Radioactive

"The fear I feel night after night has developed into a disease."

---

Three days later, Harper was surprised no one had killed each other. Matt and Taniss where currently yelling at each other from opposite sides of the RV, while Harper sat in the middle of them, her hands over her ears. Finally, she tilted her head upwards, yelling as loud as she can, "Holy crap guys, shut up! I'm going to go deaf!"

Taniss retreated to the back room, slamming the door shut behind him, and Matt slumped into the passenger seat. Amaryllis glared out of the windshield while she drove.

Eventually, Taniss came back out to take his turn driving again. They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a good twenty minutes before Taniss glanced at Harper in the mirror. "Do you need to stop anytime soon or anything?"

"No, i'm good." She answered with a shrug, avoiding Matts gaze when he gave her a critical look.

"I'd like to stop." Amaryllis interjected. "I've gotta use the bathroom. The one thing this RV doesn't have is a bathroom. Am I the only one who finds that strange?" No one answered.

"Oh, well, we'll stop later." Taniss said, settling back in his seat.

Amaryllis gaped at him, "why not now? I've gotta go! And you were gonna stop for Harper!"

"Yeah, well, she's--"

"She's what?!" Amaryllis snapped, folding her arms across her chest.

Taniss rolled his eyes, ignoring the look Harper was giving him. "She's like a toddler."

"I am not!" Harper said from her seat at the booth, "I'm eighteen years old!"

Matt smirked, "He just doesn't wanna pull over for you." He told Amaryllis with a laugh.

"THAT'S IT," Amaryllis yelled, making them all jump. "PULL OVER RIGHT NOW."

Even Taniss knew that he didn't have much of a choice in the matter. He gave in easily, pulling over onto the side of the road. She grabbed Harpers hand, and jerked her towards the door, throwing it open. "I need to have a little chat with you."

Harper didn't resist, so Amaryllis was easily able to drag her away from the RV, out of earshot if the boys decided to get nosy. Finally she dropped her hand and turned her around, settling her hands on her hips as she glared at her. "I'm not stupid, you know."

Harper held her hands up in a defensive position, "I said nothing of the sort!"

"Harper, this isn't funny." She snapped, and Harper dropped her hands to her side. "Did you think I wouldn't be able to put two and two together?"

"What are you talking about?" Harper asked, looking genuinely confused.

Amaryllis was fuming now, "let me think. About a month ago you and Matt," she waved her hands in the air, shuddering a bit at the thought, "and then you start throwing up. And then Taniss disappears to go get 'guy things' which was obviously a bunch of bull. And right after he comes back you start acting weird, and you and Matt aren't talking. I'm assuming Matt has no idea, or he wouldn't be acting the way he is. He'd most likely not be fighting with you the way he is."

"Amaryllis--" Harper began, but she just raised a hand to cut her off.

"Not to mention the way Taniss has been babying you. I'm not stupid, Harper! You're--you're having a baby, and you didn't even tell me."

"You weren't talking to me!" Harper shouted back.

Her friends face distorted, her expression changing to one of sadness. "You're not denying it, then? I'm right?" Harper nodded slowly, and she only sighed, rubbing a hand over her face. "This is like Sam all over--"

"Stop right there, you know we don't talk about that." Harper interjected weakly, wrapping her arms around herself, obviously close to tears.

Amaryllis frowned and stepped forward, wrapping her arms around her best friend. As soon as she did so, Harper broke down, the tears falling freely now. They didn't care that they were on the side of a busy highway and it definitely wasn't the safest place to be.

Inside the RV, the boys watched them from the window, their guns at the ready in case anything happened. "Are they crying?" Matt asked, scrunching up his face.

Taniss squinted out the window, "I think so."

"I should go see if Harpers oka--"

"No," Taniss grabbed his shoulder before he could open the RV door. "Girls cry over everything, honestly. No reason getting involved. She'll probably just yell at you and demand chocolate or something."

Matt only grunted and returned to the passenger seat.

The girls stayed there for a solid thirty minutes before they went back inside, going straight back to the back bedroom to talk.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

"Okay, so we're in Kansas now?"

"Yep," Matt assured, glancing at her from the drivers seat.

Harper sat crossed-legged in the passenger seat, drawing out a plan on the map. "Okay, we pretty much go straight through to get to Cali. Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and then California." She sighed, folding the map up and putting it into the glove box for safe keeping. "Which means we're going to be stuck in this stupid RV for days."

Matt nodded slowly, glancing at her before turning his attention to the road again. He cleared his throat before asking in a nervous voice, "Harper? Can I ask why you're mad at me?"

Harper glanced at him, unsure what to say. He was the only one in the dark about what was going on, and he deserved to know more than anyone. But when she opened her mouth, it felt immensely dry, and she knew she wouldn't be able to get the words out. So she just shrugged, looking down at her hands.

"Harp, if a few weeks ago was a one time thing, you need to just tell me."

Harper sighed, "Matt, I just..." She brushed her hair over one shoulder, playing with it nervously, trying to find the words to say. "I don't want it to be a one time thing. But things are just so...messed up right now, everythings so weird, and I'm--" her mouth went dry again, and she knew blurting it out to him wasn't the way to go.

She had a feeling suddenly shouting, "i'm pregnant and you're the father, wanna kill some zombies today?" wouldn't go over too well. So instead she stuck with, "I'm just confused is all."

He seemed to take that, fidgeting in his seat to get comfortable. He'd been driving for two hours, but Taniss and Amaryllis had both fallen asleep, and he didn't have the heart to wake them up to trade shifts, and he was too much of a nice guy to ask Harper to drive. Atleat she'd stayed up to keep him company. "It's okay, Harper." He amended with a sigh. "I'll still be here when you make up your mind."

Harper pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her head on her arms. People were always waiting on her, it seemed.

-*-*-*-*-*-

The traffic seemed to be worse than ever in Kansas. Horns were honking, people were getting out of their cars to yell, and it was extremely slow going. Amaryllis eventually decided that the interstate wasn't going to be the best way to get there. They took the next exit, and it seemed a lot of people had the same idea, but most of them eventually veered off of the main road, until they were driving alone. Taniss was charting a new path on the map when he noticed the signs on the side of the road. "We're near a testing facility?"

"Hmm?" Amaryllis asked, not paying attention as she flipped through the radio stations.

He turned it down, earning a threatening look from her. "There's a testing facility nearby. I think we should check it out."

"Why?"

"For one, we really need information about what's going on. Make sure our plan to go to California is still a sound one. And we're also out of food, and I think Harpers going to explode if we don't find a Subway or something. You know how she gets about her food. And besides, my own stomach has been growling all day."

She finally agreed, turning onto a dirt road. It eventually turned to pavement, leading them down a twisted path through fields and fields of nothing but wheat. They were growing pretty tired of the scenery.

After what felt like years, but was really only an hour, they spotted the concrete building on the horizon. It was huge, and had a long chain fence around the perimeter, although it had been left open. Barbed wire had been draped across the top, making it impossible for even the more athletic zombies to somehow climb to the top. Very few would manage, anyways.

They drove on through the gate and up through the winding driveway, parking directly outside of the door. "They probably have surveillance, so they should know we're here."

They weren't sure exactly what they'd find, but they hoped it be someone to give them shelter for a few days. Taniss kept his gun hidden beneath his shirt, banging on the door. They had to bang for a good twenty minutes before getting any kind of response. All though no one answered, Matt noticed that the camera perched above the side of the door was zooming in and out on them. He waved at the camera. "none of us are infected, we just want a place to stay for a day or two!"

The camera zoomed in and out a bit more, as Amaryllis turned towards it. "We're just passing through and we mean no harm to anyone here!"

The camera didn't move again, but there was a clicking sound from inside a few minutes later. The door opened just a crack, and the barrel of a gun peeked out from the door first, before the guy holding it did. He didn't seem to realize how easy it would be to be disarmed. He had to be in his late fourties or early fifties, and looked as if being in the compound was not as much of a safe house as it seemed. But he had to have had some food, because he had some meat on him. They raised their arms above their head as he critically looked them over. "Where do you guys come from?"

"We're from New York, and these guys are from Pennsylvania." Amaryllis answered, resting her arms on her head. "We're just looking for some news about what's going on, and maybe if we could have a place to rest for a little bit. We've been travelling pretty far."

The man kept his gun trained on them. "I'm Doctor Brown. You guys are?"

"Amaryllis, Harper, Matt, and I'm Taniss." He introduced, looking a bit annoyed.

"You guys are the first to make it way out here for quite a few weeks. Come on in, you guys look exhausted." He lowered the gun, making room for them to come inside. They obliged.

"Shouldn't you be keeping your gate shut?" Matt asked as they walked inside.

"We've been under lockdown in here. We keep it open in case stragglers like yourselves show up."

"I'm glad, then." Harper said, drawing a smile from him.

They wandered down a long hallway, and up a stair case, into a room that appeared to be some kind of lab. Equipment had been set up all over, so she assumed this was where he spent most of his time. "This is impressive."

"I try." Brown said with a shrug. "This is the A wing, definitely the safest part of the building. C wing isn't safe, we had to barricade it off when most of the workers were changed." His brow furrowed together, "i'm the only one left." No one knew what to say to that, but luckily he continued. "I'm going to have to ask you guys to let me take a blood test. If you guys have been out of the loop, you may not have heard about how easily the infection travels."

"Just from a bite, right?" Taniss asked, lifting himself up onto the table Brown directed him to and rolling up his sleeve.

Brown pulled some equipment towards the table, digging around before he came up with a needle. He stayed quiet until he sterilized it and inserted it into his arm. "Experiments are still being done, in places like this, but there are some theories that it can travel in other ways. Through food, animals, sex." When Taniss was done, Amaryllis hopped up, followed by Matt, and then Harper, who was completely terrified of needles. Matt had to hold onto her and pull her arm, which she had drawn tightly to her body, away from her.

"What do you do here?" Harper asked, rubbing her tender arm.

"Each testing facility throughout the US has dedicated every waking moment to finding a cure. Everyone here had been working on it, which had ended up leaving them too exposed."

"Are we being exposed by being here?"

"You shouldn't be." Brown answered, moving over to a computer set up on a long table. "Now that i'm alone, most of my work is slow going. I haven't been exposed to anything, as I've hardly been able to do more than research."

"Maybe you should take a blood test just in case." Harper suggested, and the doctor seemed to take this in.

"You know, that's probably safest. You guys don't want to house with someone infected, and I haven't taken one. What could it hurt?" He allowed Taniss to insert the needle in his arm, telling him just how to do it.

Whenever that was done, Amaryllis and Harper followed him down the long hallway, leaving Taniss and Matt in the lab. Brown explained to them what was going on with the zombies. The entire world seemed to be infected, and many people were resorting to the ocean for safety. The zombies couldn't swim, and most places--like islands--had not yet been infected. "A few safe zones have been announced, all on far away islands."

Harper finally asked the question that she'd been wondering for a while now. "How long do you think all this will last before we find a cure?"

Brown looked down at his shoes before answering. "This could last years before we're able to find anything. The technology we need may not have yet been invented. And quite possibly, there may not be a cure to find." That shut both girls up for a long while.

-*-*-*-*-*-

Brown had told them it would take three hours before the test results would be in, so Taniss and Matt stayed in the lab to wait. They were pretty sure none of them had been infected, but they mostly wanted to make sure Brown hadn't. If he had, then they were to clear out of there immediately.

It felt like ages before they heard the sound of the printer, set to print the results as soon as they had finished. Technology these days.

"Go get them, I'm feeling lazy." Taniss said, spinning around in the wheely chair he had wheeled in from another room.

Matt picked up his glass of water that the doctor had given him and sauntered across the room, swinging his arms back and forth as he went. He plucked the paper up from the printer, his gaze scanning the words on the page. His jaw went slack, his eyes widening at the results. The glass slid from his hand, shattering on the floor.