“Fine.”
Kim scowled and took another swallow of water and sat on her computer chair. When she’d first heard that the CEO of Durant-Monroe Chemicals was on his way, it hadn’t seemed very important. Since then, several questions sprung up in her mind. Questions she’d damn well ask the man.
Kim slipped out of her loose shorts and put on some blue jeans she’d found in one of the CDC employee lockers. They weren’t a perfect fit, but close enough. Leaving on her same gray T-shirt, she slid her feet inside a pair of light tennis shoes, snatched her ID off the desk and strode out of the room. She stalked down the hall and took a left to the control center where Dr. Flannery waited for her.
“Hi, Kim. Sorry to have woken you.” Tom motioned for her to join him next to a set of cameras that monitored the outside of the CDC facility.
Kim stepped over next to the doctor.
“They’re driving a large bus complete with a decontamination room and Class A protective suits, and they’ll park outside of the facility here.” Tom pointed to the camera that showed the street right outside the CDC entrance. “I want you to go meet Mr. Birkenhoff and his assistant and escort them down here. You need to give their suits a once over. Make sure there are no holes. Make sure they’re wearing them correctly. All that.”
Kim gave a terse nod. “Understood.”
“And one more thing.” Tom motioned for her to follow him to a thick metal door labeled STORAGE. “I’ve given you access to this room. Try your ID.”
Pressing her ID to the reader, Kim watched the light turn green and the door hiss open. She stepped inside a ten by fifteen-foot room with shelves along the walls.
Kim nodded at the wealth of items in the room. “Emergency Tyvek coveralls, respirators, and MREs. Good to know all this is here.”
“That’s not all,” Tom said, as he jerked his head to the far side of the room. “Go over there and place your ID against the reader.”
Kim made a soft grunt and moved to the far wall and stopped to touch the smooth, thick metal. At first, she struggled to see the reader he was talking about, then she found it hidden behind a case of disinfectant soap. She glanced over her shoulder, and Tom gave her the go-ahead nod.
She touched her ID to the reader and stepped back in surprise as a small door popped open and slid to the side. Kim ducked inside and stood up in a five by five-foot room. Several rifles and handguns hung from pegs on the far wall, and there were boxes of ammunition on shelves beneath the guns.
Tom stepped into the room behind her and gestured around. “It’s not enough for a small army, but great in a pinch.”
“This is impressive, but scary,” Kim frowned at the display. “I’ve only shot a gun a few times in my life, and that was ages ago. I’m sure I’m a bit rusty.”
“I had some training, and I can show you the basics.” Tom lifted a pistol and held it out to Kim. “This is a Smith & Wesson 9mm.”
“Do you really think I’ll need it?”
“Yesterday, General Miller promised to send some troops to guard the facility,” Tom said with a shake of his head.
“But they never made it,” Kim said flatly.
“Not yet, but that doesn’t mean they won’t show. Until then, we need to understand that we’re vulnerable.”
Kim frowned and nodded, taking the weapon from Tom. She held it up as memories of shooting out on her parents’ farm returned.
Tom faced Kim and grasped her shoulders. “I’ve never loved guns, or even liked them. I cringe when I watch action movies. But this is one of a dozen places left on Earth that has a chance at solving the Asphyxia problem. We’ve got the CEO of Durant-Monroe Chemicals coming here to supposedly help us after he got caught trying to slink away like a cockroach. This is a man who may have just helped bring about the end of the world. A man who doesn’t want anyone to think he’s responsible, just in case we pull humanity back from the brink.”
“The kind of man who might use violence to see that his secrets are kept safe,” Kim whispered.
“Exactly.”
“I’ve got a lot of questions for this guy.”
“Me, too,” Tom said. “But we need to be very careful. It’s just Burke and his assistant, so I don’t expect he’ll be too hard to handle. But we don’t want to provoke him, okay? We don’t want to make him think we’re after him.”
“I understand, Tom,” Kim said. She pointed at a switch on the left side. “So, this is the safety, right?”
An hour later, Kim stood in the decontamination chamber in front of the elevators wearing high-grade protective coveralls and a newly developed backpack respirator that pumped cool, fresh air into her suit. She turned toward the monitor and gave Tom a thumbs up before pressing the elevator’s UP button. The elevator was already on this floor, so the doors came open right away, and she stepped inside.
Turning around, Kim pressed the button to go up to the ground floor. The doors slid shut, and Kim’s stomach lurched as the elevator move upward.
“Can you hear me, Kim?” Tom asked, the sound of his voice coming through the suit’s intercom.
“Loud and clear, Tom,” Kim replied. “How about you?”
“Clear as a bell,” the doctor confirmed.
The bell inside the elevator dinged, and Kim stepped out into the hallway and looked around. The corpses she’d seen upon entering the facility two days ago were in an advanced state of decay. Kim walked by the bloated bodies, happy to have her hood on so she didn’t have to smell it.
With a glance down, Kim saw that the Asphyxia fungus grew around their noses and mouths and ears just like poor Samantha below. The mycelium threads snaked out of every orifice to wrap around the victim’s head in a suffocating embrace.
Kim shuddered and focused on the exit doors. She placed her ID against the reader, watched it turn green, and stepped out of the safety of the CDC facility. Asphyxia grew everywhere. It stretched in winding trails across the concrete and wound up the walls like scorch marks.
With a glance at the digital display across the bottom of her hood, Kim saw that her suit’s regulation was perfect. It beat the hot, sweaty, itchy mask she’d worn the other day. Looking up, she saw smoke trails drifting up into the sky.
“The city is on fire,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“What?” Tom asked.
“There are smoke trails rising in the south.”
“Should we be worried?”
“I don’t think so,” Kim responded. “Not yet. I see Birkenhoff’s bus. I’ll go meet him.”
“Okay, Kim. Be careful.”
Kim walked past the benches with the dead lunch people and their spilled food containers. She kept her eyes on the long black bus sitting next to the curb. The vehicle had an ultra-advanced appearance with its shiny, black windows and chrome rims. Kim would have given anything to look inside.
She stopped fifteen feet from the side door and waved at whoever was inside. A moment later, the door slid open, and three figures stepped out dressed in black coveralls rivaling Kim’s own. She gasped when she realized they carried assault-style rifles wrapped in protective plastic.
The three men looked around before settling their cold eyes on Kim. She instinctively stepped back as fear flashed in her brain.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Kim’s voice was rushed and breathy.
“I see it,” Tom said, viewing through the camera mounted on Kim’s hood. “And I don’t like it.”
Two others came down the steps and joined the three men with the guns. One was a short man Kim recognized as Birkenhoff, and the blonde woman standing next to him must be his assistant, Pauline.
“You were right,” Kim said with a slight shake of her head. “Maybe you should put in another call to General Miller to find his missing troops.”
“Already working on it,” Tom said. “In the meantime, try to keep those guns out of the facility. I’m going to loop in Burke’s communication line.”
“Okay.”
“Hello, folks,” Tom said. “I’m Dr. Tom Flannery, speaking over the comm. There in front of you is Kim Shields. She’s one of our field scientists.”
The short man glanced around and then grinned when he saw that Kim was alone. He stepped forward, his hard, blue eyes confident with the armed muscle behind him.
“Good to meet you both.” The man nodded in Kim’s direction. “I’m Burke Birkenhoff and this is my assistant, Pauline.”
Pauline nodded curtly.
“And these other three?” Kim asked, nodding to Burke’s guards. “Do they have names?”
Burke shrugged. “They’re my protection.”
“We can’t allow them in the facility,” Kim’s voice was flat and unwavering. “Not with the guns.”
“Well, they go where I go.” Burke held his hands out helplessly. “And their guns are how they protect me.”
“You have nothing to worry about here,” Kim pressed. “We’re a science and research facility, not a military outpost. And no one can get in or out without our express permission.”
“You’re saying you don’t have armed soldiers inside?” Burke narrowed his eyes at Kim for a moment before his mouth fell open in sudden understanding. “You don’t have any protection, do you? If you had armed guards, they’d be out here with you.”
There was a pause on the channel before Tom spoke. “They’re on their way from General Miller’s base. It’s been a hectic few days, and they’re a little late.”
“Yes, of course,” Burke said as his eyelids fell half shut. “My men will help protect the building until General Miller’s soldiers arrive.”
“That’s unnecessary,” Tom said.
“I insist,” Burke replied. “It’s the least I can do.”
“Sorry, Burke,” Kim said before Tom spoke. “But I don’t feel safe with them inside the facility.”
A pleasant smile spread on Burke’s lips. “I can get right back on the bus and drive away.”
Kim’s face flashed with hot anger, and her next words burst out. “That would be a bold move, considering your company caused this mess.”
“You don’t know that,” Burke said as he took a step closer to Kim. “And here I am, trying to help.”
“Under orders from the United States Military,” Kim countered.
“Who are not here at the moment,” Burke pointed out, and the men behind him shifted positions with their eyes firmly focused on Kim. Then, as if to diffuse the situation, Burke held up a laptop case wrapped in plastic. “I have the Harvest Guard formula and, if we’re being honest, many of the anti-fungal formulas of my competitors right here on this computer. On top of that, I have years of research on agricultural fungi that surpasses anything the government has. I’m confident you’ll find some answers you need right here.”
Kim stared hard at the laptop case. Inside might be the key to the solution they were looking for. Just having the Durant-Monroe Chemical test data would allow Tom and Kim to build new chemical and biological solution mappings. If the solutions they already had didn’t work, Burke’s research might cut any further efforts in half.
Tom decided for her.
“Let’s discuss this inside,” Tom said with finality. “Kim, can you please inspect our visitors’ suits and escort them to the decontamination chamber?”
“Yes, sir,” Kim kept her words short so Burke didn’t hear the doubt in her voice. “If you could all spread out, I’ll just have a walk around you to check your suits.”
They did as she asked them, and Kim inspected their suits, looking for holes in the material that might allow contaminants inside. Burke stared straight ahead as Kim walked around him, a soft and patient smile resting on his lips. Pauline seemed less patient than her boss. Her eyes ticked in every direction, and she shifted nervously from leg to leg as she waited.
Burke’s guards troubled Kim the most. They remained still as Kim walked around them, their eyes finding her as she walked into their field of vision and tracking her until she moved out of sight.
Ten minutes later, satisfied there were no rips or tears in their material, Kim stepped to the front of the group and gave them an affirmative nod. “Your suits look fine. Follow me.”
Kim turned and walked toward the entrance, not waiting to see if the others followed. A moment later, the sounds of their boots fell in behind her, and Kim was painfully aware of who she was letting into their precious facility.
When she came to the badge reader, Kim authorized herself, pushed the door open, and stepped inside. A small part of her almost allowed the door to shut and lock behind her, keeping the others out. She caught the door at the last second and reluctantly held it open for the others.
A moment later they were standing in the elevator, descending to sub level one.
Chapter 28
Randy and Jenny Tucker, Center Township, Indiana
Randy put the truck in park and leaned his head on the steering wheel. It had been over twenty-four hours since they’d left their house, and it seemed like an entire lifetime had passed. Randy’s eyes closed, and he nearly fell asleep on the wheel.
“Come on,” Jenny said, placing her hand on his shoulder. “Just a few feet to go and you can rest as long as you want.”
Randy nodded, took the keys out of the ignition, and opened the door. Stepping into the dark, his boot landed in the middle of a fungal patch. Spore tendrils rose into the air, and Randy waved his hand at them before stepping through and shutting the door behind him.
“You forgot to spray,” Jenny said.
Randy looked across to see his sister leaning into the truck and spraying their diluted bleach and disinfectant concoction all over the inside of the truck cab. Randy nodded, opened the door and picked his own bottle out of the seat. He sprayed the solution on the inside of his window, across the dashboard and on the seats. Then he wiped down the steering wheel. The solution didn’t kill Big Death outright, though it sure seemed to slow down the spread.
Their philosophy was simple: avoid the fungus; keep it out of their lungs at all costs; spray and wipe everything behind them to slow it down.
When they’d finished, Randy backed out of the truck and shut the door behind him. It was around 9:30 p.m., and the BD glowed a faint crimson all across their field and yard. They each took an arm’s worth of supplies out of the back of the truck and walked up to their front porch on tired, unsteady legs, doing their best to avoid fungal patches.
Randy noted that the fungus almost reached the second step but had come no further. Their front door frame showed slight traces of it where Randy had sprayed the day before, so he set his things down and re-sprayed all around before he wiped it down with a rag. They opened the front door and stepped into their first clean room.
It was a small space where they’d used duct tape, plastic tarps, and blue camping tarps to fashion a seven by seven clean area. There were buckets filled with a bleach and disinfectant concoction, sponges, and four spray bottles filled with the same formula. The hall light shined down through the plastic, and the twins did a quick inspection to ensure there was no fungal growth within the room.
“That’s the good thing about BD,” Jenny said. “You know it’s there.”
“At least on surfaces,” Randy replied with tired words. “We still have to be careful of the air.”
They took turns wiping down each other’s plastic suits and masks with the disinfectant and then washed off the supplies they’d brought in, pushing them through a cut in the plastic into the next clean room. Inside, they decontaminated and used two pairs of scissors to cut off their plastic suits.
“Oh, gross,” Jenny said as she pulled some of the sweaty plastic off her brother.
Randy only shook his head before he turned and helped Jenny cut off her suit. They placed the old plastic into a garbage bag and set it in the corner. They stepped throu
gh another cut in the plastic and entered a third space.
Two HEPA air filtration units ran constantly near the entrance in what Randy hoped was an optimal formation to capture any stray spores that found their way inside. They’d taped a plastic tunnel between the basement door and the laundry room so they had easy access to the washer and dryer. They’d sealed off all the vents in the laundry room and filled the gaps around the garage door with caulking.
“Looks good.” Randy moved with the energy of a young man who saw the light at the end of the tunnel. “We should be okay to continue.”
“All right,” Jenny replied in a muted tone.
As Randy stripped off the rest of his clothes, he winced at how wet and sweaty he had gotten under the plastic.
“I knew I was sweating,” he said as he tossed his shirt into a pile with Jenny’s, “but this is ridiculous.”
His sister agreed. “Like I said, gross.”
They stepped into the laundry room and rubbed hand sanitizer all over their skin and air filtration masks, disposed of the old filters, and washed up in the utility sink with disinfectant soap. Then they filled the tub with bleach water and dropped their clothes inside to soak.
The twins stood facing one another, eyes meeting through the plastic of their filtration masks. Randy was slightly uncomfortable standing in front of his sister in his birthday suit. As children, they’d seen each other naked a thousand times, though it was only in the last few years that they’d naturally become more modest about it. Circumstances as they were, Randy treated it as something they could not avoid. He figured Jenny felt about the same way.
“Ready?” Randy asked.
“Yep,” Jenny replied.
They stripped off their masks in a splash of old sweat. Randy gasped as cool air washed over his cheeks and neck. He reached up, scratched at his neck, and rubbed his face as chills of pleasure ran down his spine. “Oh, man. That’s good.”
“We made it.” Jenny grinned at him as she pawed and scratched at her own itchy skin.
Spore Series (Book 1): Spore Page 16