She was on the first boat to make it to the island, along with about thirty others, including Christian, who they’d pulled out of the ocean. A disheveled redheaded man in a lab coat, Dr. Sullivan, greeted them on the golf course and led them up the stairs to the hotel. Soon as they walked into the lobby, though, he had them all sit down so he could explain what was happening on the island. He’d been working in the lab on the other side, with a team of other scientists, when the first tsunami hit. In seconds, the entire lab was underwater. Only a few of them made it out alive. But that wasn’t all. The next morning, most of the people who worked on the island—in the hotel and the restaurant and on the grounds—started getting sick. Really sick. He’d been putting them all upstairs, in the penthouse, where he was giving them medication.
“Then the doc ducked behind the registration desk,” Carmen said over her shoulder, “and came back with a duffel bag. He explained that the virus going around was very contagious and that each of us would need to have a shot for protection.”
Shy had stopped lathering and was staring at the back of Carmen’s head. He knew she was talking about one of the dead people he’d found on the motorboat. And the shots they all got were the same ones Shoeshine had just given to him and Addie.
“So you let him give you the shot?” Shy asked.
“Of course I did,” Carmen said. “Only two people from my lifeboat refused it, and they’re both sick now. They’re up in the penthouse.”
Shy started rinsing himself off, debating whether or not to tell Carmen about the dead scientists. Or about him getting the shot, too. If everyone already knew about it, why did Shoeshine want him to keep it secret?
“So where’s the bag of medicine now?” he asked.
“Gone,” Carmen said, turning all the way around to face him. “That’s why I’m worried about you.”
Shy thought about ducking back into the water to hide himself. But he didn’t. He just stood there.
She glanced down at him for a quick sec, but her face stayed serious. “Shy, your chest. What happened?”
He reached up to feel it. He had a pretty big scab that was slowly healing. And he was pretty sure he’d broken a rib or two. “No idea,” he said. “Happened on the ship.”
Carmen cringed. “Anyway, Dr. Sullivan disappeared, too. The day after we got here. We don’t know where he went or what he did with the medicine.”
“Was there another doctor?” Shy asked.
“There were four of them,” Carmen said. “But Dr. Sullivan was the only one who came around the hotel. The rest of them mostly stayed on the other side of the island, except when they went to the restaurant to eat. They claimed their entire life’s work was buried underwater.”
Shy started drying himself off with one of the towels stacked near the pool, trying to decide how to tell Carmen what he knew. He didn’t want to betray Shoeshine, but at the same time, he couldn’t keep this from Carmen.
She turned away from him, as if she’d just remembered he was naked. “Everyone on the second boat is fine, too, but by the time the third and fourth lifeboats showed up, Dr. Sullivan was already gone. Same with the medicine. So none of them got the shot.”
“And they got sick?” Shy asked, putting on a fresh pair of pants. He transferred the oilman’s ring from his old ones.
“Almost all of them,” Carmen said over her shoulder. “Only Shoeshine is still fine. And a few others. It’s crazy contagious, like Dr. Sullivan said. That’s why Christian and those research people aren’t letting anyone go up to the penthouse.”
“By any chance,” Shy said, “was that duffel bag of medicine brown and blue?”
Carmen spun back to Shy. “How’d you know that?”
Shy slipped his second arm into his T-shirt and pulled it over his head. “Look,” he said, “Shoe told me to keep this quiet, okay?”
“Just tell me what you know.”
“Okay.” Shy was so tired he had to squat down. “Me and Addie stumbled into that Dr. Sullivan guy’s boat while we were paddling around out there. You said he had red hair, right?”
Carmen nodded.
“So, yeah, someone shot him,” Shy said. “Shot his boat up, too. And tried to burn it.”
The color went out of Carmen’s face. “Who shot him? Why?”
“No idea,” Shy said. “I found him that way. Some other doctor had also been shot.”
“But that doesn’t make sense,” Carmen said. “Why would anyone shoot a scientist? He was helping us.”
Shy looked over Carmen’s shoulder to make sure they were still alone. “You don’t think Shoe had anything to do with it, do you?”
Carmen composed herself and shook her head. “The reason he didn’t get sick, I think, is because he never stays in the hotel.”
“Where’s he sleep?”
She shrugged. “Outside, I guess. He spends all day exploring the other side and fishing and writing in his notebook. He’s also obsessed with that wrecked sailboat. Maybe he sleeps on that.” Carmen shook her head again. “Nah, Shoe’s been good to us. He rescued you, didn’t he?”
Shy looked up at the top floor of the hotel, where the penthouse was. “I grabbed the duffel with the medicine off their boat. I don’t even know why. Anyway, when I woke up on Shoe’s boat this morning, he was sticking me with one of those syringes.”
“Shy,” Carmen said, grabbing his forearm, “that’s really good. Everyone who got the shot is still healthy.”
“He told me they were vitamins,” Shy said. “But obviously that was a bunch of bs. What kind of sickness is it, anyway?”
Carmen shook her head. “Some tropical thing, I guess. Brought on by the flooding. And we were all calling the shots vitamins.” She let go of his arm. “All I know is the illness must be bad ’cause nobody’s recovered enough to come down from the penthouse yet.”
They were both quiet for a few seconds. Shy stood and scooped up his dirty clothes.
Carmen cleared her throat, said: “There’s something else, Shy. I wanted to make sure you heard this from me first.”
Shy looked at her, preparing himself for more bad news.
“Rodney’s up there. He’s one of the sick people.”
It was like a shot to the midsection. Shy looked up toward the top floor again. His legs felt even weaker all of a sudden, like any second he might collapse like Addie had. But he wouldn’t let himself. “He’ll get better, though, right?”
“That’s what Christian says. And the research people promised to take everyone back to California, no matter how sick they are.”
“We can’t go see him?” Shy asked.
She shook her head. “At least, we’re not supposed to.”
As they walked back into the hotel, they were both quiet. Shy could tell Carmen was thinking about the same thing he was. Rodney. It killed him that the guy had made it all the way to the island only to get sick. He vowed to make sure he took care of his roommate on the voyage back home.
Carmen led Shy right past Addie’s room and the room Christian told him to take, toward the stairs. “I think I’m supposed to be in room one eighteen,” he said.
“Says who?” Carmen said.
“Christian.”
She shook her head. “You can take any room you want. Come on.”
She led him to an open room on the third floor, across the hall from hers, and stood by the door as he went inside. He sat on the end of the king-sized bed. It was a super nice hotel room. Art on all the walls, a big window overlooking the ocean. Clean-looking bedding and pillows. But Shy didn’t care about all that. He was still thinking about what he’d just learned.
When he’d seen the island from Shoeshine’s motorboat, he had assumed the worst was over. And maybe it was. But things were still pretty messed up. California had been rocked by an earthquake. And he had no idea about his family. And now he’d found out a bunch of people, including his boy Rodney, were sick.