Surviving Patorum

Chapter 10

A small room with a desk, lamp, and bookcase, that's it. The charcoal walls, bare of decorations, made the space look smaller. The bookshelf houses many old and newer books, judging by the dust on them. The lamp in the corner is on, but the room looks like no one has entered in years. A computer sits on the desk, and it's an older model than what's in the rest of the compound. The computer's screen is bright. A purple flower sitting on top of a table is the screensaver. We enter the room, and the door slides shut behind us. It takes a moment for my nerves to settle.

"This isn't what I was expecting," Paige says as she walks around the room.

I put my hand on the desk; its surface is cold, making the hair on my arm stand up. "Me either."

This dull room is what Mr. Smith's hiding? It looks almost identical to the office in his residence. What's different? A couple of more books instead of awards?

I feel defeated. I just don't understand. I expected this to be a grand discovery or at least something significant. But this—this is nothing. This room doesn't prove the air outside is clean or safe for us to navigate. I'm confused, and my stomach is in knots because of it.

I see Paige's finger run along the book's spines on the bookcase, and she reads them quietly until she turns around in disarray. "These are all medical journals and textbooks."

"Medical journals?" I say. "I thought your father was into technology."

"He was," Paige turns back to the books and reads them aloud. "The Anatomy of the Human Body. Prison Procedures: How to Identify Inmate Wounds. The History of the Lethal Injection. How to Perform an Autopsy."

The last one makes a shiver go down my spine. "Why in the world would your father have these?"

"I honestly don't know." Paige slumps over, her eyes resting on me.

"Maybe there's something in the computer," Dally points to it.

We all crowd around the desk, Paige taking the chair in front of the computer. She moves the mouse in her hands, causing the screen to flash to a password input. "I'm going to try the same password we did in my father's office."

It works. The computer opens to a screen full of files. Paige hovers the mouse over one named Nuclear Radiation Intake. She clicks on it, and the computer opens a spreadsheet of information. There are dates and the amount of radiation in the air. They started the day after we sealed the compound's doors and ended three years ago when the percentage was 0.0003%.

"This is proof," Paige says, her head swaying. "This right here tells us that the air's breathable outside."

"But the dirt," I say. "Dr. Shepard had a dirt sample full of radiation, and it had so much that it mutated a virus. How can it be contaminated and not the air?"

"Was it an older sample?" Dally asks. He's pacing back and forth around the room. If I didn't know any better, I'd think he's into this as much as Paige and me.

"He told me it was only a couple of days old."

Dally stops pacing. His hands move from his pockets and onto his head below his hat. He rubs at the skin, causing it to turn a light shade of red. "I don't understand. He says. "This makes no sense. Is the air breathable or not?"

"Can dirt be radioactive and not air?" Paige asks. She turns around in the chair to face Dally. Her fingers grip the handles tightly like she's afraid of falling out of the chair.

I shake my head. "I don't think so." I can feel the wave of a headache coming on.

Paige turns her chair back around to face the desk. "Let's see if there's anything else in the computer."