Page 20 of Her Shadow

“Yes. He said you were incredible. Maybe we’ve got a thing or two to learn from you. I’m not proud. I’m willing to say we may not have things right here. You’ve been out there longer than any of us.”

“That’s true. To be honest, this is a nice place. You’re organized,” she uttered with an easy confidence. “But you’re weak. And it’s your job to keep this fragile community standing. I’ve got that right, haven’t I? You’re the boss.”

Sam shifted her weighton her chair, planting her boots more firmly on thefloor beneath the table to steady her nerves, and cleared her throat. “The infected…the undead…whatever you want to call them—they aren’t the same ones we dealt with at the beginning of the outbreak, or even a year into it,” she said, her voice clear. “They’ve adapted. The virus has changed them. I’ve seen it, especially over the last few months. Not all of them. But some of them are faster now. Slicker. It’s as if they’re using their brains.”

“What total garbage,” scoffed a man sitting opposite her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Why are we evenlistening to this woman? She’s an imposter. She doesn’t belong here.”

“You should listen to her,” chimed Kara, squeezing Sam’s hand under the table. “If we don’t start changing the way we defend ourselves, Fort Haven won’t last. When we got attacked out there, when Sam saved me, the dead were…different.”

Her words hung in the air like a sharp knife, slicing through the quiet murmurings of the council. Laeticia, tall and commanding, sat at the head of the table. Her eyes were sharp as steel, her lips set in a tight line.

“Laeticia, your leadership has saved Fort Haven. So far. You run a real military operation here. You’ve got a tactical mind. We can all see it. I know this place from before the virus. But what you’ve done to it is incredible. You’ve turned it into a real place of hope. But Sam had seen enough of the world beyond these walls to know that’s all we’ve got. Hope.”

Laeticia leaned forward, her elbows resting on the table. “Sam? What are you saying exactly? They’re getting smarter? But we all know the infected don’t think. They react.”

Sam was unflinching as she turned to face the captain. “I’m not a scientist. But I think what you’re saying was true before. Not anymore.”

A ripple of uncertainty passed through the room. The men and women gathered around the table shifted in their seats, exchanging unsure glances.

“I know what she’s talking about,” said a young woman with a gruff voice. I’ve seen themout east near Brighthouse. It was as if they were moving in coordinated packs, flanking their prey. More animated. I suppose it’s hard to believe. And it could have been my imagination. Missions can be exhausting. I often wonder if I’m seeing things. But all I can say is it wasn’t like other behaviors I've seen before. I totally freaked out.”

One of the older men in the room, a grizzled man with sunken eyes grunted. “I’ve heard people talkingin here and out there. The infected are changing, they say. They’re getting faster. But it’s all fear talking. There’s nothing more to it. It’s bull.”

Kara stood up from her seat and started slowly circling the table. “It’s not just fear. We’ve seen it firsthand. And my bet is that you’ve seen it, too. They’re learning. And the infection itself—it’s definitely mutating. Like most things, mutations happen.”

Laeticia raised an eyebrow. “Really? Mutating how?”

Sam took a deep breath. This was the hard part, and she knew she needed to come to Kara’s aid. “We don’t know. I suppose we can’t know. And there’s not likely to be any information coming our way. But we’ve encountered infected people that seem to be taking longer to turn. And when they do turn, they’re harder to kill. They’re stronger. It’s like the virus evolving and becoming more efficient at spreading. This is what happens with virusesand with bacteria as well. The opposite will also be happening. There’ll be people out there who have been exposed to the virus and haven’t turned. Immune systems find ways of fighting these things over time. Some people will become resistant. There may be something there—something we can work with…”

Laeticia crossed her arms across her chest. She looked impatient. Sam felt a little nervous as she recognized the sound of the captain’s foot tapping furiously under the table. “Work with how? We don’t have any resources. We’re struggling to feed everyone. How exactly do youthink we can go about conducting goddamned scientific experiments?”

“I’m not talking about a professional lab,” Sam countered, feeling the tension coil in her chest. “When I was with my, well…tribe, for lack of a better word, we’d already started experimenting with natural remedies. I know which direction they were headed. We could catch up with them. Or send amission after them. I’d love to see them again, and… Listen, we nomads speak to more people than you do in here.”

“That’s not true,” interrupted Laeticia. “There are nearly a hundred people here.”

“Yes, but it’s the same hundred, isn’t it? Look how you were when I arrived. We’ve met more people. News travels throughout the traveling community.”

“She’s right, captain,” smiled Kara. “Please give her a chance to explain.”

“There are herbs and plants that can boost immunityandslow the virus’s progression,” continued Sam. “We had packs full of the stuff. We’d make tinctures, and I think they worked. Barry, one of our people, got scratched in a fight. We made him drink the stuff three times a day, and he never turned. He was fine. We need to start thinking about more than just killing the infected. We need to understand this virus.”

The silence that followed was thick, like the oppressive heat that had descended over them that summer. The sun seemed harsher than it had prior to the outbreak, as if the earth itself had turned its back on humanity. Outside the walls of Fort Haven, the infected roamed—sometimes just a few of them, sometimes in great numbers. It was a constant reminder of just how fragile life had become.

Laeticia's jaw tightened. “Are you actually saying you think there’s a cure for this?”

Sam hesitated, then shook her head. “No. Once a person has fully turned, it’s too late. I don’t think we’re going to find a cure anytime soon. Not us, at any rate. Maybe somewhere, scientists are working on this. There must be. And at some point, we’ll get there. I believe in that. What I think we can do is build our immune systems to stop ourselves fromgetting infectedif we catch it soon enough. Almost like a vaccine, something preventative.”

“Yes, I’ve heard rumors of vaccines,” agreed the captain.

“But we can’t rely on rumors,” blurted out the woman with the gruff voice. She sounded both panicked and annoyed. Sam had taken an instant dislike to her.

“I don’t want to ignore them, either. There’ll be people all over the world trying. That’s humanity for you.”

Laeticia’s eyes narrowed. “Shelly’s right about this. Rumors?That’s what we’re supposed to bet our lives on now? The whole idea here is that we patrol. We stop them fromgetting in. Why did you kill that woman if it would have been just as easy to give her some of your magic tea, huh?”

Sam’s gaze hardened. “She was too far gone. I could see her veins under her skin. Her blood had stopped pumping. I know what to look for. And as for mymagic tea, that’s what I’m saying. You don’t have any. I’m proposing meeting up with my people, learning from them, getting a supply of these herbs.”

“You wouldn’t be able to persuade anyone from Haven to go running after a bunch of hippies who supposedly have some magic forest potion that’s probably a load of bull.” Shelley scoffed.

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