“Donna?” He asked, reading the name on the card.
She looked up at him and realized he was holding the card.
“I’m dying anyway. Please.” She said, holding back the sobs that had overtaken her before.
Derek didn’t know what he was capable of. Could he murder this defenseless woman with his bare hands at her request? He felt sick and weak at the thought. How could he be sure she wasn’t in pain? He had brought no weapons, his strength was all he had. He wondered if he could break her neck painlessly; he knew it was possible but he would never be sure. He racked his brain.
Lily put her hand on Derek’s arm. He looked at her, and knew what she was asking before she spoke. She was volunteering to kill the woman. Derek felt chills go down his spine. What choice did he have? He was unsure that he would be able to kill Donna, leaving her to suffer as her husband had. Lily was bloodthirsty. The thought made his stomach roll, but the woman was begging to die. Without saying a word, Derek lowered his eyes and left the bedroom, closing the door behind him. He went through the living room and back out through the back door and waited by the fence.
After an unbelievably short time, Lily came through the back door. She had made an effort to remove most of the blood on her face, but a red stain around her lips was still visible. She avoided Derek’s eyes, but came to him.
“She didn’t feel anything, Derek, I promise.” He silently took her at her word, anything else would have made him throw up, and they headed towards the front of the trailer. He focused his attention on getting back to Sasha, to keep the images of what Lily had just done out of his head.
At the front of the mobile home, there were 2 vehicles. One was a dilapidated pickup truck, Derek automatically dismissed it as not working. The other was a minivan, very outdated, but probably in working condition. He tried the door handles. Locked.
The last thing he wanted to do was to go back into the home and see the outcome of what Lily had done to Donna. But he wasn’t going to get far without the keys, which were probably somewhere inside. He inhaled and started towards the door, Lily right behind him.
The front door had been locked, but it didn’t take Derek very long to break through it. The couple had probably not had time to leave, or maybe Donna was too fragile to move, once the monsters had come. Or maybe they had just been completely unaware, as it seemed that no extra security measures had been taken. Lily was already looking through the living room, scattering papers and items on the coffee table. Derek headed towards the kitchen, rifling through more items on the counters. The home wasn’t the best example of good housekeeping, in fact, it was what his own mother would have labeled a pig sty. But considering Donna’s condition, he didn’t think much of it.
Once the living room and kitchen had been searched, Derek headed down the short hallway to the bedroom. There were no sounds coming from the room, and he pushed the door open. He braced himself for a gruesome scene; he wouldn’t have been as bothered if he didn’t know that Lily had contributed to it.
However, what he saw instead was a sleeping woman. Donna now looked serene and peaceful, and her blankets had been pulled up around her again. There was no sign of damage to her at all, and Derek was pleasantly surprised. He walked up to the bed, and although the blood on the covers from her husband was still visible, there didn’t seem to be any fresh blood stains. He pulled back the covers.
He realized Lily was behind him. He looked at her, apologetically and questioningly.
“What did you think I did?” She asked, just now realizing that he thought she had mutilated the woman, like her husband had been.
“You had blood on your mouth, Lily.” He said, in a feeble defense.
“His blood. She died peacefully, I suffocated her. She asked me to.” She looked at Derek with a pained look in her eye. Of course. Even if she had wanted to consume Donna, there was the cancer. He was immediately relieved and ashamed of his assumption, but then he realized she had said ‘his blood.’
“Why was his blood on your lips?” He asked after a moment.
“I can’t help it, Derek.” She said, on the verge of tears. He wondered how long she had fought her craving, and although he didn’t understand it, she had been able to restrain herself enough to show extreme mercy on Donna. He asked no more questions and began looking for the keys.
Chapter 44.
Sasha was running out of things to think about to keep her mind occupied as she sat in the front seat of the Mauler. It had been a few hours, she wasn’t sure, but the sun was getting low on the horizon, and she was going a little stir crazy.
Nora had fallen asleep again, and Ripley was snoring right beside her. Adam had stayed awake, but she has seen his head dip a few times, and he had gone to the back to see if he could find anything with caffeine in it to keep him awake. There was nothing but water.
Sasha came up with a new mind game to play. She started with her earliest memory, and began replaying her life inside her head. Nothing that had ever occurred to her before had prepared her for the end of the world, but maybe she would find something in her memories that would give her the strength to keep going.
Chapter 45.
They were still looking for the keys. Derek was beginning to think about returning to the highway, forgetting the minivan. It was getting late, they had wasted enough time here already.
“I found them!” Lily squealed, pulling them out of the pockets of a pair of pants that had been hanging in the bathroom. Derek pulled the door to the bedroom closed, a final farewell to the poor souls in the bed, and they headed towards the van.
Lily tossed the keys to Derek. Despite her appearance and demeanor, she was still too young to drive. Derek had never asked her, age mattered little given the situation, but supposed she was somewhere in that wonderful, hellish time in a teenagers life. Not a child anymore, but not an adult. At least not taken seriously as an adult. He caught the keys and stuck the key in the door.
It fit, but it didn’t turn. He pulled it out and searched the key ring. That was the only vehicle key on there.
Lily looked concerned, and Derek tried again. Derek thought about punching the window out, unlocking it from the inside, but if this was the wrong key, there would be no point in getting inside the van, because they couldn’t start the engine anyway. Feeling defeated, Derek threw the keys across the yard. Lily just watched him, eyebrows arched, and waited for his next words.
“Back to the highway. We wasted so much time. It’s almost night, and we don’t even know how far ahead the exit is.” He was angry, but mostly at himself for spending time looking for useless keys when Sasha and the others were waiting for them, just a few miles away.
He started jogging through the yard, back towards the way they came in. He was too lost in thought to notice what Lily was doing, so it threw him off guard when he reached the chain link fence and heard her call to him.
“Derek! Come here!” She didn’t sound like she was in trouble, but urgent. He sprinted back around the house, and she was standing by the beat up old pickup truck, triumphantly holding the driver door open.
“The key is for this truck!” She said, and slid over to the passenger side and tossed the keys to Derek.
He shook his head, wondering how he was stupid enough not to think about the pickup truck, but he flashed Lily a smile for her quick thinking and got inside. He turned the ignition and the truck grumbled to life.
“Wow, I have never heard an engine sound so bad.” He mused as he pulled out backwards from the driveway onto the gravel road.
“At least it works.” Lily answered.
Finding their way onto the highway would be the hardest part from here on out. The gas tank in the truck had plenty of fuel, and as horrible as the truck sounded, it drove. It wasn’t a speed machine, and Derek wouldn’t trust it to pull a trailer, but as it lurched down the gravel road onto the paved road, he realized he loved this truck because it was going to save Sasha.
They headed back t
owards the highway, since everything seemed deserted where they came out on the paved road. This pickup wasn’t big enough or reliable enough to even consider trying to get them all to the camp, but if they could make it to the exit, they might be able to find one that could.
It seemed like they drove forever, the one lane road they were on curved and dipped through the thick forest, no sign of life, not even a mailbox. Finally, in the dark ahead, Derek saw a widening of the road, and a reflective sign indicating that they were nearing the interstate.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Unsure…
I am completely at a loss. After my last post, I went back to my lab, and continued assisting in the creation, maintenance, and observation of the Loki Variation. I tried to ignore what I had seen at the other facility, telling myself that it was for the greater good.
However, I think I have learned something I can’t ignore. I think they are now testing on humans.
I received a copy of a report on the results of the latest attempt to control the rapid reproduction of the Loki Variation using common anti-parasite drugs. Basically the results of the testing are satisfactory to the ones with the money; I think I have that figured out as well, but I will come back to that.
However, they want to be able to cure it just as rapidly as it can be administered. None of the drugs are working, and the report included negative effects on organs and specific parts of the body, except these body parts and organs are different than what would be in a chimpanzee. I’m not a zoologist, so I am studying, but I am fairly certain they are now using the Loki Variation on human subjects. This goes beyond any ethical problem I imagined I would be facing.
As far as figuring out what the actual goal of the company is, I am trying to stay off the conspiracy theory bandwagon, but it’s becoming clearer every day that this parasitic infection was never meant for medicine, but more for use as a military tactic.
Pump the soldiers with a parasite that gives them an adrenaline rush, send them to fight, and then give them the antidote when they are done. How is that for some action movie plot insanity? I think I am working for a company that wants to create super soldiers. I can’t even wrap my head around it, but I do know that the government and military have tried things like this in the past, using LSD and other drugs, and we all know about Agent Orange and the governments ever-growing desire to come up with something a step ahead of anyone else.
So there it is. I don’t have any proof of any of this, but I am pretty sure that even if I am not completely correct, I am not far off the mark. I can’t keep working on this project, but I am just not sure how to get out of it without ruining my Master’s program.
Posted by Sanjeev at 11:43 PM
Chapter 46.
It was well into night now, and Sasha had chewed off most of her fingernails. Nora had woken up and crawled up front with Sasha for a few minutes, silently keeping her company. But when she heard Nora’s stomach grumbling, she realized she needed to feed her, and eat something herself. She rummaged around the Mauler’s cargo area and found enough food to quiet her and Nora’s stomachs, and tossed Adam a package of crackers.
Adam hadn’t moved from his spot at the passenger window, and the frigid winter air from outside was making him shiver. Sasha tossed him a blanket that was in the back of the Mauler, and wrapped her and Nora up in another one. She began to tell Nora another story, but this wasn’t a fairy tale. It was the story of a young Sasha, and the adventures she had gone on in her childhood.
Even Adam was listening as Sasha talked about how precocious she was a child, and her numerous stories of incredibly stupid bravery. There were stories of her getting into a fist fight with a boy who was much bigger than her, trying to defend another boy who was being picked on. There was a story about her seeing an injured rabbit when she was camping once as a child, and following it deep into the woods trying to help it, only to become lost. Her parents had found her relatively soon, but to her, it still seemed like an eternity in her mind, wandering the forest looking for her mom. She told them about how when there were family get-togethers, she would somehow take charge of all of her older cousins, and would have them on some sort of mission, delegating duties and supervising them. Sometimes they were trying to sneak treats behind the parent’s backs, and sometimes it was trying to get the parents to allow them to do something they normally wouldn’t. Once, it was an attempt to rekindle her aunt’s marriage to her uncle, looking back on it now, the antics she and her cousins had pulled seemed completely inappropriate and mortifying for her aunt, but apparently it had worked. They had still been married, last she heard.
Speaking long into the night, Sasha felt herself slipping into sleep. She tried to stay awake, but it had been a harrowing day, and her body just couldn’t do it anymore. She slipped into sleep, warm in the blanket with Nora, and dreamed of her Aunt, and a rabbit, and Derek.
Chapter 47.
Derek pulled into the tiny gas station on the southwest corner of where the one lane road came to the interstate. It wasn’t a moment too soon, the pickup truck had started making even more ominous noises. Derek was sure the engine was going to fall out of the bottom of the truck at any minute. He had contemplating trying to take the truck to the other side of the overpass, where it looked like another small building might be, but he decided to stop here for safety reasons.
The gas station was little more than a double sided pump and a decrepit looking building that served as a miniature convenience store, with a garage attachment that looked like it was used for a mechanic’s shop. There were a few cars parked around the gas station, but to Derek’s disappointment, none of them were ideal for their intended purpose.
He sat in the car for a minute, not sure of what to do now.
“We need to eat and drink.” Lily suggested. They didn’t feel thirst or hunger in the same way they had before they had been changed, but it was still vital, and Lily was right. They got out and headed cautiously towards the little store.
The single glass door was broken, and unlocked anyway. They went through it and looked around the tiny space. A few shelves had been stood up along the walls, and there was the normal items you would find in such a place. Candy, chips, snacks. Derek forced himself to eat a package of corn chips, and Lily ate some pretzels and found a case of bottled water. They ate and drank in silence, as fast as they could. Once they had, Derek walked outside and towards the back of the building. There were no other cars, so he went back towards the front and tried to see if there was any way to work with what was available.
Pulled in sideways just inside the driveway, there was a rusty four door luxury car. At least, it would have been considered luxury 20 years ago. Now it was probably more like a lemon, not roomy enough for everyone, and Derek dismissed it as being too old and unreliable. There were 2 other pickup trucks, both small two door models, and while the toolbox on the back of one of them was of interest to Derek, the trucks were useless to them for bringing them all to the camp. Then there was a nice looking import coupe, turned around the wrong way in the exit lane, and although Derek was sure that it would make it to the camp, and much further judging by how new it looked, they would barely be able to fit 4 people in it. He sighed. Lily was still inside the store, she had stayed to see if there was anything else of use. Derek trudged back towards the unlit store.
He joined her back in the store, and found her sitting behind the small counter. She looked very young at that moment, like a little girl. Her eyes were heavy and she had her head leaned back on the wall. She looked up at Derek and argued that she was just resting, as if Derek was going to think less of her for sitting down for a few minutes. He sat down next to her, completely defeated, and tried to think of another plan.
He wondered about taking the coupe right now, going further up the interstate and looking for a better vehicle. He had no idea how much further the next exit or town was, though, and he wasn’t guaranteed to find what he was looking for. If they didn’t make it
back to the Mauler by sunrise, Adam would make sure that they were all in the little car on the shoulder of the interstate, heading towards this exit. Derek didn’t want them to think that anything had happened to Lily and himself, and he didn’t want them leaving the relative safety of the Mauler if they didn’t have to. He couldn’t guarantee that he would make it back to them by sunrise if he took the coupe right now. He decided against it.
Then he thought maybe the best idea would be to take the coupe back to the Mauler, with food and water for Sasha and the others. At least then, they would know that they hadn’t been abandoned, and Lily and Derek could leave again, in the coupe, and go further down the interstate looking for a better mode of transportation for all of them. He had thought that if he had come across any diesel fuel, he could bring that back to them too, but he had nothing to carry it in, and had seen nothing that would provide the diesel. But that would also waste resources, like fuel for the coupe and time they didn’t have. He began to go back to his first idea, running the plan through his head and deciding against it again, until he was delirious. He didn’t even realize he had fallen asleep until he jerked awake a while later.
The Loki Variation Page 25