Joe laughed on the outside, but he made a vowel to himself that after he got his freedom and new identity, he would pay his cousin a visit some night to thank him for his kindness and compassion.
Charlie then advised Joe he would receive a vaccination against diseases that he might encounter in South America.
Joe said he understood, he knew that health conditions in third world countries were far below what they were in the U.S.
Joe laughed, “After escaping death row, I don’t want to go to South America and end up dying of some crappy infection.”
Charlie was just going to give Joe a direct injection of the unknown biological agent they were testing, but Eric insisted for humanitarian reasons, that Joe be given a shot to knock him out first.
Eric felt that Joe would be subjected to extreme pain as the injection began to be absorbed into his cells, resulting in a slow and agonizing death.
Charlie agreed. Joe had been given the sedative first and then the biological agent.
Joe woke up an hour later and hadn’t stopped moving for the last twenty-three hours.
“What is keeping him going?” Charlie said more as a comment than a question. He knew Eric could not answer that question, at least not yet.
“All I can say is he shouldn’t be moving at all. By all medical definitions and by all appearances, he is dead,” Eric replied.
“I guess this gives new meaning to the term, ‘Dead Man Walking’,” Charlie added.
“Yeah,” Eric replied fighting off a feeling of guilt. The only thing that helped him fend off the guilt that nagged at the back of his mind was the fact that Joe obviously wasn’t feeling any pain.
When Eric was put in charge of the project, the military had reviewed his earlier test results on human blood and tissue cells and determined that the only way to see what the biological agent would actually do to a human being, was to test it on a human being.
They agreed with Eric’s theory that if the biological agent they found was in fact not a mistake or the result of a failed attempt to develop a biological weapon to quickly kill large numbers of people, that it had been made for a specific purpose.
If it was made for a specific purpose, then they could not afford to waste this opportunity to learn what that purpose was and to find a way to defend against it before it was too late.
The only way to determine its true purpose, what it was meant to do to the people in a populated area was to test it on a living person.
Eric’s tests on cells had yielded some interesting results. The tests should have killed the cells in his experiments, but instead they caused the cells to mutate into something unusual when it should have resulted in the destruction of the test cells.
The mutation resulted in cells that still showed signs of life, but not life as they knew life to be.
The tests could not project what the agent would do to a living person and why someone had created the biological agent for this purpose.
The best guess was when the agent was administered that it would result in the death of the person exposed to the unknown substance.
But the tests potentially indicated that the result could be something else entirely.
The only way to determine what the other possibilities could be, was to inject a live human in a controlled environment.
Eric at first tried to protest. Saying that using this unknown substance on a living person was inhuman and unnecessary.
He was assured that the live subjects would all be volunteers and they would all be people that were going to be dead in a few weeks regardless of what Eric did.
The subjects would be people that would soon die, but were still patriotic and volunteered to help their country.
Eric still tried to convince them that there were other ways to test the biological agent, but it would just take time.
Eric also knew when it came to the military, a volunteer was someone that had been selected and told what to do.
His military father frequently had volunteered Eric to take his grandmother shopping after he got his driver’s license, if he wanted to use the car to take his girlfriend to the movies on the weekend.
Eric knew a volunteer in the military’s definition of a volunteer, the word choice or free will didn’t appear in the definition anywhere.
He was also certain, that if there were actual volunteers, they probably had no idea what they were volunteering for.
He was told that with the way things were going in Syria, the military was afraid they didn’t have much time to find out what this substance was to be used for.
It was then hinted, that if he didn’t want to complete this project, it would not be difficult to find someone that would do what was required.
According to the terms of the contract that he had signed, he would be buried for years in some meaningless job. His career and what he hoped to eventually accomplish may never recover.
Eric finally resigned himself to completing the project, but in a humane as possible way.
He finally agreed, or in military terms volunteered to see the project through to its conclusion.
Besides, he was so involved in the mystery the substance posed, he had to know why someone had developed it.
“If we assume that this biological agent was not a mistake,” Eric said looking at Charlie. “If we also assume that the agent has transformed our subject into what it had intended to make him. Then we have to ask ourselves, why? What would be the purpose of turning a human being into this?”
Eric leaned back in his chair and pointed at Joe as Joe pounded against the other side of the glass.
“Maybe they were trying to create the ultimate soldier,” Charlie replied. “A soldier that you couldn’t kill because he was already dead.”
“Possible,” Eric thought out loud. Then he picked up a microphone for the intercom and held it to his mouth as he pushed the button on the console.
“Joe, can you hear me?” Eric asked.
Joe began to move his head around as if trying to determine where the sound was coming from.
“I think he hears you,” Charlie said.
“Joe, please sit down on the chair,” Eric spoke into the intercom again.
Joe continued to look around for a moment, then he began to pound against the mirror again.
“What good would a soldier that couldn’t be killed be if he didn’t take orders and do what he was told,” Charlie said. “If all he did was stagger around the city, at best he might scare a few people.”
Eric thought for a moment.
“Is it true that he can’t be killed? If he was dropped into a city full of people, would he just stagger around doing nothing? Maybe the chemical agent makes him react differently when he is confronted by people? But look at him, he is so slow he couldn’t catch a turtle and he doesn’t appear to have the ability to defend himself if someone attacked him.” Eric asked as he looked at Charlie. “Maybe we are making incorrect assumptions because we don’t see any of the normal indicators of life or awareness.”
“We can test that theory right now,” Charlie replied as he walked over to a closet, opened the door and pulled out a broom.
“What are you going to do?” Eric asked.
“I’m going to go in the room and have a firsthand look at Joe,” Charlie answered. “We’ll see how he reacts when he sees me in the room with him. If this substance is intended to turn him into some kind of killing machine, maybe he needs to see a living person in order to trigger that reaction."
“That may not be wise,” Eric replied. “He may be dangerous and we don’t know if there is a danger of infection from his open sores.”
“I’ll wear a Hazmat suit.” Charlie said. “Besides, us sitting here guessing what is going on in that room isn’t getting us anywhere. He has just been staggering around in that room for almost twenty-four hours. After the first two hours, we haven’t seen any further changes in what he has become. Maybe this is it, he is what he was supposed to ch
ange into. It could also be possible that this is it. It might also be that this change has a time limit. It changes him into what we see now, but the change only lasts for maybe forty-eight hours before he dies. Say this substance is dropped on a city, people change into what Joe has become and they all start to kill each other. Forty-eight hours later anyone still alive dies. The city is now wide open for whoever wants it. We could learn a lot by going in for a closer look.”
Eric thought about it for a minute.
“Charlie could be right,” he thought. “The sensors haven’t revealed anything useful to this point.”
“OK, I agree it might be a good idea to go in, analyze his reaction and take some samples. I never thought about the biological agent possibly having a built-in time limit. It could make sense, a weapon that destroys itself and eliminates any evidence that it was even present. A lot of countries would pay a fortune to get their hands on something like that. Let’s do this, but I’m going in with you,” Eric said. “Maybe some new tissue samples will tell us a little more about what is going on with him. All we are doing now is letting our imagination come up with a lot of crazy ideas. We need to get some facts to figure out if this is more than just a simple poison agent meant to exterminate cities.”
Charlie went and retrieved two Hazmat suits while Eric prepared some instruments to take samples of Joe’s tissue and the dark red drool that kept coming from his mouth.
When Charlie came back into the room, he and Eric put on the protective suits.
Before Eric slipped the hood over his head he looked at Charlie, “You go in first and see if Joe even notices you are in the room. If he does, lead him to the left side of the room. I’ll come in next and take a few tissue samples while you have his attention. Then we come back out. It will be interesting to see if there are any changes in his readouts.”
“What are you expecting to see when you examine his tissue samples?” Charlie asked.
“Your time limit theory has me intrigued. It will be interesting to see if there are any signs of his cells burning themselves out. Beyond that, I just want to see if there are any additional indication of the cells mutating beyond what we saw in the original tests,” Eric replied. “If not, it may indicate what we see in that room is the final result of contact with the biological agent. If so, then we focus on what that means.”
Charlie nodded, pulled the hood over his head and adjusted the front panel so he could see, grabbed his broom and headed for the door.
Eric looked at the computer to be sure the cameras and sound recorders were operating, pulled on his hood and followed Charlie into the corridor.
Charlie slowly opened the door and looked inside the observation room before entering.
Joe was still standing on the other side of the room in front of the two-way mirror.
Eric stood by Charlie and looked inside. He tapped Charlie on the shoulder and motioned for him to go in the room.
Charlie went into the room, moving slowly to the left side. Eric stepped inside, closed the door and just stood by the door and watched to see if Joe would react.
He didn’t have long to wait for a reaction.
A few seconds after Charlie moved into the room, Joe turned towards the movement. His milky white eyes seemed to lock onto Charlie.
Joe’s arms began to reach out in Charlie’s direction, his teeth began to make clicking sounds as his mouth open and shut rapidly. A moaning sound began deep in Joe’s throat as he started moving in Charlie’s direction.
Charlie was startled to see Joe moving in his direction faster than he or Eric thought was possible for him to move. His movements were awkward and clumsy, but now Joe seemed to move with a purpose.
Charlie froze at the sight coming at him. Eric yelled through his suit to get him to snap out of his trance as Joe moved closer.
When Charlie heard Eric yell, he raised the broom to fend off Joe, but Joe had now turned to direct his attention towards Eric.
Eric quickly moved to put the chair that was in the room between him and Joe.
Joe moved towards Eric, ignoring the chair and ran into the chair, pushing it out of his way as he reached for Eric.
The thick dark red liquid was now spraying from Joe’s mouth as he moaned and growled frantically as he drew closer to Eric.
Eric began to feel fear grip him as he looked at the inhuman white eyes glaring at him, red spittle flying from Joe’s mouth, running down his chin as the bloody black teeth began to snap more rapidly now.
All Eric could think about was the thought he was being attacked by a vicious rabid animal.
Eric moved backwards to keep out of Joe’s reach, but soon found he was getting himself into a corner.
Joe grabbed Eric and began to push his snapping teeth closer to Eric’s face.
Eric struggled to keep Joe’s teeth from getting any closer to his face.
Charlie rushed over and began to beat Joe across the back with the handle of the broom. He was shocked to see that Joe didn’t even seem to notice he was there.
When Charlie saw that hitting Joe with the broom had no effect, he threw the broom to the floor and grabbed Joe by the back of his jumpsuit, swung him around and threw him into the wall.
Joe still had a hold of Eric’s arms and both men flew across the room.
Eric was lying on the floor dazed by the fall as Joe, showing no affects from his encounter with the wall and floor, began to crawl towards Eric.
Charlie picked up the broom and decided he had to stop Joe before he seriously injured or killed Eric.
He took the end of the broom handle and rammed it into the middle of Joe’s back.
The broom pushed in through Joe’s ribs and broke in half as the end went about six inches into Joe’s right lung.
Joe kept crawling towards Eric as if nothing had happened.
Charlie quickly grabbed Joe’s leg and pulled him back into the room as far as he could, dodging Joe’s flailing arms, he then ran over and pulled Eric out of the room and slammed the door.
The sound of Joe pounding against the door behind them, soon began echoing throughout the corridor.
Eric, now starting to come to his senses, looked up at Charlie and asked, “What the hell just happened in there?”
“I think we just had a few of our questions answered,” Charlie replied.
“Shit!” Eric said as he sat up, “I didn’t have a chance to take any tissue samples.”
Charlie looked at blood covering his suit and at the chunks of gray flesh clinging to his gloves, “I think I have a few samples we can work with.”
Chapter 6
Jamie looked at Levi as they pulled into the restaurant parking lot.
“6:30, we are only an hour late,” Jamie smiled.
“Well I guess it could have taken us a lot longer. I guess an hour late isn’t too bad,” Levi said as a relieved smile crossed his face.
“Thanks to George,” Jamie said sarcastically. “I can flush all the toilet paper and the resort will just think we used it all, but they are going to charge us a fortune to replace those pillows. I put the curtains back up with some safety pins, if they don’t look too closely, maybe they won’t notice what condition they are in.”
“I pushed the couch against the wall to hide the hole George chewed into the back of it. If they don’t move it for a few weeks maybe they won’t know when it happened. If we tell them about the pillows, maybe they will just keep our security deposit and won’t look at the cabin for anything else,” Levi suggested.
“Poor Buddy, he is going to get blamed for something he didn’t do.” Jamie added.
“Levi laughed, “They will probably have his picture on a wanted poster hanging in the office. He probably won’t ever be allowed into another hotel or resort in the entire state of California.”
Jamie laughed as Levi pulled the car into a parking spot and turned off the engine.
“Let’s just try to forget about the cabin and enjoy the rehearsal dinner. It’s
Logan and Jamie’s weekend, let’s not say anything to spoil it for them,” Levi added.
Jamie jumped and shrieked as a snort, grunt and growl came from the back seat, followed by a little black bowling ball sized ball of fur tumbling over the seat, landing on its head between Jamie and Levi.
George snorted and grunted as he wiggled and struggled, finally rolling over and standing on the seat.
He started to eye the knobs on the radio when Jamie grabbed him.
“Of course, it’s going to be hard to forget the mess at the cabin with him around,” Jamie sighed.
Levi looked in to the backseat where George had been secured to the seat.
“He chewed through the seat belt,” Levi sighed. “I don’t know why we had to bring him with us. We could have locked him in the shower. Surely he couldn’t have done much damage in there.”
“There was no way I was going to leave him alone with Buddy. George is a bad influence for Buddy,” Jamie replied. “Besides if George is going to be in the wedding tomorrow, he can go to the rehearsal dinner tonight.”
Levi shook his head, got out of the car and walked around to open the door for Jamie.
As he opened the door, Jamie held George up for Levi to take him.
“Where is his leash?” Levi asked.
“He ate it while you were sweeping up the pillow stuffing,” Jamie replied, then looked up at Levi as if to say, “Take him before I strangle the little beast!”
Levi took George and tucked him under his right arm as he pulled Jamie to her feet with his left hand.
He closed the door and began to lead Jamie around to the area back behind the restaurant where the rehearsal dinner was to be held outdoors.
Jamie leaned forward and looked around Levi and leveled her gaze at George, “Keep an eye on him so he doesn’t eat your suit.”
Dead Man Walking Page 4
