The Black: Arrival

by Paul E. Cooley

  Chuckles followed suit. Mike reached the door and slammed into the push bar. The door swung wide. He held it open while Chuckles rushed through it.

  Mike closed the door and peered through the glass window. The fluorescent lights down the hall turned off one at a time. Mike’s breath fogged the glass, but it didn’t matter. There was nothing to see.

  Mike turned from the door. Chuckles’ face was set in its usual disinterested line.

  “Did you see something?” he asked.

  Mike clicked off his flashlight and stuck the pistol back in his waistband. “I don’t know. I thought I did.”

  Chuckles nodded, but his face was absent emotion. “I thought I did too.”

  “Okay,” Mike said after catching his breath, “let’s go.” He walked across the landing and took the steps two at a time. Chuckles did the same. Neither of them noticed the eyestalk peering at them through the fire door’s window.

  *****

  When they exited the stairwell, Chuckles finally felt he could breathe. He’d known Mike for years and he’d never seen the man this stressed out. He didn’t think Mike really knew what was going on either, but the stripped down hallways, the detritus of metal zippers, fasteners, even the phone, was enough to hit Chuckles in the gut. Something was wrong. He didn’t know just how wrong until they reached the bottom of the stairwell.

  The door leading to the street was blocked. The window was a strange shade of red and he knew there should be wan streetlamp light streaming through it. Chuckles walked to the other door and tried to peer out the darkened window.

  He pulled up his flashlight and shined it through the glass. Red corrugated steel stared back at him. Chuckles raised his eyebrows. Who the hell would block the door?

  “Chuckles!” Mike yelled. “Let’s go, man.”

  “Why is the door blocked?”

  Mike cleared his throat. “Because we’re under quarantine. They’re not letting us out of here, man.”

  He took one last look at the window, shrugged, and then followed Mike out the interior door to the first floor.

  The foyer was empty of people save for Jakob. He stood from his desk and stared at them.

  “Hi, Jakob,” Chuckles said.

  The security guard was pale and looked almost stoned. Evidently he’d already had an interesting night too.

  A few portable stretchers lay on the floor near the front doors. Boxes of disposable blankets, meds, and surgical gloves were laid out near the beds.

  Jakob pointed at the clutter. “They brought all that stuff in here, Mike. I feel like a damned door man for the CDC.”

  Mike laughed. “You did fine, Jakob. Where are they?”

  “In the labs,” he said.

  Chuckles glanced at the security doors. They were locked and the sensor glowed red. At least that was something. He turned, cast his eyes to the front doors, and froze.

  A yellow, person-sized tunnel was connected to a large stand of red metal. The tunnel left just enough room for the doors to open. He walked to the glass and looked up. A metal housing covered the top. No one was getting in or out except via the tunnel. Quarantine, Mike had said. Until he saw the tunnel, he didn’t really believe it. Now it was undeniable.

  “Mike?” Chuckles asked as he turned around. “What the hell is going on?”

  Mike’s phone was in his hands. His thumbs played over the virtual keyboard. “Something about the oil from PPE. Marie got infected.”

  “Infected?” Chuckles walked to him. “Infected by what?”

  Mike looked up from the screen as his phone made a whooshing sound. “I don’t know. They had to take her to the hospital.”

  “She okay?”

  Mike put the phone in his front pocket. “I honestly don’t know.”

  Chuckles clicked off his flashlight. “Mike? What the hell are these for? There’s plenty of light. It’s not like we’re facing a blackout.”

  Mike yawned. “Kate said we needed them. So we have them.”

  “Need them for what?”

  “I guess whatever escaped the lab doesn’t like light.”

  Chuckles snorted. “That makes about as much sense as anything else.” He pointed to the ceiling. “Light there. Lights on the walls. Lights everywhere. So how do these flashlights do anything different?”

  “Look, man. I don’t know. I just did what she told me. And you saw what happened upstairs.”

  “Yeah,” Chuckles said. “I did. And if I hadn’t seen that, I sure as shit wouldn’t have followed you down here. You do know I’m trying to bring up the new NOC and—”

  “You listening to yourself?” Mike asked. His cheeks flushed crimson. “We are under quarantine. Marie is in the hospital. The CDC has us completely locked down and you’re worried about the goddamned servers?”

  Chuckles opened his mouth to reply and then stopped. Dammit. Mike was right. “Okay. Sorry.”

  Mike stared out through the front doors and to the yellow tunnel. “I wouldn’t believe me either,” he said. “Still not sure I do. What I—” He stopped in mid-sentence as his phone dinged. Mike pulled it from his front pocket and read the message. He typed a quick reply and smiled at Chuckles. The smile was strained, but it was better than an exhausted grimace. “The CDC is bringing Kate and her team out here. We’ll get some answers soon.”

  “Great,” Chuckles said. He pointed at the door. “Any guesses on what happens if we walk out there?”

  Mike grunted. “I’ve a feeling we don’t want to know.”

  “Was afraid you’d say that.” Chuckles sighed and pulled out his phone. His email box was filled with alerts. The air conditioning in the old NOC was failing. He blinked. “Uh, I think I know where our intruder is.”

  Mike’s eyes went wide. “Where?”

  “The goddamned server room.”

  *****

  Glaze was clearly in shock. So was Maeve. While that bitch Hoyt grilled her coworker, and Maeve refused to let go of her mother, Jay listened. Whatever the M2 had become, it was more dangerous than ever. He kept fighting the urge to stare back across the glass partition at the chem-lab. That thing might come back through the hole in the roof. But they had a bigger problem just now.

  Jay stood at the computer console and bought up a terminal. He logged in and brought up the testing control panel for the chem-lab. Results from their tests scrolled across the screen. All but one—the NMR.

  When the hell had they started that test? He knew it couldn’t have been more than an hour, but it seemed like days. Of course, the fact he hadn’t slept in forever didn’t exactly help.

  Regardless, the test should be finished. Or at least close to it. He collapsed the test results until he found the one he was looking for. “NMR,” he said to himself. Jay clicked on the results tab.

  A graph of colored lines appeared on the screen. He blinked at them. Jay turned around and nearly ran into Neil. The bio-chemist’s eyebrows were raised.

  “Jay? You okay?”

  He shook his head. “Look at the screen.” Jay stepped aside. Bill joined them at the desk. The three men stared at the display.

  Neil scratched at the grey in his temples. “Um, that’s not possible.”

  “Oh, man,” Bill chuckled. “That’s just awesome.”

  “What are you gentlemen discussing?”

  Jay turned to Hoyt. She’d sat Glaze down in a chair. Her CDC team member didn’t exactly look like he knew where he was. Jay knew the feeling. “Know anything about chemistry, Dr. Hoyt?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “More than you think.” Her voice was knife-cold.

  Jay flashed a grin. “Then take a look at that,” he said pointing to the screen, “and tell me what you think.”

  She glared at him and then moved forward. Bill and Neil stepped aside and made space. Her suit crinkled as she bent down to look at the screen. Jay watched her expression change from annoyance to confusion.

  She pointed a finger at the screen. “Shouldn’t that be, um, varied or something?�
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  “Varied?” Bill laughed. “Lady, that graph should show all sorts of shit. Mainly hydrocarbon rings. But that ain’t what I see.”

  She glared at Bill and then looked at Jay. “What am I looking at?”

  Jay cleared his throat. “The spikes in the graph. Those are atoms made of heavier elements.”

  “And?”

  He tried to hide a smirk, but couldn’t. “Dr. Hoyt. Please look at the bottom of the graph.”

  She did. He smiled when he saw her eyes widen. “That’s not possible.”

  Neil and Bill laughed. Jay thought they both sounded on the verge of hysteria. “No. It’s not possible. Especially considering what we saw on the SEM.” The bottom of the graph showed the scale in atomic weight. “There’s no hydrogen in this stuff. No carbon either. Whatever it is, it’s way off the periodic chart. By miles.”

  “Um,” Bill said, “shouldn’t that be radioactive as hell?”

  Jay shrugged. “I look like a goddamned physicist?”

  “Bill’s right,” Neil said. “We should be fried. That stuff shouldn’t exist in nature. No way it can be stable.”

  “Unless it is.” Jay rubbed his eyes. “If it’s got the same number of electrons, protons, and neutrons, it should be as stable as anything else.”

  Hoyt stared at Jay. “Dr. Hollingsworth? Was the oil…heavy? As in actual weight?”

  He shook his head. “No. Quite the opposite. All of our tests showed it to be what we call high gravity crude. The sweetest I’ve ever heard of. No crap in it. Just pure hydrocarbon goodness.”

  Hoyt shook her head. The moon-suit crinkled again. “Then how is that possible? If the primary components are an element with that high of an atomic weight, it’d be impossible to even bring out of the ground.”

  “True,” Jay said. He rubbed his hands together. “Exciting, isn’t it?” The dour look on her face made him grin wider. Mania was at the threshold. Any second, he knew he was going to lose it. Too many hours awake. Too much insanity. And too many unanswerable questions. “An oil that acts like oil, but isn’t. A substance that doesn’t have excitable electrons. A liquid that consumes any material that doesn’t have tightly packed atoms? And,” he pointed to the chem-lab rubble, “something that can change state from liquid to solid and is dangerous as hell.” He chuckled and wasn’t surprised at how insane he sounded. “Like I said: exciting.”

  Maeve had finally stopped crying. Kate was rubbing her daughter’s shoulders and looking up at Jay. “We have to get out of here. All of us. Now. Before that thing comes back.”

  Jay nodded to her. “Agreed.” He turned back to Hoyt. “As much as I’d like to sit here and convince you that we’re in trouble, HAL employees are getting the fuck out of here. And you can shoot us if you like.” He nudged Bill in the arm. “Let’s go.”

  “No, you can’t leave,” Hoyt said. She grabbed Jay’s shoulder with her gloved hand. “This is a quarantine situation.”

  Neil snorted. “Lady? One of your own people just got devoured by the same thing that destroyed the lab next door. You want a quarantine? Fine. Lock the building up, set it on fire, but we’re getting the hell out of here.”

  She moved to block their way, but Neil pushed her hard enough to knock her back against one of the tables. “Gentlemen!” she yelled.

  It didn’t matter. Jay had had enough. He shrugged off her attempt to grab his arm and headed into the hallway. Neil and Bill were right behind him. Hoyt, cursing under her breath, regained her balance and started to follow.

  Kate stood and pulled Maeve up with her. Her phone buzzed. She looked down at it, read the message, and then looked at Jay. “Mike and Chuckles are in the foyer.”

  “Good.” Jay pointed to the door at the end of the hall. “Let’s go see what Mike knows.”

  *****

  Phone still in hand, Chuckles looked up as the security door to the lab area beeped and then opened. Kate and Jay, still dressed in their protective suits without the gloves and face-shields, walked out. Maeve’s arm was around her mother’s waist. The kid looked terrified. Bill and Neil followed them. Two people dressed in moon-suits popped out last. The security door closed and latched behind them.

  Chuckles looked back down at his phone. The alerts for the NOC kept streaming in every five minutes. The temperature was over 90° and still rising. If they didn’t want to lose the entire NOC, he’d have to go up there and shut down the systems. The auto-shutdown obviously wasn’t working. Big shock. It’d never been tested.

  He locked the phone and put it back in his pocket. Mike was already walking toward his disheveled scientists. Chuckles glanced at the glassed-in front doors again. Beyond that tunnel and the metal stand blocking their way, sunlight would no doubt be pounding the concrete in a few hours. Even if it was only through clouds. He rubbed his eyes. Like the rest of the crew, he hadn’t had any sleep in a long time.

  “Okay,” Mike said to the group, “someone tell me what the hell is going on.”

  The woman in the moon-suit glared at him. “Mr. Beaudry? I’m Dr. Melanie Hoyt. Are all of your employees down here?”

  Mike tapped his foot and crossed his arms. “As far as I know. I checked the new building too. But,” he gestured to Chuckles, “he’s all I was able to find. And no one else has come down.”

  Hoyt bit her lip. “Okay.” She gestured to her partner. “Dr. Glaze and I are part of the Houston CDC office. We’re the first response team.”

  “And there used to be three of them,” Kate said.

  Hoyt glared at her and then looked back at Mike. “The rest of our team is outside this building. They have cordoned off the area and there is no way out of here until we have isolated the infection.”

  “Infection?” Chuckles asked. The woman looked in his direction. “Mike said Marie was infected.”

  Hoyt nodded. “Ms. Krieger was taken to the Ben Taub ER. She was isolated, as were the EMTs that brought her in and Darren Strange.”

  The knot of stress that sat in Chuckles’ stomach tightened. “How is Marie? She going to make it?”

  “We don’t know,” Hoyt said. “We’ve lost contact with the hospital team.”

  Kate shook her head. “Bullshit. Chuckles? Mike?” She waited until their gaze met hers. “Darren called. He said—” She cleared her throat and Chuckles saw a single tear form in her left eye. “He said everyone’s dead. That something came out of Marie.”

  The walls upstairs. The missing carpet. The incredibly clean elevator bank tile. The images flashed in his memory. A spike of heartburn hit his stomach. “What we saw upstairs,” he said, “wasn’t pretty.” He gritted his teeth and then forced himself to relax. “Whatever is in the building, it’s eating through everything.”

  “That’s not metal or glass or concrete, yes,” Jay said. Chuckles looked at him, but he wasn’t the only one. The entire group watched Jay. “It doesn’t seem capable of eating through those materials. But it likes grit and grime just fine. And anything porous like sheetrock.” He scratched at his arm. “I imagine it likes skin as well.”

  Chuckles pursed his lips. “Well, I know where the damned thing is. Or at least where it was.”

  Hoyt swung her head. Her fierce eyes locked with his. “Where?”

  “The NOC.”

  “What is that?” she asked.

  He rolled his eyes. “Network Operations Center. It’s where we keep all our computer equipment. The A/C is dead up there. The servers are starting to overheat. I doubt it’s a coincidence.” He pulled out his phone and unlocked it. “Yup,” he said as he read the latest text. “100° and rising.”

  Kate and Jay traded a glance.

  “What?” Chuckles asked.

  Kate looped an arm around Maeve’s neck. The girl was still too pale, but he thought she was looking better.

  “It doesn’t like heat,” Kate said. “Heat. Natural light. Halogen light. From what we saw during the distillation test, it’ll catch fire at certain temperatures.”

  Chuck
les pursed his lips. “Any idea how hot it has to get?”

  “No,” she said. “But it’s probably not much over 120°.”

  “This is all very interesting,” Mike said, “but it doesn’t tell me how we’re getting out of here.”

  The CDC woman shook her head. “Did you not hear me, sir? We’re not getting out of here until I can tell the teams outside the infection is isolated.”

  “Isolated?” Mike chuckled. “Lady, if you saw what I saw upstairs, you’d know it’s not airborne.”

  Hoyt sighed. “Sir. You have to understand. What Ms. Krieger had was extremely virulent. Her body was in an accelerated state of decay. If something like that was communicable, a city like Houston could go into an epidemic in a matter of days, if not hours.”

  “Well,” Mike said, “that doesn’t exactly do us a goddamned bit of good right now, does it? I want my people out of here. And I want them out of here now. Call whomever you need to, but get us—”

  Something crashed on the second floor. The group jumped as one, their eyes immediately scanning the ceiling. No one moved. All Chuckles could hear was the sound of everyone’s breathing. And that was only a distant whisper compared to the pounding of his heart.

  Hoyt’s radio came to life. Her body stiffened and then slowly relaxed.

  “Dr. Hoyt?” a tinny voice said in her helmet. Chuckles could barely hear it.

  “This is Hoyt.”

  “What’s your situation?” the voice asked.

  “All known personnel are located in the evac area. We have one team member missing, presumed dead.”

  “Presumed,” Glaze whispered.

  She glared at him as she spoke. “No known disease vectors at this time. However, we have a situation with an unknown assailant. Over.”

  There was a pause. With each passing heartbeat, the sinking feeling in his stomach increased. Chuckles was absolutely certain the next thing the voice said wasn’t going to make him or anyone else happy. He was right.

  “Dr. Hoyt. This is a code red situation. I repeat, code red. Ben Taub has experienced an outbreak of some kind. The entire first floor of the hospital is deserted, but there is an extensive amount of damage to the interior as well as equipment. We are moving to evacuate the higher floors. Until we know what caused the damage in the hospital, HAL is under forced quarantine. Do not try and leave the premises. Over.”