by S. Ganley
"Doctor, look." A nearby analyst who had joined the small crowd peering over their shoulders at the macabre scene on the screen pointed to the opposite side of the view from the severed head.
In the distance along the west bound lane of the road and just moving towards the very edge of the camera view they could see a group of figures moving away from the checkpoint. Dr. Woods thought he could make out close to twenty of them and there was no mistaking the significance of the matching uniforms each of them wore. They were seeing the reanimated remains of this National Guard unit that had only recently returned to the world of the undead and were now moving off in search of prey of their own. Even more disturbing was the sight of a man crawling along the asphalt some distance behind the group in the distance, he was partially hidden from sight by a thicket of tall grass along the median between the camera and his position, but as he pulled himself further into view they could just see that his left leg from the knee down was attached by only a thin ribbon of bloody gristle still attached to his body. Dragging along behind him at a right angle was the lower half of his leg with a length of shattered bone sticking out and kicking up pieces of gravel and road debris as it scraped across the asphalt. Dr. Woods turned off the monitor display, he had seen enough.
"Stream this feed directly to the situation room in the White House. If nothing else will get General Page's attention I hope that this will serve as a wakeup call to just how serious this situation actually is." He barked to one of the communication specialists in the crowd of silent onlookers behind him.
Chapter 12
By the time he finished at the mall and managed to fight through the crowds of shoppers in a nearby grocery store, it was already after seven and getting dark outside. He congratulated himself for getting through all of his shopping in a single day, after the news reports of a possible terrorist attack at Dulles Airport he had been correct in his assumption that stores would be even more crowded than usual for a Saturday afternoon and early evening. Even more depressing was the realization that he himself had been a contributor to the rush for supplies in light of the news stories. But, at least he had enough to fill his pantry and cupboards to keep him self-sufficient for a week or longer if they were hit with an apocalyptic style even any time soon. Milk and other perishables would run out in only a couple of days, but he had cases of bottled water, a half ton of cup o soup containers, ramen noodles, powdered this and powdered that, he could hunker down in relative comfort while the rest of the world fell apart if need be. Included in his camping gear was a nice collection of cooking supplies to include three large containers of propane to run his collapsible stove. He was lacking somewhat in the firearm department, his only weapon these days being an old but well maintained .30.06 Mossberg rifle for deer hunting and about a box and a half of shells. He had never prescribed much to the alarmist generation who went out of their way to prepare for the end of the world by stockpiling food and guns. Calvin on the other hand was his polar opposite when it came to thoughts of home style defense against what he considered to be an inevitable terrorist invasion of their homeland. He pictured a time when the streets of Washington, DC would be just as hostile as the cities and towns they had fought house to house battles in while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a First Sergeant he also had the benefit of being able to easily smuggle captured weapons and ammunition back to the United States from the battlefields he had served on overseas. Garrett was well aware of the weapons safe he kept in the far reaches of his walk in closet. Several AK-47 rifles along with handguns and cases of ammunition were just some of the toys that Calvin was proud of showing off from time to time.
He had called his old friend while driving from the mall to the grocery store to get the rest of the details on their activities the evening before after his own memory had failed him. As Garrett had expected, Calvin had scored with the cutest of the ladies they had been having drinks with at the reunion they crashed. Calvin couldn't even remember her name but he did tell Garrett that he planned to see her again that evening, she was coming back to his place for him to cook her some dinner and they were going to have a nice romantic night in. When Garrett asked Calvin to fill him in on the time he was foggy about, he had to suffer through a long and believable story about how he had end up getting slapped around by both ladies and then thrown out of the reunion after causing a scene when he had offered the ladies fifty bucks for a pair of blowjobs under the table. After Calvin had his fun, he told him that he had passed out on a couch in the lobby of the hotel and that he and his date had driven him home before going off to his house for some after-hours activities. When Garrett questioned him on who had risked the DUI by driving him home, Garrett told him that the girls had been leading them on somewhat about how drunk they actually were, with the exception of a glass of champagne they had been drinking virgin daiquiris throughout the evening. They had known from the onset that both of them were full of shit about having even gone to the same school with them but had played along because it was funny and they had liked both men on sight. Apparently the available men who were legitimate attendees of the reunion did little for them and they had welcomed the pair of party crashers.
Since Calvin already had his night planned for Saturday, Calvin decided to spend the evening sorting out his new wardrobe, ironing some shirts and watching a couple movies, he elected to stay away from the news for the time being. He could be a news junkie once he latched onto a story and the events of the last couple days were ripe avenues that could have him crawling all sorts of different channels and online news services until he had absorbed every nugget of available information. He convinced himself that it was something he could look into another day, for now his time was best served getting things in order for his first day of work bright and early Monday morning.
#
The field center mobile lab was purposefully constructed as a module arrangements to divide the levels of containment from low to high and to also allow the staff a method of destroying any single section by itself in the event of the release of a contagion that threatened the rest of the facility. The same module design that was intended to protect the scientific staff as well as the outside world from the work done there, now was working against the staff in a manner none of them could have anticipated.
Since the escape of the two zombie's from the observation wing they had increased their numbers to include three of the security staff and five others form the scientific side of the house. As the virus was passed from victim to victim its effectiveness in bringing each subsequent victim into the world of the undead was increasing, turnaround time had now reached a rate of just under two hours from bite to reanimation. The zombies that had now taken over a quarter of the field center had moved as far as they could before reaching the pressured sealed door leading into the level four containment portion of the lab. From there they would have easy access to the sleep compartments and other lower level labs that lacked pressure protected seals on their doors.
Shift change in the mobile center brought an unwelcome surprise to the five men and three women who were standing in the corridor just outside of the level five containment center ready to begin the autopsies on their two colleagues they had expected to find lying on cold metal tables at the far end of the section. When the locks to the doors disengaged, the relief crew was caught completely off guard when the doors swung back at them and they suddenly found themselves face to face with the vaguely familiar faces of their fellow team members. The vague familiarity was attributed to faces that had been ravaged with bite and claw wounds as well as the signature skin and eye discoloration typical of an undead following the reanimation process. Caught in the tight confines of the corridor between sections, the entire night crew lasted less than a minute against the snarling teeth and flailing fists of their former colleagues.
Lab assistant Amy Benson had been with the mobile team for the last four years, she was working on finishing her PhD and the experience she was gaining as a
member of this team ensured her a promotion to a section head at the CDC as soon as she finished her dissertation. That little promotion brought with it a hefty salary increase and some cushy perks that she was really looking forward to. Her preschool age twin daughters were also looking forward to the completion of her studies because along with her husband she had already told them of a planned week long Florida vacation immediately following her graduation and that trip included three solid days at Disney Land.
Amy liked the overnight shift while working the mobile lab, it meant less paperwork for administrators who tended to keep their speaker phones on from six in the morning until a little after six at night demanding updates and progress reports. Once the heavies went home for the night, the overnight teams were able to spend more of their time actually running their experiments and doing their jobs instead of answering questions and giving progress reports. She was currently part of the team breaking down the young female survivor’s blood serum as well as sequencing her DNA and searching for anomalies that could possibly explain her immunity to this virus. The problem they faced was that any number of combinations of DNA, RNA, blood, bone marrow, body composition, preexisting medical conditions or even body temperature could hold the key to what made her unique enough from the general population to be safe from the virus. It was so far beyond the proverbial needle in a haystack that she didn't even want to think of the odds against them finding the key. Now, if they had a couple more subjects who were also immune, their task would be much easier. Finding a unique set of conditions between two people who shared the same variable making them impervious to the virus would limit their search criteria. As it was they were left with just trial and error with samples from their lone subject against microscopic cells from victims infected with the virus. Arriving at her duty station, she skipped any preamble with the off going shift and went directly to the computer log to get caught up on work during the day so she could pick up right where they had left off. She was bent over the computer station already lost in the task at hand when the off going shift opened the airlock doorway into the corridor that would take them, and the samples they needed to store, into the level five section of the station.
She thought the scream was as a result of someone dropping something since she also heard a crash of equipment that accompanied it. Sitting in front of the computer screen her view towards that far airlock was partially blocked by tables and carts full of equipment. She was able to see several people from the waist down all of whom were wearing lab gear, security uniforms or biohazard suits, nothing that would raise any alarm bells with her. She was just turning back to the computer when more screams and crashing equipment reverberated from that end of the room. This time there no doubt that something was wrong, it sounded like a struggle of some type and those screams were not ones of surprise, she was sure she was hearing more than one person crying out in pure abject terror. Jumping to her feet she had to move several feet towards the opposite door in the room where she and the rest of her shift had entered the lab from their adjacent sleep and recovery room. She spotted several of her coworkers on the floor near the airlock door, they appeared to be locked in a struggle. It almost looked like a wrestling match but from the frantic movements of the bodies and the rapidly flying fists she could see that they were fighting each other for all they were worth. Amy noticed that there seemed to be several more of her coworkers involved in the struggling mass than had been with the day shift they had just relieved. From her side of the room it was hard for Amy to pick out any specific details about who was involved and what was going on. She continued moving closer to the doorway to get a better angle. That was when she noticed the shift supervisor from the off going shift standing just off to the side of the open airlock door, he was gesturing wildly with his hands towards one of the security cameras mounted on the wall just above the airlock. It appeared to Amy that he was trying to signal to the security trailer and whoever was on duty and monitoring the video. He couldn't see it from where he was standing so close to the camera, but Amy could tell by the dull color on the little red light on top of the camera that the unit had been powered off, when they were operating the red light would be glowing brightly. As she watched him continue to wave his arms in vain at the camera, a flash of movement off to his right caught her attention. Someone wearing a torn and stained lab coat rushed past the open airlock door and caught the shift supervisor in a straight on tackle sending him flying sideways where he slammed face first into the wall. The attacker stayed glued to him as his face bounced off the wall sending a spray of blood skyward from what Amy assumed was a nasty broken nose. As Amy watched, the man pressed his body hard against the back of the supervisor, pinning him tight against the wall, and dipped his head towards the man's clavicle. In one fluid motion she saw him pull back away from the shoulder while tearing free a mouthful of flesh and sinewy gore. The supervisor howled in pain and struggled hard against the pressure holding his steadfastly in place against wall. At that moment Amy caught a good look at the face of the man who had just chewed through the supervisors upper shoulder and she felt her body growing numb as she recognized him as one of the two scientists who had been killed early the following day. There had so far been no official details released to the staff about that incident, only that two of their colleagues had been killed, but rumor mill had it that the man who attacked them had somehow come back to life and jumped the scientists.
Amy realized the implications of what was happening, those things and the transmittable virus they were carrying could not be allowed to escape this mobile facility. With the cameras out of service the only alternative left for her was to hit the alarm button next to the door behind her to signal the rest of the field center that they had a containment breach. Turning back towards the door she spotted the large red button situated just above chest level on the wall and she sprinted across the back of the lab to reach it. Slamming the palm of her hand into the button she was rewarded with a cacophony of blaring sirens and flashing red strobe lights that would now be sounding off in all parts of the center and also visible as a general alarm on the computer screens at the CDC in Atlanta. The controls for carrying out lock down procedures could be accessed remotely from their Atlanta offices, this was a safety protocol built into the system in the event of complete loss of personnel at the field center. Unfortunately, with their cameras offline their remote monitors would also not be transmitting air quality results so anyone who picked up the alarm in Atlanta would have no idea of what their situation was here. Amy needed to get clear of this section and make her way to the information and computer section where she hoped to find the rest of their staff and she could get a message out to Atlanta.
Her attention had remained focused on the continued attack against the day shift supervisor and she had not noticed that her movements had caught the attention of two men who had taken down one of the day shift crew. Both men lost interest in the remains of the carcass they had been greedily tearing into and started making their way around the far side of the rooms towards her. Just a few feet short of reaching her, one of the men knocked a clipboard off a table as he rushed past, the sudden clattering caught Amy's attention and she spotted the men baring down on her. Almost without thinking, she took a lunging step backwards and into the open doorway as both men shot through the space she had just been occupying. As soon as she cleared the door she reached out with her left hand and stabbed the button to cycle the airlock and close the door. Her hand was just retreating from the button when she was grabbed along the forearm by one of the men who had just missed her a second earlier. With the airlock door already sliding shut the man could only reach partway into the corridor, but it was enough for him to lock his grip on her arm while yanking her hand towards his snapping teeth. Amy tried to fall backwards to the floor to break the man's grip, but he had her beat in body weight by at least a hundred pounds and his strength was much more than Amy had expected, he kept her on her feet but now off balance. Ca
ught halfway into her fall, Amy was easily pulled forward against the closing door and her hand was pulled up into the rapidly shrinking space between the door and wall. With a crunching bite that severed tissue and bone, Amy's attacker bit down hard on her index finger. She felt the bone crush and break under the powerful force of his jaw and a blinding pain shot up her arm. At that same instant the closing door slammed hard into the wrist of the man's hand still holding firmly onto Amy's forearm. With an audible crunch of breaking bone, the door pinned the wrist tight against the wall where it wedged the door open several inches short of sealing tight. With his wrist shattered his hand was no longer able to continue holding onto Amy and she dropped to the floor free of his grasp where she cradled her injured hand tight against her stomach as she convulsed and vomited from the excruciating pain.
#
When Amy Benson triggered the alarm at the mobile field center, several things happened automatically and at the same time. All of the doors leading out of the facility were bolted shut as thick magnetic tungsten rods were driven into each door from the adjoining wall, this ensured that no one could open the center and possibly release contaminated air into the surrounding atmosphere. Those locks could only be overridden from the Atlanta offices, this precaution was put in place in the event that staff within the mobile center panicked and tried to open an outer door. At the same time the doors were sealed, a signal was sent to the large boxy incinerator units mounted on the backs of the four tractor trailers used to transport the field center. Requirements for setting up the lab called for each trailer to be positioned in a star pattern surrounding the field center to put the incinerators on all four compass points and oriented inward towards the lab. The incinerators were fueled by tanks of compressed hydrogen peroxide which when triggered would be released through a trio of rigid hoses into focused chambers inside each unit, an igniter would then spark the gas which would be propelled from the back of the boxy unit into a jet of flame reaching out to a hundred and fifty feet. Burning at over 1400 degrees Fahrenheit, the four incinerator units were capable of reducing the entire field center as well as any contaminated substances to a pile of ash in less than twelve seconds. The process to fire off the incinerators could be started either at any of the four trailers holding the equipment or remotely from the CDC headquarters in Atlanta. The final thing that occurred when Amy pushed that alarm button was that indicators on the computer screens both in Atlanta and at the crisis center in DC would flash on the screen with a notification that an alarm had been activated within the center.
