The End of America

by Pete Thorsen

  “Hi, John? Ray Miller here. Did you see that video that Will Renner took down in Guatemala?”

  “Yes he sent me DVD’s with a lot of video. I find it very hard to believe. I take it you have seen it also?”

  “Yes I did. But I want to fill you in on what happened next. I had a team doing some studies in Belize just a short distance from where Will shot that video. So I sent them over there to try to find that group of monkeys to prove or disprove that video.

  John my team was found BY those monkeys and the monkeys attacked and killed one of the field team and came close to killing all of them. The others only got away because the monkeys broke off the attack to feed on the dead team member.”

  “………………….”

  “John are you there?”

  “Ray this is a very poor joke.”

  “John you know me and this is no joke. Someone I know and I sent down there is now dead. How do you think that makes me feel?”

  “I’m sorry for your loss Ray but you can see how I’m having trouble believing this. Even though I know you are a good honest man.”

  “It is even weirder John. When I called Will and asked him for the location so I could send my team down there to check it out he warned me to tell the team that those monkeys were very aggressive.

  He knew they would be attacked I think but was afraid to come right out and say that. I think they had tried to attack him and he got away somehow but knew no one would believe his story.”

  “Have you told Dr. Renner what has happened to your team?”

  “I tried earlier but he did not come into his office today. I left a message for him to call me but so far I have heard nothing.”

  “We should try to get one of these monkeys to study.”

  “I don’t want to send any more people out to get hurt or killed, John. I’d like one to study but not if it will get any more people hurt trying to capture one.”

  “Have you talked to your remaining team members down there?”

  “I asked them to call when they feel up to it. They were all in pretty bad shape and in a hospital in Puerto Barrios. I’m going to have them come home as soon as they can make the trip.

  I’m not feeling very good about what happened to them even though I had passed on Will’s warning to them. I’m sure they did not believe it either until it happened.”

  “I would think the authorities down there will send someone out to retrieve the body. Ray call me back as soon as you get anymore information. I’m going to book a plane ticket and I’m going down there myself. I’ll hire some locals when I get down there and make sure some of them are armed.

  I’ll get us a sample to study, Ray. I have some good contacts with the government down there and have spent a fair amount of time down there. I’ll be careful but I think we have to get to the bottom of this mystery. I won’t be able to leave for a couple days. We will talk everyday and I will try to reach Dr. Renner also. We can not just leave this hanging. Something is very wrong and I am going to find some answers.”

  “Please be careful. I really don’t like the idea of you going down there but I agree we can not just leave it. We will talk more tomorrow. Maybe I will know more by then. Maybe Dr. Renner will come clean with what he knows when he finds out what happened to my team that I sent there. Thanks, John. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

  “Thanks for calling me Ray. We will see this through. Talk to you tomorrow.”

  I just feel drained. It did help to talk to John but I don’t want him to go down there. I don’t want anymore people getting hurt. I will talk to Renner tomorrow if I have to drive over there myself. I think this going to be a night when I get very little sleep.

  I was late getting in to the office today. I couldn’t get to sleep last night and when I finally did I way overslept. I had many things to do at the office and the Renner fiasco got shoved back until after lunch when I again called his office.

  “This is Dr. Miller. I called yesterday and I am still trying to reach Dr. Renner and it is quite urgent. Is he in?”

  “I remember you called yesterday Dr. Miller. We are pretty shook up here today. Dr. Renner is dead. It is totally unbelievable but he was actually shot by police just a couple hours ago.”

  “Dr. Renner was shot by the police? Will Renner?”

  “We can hardly believe it either, Dr. Miller. It makes no sense at all.”

  “Thank you. I’ll let you go and I’m sorry for your loss.”

  Will shot by the police, that is just too hard to believe. I decided I would drive over there and try to find out exactly what on earth was going on but first I will call John with this disturbing news.

  “John, Ray here, Dr. Renner is dead! He was supposedly shot by police just a few hours ago.”

  “You’re sure of this information?”

  “I just talked with his secretary minutes ago.”

  “This has to be tied in with the monkey business. Two bizarre events that are unbelievable have to be tied together.”

  “I’m driving over there as soon as I get off the phone. I emailed you my cell number and we must relay any information either of us gets. My email goes to my phone also.”

  “Do you know which hospital your men were taken to in Guatemala?”

  “Yes but I will have to look it up. I’ll email the info to you before I leave the office. But my men were pretty badly hurt.”

  “I will not talk to them but I’ll try to get some information from the staff down there. What I’m wondering is if any of the locals have been attacked also.

  Plus if this is caused by some disease or something the locals might be showing some kind of symptoms by now. I don’t know, I’m just thinking different scenarios out loud.”

  “Obviously we might have to think ‘outside the box’ to solve this. I’m leaving but we must stay in touch. Stuff seems to be happening very quickly.”

  “I fully agree Doctor. I’ll talk to you later today.”

  It only took a minute to find the hospital information to send to John. When I opened my email there was a message from John with his personal cell number which I entered into my phone right away. On the way driving into Boston I tried to decide how I was going to get any information about what really happened to Will. The police would give me no information at all I’m sure.

  And it was hard to say what info the media would have and if that info was accurate. I decided to drive directly to Will’s place. I had met him there once when we went to a meeting together last year.

  As expected there was a hundred police everywhere near his place so I just parked a couple blocks away and walked up. First I joined the crowd of ‘lookers’ and listened and asked a few questions as I mingled with the crowd.

  When I heard that the Will had supposedly killed and was eating his cleaning lady I went up one of the many policemen around the perimeter.

  “Excuse me Officer. I think I should talk to one of those in charge. I’m Dr. Miller, a colleague of Dr. Renner and I have some serious information to give to whoever is in charge here.”

  The officer asked for my credentials and when he saw that I was indeed a doctor he granted me entrance. We walked up closer to Will’s house but did not enter and he told me to wait right here and even had another policeman stay with me to obviously keep an eye on me. A few minutes later the officer returned with a rather portly man in a cheap rumpled suit who started asking me questions.

  “How do you know Renner?”

  “We are colleagues working together on a project (a half-truth).”

  “When did you last see him?”

  “Several months ago. But we have been in contact often (another half-truth).”

  “If you are working together why have you not seen him for several months?”

  “Dr. Renner just returned from a three month stay in Guatemala where he was doing field research.”

  “Doctor why don’t you just tell me what information you have that you think is important to this investigati
on or if you are just wasting my valuable time.”

  “Dr. Renner was studying why very docile monkeys were all at once turning very violent and were becoming cannibals. We suspect that it may be caused by a possible virus. That’s all I have. Good day to you sir.”

  I turned as if to leave but the Detective stopped me immediately.

  “Don’t even think about leaving here Doctor. Do you actually think this man had a virus that caused him to turn violent?”

  “I don’t know. We are just barely starting this research and a virus is only one possibility and that hypothesis only came up today. I am not a virologist and neither was Dr. Renner. We study behavior.

  But if I was doing this investigation I would likely be very careful about the possible virus angle and take precautions on the off chance that this was caused by an as yet unidentified communicable disease. As I said this is very far from my area of expertise. I only came here to relate a possible theory that could very well be way off base and have no bearing what-so-ever in your investigation.

  You now know the whole extent of what I know now. I can not think of any further information that I have. While we were colleagues we obviously did not work very closely together but we did speak to each other and shared information with each other. I have no other information at all to give you.”

  “OK Doctor. We’ll get all your contact information and we will be contacting you again. I just have one more question. If I asked you come into his house and look around would you do so at this time?”

  “Only if you and several other officers dragged me in there after the fight we would have.”

  “Thank you, this officer will get all your information.”

  After again talking to the same officer who got all my information including looking my identification again I was allowed to leave. When I got back to my car I called John to relay what information I had found out about Will.

  “John, I just talked to the police at Will’s house. He supposedly attacked and killed his housekeeper and was eating her.”

  “Ray, I just got off the phone with several different people down in Guatemala and what you just told me is not all that surprising anymore. It seems that they are having quite a problem down there with people attacking other people and eating them or at least trying to.

  And I have canceled my plane tickets and will not be flying down there. There are many reports of howler monkeys attacking local people also. This is too big and we are already too late. I can only hope that Dr. Renner did not bring whatever is down there up here to the United States.”

  “Do you have any contacts at the CDC?”

  “Not really but I will contact them. Do you know anyone there? It would speed things up if we knew someone.”

  “Let me contact them John. I have a friend of a friend that works there. It’s better than nothing and might get the ball rolling faster. Send me whatever contact information you have from down in Guatemala that you think might help with their investigation if they start one.”

  “Will do. It will be in your inbox shortly. Ah Ray you did not get too close to Dr. Renner’s place did you?”

  “No I was already scared before I just talked to you and stayed well back.”

  “That’s good. Stay in touch.”

  “Thanks John.”

  It took me some time to find contact information on Dr. Lynn Bates but I did find it and though it was very late in the afternoon I gave her a quick call (I did not have her email just her office number) with the hope she would still be in her office.

  “Dr. Bates this is Dr. Ray Miller. We met once through our mutual friend Mary Winters. The reason for this call is because through my specialty field of behavioral science I have come across a serious problem that I believe might be a viral outbreak of immediate concern. Could I have your email address to send you some information?”

  “Where is this located and is it just animals or humans?”

  “It is or at least started in Guatemala and it started I think in the population of Guatemalan Howler monkeys but it appears to have moved on to infect humans. Please let me send you everything I have. I freely admit I’m totally out of my area talking about a possible virus but I am very concerned and that is why I contacted you.”

  “OK doctor you have my total interest on this. Send me what you have and I promise to look it over today.”

  “Thank you for taking my call Doctor and I’ll send the info as soon as I hang up. I do think it is urgent and I would really appreciate if you would keep me in the loop either way if you think it is something or if you think it is nothing.”

  “I’ll not be shy of giving you my view either way. I’m looking forward to going over your information.”

  “Thanks again and I hope to hear from you soon.”

  I had already prepared everything I had with this situation grouping and separating what I considered facts and what I considered speculation on my part while including both in the information I sent. I also included contact information for myself of course and for Dr. Holland so she could get another opinion on the monkey behavior.

  Included was the phone number of the hospital and police department in the town of Puerto Barrios. Also included was the bizarre behavior and subsequent death of Dr. Renner in Boston. I sent it right away and only hoped that she would look it over right away and was not just trying to get rid of me on the phone by telling me what I wanted to hear.

  I gave her my personal cell phone number and told her she could call no matter the time of day or night. I had also given her the name and number of the Detective investigating Dr. Renner. The detective had given me one of his cards before I left there.

  I had a lot of work to do in my office but I felt drained and it was well past quitting time so I left and headed home. For one of the first times I was glad I was not married with kids, I was thinking this situation could turn out to be very bad and I was glad I had no family to worry about. I had supper on the way home and went to bed shortly after getting home.

  Chapter Six

  I was in my office in the afternoon trying diligently to catch up on the work that I had neglected the last few days when I got the call from Dr. Bates.

  “Dr. Miller this is Lynn Bates.”

  “Thank you for calling Dr. Bates. Please just call me Ray.”

  “I have gone over your information and have made a large amount of phone calls since we talked yesterday. I’ll tell you right now that I share your concern about this and I am doing what I can to get the CDC to launch a full inquiry and investigation.

  So you and I are on the same page on this issue but unfortunately so far those above me do not see any urgency at this time. I was unable to get them to do anything right now. I did talk to the corner’s office in Boston and voiced a concern to them about a possible virus that could have infected Dr. Renner and urged them to at least take some precautions. I tried to get them to send me a blood sample but because I did not go through all the proper channels at this point they have refused to do so.”

  “I see, so you are beating the drum but no one is listening. Does that about sum it up.”

  “Yes I would say that is exactly the situation right now.”

  “Thank you calling me Dr. Bates and thank you for your efforts. At this point I don’t know what else I can do to pursue this.”

  “Please call me Lynn. I can not really do anything else here except try to monitor any progress in Guatemala and if things get bad enough there maybe send that new information up the ladder here to see if they will start a full investigation. Don’t hesitate to call me if there are any more developments that you hear about. I sent you my personal cell phone number.”

  “Thanks for everything you did. I’ll definitely call you if I have anything else.”

  It was a let down but not really surprising. The wheels of bureaucracy always turned very slow and resisted any change from the norm. At least Lynn was in agreement with John and me, so now we were three.

&nb
sp; It was maybe a week later when I received a phone call from the Detective.

  “How can I help you, detective?”

  “We have had two deaths here. One yesterday and one this morning. In both cases the killer was found eating the victim.”

  “Are the killers still alive and do you have them in custody?”

  “One was killed by the arresting officers and the other is under guard in a hospital.”

  “Please tell me that the one alive is under quarantine.”

  “You and I are the Lone Rangers on that score. No one wants to hear anything about a ‘cannibal virus’.”

  “I have a contact at the CDC that is aware of this situation and is on our side completely but she is the Lone Ranger in that organization. Let me give you her number. She will be very interested in talking to you.”

  “The information I just gave you is confidential Doctor please don’t spread it around. I’ll give this lady a call. Maybe she can help us all.”

  “You can trust me with the info Detective and I’ll personally vouch for Dr. Bates. If there is anything I can do to help you call me straight away. I think you are going to be very busy Detective. By this time I fear the contagion has spread and we know nothing at all about it.

  There are only us four people that even have a clue something is wrong. I will tell you that in Guatemala where this started they are in dire straits with an unknown outbreak. ”

  “Thanks for cheering me up Doctor. I hope this Dr. Bates can help. Thank you for your time.”

  What we feared is happening just as we thought. I called John.

  “John there are two more cannibals in Boston. It is here as we both feared.”

  “How did you hear that? I saw nothing on the news about it and I have been watching like a hawk.”

  “The detective I talked to at Will Renner’s place just called. He is going to call Dr. Bates at the CDC right now. The police killed one of the cannibals but have the other under guard at a hospital. But not under quarantine.”

  “It will spread faster now. Everyday there will be more and more carriers. Plus you can assume it is spreading outward from Guatemala as we speak also. We don’t even know how it spreads or anything. Containment odds are poor at this point I think.”