Chapter Twenty-One #2
strolled o’er to Victor and Catriona’s bedchamber next door. He
rapped on the wooden thing and waited for an answer.
At last Catriona opened the door. “Brother,”
she said in way of greeting.
“Sister.” Lachlan grunted. “’Tis Victor I
came to see.”
“He’s working on his, uh, maxine.”
“’Tis a vaccine,” he sniffed with an air of
authority on the matter. “Vaccine.” He shooed her from the doorway.
“And I needs must see him.”
Catriona, dressed this day in a red bliaut
with matching ribbons woven into her ebony hair, moved out of his
way and gestured for him to enter. Lachlan did so and immediately
espied Victor. The mon was sitting at his bureau, his shirt off and
braies on. He glanced up, saw Lachlan, and pushed his spectacles up
the bridge of his nose. “Everything okay?” he asked.
“I dinna ken. ‘Tis what I came to ask you
aboot.”
“I’m working as fast as I can with the
resources at my disposal.”
Lachlan brought his brother-within-the-law
up to speed regarding Veronica’s suspicion aboot variables. After
learning what a variable was, he asked Victor for his thoughts on
the matter. “Leastways, I dinna ken if I should worry aboot my own
clan getting sick.”
“No,” Victor drawled, visibly thinking.
“Someone would have shown symptoms within a few days of my sister’s
arrival.” He frowned. “But she makes an excellent point. There has
to be something novel about the infected flesh that was on her when
she arrived here.”
“And that ‘twould be…?”
“I don’t know. Not yet.” A thought must have
struck him. “The only things that were different about that
particular infected flesh on her when she got here was, number one,
we burnt it down using pig fat and wool which the Campbells then
indirectly drank and, number two, it was, well, everywhere.” At
Lachlan’s raised brow he clarified, “It was the only time I ever
saw Veronica use a grenade to kill a pack of eaters.”
“Grenade?”
“The circle she threw at them that exploded.
It blew them to pieces.”
“So?”
“So maybe the explosion released too much of
the virus because of all the contaminated organs it tore apart.
That seems the less likely of the two explanations, though.” He
sighed. “Perhaps I should take a break from working on the vaccine
and travel to the Campbells to observe any changes that might be
going on. Watching them will give me more clues.”
“When do you wish to take our leave?”
Victor looked longingly at Catriona, but
eventually capitulated. “As soon as possible,” he said, looking
miserable.
Lachlan grunted, though he understood
Victor’s reticence. He would not want separated from his wife so
soon either. Leastways, Veronica would be trekking to the Campbells
with them so he dinna have to be. “Get ready,” he ordered. “We
leave within the hour.”
*****
Veronica wore her Matrix hellion
attire under her blue gown and black cloak, the satchel slung over
her left shoulder. Lachlan hoisted her up onto his stallion before
mounting it himself. She shivered, the first gigantic snowflakes of
winter cascading down from the heavens and covering the ground.
“Will the snow slow us down considerably?” she asked, already
dreading the long ride.
“Nay,” Lachlan returned. “’Tis still verra
light. Leastways, let us hope it stays that way.”
This was considered light here? If
that was the case she could only wonder what Highlanders considered
a heavy snowfall to be. She supposed she’d find out soon enough for
winter had absolutely arrived. Truthfully, she felt like a figurine
inside of a frosty snow globe.
She glanced at Victor as their party of five
set out. He was waving goodbye to Catriona who stood misty-eyed on
the castle’s steps waving back at him. She saw Finn roll his eyes
at the melodramatic scene, which caused Ramsay to chuckle.
“We shan’t be gone o’er long,” Finn said to
Victor. “You will survive the wee separation from your lady
wife.”
“Or mayhap he willna,” Ramsay grinned. “He
has the look of a condemned mon.”
Victor frowned at everyone’s amusement,
making the group laugh. Even Lachlan snorted. Her brother sighed
and shook his amber-curled hair so much the color of
Veronica’s.
It only took roughly three hours to get to
the Campbell stronghold despite the worsening weather. Euan and
James came out of the keep to greet their party, both men wearing
the Campbells’ signature red and green kilts. The Gunns were
quickly ushered in and taken to the great hall. After maids served
mead, bread, and stew, Euan shouted at them to leave the room with
all speed. It was apparent the old laird wanted no ears to overhear
their upcoming conversation. Lachlan got right down to
business.
“Have there been any changes?” her husband
inquired. “Anything Victor should ken?”
“Nay, not really,” Euan answered. He
grunted. “Though in truth I worry as I’ve heard naught else aboot
another with the icy fever.”
“We’ve burned down three huts. Our clan has
caught onto the fact that when the icy fever comes, we burn down
the stricken and their homes alike.” This from James. “Mayhap ‘tis
being hidden from us now.”
“Dinna you tell your people to ken that the
icy fever will kill them too if they grow sick with it?” Lachlan
asked.
“Aye, of course,” Euan returned. “I’ve been
as honest with my clan as I can without giving away o’er much.”
“What did you burn down the huts with?”
Victor questioned.
James looked at him as though he wasn’t
right in the mind. “With fire.”
“I know that,” Victor frowned. He was
uncharacteristically impatient, which Veronica presumed was due to
Catriona’s absence. “I mean, was it just fire or did you use
anything to fuel it?”
“Fuel it?”
“Something that would make the fire burn
faster. Like pig fat.”
“Oh.” James waved that away. “Nay. The snows
hadna started yet when we burned them down. ‘Twas fire to the
thatched roofs and no more.”
Victor inclined his head. “And now that the
snow has come? How will you burn the next home if someone else
comes down with the icy fever?”
James shrugged. He absently ran a hand over
his blond hair. “With pig fat I suppose.”
“Don’t,” Victor told him. “Not until I can
determine if it’s safe to use.”
Veronica expected Euan and James to question
her brother, but they didn’t. She hid a smile. Obviously, from the
three days he’d stayed here before, the men had grown accustomed to
Victor’s longwinded scientific explanations that just left a person
feeling more confused.
Both men held up their hands before Victor
could speak again. “Okay,” Euan and James said quickly and
simultaneously.
“What are we to use then?” Euan hesitantly
queried.
“Tar,” Victor announced. “Tar actually
possesses highly flammable—”
“We’ll use the tar,” Euan cut in on a
grumble.
Veronica tried not to smile, but she was
amused. She felt sorry for Victor. Her poor brother didn’t have
anyone in this era to geek out with.
*****
Euan and James joined Veronica, Lachlan, and
himself to go hut to hut checking on the Campbell clansmen and
clanswomen while Finn and Ramsay remained at the keep and enjoyed
mead with two of Euan’s best men. Truthfully, this was a job Victor
could have done with just Veronica’s help, but he knew better than
to gainsay the lairds or The Campbell’s heir apparent. There were
rules in this world and not contradicting a laird or his heir was
amongst them. Unfortunately, their party’s large number made
checking the huts a longer, more cumbersome task.
“We’ll never finish this in one day,” Victor
announced. “I have a feeling we’ll need to stay overnight.”
Veronica, he knew, had left her gown back at
the keep with Finn and Ramsay. Still draped in a heavy black cloak,
he doubted any villagers could see her Kalari clothing beneath it.
At least he hoped not. They certainly didn’t need to draw any more
attention to themselves.
The first huts they sought out belonged to
those who had previously gotten sick with hot fevers and recovered
from them. As he’d hoped, they were still well with no relapses or
worsening symptoms. Even old Fraser was looking fit and healthy for
a man of his advanced years. He took the time to show them the
coins he still had from Francia—France—and regaled them with a few
stories from his youth.
The inspection carried on from there, still
producing the exact results Victor had hoped for. The previously
sick clearly weren’t coming down with the icy fever, which meant a
natural immunity would be the result. Relief was the only
word he could think of to describe his current state.
Wearing scarves around their mouths and
noses, they checked several more homes. So far so good. Victor was
growing increasingly more reassured.
He stilled. Eyeing a hut situated between
two others that had been burnt down, he suspiciously suggested they
check that home next. “Just to be safe,” he murmured to the group.
“It seems odd that the sickness caused the huts on either side of
it to get burned down while that one still stands.”
Veronica knocked on the hut’s small door,
her satchel securely slung over her shoulder. She took out a gun
with a silencer as she and everyone else waited for the door to
open. It was eerily quiet inside. Nobody answered her knock. She
glanced back at Victor, looked at Lachlan, and proceeded to kick
the door in. She went inside first, the rest of them following
behind her.
At first, the hut appeared empty. It wasn’t
long before the group noticed a young woman lying on the ground,
apparently haven fallen from her humble straw bed. Her body limp
and white as a sheet, she looked quite dead. Seconds later, her
eyes flew open. Her neck twisted and she eyed their party.
Oh shit! Victor thought, his
heartbeat accelerating. Her eyes were that weird blue, her snarl
almost instantaneous. She jumped to her feet on a hiss and crouched
down, preparing to lunge. Lachlan instinctively drew his sword and
Veronica fired a gun directly at the infected woman’s forehead as
she sprang toward them. She fell mid-air, meeting her final
death.
“By the saints,” Euan breathed out.
“Aye,” Lachlan seconded. “’Tis nigh unto
difficult to accept.” He looked at Veronica. “Good work, wife.”
Veronica put the safety back on the gun and
pocketed it. “What do you want us to do, Victor?”
“Burn her and the hut down,” he said without
thinking. “No wait! Is there any exposed brain matter on the back
of her head?”
His sister shrugged. “There’s plenty of it
on the ground.”
He fumbled through his bag for a small jar
and a wooden tongue compressor. Victor walked over to where the
infected’s brain matter lay splattered. He squatted over it,
scooped some up with the compressor, and emptied the gray, bloody
stuff into the makeshift petri dish. He had been careful to keep as
much dirt away from the sample as possible. “Now you can burn
everything down,” he muttered from under the plaid as he stood back
up. “I’ll run tests on this when we get back home.”
“You heard him afore,” Euan said on a sigh
to his son. “Dinna use the pig fat when you set this hut
afire.”
Victor frowned. Of all the bags to leave
behind at Castle Cumhacht…
He wouldn’t have any answers until he could
get his hands on the AI scope he’d brought back through time with
him, which meant returning to Gunn land. He could only hope that
boiled pig fat was the unknown variable in the equation.
*****
‘Twas one matter to see an eater on Victor’s
AI scanner. ‘Twas another worry altogether to watch the dead come
back to life with murder and hunger in their inhuman eyes. Whilst
he had been ready to swing his sword, Veronica’s shooting stick had
been faster than his arm.
“So what do we do now?” Veronica asked him
after their group returned to the Campbell great hall and sat down
at its long table. “Leave tonight in the snow, leave in the morning
wherein we chance more snowfall, or stay another day and check the
remaining huts and risk even more snow?”
“We leave the soonest,” Lachlan announced.
“James can check the huts with Euan’s warriors. Victor is anxious
to take that…that…thing’s insides back to Castle
Cumhacht.”
“I am,” Victor concurred. “As quickly as
possible.”
“I hope it’s the pig fat,” his wife
muttered. “We have to get this under control while it’s still
manageable.”
“I dinna ken,” James admitted. “How could
pig fat be causing such evil?”
Victor launched into one of his lectures,
making Lachlan sigh in resignation. He carried on aboot variables
and things called AI theories. “So it’s not about the pig fat
itself,” his brother-within-the-law finished. “It’s about how the
boiled pig fat interacts with infected flesh when it comes into
contact with it. Hopefully, I pray, it will turn out to be that
interaction between infected flesh and boiled pig fat that caused
my sister’s tub water, uh, basin water, to become contaminated and
infect some of your clan.”
“And if it’s not?” Euan asked.
“Just pray it is.” Victor sighed.
“Otherwise, I’m back to needing to make a vaccine, which is harder
and will take much longer given what I have in this time to work
with.”
“How long until you ken the answer?” James
inquired.
Victor shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“We should leave now,” Veronica piped in to
Lachlan’s relief. “The faster we get home, the faster my brother
will have an answer for you.”
“I’ll send a messenger,” Lachlan offered.
“The soonest.”
The old laird nodded. “My son and my men
will check the rest of the huts on the morrow,” he vowed on a sigh.
“Leastways, Godspeed in your travels. I await your messenger.”