Amanda tried to hide how much those words meant to her. No one had ever, ever, complimented her for an athletic feat. At a loss for words, she said, “I wish I’d had one of you for a PE teacher. I wouldn’t have sweated my grades so much.”
“Mrs. Fink was a jerk.” Lena rolled her eyes. “If I had to hear one more story about her stupid triathlon workouts, I thought my head would explode. She gave everyone a hard time if they weren’t a sports star.” She turned to Dal. “Come on, let’s get this over with so we can get back to the cabin. I don’t want to stick around and wait for any more backpacking mutants to attack us.”
“Speaking of mutants.” Amanda cleared her throat, flushing when Dal and Lena both looked at her. “I, uh—” She was suddenly too self-conscious to tell them what she wanted to do. “Is it okay if I, uh, go check out the dead mutant?”
Dal and Lena stared at her as if she’d lost her mind.
“What for?” Dal asked.
“I just want to get a closer look at it. I, uh, thought maybe we could learn something useful. I mean, it’s not like we ever get a chance to study them. We’re always too busy fighting or running for our lives. The way their limbs and muscles distend is . . . interesting.” God, she sounded like a crazy girl with a fetish for dead bodies. “I’m just saying, we know next to nothing about the mutants. Maybe we can learn something.”
They were both frowning at her. Amanda wanted to disappear into the ground.
“Nevermind,” she said, a bit breathless.
“No, it’s a good idea,” Lena said. “We just never thought of it.”
“I’m a bit of a biology geek.” Amanda laughed to cover up her discomfort.
“Dal, I don’t think she should go back down there alone. Can you manage up here if I go with her?” Lena asked.
“Yeah.” Dal nodded. “Just don’t take too long. I want to get out here as soon as the broadcast is complete.”
18
Sample
Amanda crouched down and lifted one of the distended arms of the dead mutant backpacker.
Gosh, the arm sure was heavy. She prodded at the muscles with her forefinger. “Dense,” she muttered to herself.
“What?” Lena asked
“His muscles are really dense. Feel them.” She stepped to one side so Lena could get in closer.
Lena looked at her as though she’d lost her mind. “I’m not touching that thing. I can’t believe you’re handling it with your bare hands.”
Oh. Amanda shrugged. “This is nothing. You should have seen me in biology during the dissections. I was sort of a hog. Luckily, Cassie was my lab partner. She didn’t mind letting me do all the cutting and stuff.”
Thinking of Cassie made her feel anxious. She wished she knew where her best friend was, and if she was okay. She wished they had futuristic walkie talkies so they could keep in touch over long ranges. Like those portable phones they had in sci-fi movies.
“Lena?”
“Yeah?”
“I wasn’t being totally honest when I said I wanted to take a look at the mutant.”
“What do you mean?”
Amanda drew in a breath. There was no way to sugarcoat this. Neither was there a way to covertly steal a tissue sample.
“I want to get a tissue sample from the mutant.”
Lena’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “You want to what?”
“I want a tissue sample.”
“Um, okay. What are you going to do with it?”
“Figure out a way to study it. The Soviets manufactured the nezhit virus in a lab. They developed a vaccine for it. This is a full-scale bio war and America is behind the eight ball. It’s worth getting a closer look at a tissue sample. Who knows what we might learn that might be useful?”
“Yeah, but how are you going to study it? It’s not like we have a science lab back at the cabin.”
Amanda swallowed her nervousness. In for a penny, in for a pound, she supposed.
She launched into the same plan she laid out for Stephenson the night before. Lena listened to it all. Unlike Stephenson, she didn’t interrupt—until Amanda got to the part about stashing the tissue sample in the freezer.
“I don’t think it’s a terrible idea, but I’m not sure Nonna will ever agree to letting you put zombie flesh in the freezer.”
“You don’t think it’s a dumb idea?”
“It couldn’t hurt. I’m not sure when we’ll make it back into Bastopol for a microscope, but we can ask Leo when he gets back.”
Amanda brightened. Stephenson might think she was crazy, but Lena didn’t.
“I’ll get the sample.” She paused as she pulled out her knife. “You might not want to watch this.”
Lena turned to the side, scanning the area and keeping her gun up. Amanda placed the knife against the side of the dead mutant’s arm and sliced.
The muscles were so thick and dense, it was difficult to get the knife through—and her Cecchino blade was sharp.
“Jeez.” Amanda shifted her stance, trying to get better leverage. She was forced to saw her blade back and forth.
“What?”
“The muscle mass is really dense.” She paused in her sawing. “I wonder if the nezhit virus started as a way to make a super soldier.”
“What do you mean?” Despite herself, Lena turned to study the mutant.
“The mutants are an unexpected side effect of the nezhit virus. Which means some part of this virus is designed to increase muscle size and density. Why would you design a virus to do that if you were’t planning to use the recipient in a fight?” This was getting more interesting by the second.
“Say you’re right. What does it mean?” Lena asked.
“I don’t know yet. But it’s more information than we had sixty seconds ago.” Amanda finally managed to get the knife all the way through. A chunk of muscle thunked to the ground.
“You’re seriously not grossed out by what
