Extinction Level Event (Book 1): The Turn

by J. Walker

  “Momma.” Liam always said the word with a long drawn out ‘aaaaaa’ at the end.

  “Yes hun.” I leaned over and kissed the top of his head.

  “I have a tummy ache.”

  Laken giggled at his statement.

  “No you don’t.” I said. “Eat your vitamins.”

  Liam didn’t like to take his vitamins and would use any excuse not to take them. At least Laken liked to take hers and most of the time she would take Liam’s as well.

  With lunches finally finished and ready to go, I decided to take five minutes of unexpected calm to finally sit down and enjoy my lukewarm coffee. As I headed into the living room, I spied the flash drive John had given me the night before. It was sitting innocently on the counter where I’d placed it the night before. The tiny device had sat there forgotten in the commotion of catching up with Ashley and getting the twins ready for bed.

  Pausing, I looked at it thoughtfully for a few moments. After careful consideration, I picked it up and tossed it into my purse with a silent promise to take a peek later on at work, if a free moment came up.

  The rest of the week went by much the same. Time passed in a monotonous blur of one cold and miserable day after another. I was looking forward to the weekend and next week would be my short one at work. This week I’d been busily preparing for month end, working five days instead of the usual four.

  My position was part time but month end required that I be there for extra hours. This often left me short on time and patience when it came to my family. I always felt much more relaxed when I knew another complicated month end had been successfully wrapped up. I was anxious to spend more quality time with both my family and myself.

  I received about three or four text messages throughout the week from both John and Amy. They’d been wondering if I’d seen the contents of the flash drive yet. Having been so engrossed by the meticulous details of my job, I’d forgotten all about it. I was bone tired of work and winter by the time I got the kids home and I’d fallen into bed exhausted every night this week. I promised them both that Marcus and I would take a look at everything this weekend.

  On Friday afternoon, buried in paperwork and unsigned checks, my cell phone rang. Inwardly I groaned, expecting it to be the day care or the school calling to say one of the twins was sick and needed to come home. With surprise, I recognized the caller as the Ex.

  “Hello.”

  “Hi Emily.” John’s anxious voice greeted me on the other end. “How are you?”

  “I’m great John, buried in paperwork at the moment.” It was a subtle hint but it didn’t work.

  “Listen, Emily, I really hate to be a pain in the ass but you need to realize that the clock is ticking. You and your family need to be ready for what’s coming. I’m doing this for Ash. For you, for your kids. You need to look at the flash drive. You need to be ready.”

  I was startled by the serious tone of his voice. This was the man who’d never been serious about anything more than a video or computer game in all the years I’d known him. I was taken aback by his words and speechless for a moment. Whether it was the surprising fact that he’d actually called to tell me this or the nature of what he’d said, I wasn’t quite sure.

  Ready for what, I wondered.

  Deciding not to lose my patience with John I replied casually. “I know and I’ve been so busy with work this week. We’ll take a look tonight. Marcus has the weekend off and I’m just finishing up with my busy time for a bit. We’ll have time this weekend.”

  “Please Emily, don’t wait too long. Tick, tock.”

  “Okay, John, yes, we will look at it this weekend.” I said again, my voice taking a firm but impatient tone.

  I was beginning to grow tired of the constant demands from John and Amy about the flash drive. He was acting as though there was some huge conspiracy going on that only they were aware of. They were behaving as though it was a huge privilege that they were letting us in on the big secret.

  Changing the subject quickly, I asked. “Is Ashley going up to your place this weekend?”

  The last thing I wanted to do was start an argument with John.

  “No, not this weekend, I’ve already talked to her. Amy and I are going up north to look at some property.”

  “Oh wow.” I said with surprise. “Where up north are you looking?”

  And why, I thought to myself.

  “Well, not too far up north, I shouldn’t have said that. But it’s about four and a half to five hours away, northwest. We’re looking to get as far away from large urban centers as we can but in an area that will allow us decent growing conditions for the summer months. We were hoping you guys would come with us but without having seen what’s on the flash drive, there’s really no point. We’ll get as much info as we can and take lots of pictures. We’ll be sure to share everything as soon as we can.”

  I was speechless for a moment or two while I contemplated every word he’d just said. For nearly ten years we had barely spoken. We hadn’t even seen one another in person until last weekend and suddenly our two families were planning trips up north to look at summer cottages. I wasn’t looking forward to sharing this surprising turn of events with Marcus. This was beginning to be just plain strange.

  Johan cleared his throat on the other end. My train of thought was quickly interrupted and I was forced back to reality.

  He spoke again. “When you look at the flash drive, make sure you’re disconnected from the internet. You know the drill, NSA spies and all that.”

  I reached across my desk to grab my purse and quickly sorted through the contents until I found the flash drive. Holding it between my thumb and forefinger as though it were a loaded gun, I stretched my leg across the tiny office to the door and slammed it shut with my foot. I was very close to unleashing a string of profanities that I didn’t want my colleagues to overhear.

  “Maybe, just maybe, John, you can tell me what the shit is going on.” I waited until the door was closed before I angrily replied, my teeth clenched in frustration.

  “You been paying attention to the news? Are they still talking about the ‘bird flu’? Look at the drive for fuck’s sake. And then do your own research but you’re going to have to dig deep because as soon as this shit hits the internet, it disappears. Just like Derek did, just like his unit.” John’s tone had taken on a surprisingly angry edge.

  I stared silently at the flash drive. The silence between us was palpable and awkward. It had been a very long time since we’d argued. I thought those days were long behind us. Suddenly, I felt overwhelmed and exhausted.

  Just get through this day, I thought to myself.

  I sighed heavily and responded. “Okay. We’ll take a look at everything tonight.”

  He was quiet and thoughtful on the other end of the line for a moment and replied apologetically. “I’m sorry, Emily. I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t extremely important. I love Ashley and you are her mother. She loves you and her brother and sister. And I know she loves Marcus too. She’s a happy kid. Well-adjusted in spite of everything you and I have been through. I’m doing this more for her than anyone else. There is no way I could leave with Amy and Lauren, knowing I’d be leaving her behind. And I know she’d never leave you guys behind. Anything between you and I has been over and done with for a long time now. It’s all been put to rest. I think we’re all mature enough to make the necessary adjustments when the shit hits the fan. This is urgent and time is running out. By the time the summer months hit, maybe sooner, it’ll be happening over here. And by then it’ll be too late.”

  “You’re scaring me now, John.” My voice sounded small and frightened in the quiet little office.

  “We should all be scared, Emily. But we have time to prepare.” He spoke earnestly. “That’s exactly what we’re doing. Amy and I are going up north and we’ll be going again and again with supplies and to make preparations until it’s time to leave altogether. The next time we go, I want you and Marcus t
o come with us. We’ll be leaving Lauren with her grandparents; maybe Ash and the twins can stay with your in-laws? In two weeks we want to go look at some other properties. I hope that’s enough time for you to take a look at the flash drive and have a rational discussion with Marcus.”

  “Tonight.”

  “Good. We’ll talk soon.” Silence greeted me from the other line as John ended the call.

  I stared at my phone, my mind slowly digesting everything he’d said. His old internet gaming friend, formerly known as Wolf, somehow came to possess extremely classified military documents. These documents contained information from some undisclosed location, perhaps China. A small, select group of people now had access to these documents and were preparing for some horrible global catastrophe to occur. While the facts seemed outrageous, there were details on the flash drive to confirm all of it.

  I shook my head in disbelief but I had to laughed out loud at the unexpected turn life had taken in the span of less than a week. Very much like my life with John, things were beginning to unfold beyond my control. This little fact bothered me more than whatever information the flash drive might contain.

  I didn’t like it.

  An unexpected knock on the door caused me to jump. Peering through the window was the Director of Finance, smiling her terribly phony smile. Quickly returning my cell phone and the flash drive to my purse, I motioned for her to come in, forcing myself to smile in return.

  “Are those checks ready for signing?”

  “Yes they are!” I said cheerfully, handing her the large stack of payments and reports, the final preparations for month end completed. “My work here is done for another month Barb!”

  “And mine has just begun.” She laughed as she took the stack of invoices, payments and reports from me. “Have a good weekend.”

  “Thanks.” I said. “You have a good weekend, too. Try to enjoy it.”

  “I’ll worry about enjoying my weekends when the nice weather is here. For now I’m happy to take my work home with me. It keeps me inside a nice, warm house and out of the cold.”

  She left my office, closing the door quietly behind her. Listening to the muffled sounds of another Friday afternoon from the surrounding offices, I quickly became lost in my thoughts. I shook my head as though trying to clear my mind from a distracting fog and proceeded to tidy up the stray paperwork on my desk. Everything was slowly filed away in its appropriate place and I carefully prepared any loose ends for Tuesday morning. Desperately in need of any distraction from my conversation with John, I was soon lost in a flurry of mindless, banal activity for another hour.

  Chapter Three

  Before leaving work that afternoon, I decided Marcus and I needed a break from the responsibilities of parenting. I quickly phoned my mother-in-law to ask her if she’d mind picking up the twins from day care and keeping them overnight. I also called Ashley and asked her if she would have a problem staying at her friend Sarah’s for the night. To my surprise and relief, everything fell into place and we would have the evening to ourselves.

  I sat inside the car, allowing it to idle in the dark driveway for a few moments before going inside the house. Letting out a short, nervous laugh at my own naivety, I began to feel somewhat foolish for allowing myself to get caught up in some ridiculous joke of Johns.

  The flash drive was in my purse, which sat on the floor of the passenger side and there was take-out McDonald’s on the seat. I grabbed my phone from my purse and sent a quick text message to Marcus, telling him to pick up a fast food dinner for himself when he left work.

  I was anxious to see the flash drives contents but would wait until we could look at it together. With a sigh I tossed the phone back inside my purse, grabbed my belongings and went inside.

  The house was dark, cool and very quiet for a Friday evening. Except for the two cats sleeping peacefully on the sofa, nothing stirred. With a quiet burst of warm air, the furnace came on as I walked in and it was an intensely tranquil moment. I savored the silence for as long as I could, until my stomach began to complain noisily.

  The stillness of the empty house began to feel a little unnerving. Setting my dinner and purse down on the coffee table, I walked around the living room and turned on the lights and television.

  With at least an hour or two to kill before Marcus came home, I sat down with the remote control and flicked through the channels, absentmindedly plucking French fries from the paper bag. From the corner of my eye I spied the laptop on the other end of the sofa. My mind went to the flash drive in my purse but I forced myself to focus on the reality show airing on the TV.

  My self-control was limited and within minutes I found myself pulling the laptop towards me. I hooked the strap of my purse with my foot and dragged it across the table so I could reach inside. While the computer booted up, I searched for the flash drive.

  “You little bastard, I hate you.” I whispered to the damn thing clenched in my hand.

  I popped the damn thing into the USB port and waited impatiently for a dialogue box to open. I selected the ‘open folder to view files’ option when I suddenly remembered what John told me earlier today about disconnecting from the internet. NSA spies and all that. I felt like a superstitious and foolish old housewife, but I proceeded to do so anyways.

  I continued to munch on my fast food dinner while browsing through the contents. There were only four folders. One of them was named ‘Read First’; another named ‘Documents’ and the last two were called ‘Pictures’ and ‘Videos’. As badly as I wanted to see the pictures and videos, I decided to play it safe and open the ‘Read First’ folder.

  The folder held a bunch of images that appeared to have originated from an application used for a phone or tablet to make small notes that could then be either published to a social media site or saved as an image to a micro SD card. They were clearly in chronological order, based on the date and time Derek, or Wolf as I’d always known him, had written them.

  The images served as a journal of sorts. I figured out from the first couple of entries that they were told to hand in all personal forms of communication. Derek had bypassed this by hiding a second cell phone with his belongings. However, he’d removed the SIM card and kept a record of events stored on a Micro SD card.

  “Okay, that makes sense.” I said to the cats, leaning over to scratch the fat one on the head.

  The next few entries were chronicles of daily life and offered nothing more than an inside look at life as a soldier heading into unknown territory. There were also complaints about not being allowed to communicate with family members back home, having to turn in their personal cell phones and the covert nature of the operation.

  The significance of what I’d learned so far was that they had been heading into a very remote region of northern China, close to the border with Russia and Mongolia. It sounded like a dangerous, clandestine mission to gain intelligence from within a sovereign nation. Plain and simple, it was espionage.

  They were to observe events unfolding in an area surrounding a highly secretive research laboratory that was responsible for experimenting with extremely dangerous and infectious diseases. They were to document their findings, send back reports through a satellite connection and head to a predetermined rendezvous point as soon as possible. Unknown to any government officials in any nation was the fact that Derek had copied everything and saved it to a tiny SD card on a hidden cell phone.

  “Hello weaponized bird flu!” I said out loud.

  The sound of my voice in the empty house startled me and I practically jumped out of my skin, immediately feeling foolish once again. I continued to read and slowly began to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

  It appeared the authoritative players in the lab had been conducting experiments with a virus or bacteria similar to rabies, not the bird flu. It had a one hundred percent mortality rate and was passed through direct contact with blood or saliva. There was no cure and there was no vaccine but it was not airborne. They had b
een testing it on their own people who had been incarcerated as political prisoners.

  The situation had rapidly gotten out of control with the disease escaping into the nearby civilian population. Due to the tight control the Chinese government had on their own population and on access to the internet, no knowledge of this incident had reached the worldwide media. The only similar news accounts had surfaced in December. Those brief reports had simply mentioned the possibility of a bird flu outbreak in a remote region of northern China and that the local authorities had everything under control.

  The civilian population that had been directly affected had either been moved to another location or if infected, they had been detained inside the laboratory for more research. Eventually, strange and deadly occurrences began to happen in small, remote villages on the Russian and Mongolian sides of the border. Again, both governments were quick to act. However, everything had been done under the radar of the media and the brutal winter months seemed to halt the outbreak. To the rest of the world, it was just the bird flu. This was deadly in and of itself but what these documents were describing sounded much worse than the bird flu.

  I was thoughtful for a moment and wondered why the World Health Organization hadn’t become involved. I understood the secrecy of a communist nation and the complacency of its people. This did not explain the reasons why Russia or Mongolia hadn’t brought the agency in to investigate. The documents didn’t seem to shed any light on that situation at all.

  However important I thought it to be, obviously the people who were seeing this first hand didn’t seem to think so. The most critical aspect of the mission was simply to ascertain what was happening. Their immediate task was to ensure it was contained and that it posed no threat to the national security of the United States.

  With the next few entries, I was able to conclude that the small unit had indeed come into contact with infected individuals in the barren countryside. Those who were infected seemed unable and unwilling to communicate in any way. They seemed to have poor motor function and no control over their reflexes, except, and this was bizarre, to eat.