“Shhh,” he said softly. “It’s okay. I’m better. I don’t really remember much of my time there.” He tapped on the side of his head. “The ol’ noggin here decided to block all the bad stuff.”
“Sorry. Go on,” she urged.
“You want to get some food first?”
“No. I—I don’t really like eating in the cafeteria anymore. I’ll explain later. Tell me how you got here.”
She released him and led the operator over to her bed. Sitting down, she patted the open space beside her.
Once he’d sat down, Grady continued. “I don’t know how I got out of the facility, to be honest. Somehow, I ended up in Kansas with the Iranians. We got overrun by the infected and an AWOL platoon from the Army here at Bliss rescued me. I went with them to New York City, overthrew a small gang, got a shit ton of blood drawn and tissue samples taken by a hotshot scientist, and then returned to Kansas. From there, the soldiers came back here to Bliss and I came along with ’em. Figured there’d be an opportunity for somebody with my skills down here. During my debriefing, they told me about a woman who’d also been at the facility in Brazil and I knew they were talking about you, so I came to find you.”
“Okay…” Hannah said slowly, trying to process it all. “The Cliff’s Notes version is pretty confusing.”
He chuckled at her statement. “There’s a lot to unpack in there.” He shifted and grabbed her hand. It felt natural and right to her. The old feelings she’d had for him rekindled inside her. “How did you end up here?”
She relayed her story to him. It wasn’t nearly as convoluted or interesting as his story would likely be when she heard the entire tale. Hers was mostly days, weeks, and months of wandering steadily northward. When she got to the part about getting bitten, he stopped her.
“You’re immune?”
She eyed him warily. Was he one of the anti-immune activists? Would he think of her as a freak if she said yes? She’d only just reconnected with him, but she didn’t know if her heart could take that kind of rejection right now.
“Yes,” she sighed. “I test positive for the virus, but I don’t have any of the effects. Grady, I’m still me. I just—”
“That’s crazy. What are the odds?”
“Huh?”
“I’m immune too—actually, I’m a little more than immune.” He put his index finger to his lips. “Don’t tell them that.”
A flood of emotions welled up inside of her. They’d both been immune the whole time. If she hadn’t abandoned him in Brazil, they could have been together without fear of the infected and she wouldn’t have had to have been alone for so long.
“You’re immune, too?”
He nodded, then stood quickly. He went to the door and peeked into the hallway before returning to the bed. “Promise me you won’t think I’m crazy?”
“Who isn’t these days?” she asked.
“True. So, ah, they experimented on me down in Brazil.”
The emotions that had welled up inside of her burst out and her tears flowed heavily. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “I didn’t know. I didn’t… I thought you were dead.”
He shushed her again. “It’s okay. I’m okay. It’s actually a good thing, well, sort of.”
“What?”
“Since I have a natural immunity to the virus, the Iranians experimented on me to try to develop a vaccine for their troops, something that would make their men invulnerable to the infected. They ended up doing something to me. I don’t know how, but the infected are afraid of me or something.”
“What?” she repeated.
“It sounds crazy. It is crazy,” he amended. “But I’ve been out there with them, killed them by the hundreds. They won’t get within five feet of me if they can help it.”
“That’s…umm…”
“Weird, right?” he suggested.
“Uh… Yeah?” A feeling like she’d just said something terrible hit her hard. “I mean, you’re not weird, it’s just—”
“No, I get it,” Grady said. “But I don’t want that knowledge getting out, only a couple of people at the division headquarters know about it. You might not have heard about it yet since you’re living over here at the airfield, but there’s some big movement among the refugee population. People are actually beating up and killing the immune. It’s completely—”
“Insane,” she interrupted. “I know. I was attacked.” She pointed to the stiches on her face. “It isn’t only in the camps. Soldiers have bought into the anti-immune bullshit too.”
“Fuck,” he grumbled. “I knew it was time to leave when I heard that. I’m glad I stuck around for a few more days, though. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known about you.”
“What do you mean by leave? You want to go out there like those other groups?”
“I decided to come down here to Texas with the platoon on a whim. I didn’t have a plan as to what I was going to do after my little trip to New York, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to settle down on that farm with Jake and Vern.”
“Who?”
He smiled, his lips were almost completely hidden by the unruly mass of hair on his face. “They’re part of the longer version of the story. I’ll tell you about them later. I’m not a farmer, but I’m not going to take orders from the Army. I had some douchebag major trying to tell me that I was a national asset and needed to be under guard at all time. Can you believe that shit?”
She nodded. “I’ve met a few of those types around here.”
“Anyways, when I gave him the slip to come over here, I decided that being cooped up behind the walls here at Bliss isn’t for me.”
Hannah wiped at her cheeks. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I’m ready to
