The guards led him to the gate of the nearest enclosure, opened it, and motioned him in.
“Am I the only one here?” Ben asked, looking around.
“Haven’t had a lot of people come in the last few days,” the guard closing the gate said. “There are four others.” He nodded his chin toward the building at the back of the enclosure. “Probably in the dorm.”
“So I’m just supposed to stay here?”
“For your protection.”
The guard snapped the lock closed, then he and his buddy headed back toward the dugout.
Ben stared after them until they disappeared, then he did a three-sixty and took in his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that the grandstands surrounding the field weren’t as deserted as he’d originally thought. Spaced all the way around the stadium were ten armed soldiers. The second thing he noticed was that the fence surrounding his enclosure was not only on top of the ground but had been buried into it. That, combined with the three strands of razor wire running along the top, sent the clear message that attempting to leave was not encouraged.
Yes, he could understand precaution. Yes, he could understand the need for isolation. But what he couldn’t understand was the need to treat him like a prisoner. Because that’s what he felt like. Thirty minutes earlier he had been so elated. Now the hairs on his arms were standing on end.
Martina. He had come here for Martina. It didn’t matter if they locked him up. As long as he could find her, everything would be okay. Before he realized it, he was running toward the dorm building, thinking one of the four people inside might be her. When he reached the door, he flung it open and raced inside.
The large main room was lined with triple high bunks running down both sides. At the midway point was an open area where a few tables and some chairs were set up. The four people the guard had mentioned were sitting in the chairs facing one of the walls, with the distinct glow of a television falling on them. Instead of looking at the TV, though, they had all turned toward the door when Ben rushed in.
One man and three women, none of whom was Martina.
Their names were Ava, Grace, Melody, and Diego. None had known each other before the outbreak, though Ava and Grace had found each other prior to making the journey to the survival station.
Diego had been there the longest, ten hours shy of two days. The women had all arrived a day later, Melody first, then Ava and Grace a few hours after that. Diego said there had been six others in the holding area when he arrived, but when he woke after his first night, they were gone. The person who brought the food told him all six had cleared their quarantine period, been inoculated, and sent on to one of the UN safe zones.
“The six who were here — was one of them a girl, about eighteen, named Martina?” Ben said.
Diego shook his head. “There were only two women. One was probably around forty, and the other had to be in her seventies.”
Ben felt defeated. He had been so sure he would find her here. Of course, if she had come as soon as the survival stations opened, she could have already moved on to this safe zone.
“Are there people in the other fenced-in area?” he asked.
“I saw someone in the big one next to us last night,” Grace said. “He didn’t look well, though.”
“I’ve seen a couple there, too,” Diego said. “None of them looked too good.”
“Makes sense,” Ben said. “Separate the sick from the healthy.”
“Don’t know about the small holding area, though,” Diego said.
“Small holding area?” Ben asked. He had only seen the two.
“It’s out in center field, but the fence is covered with a tarp so you can’t see in.”
“I’ve heard some voices from over there,” Melody said. “Couldn’t understand anything, though.”
“How many voices?”
“Three or four maybe.”
“Male or female?”
“Female, I think, but I can’t be sure.”
Though he knew he was grasping at straws, Ben couldn’t help but feel a resurgence of hope. “Have any of the guards told you what that area’s for?”
“They don’t say much. I was lucky just to get one of them to tell me what happened to the people who left,” Diego said.
“Have any of you tried to get out?” Ben asked.
“Get out?” Melody said. “Why would we want to get out?”
“Doesn’t it seem kind of weird for them to lock us up like this?”
“They’re trying to keep us safe,” Ava said. “After we pass our two days, we’ll get the shot and we can go.”
“But if they’re really trying to make sure we aren’t sick, wouldn’t they put each of us in our own room?” Ben said, adding, “If one of us turned out to be sick, we could infect the others. So what good would that do?”
He could see none of them had thought about it. Confusion began leaking into their expressions.
“No,” Ava said. “I’m sure they know what they’re doing. It’s the UN, for God’s sake. They’re trying to keep people alive, so why would they do something that would harm us?”
“I don’t know,” Ben said.
“Exactly my point. We just need to do our time and everything will be fine.”
The thought had come to Ben as he was sitting there, and he wasn’t sure he was right so he decided not to push it any further. Still, it troubled him.
The conversation fell into stories about what each of them had gone through to get there. After a while, Ben said he wanted to stretch his legs and went outside.
He walked slowly around the perimeter of his holding area. When he reached the point closest to the smaller enclosure out in center field, he stopped.
Like Diego had said, the fence was covered with a green tarp. Ben was willing to bet it’d been cut from the covering that was once used to protect the playing field from rain.
He turned his ear toward the other area but could hear no voices.
Facing the tarped enclosure once more, he cupped his hands around his mouth and said, “Martina?” Even as her name left his lips, he knew he wasn’t speaking loudly enough. He tried it again, raising his volume a bit. “Martina?”
No response.
“Martina?” he said, louder.
Nothing at all.
He was tempted to shout, but didn’t know how the guards would react if they heard him. Until he discovered otherwise, drawing attention to himself didn’t seem like a good idea.
“Martina,” he said one last time.
Silence.
16
Caleb’s first attempt to remotely control the equipment at the abandoned Mumbai survival station failed miserably.
“Son of a…” He looked back at Jesse, Devin, and Mya. “What the hell did you forget?”
“We didn’t forget anything,” Devin said.
“Well, that’s obviously not true or it would be working, wouldn’t it?”
“Maybe you messed up the schematic,” Jesse said.
Caleb leveled his gaze at him. “Not possible.”
“Who’s got it?” Mya asked. “Let me see it again.”
Devin retrieved the plans Caleb had sketched out and gave them to her.
She looked at it, following lines with her finger. She moved over to the equipment rack they’d put together and glanced from the paper to the actual item and back.
“Looks good to me,” she said, holding out the paper to Caleb.