by A. G. Taylor
Sarah nodded. One second later a section of the wall opened, revealing a door she hadn’t noticed. Through it stepped one of the white-suited figures, the mirrored faceplate showing a fishbowl reflection of the room. Instinctively, Sarah backed away from the advancing figure.
“It’s okay, Sarah!” Mandy exclaimed. “Delta-6, your mask!”
The suit stopped and reached up to press a button on the side of its helmet. Immediately the mirrored surface of the faceplate became clear glass, revealing the features of a man about the same age as Daniel. He smiled and beckoned her to follow him with a gloved hand.
“He won’t hurt you,” Mandy said. “Just go with him.”
With a final look at the mirror, Sarah walked forward on slightly shaky legs. The suited man stepped aside so she could lead the way through the door.
Sarah moved into a corridor with curved walls and a flat floor. She brushed her fingers against the wall and found that it was made of a soft material that gave to the touch.
“Just keep walking,” the man’s voice crackled from a speaker in the suit. “That’s right. Keep going to the airlock at the end. Don’t stop.”
When Sarah reached the circular hatch at the end of the corridor, the suited man swiped a card through a reader on the wall and it slid open. He gave her a little push with his hand to encourage her through.
Sarah stepped into a tube-like area that he’d called the airlock. A hatch clicked seamlessly into place behind her. There was a hiss of air and after a few seconds another, smaller, entrance opened before her.
“Step through,” a voice commanded from hidden speakers.
Sarah climbed through the opening into a kind of plastic bubble. The hatch closed, sealing her inside the orb. Disoriented, Sarah leaned forward, pressing her hands against the clear plastic. As she did so, the bubble moved forwards and she slipped onto her hands and knees, almost rolling over as it went.
Carefully getting up, she looked round and saw a similar plastic bubble to her own standing a few metres away. Inside was Robert. He was dressed in a white smock like hers and had a big grin on his face.
Expertly, he moved his bubble towards her by walking forward and allowing the plastic sphere to turn around him as he went. Their bubbles touched and Sarah’s bounced back a little, throwing her off balance. She fell and the bubble rolled with her.
Looking up, she saw Robert laughing and shook her head. He laughed even more at her efforts to get up again, sliding on her hands and knees. He started to run circles around her in his bubble.
“Robert, stay still a second!” she shouted at him, starting to get a little dizzy. “Robert!”
It was no use. No sound could pass out of the plastic capsule. Sarah looked daggers at her brother…
Stop that right now, Robert!
Robert stopped dead, staring at her. His lips moved, saying something that she couldn’t hear. She tapped her ear and shook her head. Then he tapped his finger to his forehead and then pointed at her.
Somehow he’d heard what she thought.
Robert started mouthing something excitedly to her: do it again!
Sarah looked hard at him, concentrating…
Robert… Can you hear me?
He began nodding furiously, his mouth hanging open a little.
See if you can answer me…
He nodded and closed his eyes, frowning with concentration. A few seconds later he opened them again, looking at his sister expectantly. She shook her head and his shoulders slumped in disappointment. He looked at her and mouthed: how?
Sarah shrugged and shook her head.
I don’t know…
She shot the last message across to him almost without thinking. It was getting to be just like talking. She thought of the strange feelings she’d been having since the plane crash and decided that it was probably part of the same change she was experiencing.
It’s becoming easier, Robert… You have to keep on trying to answer… Something strange is going on here…
Any further experimentation with this odd new skill was stopped short as a door opened in the room and two men in white coats appeared. They looked like doctors or scientists, Sarah thought. One of them walked around their bubbles, plugging a little black box into a port on each. Speakers hidden somewhere in the structures crackled into life. The scientists left the room and were replaced by two men – soldiers, judging by their uniforms – who flanked the door.
Another figure entered: a tall man with crewcut, greying hair and piercing blue eyes. He wasn’t wearing a spacesuit either, but a black military uniform. A radio microphone was clipped to his ear. When he spoke, his voice came through the speakers in the bubbles.
“Good morning,” the man said, his accent clearly American. He cast a gaze over them with a smile. “My name is Colonel Randall Moss. I think it’s about time we all got to know one another, don’t you?”
12
“Where are we?” Sarah demanded, facing Colonel Moss. “Why have we been put in these things?”
“I’m sorry about the quarantine bubbles,” he replied calmly, running a hand over his cropped hair. The colonel was in his mid-fifties, but clearly very strong under his perfectly pressed uniform. To Sarah he looked like a man who was used to getting what he wanted and his face showed the scars of someone who had been in his fair share of battles.
“You’ll find that they’re really the best way to get around until we’re sure you’re no longer contagious,” Colonel Moss continued. “I’m the local head of HIDRA and you’re at our temporary base, six kilometres east of the refinery where we picked you up.”
Sarah frowned. “HIDRA?”
“It stands for Hyper-Infectious Disease Response Agency,” Colonel Moss answered, folding his arms and pacing in front of them. “We’re an international task force designed to control ELEs. When a significant disaster occurs anywhere in the world, we step in.”
“What’s an ELE?” Robert asked.
“Extinction Level Event,” Colonel Moss replied. “Outbreaks that threaten to destroy life on earth as we know it. I’m sure that you’ve worked out that the meteorite brought a virus with it. We call it the fall virus. It sends almost everyone who has contact into a kind of coma. Sometimes the effect is immediate, while others manage to hold out for a few days. The problem is, we don’t have a treatment. Yet.”
Robert and Sarah looked at one another through their bubbles, trying to take in all the information being thrown at them.
“You seem to know a lot about the virus already,” Sarah said. “Were you expecting this?”
Colonel Moss looked at Sarah and nodded with a smile, acknowledging her perceptiveness.
“You’re right,” he admitted. “It’s not the first time it’s happened. Two years ago a smaller meteorite hit South America with the same effects. The fall virus was devastating, but we managed to contain it to a few hundred kilometres in a sparsely populated area. Luckily.”
“I never heard about that,” Sarah said.
Colonel Moss nodded. “We worked hard to keep it secret. People just aren’t ready to hear about a disease from outer space threatening the world. We think the meteorite that struck two days ago was from the same source. Maybe a planet that exploded. One that harboured the virus.”
“Then there might be more meteors on the way,” Robert said.
Colonel Moss nodded and they were silent for a moment.
“I don’t see how that gives you the right to kidnap us…” Sarah began, but Moss cut her short with a wave of his hand.
“Firstly, you haven’t been kidnapped, you’ve been rescued,” he said, beckoning a soldier at the door over. “Secondly, we should be the ones asking questions.”
The soldier approached, holding up the bag of diamonds in his fist.
“What’s that?” Sarah asked.
“Please, don’t play games,” Colonel Moss replied. “We found over two million US dollars’ worth of diamonds in your brother’s pocket. I’m assumi
ng your father gave them to you, thinking a child wouldn’t be searched.”
Sarah and Robert exchanged a glance. Colonel Moss snapped his fingers and one of the soldiers approached with a laptop computer. He held it up for them to see. The screen showed an official record marked INTERPOL Datasheet. Daniel’s picture was in the top right corner next to a list of crimes: smuggling and forgery among them. “I’m sorry to be the one telling you this, but your father is wanted in several countries. Looking at the record of your flight, this is the first time he’s travelled under his real name in nine years. He was taking quite a risk.”
“He came back for us,” Robert said softly.
Colonel Moss snapped the laptop shut and the soldier took it away. “We think he wanted a cover to bring the diamonds into Australia. That’s why your father was travelling with you. No doubt his buyers are criminals looking to sell to rich Australian clients.
“The truck you were driving belonged to the owner of the farmhouse where we found another diamond,” he added. “Tom Barker and his family are now in intensive care.”
“Mr. Barker got sick too?” Sarah asked.
“Adults who come in contact with the virus always get sick,” Colonel Moss replied. “Most children do too.”
“Apart from us,” Sarah said. “And Daniel.”
“That’s not correct, Sarah,” Moss said with a shake of his head. “Your father’s blood test came back positive. He went into a fall virus coma two hours after we picked you up.”
“That’s not true!” With a cry of anger, Robert rushed at Moss, the bubble rolling with him. The colonel caught the surface of the sphere with both hands and held him fast. Inside, Robert collided with the plastic and fell back with a cry…
Daniel! Sarah, Sarah!
Robert’s words split Sarah’s brain like a bolt of lightning, but he hadn’t spoken aloud. She saw Robert staring at her, his eyes wide and tear-filled. His mental block was broken, Sarah realized. She held up a hand as if to stop his thoughts.
Robert, slow down! You’re hurting me!
Robert’s mouth fell open as he realized that his sister was receiving him. She made a warning motion with her hand.
Keep it to yourself! Don’t let him know!
Something, perhaps that strange instinct she was developing, told her that they should keep their new ability secret until they knew more about it themselves.
“I’m sorry, Robert,” Colonel Moss said sympathetically. “It’s the truth. I wish I had better news for you.”
“He was fine…” Robert struggled to his feet and manoeuvred his bubble over to Sarah.
Moss gave a sigh. “I’ve seen it all before, son. Daniel held out longer against the virus than most, probably because he shares the same genetic make-up that gives you two your immunity.”
“But why him and not us?” Robert persisted.
“In adults the disease is devastating,” Colonel Moss went on. “At the moment you’re both what we call carriers – immune to the disease but able to pass it on to others. Our experience with the virus so far suggests you’ll remain infectious for another seventy-eight hours at least. Until then, you’ll be kept in strict quarantine.”
The colonel allowed that information to sink in for a moment before adding, “I promise your dad’s getting the best medical attention possible. Nobody knows more about the fall virus than my people.”
Sarah bumped her bubble against Robert’s to get his attention.
It’s okay, Robert. He’s right. Daniel’s in the best place.
It seemed to calm her brother a little. Sarah just hoped it was the truth. She turned away from Robert and met the colonel’s eyes. They were a beautiful blue, but there was a coldness at the centre. She tried to read him, like she had the woman behind the mirror, to find out what he was really thinking. Perhaps her new intuition wasn’t so strong after all, however, because he was a complete blank.
“Are you feeling okay?” the colonel asked, taking a step towards her. She realized that she’d been staring at him and looked away. “I understand how difficult this is for you. Robert told us about losing your mum… How Daniel hasn’t really been much of a father to you. I want you to know that HIDRA will take care of you both.”
“We want to see Daniel,” Sarah said, trying to sound stronger than she felt. “We barely know him, but he helped us. He was the one who saved us from the plane crash.”
“He’s still in a very unstable condition,” Colonel Moss replied. “No one other than our doctors can enter the intensive care zone. He’ll be kept at that status for several days, I’m afraid.”
Sarah and Robert exchanged a look. Moss seemed to sense their disappointment.
“In the meantime, let me show you some of the open access areas of the base,” he said. “So you can see the kind of treatment Daniel will be getting.”
He turned and strode across the room to the door. With the swipe of a security card, it opened. Sarah and Robert waited hesitantly.
“Well, come on!” Colonel Moss said, gesturing towards the door. “It’s perfectly safe.”
13
As Sarah manoeuvred her bubble out of the building, she expected to see the desert outside. However, she found herself standing in a huge enclosed space, the size of ten football pitches at least. Moving carefully inside the bubble, Sarah walked down a ramp from the door, followed closely by Robert. At the bottom of the ramp they both stopped and took in their new surroundings.
Looking up, Sarah did not see the dust-filled sky, but rather a massive, domed ceiling. The floor was covered in a kind of dark plastic, the same material as the dome. Glancing around, she took in more than twenty long, white buildings. They seemed makeshift, little more than big mobile homes, as if designed to be put up and taken down in a hurry. In one corner stood a row of military trucks and jeeps. There was even a helicopter, a sleek, black thing on a trailer with its blades folded up.
A formation of soldiers in sandy-coloured HIDRA uniforms marched by. They turned their heads as one and saluted as they passed. Sarah was taken aback, but then noticed Colonel Moss had appeared at her side. He returned the salute briskly and watched the troops as they continued on their way.
“Wow,” Robert said as he reached the bottom of the ramp. “Is this all yours?”
“This is all HIDRA’s,” Colonel Moss explained. He caught sight of Sarah looking up and pointed at the ceiling. “We can put the dome up in less than an hour. It’s quite a feat of engineering, completely secure. The material is a polymer we created ourselves in the labs – extremely strong. Right now it’s keeping us safe and allowing my people to go about their work in the hot zone without having to wear protection suits all the time. As soon as we know for sure you’re not carrying the virus, we’ll get you out of those bubbles.”
“What about when you want to go outside?” Robert asked, ever-inquisitive.
Moss gestured to the far side of the dome. A tunnel the size of a house was set into the outer wall. The entrance was blocked by two massive iron doors and surrounded by a squad of armed soldiers.
“That’s the airlock,” the colonel explained. “Any personnel or vehicles leaving the dome have to pass through there and undergo a fifteen-minute sterilization process. It keeps the virus out. And don’t worry: it’s absolutely the only way into the dome.”
Sarah looked at the soldiers guarding the airlock. They wore a black and gold uniform different to the others. She wondered if they were some kind of special group – they looked serious, even more so than the normal soldiers.
“And it’s the only way out,” she added.
Colonel Moss shrugged. “I guess you could say that. Come on.”
They followed him in the direction of one of the other buildings. Sarah was starting to find walking in the bubble easier, although she was aware how stupid she must look: like she was in some kind of oversized snow-globe. They passed several soldiers and white-coated scientists on the way, but none gave them as much as a second look
. Sarah guessed that seeing people walking around in giant, inflated bubbles was pretty normal at HIDRA.
They reached a building marked Sleeper Modules B. A ramp led up to the entrance, making it easy enough for Sarah and Robert to traverse. Colonel Moss led the way and they followed passively.
The door opened into a single room filled with rows of what looked like sarcophagi from an Egyptian tomb. Each of these, however, was plain white with a glass screen set into the top. As the colonel led them along one of the rows, Sarah saw that each sarcophagus was filled with a sleeper. She stopped next to one that she recognized from the plane: Nicole, the flight attendant. Through the screen, Sarah made out sensors attached to the woman’s body, while a computer read-out on the side of the casket kept track of her heart-rate and other vital information.
Robert asked, “Are they all—”
“Victims of the virus,” Colonel Moss finished for him. “Many of these come from your plane crash. The caskets keep their condition stable and provide everything the sleepers need – food, water and waste disposal. But of course, this is just a fraction of the total number affected.”
“You mean there’s more than this?” Sarah asked, looking around the room. There had to be at least four hundred sarcophagi packed inside.
The colonel stopped by one of the caskets and looked at her.
“You and Robert have been incredibly lucky,” he said. “We’ve got four rooms like this filled already. We’re trying to control the spread, but more importantly we need to find a cure fast – before the virus reaches one of the major cities. If it does, we’ll be dealing with millions of people, not thousands.”
Sarah sensed he was building up to something. She decided to ask first. “What do you want from us?”
Colonel Moss smiled, approving of her directness. “We need your help. You and Robert are special, immune to the fall virus. Maybe you contain a cure for all this. We can stop more suffering and maybe we can bring Daniel and all the others back. We need to do tests… I can’t promise that it will be easy…”
