have our differences, but you know me and our work here better than anyone. And of the two of us, there’s more chance of you staying alive.’

‘What’s happening down there?’

‘Nothing good. Nothing that can be. . undone.’ Jonah sighed, and Vic heard the rattle of computer keys. He’s only just hanging on . ‘So you’ll do it.’

‘Yeah,’ Vic said. Whatever the truth behind the garbled radio news and witness reports, people were dead right now and they wouldn’t be dead if he’d stayed in Coldbrook. He could trace the guilt to earlier than that — to Jonah for okaying the final breach attempt, to Bill Coldbrook for applying his genius to such a project, and back down the line to human curiosity, the search for truth, the quest for a reason — but, however far back he went, the final fault was his.

‘I’ll tell you everything,’ he whispered to Lucy. She nodded slowly, and he knew she realised the gravity of what he had to say. And back into the satphone he said, ‘Jonah, I’ll do what I can. But on one condition, and this isn’t about me and it’s non-negotiable: my family stay safe.’

‘Of course,’ Jonah said.

‘I mean it! I’ll put myself at risk, but not them.’ He looked at Lucy, crying softly in the seat beside him. ‘Never them.’

‘Never them,’ Jonah said. ‘And that’s why, despite all this, you’re not a bad lad.’

Vic coughed, a cross between a laugh and a sob. And the cars and trucks and buses passed them by, most of their drivers probably not even realising that they were going the right way. At the moment the threat was still cloaked in confusion, and perhaps people were always unwilling to accept the worst. But soon, very soon, there would be proper panic.

‘The man I’m sending you to is called Marc Dubois,’ Jonah said. ‘He’s a phorologist: studies disease carriers and the spread of epidemics. He’s one of the best in the world. He’s a good friend, and he’s at Cincinnati University. They’ve got a secure place there. He’s preparing it.’