I gave her an apologetic smile.“Sorry, the only French I know is from an old lullaby.”
“And I only know some Spanish,” Boden added.
“Anyway, things in the quarantine got bad after a while,” Bianka went on.“Not enough food, violent guards, too many people.You know the drill, I’m sure.”She gave me a knowing weary smile, and I nodded like I did understand, but I didn’t really.
I had no real memory of my time before the Lakehouse, of life before Max, but I didn’t want to mention that now.I’d rather us bond over our shared histories than raise suspicion over our differences.
“A few of us travelled west, looking for something better,” Bianka continued.“And along the way, I lost everyone.Including my mom.”Her expression darkened for a moment, but she forced a smile.“Then Murphy found me wandering around the derelict streets of Vancouver, and xe’s been taken care of me ever since.”
“Xe?”I echoed, confused by her word choice.
“Oh, yeah, Murphy’s an enby,” Bianka explained.“Like nonbinary instead of male or female.And instead of he/him or she/her, Murph uses xe/xer.”
“Thank you for the gender lesson,” Murphy said dryly.
“Well, I wanna make sure they understand, babe.”Bianka put her hand on top of Murphy’s.“And I know you don’t like explaining it, so I thought I’d get it out of the way.”
“Thanks for letting us know,” Boden said.“I don’t know if I’ve met someone like that before, but we have folks of all types living on the Barbarabelle.”
Our friend Edie was a transwoman, and she had been open about sharing her experiences with me.I’d also read some things about sexuality and gender in the books in the Lakehouse (but honestly, not enough since I’d accidentally ended up pregnant at fourteen).Nonbinary and other gender identities were something I was aware of, even if I hadn’t encountered much of it myself.But then again, that could also be because I hadn’t encountered that many people at all.
“Ryder and I came up together in the boys’ wing,” Leandro said, continuing the conversation.“They kept the kids separate there, and it was all binary.Boys in one wing, girls in another.And all the adults were kept away from all of us, parents included.We only got to see them for a few hours a week through these mesh windows, like we were prisoners.Make no mistake, that was not a fun place to grow up.”
“They tried to keep everyone as segregated as possible to stop the spread of the virus, but in too many of the safe zones, they took it too far,” Murphy said, xer tone both apologetic and justifying.
“Murph was in the reserve forces when the lockdowns started,” Bianka explained.“Xe helped set up some of the first quarantines and safe zones.”
“I was in the infantry, fresh out of boot camp when the virus reared its ugly head,” Boden said.“With the U.S.Army, I was a soldier, and I had to set up a few of those myself.”
“Later on, because I wanted to help, I ended up volunteering for the Cold Shore project,” Murphy said.
The name Cold Shore sounded an alarm in my head and brought me back to the fall of Emberwood.All of that death and destruction came directly at the hands of a vengeful woman named Mercy Loth.In the chaos of her attack, she’d accidentally left a book behind, and it ended up in my hands
One part manifesto and one part memoir, it was simply titledThe Book of Mercy.Mostly it contained the grandiose ramblings and depraved confessions of a delusional young woman, including how she came to conceive and birth multiple children with zombies.But tucked into the pages were several folded-up letters and papers.
The letters were written by a man called Pyotr Popov, a scientist working for the Cold Shore Global Contingency.He didn’t define it explicitly, but it was clearly somewhere meant to survive the end of the world.
“You’re talking about the Cold Shore Global Contingency?”I asked.
“Yeah, they were supposed to save the world, and I wanted to help,” Murphy said with a wry smile.“But then it turned out to be more bullshit, just like everything else has been since the virus.”
Ryder scoffed.“It’s all been bullshit since long before the virus.”
7
Pyotr
To: Michael Haugen, Director-General
Cold Shore Global Contingency
I will introduce myself first, so you will understand my expertise.I hold a PhD equivalent in Genetics – what we call Candidate of Sciences in Russia – and a Doctor of Sciences degree specializing in Biotechnology.Before the virus, I was a lead geneticist at the Centre of Genetics and Biotechnology in Novosibirsk, Siberia.
I first learned of the Cold Shore Contingency while working with them, though I must admit that I never believed it would be something humanity would need to rely on during my lifetime.Then, I thought such an event was far from possible – perhaps it was wishful thinking, perhaps denial.
Thezombibeshenstvo– the virus we would eventually know as the lyssavirus genotype-8 – spread rapidly as soon as it was discovered.Fortunately, the cold slowed the infected, and the vastness of my homeland meant that we had more time than most.
The infected are driven to bite and claw, spreading the disease easily.The incubation period is horrifyingly short – just 24 to 72 hours from exposure to complete loss of reason.They seem to feel no pain, fueled by relentless surges of adrenaline and an insatiable hunger.
