by Mason King
Dr. Lattimore stood up and pulled a sturdy looking metal case out from beside of his desk. He opened the case and carefully placed each vial in the black foam material that was located within. Once he felt they were secure, he led the way. Kendall was the first to take his lead, followed by her parents, who had yet to say a word since the beginning of their trip, and finally Hunter and Allison brought up the rear hand in hand. They walked back down the way they had come, before descending down another flight of stairs.
At the bottom was a door that Dr. Lattimore had to punch in a code and scan his ID badge to open. Behind that door was a room unlike anything Hunter had ever seen in real life. It was a top of the line laboratory with multiple rooms, sliding glass doors, and equipment that Hunter could only imagine was for serious high-tech sciency nonsense.
Both Dr. Lattimore and Kendall headed towards the same room, located in the back corner of this room. The doctor, again, punched in a code and used his badge to open this door. He explained that this was the contamination room, where they handled anything that could potentially be harmful to a person or animal. Kendall’s parents decided they would rather stay outside of the room, clearly this entire situation was rattling them.
Allison was going to stay out too, but once Hunter began to follow she changed her mind, wanting to stay with him. Dr. Lattimore gave each person a lab coat, goggles, a face mask, and the same white latex gloves that he had used and discarded in his office.
“Is this enough protection for what we’re going to be dealing with?” Allison asked, uncertainly.
“It should be, yes.” The doctor responded, opening the case and removing two vials. He left the remainder in the case for safe keeping. He went on to explain, “This room is for containing a potential contamination, but I’ll also be handling the first vial in this incubator for additional protection.”
Following his explanation, he turned towards a microscope that was held within a separate clear box. He opened the air tight container and slipped the vial in, before shutting the container back. From there, he slipped his arms in to the available holes that allowed him to work with what was inside without worrying about anything touching his skin. He slowly unscrewed the vial and placed the contents on to a slide within the container. After several long minutes of him getting everything situated, he began to look through to scope attached to the microscope inside the container. He adjusted the view and mumbled to himself for another few minutes before calling Kendall over to take a look.
She went through the same motions, adjusting the focus on the scope, moving the slide around a tiny bit before she looked up at Dr. Lattimore and finally asked, in the softest voice Hunter had heard her use yet, “Is this for real?”
Dr. Lattimore nodded back at her somberly, “It looks like it. This could easily have been what started the outbreak at the airport.” With that, he turned to Hunter and Allison, “It looks like Paul was in possession of some extremely fast acting nuclear warfare. Kendall and I will explain more of what that means shortly. The question now is, was he the only one involved?”
This possibility hadn’t even occurred Hunter. While he had figured Paul had had something to do with it, it had never occurred to him that he may not be the only one.
They let that sink in for several minutes before Dr. Lattimore spoke again. “I want to give those other vials a look, but I think we all need to sit down and have a discussion on what needs to happen now.” With that, he led the way out of the room, followed by Kendall, Hunter, and Allison. As Hunter was just coming out of the door there was a small clink, and then a shatter from behind him. He turned, but before he even had time to register what was happening, Dr. Lattimore was slamming the button that closed the door.
An emergency alarm sounded and he looked through the glass to see Allison staring at the floor, a horrified look on her face. There, at her feet, was a tiny vial smashed to pieces, with a slightly reddish tinted liquid lying at her feet.
“NO!” Hunter screamed before slamming his fists into the glass seconds after the door slid shut. Allison did nothing but look up at him, a single tear sliding down her cheek. “Open it!” he screamed, once again hitting the glass, before looking to Dr. Lattimore.
The doctor looked back at him with a look of genuine sympathy, “I can’t, Hunter. I’m so sorry. That was a vial we had not looked at. We have no idea what was within it, and if it is even remotely like what Kendall and I observed in the first one, we cannot risk exposing the rest of us.” He looked down at his feet for a moment, agony clear on his face.
Hunter looked back in to the room, Allison had crumpled to the floor with her head in her hands. He could tell by the way her shoulders were shaking that she was sobbing. “Can I talk to her?” Hunter looked to Dr. Lattimore.
“Of course.” He said, before walking to the far end of the glass and pressing several buttons. Once that happened, he could hear her sobbing over a speaker system unseen to everyone.
“Baby.” He said tenderly, “Can you hear me?”
Allison looked up confused for a moment, but locked eyes with him and almost imperceptibly shook her head. “Hunter, I’m so sorry…I was just walking and I must have hit the vial and…” she trailed off as she continued to sob into her hands.
“Allison, it’s okay. You didn’t mean to…. I’m going to talk to Dr. Lattimore and see what we can do for you, okay? I’m going to do everything I possibly can. I love you, okay?” Allison didn’t look up at him as he said this. She did mutter a very soft, “I love you, too” before she pulled both of her knees to her chest and hugged them tight, continuing to cry.
Hunter looked to Dr. Lattimore and gave him a look. The doctor picked up his cue, and pressed the buttons on the speaker so Allison could not hear what they were about to say.
“How bad is it?” Hunter asked. The doctor paused, probably figuring out how delicately he could answer him, “It’s not good, Hunter. It takes years for people to develop the kind of strain of disease that even that one vial contained. It takes even longer to come up with anecdotes. Worse still, we have absolutely no idea what the vial that lay at her feet contains. Now one of those vials may very well contain the cure, unfortunately we can’t know until we research the rest of them, and now we can’t research the rest of them for fear of contaminating the rest of the room…and ourselves.” The doctor finished, looking to Kendall.
Kendall picked up where Dr. Lattimore left off, “Hunter this strain is scary. I’ve never seen anything like it and that was just in the one vial we looked at it. It looked like a cross between small pox and rabies…” she trailed off for a moment, thinking about how to continue, “and the thing that truly scares me is that every single label on every single vial was different. As Dr. Lattimore said, we have absolutely no idea what we’re really dealing with here. Only educated guesses, and even then there is nothing we can do until we know for sure that we can look at those vials safely, without exposing everyone else to the virus; which I, for one, am confident that that’s what this is.”
For the first time in what felt like hours, Kendall’s mother spoke up. “What if we leave, me, Frank and Hunter, and we seal the door behind us. I’m sure there is some duct tape around here somewhere. You and Kendall get into some Hazmat suits we saw hanging in one of the classrooms we passed earlier, and you guys open the door, run in and get what you need and quickly run out. Shutting the door behind you. Then we can wait it out for a while, while you guys do some research. Even if it’s just on that one vial, to find out what Allison may have been exposed to? Then at least we would know what we can expect to happen to her for the time being.”
Dr. Lattimore thought about it for several minutes. He turned to Kendall and asked her what she thought. Before answering, she looked in at Allison. Allison had calmed down a bit and was kind of just sitting there looking around the room. She seemed to be fine so far. It was going on about 30 minutes since her exposure, and nothing seemed to be happening yet. Kendall had been thinking
about that for a bit, and realized that could mean that whatever this particular vial was, may not be transmitted through the air. So as long as she stayed away from it, as she had so far, she could be fine.
Kendall looked at Hunter before voicing this thought to Dr. Lattimore, she really didn’t want to get his hopes up.
“You very well may be right. But here’s the thing,” Dr. Lattimore responded once she made the decision to tell him her thoughts, “I am not scared of doing some research to find out what’s going on. If I go out by investigating the cause of a disturbing outbreak and potentially saving a young woman’s life, then hell, there are worse ways to go. But Kendall, you need to realize how dangerous this could be. You are way younger than I, and you have the brightest mind I have ever come across. Second to mine of course.” he gave her a sly smile which made her laugh. “If you want to sit this out and let me do it alone, I completely understand.”
Kendall continued to think for a few moments, letting the rational side of her brain battle against the curious side of her brain.
Much to Hunter’s equal dismay and gratitude, she let the curious side of her brain win.
“Alright. Let’s do this.” And without another thought, she went upstairs to retrieve several hazmat suits. While she was gone, Frank asked if there was a television anywhere within this building. “We have no idea what is even going on outside these walls.” He stated. The doctor told him that indeed, there was one located on the ground floor in room 134. Frank turned to Diana and explained that they should go see what is happening outside. That way they could be of some help while their daughter and her professor worked to help Allison.
Dr. Lattimore went to the speaker system and once again made it to where the two rooms could communicate; he wanted to tell Allison what their game plan was.
As Kendall made her way back in to the room with two hazmat suits and two rolls of duct tape, Hunter went to the glass and put both of his hands up. Allison picked herself up off of the floor, walked over to the glass and did the same. Their hands lined up with only the glass separating them.
“I’m going to go with Kendall’s parents to see what is happening,” he choked up a little as he said this, “Dr. Lattimore and Kendall are going to do everything they can to figure this out. I love you so much. Please continue to be strong. How are you feeling?”
It was the first time anyone had asked her this question, and the Doctor and Kendall both turned her way, waiting to hear her response. She noted that she felt completely fine. She has not felt any different since she had been in there.”
The doctor pulled out a notepad from one of the desks nearby and began to write.
“Okay,” Hunter continued, “I’ll be back as soon as I can okay?”
Allison nodded and they, once again, told each other how much they loved one another.
Hunter turned towards Kendall and the doctor, waiting for instructions.
Dr. Lattimore took the lead, “Take this roll of duct tape and as soon as you leave tape every last inch of the door shut behind you. If in doubt, just keep taping. You cannot add too much, just use your best judgment. We are going to do the same. Do you have a knife?”
Hunter shook his head, he did not. “That’s fine. Go in to almost any room, you will find a scalpel or sharp instrument of some sort. Grab one. Hell, grab several.” At this point, he turned to Kendall. “You have his number, correct? We will need to be able to get in touch with him should we need any help.”
Kendall came up to Hunter and they both put one another’s numbers in to their respective phones.
“Alright, here goes nothing.” Kendall unexpectedly gave Hunter a hug, before moving on to both of her parents. They spoke to one another softly, but Hunter tried not to listen so as not to infringe on their private moment.
The three walked out of the room and started taping the door as Kendall did the same on the other side. Once they were done, Kendall and Hunter locked eyes once more, and Kendall turned around to begin working.
Hunter instructed Frank and Diana to go to the classroom Dr. Lattimore had told them, and to see if they could find anything on the television. He was going to go to his jeep, get all of the supplies they had, find a scalpel or knife, and also see if there was anything he could find within the building too. He just had a feeling that there were a couple of things he needed to get done. He walked away from the two, and headed outside.
Before heading outside Hunter made sure his gun was tucked in to the waist band of his jeans. He also grabbed the golf club he’d had earlier. Hunter looked around before opening the door, and scoping out the area. As he looked around, he realized that any cars that had been there when they had arrived were now gone. He felt that same unease he had sensed from earlier and began to, quickly, make his way to the vehicle. He hit the unlock button and started gathering supplies.
Everything was still fine, albeit too quiet, as he dumped the first load inside the door. It wasn’t until he was making a second trip to the Jeep that he heard some movement behind him. He quickly turned around, golf club in hand, and about 10 feet away from him was a Thing. He felt silly calling them that, but the word “Zombie” was even harder for his, primarily logical, brain to admit.
It headed straight towards him and his adrenaline spiked. He let himself take a moment to examine the creature in front of him. The man looked almost normal, except he had bite marks up and down the entire length of his arm, as well as the bottom of his left leg. As the creature got closer to Hunter, he realized that It’s eyes were almost completely white. His teeth were tinged red and he was working his jaw up and down like a snake ready to strike. Hunter did not hesitate to send the golf club straight to the Things’ head as he got too close for Hunter’s comfort. It crumpled easily and made no additional movement. Thank God the head theory is true, Hunter thought to himself as he got in to his Jeep and decided to drive it straight to the entrance with the tailgate almost right on the door.
This would ensure an easy escape if need be. He opened to door, loaded the last of the supplies inside and locked the door tight behind him. Before doing anything else, he located every last door in the building and locked them all tight; checking the windows as well.
He walked down to the basement to peek in on Allison, Kendall and Dr. Lattimore. Upon seeing everything pretty much as he’d left it, through his limited view from the tiny window, he made his way to catch up with Frank and Diana. He found them in the large conference room, intently watching the television, Hunter heard the word “Zombie” for the first time from an outside reference.
This entire time he had been so hesitant to admit to admit to himself that this was actually real. That they were living a horror movie in real time. Frank was not moving nor talking as he watched. Diana had her hands over her mouth and tears streaming down her face. Hunter came in just as the same woman they had seen earlier was giving her updated report, safely from a helicopter of course.
“From what we’ve learned so far, it appears that the creatures we are seeing are Real Life Zombies. No pun intended.” She began, trying to add a bit of humor into this otherwise bleak situation. “We have a source here with us, Paul Johansen, who claims he actually knows what started this outbreak. Paul?” She asked as the cameraman turned towards her guest speaker. Hunter's mouth dropped and he heard Diana gasp as they were looking at none other than the Paul they had left behind.
“That’s right, Cindy.” Paul looked into the camera, seemingly downtrodden, “I was at the airport earlier today and I ran into only two other survivors named Hunter and Kendall. They were in possession of a book bag containing dozens of weird looking vials. I separated from them before they knew I had seen what was inside, but it is my belief that these two are responsible for the attack on San Francesco International airport.”
The camera panned back to the host. “Paul’s lead is the only that we have so far in this case of, what the FBI is potentially deeming, a Terrorist Attack from two people within our ow
n country.” At this point two pictures appeared on the screen. One was a picture of Kendall in her nurse’s uniform, the second was a sketch that was unmistakably supposed to be Hunter.
“If anyone has any information on the whereabouts of these two people, believed to be going by Kendall and Hunter, along with Kendall’s parents Frank and Diana, please call the FBI immediately at the number on the bottom of this screen. They were last seen leaving the home of 145 Ashford Dr. Los Angeles, California in a dark gray 4-door Jeep Wrangler.”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” Hunter cursed, his anger seething.
Diana chimed in, “The bastard took that picture from our house!”
“Okay, let’s just all calm down. There is nothing we can do about this now.” Frank offered, trying to provide some insight. “No one knows were here, we just need to stay put until we can figure out what is going on.”
“Fuck that.” Hunter responded and pulled out his cell phone. As he dialed Frank and Diana just looked at him, unsure of what he was planning.
“Is this the tip hotline for information regarding Hunter and Kendall?” Hunter asked in to the phone. Both of Kendall’s parents looked at him, confused. “Well this is Hunter. We do have the vials Paul was talking about but it is because we took them from him. I hope you still have him in custody, because he is the one who started this whole thing. We are holed up trying to figure out what this shit is, and how to stop it.” He paused, listening to the person on the other side.
After only a few seconds he continued, “I’m sorry. I can’t tell you where we are because I don’t know what your intentions are. Our intentions are to see if we can come up with a cure for whatever Paul did to these people. I will call you if and when that happens, until then you need to keep Paul in custody, however you can manage that.” Then he clicked end on his iPhone.