The Amoeba From The Ash

by Prunty, Mercedes

“Your nephew does look rather ill. Sicker than when you both first arrived. Are you sure it is just concussion? I would very much like to take him to be examined again by a member of my staff”.

  “Doctor, Romaine, please”, she smiled letting it reach her eyes, “If he was still infected he would have turned by now, most people turn within 1-2 hours of being infected. He really is just concussed, I assure you of that. And he is in shock also, he lost his mother, father and sister in that crash and although he still has me, I am not his mother. It is a lot for a young boy to take in. He has lost his home, his family and will have to make a new life in a country he doesn’t know”.

  “I understand Doctor Lawson but Sargent Tesla has informed me that both the boy’s mother and father had been infected before the crash, they had seen the bodies in the wreckage”.

  “Yes they were infected. His mother was infected by touching contaminated equipment and rubbing her eye. She didn’t know and neither did I until it was too late”, she dipped her eyes with fake sadness, “Then she bit him, my brother and we crashed”.

  “I’m so terribly sorry”, he said, “As long as you are sure Daniel is not infected”.

  “I’m sure”.

  “Very well…”

  She cut him off, “If you don’t mind doctor it has been a long couple of days and I think we both need some rest”.

  “By all means. There are a couple of make shift beds made up for you in the lab”.

  As she went to turn he called out.

  “And doctor Lawson, thank you for coming to America’s aid”.

  “It’s my duty to inform and help”, she replied, “It’s what any doctor trained in our field would do”. And with that she left him and Sargent Tesla who stood with his arms crossed over his chest a few meters behind the CDC doctor.

  ~

  When Doctor Lawson was well out of ear shot Doctor Romaine turned to Sargent Tesla and said, “Watch her and that boy. They are not allowed to leave this building or that lab without my say so”.

  “Certainly Sir”, Tesla replied heading off in the same direction as the curly haired doctor and the boy.

  “I don’t trust that woman”, Romaine said to himself before heading off to the conference room to have a video call with the President.

  9.15am Joel and Maria’s Apartment

  “She lied to us all?” Glenn said feeling dumbstruck as he listened to Alicia as she recalled what had happened in the ocean, how she got hurt and why he couldn’t find Daniel. Because Rosetta had screwed them all over for her own intentions.

  “Why do you think she done it?” Maria asked, “I mean, from the start her intentions were sound, right? She wanted to help save people, she helped you guys. Why’d she change?”

  “She wanted to be acknowledged for it, remembered for saving America. Become an important historical person”, Alicia replied, “I think watching everyone die changed her, I think knowing that there was no vaccine that worked freaked her out and now she is trying to make people believe they are going to be safe when they might not be. Because if it goes wrong and everyone perishes no one will care about her, they’ll be dead but if it goes right she will be a saviour, she is relying on there still being some form of hope”.

  “But there is still hope right? You guys survived, so maybe America can too?” Joel suggested.

  Alicia leaned her head back, “I hope there is still hope, us humans need hope to survive”.

  “What do you hope for?” Maria asked her.

  “To get my brother back, so I can say goodbye before it’s too late”, Glenn watched Alicia as she bit back tears and fought hard against her emotions. He had admired her before but nothing like now, now she was a fighter and a hard wired woman. He could see the determination in her eyes, he knew what was coming next.

  “So what’s our next move?”

  “We go to the CDC, expose Rosetta for what she really is, tell the citizens of America the truth about the vaccine and tell them to stay out of the ash…Then…” She paused.

  “Then?”

  “We get Daniel”.

  ~

  Maria and Joel offered to take them both to the CDC headquarters which was located in New York for this side of America. They had all climbed into Joel’s beaten up old red pickup and set off, there were only two seats so Alicia and Glenn had piled into the bed of the truck with a bag full of food and water each. Once there Alicia had told them to head home before the ash cloud and storm hit and to warn their home town on what to really do.

  Joel had warned them the journey was a long one, around eight to nine hours but there would be pit stops on the way. First up was a ferry from Nantucket Island to the mainland which was where they sat, chatted and ate together. Alicia telling them things that made them scared, telling them to kill anyone who turned, to not try and make them better, it just wasn’t going to happen that way. Maria seemed sickened more by the request but that was due to her nursing skills and wanting to help others, not kill them but she agreed to do whatever to keep her home town safe. Joel was more on side right away, telling them how he had a gun locked up in a safe in a cupboard and that he would make it quick so people didn’t suffer. She could see in his eyes that he was scared, that he didn’t want to kill friends or neighbours but to save the more for the death of a few was surely the right thing to do.

  Once back on the road Alicia could see how rural the Island had been and how different mainland America was, the streets were vast and full of cement, tall glass towers and buildings lined almost all the roads of the impending city. Traffic was a nightmare and dread filled her core, when the ash hit there were millions of people here, in this city alone not like back home where there were only hundreds of thousands in her town. Millions of people who could be infected within minutes, hours, turning and killing and maiming. She knew deep inside she had to help but secretly she wanted to run, to hide and to leave everyone to their own devices like ‘they’ had been but she couldn’t, not just for her sanity, for her small belief in heaven and hell but also for him, for Daniel. He wouldn’t want her to turn her back on the world, or to turn her back on him, he needed her now more than ever and she was determined to reach him.

  6.49pm read the clock on the dashboard of Joel’s truck as he pulled up outside of a large business building. It wasn’t the CDC building but one a few blocks away, parking was a nightmare and this was the closest they could get.

  “Thank you”, Alicia said climbing out from the truck bed and leaning into the window to shake both their hands. Maria smiled with a tear in her eye, opened the door and hugged her.

  “No thank you… You might just have saved us”.

  Alicia shook her head, “Not yet we haven’t. Go, go home, get back whilst you still can before the storm hits”.

  “We could wait you know”, Joel suggested, “You get your brother and run. We could speed off back home, let him go peacefully and in a loving environment, not this… Glass cabinet one”.

  She looked at the heavily gridlocked city street and shook her head, “We would be caught at the bottom of the road before we even have a chance to get away and I don’t want to get you two into trouble, you have already risked so much bringing us here”, she smiled, “But thank you”.

  “I’s fine, as you wish my lady”, he grinned at the same time squeezing Maria’s hand, “God speed and good luck to the both of you”.

  “Thanks man”, Glenn said shaking Joel’s hand before taking Alicia’s arm and turning towards the large street and impending doom.

  Joel and Maria drove off into the heavily vehicle filled street and soon vanished into the coming night.

  “You ready for this?” He asked her.

  “Too right I am”, she said with a strong will.

  Together they walked briskly through the crowded city street, as they neared the CDC building they could see a large crowd of people, news reporters, police, doctors and Rosetta.

  “There she is”, Alicia hissed and went to run to the d
octor but Glenn pulled her back.

  “We need to do this properly remember. To help Daniel”.

  She bit her lip, “I just…”

  “Need to expose her yes but wait till the right moment”, he cooed and took her arm again and they joined the thrum of the crowd.

  Rosetta was giving another interview with a few doctors, she was showing them the face masks to wear and what the vaccine looked like. She told them to remain vigilant and to report anyone who looked ill, so they could be cured. CURED! Alicia’s blood was boiling but as she watched the doctor she noticed Daniel wasn’t with her this time. Where was he?

  “Glenn where is he?”

  “Dunno, maybe she’s keeping him inside, maybe…”

  “He can’t be turned, not yet”, she stammered, “I need to say goodbye, I should be able to have that first, I should, it’s my right”.

  As she trailed off they could hear the so called good doctor talking to the crowd.

  “The vaccine is our lifeline, the lifeline the eastern hemisphere didn’t have. We can all survive this, we can all live to fight another day and maybe one day when the lands of the world have recovered we could open the boarders back to the other side of the world and let it heal”.

  “What?” Alicia hissed. “She wants to go back, but its dead there, it will be dead forever now, who would want to go back?”

  “It’s hope remember, she’s using hope”, Glenn told her.

  “The Vaccine can help anyone who is ill so please, please, please remember to report anyone who is showing the symptoms I told you about”, Rosetta was nearly done, about to turn away and vanish back inside the building once again but Alicia had to do something now or risk losing her chance.

  “IT DOESN’T WORK THOUGH DOES IT ROSETTA!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

  The crowd and Rosetta turned to look at her, as she forced her way to the front, pushing past people, “Tell them, tell them how you are lying, that the vaccine doesn’t really work that my little brother Daniel is inside that building dying. That he is not your nephew but my flesh and blood. You are just some sadistic doctor on a power trip, giving everyone false hope that there is a cure when it doesn’t work”.

  “I’m sorry but who are you?” She said pretending to look confused.

  “The helicopter crash Rosetta huh, thought you killed me in the water, thought that bang to my head would keep me unconscious enough to drown but you didn’t plan on my boyfriend rescuing me and washing us up on a beach. You didn’t plan on me seeing you lying and using my brother for your own agenda on television. Tell them…Surely someone here will know that the helicopter had run out of fuel, that my dad messaged an army ship in the seas to take us aboard, that was until my infected mother bit him and the helicopter went down. My infected mother who you lied to and said the vaccine would work but she was too far gone, but even then time doesn’t matter does it because how much time does Daniel have left?”

  “I’m sorry I don’t understand what you are talking about?” She lied but she looked pale, scared and worried.

  “There must be someone here who knows where you came from?”

  Suddenly a large man whose arms were crossed over his broad chest came over to her and whispered something in her ear. She shook her head. Then he spoke again before turning away and addressing the crowd, “I was the Sargent who picked up Rosetta from the sea, other than her nephew there was no other survivors”.

  “Funny how I know that she came from the sea right? From the helicopter that had just come from Germany from the ‘ground zero’ the volcanic site where the space rock had mutated the Amoeba. That she is a doctor from the UK who worked for the Public Health Organisation with another doctor called Finch… Who was the one who bit my BROTHER!” she wailed.

  The Sargent waved his hands and two pairs of strong arms gripped Alicia on both of hers pulling her up the stairs. Glenn too had been caught by some men who dragged him behind her.

  “Don’t listen to her, to them. The vaccine doesn’t work, to survive you need to kill those who are infected!!! They will spread the disease like wildfire, they need to be stopped before it’s too late!!! Wear the masks, stay inside and don’t breathe in the ash and go nowhere near anyone who looks ill, don’t report them just kill them, KILL THEM!!!” A large hand covered her mouth to stop her shouting out to the crowd and television crews but she hoped inside that it had been enough, that her show of defiance had been enough to show they were lying, that Rosetta was a liar, that they were all doomed if they relied on the vaccine to fix those who got infected.

  With that Tesla shouted an order and both herself and Glenn were dragged inside the tall glass building, the large glass doors slamming shut behind them locking out the world. Both were taken to the lower levels of the building to a group of quarantine rooms, she was thrown into one and the plastic reinforced door locked behind her, Glenn into the next one and his door locked too. They were left alone for a few minutes until footsteps came rushing in towards them, Alicia knew who it was right away.

  “Why did you come?” Rosetta snapped out at Alicia.

  “To tell America the truth, that the vaccine doesn’t work”, she hissed. “Why are you lying?”

  “Because they need hope, the hope Britain never had”.

  “But people will die, the infection will spread”.

  “How? Those reported will be contained and worked on until the cure does work”, Rosetta told her so sure of herself.

  “You need to tell them the truth, that the only way is to kill those who are infected, you won’t be able to contain all of them, some will slip through your fingers”.

  “And what? Have it your way? Have people murdering people for the sake of it”.

  “You sound like my mother!” Alicia retorted which took Rosetta back.

  “Your mother may have been a crazy bitch but she was right about y…”

  Alicia cut her off, “Yeah she was right about you!”

  Rosetta’s back stiffened, “It doesn’t matter now. Your locked in here and I’ll be upstairs tending to your dying brother’s needs”. And with that Rosetta spun on her heel and left them alone, locked in their plastic quarantine rooms.

  Once the doctor was gone Alicia cried out in fury, kicking the small soft bed that was in one corner, looking into the mirror above the small toilet and sink and seeing a crazed young woman. Would anyone believe someone who looked as stir crazy as she did right now? Someone who looked just like her mother, like Pippa! The woman who had been so wrong but also so right on so many levels.

  She slid down the wail of the cell and cried, whimpering Daniels name, wishing she could just say goodbye to him one last time.

  ~

  Tesla approached the door that led to the conference room and knocked, waiting for Romaine to reply. A few moments later he appeared and closed the door behind them.

  “What is it? The President is on the line”.

  “Rosetta is indeed lying, the vaccine doesn’t work”.

  “I thought as much”, Romaine sighed.

  “What now?” Tesla asked.

  “I’ll tell the President to prepare the army. We need to kill the infection before it kills us”.

  Tesla nodded thinking to himself, the strange young couple who had turned up were right, they needed to kill or be killed.

  7.07pm CDC HQ

  Daniel watched as a very angry and frightened Rosetta stormed into the lab he was secured in. She was looking at all the samples of the vaccine and muttering to herself, “Why aren’t they working on you, I just need one to work so I can prove I am right, that I am the hero in all of this”.

  He didn’t say a word but just watched her from the chair he was strapped to. She had done it as a precaution, just in case he turned whilst she was out of the room, so he didn’t attack her when she came back in. Normally she would talk to him softly, let him out of the chair and let him stretch his legs but now, now she was consumed by something. She pulled out a vial an
d shook it, then watched a Petri Dish under the microscope that she had done something to earlier in the day. She smiled, “This one might just do it”. She inserted a needle into the vial and sucked up some of the liquid.

  “Not more injections, please, it hurts so much when you do it”, Daniel pleaded. He knew he was ill, that he was like his mum that untreated he was going to become a killer but he wanted to be with her now, he didn’t want this anymore, he didn’t want Rosetta to stab him with medicine.

  “Well I would have waited a while longer till I could know for sure but your meddling sister has arrived and had tried to expose me as a liar”.

  “She’s alive?”

  “Yup and with that stupid boyfriend of hers, I knew I should have killed them both before we went on that ship but I couldn’t see him… I should have looked harder”.

  “I want to see her”.

  “No way and have her kill you, the one thing that could keep me in the CDC good books”.

  “She would only do what needs to be done”, he told her in a rather grown up tone which made her look up at him as she looked for a vein.

  “No, I am doing what needs to be done”, she hissed but she saw something flash in his eyes, a grown up and fearless innocent look.

  “No you are hoping this will work so you can be famous, we all know the infected cannot get better, I am sick and I am going to hurt other people. Alicia would stop that, she would stop me being hurt, she would stop me hurting others. She would make me truly better so I could see my mum and dad again”.

  “She isn’t coming for you anymore Daniel, she is locked up in a cell with her boyfriend and that is where they shall both rot”.

  “Ah… Ouch”, he wheezed as she stabbed the needle into his vein. Hot sticky tears rolled down his cheeks as the medicine burned as it flushed through his arm. Looking up at Rosetta he could make out a vein throbbing in her throat and licked his lips and a sudden intense hunger flared in his mouth and stomach. A need for warm, hot flesh and blood. He turned to look away from the pulse in the doctor but he couldn’t, he was transfixed by it.