Mrs. Sanns house was untouched by what had happened elsewhere in Rosewater. The front door was closed and the lawn was overgrown but at least the place was standing. Ryan parked the APC in the driveway and the trio prepared to deploy once more. Tamsyn waited for the two men to take up their stance outside the door and then she exited the vehicle, breathing a silent prayer they’d find what they needed for Cody here. With Jeff and Ryan flanking her, she put a foot on the first stair to the front porch.
“She’s not home,” said a cheery voice from across the street. “She got sick and wandered off. I closed the door for her.”
Wheeling around, Tamsyn had to do a doubletake at the elderly woman watering her flowerbed at the neat house across the street. “Mrs. Creeley?” she said in disbelief, pulling the name from deep in her memory. She’d been a teacher at Rosewater Elementary long ago. Tamsyn hadn’t been in her class but some of her friends had.
“Who’s that?” Squinting, the former teacher peered across the street. “Why Tamsyn Wendover! What a nice surprise. I haven’t seen you since the last festival in the park. Sorry you missed our friend Ruthann today.”
Walking down the driveway toward Mrs. Creeley, Tamsyn felt as if she’d blundered into a surreal comedy. The elderly lady was so nonchalant and normal in the midst of the destruction and disaster. Several houses on the other side of her neighbor’s dwelling had burned to the ground at some point and trash blew in the street. Her bright red sweater stood out in the general grayness of the afternoon like a beacon of happier times. “How are you doing?”
“Can’t complain.” Putting a hand to the small of her back, Mrs. Creeley straightened with obvious difficulty and went to refill the watering can from the spigot. “Just going one foot in front of the other, you know.”
Tamsyn joined her. “Do you have enough food?”
“Oh yes, dear. I stockpiled all kinds of things when the flu first hit and then I’ve borrowed here and there from the neighbors’ houses. I’m sure they won’t mind. I’ll repay them when they get back.”
Tamsyn, we’re not here on a rescue mission, Jeff said in her head.
We can’t leave an old woman in the middle of all this, she shot back. “Would you like to come out to the ranch with me? So you aren’t alone?”
Mrs. Creeley regarded her with a perplexed expression. “I’m not alone. Harb’s here. Thank you kindly but no need to concern yourself with us.” She strolled along the flower bed, setting down the can to pull a weed and toss it aside with a sniff.
“Harb?” Ryan asked.
“My husband.” Her answer was cheerful.
Tamsyn heard the moaning and growling of an approaching infected and pivoted, blaster at the ready, but there was no one in the street. A series of thumps sounded from inside the house, coming from the upstairs bedroom and the growl rose to a shriek. Appalled, mouth open in surprise, she gawked at Mrs. Creeley.
“There he is now,” Mrs. Creeley said calmly. “Not up to visitors today I’m afraid, Tamsyn dear. Maybe another time.”
“You’re keeping an infected inside the house?” Jeff asked in total disbelief.
“He caught the flu like everyone else, you know. Except me. After all those years teaching school my immune system is tougher than any virus. He would go and volunteer at the hospital and I’m afraid someone bit him. He’ll be fine,” she said, nodding to herself. “It takes a long time to recuperate.”
“Mrs. Creeley, he isn’t ever going to recover,” Tamsyn said. “He’s dangerous to you. The infected don’t remember who they were or who anyone else was?—”
“Don’t be silly, we’ve been married for fifty-two years, of course he knows who I am.” Hands on her hips, Mrs. Creeley trembled with indignation. “The vows are for sickness and health, you know.” She looked at the two soldiers behind Tamsyn and seemed to register for the first time the fact they all held blasters at the ready. She retreated, hands out as if to ward them off. “You’re not here to hurt my Harb, are you? I won’t let you touch him!” Turning, she scampered up her stairs and through the front door, slamming it hard. Tamsyn heard the three locks engaging, one by one, and then Mrs. Creeley peeked out from the curtained side window. Go away, she mouthed.
“Orders, captain?” Ryan said, sounding a bit dazed.
Jeff stared at the sky as if seeking an answer in the clouds, then lowered his gaze to Ryan. “Our mission parameters don’t include breaking down the door of a civilian to kill an infected they’re harboring. We’re not here to eliminate every infected from the planet, we’re here to find a way to fight the outbreak, to identify the root cause and report to the Sectors. Today specifically we’re here to find what Cody needs and get our asses back to the ranch.” He turned on his heel and headed across the street. Ryan shrugged and followed.
Tamsyn hesitated irresolutely before rushing to catch up with them. “But sooner or later he’ll break out of wherever she’s got him locked up and he’ll kill her. We can’t leave her here.”
“You heard the lady—she doesn’t want help. She specifically didn’t ask for our help.” Jeff paused at the porch steps and addressed Tamsyn in a patient tone. “I get this is or was your town and you care about the people who lived here. But Mrs. Creeley over there isn’t entirely sane anymore, watering her flowers and acting as if all the neighbors will be coming home someday. She’s a tiny microcosm of what’s going on all over this planet. We can’t solve individual cases—my focus has to be at the higher level, in the spirit of what my men and I were sent here to do. The circumstances have changed but the mission hasn’t.”
“Besides, if we bust in there and take out Harb,” Ryan said, “What do you think happens to her?”
“Take her to the ranch—” Tamsyn began.
“And then what? She’s not all there in the head. She’ll try to fight us. She’s never going to forgive us for killing Harb, she won’t go willingly and are we going to keep her a prisoner?” the soldier said. “Captain’s right, we have to let this one go, as much as it bothers me. We’re in a war and war is hell, believe that.”
The decision to walk away from Mrs. Creeley’s situation sat completely wrong with Tamsyn but she could see where Jeff and Ryan were coming from. “If—when—we find answers out there beyond Rosewater and maybe a solution, then will we come back and help people like Mrs. Creeley?” she asked.
“Of course. Maybe not us personally, but whoever is in charge of the planet,” Jeff said. “But don’t kid yourself, it’s going to be a long long haul before anything like planetary order is restored. And there are millions of infected out there, roaming around. At least Harb is under lock and key. Now are we doing this or not?” He gestured at the front door.
Tamsyn thought of Cody, fighting so hard to beat the virus and took a deep breath. “Yeah, break it down and let’s hope we find what we need here. There was only one other patient in the files who was using freyquitanal so the odds are getting slim.”
“There’s always New Damarkal,” Ryan said optimistically as he took a position next to Jeff.
