He turned and looked out the window. The town was definitely not what he had expected. It was a small shithole. Yeah, there was a shopping complex that looked like there had once been a town trying to build itself up but, overall, most the buildings were old and falling down. They had put in a couple of fast food joints, but it seemed like the town was mainly bars and churches.
And where the hell were the people? It was the latter part of the afternoon, the sun was getting ready to set, and there was no one around? No one headed home from work, or was trying to race home to get ready to go out for the evening? He had seen a couple of churches, but no one had been on their way to a mass. The gas stations didn’t have anyone getting gas.
It was like it a ghost town.
“Little Chicago, eh?” he said as he looked up at the stoplight they had stopped at. The light was red, but he looked down both side streets and didn’t see anyone coming. Yeah, because the traffic is so heavy we need to sit here, he thought.
“Did you see the cars parked at the department store back there?” Lindsey commented, her voice bubbly, as she always had the tendency to become whenever she was nervous.
“No, why? Were there actually people shopping?”
“No. They were parked in front of the store…oddly. I think a couple of them were squad cars, but not at all how you would expect them to be parked.”
“How so?”
“Well, it was like they were parked in front of the store, blocking off access.”
Now that was interesting. Maybe there was something happening here. But why here? What could be happening?
This was BFE, so what could be here, and when had it started? Had something been spreading here for a while and it only just now got noticed? The military had been quick to act. Did they have some hidden base here? If so, he would have thought the general would have told them about something going on, would have given them information they needed to know. The general actually seemed to give the impression he thought all of this was nothing and they wouldn’t even find anything. Was it possible it was something even he wasn’t briefed on?
Could it be aliens? Holy shit! Some kind of alien infection? That’s why the military responded so quickly. They had seen it come down. Once again, though, why hadn’t the general been briefed?
“Dr. Demoin, how was it that the general was able to get his troops deployed so fast? Don’t you find it funny we are here almost right after the initial call, but the troops are set up already?” Bernard asked.
Sarah looked up from her folder and looked back at him. He could see it was hard for her to move around in the large protective suit, but she was able to somehow turn and he could see her face through the plastic. Was that a tear in the corner of her eye? Was she crying? Why? Was there something else they weren’t telling him?
“It just happened to be near an armory, I guess, and the National Guard was there on a week-long drill. Not all of them, just some. They were able to get here quickly.”
“Really? No secret military base or testing?”
Bernard saw the driver snicker. Sarah saw it, too, then looked back at the scrawny little scientist sitting next to the larger one in the back.
“Not that I’m aware of. Doesn’t mean no, but I haven’t been told anything.”
The light turned green and they started to move forward, making their way through town. Bernard wasn’t sure why the troops were driving so damned slow, but it seemed like they almost enjoyed the slowest possible speed to get there. He guessed it could have something to do with the suits. He imagined it wasn’t easy driving with all the additional plastic surrounding your already bulky uniform.
Still, he wished they would just hurry up.
* * * *
Corporal Thompson saw the brake lights light up on the rear of the trailer in front of him, and watched as the large vehicle started to ease itself to the right of the road. He could barely see around it, but could see the little parking lot the truck was working towards. It was such a small lot, and it didn’t even look like it was fully asphalted as there was as much gravel there as hard-packed rock.
“Shit,” he muttered. He was glad the large suit he had on, plus his radio being muted, kept him from being heard by any of the scientists in the vehicle. He had been listening to them, though. They were making little comments, wondering if there was a military base around. Of course they would blame the military. It’s always the military.
Was it the military who invented the science behind the nuclear bomb? Was it the military who invented biological weapons? It was always scientists behind it all. And what about all the projects that never started with military funding, but had some crazy scientist behind it? Sure, the military wasn’t perfect, he was sure there were many things hidden and being worked on, but if anything was happening, it was probably scientists behind it.
Corporal Thompson had seen how the lead scientist kept her folder open to one particular page, how she kept looking down at the picture of a scrawny man in a lab coat. It was obvious the doctor knew him. He couldn’t tell if she was close to him or not, but she still let a tear fall here and there.
Yeah, that doctor had probably been doing something, and now they all had to come in and clean it up, although the area really didn’t look like an area some well-funded scientist would be doing some kind of experiments. He imagined a large block building with high security, but that also meant nice housing complexes. This town had none of that. He had seen a nice house here and there but, all in all, this town didn’t have any of the signs of prosperity he would have expected to see. Instead, the town just looked normal, like any other Midwestern town…except for the fact there were no people running around. So if it wasn’t a scientist’s experiment gone wrong, just what the hell was going on in this town?
Whatever it was, he had no damned clue. The town was dead, eerily dead, in the way that made him think of old westerns. Tumbleweeds should be drifting across the street, and it felt like he would be seeing a gunslinger coming out at any time to block their path.
Whoa, where did that mental image come from? He couldn’t place it, though it still felt right. The town was empty and the air was still, not even a breeze bristled through the trees. All of it just wasn’t right, and he felt like there was something behind what he could see, some presence that was getting ready to attack them.
He wasn’t psychic, though he had once served with a man who had him question his own beliefs. He never would allow himself to believe in witchy mumbo jumbo, but this man just always seemed to know things. They had been on patrol in Afghanistan, and that man knew they were walking straight into an ambush. Thompson didn’t know how, but he had just known the bomb was there. That soldier had saved all of them, except for himself.
Maybe it was a close to death thing. Thompson hadn’t known the sergeant well because he had been new to serving overseas. He had heard stories about the man before they went on patrol, but had never known him. However, he had sacrificed himself to save them.
What had been his name? He remembered so much about him, like that long scar along his forehead. It was a deep, indented mark, greyed as though the skin around it had never quite healed properly. What was the man’s name? He had those dark, piercing eyes that would stare into you, freezing your insides with a frosted glare. Dammit. What was his name?!
He couldn’t remember. When he tried, all he saw were those eyes. They had been the last thing he had seen of the man as he had pleaded with Thompson to get out of there. Those eyes… Not the glaring, dark globes that chilled soldiers into submission, but fierce, pained eyes that pushed Thompson to listen. He had, and he had survived.
And now he felt something and it made him wonder if this was what that sergeant had? He couldn’t be sure what it was. The feeling that festered at the back of his stomach and grew stronger as they drove through the town. He could feel it swim inside him like something had come alive. It squirmed inside of him and burned as it slithered, a fire coursing throu
gh his veins and setting his nerves on end, the snake of that presence worming, tunneling its way through him and leaving an icy chill in its wake.
The feeling in his stomach was starting to turn into a lead weight as he saw the semi pull into a tiny lot. He knew his vehicle couldn’t fit in there with it so, while he didn’t like it, he had to park on the street, leaving his vehicle exposed and leaving them a farther distance from the doctor’s office than he would have liked. This wasn’t a good tactical position, but they really didn’t have much choice.
He parked the vehicle and looked at the small building that he had heard was the only doctor’s office in town. It was small and quaint, and had that small town feel to it. It sure did fit in with being a small town doctor’s office; however, as the spawn of some deadly evil virus, he just couldn’t see it. Whatever they were there for, that couldn’t be it, but maybe the point was that it was so unassuming. Who would ever expect the heart of evil to be found in the body of something seemingly so innocent?
The building seemed so homey and welcoming. He could see why the sick would feel comfortable going there. It didn’t feel modern, but he didn’t think those that came there really cared. It felt like a place to go when you needed to feel better. It was a little building, surrounded by bushes, with a large picture window in front. It had a nice amount of shade from the trees around it, and was tucked back and kept in the dark.
Maybe that was it. Maybe the whole damned town had turned into vampires, all hiding away from the sun. The rational part of him wanted to laugh at the idea. The setting sun made the other part, the part that was home to a person’s irrational fears, want to grab every weapon he had available and prepare to fight their way out of there.
He didn’t feel watched, though. He didn’t feel like the presence was watching them, but that it was there, waiting. They were already in its web. It felt their vibrations as they traveled along the strands. It didn’t have to watch them. It already knew they were there.
* * * *
Corporal Thompson climbed out of the vehicle just as the scientists were getting out. There were three scientists, him, and his small platoon. Not that many, but as they were just there to see if there was anything to the phone call, the general wasn’t going to send too many. It shouldn’t be needed. At the first sign of trouble, they were to clear out. They were only to establish what was going on and if the call was legitimate. Though, to Thompson, that seemed damn foolish to be thinking that now, seeing as they had already quarantined the town. Establish, confirm, and report. The scientists would do their work, then the corporal was to make his report.
They would all go from there.
His troops started to form in a line in front of the building. Most were already doing their weapons check, and were checking their fellow team members for any suit malfunctions or other problems that could have happened in transport. He would check in with them in a minute.
He was glad to see the other Hummer had swung around the truck and parked on the other side of it, blocking that side street and preventing any traffic from coming through.
He walked over to the doctor in charge and clicked the little switch in his suit to unmute his radio. “Doctor Demoin?”
The woman turned from looking at the large semi to look at him. She didn’t look happy, and every time he saw her look at the truck, he had a feeling it was a large reason as to why. He was again taken with how attractive she was under that suit. He had noticed her before she had put the large suit on. Now, as he could see her sparkling blue eyes, he saw the rest of her standing there, easily imagining the suit as not even being there. However, those eyes still looked like they wanted to drill daggers into his own.
From what he understood, it wasn’t what was called for in their protocols. It had been thrown together rather hastily to facilitate their needs. The fact it had been put together quickly out at Fort Leonard Wood and they had driven straight there, with much of the prep-work being done en route, probably didn’t fill the doctor with confidence.
He guessed he understood her disappointment. He would have assumed they would have had something better than this already prepared and ready to go. Maybe they do, just not in the area. Maybe it was already in use, and something else was happening somewhere else. Who the hell knows? He just knew that the truck and trailer were the best they had now, and it was what they had to work with.
“Yes. Hello, sergeant. We’ll check inside and get everything set up. Check with your troops and we’ll let you know when we get things online.”
“Yes, ma'am, but it’s corporal, ma’am. Once we get on the radio, you’ll confuse everyone if you give me a promotion and start calling me sergeant.”
She blinked at him for a second and then, as it seemed to register, she nodded. “Okay. We’ll set up. Get your troops ready.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He went over to his troops, starting to call out the orders for them to line up, breaking them into two teams of three. One was to establish the perimeter around the building, the other was to set up a basic base of operations outside of the semi to set up communication and report their progress to the outside. He knew it wouldn’t take long. It was just going to be a simple camp with no tents, just equipment. He hoped the scientists would get their crap together fast so they could get into the building and find out what they were looking at.
He watched his men hurry off, quick to their tasks, then turned to watch the scientists. The semi was one of those used for moving, so it had two of what looked like standard-sized doors on the side of the trailer. Corporal Thompson wasn’t sure how it looked inside, but he watched as the scientists walked up the ramp that lead to the rear side door and disappeared inside.
* * * *
Sarah entered the darkened lab and quickly went around to find the lights in the trailer that the army had so graciously put together for them based upon her specifications. She found a switch and flipped it on. In a stutter, fluorescent lights flickered, the cool green flare of light attacked along the walls and hummed to life. She saw the lab that, while she had participated in the design, she had not been part of building. Since she had seen the truck, she had been skeptical about it.
Surprise ran through her as the lights around her came up to full power. She stood there, her mouth threatening to drop to the trailer floor. No, wait. It wouldn’t hit the wooden floor of the trailer because it was covered. The whole inside of the trailer was coated, but what was that? She quickly moved out of the way to allow her team into the small workspace. She had to hand it to the military. It was clean, put together well, and was a way for the lab to be set up in any trailer. No wonder it was able to be brought on site in so little time.
She looked around, thinking that it was not only practical, but beautiful. It was near seamless.
In front of her was a five foot long Plexiglas table on the far wall. Mounted onto the table was a laptop. She guessed it was a seventeen inch by the way it seemed to tower over the rest of the mounted racks. She guessed it was so large to allow them to monitor the soldiers outside and watch their live video feed.
Further down was the lab equipment, fastened onto the table. There were holes with fastenings for test tubes, microscopes and the centrifuge were near each other. Everything was designed to be turned on and ready to go.
And what made it all work was that it was all a part of a portable shell, which made sense. She could see underneath the clear interior shell, how the struts were into the bottom so that it could be forklifted straight into the back of the trailer without any crafting. Everything, except the chairs, was attached to the shell, including the lights and table. Looking around, she noticed that the chairs seemed to be absent.
Well, seeing as she hadn’t thought about that when she had developed the design, why should someone else have thought about it?
Still, it was clean, functional, and made her feel like she had just walked into an Apple store. It had such a high tech and futuristic feel to it tha
t it put her lab back in Atlanta to shame.
She looked at the other room in the lab. The front room was separated from them by a short hallway. Both rooms were divided and, in a traditional lab, the equipment above the hallway would never have been seen. Though past it was what her eyes locked onto. The operating table was able to be seen from where she stood. There was no privacy, but everything was completely in the open. The table, like everything else, was mounted to a part of the structure around her. It was beautiful.
She could see that the top of the hallway contained a large collection of tubes and a large metal box-shaped machine. It didn’t look anything like what it was. It looked so small and simple, almost like an industrial air conditioner. She felt a smile cross her lips. Who would have thought that this little machine, with all the tubes that ran down the hallway, was the key that allowed them to go from the other room and get sanitized and cleansed so they would be safe to enter back into this main lab area? She knew how it worked, but it was the first time she had seen it.
In a way, it was something ugly that marred the view of the beautiful lab she was standing in, but it was still beautiful in her eyes.
She heard the sound of keystrokes and turned to see that Bernard had already gone to the computer and was getting them online.
“We’re online,” the younger, scrawny-looking scientist said, loud through the headset incorporated into their suits. She nodded to him and walked over. It was time for the show to go live.
* * * *
“System is up, corporal. Whenever you’re ready, you have the go,” came the crackling female voice over his radio.
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