by Steven Ormosi
AJ walked out of Mayor Jenkins’ office with a newfound sense of importance. He was going to be instrumental in developing the cure. He was going to be the one who determined if it was safe to go outside the walls. He was going to be a hero. The mayor had told him as much.
He had been going stir crazy in the lab lately. Nothing ever seemed to bother Dr. Harvey. She could always maintain her veneer of scientific detachment. AJ on the other hand felt constantly claustrophobic. Even though he knew he was doing important work with the infected and helping to ensure a future, he had begun to lose his cool. A blessing, that’s what this trip was. He strolled back towards Dr. Harvey’s lab with purpose.
Upon entering the lab, AJ could immediately tell that something was wrong. It was too quiet. Where were the infected banging on their cages? Paralyzing fear came over him then. How could they have gotten free?
“Dr. Harvey?” He shouted into the silence. “What’s going on?”
No answer. This was not good. He took the shotgun they kept near the entrance and walked towards the back hesitantly. There was still no sound. How could they have all escaped? He slowly opened the door.
Nothing. They were all gone. There was no blood, no sign of anything. He heard a footstep behind him and whirled, bringing the shotgun up.
Dr. Harvey screamed, “AJ, no!”
AJ managed to stop himself from pulling the trigger even though he was shaking like a leaf in the wind. “What the hell is going on, Dr. Harvey?”
“Oh, Jesus,” she managed looking out from behind her hands, which she had put up for defense. “I didn’t know you were going to be here this afternoon, I thought you had a meeting with the mayor. And will you put that thing down!”
AJ lowered the gun, “Sorry, I was just terrified that they’d escaped. The meeting with the mayor is over, I was coming to tell you about it when…well, this happened. Where are they all?”
“I’m changing labs, AJ, we’ve got a more secure location about two blocks away. I was going to tell you tomorrow when I saw you.”
AJ breathed a sigh of relief, “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“I didn’t think it was going to happen so quickly. We got the resources we needed for the move and we got it underway. I didn’t want to wait.”
“I should’ve been here to help. How did you move them?”
“Oh, it wasn’t a problem, just tranqed the hell out of them and loaded them into a covered truck. It went pretty quickly. Permission to use the truck was what I’d been waiting for, so as soon as I got it, I started packing everything up. There was one unfortunate accident. One of the orderlies was bitten.” Dr. Harvey’s mood went sour. “It was…unpleasant.”
AJ was horrified, “Who?”
“Caleb. I liked him. But now you know why we have to be as careful as we can, one mistake and you’re a goner.”
“Is he—“
“He’s in a quarantine cage right now, just waiting. It’s awful. I keep trying to distance myself, tell myself that I have to look at him scientifically now, but the only thing I can see are his eyes, pleading for me to put him out of his misery. I wish I could.”
“Dr. Harvey, we should help him.”
“Oh, AJ, we couldn’t even if we wanted to, he’s under lock and key now in the quarantine zone. They won’t bring him to the lab until later.”
“We have access to those areas. We could figure something out. He worked for you, Dr. Harvey, you can’t just let him change into a monster. Look, I have nothing but respect for you as a scientist, but if you let Caleb go through that, I’m not sure I can respect you as a person anymore. What if it was me?”
“We all make our own choices, AJ. Caleb knew there were risks when he agreed to help us with our research, just like you do. Should we kill all of the specimens just because they used to be human? Hell, some of them still are. We can’t just ignore the established protocol because someone who’s been bitten is our colleague.”
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing.”
“I’m sorry, AJ, it’s the way things are.”
“Save it, doctor.” AJ spat as he stormed out.
************************************************************
Later that night, AJ showed up to the quarantine cages with a handgun tucked into his pants. There was extra security. The guards at the front stopped him, “Sorry, sir. No more traffic through the cages tonight.”
AJ was crushed; she must have told them he was coming. He didn’t think Dr. Harvey would have given him up. “Is something wrong?” he asked.
“We really aren’t supposed to say anything about it.”
“I need that information,” AJ pulled out his credentials, “I work in the city lab, those are our specimens.”
“Alright, alright. Some bum came in here earlier and just started popping all the null skulls. He got six of them before we could stop him. They’re cleaning up inside right now.”
AJ was confused, “How did he even get in?”
“He had an ID, must’ve stolen it from someone. Anyway, I guess one of the guards didn’t check it thoroughly enough because they let him through.”
“What’d you do to the guy?”
“We had to take him out. Larry over here popped him,” he motioned at the man standing near the door, “Dumb bastard just wouldn’t stop firing. He kept yelling, ‘Give me my family back!’ It was unreal.”
“Wow…do you have a list of which ones were killed?” AJ asked.
“It’s classified for everyone except the mayor and Dr. Harvey. Sorry about that.”
Something wasn’t adding up, who would be careless enough to let a streety steal their papers? “Ok, thank you…”
“Stan.”
“Thanks, Stan”
Stan said, “Sure thing, sir. Now clear outta here before you get us in trouble.”
Larry grunted.
AJ turned around and walked to Dr. Harvey’s house.
*************************************************************
When he got there, AJ knocked on the door. A few moments later, Dr. Harvey appeared wearing a robe.
“Hello, Dr. Harvey.” AJ said, “Did you hear about the quarantine cages?”
“Yes, yes, it’s a terrible tragedy.” She didn’t look too broken up about it.
“Was Caleb one of the occupants that were killed?”
“I’m really not allowed to say. Mayor Jenkins classified the information immediately.”
“Classified, right. Did you do get that man to do that?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about AJ and it is unwise to level accusations at your superiors without proof. See you in the lab tomorrow. Goodnight.”
Dr. Harvey closed the door.
*************************************************************
The day before he was to leave, there was a transfer of infected. There were only two. Caleb was not in the group. AJ was relieved.
Dr. Harvey was busy checking them in, and making sure all the proper forms were filed and approved. He walked over to her. “Looks like Caleb didn’t make it that night,” he said.
“Looks that way,” she responded curtly.
“Dr. Harvey, I’m leaving tomorrow and I just want to say, I know it was you that got the man in. No one is careless enough to leave those kinds of credentials just lying around where anyone could find them.”
Dr. Harvey stopped writing and looked at him, “I told you the other night, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
AJ continued, “I went there that night with a gun. I was going to do it myself. You saved my life.”
“Well I’m glad that someone else could take the bullet for you.”
“I feel really badly about that.”
“Look, AJ. If someone had to die that night, I’m glad it wasn’t you. But you really need to reconsider the work you’re doing if you can’t separate yourself from it.”
“But you couldn’t either. You couldn’t let me go and get myself killed.”
“You give me too much credit, AJ. I told you, I didn’t do anything and you’ll never hear me say otherwise so just stop trying to get me to admit something and get back to work or I’ll kill you myself and then that man at the cages died for nothing. Have you made all the preparations for Exploration One?”
“Yes, I’ve got a zombo protection suit and a sawed off. We’ll also be—“
“Wait. Zombo protection suit?”
“Yeah, that’s what the scavengers who collect the materials for the suits call them.”
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Hey, I just go by what they tell me. We’ll also be carrying several sterilized collection jars. I have a full biology kit, five notebooks, twenty pencils and a razor to sharpen them with. If I realize I don’t have something that I need, we’ll bring it the next time out.”
“Ok, if you meet anyone else out there, be sure to question them, but be careful, they could be carriers.”
“I know, I know. I’ve got it all.”
“AJ, as long as your heart is in it, we need you here, so get out of the waste in one piece, alright? Watch your back.”
“I will Dr. Harvey. Thank you. For everything. See you on the other side.”
No comments:
Post a Comment