by David Achord
Doctor Smeltzer saw me looking. “Those are what are called micrographs.”
“Ah, okay. What are they?”
“They are images of the zombie virus taken from an electron microscope,” he said. “Have you ever seen anything like that?”
“The only pictures I’ve seen of a virus were on the internet, and they looked like prickly pears.” I pointed. “Those look more like icicles.”
“Indeed they do,” Doctor Smeltzer said. “That’s one of the many things that makes this virus so damned interesting.”
I nodded, but I wasn’t sure interesting would be the definitive word I would use. The infection had effectively caused billions of casualties. But, whatever.
“There’s a few things I’d like to ask,” I said. They looked at me expectantly.
“This virus, that’s what it is, a virus, correct?”
“Indeed it is,” Doctor Kincaid answered.
“What is the incubation time?”
“Anywhere from a few minutes to several hours,” Doctor Smeltzer answered. “It varies, depending on the person. The longest recorded instance is approximately twenty-four hours, give or take a few minutes.”
“And you don’t know where it came from?” I asked. “I mean, other than the fact you guys believe Cairo is ground zero, where the heck did it come from?”
“The simple answer is, we do not know,” Doctor Kincaid replied and gave a patient smile. “We’ve never encountered this viral family before.”
“It could have come from the ocean, perhaps spewed out of the earth as a result of an earthquake or a volcano; there’s even speculation that meteors entering the atmosphere have the capability of carrying alien viruses.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Has that ever been proven?”
“Merely speculation,” Kincaid said.
“How many viruses are there?” I asked. “I’ve read different numbers.”
Doctor Kincaid gave a patient smile. “The exact number is somewhat elusive. One of the last studies on the topic hypothesized there are at least 320,000 unknown viruses that infect mammals. Now, that particular number was derived from a computational projection, and the study was based on only nine known viral families, so the number could be exponentially higher.
“At one time, it was believed a virus can only infect cells that have specific receptors that allow it to gain entry.”
“And then, along came the West Nile virus,” Doctor Smeltzer said. “There are several viruses that use different receptors and infect different species.”
Doctor Kincaid nodded in agreement.
“A virus is an incredible piece of work,” he said. “It is the fastest evolving life form on earth. Quite frankly, it’s a wonder something like this hasn’t happened eons sooner.”
“We could easily spend a lifetime studying it,” Doctor Smeltzer said. “We were in the beginning stages of sequencing it to determine its DNA code at Fort Detrick when it all went bad. The CDC personnel had made some amazing headway before they became overrun.”
“What about them evolving?” I asked. “Does this virus cause a mutation in the brain or something?”
“Now that is a fascinating observation on your part, Zach,” Doctor Kincaid said while tapping his temple with his forehead and then grinned. “But, incorrect. In order for something to evolve it must replicate.”
“Like a human giving birth,” Smeltzer added.
“Oh.”
Kincaid nodded. “The virus would not cause the brain itself to mutate. However, we believe the virus itself mutates, which in turn may cause different outcomes in an infected person, depending on their genetics.”
“Which still makes your rule valid, in a manner of speaking,” Doctor Smeltzer added. “We believe, now this is only a hypothesis, but we believe these Rule 14 zombies you refer to have brains that have been altered by the virus in a way we cannot yet explain. It appears there are two different phenotypes, both that completely alter the brain, but the Rule 14 zombies appear to have developed different brain functions activated by the virus.”
“But they’re doing some unusual things,” I said. “Things that a normal human can’t do.”
“You’re referring to your belief that they are communicating telepathically,” Doctor Smeltzer said, almost like an accusation.
“Yes.” Among other things, I thought.
He nodded. “Yes, well, more research will need to be conducted on that matter.”
“That’s not much of an answer,” I said.
“Yes, well, we haven’t been up close and personal with them as you have,” Doctor Smeltzer said. “I’m the first to admit we’ve been rather sheltered here.”
“When did you first learn of your immunity?” Doctor Kincaid asked.
“I was made aware of it by Major Parsons,” I answered and nodded toward Grant, who was sitting at a nearby desk reading something. When I began explaining our first encounter, he looked up briefly and smiled before burying himself back in the thick file in front of him.
“We initially believed I became exposed when I was attacked by a zombie, but there had to have been something that happened earlier.” I then briefly explained my possible first exposure.
“The man shot me,” I said, pointing at the scar on my head. “It didn’t kill me, but I don’t have much recollection of what happened for several hours after that. I was told I was in close proximity to several zombies, so there could have been some type of exposure.” I’m sure they’d already read Grant’s report, but they wanted to hear all about it firsthand.
“Fascinating,” Doctor Smeltzer said under his breath, reached for his tablet, and began typing some notes.
“But, as you know, my kids are immune as well, so the incident where I was attacked by the one zombie was not what made me immune.”
The two men glanced at each other before Doctor Kincaid spoke. “Yeah, I’m afraid you may have been misled a bit.”
I looked at them in puzzlement. “How so?” I asked.
“Your children have the same antibodies, this is true, but we don’t believe they’re immune.”
“Just as you aren’t totally immune,” Doctor Smeltzer added.
Now, even Grant stopped reading whatever was so fascinating and looked up.
“Alright, you two have definitely confused me,” I admitted.
“Let me explain,” Doctor Smeltzer said. “Think of other, similar virus infections, like the mumps or chicken pox. Once you’ve had either one, the risk of getting the disease again is extremely low.”
“But, it can happen,” Doctor Kincaid said. “Now, in regards to your children, think of it like this. Let’s say you caught the chicken pox when you were a kid.”
“Yep, I did.”
“Okay, now you have an antibody in your system. If we were to test your children for that particular antibody, we’d probably find residuals of it, but that doesn’t mean they are immune to chicken pox.”
“While it has not happened with any of the children here in Mount Weather, it’s entirely possible children born out there,” Doctor Smeltzer made a waving gesture, “are developing antibodies as a result of prenatal exposure by their mothers.”
I slowly digested what they said. “Let me ask you guys something. This virus, how far has it gone as far as infecting other species?” I asked.
“Hmm, how best to answer,” Doctor Smeltzer said with a small frown. “How’d you do in high school biology?”
“I aced it,” I answered. “Obviously, I don’t have the level of formal education the two of you have, but I catch on pretty quick.”
Doctor Smeltzer nodded. “Very well, as I’m sure you remember, life forms are identified through scientific classification. Humans are part of the Animalia kingdom, and fall into the primate order. The virus has not spread beyond primates, as far as we know.”
“If you don’t mind me speculating with my limited education, but it seems to me that that would be an indicator the virus could possib
ly be genetically engineered, no?”
The two doctors exchanged a glance before Doctor Smeltzer answered. “There is that possibility,” he said, and after a moment, spoke again. “But, there are other viruses that have not crossed over into other species. Mumps is a good example.”
“West Nile virus did though, correct?” I asked. Both doctors nodded.
“Getting back to the zombie virus, there is possible evidence of a synthetic genesis,” Doctor Kincaid said. “But, once it enters a human, it quickly mutates and takes on similar characteristics of other viruses.”
They exchanged another glance and he continued. “At one time, this was considered top secret information, but I suppose it doesn’t matter these days. Anyway, there was a lot of debate on the topic, but we,” he said it while waving his finger between the two of them, “believe it’s manmade.”
“I guess that begs the question, who made it?” I asked.
The two doctors shrugged in unison. “The virus first presented in Egypt and spread quicker than anything we’d ever seen,” Kincaid said. “One could induce either the Egyptians accidentally exposed their own people or it was an enemy of Egypt. Perhaps the Jews.”
Doctor Smeltzer scoffed. “It wasn’t the Jews.”
Doctor Kincaid made a face. “They have the wall, they can seal off their entire country, and as far as we know, they’re still intact.”
It sounded like they’d had this argument before, so I redirected. “So, it hasn’t crossed over into other orders or higher?”
“We’ve found no evidence of any species crossover. However, I must make a caveat to that answer; we’ve lost contact with other research facilities long ago and have no idea what they may have discovered.”
I nodded thoughtfully as I digested what they said. “Okay, I have some information for you two that might change your premise.”
The two docs eyed me. “Yes?” Doctor Smeltzer asked.
“Back in Nolensville, we had a kid who was eaten by a snake, a Burmese Python to be specific. When we found the snake, it was acting funny, and the kid had either become infected prior to being eaten, or the snake infected him.”
“How do you know the child was infected?” Doctor Kincaid asked.
“After we killed the snake, we cut it open. The kid was infected. We had to kill him too. Now, I can’t tell you if the snake was infected, all I can say is it was acting funny. Was the kid infected when the snake ate him and that’s why it was acting funny, or was the snake infected when he ate the kid and it caused the kid to become infected? I don’t have an answer for you.”
“Fascinating,” Doctor Smeltzer said and quickly notated it on his tablet. “Tell me, have you done anything like that with any other animals?”
“Not so much with animals, but I’ve cut open several zombies.”
Now the two of them looked at me as if I’d just told them I’d discovered a permanent cure to erectile dysfunction.
“You’ve been cutting them open?” Kincaid asked.
“Yeah.”
“How many?”
“Twenty-two,” I replied. “At first, I was fascinated by them. Then, I mostly stopped, but sometimes I’d see one of them that looked a little different and would decide to have a look inside.”
“Did you find anything?”
“Most of the time, they all looked the same, but there were some of them that had unique characteristics. The ones I cut open recently, they’re digesting what they’re eating. I’m sure you two have studied people when they first became infected, they’d eat and eat and eat, but their stomachs weren’t working, they’d just walk around all bloated and everything. A lot of them seemed to have eventually died off, but the ones who lived changed somehow.”
“Yes, we believe it is the phenotypes at work,” Doctor Kincaid said. “Different phenotypes, different reactions to the infection.”
“What did you find when you cut those particular zombies open?” Doctor Smeltzer asked.
“The only thing that stood out was their intestinal tract. The organs are not a healthy pink, they’re a blackish color, and the bile is a black syrupy goo, and let me tell you, it smells awful.” I paused a moment and then snapped my fingers.
“You know, I’d totally forgotten about it, but a while back, I found a journal kept by a jailer who did experiments on live zombies.”
They stared at me in rapt attention now. “Yeah, he and a co-worker did all kinds of things.”
“Like what?” Kincaid asked.
“They put one in boiling water, they froze one, they injected poisons, set one on fire, oh, and they even cut open the brain of one of them.”
“You’re kidding?” Kincaid said in disbelief.
“Nope. They also conducted testing of their senses with various stimuli. It was an interesting read.”
“Do you happen to still have the journal?” he asked.
“No, it was destroyed, but I can rewrite it for you if you’d like.”
Grant cleared his throat. “He’s never been tested, but young Zach probably has a photographic memory.”
I shook my head. “I used to. Back before I took this bullet,” I said, pointing at the scar again. “But it’s still pretty good. I won’t be able to rewrite it word-for-word, but I can come close.”
Oh, yeah, they were giving me that look again. Now, in addition to my erectile dysfunction cure, they were looking at me like I’d also told them I could make it grow a few more inches.
“We would be most appreciative if you would, Zach,” Smeltzer said, his voice quaking a little.
“Certainly,” I answered.
“Paper is at a premium around here,” Doctor Kincaid said. “Would you happen to have a computer? A laptop or tablet, perhaps?”
“I do,” I said. “And Raymond got me access to the local internet.”
“Excellent,” Doctor Kincaid said and sat down in front of his own laptop.
“By the way, what kind of server do you guys have?”
“We have a Cray computer,” he said, like it was nothing special.
“A Cray?” I asked. “A Cray supercomputer?”
Kincaid grinned. “Yes indeed.”
“Holy shit,” I said, wondering how much access to all of the files I would have.
I watched as Doctor Kincaid finished typing and looked up at me. “Alright, I created a file folder for you in the medical section of the cloud. If you don’t mind, when you write up the journal, store it there so we can review it.”
“Will do.”
“If we can get power back online at Fort Detrick, one of our goals is to upload all of the files at Detrick onto the Mount Weather cloud. It should help in our research,” Smeltzer said.
“This is awesome,” I said. “I hope I’ll at least have read-only access.”
“Indeed you do,” Kincaid said.
“So, since I can’t go with y’all, what’s the procedure going to be?”
“A lot has already been accomplished at the CDC,” Kincaid said. “Major Parsons has a lot of data on file. We’ve been spending hours going over it and comparing it to our data.”
“Fort Detrick has state-of-the-art equipment, including electron microscopes. The first thing we’ll do is use one of them to observe your blood with the virus.”
“And then we’ll introduce the virus and observe it,” Doctor Smeltzer said. “It’s going to be fascinating to watch your leukocytes in action.”
They continued talking about the process of creating a vaccine, but even I had a hard time keeping up. I smiled at myself, remembering how smart I used to think I was.
“This is going to be the most intriguing work I’ve ever done,” Doctor Smeltzer said and then gave me a questioning look. “You still have your spleen, correct?”
“Yep,” I answered.
“Excellent. The spleen makes lymphocytes…”
“Lymphocytes identify foreign substances such as a virus and then creates antibodies to fight them,” I finished. The
two doctors looked at me in surprise.
“Yes, exactly,” Smeltzer said. “You seem to know your white blood cells.”
“Grant tutored me a little bit on the subject,” I said.
“The ultimate goal, of course, is to be able to create a vaccine,” Smeltzer said.
“And possibly even an antidote to administer to someone who has become infected,” Kincaid added.
“Were you guys able to achieve any results when you were at Detrick?” I asked.
Doctor Smeltzer shook his head. “Sadly, we were only beginning to make headway when disaster struck.”
“You’re looking at two of the only three known survivors,” Doctor Kincaid said.
“What happened?”
“They are excellent facilities,” Smeltzer said. “We even had a level four containment lab.”
“I’m guessing that’s a good thing,” I said.
“It’s the highest level containment protocol there is,” Kincaid said. “Very complex.”
“And expensive,” Smeltzer added with a dry chuckle. “But well worth it.” He sighed then. I looked questioningly at the two men.
“I should preface my next statement with this,” Smeltzer said. “The scientific personnel assembled at Fort Detrick were some of the smartest in the world.”
“And yet,” Kincaid rejoined, “an act of incredible stupidity was shared by most, if not all of us.”
“How so?” I asked.
“A refrigeration unit that was used to store pathogens, including the zombie virus, went on the fritz, so a brilliant decision was made to put all of the samples into picnic coolers until the unit could be fixed or replaced. The coolers were then stacked in a hallway.”
“An unsecured hallway,” Kincaid added. “An unsecured hallway which had a lot of foot traffic.”
“So, what happened?” I asked.
“Oh, the specifics of what happened has been lost to the memories of those no longer with us, I’m afraid,” Kincaid said. “It could have been a defective cooler, or perhaps an unintentional bump by a person who was in a hurry. It may have even been an intentional act of sabotage. Suffice it to say, the containment was compromised.”
