‘What about after we leave?’ I asked.
‘Three of us will stay,’ one of them replied. ‘We got another chopper coming in tomorrow.’
We were intercepted by another suited scientist carrying a metal canister not so different from what exterminators used. He decontaminated us and the litter, spraying a chemical while people continued to gather and stare. The Coast Guard was by Crockett’s truck, Crockett and Martinez talking to each other. I went to speak to them, and they were clearly put off by my protective clothing, and not so subtly stepped away.
‘This house has got to be sealed,’ I said to Crockett. ‘Until we know with certainty what we’re dealing with here, no one goes in or near it.’
He had his hands in the pockets of his jacket and was blinking a lot.
‘I need to be notified immediately if anyone else here gets sick,’ I said to him.
‘This time of year they have sickness,’ he said. ‘They get the bug. Some take the cold.’
‘If they get a fever, backache, break out in a rash,’ I said to him, ‘call me or my office right away. These people are here to help you.’ I pointed to the team.
The expression on his face made it very clear he wanted no one staying here, on his island.
‘Please try to understand,’ I said. ‘This is very, very important.’
He nodded as a young boy materialized behind him, from the darkness, and took his hand. The boy looked, at the most, seven, with tangles of unruly blond hair and wide pale eyes that were fixed on me as if I were the most terrifying apparition he had ever seen.
‘Daddy, sky people.’ The boy pointed at me.
‘Darryl, get on,’ Crockett said to his son. ‘Get home.’
I followed the thudding of helicopter blades. Circulating air cooled my face, but the rest of me was miserable because the suit didn’t breathe. I picked my way through the yard beside the church while blades hammered, and scrubby pines and weeds were ripped by the loud wind.
The Blackhawk was open and lit up inside, and the team was tying down the litter the same way they would have were the patient alive. I climbed aboard, took a crew seat to one side and strapped myself in as one of the scientists pulled shut the door. The helicopter was loud and shuddering as we lifted into the sky. It was impossible to hear without headsets on, and those would not work well over hoods.
This puzzled me at first. Our suits had been decontaminated, but the team did not want to take them off, and then it occurred to me. I had been exposed to Lila Pruitt, and the torso before that. No one wanted to breathe my air unless it was passed through a high efficiency particulate air filter, or HEPA, first. So we mutely looked around, glancing at each other and our patient. I shut my eyes as we sped toward Maryland.
I thought of Wesley, Lucy and Marino. They had no idea what was happening, and would be very upset. I worried about when I would see them next, and what condition I might be in. My legs were slippery, my feet baking, and I did not feel good. I could not help but fear that first fateful sign, a chill, an ache, the bleariness and thirst of fever. I had been immunized for smallpox as a child. So had Lila Pruitt. So had the woman whose torso was still in my freezer. I had seen their scars, those stretched, faded areas about the size of a quarter where they had been scratched with the disease.
It was barely eleven when we landed somewhere I could not see. I had slept just long enough to be disoriented, and the return to reality was loud and abrupt when I opened my eyes. The door slid open again, lights blinking white and blue on a helipad across the road from a big angular building. Many windows were lit up for such a late hour, as if people were awake and awaiting our arrival. Scientists unstrapped the litter and hastily loaded it in the back of a truck, while the female scientist escorted me, a gloved hand on my arm.