Unsafe Haven by Betsy Ashton

Author:Betsy Ashton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781633935471
Publisher: Koehler Books
Published: 2015-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

TOBY STABBED A needle into my vein and filled two syringes with blood. He’d done this so many times daily that I barely paid attention—his incessant chatter made me want to throttle him.

“Now, don’t you worry. We’ll find out what’s going on soon.” He removed the needle and bent my arm over a cotton pad. My arm ached slightly. He turned to Johnny. “Your turn, big guy.”

My mind tossed like an unruly ocean current. The phrase, a giant Petri dish, gnawed at my brain like a nest of fire ants.

Could it be that someone released this whatever-it-is on purpose? Why is someone trying to kill the children? And what about the few adults who’ve fallen ill? Are they of a similar ethnic background? Of the same socio-economic level? From the same physical location? In the wrong place at the wrong time, like Alex? How much of the release was targeted at specific people, if someone is acting intentionally? How are they transmitting the pathogen? And who the hell has access to it?

I pressed my lips together, afraid I’d blurt out a question that should be kept secret. Toby finished with Johnny and dashed away.

“He should count himself lucky I didn’t strangle him,” I growled.

“He won’t shut up, will he?”

Johnny and I left the cafeteria, fresh Band-Aids in the crooks of our elbows. I squeezed Johnny’s hand. We needed to talk alone. I wanted his advice on the thousand questions elbowing for room in my mind.

“Did you notice how he said he was helping find out what was going on?” I picked at the edge of the Band-Aid. “Is he giving himself a role he wishes he had? Something doesn’t feel right. Did you see him break the seal on the needle before he stuck you?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t watching him.”

Just like me, I had to admit.

Before we reached the stairs to the second floor, my phone rang.

“You’re right,” my special granddaughter said. “Someone in the hospital is behind this.”

I flinched and looked over my shoulder. Johnny and I were alone in the corridor. No ghosts or solid human beings hovered, yet the hair on my nape stirred.

“I won’t ask how you know this,” I said after a startled pause.

“It’s something Mr. Ducks and I have been working on. I can’t explain it.”

“Do you have any idea who it is?” I asked, turning back to the matter at hand.

Johnny’s phone buzzed. Ducks. We listened to our respective callers for a few minutes. Both sensed an evil presence loose in the hospital and in the community at large. Both felt it might be a man, but they weren’t yet certain. It might be two people. Ducks felt a weak female presence.

Johnny slowly turned in a full circle to be certain we were alone. “We need to figure out who wants people to die,” Johnny said.

“And why,” I added, covering the speaker on my phone to add a comment to Johnny’s side of the conversation.

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. What if someone wants to make people sick and then ride to the rescue with a cure?” Ducks asked.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.