Patient Z Read Online Free PDF Page B

out of that. Cal? Share with him? God, no, that was the worst possible idea. It wasn’t like he could chain Cal to the wall. Maybe he’d have to chain himself.
    “After all, you’ve got that big room all to yourself, Mitch,” Dolores went on.
    And now he’d look like a selfish idiot if he refused. Did Dolores have a gloating look? Maybe she thought he’d be driven mad by having a gorgeous man sharing his room. Maybe he would be.
    “Yes,” Bren said, standing up, putting a hand on Mitch’s shoulder but looking at Dolores with an evil smirk. “I’m sure they’ll get along just fine. They have so much in common.” Bren knew about what he and Cal had in common? Who knew what they’d talked about while he slept? But he had to admit the look of sudden dismay on Dolores’s face brightened what had just become a very black mood.
    Kathy banged her gavel one last time. “Meeting adjourned.”

Chapter Four
    By the fifth day it had become a routine, but this had to be the last day. Bren came in, smiling in an almost friendly way at him, but Mitch was still frowning. He’d been tense the last couple of nights, barely talking, however much Cal tried to engage him.
    “The doc’s on her way,” Bren said, handing out mugs of coffee. “I didn’t bring breakfast. I think Cal’s gonna join us in the mess hall this morning.”
    “That’s for the doctor to decide,” Mitch said. Ever the optimist. That guy’s glass was never half-full. Cal sipped his coffee and waited tensely. He was okay. God knew how, but he was. But the doctor, nice old girl that she was, would come in here and determine his fate any second. It was enough to give a man the heebie-jeebies. He wanted out of these chains, but not so Mitch and Bren could take him out and shoot him.
    Mitch and Bren talked quietly, Cal tuning them out. Would they shoot him here in this room? Or take him up on the deck of the rig? They had kids here, he’d learned from talking to Mitch and Bren. Surely they wouldn’t want to scare the kids. Maybe they’d take him off on a boat and do him away from the rig?
    God, such morbid thoughts. What made him think they’d do any of that? He was okay. He was okay.
    The doctor came in, leaning heavily on her cane. Mitch at once helped her to a chair. She didn’t have her bag with her, Cal noticed at once. So no needle for a blood sample. No stethoscope. He tried to decide if that was good or bad.
    “Interesting finding in Cal’s latest blood sample,” she said. “In the last two, in fact. I just had to wait for the second one to be sure.”
    Cal stared, and he saw Mitch’s face go pale. His gaze locked on Cal’s.
    “Antibodies,” the doctor went on. “Antibodies to the zombie disease.”
    “He’s…he’s got it?” Mitch asked. His hand rested on his sidearm. Cal took a step back.
    “Of course he hasn’t,” the doctor said impatiently. “We can all see that. No patient has gone this long after infection without displaying any symptoms. He doesn’t have it.”
    Cal sighed as Mitch’s hand moved away from his gun. His legs wobbled suddenly as the tension of the last few days left him. The fear he’d kept bottled up. He staggered back and leaned on the wall.
    “You might as well set him loose,” the doctor said. “I want him down in the infirmary for a full exam.”
    Bren approached Cal, Mitch at her shoulder. She produced a key. “Hold still, handsome.” A moment later the manacles and fetters clattered to the floor, leaving him free. His wrists and ankles ached, the skin chafed and raw, but he barely noticed. He’d just dropped a huge burden. Time to drop another.
    “Doc,” he said, looking past Mitch and Bren to her. He didn’t owe those two the truth, but the doctor needed to know. “The bite. It wasn’t a dog. It was a zombie.”
    Both Mitch and Bren stepped away with small intakes of breath, hands hovering around their guns. But neither drew them. Why would they? He wasn’t a zombie; that was clear.