Patient Zero

Chapter 10

Samuel and Karen loaded the plane after Agent Langley. "Are they sure they found his location?" Karen asked Samuel.

"Yes, he's terrorizing Orlando Florida." Samuel said a monotoned voice.

Karen glanced at him, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just nervous, that's all." Samuel said.

They sat in the military aircraft and strapped themselves in, the seats lined the walls, not like ordinary airplanes. A bunch of people boarded in military uniforms. Some of them Samuel recognized, they had the venom shot. Some of them he didn't recognize however. He wondered if they didn't get the venom or if he just couldn't remember.

After they had been in the air for a while, Samuel noticed Karen was shaking. Samuel had never been good at comforting anyone. Probably because he'd never been comforted himself. Not to mention he had no idea how to comfort someone in this situation. Samuel felt terrible for putting Karen in this situation. He didn't want to admit it, but he secretly had grown quite fond of her these past few weeks. He might have even liked her a little bit more than just as a friend. But he didn't think about it much for fear that she'd read his mind. He had never had to worry about someone else reading his mind.

"Are you okay?" Samuel finally asked for the first time in a long time he smiled a bit.

She stared at his teeth in awe for a moment. Then smiled back a little, "Not really." She laughed, "But I'm a bit of a worry wart."

"Well," Samuel laughed for the first time in a long time, "you have good reason too."

She tried not to stare, but she could see his teeth, and she had never heard the sound of his laugh. She laughed a bit, "I suppose. You know, you really should smile more, you have a nice smile."

Samuel looked away and blushed, "Uh, thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

Karen playfully nudged his arm, "Hey, you don't need to be embarrassed around me. We've been through a lot together. Besides, you've seen me at my very worst, can't get much more embarrassing than that."

Samuel smiled at her again and laughed, "That's true." A flicker of his old self, before his mother died seemed to be reemerging.

Samuel had never liked a girl the way he liked Karen. He was a little confused, but he just liked her company.

"Samuel, I though I remembered you saying something about him being like you. So I brought this." Karen pulled out a shot filled with liquid. "Maybe if we gave him a shot of medical substances it would make his cells explode and he'd be defeated."

Samuel was amazed at her cleverness, even he had forgotten that he was like him. "You're a genius! Th-That's brilliant!" Samuel stuttered.

"Thanks, thought it was a pretty good idea myself." Karen said, beaming with pride.

The rest of the ride went on in silence, but a comfortable silence. For a while the two of them forgot they were heading to their possible doom.

Karen sat there the whole time trying to convince herself that she didn't like him. She was trying to push the thought out of her head so he wouldn't know. But no matter how much she tried she couldn't help it. She liked him a little from the moment she met him, but he was so quiet that she wasn't sure what to think of him. Now that he seemed to be being himself, she really couldn't get the thought out of her head.

Karen looked ahead and saw Agent Langley in the cockpit. She could only see the back of her head.

A voice came over the speakers after several hours "We'll be landing in one of Florida's military bases in 10 minutes, please fasten your seat belts." Nobody hesitated, the clicking sounds of seat belts went on throughout the aircraft. The silence that fell across the soldiers made Karen more nervous than she already was. She couldn't help it. She began to tremble, she couldn't get the thought out of her head that someone was going to die. She looked to Samuel who stared at his knees. She thought about reading his mind, but thought against it. She wanted to give him privacy, just as she hoped he was giving her. She looked at his light brown hair, then looked away quickly. She was afraid that this would be the last time she'd ever see him alive, he'd just started to warm up to her.