Derek considered this. The man seemed harmless enough, and if he had a cabin secluded out in the woods, that might be the best place to go to until they could figure out what the hell was happening. Lawrence had a truck, and with two of them instead of just himself, he may have a better chance of making it. But then he thought of his mother, and Dan. No matter how old Derek got, his mother still fretted over him, and was probably frantic by now that she hadn’t heard from him. God forbid she had heard what was happening here, Dan would have to keep her from jumping overboard and trying to swim to Derek. He couldn’t just let her worry, he decided.
“Lawrence, I really need to try the base. My family is on a cruise, the Navy might be the only way to contact them on the ocean. Can you take me there?” He paused, seeing the concern in Lawrence’s face. “If you’re right, though, maybe I could go to the cabin with you.”
Lawrence looked at him for a moment, seemed to be searching his face for an answer, but to what, Derek couldn’t tell.
“Come on, then, let’s go.” He swung his arm, telling Derek to follow him, and went back out the broken front window. Ripley looked back at Derek, and when she saw him take the first step forward, she trotted out after Lawrence, and hopped up into the cab of his heavy duty pickup truck that was parked outside.
Derek got in, and Lawrence was already talking about his cabin as he shut his door and turned the key. Ripley was sitting in the middle, tongue lolling. Derek mentally inventoried the contents of the cab. There was a pistol sitting on the bench seat between Lawrence and Ripley, and a stuffed manila envelope sitting on top of the dash against the windshield.
Lawrence was explaining his cabin. He had bought it after their kids had all left, for him and his wife to retire to in a few years. They had spent several months travelling back and forth to North Carolina, adding whatever they could afford to make it a home. Although it was off the beaten path, Lawrence had made sure that it had plenty of luxuries, after all, he had stated, living in the woods didn’t mean living like an animal.
He pulled the manila envelope from the dash as he pulled out onto A1A, heading north. He used one hand to open it and pull out a stack of papers. There was a few photographs he handed to Derek. Lawrence and a petite woman, standing in front of the cabin. It had a bright red front door, and a wraparound porch. Lawrence looked proud in the photos. He handed Derek a sheet of paper. It was a building permit from the State of North Carolina, giving him permission to add the second story deck he had been planning.
“Just got this in the mail a few days ago. Me and Linda were supposed to leave tomorrow, head up there and start building it.” His voice trailed away, and Derek knew better than to ask where his wife was. He stared blankly at the permit, not knowing what to do or say. Lawrence broke the silence.
“In any case, I have a generator up there, I had to use it when we were rewiring the electric. A lot of my hunting gear is there, a few guns. I have been thinking since last night, and I really think this is the safest place to go until this all blows over. I think the kids will know to find me there, if the cell phones stay down like this.” He pointed to the cell phone that was hooked to his belt.
Derek handed him back the permit and looked out the passenger window so he wouldn’t have to see Lawrence’s face when he answered the question Derek was about to ask.
“What’s happening?”
Lawrence was quiet for a moment. Then he took in a long, deep breath.
“I don’t know. I never was much of a Godly man, but this is looking more and more like Armageddon to me. I had just got home from work, and was listening to some news story about something happening at a hospital. I wish to God I had paid attention, because it had something to do with this. People were being attacked or something. Linda came home, she didn’t say anything, I thought she was fine. She went up to the room to change, and I heard a bunch of crashing and banging. I flew up those stairs, and found her on the floor, having a seizure.” His voice cracked, but he continued.
“I was trying to help her, you know. She was going to hurt herself, so I went to her, I wanted to make sure she didn’t hurt herself. I had my phone, I was calling 911, and then Linda just – went still. I was so scared she was dead, I think I just sat there. Then she was on top of me, screaming. She was biting at me, trying to kill me.”
Lawrence leaned his head over to show Derek several deep lacerations, they looks like nail scratches. Lawrence continued.
“Her eyes were completely dilated, they were black as coal, and evil. I got her off me, but she came right back so fast I didn’t even have a chance to get on my feet. I threw her that time, and she went over the railing.” He stopped talking.
Derek gave him a minute to continue, but when he didn’t, Derek turned to look at him. The man had tears in his eyes, and was desperately trying to stop them from falling. He looked straight ahead. Derek looked away again, letting Lawrence compose himself. Once he could control his breathing, Lawrence started speaking again. Derek looked out the window, watching the deserted beach town go by, trying to ignore the abandoned cars.
“I called the police, I knew she was dead, and I wanted the cops to come get me, put me away forever. But the call wouldn’t go through. I sat there for a long time, hours, just me and my friend right here.” He patted the pistol on the seat. “I was going to do it, the gun was at my head and I was just about to pull that trigger, and I saw someone out in the backyard. There was a few of them, a man and some kids. They had black eyes too. They came at me through the window, tried to jump on me like Linda did, and I used the bullets on them.”
Derek flinched at the thought of shooting a child, though he knew he would have done the same in that situation. There was a primal sort of threat these people gave off, it was either you kill them or they would kill you. He remembered the table breaking apart over that frail woman’s body at Cheryl’s house. He could understand Lawrence’s decision.
“I started packing my stuff, and as soon as it was light outside, I started driving. I got stuck in traffic, I tried to save so many people, but I couldn’t. I had to just leave them, drive away, around in circles because if I stopped those things would have been all over me. When they had gotten almost everyone, they left, this place became a ghost town. I was coming back through looking for anyone who had made it, and then I saw you.”
Silence filled the truck, and Derek was reliving this morning at Cheryl’s. He was trying to keep his stomach from expelling the water he had just drank, thinking about Ripley’s teeth ripping at Cheryl’s throat. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he tuned out the activity on the other side of the truck. It was Ripley’s barking that brought him back. He felt the truck lurch and looked at Lawrence.
Lawrence was slumped into the steering wheel, eyes rolled back and jaw clenched. His head was jerking violently, and his arms were drawn up and shaking.
“Lawrence!” Derek grabbed the steering wheel to steady the vehicle. Lawrence’s foot was on the gas still, his leg’s spasms were causing the truck to pitch like a boat on rough seas. Derek grabbed the leg of Lawrence’s jeans and pulled his foot of the gas, and while Lawrence continued convulsing, Derek guided the car as it came to a rough stop along the curb. Derek opened the door and him and Ripley jumped out. Derek ran around to the driver side, wanting to help Lawrence, but recalling the story he had just heard about Linda and her convulsion. Before he could make a decision, Lawrence sat straight up, and looked through the glass at Derek. His eyes were black, the cool gray irises of a few moments ago completely gone. Derek jumped back as Lawrence bashed his thick fist into the window.
The glass instantly shattered, shocking Derek and sending him to the front of the truck. He watched Lawrence, now moving out of the vehicle with much more agility that he had possessed earlier, taking hardly any time to be out of it and heading around to the front end. Derek was forced to retreat towards the passenger door, which was still hanging open. Ripley was in front of Derek in a heartbeat, she had
n’t had much time, but she was already jumping up on her hind legs, trying to reach Lawrence’s face. Lawrence didn’t seem to be afraid of her, he grabbed her as she jumped on her hind legs to reach his face with her bared teeth, gaining fistfuls of the skin on her back and throwing her, sending her tumbling into the street. She landed with a yelp.
Derek used the few extra seconds to grab the pistol that was sitting on the seat. He pointed it at Lawrence, expecting him to stop at the sight, but he didn’t. Time slowed down for Derek, his finger was squeezing the trigger. Lawrence was inches away, but the bullet made contact and Lawrence flew backwards, sliding on his back near the front of the truck.
Derek took a step forward and kept the gun pointed at Lawrence. For a moment, Lawrence didn’t move, but then he tried to get up. Derek squeezed the trigger again, then again, until Lawrence was motionless. He exhaled sharply, and let his arms lower, the gun pointing at the ground. He hadn’t shot a gun since he was a kid, when his real father was still alive. It must be like riding a bike. Ripley was standing behind him, he hadn’t noticed her, and she followed him as he got in the driver’s seat and put the truck into drive. All he had to do was head north, the base was so close now.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Project.
Hello, again. I’ve had a couple of comments come in asking me to prove that I am not making this up. To them, I have this to say: No.
I already said that I signed NDAs and that I was not able to go into full detail about everything. I love the idea of writing a blog and letting anyone who is interested follow. I would have loved to have found something like this earlier, I still would. But I love my job more, and I am not going to blow that because of a few jaded internet people. I honestly apologize.
What I can tell you about the project, though, is still pretty interesting. The lab was hired by a pretty prolific private company that specializes in health and medicine. I can imagine that they, in turn, were hired by someone else like a pharmaceutical company or health department, to come up with a product. It’s our job to help them design that product. I think.
What we have right now are several species of protozoan parasites. These little guys will be getting a bit of genetic engineering, some of their genes turned on or off, depending, and then another group of scientists will be recording the effects of the modifications. Where do I fit into this?
I make sure that the newly altered baby parasites are kept alive until the scientists can observe them and record the effects. It’s not my dream job yet, but it’s pretty close.
The actual controls have been laid out already, meaning that the genetic modifications are green lighted for next week. With the short reproduction time of these parasites, hopefully it won’t be too long after that, I will have more information for anyone interested.
Thanks for the comments.
Posted by Sanjeev at 9:44 PM
Chapter 9.
Nora was picking at her fingernails, oblivious to the scenery flashing outside the window. Sasha was taking the back roads towards the Wonderwood Bridge, which would take her over the Intercoastal waterway onto the beach side of Jacksonville. The Navy Base was located just a little north of that bridge, and Sasha wanted to take the least travelled path to avoid any more confrontations. The car’s gas gauge was teetering on the red line, and she was not sure when she would have a chance to refill, so she was going to try and make it. Her economy car had definitely run on fumes plenty of times before. The only other thing she would have to stop for is a bathroom break, which was becoming more and more necessary.
On the sides of the road they were travelling were homes. She hadn’t seen any signs of life in any of them, and some of them were obviously empty judging by the open doors or broken windows. They had passed one that had an overturned vehicle leaning on the large tree in the front yard. This place hadn’t been spared, either.
When she could no longer hold it, she pulled into the driveway of one of the homes. The house was set further back from the street than most of them, and she pulled all the way up to the garage. Nora was eying the surroundings, nervously. Sasha grabbed the shotgun and her and Nora both got out of the driver’s side. Nora clung to the back of Sasha’s shirt as Sasha inched up to the front of the house. She tried the doorknob, it turned easily in her hands. Pushing the door open, she saw the evidence she was looking for that she was not just merely breaking and entering into a family’s home.
The home was bi-level, the main entry way opened up to a broad set of stairs to the upper level. The banister was broken and hanging inelegantly off the steps. A pair of small shoes were strewn across the tile floor, and the curtains from the front windows had been pulled down. As Sasha stepped in, with Nora right behind her, she pointed the shotgun in front of her, her arms beginning to shake with the weight.
Coming around the corner into the dining room, she crunched on broken china. The massive hutch had been pulled over, there were broken dishes all over the floor. She tried to step around the noisy pieces, but it was useless.
It didn’t matter, however. The home was completely empty. After checking the entire downstairs area, she and Nora both went into the bathroom, staying within eyesight of each other. While Nora took her turn, Sasha opened the medicine cabinet, wondering if there was anything she could add to the meager first aid kit in her hurricane box. She grabbed a few items: some antiseptic ointment, a bottle of store-brand headache reliever, and put them in a small terry cloth beach bag she had found hanging on the back of the door. An orange prescription bottle caught her attention. The label said it was a generic form of the drug alprazolam, and she recognized it as being a very strong sedative. Several people she had known in the past had taken the drug, either for anxiety or for recreation, although she never had. She put the bottle in the bag, hoping she would not have to use it for what she was saving it for; a painless suicide.
Nora and Sasha went to the kitchen. There were bananas on the island counter, and although Nora silently protested, Sasha convinced her to eat one. Then she ate one herself, forcing herself to swallow each bite. She grabbed a few bottles of water from the fridge, and headed upstairs to find more suitable clothing for Nora.
Sasha’s heart broke as she realized by looking in the upstairs room that this had been the home of two little boys. Their rooms were both painted blue, one decorated with sports memorabilia, the other with airplanes. Saddened, she opened the drawers of the dresser in the first room, everything in there was too small to fit on even Nora’s tiny body. She went into the other room, and found a pair of camouflage pants with iron on patches, and a plain black tee shirt for Nora. They were the right size, and then she found a pair of boy’s boots for Nora’s feet. They left the poor boys’ rooms and headed into the master bedroom.
Sasha entered first, and was immediately regretful. She backed out quickly, pushing Nora back with her. Nora looked at her, eyebrows furrowed.
“Bodies.” Sasha said. Nothing else needed to be explained. Nora swallowed loudly and looked down. With a sour stomach, Sasha led Nora back downstairs, ready to leave. On the way, she grabbed a throw blanket that was tossed over the back of the sofa, and Nora snatched a stuffed toy dog that was on the floor. The sight made Sasha’s throat tighten.
When they were safely in the car, Sasha watched Nora buckle herself in and draw her knees to her chest, holding the stuffed dog under her chin. Sasha reached out uncontrollably, and stroked Nora’s hair.
“Honey, I don’t know what’s happening, and I don’t know why. I am so sorry. I’m going to do everything I can to keep you safe, I promise you that. I know that might not sound like much.” She drew a blank, trying to think of how to express the sense of responsibility she felt now for the child, but Nora apparently understood. She turned her eyes to Sasha, and with her own small hand, grabbed Sasha’s and held it tight for a moment. Sasha was so relieved to at least have been able to exert a feeling of trust in Nora, and now she was even more determined to keep her promi
se. She loathed having to pull her hand back to drive the car, so she sat for a moment in silence, letting Nora breathe a little easier before she put the car in reverse and got back on the road.
Chapter 10.
It was only a few miles until Derek started seeing signs announcing the Naval Station up ahead. His hopes of a safe haven were diminishing, there had been no evidence of organized protection so far, just more desolate strip malls and disconcerting emptiness. He had seen movements in his peripheral vision, and told himself they were just shadows, but he knew what they really were. He was grateful to be in a moving vehicle instead of walking as he had thought he was going to have to do earlier.
The lanes had separated; there was a specific one for those entering the base. He veered in that direction, and soon came up to a check point reminiscent of a toll booth. Each lane was blocked by empty vehicles. He squinted, trying to see past the blockade, desperately seeking anything resembling healthy, live people to find solace in. Nothing.
He pulled to the side, into a small parking lot that was apparently reserved for those needed to apply for a pass onto the base. A sign proclaimed that due to high terrorist alert levels, the base was locked down indefinitely. No one was allowed to enter without the proper identification, which could only be obtained by a military I.D. or a special pass solely provided by this office.
The parking lot was a mess. Cars, trucks, and vans were everywhere, in no particular order. It looked like so many vehicles had tried to rush the gates that they had bottlenecked and then something had made all the occupants flee. He could only imagine.
He pulled the truck in as far as he could fit, then killed the engine. Ripley was standing up next to him, ready to exit the vehicle. He grabbed his backpack, put the pistol, the box of ammo, and the keys to the truck in it, although he didn’t think he would be using them again. He and Ripley weaved through the parking lot, through the cars, coming out at an opening in the high cement wall that blocked the base from the civilian world. He stepped onto the main road into the base, hopelessness creeping into his heart with each step. There was no one alive, just more vehicles with no passengers, and signs of struggle. He continued along the road, staying close to the line of trees on the edge of the road, until he came to a clearing where he could see the backs of the duplexes that housed the military families. He and Ripley cut across the grass to the backyard of the closest house, and carefully walked between homes, in the direction he figured would take him deeper into the base. He still had hope that somewhere, there would be a secure area with trained military men and women arranging a mission to save anyone left alive. He was afraid that if he didn’t hold onto that hope, then he would follow in the steps that Lawrence had taken with his little buddy, the same gun that was now weighing Derek’s backpack down. He wanted to find a reason not to think that way, maybe knowing his mother and Dan were alive and safe would help him.
The Loki Variation Page 5