by David Peters
“I’m not hammering on you, John. Why the hell did Doc have them brought inside the town?” Dylan grabbed his rifle from next to the door and jogged in the direction of the Quarantine hut. Standard procedure was to never allow the bitten into the compound. No exceptions under any circumstances were ever to be made, even if it were himself that had the bite. Dylan mumbled under his breath as he ran, “Someone has just made one of the dumbest damn mistakes of their life.”
Once bitten, there was no cure. Once the infection had taken place, there was no way to stop the change from happening. More often than not, when people were caught alone, they would change into Hunters, but larger groups tended to shift into the Sappers. The latter was a horrible change, people rapidly became bloated and twisted out of shape as they were turned into walking bombs. Clothing would tear off of the body as the core filled with two large sacks filled with viscous fluids that ignited on contact.
His boots pounded angrily across the wooden boardwalk. He burst through the door of the medical building with his rifle at the ready, “Rumor has it someone brought a live damn ‘Rupt into our town. I need to know where and why and I need to know it yesterday! Everyone in this town knows doing that could kill us all before we even knew it was happening! If someone is turning I want them outside the walls right now!” He worked the action on his gun chambering a round as he started toward the rear quarantine room.
Doc held up his hands, “Please, Dylan, I can explain. Please, just calm down. Give me a minute!”
“Explain what? That you brought the worst thing to ever hit mankind into our homes while the town was sleeping? That you just bypassed every defense we have by allowing these things in here? What kind of bullshit experiment is this?”
“Dylan, please lower your rifle and let me explain,” there was a sound of fear on the edge of Doc’s words. “You are really starting to scare me and there simply isn’t this much need for concern. Let me explain what is happening. If you are still that concerned, then I will need to come up with something else. I can move my facilities outside the wall if need be.”
Dylan didn’t lower his gun, “The only explanation there is going to be is you apologizing to the cleanup crews for the mess I’m about to make back there. I can smell the damn thing from here!”
“You can’t kill them, Dylan!”
“Them? You brought more than one in here? What the hell is wrong with you? Give me one good reason not to kill them and run your ass out of town! Tell me why in the hell not? They are already dead! Whatever made them human is gone!”
“Because I think I have figured out how to reverse the infection, or at least halt the change.”
Dylan stopped cold and stared at the Doc. A chill ran down the back of his neck, “Explain this to me real slow, Doc. Don’t leave out the part where you tell me why this has never, not once, come up at a town meeting or even brought up in a private conversation. Not one single mention.” Dylan leaned in close and pointed at the Doc’s chest, “I’m really starting to feel left out of the decision making process around here and it’s pissing me off.”
“I will explain it all, just put down your weapon, please. I understand your anger and things aren’t as they appear.”
Dylan removed the round from the chamber and slung the rifle over his shoulder, “Better?”
“Very much so, thank you. First I want you to see what Travis and I have been working on.”
Doc led Dylan into the back room. Travis was leaning against a wall watching the two people. Both were heavily bound to the beds.
“Mornin’, Boss,” Travis said quietly. It was obvious that he could hear the yelling in the outer room and wanted no part of Dylan’s wrath.
“When the hell do you sleep, Travis? And why doesn’t it surprise me that you are somehow involved in this?”
“Doc had some questions, some ideas, and he needed a few things engineered and built. He wasn’t sure how to get it done and knew I could be,” he paused as he looked for the word, “creative. It’s what I do. As far as sleeping, I can do that when I die.”
He looked over the young man’s shoulder. Two bodies were covered with blankets up to their chests but he could tell they were secured to the metal frames with something, “What did you tie them down with?”
“We still have a lot of that flatbed left out near the pump house. I took the tie-downs off and mounted them to the side of the bed. Pulled them tight with a crowbar, could probably bust the person before you busted the bed. Either way, no human or ‘Rupt is ever tearing through those straps.”
“I’ll take your word for it. Now tell me why this was done in such secrecy then explain what the hell it is you have done. I don’t like the fact that this was set up in such secrecy. It feels a little dishonest and downright sneaky. That just isn’t how things should work around here.”
Doc cleared his throat, “I have been working on an antidote for some time. I had hypothesized that I could make a derivative of the Dust and use it to kill the pathogens in a Human. My main concern was how the Human body would react to the change. I don’t know enough about the specifics of how the change occurs on a large scale cellular level but I have my theories. I have had the first batch to test for about a month now but no one to test it on. I didn’t want to give the town any false hopes so I kept it to myself. Even Travis didn’t know what was going on until this morning. People are looking for any thread of hope and if word of this got out before it was ready, and it failed? I can’t imagine what that would do to morale.”
“Any reason you couldn’t let me in on it?”
“Dylan, you have enough to worry about and the last thing I wanted you to do was get bitten simply to test the serum. I know how you work. At his point the only thing I really didn’t let you in on was a theory. The instant I had an opportunity to test it I notified you. Honestly, I was not trying to go around you. We all have a lot to do and very few resources at our disposal to get it done. Everyone in town knows you only get four hours of sleep as it is.”
Dylan was slowly calming down but it would take some time before his temper faded, “I’ll try not to get too offended by that, next time, loop me in. I need to know these things before they happen. I could have helped you coordinate this entire thing a little better, a little safer. The wall guards know at least one of these people has been bitten, they could smell him when he was carried in here. Word will spread. You may want to get on with your test before a mob shows up and burns this place down around us.”
“They wouldn’t burn this place down, would they?”
Dylan looked at the doctor, “You know how I feel about it. I can think of quite a few others that may not want to wait to hear your plan out. They’ll just want to make sure whatever infected person was brought into the camp is dead before they have a chance to turn fully and start the carnage.”
“You’re right, I’ll get to work. I could use your help with the other two. They are both severely dehydrated but resting comfortably. I think they may have gotten something from one of the creeks they drank from.
Dylan turned to Travis, “Get Caperson here, Jen too. Try not to draw too much attention to yourself. Stop by my cabin and loop Niccole in too.”
“On it, Boss,” he said over his shoulder as he dashed out the door.
“This was very difficult to synthesize. The Dust itself is filled with impurities and I don’t have the proper machinery to spin it down. I have to do it by hand and it is terribly painstaking. I could really use a centrifuge if you happen to find one somewhere. Anything that would allow me to sort out the larger impurities and get the fine components of the true Dust would go a long ways to making this better.”
“I wouldn’t know where to get one a decade ago, Doc. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t know where to find one today.”
Doc smiled, “Doesn’t hurt to hope. Anyway, I did it manually then converted it to a liquid using medical grade alcohol and a modified saline solution. I still have a large quantity of the puri
fied Dust on hand, so if this works...”
“Let’s hold off on the ‘if it works’ for now. Let’s stick with what your running theory is. If this can halt the infection, it’s a move in the right direction. I’m not holding out for a cure just yet but being dead as a person beats being dead as a ‘Rupt.”
“A very sound plan, Dylan. I shall get the ball rolling.” Doc rolled a small cart into the room.
On the bed nearest to him there was a man that appeared to be in his late twenties and already showing signs of the bite. His skin was turning black and leather-like around his neck and shoulders. His eyes were barely open showing fully dilated pupils. The smell was horrible. The second victim was a woman in her late forties and looked as if she were bitten about the same time as the man. Her hair was lying in small clumps around her head and the visible portions of her head were a dark black.
“These two don’t look like they were bitten that long ago. Do you have any idea, exactly how long ago it was?”
“If I had to venture a guess, I would say six to eight hours. At least for him, I think she might have been bitten shortly before him or received a heavier dose of the toxin. Why do you ask?”
“You said they were on foot so that means they were attacked somewhere nearby. It means that we have active Hunters somewhere around town.”
Doc raised his eyebrows, “I guess that thought didn’t occur to me.”
“That thought always occurs to me. Is there anything I can do to assist you with this?”
“Most of the work is already done, now it is just observations. I have administered what I believe to be the correct dosage. In the very least we should see it react with the Corruption.”
Dylan heard the front door open and close.
“Done, Boss. Both Cap-Cap and Jen will be here shortly. I think they are both ready to shoot on sight. Man, you older folks are wound kind of tight.”
Dylan just laughed quietly.
There was a loud ruckus at the door as Caperson and Jen rushed in with weapons ready, “Word is you have a Corrupted in here.”
Dylan nodded, “Been over it, let me save you some time and a few points on your blood pressure. Go ahead and put the weapons down, these two are damn near bolted to the bed frame so they aren’t going anywhere. Besides, Doc thinks he has a cure for the Corruption.”
Caperson’s jaw dropped, “You have got to be shitting me.”
“I am, in fact, not shitting you. Doc here seems to have the impression that this Dust is borderline magic.”
Doc stepped out of the back room and removed his rubber gloves, “I have administered a single dose to the male. Point five CC’s of the refined Dust via injection into his thigh. Now all we can do is wait for the results.”
“Why didn’t you do both of them?”
“For a number of reasons actually, the female will progress normally so this will show us if the serum slows down the advance if it doesn’t. Also, if there is an adverse reaction, we will have some idea that it was caused by me and not some other unknown that may have been introduced. She is the best I could do for a control subject.”
Travis called out from the back room, “Doc, you need to get in here. Something is seriously wrong with this dude. He’s, like, shaking really bad.”
Doc rushed back into the small room and lowered the covers. The man did not look well. His right arm and his leg below the knee were turning very dark blue, almost purple. It gave the illusion that there was a tourniquet in place on both.
“What’s wrong with his hands, Doc? Is he having a seizure of some kind?”
Doc hung his head, “I was afraid of this. I thought removing the impurities would allow the Dust to dilute into the system but it appears the reaction to fluids is a component of the Dust and not one of the impurities.”
“Can you give that to us in layman’s terms, Doc?” Caperson asked.
Travis interjected, “The Dust is clumpy. It’s clumpy in water and it’s clumpy in blood. Human body is too good with clumps of anything in the blood.”
Doc nodded, “Yes, that about sums it up.”
Travis nodded, “Same problem I have been having with it all along, stuff just doesn’t like moisture much. It cakes like mad. You could probably fix it if we had some Sodium Aluminosilicate.”
Dylan frowned at him.
“Sorry, it’s just a common anticaking agent, dude. Do you old guys read the labels on anything you used to eat?”
“I think that it is forming clumps in this man’s body and causing thrombophlebitis. Same thing blood clots will do. Eventually this will lead to a pulmonary embolism, or if one of these clots reaches his brain he will suffer a stroke and die. There is nothing I can do to save him. This was a risk I took. The Dust will not work for this. I’m sorry. I really thought I had it figured out.”
Dylan looked away from the man, “So there is no way to make this work? What about that sodium whatever-the-hell-it-was? Can we make that? Is there somewhere we could get it?”
Doc shook his head, “That couldn’t be used for an internal composition like this. It would work fine for other applications, but not in this case. I just don’t see any way to get this into the system without risking the clumping. Maybe if we could feed it through an IV, but the prolonged time it would take to safely administer it would be longer than it would take for the person to make the change. It would probably just kill them more slowly.”
Travis looked down at the floor and rocked back and forth slowly as he thought. He snapped his fingers quietly in a beat as he was lost in thought.
“Is everything okay, Travis?” Dylan asked with concern.
Travis held up his finger as if asking for silence and continued to rock back and forth as he thought. He tilted his head slightly as he drummed his fingers on his thighs. He paced several times back and forth in front of them before he stopped and looked at the Doc, “So I have been playing with doing a double grind on the Dust. I can actually get it fine enough to use in a sprayer, it’s pretty awesome. How fine is your pure stuff, Doc?”
Doc looked at him, unsure where he was going with it, “It’s finer than Talcum powder, so pretty fine. I don’t know the exact granule size. Maybe if you let me in on where you are going with this I could help you.”
Travis nodded for another moment, “Give me three minutes, dudes. Oh, and dudette, sorry.” Without another word, the young man darted out the front door into the darkness.
Dylan looked at the others in the room, “What in the hell was that about?”
Jen smiled, “I’m guessing we’ll find out in about two minutes and fifty-five seconds.”
Travis returned with a red bag. The outside of which was marked with the large white cross of a first aid symbol, “This was in one of the rigs, noticed it a while back but didn’t think much of it at the time. I just kind of tucked it away for future use. It has this manual respirator with a connector for oxygen.” He held up a rather plain looking thick plastic bottle with a mouth covering attached to the face for Doc to see.
Doc started nodding and smiled as he understood, “And you have no medical background at all?”
“No way, dude, I just make stuff that pops into my head. Mostly stuff that blows up but every now and then I let my mind wander.”
“Care to clue the rest of us in?”
Doc and Travis spoke in unison, “Breathe the Dust in.”
Doc nodded as he continued, “I had it all wrong.”
~7~
It took nearly an hour to work the kinks out of the jury-rigged system but they were finally able to test it on the woman.
“So how much Dust do we give her Doc?” Travis asked.
“No more than a gram at maximum, and we should supply it in a slow feed.”
Travis removed a small amount from the canister and placed it in the breathing receptacle.
Dylan raised an eyebrow, “How is it you are so sure that’s a gram of Dust? Shouldn’t you weigh it or something?”
Trav
is looked insulted, “All of my measurements for the Dust systems and weapons are done in ten gram allotments, I have done it a few thousand times, it’s pretty much second nature to me at this point.”
“Oh,” Dylan said apologetically, “sorry, had a few negative thoughts there for a moment.”
Several of the people watching the conversation laughed uncomfortably.
Doc gave the bag a slow, measured squeeze. The blue dust swirled around inside the mask creating a light-blue fog. The woman coughed weakly then lay still. Several tremors moved through her body. Doc gave another slow squeeze of the bag. The woman’s eyelids opened rapidly but there was nothing but blackness. She looked around confused for several moments as she tried to understand where she was. She attempted to lift her arms but found them restrained. Her struggling became more violent as she fought to free her arms from the heavy straps. With a final attempt to push her entire body free, she became motionless.
“There isn’t much more we can do other than wait. I think the initial dosage may be a little high. At this point my primary concern is how her body will recover from the reverse change. We can only wait and see. To be honest I don’t know if reversal is even possible.”
Dylan stood and grabbed his coat, “I’m heading back to my cabin to get some tea. There is no way I’m going back to sleep tonight. You folks are welcome to join me. I want to make sure we get someone posted at the door, I still feel weird about having these,” he hesitated, were they people now? Corrupted? He couldn’t find the words, “Let’s just say I want someone standing nearby with a weapon.”
Doc nodded, “I can’t argue with you, just make sure they aren’t too trigger happy.”
~8~
It had been nearly three hours when Doc’s light knocking on the door roused Dylan. He had dozed off in his living room chair as he was thumbing through the final reports Erica had submitted several days earlier while Niccole sat on the couch looking through radio logs from other shifts.
