Epidemic & Ladies of the Sea
an excerpt

(from Epidemic)

“It’s okay, you know. Cassandra’s going to be alright.”

“What would you know?”

Alex didn’t seem to take offence to that. “My family died,” he said, apparently without self pity. “I’m going to help you find a cure so the same thing doesn’t happen to even more people.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

He shrugged. “We’ll find a cure because we have to. You won’t accept failure. Nor will I. Trisha’s younger, but she’s strong, too. She won’t give up.”

“What about Niamh?”

“Ah.” Alex paused for a moment, and then moved to grab some of the large rucksacks at the other end of the store. “I have a feeling she’s given up already, in some ways. But she’ll stick by us as long as we want to go onward.”

“Aren’t you afraid that I’m not what I seem to be?”

“Who is?” Alex shrugged again, smiled again. Zack looked over at him again. His eyes really were a striking kind of blue, he thought. Somehow, they reminded him of Cassandra’s, even though her eyes had been… “Is something wrong?”

Zack closed his eyes, trying to think of Cassandra’s face, the last time he’d looked her straight in the face – before she was ill, before she started to fade. Her eyes had been –

“Zack?”

“Green.”

“What?”

He flushed a little, embarrassed, and quickly bent down to start stuffing their new acquisitions into the large rucksacks. “Cassandra’s eyes. They were green.”

“You start to forget so fast, don’t you?” Alex said, quietly. Zack didn’t answer: not aloud. But for a moment, their eyes met again. Alex sort of reached out, and didn’t quite touch Zack’s arm.

“Come on. The girls will be done soon.”