Unwelcome Bodies Read Free

biohazard suit. The third nurse stepped into the hallway and beckoned the employees still in circulation to come out and join her. Reyna’s normally warm brown skin was an eerie beige, and Tim had gone chalk white. “They had to sedate her,” Reyna whispered.
    “It’s not safe to stay here,” the nurse said. “Get your things and go home.”
    “Where are you taking her?” Kathleen asked.
    “The Cambridge Hospice.”
    “But she’ll die there!” Reyna cried. “The news said there’s an epidemic of antibiotic-resistant staph there!”
    “She’ll die no matter where she goes. At the hospice, she’ll be made comfortable, and she won’t be able to infect anyone else. It’s the best we can do.”
    Kathleen looked at Reyna and Tim and ached to hug them, to try and draw some comfort from their presence. But even though they’d all just tested negative, she couldn’t bring herself to trust that they were truly safe, and instead clutched her fists to her chest, her skin growing cold.
    Reyna mumbled, “I’m getting my things,” and headed into the women’s locker room.
    Kathleen wordlessly watched the nurse go back into circulation, then emerge with her cart and head for the elevators. Anna was positive. The building was infected. Anna was going to die. They were never going to find a way to stop the spread of this disease. They were all going to die. Every person on Earth was going to die. Kathleen was going to die.
    She had to get out of there. For once, she found herself wanting to break the “one person in the locker room at a time” rule.
     
    * * * *
     
    The ID cards worked perfectly. Tessa found herself wishing they hadn’t. She was saved, she knew that, but what if these people didn’t want to be saved too? What if they wanted to stay healthy? What if they wanted to live? Oh God, Tessa wanted to live. She wanted to live so badly. She wanted to go to college, find a boyfriend, get married, have babies, see them grow up, and watch them have babies. She wanted to see her little brother grow taller than her, and her parents put their grandchildren on their knees and tell them stories. She wanted to have a big family reunion with all her aunts and uncles and cousins, and put the picture from it on her wall to have that moment frozen in time as she became an old woman.
    Instead, she was going to die before she turned seventeen.
    Maureen was suddenly standing in front of her, the thin December sunlight reflecting off of the lenses of her gas mask. “It’s normal to have second thoughts,” she said, her voice muffled through the mask. “But you’re strong. You can do this.”
    “I can’t,” Tessa whispered.
    “The sooner everyone is saved, the sooner the temple of God will be open to all of us. You have to have faith. God didn’t bring this sickness down to punish us. He brought it down to save us.”
    Tessa didn’t want to die. But she was going to. And there had to be a reason why. She took a deep breath, her misgivings quieting somewhat, and nodded.
    “Good girl,” Maureen said. “There’s Widener Library. God be with you.”
    “And also with you,” she replied.
    She headed toward the tall stone steps, but one of the guards called down, “We’re closing.” She nodded, walked toward another building until she was out of his sight, then circled the library to see if there was another way to get in. She flattened herself against the wall as she saw a figure in a biohazard suit wheel a cart out of the back door. Once the figure’s back was toward her, Tessa made a dash for the door, neatly catching it before it closed. No guards. Good.
    This level of the building seemed abandoned, so she followed the arrows leading upward and emerged into a cavernous marble hallway. There should have been people here. Why weren’t there people here?
    She heard a quiet shuffle of activity coming from a room off to the side of the hallway, so she took a deep breath, pulled off her gloves and mask, and,