Tommy Nightmare (Jenny Pox #2) by JL Bryan Page B

Jenny
said.
    “But it’s what people were saying,” Seth
said. “Those girls and their families all went to Fallen Oak
Baptist. They’ve been hearing this stuff from Dr. Goodling.”
    “You think they’ll tell the government that?”
Jenny asked.
    “Who knows? This is a batshit crazy town.”
Seth chewed his lip. “And that’s something else I’ve been needing
to talk to you about.”
    “That Fallen Oak is crazy? I figured it out a
long time ago, thanks.”
    “I mean in the fall,” Seth said. “My dad
wants me to go to College of Charleston now, because he donated a
bunch of money to some new international business school there.
It’s not so far from here, an hour or two. That’s close enough to
visit your dad. Or come have Christmas with my parents.”
    “Why are you even worrying about college
right now?”
    “Because I have to move to the city,” Seth
said. “And I want you to come with me.”
    “Seth, I can’t even go out in public in my
own town.”
    “But we can start over in Charleston,” Seth
said. “Nobody knows us there.”
    “That’s not what I meant. It’s a big city,
Seth.” Jenny pulled her arms tight around herself, as if walking
through a crowded store, trying to avoid touching anyone. “All
those people. There must be a million people.”
    “A million ?” Seth rolled his eyes. “In
Charleston? Are you kidding?”
    “A lot, anyway.”
    “Come on, it’ll be great. We can go pick out
an apartment this summer. We’ll get a place near the ocean. With a
balcony. And your own room just for your pottery stuff. And we
can—”
    “Stop it,” Jenny said. “I can’t think about
it right now. We have real problems, you know?”
    “Think about it later.” Seth pulled her
close, and she looked up into his blue eyes. They were almost the
same color as her own, she thought. “Think about it when you’re
thinking about turning yourself in. We could have a life together.
We could have a future. And all you have to do is let everybody
think you’re dead, until this blows over.”
    Seth kissed her. Jenny was tense, but she
relaxed after a moment, and kissed him back.
     
     
    The school gym was transformed into a
makeshift clinic, divided into little cubes by dark green curtain
walls. Heather worked one of the cubes, taking mouth swabs along
with hair and blood samples from those who responded to the flyers.
She also carried out basic physicals to look for anything
anomalous. She could have excused herself from this part of the
work, but it was the easiest way to talk with locals about the
event, and she was desperate for any kind of input at this
point.
    The first several people she tested were
extremely tight-lipped, though, and offered no real information.
Nobody seemed to know what had happened at the courthouse, or at
least they didn’t want to admit knowing anything. Heather also had
to structure her questions in a way that didn’t give out
information to people, which made things difficult.
    Then a chubby teenage girl with mousey hair
and thick glasses came into Heather’s cube. She was very full
around the middle, under her loose sundress.
    “Hi,” Heather said. “I’m Dr. Reynard. What’s
your name?”
    “Darcy Metcalf,” the girl said.
    Heather looked her up on the laptop. Homeland
Security had provided a database of all residents and their
addresses. Heather and the other medical staff noted each person
they examined on the shared database, along with any
observations.
    She found Darcy’s listing. A nurse had
pre-examined her, entering Darcy’s height, weight, and age:
eighteen. The file also noted that she had elevated blood pressure.
And she was pregnant.
    “Okay,” Heather said. She took a tongue
depressor from a jar. “Open up and say ‘ah.’” She liked to start
with this because it gave people the sense that it was a regular
visit to the doctor’s office.
    The girl did as she was told, her eyes
rolling nervously while Heather looked into her