Authors: Jim Kroswell
***
Renaldo sobbed and sobbed as he sat in the waiting room of the hospital. He could not bare to bring himself to leave. His true love, his only love, the only woman he had ever had this sort of relationship with, slipped away from him during the night. He had promised her that he would do everything to save her. He had promised her that she would live. He lied. She had not lived, she had died an agonizing death. She was in pain, her body was covered in puscules and he could do nothing but sit there and watch her being eaten alive. She was the kindest, sweeetest person he had ever known and most importantly, she had depended on him. He swore, at that very moment, that he would die trying to find a way to make her death mean something. He had to do something, he had to figure out a way to make it make sense. She couldn't leave like that. Her life could not be for nothing. It was up to him to make her life mean something, and what it meant was that she was a catalyst, she was the motivating factor behind his entire life and his entire life he was now vowing would be to stop this bacteria, find who was behind it if there was a person, or at least make the people pay who allowed it to go on for this long. He wanted heads, and he wanted heads now.
***
Dr. Samuels looked squarely across the desk at Dr. Lawson. It was a meeting of the minds. This is where the fireworks were going to go down, except there were no fireworks.
"Dr. Lawson, I have my sources that you are at the root of the evil that is befalling our nation, and potentially our world, at this point in time."
Dr. Lawson looked wryly at Dr. Samuels. His eyes were dead inside and Samuels knew it. There was nothing left. "I have no idea what you refer to Dr. Samuels, although believe you me I am quite excited why you made your way all the way down here. Our offices are on this small island. I can't imagine that you would have any other business out here." Samuels knew that he was over a barrel. He suddenly felt his own life in grave danger. It was almost refreshing, for he had been thinking his life was in danger by infection, and now it was in danger by cold ruthless hands, or rather cold steel guns, potentially. "I do not mean to offend you Dr. Lawson, but offense is exactly what I am implying. I know you are behind the bacterial infections that are spreading like wild fire to every conceivable neighborhood in the US of A, and by dammit, I am here to stop you."
"Dr. Samuels, you can can imagine my great sadness at what is happening right now in the world. I truly am sorry and am quite upset by it myself. I can't imagine what the government and their little scientists, burrowing away in their little labs, must be going through right now. It must be truly frustrating. Here as XLaw Labs we take science very seriously, but our work is more in the preventable disease sector, and we do not venture in infectious diseases. I am sorry you have wasted your time, but our services cannot help you. And frankly, I am done now. I am a very busy and a very rich man, I do not have time to trifle with petty accusations. I am a man of science and I hold human health in the highest modicum possible. Please, leave now." Lawson looked Samuels square in the eye and his eyes were not dead this time, there was life behind them, there was fire, but it was not of good. This was an evil fire that glowed in his soul and Samuels felt sorry for ever having to witness it. But, he knew that he had to be stronger than that. He could not go running away like a young school child. He had a child of his own who was counting on him this very instance to gather the strength and courage to battle this monster and so he took a deep breath and took another tactic.
"You don't seem to understand Dr. Terrence Lawson. I have a son and he is dying right now as we speak. I know you are a bastard and that's fine. But I will not allow you to kill my child." At this, Lawson picked up a phone and spoke into it, "Yes, send security in please."
Dr. Samuels stood up, he was losing this. He slammed his fists on the desk. "You will not get away with this! I don't know how you're doing this and I don't care. I don't know what devious plans you have up your sleeve. I don't know why you want to make the whole world sick, but I know as well as I know my own skin, that you are behind this. You will pay. I will not allow you to destroy the world. You created something, you created some sort of monster bacteria, and now it's killing everyone. Don't you have a heart!"
The security barged through the closed doors and grabbed Samuels by his arms and pulled him away. "I will find out what you're doing Lawson! You have not heard the last of me. You remember that!" And in just three seconds there was no more Samuels in the room.
Lawson sat at his desk. There was a calm in the room and as much as Lawson pretended that he was not phased, he had not enjoyed that encounter. This was the first instance of the situation touching him, the first instance of it seeming real at all. He didn't particurlarly like it. This Dr. Samuels had a lot of gall. He could not know of his plans, he could not know anything. Somehow he had found his name, and somehow he had conceived of a hunch, but it could be no more than that. Lawson had exhibited a cool exterior, but he was actually quite shooken up. How dare this mad man burst into his office this way. It was so uncivilized. Dr. Lawson picked up his pen and began to write. He was writing a letter.
***
Dr. Samuels sat in his rented car and seethed. This man was outrageous. He had just been thrown out of his office and was no further than before, other than letting the enemy know that he was on his tracks. It was obvious from this encounter that Terrence Lawson was definitely hiding something and had something to do with this at least and at most was the driving force behind it. In his cool calculating manner, with the way that he showed now regard for life, or for his family, he knew that only this level of cold heartedness could conceive of or plot to do something as cynical as destroy the world. After meeting Lawson, Samuels knew that he had it in him. He wasn't sure coming here, but he was positive leaving. This was the monster behind it all.
He drove and drove trying to conceive of what his next move should be. He really had no idea. Lawson seemed untouchable, especially as there was no direct proof, only hushed conversations overheard and a serious hunch. That equalled out to basically nothing. But Samuels knew it in his bones that Lawson was the creep in standing right now and it was up to Samuels to figure out how to capture the squirrel. As it is with squirrels, the best method of entrapment is exactly that, a trap. He needed to set something up, but in order to do that he needed bait. He definitely needed more information. Maybe going right into the snake pit was not the very best idea he could have had, but he just felt that he had to know, he had to look at the face of what he felt could be the genesis of this mess, and he did just that. He also found what he thought he would, the face of evil, the eyes of nothingness.
***
Renaldo wandered aimlessly down the corridors of the hospital where his dear Samantha died. He was lost somewhere between self pity and vengeance. The hallways was quiet even though he knew there were people behind the doors, in their beds, covered in sores and completely infected with germs. He walked, each leg in turn in front of the next. He had the odd suspicion that someone was behind him but when he turned his head he saw no one. The face of Samantha flashed in his mind and he couldn't help but to think that her face had been contorted to look like some sort of monster. It would haunt him forever he knew. He heard a foot step behind him, but it sounded like that made by a small person. He flicked his eyes to his left but again there was nothing there. He felt somewhat like he was walking through water and something felt surreal to him. This time he turned his head completely around and what he saw astounded him. There appeared to be a group of children and he found it odd because they had no adults with them, they were accompanied by no nurses or doctors. He then looked more closely and saw that their faces resembled the monstrousness of his girlfriend. They were infected and they were in a pack like a pack of rabid wolves. They started to run towards him. Their faces were a shade of purple and they each had scars and bruises covering their bodies. One boy had red hair that, along with the infected sores on his face, made him look like a horrific clown. He wasn't sure whether he should stand his ground, they were children after all, or take off running. Whatever the case, they began to run faster towards him. There were at least ten. He decided to go with his first instinct and turned abruptly around and ran as if his life depended on it for it most certainly did.
***
Wesley had sores all over his body. He could barely see, as pustules had formed around his eyes and his left eye was completely sealed shut. He yearned for his father to come home. He felt something strange rise within him. He was lying on his bed with his mother down stairs making some more soup to nourish is body when he felt some strange urgers arise and he arose from his bed. He looked around the room and looked as it he were looking at it through water. His arms stretched out in front of him even though he did not mean for them to. It was as if his body were doing all sorts of thing he did not mean for it to do. He walked towards the door and his mind swam inside of what he felt was almost another mind. He went downstairs and could hear his mother yell out, "Wesley, what are you doing out of bed. You shouldn't be out of bed, Wesley. Please go lay down." But that did not deter him. He turned the corner to the kitchen where he could see the back of the head of his mother. He was not his own self. Something else was urging his motions. He walked over to the drawer that held the knives. Then things happened very quickly. He wasn't sure, it all happened so fast. He looked down and his mother lay in a pool of blood. The wife of Dr. Samuels was dead. Wesley let out a blood curdling scream. It did not stop for several minutes.
When Wesley could collect himself he went back upstairs and curled himself into his bed blankets. He closed his eyes tightly and refused to open them.
***
Terrence Lawson's plan was working. He was watching it on the local news. People were being killed everywhere. He had enacted his bacterial servants and they were working on the brains and nervous systems of his victims. He had programmed the bacteria to act upon his command, and they were doing just that. He could control the carnage, all with the flip of his finger. He told the bacteria when to kill and how much to kill. He could have them work in windows of time, or have them kill humans until everyone was dead. This first installment of death was just a test. He wanted to see if it was working, and it was. Lawson stared at his computer screen and where there were red dots before, now there were purple, signifying the turning on of the bacteria and the imminent violence to follow. He loved seeing the lavendar fields on his computer screen, as now the percentage of infection was up to 44%. His plan was working and the world was being launched into a living hell.
The air was still in the room. The sky was grey outside and Lawson looked over and through the glass. The clouds were heavy with intention as Lawson was thinking about his domination over these ants of people. His head began to hurt thinking about all that he had yet to do. His place was the dooms day maker and there was not much more behind his facade other than destruction. Lawson began to type a letter. He had one person to whom he did communicate, a fellow evil doer if you will. His name was Bernard, only one name. This was the man whom Lawson confided in. He was a character Lawson had come across in his business dealings with his cover company XLaw. Bernard was of a similar ilk. Bernard understood Lawson and just as Lawson was an outcast of society, Bernard was an inside member, but he was not the inside member you wanted in your group of friends. Bernard loved to trick people, he was a weasle by nature and he enjoyed the con. He knew everyone and instigated his hate and connivery everywhere. Bernard knew the nature of Lawson and used it for his purposes. When Lawson divulged to Bernard his plans with the mutant, or rather quite conceived, bacteria, Bernard knew he wanted to be on the inside of this, as to be on the outside meant certain demise. Bernard had a dark face and always wore dark clothes. He had a long black mustache that jutted out at either end several inches. He was the villain in every way although he truly did not see himself that way. He felt he was a rat that would be squished by the world if he did not use his cunning would not survive the traps laid out for rats like him. Lawson began his correspondence, "Hello Bernard. The plan is going swimmingly. Many have already died. The bacteria is responding exactly as I planned and you can rest assured the rest of the world will fall shortly. Now is your turn." Lawson hit send.
***
Samuels knew he had to take action but first he needed to reconnect with his home base. He picked up the pay phone on the corner. He dialed the number he had dialed so many time before, calling home, but no one seemed to pick up. It rang forever until finally he heard a young boy's voice. "Wesley, hi, it's Dad." "Oh, hi Dad. It's good to hear your voice." "I can't believe you're up, you should be in bed, are you feeling okay?" "I feel a little better now." "Can I talk to Mom?" "She's in the shower right now." There was silence for a moment. "Oh, well, tell her Dad called. I'm just finishing up some business here and I'll be right back." "Dad, please come home fast." "I will Wes. Take care of your mom and tell her I'll be there soon." "I will. I love you Dad." "I love you too Wesley. Be good and go back to your bed, okay?" "I will. Bye." Dr. Samuels listened to the phone hit the receiver. He felt there was something strange in Wesley's voice but could not put his finger on it. He looked over at the rental and decided there was nothing more he could do there. He would return back to the hospital and to his son and wife.
***
Renaldo had just escaped the mad, sick children. He had no idea what had just happened. These kids were obviously infected. Renaldo did not want to stay in one place for too long. He headed down the hallway looking into offices, mostly empty, of the hospital administration. He then peeked in to a door window where the title outside the door said Dr. Samuels. Renaldo opened the door to the room where he found Dr. Samuels sitting at his desk. "What is going on Doc!" Renaldo had recognized the doctor as one that had come in to see Samantha, one of the what felt like 20 different professionals who were always checking on her. Dr. Samuels looked tired and looked up at Renaldo drearily, "I don't know son, I don't know." "Doc, there are rabid kids chasing people. They're sick, something's wrong with them, they're running around in packs like dogs, viscious dogs." "What are you talking about? You had a sick girlfriend, didn't you? How is she?" "She's dead, she's dead," and Renaldo broke down to the floor, onto his knees, crying. "It's okay. You're going to be okay. I'm so sorry about your girlfriend. This crazy sickness is getting everyone. She was infected, I'm sorry." "But it's crazier now Doc, I tell you, these kids, they're infected and they're chasing everyone." "Calm down, what are you saying?" "I'm saying that these kids, they looked just like Samantha, with puss and sores and their faces were all covered in sores, they looked just like her and they were crazy, chasing me. I don't know what's happening." Dr. Samuels let this sink in. Obviously the infection was having other effects. He would have to investigate further. What had Lawson done? It seemed there were now other effects of his madness. The infection was obviously driving people insane as well. "Describe their chasing you." "Well, there were a lot of them. It almost seemed like they were prowling the halls looking for people, like zombies out trying to find people to eat. I swear they wanted to eat me! I just ran and ran and I don't know how I lost them, but when I didn't have anymore energy to run, I turned around and I didn't see them anymore. I took a lot of doors and stair cases. I can't remember anymore. I'm tired and I'm hurt and I'm sad and I'm confused. Doctor, the world has gone crazy. Everyone is sick. There are so many patients in rooms. I've never seen a hospital have so many patients before. Now they're all coming alive like zombies." The doctor had a stone face. He had not encountered these crazed patients himself and he felt that maybe he and Renaldo needed to go out and find some more of these zombie patients. "I'd like for you to come with me. I need to see this." "I can't go back out there. I can't see those people again. No way!" "Please, you know what they look like. I need to investigate this." "Well, I guess I can, but I'm scared." "There's no need to be scared. Everyone is just sick. They are infected with a bacteria, a strain of bacteria that is very dangerous, but it's only dangerous to the ones infected with it. You and I should be fine. Just avoid physical contact with the infected ones. Do you understand?" "Whatever you say, but I'm telling you, this bacteria is pretty dangerous, to everyone." "All right, let's go. Remember, no touching and try to stay at least three feet away from them. Here, wear this mask, so you don't inhale it and get infected." "Oh man, you're worried about getting infected. Believe me, that's not what you have to worry about. These kids want to eat you, I swear it. I know when something wants to eat me." "Just put it on." Renaldo complied and the two went out slowly together.