by SD Tanner
Everyone in the room looked at Lydia as the truth of what she said sunk in.
‘I’m finding fewer and fewer groups of survivors,’ TL observed. ‘Maybe we need to step up the survivor runs.’
He shook his head and said, ‘Ya’d need to go out for longer to go further and that adds risk. We can do it, but I’d rather change the dynamic.’ He turned to Pax and said, ‘We need a pilot and one way or another we need to come back from Major major asshole’s base with a bird.’
Pax frowned at him and said doubtfully, ‘What if they turn out to be legit army?’
He was with Pax on this subject. He didn’t believe for one minute these guys were army, and even if they were, they were probably running renegade themselves. Narrowing his eyes, he said firmly, ‘If that turns out to be true, Pax, then I’ll liberate myself from the army before I liberate the bird.’
Shaking his head at the pair of them, TL said, ‘You better hope we’ve got a pilot on the Base.’ Then he grinned and added. ‘But a bird would change everything.’
He turned back to the team and asked, ‘Anythin’ else for today?’
Pax said, ‘Ya should know we lost Jimmy earlier this week. He was killed by a hunter while savin’ a survivor.’
Everyone at the table looked genuinely sorry to hear about the loss. They might not have really known the man, but he was one of their own. Ip who appeared to be ignoring the briefing was now watching them closely and he wondered if she detected the sudden shift in mood.
For all his bravado, Pax took the loss of his people hard. He knew Pax hid behind an almost psychopathic self-image, but the real Pax cared deeply about his people. Turning to his brother, he said with genuine regret, ‘Sorry to hear that, Pax.’
The four of them remained seated as people left the room to get on with their day. Pax hadn’t moved and he figured he wanted to talk to them privately. He stretched and leaned back in his chair and prepared himself for an onslaught about something. Pax never pulled them aside to talk about the weather.
Once everyone left, Pax turned to them and said angrily, ‘Major major asshole proves a point I’ve been tryin’ to get through to ya knuckleheads for months. We’re makin’ ourselves a target. We don’t have the resources to defend ourselves, we have no ability to get ‘em and, if what that doc says is true, we’re runnin’ out of time to get ‘em. The problem here is not what we’re doin’ on a day-to-day basis. We know how to do this shit as well as anyone, but this mission is impossible. We’re gonna die defendin’ an impossible mission! We need to reconsider our objectives!’
TL glared at his brother and asked intensely, ‘Maybe this is an impossible mission, Pax, but what do you want to do? Head for the hills? Save your own ass? Live your life alone isolated from the world?’
Snorting at TL, Pax exclaimed, ‘What fuckin’ world?’
Ignoring his interruption, TL continued with the same intensity, ‘Shut up and listen. We have an obligation to help people. It’s our job. It may get us killed, but it’s what we do. A country is only as strong as its people, Pax, and our people are weak right now. We gotta step up and help them get stronger any way we can, even if it costs us.’
Pax rolled his eyes at TL and spat, ‘You’re a true believer, TL! Always have been. You’ve got no fuckin’ sense in ya.’
Thinking it was time to intervene before the argument disintegrated into nothing more than name calling, he leaned forward in his chair and put his elbows on the table. He knew them too well to be lit up by their anger and he said steadily, ‘Right now it feels like we’re pushin’ shit up a hill and we are, but this game changes fast. I dunno what’ll happen tomorrow, but I do know it only takes one small change and we got a whole different dynamic and that dynamic might be better. I don’t wanna write off the whole world forever jus’ ‘cos it looks kinda crappy today.’
Neither Pax nor TL spoke and he continued, ‘We might be on the same mission, but we’re not doin’ it for the same reasons. TL, you’re always a true believer. I always wanna take control of the game. Pax, ya love your brothers. Ya might not always agree with us, but you’re never gonna walk away from us.’ Hearing the truth in what he said he watched them both visibly relax.
Now looking petulant, Pax grumbled, ‘Why do you two always gotta be on some crazy assed run?’
He laughed and replied, ‘When are ya gonna accept you’re always comin’ for the ride, even if it’s jus’ so you can screw with us every step of the way?’
Pax and TL began to laugh and TL said, ‘It’s true, Pax. You live to fuck up our fun! You’re such an asshole.’
TL’s insult made Pax laugh harder and he gurgled, ‘That is the consensus this week.’ Becoming sober, he said unhappily, ‘Last person who called me asshole was Blonde Distraction.’
TL stopped laughing and asked, ‘Who’s Blonde Distraction?’
Pax rolled his eyes and as they lolled in the uncomfortable and dirty office chairs, he filled them in on his latest romantic disaster.
***
Ip thinks: I hear many whispers in my mind. They tell me I am their kind.
Ip speaks: Who are you that whisper near?
Unknown voice: I am you and you are me.
Ip speaks: What do you say? You speak no sense. Go away.
Unknown voice: We are you and you are us.
Ip thinks: I do not like what I hear. This whisper is new to my ear. I do not want to listen here. I will close my mind and my ear.
CHAPTER NINE: With truth comes the past (TL)
Arriving at the CDC, he saw a low single-story unremarkable looking building set back from a road that was little more than a graveled one-lane track. Although not exactly hidden, he doubted anyone would find the building unintentionally and it was the very definition of “hiding in plain sight”. The windows of the building were a block of white and it looked like the blinds were permanently closed. The entranceway was open, but the interior of the building was deep and dark and they stood a good ten yards away for safety. There was no obvious sign of movement or sound from within.
Turning to the scavenger team, he said, ‘Let’s get Ip in there.’ With a quick glance at Lydia, he added, ‘Lydia, you should stay well back.’
Looking around for Ip, he was surprised to see she was already standing inside the entrance. She knows the drill, he thought. Ip always seemed to enjoy hunting hunters. They died so easily at her hand, he didn’t see how it was much sport for her, but she was always happy to hunt them. Whenever, she hunted for them, they would scatter anywhere to avoid her and that included running into the daylight. Shooters would be outside waiting for any errant hunters as they fled for safety from Ip.
He looked to the two scavengers and said, ‘Lock and load. Let’s have some fun.’
Both scavengers hooted, ‘Let’s get some.’
Several hunters were already running out of the building and, as they came out into the daylight, they staggered, clearly unable to see where they were going. Although a yellowy tan color, they looked sickly and were naked, sexless, and utterly hairless with skin stretched tight over their skulls. The teeth of a hunter were usually broken shards shattered from chewing on human flesh and bone. In the daylight, they were too blind to hunt and their heads were still. Seeing them under the sun with their heads still, offered a rare opportunity to study how truly alien they were.
‘My left,’ one of the scavengers called, as he let them know he was taking the shot.
A shotgun blast to the head from 10 yards disintegrates a hunter’s head, exploding it out and back from the neck and there’s pretty much nothing left. Hunters don’t bleed and there’s no arterial spray, but their bodies drop instantly. A shotgun shell causes brain death and, although their bodies continue to move sluggishly, without a head, they were no threat.
More hunters were crowding through the door. Three, four, five, six.
A scavenger, who was clearing enjoying himself, called out, ‘Bucket load of dead heads today!’
Shots rang out, over and over. It might have been an easy game, but he had to admit he was enjoying himself too. A part of him thought that was wrong, but it was impossible to relate to these bald sinewy creatures. Their bodies were so transformed there was almost no evidence they’d ever been human. Ip appeared in the entranceway, only slightly out of breath and she looked at him and smiled. The scavengers had shouldered their guns and were pulling the still moving corpses away from the entrance.
Ip thinks: Foolish bald ones why did they stay. They should have run. This place is not for play. Foolish bald ones of little will. They are so foolish they are dull to kill.
He and Lydia headed into the building and he told Lydia to turn her headlamp on. They entered the double doors leading from the reception and the building took on the feel of a hospital. Banks of now open and broken doors once sealed rooms with large viewing windows. The place was utterly still and dust particles swam lazily through the lights of their lamps. Everything was destroyed, and it was difficult to tell what had ever been there. Corpses of hunters killed by Ip were scattered across top of the debris and the whole place stank of vomit.
While trying to breathe shallowly through her mouth, Lydia said, ‘Waste of a trip.’
The chemical odor in the rooms seemed to exaggerate the stench of vomit left by the hunters and the place was such a mess, he thought the building might as well have been empty.
As they turned to leave, he heard a woman’s voice. ‘Hello? Hello? Are you still here?’
Swinging his M4A1 into firing position, he called, ‘Identify yourself.’
Sounding nervous, a woman replied, ‘Umm. I’m Louise Kingston. Ian Watson is still in the lab.’
‘What lab?’ Lydia asked loudly.
The woman replied, ‘Umm. There’s a small underground lab here. We’ve been stuck down there for months. We couldn’t leave because the place was full of hunters, and we’ve been running out of food. You have no idea how glad we are that you’re here.
Following the woman’s voice as she spoke, they now stood looking at a short, skinny, thirty-something dark haired woman. She looked fragile and frightened and, swinging his weapon back, he smiled and said, ‘Hi, I’m TL. This is Lydia and the woman behind me is Ip. We’ve got food in the truck, but I have a few meals in my pack. That’ll get you started food-wise for now. Can you take us down to your lab?’
The woman looked relieved and led them down a short flight of stairs to an underground room. The lab was small, but packed with equipment, several examination tables and surprisingly it had lights, environmental controls and running water. It was obviously set up to operate self-sufficiently in case of a disaster, but it only had two cots and six weeks supply of food for two people. It was clearly a place of last resort and that’s exactly what it became. He’d given Louise and Ian the emergency food supplies he carried in his pack, and they were both eating hungrily while they told them their story.
Ian was still chewing on a PowerBar, when he pointed to Ip and said with his mouth full, ‘We know her.’
Intellectually he knew there was a chance Lydia’s rumor would prove to be true, but it was a real jolt to learn it was and he asked, ‘Who is she?’
Ian still had his mouth full and he said, ‘Test subject seven. She didn’t come with records. Bunch of guys turned up about a week after the outbreak and they delivered seven heavily sedated people to us. No one was happy about it, but Doctor Ian Battersby was in charge. He told us we either did our jobs or got the hell out. We weren’t really given a choice.’
Looking guilty, Louise added, ‘We thought maybe Doctor Battersby could find a cure and millions of people could be saved.’ Even as she spoke, she didn’t sound convinced by her own rationalization.
He decided the complete lack of regard for the rights of seven people used as tests subjects was an argument for another day. There wasn’t anything he could do about it and he wanted intel. Sitting down on an office chair, he spun to face both Louise and Ian and said, ‘I’m not a scientist or a doctor. I’m just an army grunt, so start from the top and keep it simple, but explain to me what went down here.’
Looking unconcerned, Ian said, ‘Okay. We all have the hunter virus, but it’s suppressed by our immune system. For some reason some people’s immune systems failed to suppress it, so the virus was able to attack the host and change them. They in turn bit other people, which meant their immune systems were also overwhelmed. And because the virus is already lurking in our entire bodies the effect is instantaneous. The virus takes control of the host and only gives up control when it’s starved, but it takes a while for the virus to die. Once the virus dies it loses control of the host.’
Louise interrupted Ian’s flow by adding, ‘One thing no one has ever understood is why the virus activated in a group of people at the same time. It was a global phenomenon. As if a clock had been ticking down and in a single instant they all turned at once.’
Ian nodded at Louise and continued, ‘They theorized they could mutate the hunter virus to create a counter virus. This would kill the hunter virus in the same way that it took over the host. Instantaneously. They did create a counter virus, but it didn’t work on the current hunters because the virus they now carried had mutated. That meant any counter virus they created would be superseded as the hunter virus continued to mutate inside the hunter. There was no way they could create a counter virus and replicate it for mass production and distribution before it would be superseded by the next mutation.’
Ian paused and when no one spoke continued, ‘They theorized that if they infected a living person with the counter virus, the counter virus could continue to mutate inside the living host and produce the next generation of counter virus that could destroy the hunter virus. Doctor Battersby created a designer virus that took the counter virus attributes and the hunter mutation attributes. He then infected living human hosts to find out if he could create a version of the counter virus that would continue to mutate in the living host. This would create a mutating counter virus that was in step with mutations of the hunter virus.’
Lydia looked utterly intrigued by their story and surmised, ‘The living host of the counter virus would be Typhoid Mary to the hunters.’
‘Exactly,’ Ian agreed.
His head was spinning, but he was following the logic. It was clever and appalling logic. Wanting to make sure he understood right, he said, ‘So, Ip was a person who was infected by Doctor Battersby’s designer virus. She’s Typhoid Mary to the hunters.’
Ian nodded, confirming his summary and picked up his explanation again, ‘She wasn’t the only test subject, but yes. The designer virus he infected her with was successful. She produces the counter virus and she disperses the virus through her body fluids.’
Lydia interrupted to help him understand the theory and explained, ‘That would include her sweat. Which explains why the hunters die when she touches them.’
‘But there was a downside,’ Ian continued. ‘Like the hunter virus, Doctor Battersby’s designer virus interacted with the living host at a DNA level. Like the hunter the living host is systemically changed by the virus.’
That explains a lot, he thought, and he asked, ‘Do you know how the designer virus changed Ip?’
‘Oh yes,’ Ian said confidently. ‘She was thoroughly tested at the time. That said the designer virus is continuing to mutate in her, so there are likely to be further changes since we last tested her.’
He didn’t like the way Ian was talking about Ip like she was a lab rat, but he held his tongue. Needing to know more, he asked, ‘So how was she changed?’
Ian replied, ‘Last time she was scanned by MRI, we noted she’d lost parts of her brain, but we also noted her brain was remapping neural pathways and other parts of her brain were being used to replace functionality that was being lost. She also developed an expanded area on the right lobe of her brain. Hunters also have this expanded lobe. We don’t know what it does, but Doctor Battersby theorized it allo
wed the hunters to communicate.’
Not quite believe what he was hearing, he asked, ‘Are you telling me that Ip is telepathic?’
Looking pleased with himself, Ian replied, ‘Doctor Battersby believed all hunters, including Ip, are telepathic. He didn’t think they talked exactly, but they have an awareness of one another. Kind of like a hive mind that shares information.’
‘It’s not that crazy,’ Louise added. ‘There’s been a lot of research over the past sixty or so years that’s indicated all animals, including humans, may have some capabilities in this area. Some scientists believe it’s an ability we had, but lost as we evolved as a species.’
Ian was quite excited now and continued, ‘And that was the other part of Doctor Battersby’s theory. He thought that the hunter virus was no accident. He theorized the hunter virus was naturally triggered to force a step change in evolution. Much like the dinosaurs once ruled the earth and disappeared overnight, humans were doing the same thing. The hunter virus was inbuilt in us so we would become extinct to make way for the next step in evolution.’
Lydia pulled a face and said scornfully, ‘You have got to be kidding me! Do you think a hunter is a step up from humans?’
‘Well, no of course not,’ Ian replied, frowning back at Lydia. ‘The hunter virus is still evolving inside the hunter, so who knows what it will evolve into? When the virus first initiated it created the shambler, then it evolved and created the hunter. Why would you assume the hunter is the last evolution?’
Now he was really worried. Ip had a designer version of the same virus the hunters carried. The only difference was her virus was creating a counter virus that killed the hunters. Worrying how she might continue to evolve, he asked, ‘You said the virus in Ip is still mutating to keep up with the mutations in the hunter virus. Does that mean she’s still evolving like they are?’
