Fever (13 page)

‘Nice,’ Luke told her.

The hallway was empty. They started opening doors, just a crack, looking for suits.

‘There are a bunch in here in a big cart. Looks like they’ve already been worn and need to be sterilized,’ Luke said as he peered into the third room on the right.

‘Good enough,’ Eve said. ‘Face it. It’s not like we both haven’t been exposed to the plague multiple times already.’

They ducked inside and suited up. No one would question them now, Eve thought. They looked as official as anyone once their clothes were covered and the masks were obscuring their faces.

‘Let’s find Mr Dokey,’ Luke said as they returned to the hallway.

‘And Jess,’ Eve added. She strode over to the next room and cracked the door. ‘Score!’ She waved Luke over and led the way inside. A computer sat on the desk of the small clerk’s office. ‘Bet they’re using it to track patients and treatments,’ she said.

Luke was at the keyboard before the last word was out of her mouth. ‘Dokey’s in room two-o-seven. They have him listed as patient zero. That means he was the first one with the plague.’

‘Get Seth’s room too,’ Eve said.

Luke typed in
Schneider, Seth
. ‘In courtroom A, bed sixteen.’

Eve had to stifle a gasp when they found the courtroom and stepped inside. Cots lined the walls and aisles between the wooden benches. So many people, all so sick. Eve was thankful for the thick plastic of her visor. It made everything seem a little distant, a little less real.

She didn’t need to use the bed number to find Seth. Eve quickly spotted Jess standing over him. Her shoulders were heaving with sobs. ‘This way,’ she said to Luke, then rushed over to join her friend.

‘He doesn’t even know I’m here. I can’t even tell him I’m sorry I ran off the other day,’ Jess cried when Eve put her arm round Jess’s shoulders. Seth’s eyes were open, but glazed. She didn’t think he was seeing anything. Was he even conscious? Jess seemed pretty out of it too, not even stopping to question how Luke and Eve had made it into the courthouse. Eve knew that seeing Seth in that state was more than her bestie could handle.

‘He knows you’re with him,’ Luke told her. ‘People always know, even if they can’t show it. He knows and it’s helping him.’

Luke was so good at giving comfort, Eve thought. Maybe it was because his dad was a minister and Luke had spent a lot of time going out on calls with him. ‘We need to get to Mr Dokey,’ Eve said gently.

‘I don’t want to leave him.’ Jess rested her gloved hand lightly on Seth’s chest. His lips parted slightly, as if he was about to speak, but he didn’t utter a sound.

‘The best thing you can do for him is help us find Amunnic,’ Luke reminded her.

Jess sucked in a deep breath. ‘OK, yes, you’re right.’ She blinked rapidly to clear her eyes of tears. There was no way to wipe them through the mask of the hazmat suit.

‘He’s in room two-o-seven,’ Eve said. She linked her arm through Jess’s and guided her out of the ward and over to the stairs.

Luke held up one hand when they reached the first floor. He backed down a few steps, Eve and Jess following his lead. ‘Guard in front of the door I think is Dokey’s,’ he said softly.

‘I got it,’ Jess said.

Eve didn’t have a chance to ask what she meant. Jess threw herself up the stairs, screaming. ‘Seth! He’s dying! Somebody has to do something.’ Eve could tell the hysteria in her friend’s voice wasn’t completely put on.

Luke and Eve crept back to the top of the stairs. Jess had the guard facing away from them and had managed to pull him several steps away from the door.
Now or never
, Eve thought. She darted towards the door and slipped behind. Luke shut the door as soon as he followed her inside.

‘Oh my God,’ Eve whispered. ‘Is that him?’ The figure on the cot that had been placed to one side of the desk in the judge’s chambers didn’t look like Mr Dokey. It didn’t even look human.

Cautiously Eve moved forward. Now she was able to make out a nose almost eaten away by the necrosis and lips that were raw and oozing. The mouth was open, revealing a thick puffy tongue, bright angry red, except for where splotches of rot like damp black fungus had sprouted. The eyes were shut. Eve was grateful for that. She didn’t want to see what the plague had done to the eyes.

‘Mr Dokey?’ She was still having trouble believing it was her teacher. ‘Mr Dokey?’ she said more loudly. No response.

Eve reached out and laid her hand on Mr Dokey’s. Through the glove, she felt the skin on his hand slide. Bile splashed up in her throat when she raised her gloved fingers to her eyes and saw the greenish-black smear. A piece of Mr Dokey’s skin had peeled away at Eve’s gentle touch.

Eve’s eyes jerked back to Mr Dokey’s hand, and she caught a glimpse of white bone where his skin had peeled away. She heard a low whimpering sound and it took her a moment to realize it was coming from her own throat.

Luke stepped up beside her and grabbed her hand. Even through two layers of gloves she could feel its warmth, and it helped steady her. ‘Mr Dokey!’ she exclaimed. ‘It’s Luke Thompson and Eve Evergold.’

‘From school. Can you hear us?’ Luke added.

Mr Dokey’s eyelids fluttered. When they opened, oily-looking black strands connected the upper and lower lids.

‘Hi. Hi, Mr Dokey. It’s good to see you,’ Eve said, forcing herself to treat him as the person he was, even though he looked like a monster. She wondered if he could see her or anything at all.

Jess slipped up beside her and Luke. ‘I got rid of the guard, at least for a little,’ she said. Her body stiffened as she took in Mr Dokey’s appearance. ‘Is that going to happen to everyone?’ she asked softly. ‘I can’t even— Can you even see a patch of skin that isn’t … that isn’t covered?’

Eve shook her head. ‘We have to stay focused.’

‘We wanted to find out about the bowl,’ Luke said loudly. ‘You brought a bowl back from Egypt, didn’t you, Mr Dokey?’

Mr Dokey’s frail body spasmed, and he muttered some words that Eve couldn’t make out. She wasn’t even sure they were in English.

‘The bowl. The ceramic bowl. Where is it?’ Jess urged.

Mr Dokey gave another spasm, one so hard it lifted his spine off the bed. ‘I did this. Me.’ His voice was thick and muffled. He twisted his head back and forth, and Eve saw pieces of skin appear on his pillowcase.

‘Calm down, please,’ she begged. ‘You’re hurting yourself.’

‘Warned!’ Mr Dokey cried out. ‘Warned. Didn’t— Wouldn’t. My fault.’

‘It’s OK,’ Luke told him. ‘It’s going to be OK, Mr Dokey. We just need to know where that bowl is.’

‘We can save everybody!’ Jess added.

‘She’s right,’ Luke said, enunciating each word clearly. ‘We can stop this. All of this.’

Mr Dokey blinked, frowning. His eyes seemed to lock on Luke’s face. They were full of pleading. ‘You know where,’ he rasped. ‘You know.’ Then his eyes shut again, and his body went limp. It was as if he’d used all the strength he had.

‘He didn’t— He’s not dead, is he?’ Jess asked.

Luke shook his head. ‘I think he just exhausted himself. We’re not going to get any more out of him. But it seemed like we were right. He knew what we were talking about when we brought up the bowl. It’s here in Deepdene.’

‘Yeah,’ Eve agreed. ‘And he said
you
knew where.’

‘I hate this!’ Jess burst out as soon as they left the courthouse. ‘I just hate it. I want something to punch. I’m so mad about everything. About Seth getting sick, and your dad, Luke. And about there being another stupid demon in our town.’

‘When we find stupid Amunnic you can punch him,’ Eve told her. ‘I’ll use my zaps to hold him still for you.’

Jess shook out her arms. Eve could tell she was trying to let go of some of the tension in her body. ‘So what do you think Mr Dokey was talking about? Why would you know where the bowl is?’ she asked Luke.

‘All I can think of is the church,’ Luke answered. ‘That’s the only place that I’d know that you two might not, right?’

‘I don’t know if he even realized what he was saying,’ Eve replied. ‘All that stuff he was saying about a warning – what was that supposed to mean?’

‘The demon couldn’t go in the church, could it?’ Jess asked. ‘Not with the gargoyles.’

The Deepdene church was filled with gargoyles, hundreds of them, all sizes and types. They’d discovered the stone monsters had been placed there to keep the church safe from demons.

‘Right. The gargoyles,’ Luke said. ‘Maybe under the church? That’s where I hid the sword. There’s a crypt down there, but no gargoyles.’

‘We should check it out,’ Eve answered. ‘I don’t know why Mr Dokey would think it was down there though. He wouldn’t have taken it there.’

‘I want to get the sword anyway,’ Luke said. ‘It might not feel like it, but we’re getting closer to Amunnic. I’d feel better having it with us. I think we’re going to have to wait until after curfew though.’

‘Why? Just for the extra challenge?’ Jess demanded. She ran her fingers through her hair. Wearing the hazmat mask had made it damp and limp.

‘They’re fumigating the church. There are a bunch of CDC personnel over there. No way can we just walk in,’ Luke told her. ‘I don’t think they’ll keep working after curfew.’

‘What do we do until then?’ Eve asked.

‘I really do need to hit something,’ Jess said. ‘Master Justin has a class later. I’m going. Maybe he’ll let me try to chop a board in half or something.’

‘I’ll go with you,’ Eve told Jess. Her bestie needed her – that was clear. Seeing Seth, and seeing what the plague had done to Mr Dokey, had devastated Jess. Eve looked over at Luke. ‘I think you’re right about getting the sword before we go further. Right after curfew we’ll get it and check out the church.’

We have to find Amunnic tonight
, she thought.
Mr Dokey can’t last much longer, and soon the others will be in as horrible a condition as he is
.

‘Three more minutes,’ Master Justin said.

Eve shot a glance at Jess. They were the only two students in the kung-fu class. Jess’s legs were trembling, and sweat had pasted her hair to her head. Eve was feeling like she could hold the horse stance all night, where you basically held your body in the position it would be in if you were riding a horse – only without the horse.

I bet I could hold it all day tomorrow too
, Eve thought,
if I just took a little sip of the current that’s powering the studio’s lights
. It was like she had an almost endless power source available to her. She just had to learn how to take the power a little at a time. She couldn’t go around causing blackouts the way she had last night.

Jess let out a little groan.
This has to be really hard
, Eve thought. Jess was such an athlete. She always got assigned the hardest gymnastic moves in her cheerleading routines. Maybe all the worry about Seth was sucking the strength and energy out of her.

‘All right, very good,’ Master Justin finally told Eve and Jess. ‘Now, stay in that position and we’ll do some side kicks.’

Just imagine there’s a demon over there, and you’re kicking it right in the belly
, Eve coached herself. She felt electric jolts through her leg with every kick. It felt awesome.

‘That was a lot more fun than I thought it would be,’ Eve told Jess as they left the dojo above the hardware store.

‘You know what would be more fun? If you carried me down these stairs,’ Jess answered.

‘Tiring, huh? But did it make you feel any better?’ Eve asked.

Jess scrubbed her face with her fingers. ‘The best I can say is that it exhausted me to the point where I don’t think I have the energy to feel anything at all.’

‘If you really want me to give you a piggy-back ride, I will,’ Eve said.

Jess shook her head. ‘If I get on, I might not be able to get back off.’ She grabbed the stair rail with one hand as they slowly walked down the stairs together.

As they stepped outside, Eve could feel stored heat being released from the cement sidewalk. If possible, today was even hotter than yesterday. ‘You know what I wish?’ she asked as she looked longingly down at Big Ola’s – which was now closed, along with every other place on Main Street. ‘I wish I could bathe in ice cream. How deliciously wonderful would that feel, to be immersed in sweet, sweet coldness?’

The idea seemed to revive Jess a tiny bit. ‘Cleopatra used to take baths in milk,’ she said. She knew pretty much every beauty factoid in existence. ‘That makes me think it’s great for the skin. So I’m in on the ice-cream-bathing plan.’

‘If this heat wave keeps going, we’ll buy up every bit of ice cream we can find and fill up the pool,’ Eve promised her. She glanced at her watch. ‘Not even an hour and a half until it’s time to search the church. We’ll have just enough time to shower and change.’

‘Maybe my stench would be good demon repellent,’ Jess joked, but her voice didn’t hold its usual lightness.

A long, shrill wail drowned out the sound of Eve’s laugh. ‘What was that?’ she exclaimed, already running towards the sound. She whipped round the corner just in time to see Sean collapse to his knees on the sidewalk.

Plague
, Eve thought. She remembered that he had looked really pale earlier.

‘He took them! Both of them!’ Sean howled as Eve skidded to a stop next to him.

‘Who? Who took who?’ Jess exclaimed, panting with the exertion of running after Eve.

‘Phillip. He took them. We were on the beach, and he grabbed them. Dave and Elisha. Megan went home before that,’ Sean explained. Eve could see him struggling to get a grip on himself, but it wasn’t working.

‘Phillip took them? Where?’ Jess asked, kneeling next to Sean.

‘I don’t know. It was like Phillip had a complete personality change. He started growling, actually growling. Then he was clawing people.’

‘Clawing?’ Eve repeated.

‘I know. It sounds crazy, but it’s true,’ Sean swore.

‘I’m calling an ambulance for you,’ Jess told Sean, pulling out her cell.

‘It doesn’t sound crazy. We believe you,’ Eve reassured him. She knew exactly what had happened. It hadn’t been Phillip they’d seen with the other guys that morning. It had been the demon. That’s why Phillip had seemed so out of it and awkward, not because he was getting sick.