Jake Morrison's Arc

Chapter 29 of 54

Marcus came back at dawn on the fourth day. Jake heard the skiff before he saw it. He ran to the broken dock and pulled his friend onto the stakes-lined boards. Marcus dropped two heavy crates. "Medical gear," he said, grinning through cracked lips. "And the doctor sent a note. Read it inside. It's bad." The island doctor tore into the crates. She held up a centrifuge, cold packs, clean tubes. "This I can use," she said. Then she unfolded the mainland doctor's note. Her face changed as she read. "Marisol," she called. "Bring the radio. I need to hear this myself." Marisol carried the radio to the main cabin, one hand on her belly. Since Jake's return she had watched him closely, as if he might vanish. She set the radio on the table and turned the dial. The mainland doctor's voice came through, thin and tired. He had spread the frequency wider. He had reached shelters across the ocean. "It's everywhere," the voice said. "Every coast. Every city. There is no clean place left." The cabin went quiet. Jake had believed the water kept them safe. Eighty miles of sea meant nothing now. The whole world was sick. His stomach dropped. Then the doctor's voice sharpened. "But we have the sample. The antibody is real. We can make a vaccine. One dose at a time, from one source." He paused. "That source cannot be known. If people learn one man's blood is the cure, they will come for him. They will fight over him. He becomes a prize, not a person." Every eye turned to Jake. The island doctor lowered the radio. "He means you," she said. "You draw the blood. I grow the vaccine here, with this gear. But no one outside this room learns whose blood it is. Not the shelters. Not the new arrivals. No one." Jake looked at Marisol. Her jaw was tight. She had spent three days afraid he would leave and not return. Now the whole world wanted what ran in his veins. "They'd never stop," she said. "They'd take you from me." "Then they don't find out," Jake said. He turned to the doctor. "Once a week. You take what you need. You call it a shipment from the mainland. A stranger's donation. Anything but the truth." The doctor nodded and rolled up his sleeve. She tied the band on his arm, above the scab that had started all of this. The needle bit. Dark blood filled the tube. She capped it and set it in the cold pack. Marcus clapped Jake's shoulder. "Secret's safe with us," he said. Sofia and Marisol nodded. Jake pressed cotton to the crook of his arm. The vaccine had a home now. So did the danger. He was the cure, and no one could ever know his name. He had traded one kind of hiding for another, and this one would last the rest of his life.