Dead in Love (Dead Series)

by Colby Van Wagoner

  We stood at my door and kissed goodnight. Afterwards, I looked into Laylianna’s eyes, “Are you going to mysteriously disappear like last time?”

  “Not a chance Baxter. I work the next three days, but after Friday, I have the entire weekend. So you will have to show me some of those horror movies you like so much?”

  “We can watch whatever you like.” I kissed her one last time and watched as she walked to her car. I waved as she pulled off and drove into the night. This was a night to remember.

  It was late in the evening on Friday. After Laylianna had finished her shift at the Stockton Care center, she clocked out and said goodbye to Lynn, the graveyard nurse. The center cared for the town’s elderly, many who no longer had close friends or family left in the town. Stockton, a town in Tooele County, Utah, as of the census of 2010 had 616 people, 216 households and 173 families residing in the town. Opening the door, to exit the building, lightning flashed just above Laylianna’s head.

  Seconds later, the facility's glass doors shook to the crash of thunder. She pulled a compact umbrella from her bag and opened it, raising it over her head. She rushed to her car, unlocked the door and jumped inside. Closing the umbrella, water dripped from the umbrella and all over her uniform. Reaching into the back seat, she pulled a small towel from her bag and dried off her face and clothes.

  The air was cold and crisp, a chill swept through her body. She started the car and turned on the heater. After the car warmed up, she put it in reverse and backed out of her parking spot. The rain trailed down the windshield, Laylianna turned on the wipers, clearing off the water. Small droplets dotted the glass and the wipers continued to clear her view of the road. Pulling onto the main road, she turned on the lights revealing a thick fog. Pulling onto 36 North, the rain began to fall harder and the fog rolled across the road.

  “This is just great. I can’t see a thing and it’s going to take me forever to drive home” Laylianna was talking out loud, trying to provide some reassurance. As she continued down the highway, she wiped the front windshield attempting to get a better view of the road. Clearing the windshield, she saw a small animal run across the highway. She hit the brakes and swerved to avoid hitting it.

  Turning the wheel, she spun the car into a 360 spin and came to a screeching halt. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it.” A loud horn blared out, lights flashed into the passenger side window, as an eighteen wheeler slammed into the side of her car. The car flew through the air spinning end over end, shooting debris all over the highway.

  The Semi-truck slammed on its brakes and came to a halt. Laylianna’s car was thrown off into a ravine, with smoke coming from under the hood. The truck driver was hunched over the steering wheel and regaining consciousness. He looked around and picked up the receiver of his CB radio, calling for assistance, “Emergency, emergency. Does anyone read me? This is Calvin Delmar on southbound 36; there has been an accident at mile marker 60.” The driver stopped and waited. “Driver on route 36 south, this is Stockton county dispatch. Emergency assistance had been alerted. How many people are injured?”

  “I’m not sure; I hit a car in the middle of the road. It was just parked there; I had no way of avoiding it.”

  The dispatcher continued over the radio, “Can you go see how many people are in the other car?”

  “I think so. My head hurts, but I think I am alright. I will be right back.” The driver opened his door and stepped from the rig. He stumbled across the road and over to the ravine. A few cars pulled up, turning on their emergency hazard lights. The yellow lights flashed in the fog and cars began to stop behind each of the vehicles.

  The truck driver lit a flare and climbed down to the car. He looked inside the car and saw Laylianna, unconscious, spread across the front seat. He rushed back to his rig and radioed back to dispatch, “Emergency, there is a woman in the car. She is hurt real bad, but appears to be breathing.”

  “An ambulance is a few minutes away and emergency response teams should be there shortly. Just remain calm and help will be there.”

  “Thanks dispatch.” The driver looked up and saw flashing light a hundred yards down the road. He stepped out of the rig as men and women were rushing to him and the crashed car. “Are you alright sir?” A motorist began checking over the truck driver’s condition.

  “I am fine.” The truck driver responded. “Go help the woman in the other car.” The man rushed from the diesel truck and over to Laylianna’s car. Two ambulances, fire trucks and police vehicles pulled up to the scene. Emergency response workers, firemen, police officers and EMTs began working the scene. They rushed to the truck driver, to the crashed car and began assessing the crash site. The firemen climbed down to the car and began opening the doors of the vehicle. They called out, “Fire Department are you conscious? Can you hear me? Hello mam? We are going to get you out.” The fireman turned and yelled up to the others, “We are going to need a board and neck brace down here! ste

  Within moments the neck brace was placed around Laylianna’s neck and firemen were pulling her from the wreckage. She was placed on the board and an IV was started on her. They had her strapped to the board and began to pull her out of the ravine. The truck driver was sitting in one of the ambulances and it was decided to have him taken to the hospital and checked out. The other firemen had cleared off the debris from the road and were only allowing one lane of traffic through. Police officers were directing traffic and large flashes of red flares lit the lanes. The air smelled of phosphorus from the flares and the fog was beginning to lift.

  The EMTs were working on Laylianna in an ambulance and reading her vital signs and other readings to determine her condition. “She is in bad shape; we need to get her to the hospital. Radio in, we have a female patient, critical condition, on route to Stockton Medical.” The driver called out over the radio and pulled off with the lights on. The remaining emergency response team continued working on the scene, pulling Laylianna’s wrecked car from the ravine and towing away the diesel truck. After 2 hours, the scene was finally cleared and the road re-opened.

  Chapter Seven

  A week had passed; Laylianna was in a coma and being cared for at the Mountain West Medical Center, in Tooele. Back at my house, I let the week pass and had heard nothing from Laylianna. I knew where she worked and called. They had heard nothing from Laylianna for over a week. It was strange, she had just vanished.

  I called Larry, to see if he had heard anything and nothing, he told me that he would put out an APB on her car and a missing person report throughout the county. Her car had not been located and there was no indication of any accident, of any kind. She had disappeared. Things had been going well between us. We had dated over the past year and even returned to the fair and arts festival, where we had our first date.

  The military monitored the police dispatch calls regularly. Depending on the situation, some accidents were intercepted and police accident reports would routinely disappear, along with the vehicles involved in the accident. Laylianna’s accident was no different. General Conrad Raymond was informed of the accident, along with the head scientist Dr. Omar Weiss.

  Dr. Weiss was assigned to assessing accident victims and monitoring their vitals. Patients that were in declining health and were medical donors would be signed out from the hospital, by Dr. Weiss, for military purposes. The patients would then be transported back to the base for testing and other purposes. This was a highly classified and top secret practice.

  Laylianna was one of these patients, even though she had multiple fractures and a broken back. Dr. Weiss would be able to utilize her body and use it for the CU1 and OU2 compound project. She was transported back to Dugway and taken into the Bio-safety Level 3 containment room. Over the year, Dr. Weiss began working with different primates in the laboratory. Animal activists frequently protested just outside the main entrance to the base.

  The Animal Liberation Front strongly supported illegal activism, although cited that it should be non-violent. De
spite this stance, they had taken responsibility for literally several dozen attacks and hundreds of thousands in damages to the facility over the years. The extremism, particularly ones such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, believed that the use of force is appropriate because the 'ends justifies the means.' They cited that animal suffering is equivalent to human suffering, which means that a rat is no different that a person.

  They had heard of rumors and secrets, leaked from the base, about animal and now human testing and were targeting the base, quite frequently, over the years. Because Dugway used a large number of animals each year, with many killed, they have been particularly vulnerable to protests and pickets. Pickets and threats to researchers were done to try to stop animal testing in the facility. The group targeted not only the scientists and animal technicians, but also shareholders and others affiliated with the animal testing. From their meetings with the public, as well as its review of past public hearings, the officers and director’s committee identified widespread concern, in the community, about the planned expansion of the U.S. Army facility, Dugway Proving Ground, as well as its continuing operations.

  A more proactive community relations strategy could not only alleviate some of those concerns, but also could provide a channel through which community members could provide commentary on the ongoing improvement of laboratory policies and practices. This is something that seems to be only the concern of the base and the directors when its image has been tarnished with multiple incidents.

  The main organizers of the protest stepped forward at the beginning of a press conference and began to present arguments against the base, “It’s not difficult to understand why we and many other members of the public are seriously concerned about research on biological select agents in our backyard. Bio-containment facilities were created to study these pathogens, because such agents represent a significant threat of deadly epidemics, were they to be released into the general population.”

  “In fact, at least in the hands of foreign governments or terrorist organizations, many of the pathogens handled are considered weapons of mass destruction. The entire U.S. bio-defense program is predicated on low-probability, high-consequence risk of an attack, so it is easy to see why many residents view the risk of an accidental release, or intentional diversion from laboratories in the same manner, that is, low probability, but high consequence.”

  The crowd of protesters clapped and cheered after the first statement, as the next protester stepped forward and began speaking, “We are concerned about bio-safety laboratories sponsored by any organization, many appear particularly wary, based on pre-1969 history as home to the U.S. offensive biological weapons program.”

  “Ironically, most are unaware of contributions to the science of bio-safety which grew out of the old offensive programs. We view the bio-defense program as bio-warfare and believe that these facilities are collecting or even creating biological agents that could be developed into an offensive weapons capability, despite the defensive focuses of the programs.”

  Some of Dugway’s community members appeared comfortable with the level of bio-defense research conducted prior to 2001, but as they became aware of the expansion of select agent laboratories and elsewhere in the United States, they feared that the rapid growth would lead to a weakening of security and safety practices. The protester speaking continued, “Bio-safety laboratories are subject to federal law, but not necessarily to local laws and regulations. In displaying confidence that it is working hard to prevent incidents and accidents, leadership is perceived as arrogant. We feel that the Army, in approving its own construction proposals and National Environmental Policy Act documentation, has not been responsive to the publics concerns.”

  As elsewhere, past incidents and infections have heightened public concern. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s conclusion, several years after the “anthrax letters,” that an insider was responsible for the incidents, demonstrated that a risk the Army was previously unwilling or unable to quantify was indeed real. The first speaker and the protesters organizer stepped back to the microphone, “Finally, issues not directly related to facility performance amplify the concerns of many in the community. Neighbors mistrust the base leadership because the facility’s pollution has contaminated private wells.”

  “The slow response demonstrates that the Army does not care about our health. That is why there should be no expansion and further measures should be taken to eliminate the threat of any of the toxins, or bio-chemicals becoming capable of having a negative impact on the surrounding communities. It is guaranteed to happen in the future, just as it had in the past.”

  “With this threat you, as valued community members, should do anything possible to prohibit this from happening. Make the Army accountable for its actions and step up with us in preventing the loss of innocent life.” The crowd cheered as the protesters continued chanting and holding up signs towards the media and the cameras filming the event.

  Historically, protests against animal testing had actually kept companies from conducting research. Fear of threats, intimidation and disruption to the research, has had an enormous impact on those who conduct animal testing; causing some to withdraw from the experiment and effectively 'give in' to the threats. Other firms have outsourced their animal testing in areas such as China, where animal testing regulations are poor and minimal, if at all, enforced.

  While animal welfare groups consider this impact a victory, others cite that it only makes animal testing more poorly regulated, because the testing will simply occur elsewhere. General Conrad Raymond was not intimidated by these protesters and was diligent in continuing the testing and covering up the rumors and conspiracies, by spreading propaganda to the news, through his public relations teams.

  Of all the past years mistakes and incidents, the general was considering himself lucky to still maintain his position at the facility. Things were about to change. He called a conference with the science team, in order to determine the cause of the escaped lab specimen and ultimately who was responsible for the incident. The report, made by the scientist who was working when the preliminary power cut off and the auxiliary power kicked in, during the decontamination process, was discovered. It was determined that no scientist would work past a 10 hour shift and that more than one scientist would be required to work in the Bio-safety Level departments.

  “Now that we have that out of the way,” the general continued, “Dr. Weiss, let me know about your progress and the testing you have assessed on the primates.” The doctor stood up and dismissed some of the team members, allowing them to leave the room and then continued, “An American scientist revealed in 1982 that the Bokor used a slow acting poison to paralyze his victims. The zombie-like state is created by a substance that contains Tetrodotoxin, a chemical which lowers a person’s metabolic rate to the point where he appears to be dead. Once buried, the victim often does die from the poison or from suffocation. If he is still alive when the Bokor reaches him, he will be forced to eat a mysterious paste containing a powerful psychoactive substance such as Datura Stramonium, known as the zombie cucumber. This causes memory loss and disorientation. The new zombie will soon become a submissive slave to his master the Bokor. This is the case with OU2 compounds, but not with the CU1 compound.”

  The doctor turned on a projector and began presenting some slides with pictures of the different compounds and their biological makeup. “We all know the zombie; slow, dim-witted, a mindless walking monster more akin to the slow lumbering ‘mummy’ than a depiction of the living dead. But where do zombies come from? Where is their root in history, in mythology? Certainly the zombie does not originate in the form we see it in now. The concept of the zombie has its roots in Voodoo tradition and can be combined with multiple scientific chemical viruses and compounds, such as CU1 and OU2.”

  The general sat back in his chair, folded his arms and let out a sigh, “Doctor, please tell me you have made advancements in controlling the vario
us aspects of researching the medical compounds, the compounds used in traditional Voodoo and the chemicals taken from the research behind zombie ants and caterpillars.”

  The doctor turned off the slide presentation and stepped forward to the table, picking up various pages of notes and other files. He acted very meticulous and organized, bringing his information over to the general. “Read this general it is more research I have gathered.”

  The general began reading the paperwork in the file: Scientific studies on “Zombification” and all the research we have compiled, from years of top secret governmental studies shows: There are numerous types of Zombies found in literature on philosophy and consciousness, these zombies appear to be normal human beings, yet they are completely devoid of subjective consciousness. They sort of shuffle around like they are on a heavy dose of Thorazine.

  Haitian zombies were once normal people, but underwent “Zombification” by a "Bokor" or voodoo sorcerer, through spell or potion. The victim then dies and becomes a mindless automaton, incapable of remembering the past, unable to recognize loved ones and doomed to a life of miserable toil under the will of the zombie master. Voodoo zombies are of three varieties.

  There are flesh zombies, which can be made to work. A former zombie, someone who has gone to ground, became a zombie and later returned to life. There are chemical zombies, which are empowered by some sort of toxic waste or chemical. Radioactive; brought to life through the clever or accidental use of nuclear energy. The infected, which are overcome by the rogue microorganism / virus that causes the living to act a lot like chemical zombies. “Technological Zombies, the dead corpse animated by means of some sort of technology that usually goes haywire. This is what we have combined and it seems to have backfired on us.”