“Sharp girl you got there, Schwartzman.” Artleby winked at Heather. “Sounds like you’ve got everything thought out. Just let Lansing here know what you need. His decisions are final, and so is his approval for disbursement of emergency funds.”
Lansing smiled a little at that.
“Not one word escapes this town,” Artleby said. “And, while you’re doing all this, can you please find one goddamn witness who can tell us what happened?”
“We’ll do our best,” Schwartzman said.
“Questions?” Artleby looked at Schwartzman, then at Heather. “Are you following all this, Miss Reynard?”
“Oh, I think I’m keeping up, thank you.” Heather narrowed her eyes just slightly.
“Good.” Artleby rapped his knuckles on the table, as if hammering a gavel to call the meeting closed. He stood up and shook hands all around. “I’m off to chat with the National Guard commander. Then look up who governs this ratty little state. Thank God for Wikipedia, am I right?”
Lansing and Schwartzman faked a little laughter.
Later, Heather tried to text her husband, but her cell phone got no reception.
She tried using her hotel room phone to call him. She couldn’t get an outside line.
Chapter Nine
Jenny found the flyer stuffed in her mailbox the next day. The words were bright red, and the seal of the Department of Homeland Security was printed at the top.
BY U.S. GOVERNMENT ORDER:
All residents and visitors in Fallen Oak must report to the Fallen Oak High School gymnasium within the next 96 hours for emergency medical screening. Participation is mandatory. Screening facility will be open continuously for the next 96 hours.
Due to the quarantine, emergency supplies of canned food, prepackaged meals and water will also be distributed at the school to Fallen Oak residents.
Jenny ran inside. Seth was eating a hot dog topped with baked beans and mustard, a ghoulish invention he called a “bean dog.” They’d raided Seth’s house for food while they were out. Since it was within the quarantine zone, nobody had stopped them, but Jenny was uncomfortable with how many National Guard and other official vehicles were out on the roads, and how few of anybody else. The bigger the situation grew, the smaller she felt.
“We have to do this.” Jenny put the flyer in front of him.
“Are you kidding?”
“We’ll go late at night,” Jenny said. “When there aren’t many people.”
“Why, Jenny?” Seth said. “You know we don’t have anything. We never get sick.”
“I have something,” Jenny said.
“Are you still talking about handing yourself over to them?” Seth asked. “That’s a really, really bad idea. What do you think they’ll find?”
“Maybe they’ll find the Jenny pox,” she said. “And a cure for it. Or an immunization. Or something. If somebody put some real science into understanding it, maybe I could figure out how to control it better.”
“But that’s not what will happen,” Seth said. “I bet they try to make a weapon out of it.”
Jenny had a flash of memory from the time when she was dead, tangled in weeds at the bottom of Ashleigh’s duck pond. She’d glimpsed one of her past lives, riding in a galley, dressed in a hooded cloak against the freezing sea air, on her way to cripple a foreign city with a plague. She was doing it for somebody else, some king or emperor. It was her job.
“Maybe,” she whispered. “But they might help.”
“And didn’t all those pregnant girls see you drown in Ashleigh’s pond?” Seth asked. “As far as anybody knows, you’re dead.”
“You, too,” Jenny said. “Oh, wait. Everybody who saw you die is…gone now.”
“But everyone will flip out when they see you,” Seth said. “I’m sure the girls told everyone you’re dead.”
“While we’ve been holed up here for two days.” Jenny looked out the window, to the hilly woods behind her house. “What will they think?”
“The same thing they’ve thought about us for months,” Seth said. “Ever since I saved your dad in that tractor accident. Witchcraft, Satanism and that book from the Evil Dead movies.”
“The Necronomicon?” Jenny said. “What does that have to do with anything?”
Seth shrugged. “Those are cool movies. We should have grabbed the DVDs at my house.”
“Anyway, Ashleigh and Dr. Goodling aren’t around to whip up that witchcraft bullshit anymore,” Jenny said.
“But it’s what people were saying,” Seth said. “Those girls and their families all went to Fallen Oak Baptist. They’ve been hearing this stuff from Dr. Goodling.”