by Greg Dragon
“I’m not leaving without you,” Louis said, watching Susan go back to the computer. Her fingers flew over the key board.
“My password overrides most codes because I’m Quitman’s assistant. I’ll follow you on the monitors and open safe exits. Drop the hammer on this place. Promise me, Louis.”
He grabbed Susan’s shoulder. “If it’s airborne, aren’t we already infected?”
“No, just the one pod was exposed. The lab has a firewall of separate air systems. Quitman made certain of it. It will take twenty-four hours for them to fail. Safe rooms will last for days.”
“There has to be a better way,” Louis said.
“I know Q’s codes,” Eddie Jean said. “He shared them in telep.”
“We all go or none do,” Louis said as Susan turned.
“You’re sure?” Susan asked Eddie Jean.
The kid nodded.
Susan said, “Notify the pilot to take us back to Charlottesville, Virginia.”
Eddie Jean watched her mother and sister pound on the glass.
“Wait, time out,” Louis yelled, holding up his hands like a referee.
Susan grabbed the backpack and tucked the pistol into her waistband in back. She flew up the ladder and said, “Eddie Jean can’t be infected, plus she has other skills we don’t have. Me, I want to live and bring this place down.”
Eddie Jean took Susan’s place on the computer. “Good luck.”
“Thanks for everything,” Susan said softly.
Louis asked, “How do you get out, Eddie Jean?”
Eddie Jean smiled at him. “Air vents.”
“Why don’t we all take the air vents?” he asked.
“They can’t take our combined weight,” Susan answered.
Peterson crashed against the glass. Louis didn’t want the same fate as Peterson. He wanted his freedom and to bring Ava to justice. He kissed Eddie Jean’s cheek and then climbed. Peterson redoubled his efforts and slammed harder into the wall.
“I can’t leave the kid,” Louis protested halfway. “I’ll go with her.”
“Have a little faith in me,” Eddie Jean said, glancing up at him. “Fifteen seconds.”
Louis nodded and finished the climb to the pod.
“Door opens in five, four, three, two, run!” Eddie Jean yelled.
Louis sprinted after Susan Cho.
Louis
Heart pounding, Louis wiped sweat from his face on his sleeve. Their escape from the Flameion lab had progressed without incident until they approached the last door. Eddie Jean hadn’t unlocked it yet. Behind them were screams, and ahead he heard sucking noises.
Swarmers were feeding on a living person. He never expected to hear such sounds and suspected he would be haunted for life. The snap of ripped flesh, the growling and lip smacking, and the grunts of pain scared the hell out of him. Louis kept his fingernails clenched into his fists to keep himself calm. For the first time, he understood the courage early man displayed when they hunted saber-toothed tigers with a spear.
Squatting in their tiny alcove where they were trapped, Louis fought his rising panic. Swarmers crowded into another corridor about thirty feet from the exit door. He guessed Eddie Jean had to decide if he and Susan were worth releasing a few creatures on her neighbors. Susan was on the verge of freaking out. She didn’t take her eyes off lights above the doors. He looked down and noticed her crossed fingers.
The sickly-sweet smell of burnt sugar made him lightheaded. A bright UV light exploded from overhead. The infected howled. He heard them stampede in their direction, and then water overhead erupted from the ceiling sprayers. He smelled astringent in the water. The Swarmers reversed direction. Swarmers disliked water, Louis guessed.
Susan yanked him to his feet. “Get ready. Run through the water!”
When the exit door opened, it squealed like metal bending in a car accident. Susan jumped out and fired two shots at one Swarmer. It had turned and charged despite the lights and water. Louis could see its skin smoking as it ran at them, growling. Louis slipped in the soapy mixture and fell to his knees. Water blinded him.
“Get out!” Susan ran past and outside.
Panting with fear, Louis tried to regain his footing as the creature neared. The human-like beast moved fast but slipped and went down, veering sideways. Its claws swept out, but Louis jumped to the side. Susan fired. He heard the bullets thud into its flesh.
Louis skidded outside with the Swarmer close. He locked eyes with Susan.
She stood in the firing stance and shouted at him.
Louis dove for the ground. Bullets rushed over his head, and the steel door snapped down on the Swarmer’s legs. He dug his fingers into the dry asphalt and pushed with his legs. Behind him the beast thrashed and grunted. Another shot rang out.
He ran another twenty feet before stopping. Louis didn’t want to get closer. He forced himself to walk back to Susan. She remained in firing position with the gun extended. The infected man’s brains had splattered on the door. A black ooze pooled like blood around the body. Louis forced himself closer. “That was close.”
Shaking, she didn’t reply.
Louis checked their rear. Not a soul or beast in sight. His eyes had trouble adjusting to the dark. “Hard to believe it was once a man.” He heard Susan hyperventilating. “Slow your breathing down before you get dizzy,” he warned her.
Susan took a deep gulp and focused her breathing. “He used to be known as Doctor Kyle Rivers, a neurologist. I thought he went home for a funeral.”
“The lie must be different on every level,” Louis said.
“It’s easy to be intrigued by a slide,” Susan answered. “By the time you see an actual infected person, you’re wrapped into the lie. I worked on the vaccine as much as Quitman. I’ve caused death.”
“I didn’t mean to suggest—”
She cut him off. “Of course you did.”
A sound like an unbalanced washing machine came from behind the steel door.
“They’re beating on the door in tempo?”
Susan nodded. “We call it pile-on behavior. They use their weight to crash through barriers. It’s a signal.” Susan tucked the revolver into her back waistband. “He didn’t drop until I shot him in the eye. Keep up!” She jogged to a sidewalk.
“Wait, he got close to me. Am I infected?”
Susan paused. “He had original Swarm because he had black eyes.”
Louis closed his eyes in relief.
“Let’s go.” Susan jogged down the sidewalk.
Louis kept his eyes on her back and followed after her, hoping he wouldn’t break an ankle. Once he crunched a dead bird under his shoe. He fixed his eyes on the ground to avoid another one. The poor things looked like pieces of black yard bags left on the ground. Louis stumbled on, but still couldn’t accept or comprehend the secret horror of Cloudland. He had to be in shock, or how else could he function?
Susan charged ahead like a thoroughbred in the final stretch when an outdoor alarm shrilled. The whoops deafened. She kicked open a pedestrian gate in the parking lot fence, and he caught up as she went through. “Gates are closing!”
She darted to a red and white Mini Cooper. Pulling the keys from a leg pocket, she unlocked the doors. Susan had cranked the engine and slammed the car in reverse before Louis shut his door. She stomped the gas pedal, and the car jumped forward. Louis wheezed and felt grateful to be alive. The alarm stopped, and he glanced back at the shadowed lab dug into a mountainside. “Not a light on.”
The car screamed toward the gate. Susan didn’t look right or left, she pushed in the clutch and shifted gears, making the engine whine. The Mini slipped through the gate seconds before they closed. Susan drove too fast for about three minutes down a dark road before she felt safe enough to stop the car. She put the car in neutral, got out, and threw up on the roadside.
He started to join her, but she gestured him to stay inside. Susan upchucked over and over. He kept his eyes on the road behind them
using the side mirror. No car lights. She staggered back and leaned against the hood.
He climbed out. “What’s wrong?”
Susan said, “We almost didn’t—”
“But we did make it.”
“Eddie Jean’s blood may hold the cure. I left that sweet kid behind.”
Louis frowned.
“Her grandfather poured the infected fluids on her body, in her eyes, made her swallow it, and he kept her inside a house with an infected person without a mask. She defeated it.”
His breath caught. Eddie Jean had been tortured by her relative at the same time Ava tortured him. They had shared betrayal pain. “She’ll get out. We didn’t have a choice, did we?”
Susan broke into hysterical laughter. “I deserved to die, not her. What have I done?”
“Die? You said she would escape.”
“We both lied to you so you’d leave.”
“What?” He could barely speak.
Susan brushed tears away. “I don’t know her reasons.”
Louis looked back at the mountain. “She’s a teenager.”
Susan opened the driver’s-side door and grabbed a tissue travel pack from the door pocket. “I hope you can forgive me.”
He shook his head. Louis could still feel the kid’s palms on his scalp. Susan passed him a tissue. He wiped his face and asked, “Is your family here?”
“No, I’m on a leave of absence from Vandy. I peeked at a Swarm slide at a convention, and I was hooked. I left my husband and son in Nashville without a second thought.”
“Should we call police and emergency workers?”
“Locals don’t answer calls here. We have to file federal charges to expose them.”
“The employee parking lot was full.”
Susan nodded. “We were in long-term parking. Most workers bike or walk to work from our housing units. I haven’t driven the Mini in over a week. We’re lucky it cranked.”
“Will off-duty employees notify the authorities?”
She shook her head. “We had our own first responders. No one will move until there is an all-clear signal. We’re used to Quitman’s unannounced drills. After Peterson got infected, I’ve been waiting for my escape chance.”
“Please don’t lie to me. You, Ava, and me are the only ones who know what really happened?”
“Yes.” Susan bit her lip. “When I checked the pod computer, I found where Ava muted warning buzzers. She implemented a plan and good people were trapped. Very few will make it into safe rooms, and most that do will die.”
“Why would Quitman or Ava expose innocent lab workers?”
Susan threw her hands up. “If the lab burns, the virus is controlled.”
“The Swarm virus comes out of the ground! You know burning the lab will only delay the inevitable.”
“Swarm 1 could be controlled, not Swarm 2. I agreed with Q’s decision.” Susan burst into tears. “I can’t be known as the mother of Swarmers.”
Louis patted her back until Susan stopped sobbing. “You people lost control long ago. What if pockets survive and contaminate rescuers?”
“Oh, God.”
He wiped sweat from his face. “What is the safe distance?”
“Ten feet for the airborne version. Symptoms showed up in minutes, according to Quitman. If Swarm 1 and Swarm 2 combine, who knows?”
“Is vomiting a symptom?”
She flinched and got into the driver’s seat. “No. Asthma-like symptoms, spiking fever, hideous skin boils, and then wild, flesh-eating rage.”
He got back in the Mini. “Do the UV light and disinfectants work?”
“They did for original Swarm. The new version is anyone’s guess.” Susan released the emergency brake and they rolled forward. “I know Quitman had a secret tunnel. He would come and go without using normal routes. I hope Eddie Jean finds his exit.”
“Me too. Should we leave or self isolate to determine if we’re infected?”
“Eddie Jean wouldn’t have let us out if she wasn’t sure. She’s lost her mother and sister, but her dad and brothers are out here. She knows the score. We’re clean.”
“If she refused to open the door would you have shot me?”
“In a heartbeat.”
He shuddered. “Tell me more about new Swarm.”
“A vaccine-related mutation, and the reason Peterson was contacted.” She shifted into second gear. “I saw fear for the first time in Quitman’s eyes. If new Swarm gets out...We’re talking a walking-dead scenario.”
Louis rubbed his temples. “Zombies? Hollywood hyperbole isn’t helpful.”
Susan snorted. “What did they look like to you? If it gets out, it’s lights out.”
The cool air cleared his head. “Eddie Jean claims a disaster or a jump in evolution is on the way. You’re describing a massive pandemic. Where’s the science?”
Susan stomped harder on the gas. “Science failed us, Louis.”
“Slow down!”
“I’m worried Ava will stop the flight. She left first.”
He clenched his fists. “Let her try.”
Susan glanced at him. “She’ll shoot you and make up a story.”
“I feel like we should help Eddie Jean. She’s all alone.”
“Eddie Jean is Quitman’s granddaughter. She’s smart and savvy. Quitman is charismatic but a psychopath. He never managed to contaminate Eddie Jean. She defied him but never embarrassed him. Her father molded her character, not him.”
“Let’s go back for her, Susan. If she’s the cure, her blood will tell the story much better than you or I.”
“You have no concept, do you? Quitman has a hit team and uses it for troublemakers like us. We need to get clear fast.”
“Will exposing him hurt Eddie Jean?” Louis wanted to believe she was safe and helping others like she did him. Miracles should be free.
Susan exhaled. “You must realize she’s not a normal teen, right? Eddie Jean wants him exposed even though she knows her hometown will be sealed forever in quarantine. She lied to her father to get him to leave.”
Louis rubbed his beard stubble. “I feel like a coward leaving her behind because of a whacko science project. She saved my life.”
“Science project?” Susan asked, fuming. “We thought we were on the verge of a miracle. For a brief moment, I thought we could control the immune system. Think about the implications—aging without disease. We were shocked by what transpired.”
“Shocked? Turn the car around.”
Susan wiped her eyes. “My ego blinded me. I thought I was doing good, not bringing down humanity.”
“You’ve never read Shelley’s Frankenstein?” Louis asked. “Turn around. Let’s go help Eddie Jean. You’re running away from your creation, and I’m running away from my fate. The right thing is to stay and make a difference here, at ground zero.”
Wilbur
Wilbur took a break. He had checked into a motel with wifi and started his search for answers after leaving Bev Cain’s house. He didn’t relish telling house help they could be disease carriers without having his facts straight.
Mitchell Cain kept good notes. Winn Harmon’s Land Rover had an antitheft unit with GPS attached. He’d received information from the company, and he’d tracked the students’ route with a red pen. Cain had interviewed the owners of the Autumn Inn, a bed and breakfast, where the students booked rooms their first night in town. No one knew their final destination.
Cain concluded they intended to hike on private land and kept it quiet. He marked the map with a black X—where he believed their incident occurred. Apparently, the private land had underground caves prone to flooding. The map gave Wilbur chills. Did Mitchell Cain go to the cave and die like the students? Could locals be involved in a cover-up?
Wilbur tried to understand the purpose of finding a cave. What could be inside? Liquor jugs from Prohibition? Buried treasure? He stood and jogged in place. Answers were either in correspondence between the students or in the jour
nal they found in the Duke library. His best bet would be to locate a family contact, but no one had answered his Facebook queries.
His room phone rang. Wilbur picked it up. “Jenkins.”
“It’s your lifeline calling. They won’t give me your room number.”
What did Lee want? “What happened to your party date?”
“You need me and I’m here.”
“Room 320.”
A minute later he opened the door for Lee. She carried a pizza box in her hands and her eyes scanned the room. “No girls?”
“Disappointed?” He locked the door.
“Nervous,” she said, sitting on the bed. “You didn’t come home. What happened?”
How could she know his actions?
He poured half his drink into a plastic cup for her. Her perfume saturated the room, and she looked gorgeous in a short skirt, knee boots, and a tight sweater.
He crammed a bite into his mouth while she watched. “Have a slice?” He pushed the pizza box over. “How did you find me?”
She shook her head and grabbed his arm to nibble on his slice. Her tiny teeth bit into the cheesy section. Lee sat back chewing with her eyes closed. After she swallowed she said, “Cookie’s friend saw you pull in and register. Who called you?”
He took another bite and chewed. She leaned over and he fed her off his slice. Funny how feeding her turned him on. “Someone with answers. I’m trying to tie up the loose ends. I’ve found out we’ve been exposed to a contagious disease.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Say what?”
He retrieved the death poster and balanced it beside the dresser mirror. “These people were exposed to Evaney Harwood. We’re carriers, but I think our O negative blood protects us.”
“How do you know I have…” Her fingers traced the death connections.
“Negative RhD blood is rare, but it’s super rare in blacks. Doc must have access to birth records or lab tests.”
“Birth records? I learned my blood type after a statewide appeal for black bone marrow donors. A preacher’s kid needed a donor, and she found one.”
