“I mean how are you feeling physically?”
“Oh, uh not bad, not bad.”
“I have to tell you something, Leo,” Josephine said in a low voice.
“Alright,” Leo replied.
“I think I may have forgotten a thing or two in regards to this new cure.”
“Such as?”
“The cure, the one that went out to the city, was changed from the one you and I took. It changed automatically when I put it into the factory computer.”
“How much of a change we talking here?”
“From hydrogen to helium.”
“One atom?”
“One electron, Leo. I quadruple-checked it before entering the compound specifics, but lo and behold it was one notch different after it was entered into the computer.”
“Okay, so what’s the problem?”
“As of now? I don’t know. We just have to monitor the men that took the pill. If they wind up okay, then it’s all fine and dandy. If not...”
“It will be less fine and dandy.”
“To say the least.”
“Well, we’ll hope for the best,” he said with a smile and put his hand on her shoulder.
She pushed it off. “And another thing Leo.”
“Shoot.”
“We have to set up some ground rules.”
“Such as?”
“No touching, no affection,” she said, standing up straight. “And we can’t ever be alone together.”
“Alright,” said Leo, crossing his arms. “Anything else, sweetheart?”
“And our conversations have to stay professional.”
Leo acted as if he was offended. “Excuse me? My conversations are always professional.”
They had seven bedroom stations set up for the subjects, for Leo, and for Josephine. To start the day Josephine and Leo had interviews with each of the men.
Officer Peter McGrady. DA Andre Cole. Lance Jefferson. Jai Wolf. Timothy Simmons.
They approached McGrady’s bed. His skin was white and pale, as if he hadn’t gotten any sun for months. He had developed dark circles under his eyes and the skin around his eye sockets had begun to swell. He squinted at them as they stood next to his bed, barely conscious.
“His blood is getting less oxygen,” Josephine said as she ran a scan of McGrady.
“What does that mean?” McGrady asked.
Josephine was surprised he was so lucid. “It means your body is trying to fight the cure.”
“Anyway I can command it not to?”
“Not that I know of,” Josephine said.
“I’ll fight it off somehow,” he said. “Can you do something about that noise?”
“What noise?” Josephine asked.
“That high-pitched noise,” he said. “Don’t you hear it?”
Leo and Josephine were quiet for a second, but the room was perfectly quiet.
McGrady shook his head and rolled over to go to sleep.
The next room was Andre Cole’s. His condition was the same as McGrady’s, but the paleness looked even more dramatic on his previously-dark skin.
“You get to live another day, Leo?” Cole asked with a smile.
“Looks like it,” Leo said.
“Enjoy it while it lasts friend.”
Josephine ran a scan on him. Many of the same results as McGrady, but Cole’s heart rate was accelerated.
“Can you guys do something that noise?” he asked.
“What noise?” Josephine asked. She looked back to Leo who just shrugged.
“You don’t hear that? It’s like two tones, high pitched. Sounds like they’re getting louder.”
“I’ll look into it.”
Timothy Simmons in the next room knocked on the window. “I can hear it too,” he said.
“I’ll make a note of it,” Josephine said.
Lance Jefferson and Jai Wolf were unconscious already. Their skin was somehow more pale, the circles under the eyes darker and their eye sockets more swollen
Last was Timothy Simmons, who worked at the pill distribution center.
“Hey Leo,” he said when they entered the room.
“Hey bud,” Leo said.
“How are you feeling?” Josephine asked him.
“Not so great to be honest with you. Leo, I just wanted to thank you for that time you got me out of jail.”
“Don’t mention it,” Leo said.
“What did you get him out of jail for?” Josephine asked.
“I had hired him for something.”
“Such as?”
“As a snitch to buy some mini-death pills,” Leo said. “He turned and sold the pills he got in the deal.”
“Not my proudest moment,” Timothy said.
“Why didn’t you use an undercover officer for that?” Josephine asked.
“I wanted to keep the whole deal off of the department’s books.”
“Why?”
“It was for my experiments.”
“What did you say happened with the mini-death compound?”
“Turned the crow white and aggressive,” Leo said.
“That’s interesting,” Josephine said. Albinism was a common side effect of the mini-death compound testing, as was extreme aggression. It seemed the body became a vessel for violence against the rest of the species.
“It was a pretty expensive experiment,” Leo said, shaking his head. “You wouldn’t believe how much mini-deaths are going for on the street.”
“If this doesn’t work, we’re all dead. Aren’t we?” Timothy asked.
“Of course not,” Josephine immediately responded.
Leo kind of shrugged.
Josephine scowled at him.
Patel came walking into the room.
“How are you feeling, Timothy?” he asked, checking the man’s forehead.
“Not so great.”
“I’ll be here all evening if you need anything, alright?” Patel asked.
Timothy nodded and smiled, seemingly at ease for the first time.
“Together again,” Patel said to Josephine as they entered the lab.
“Hopefully the results are better this time,” Josephine said.
At lunch all the men reported feeling better. A couple had even lost their nausea. Patel’s lead assistant Murray came in to make sure the computer network was functioning properly. His hair was black and spiked black. He bobbed his head as he worked, as if he was listening to a song no one else was hearing.
“You used to help us with Uncle, didn’t you?” Josephine asked.
Murray nodded. “Guilty as charged.”
“Whose uncle?” Leo asked.
“He was the AI that helped us develop the Enoch compound,” Josephine said. “I miss him sometimes.”
“Because he was a computer like you,” Patel said with a smile.
“Ha ha Bryson,” Josephine said sarcastically as she went to make herself a cup of artificial coffee. While she poured the scalding black liquid she glanced out at the sleeping men and dropped the mug to the floor. Their hair was falling out. Josephine left the others sitting at the table and went out to inspect McGrady. He lay there, nearly unconscious, his hair laying on his pillow like a halo around his head.
Josephine walked back to her room and sat on her bed.
“Am I gonna lose my hair?” Timothy Simmons asked Leo who stood outside his door.
“I’ve still got mine,” Leo said, trying to force a smile. “And Jo has hers.” He nodded over to the scientist who had her head down in her hands rubbing her hand through her hair compulsively. “For now anyway.”
Leo walked over and put his hand on her shoulder. She pushed it off.
“It’s gonna be alright,” he said.
“I believe you,” she said with a forced smile.
Josephine could tell that Leo knew she was lying. Everyone in the lab who was awake was staring at them.
“Doctor can I show you some test results over here?” Leo asked Josephine formally.
“Test results? What are you…”
Leo grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her into the hall, out of earshot of everyone else. “Are those guys going to die?”
“No, of course not,” Josephine said and looked away.
“From what I remember that’s the face you’d make when you’d lie.”
“They’ll survive, I’m sure of it. I’m just afraid I’m overlooking something.”
“Well stop overlooking it then.”
“Okay, okay,” she looked at her watch, it was nine o’clock. “It’s too late to do anything now. Tomorrow I’ll re-study every sequence to find out what the problem is.”
Patel had noticed the little powwow they were having and came to the doorway. “Is everything alright?”
“Yeah, we’re just debriefing on some of the findings of the experimentation...” Leo said, trying his best to sound smart.
“Well I’m going home to go to bed,” Patel answered, too tired to deal with Leo.
“You don’t want to use your bed here?” Josephine asked him.
“Being near suffering is too upsetting for me. I need to go home to unwind.”
He packed his briefcase and checked out. The night-shift police officer checked in. The lights were dimmed and the door to the lab was locked.
With the lights lowered and no one looking Josephine plugged in the two-way radio to her computer and made the call out to Kizzy. On the GPS she could see that they were in Hazelton. Not too far away at least.
The phone rang five times before the girl answered.
“Hello?” her young voice answered.
“Kizzy,” Josephine said, she couldn’t help but let the worry shake through her voice. “Please tell me you’re okay.”
“Yes, I’m alright. What’s wrong?”
“We need you,” she said. “Make sure no one knows where you are. Keep hidden. We’ll come and get you. I can track the two-way.”
“What’s going on?” Kizzy asked.
“The cure, it’s…” she noticed Andre Cole had requested emergency help from his bed. “Just stay right where you are...”
She hung up and went to Cole’s room. He was somehow fast asleep, perhaps he had pressed his button accidentally. He didn’t look any different than he had before. Josephine figured it would be best to let him get some rest and check back in on him in the morning.
She went to bed and had a restless night’s sleep, dreaming she was being chased by a serial killer. Early the next morning as soon as the sun came up she went to check on Andre Cole. She froze at the doorway. He had changed. Not only was his skin pure white, like an eggshell, his eyes were black and swollen, like a baby bird’s. His muscles had increased noticeably in size. Before, he looked like a normal man, now he appeared to be a massive body builder. If she didn’t know any better she would have guessed he had grown taller as well. She looked around to the other men. They had transformed in much the same way Cole had. Josephine needed to stay calm. She had to find out what was wrong.
She checked his vitals. They were slow; slow as, Josephine couldn’t think of an analogy. With a trembling hand she took the needle and extracted a blood sample. When she pulled back the syringe Cole’s blood came up into the needle pure black, sludgy, and thick. Like molasses.
Cole opened his swollen black eyes and snatched her wrist.
Josephine tried to pull away, but his grip was tight as steel. He got up and out of bed, his movements animalesque and fast. He pulled her close and sniffed her. A look of confusion came upon his face.
At that moment the night-shift police officer grabbed Cole by the arm. Josephine felt a small shade of relief.
Cole grabbed the guard and slammed him into the wall. The officer tried to reach for his gun, but Cole grabbed him by the neck and began to choke him. In disbelief Josephine watched as this powder-white albino, almost inhuman in strength, handled the guard as if he was a child. Cole shouldn’t have been this strong. It didn’t look right. Without warning the white mutant rammed his arm into the officer’s stomach and his fist came out of the officer’s back. The cop looked down at his body in shock.
“Stop!” Josephine screamed.
Cole threw the guard clear across the room through the glass wall separating his and Leo’s room. Without anyone to stop him, he approached Josephine, marching on legs that seemed to be different lengths, and began to sniff her again.
Gunshots sounded in the air. Bullet holes burst into the mutant’s chest and black blood foamed to the surface. They didn’t appear to hurt him at all, he just seemed annoyed by the distraction. Josephine looked back to see Leo holding the gun taken from the downed officer on the floor of his room. Leo opened fire again.
The bullets pierced through Cole and shattered open a window behind him. The air from outside came blowing furiously into the hermetically sealed room.
The inside air went whooshing out and the outside air came whooshing in, knocking papers off tables. The four other men sprung up from their beds.
Cole covered his ears, he appeared to be in agony, as if there was some deafening sound coming from the outside world.
The other men were affected the same. They threw chairs or pushed tables through the glass walls to escape their prisons and they followed Cole past Josephine and through the broken window to the outside.
Josephine stood, her heart beating a million miles an hour, still clutching tightly to the desk that she had backed into. She looked back at Leo. His face was pale and his eyes opened wide.
“This is not good,” Josephine said, approaching Leo. “This is not good at all.”
Leo checked the pulse of the guard in his room. He shook his head as looked to Josephine. He took the two-way from the officer’s shoulder. “This is… uh... ex-chief of police Cartwright. We have an incident here at the university lab. We need a swat team...”
Josephine, in an instant, came up with an idea and realized what a colossal mistake he was making. She snatched the mic from his hand and slammed it on the ground.
“Leo, this is our only chance to escape.”
“Okay?” Leo said confused, with his hand still in front of his mouth. “Where should we go?”
“Out of the city.”
“Why?”
“There is something we need to do. Something pretty drastic.”
Josephine went to the broken window through which the mutants had just escaped. Leo took the keys from the downed cop’s body and followed.
They watched as the mutants tore through the city street knocking over cars, toppling lamp posts, and striking down whichever men happened to be in the neighborhood. They were heading for the canal yards and, more importantly, the city wall.
A swat van came roaring around the corner and pulled up onto the sidewalk. They were only called in to take care of large scale chaos, be it crow attacks or mob violence. They were highly-trained officers armed with automatic weapons and special tactics.
“Rest in peace, Cole,” Leo said.
The swat team emerged from the van and set up in formation. There was a half second’s pause before they began to unleash hell on the mutants, these men were hesitating before shooting their fellow man. But shoot they did. They fired and fired and fired and yet the mutants were unfazed. They crashed into the front line of the swat team. One mutant pounced onto an officer and choked him to death. Another mutant tore painter’s scaffolding from a building and threw it at the other members of the squad, killing or maiming four of them. The rest of the swat team saw the beating they had just received, realized it was hopeless and retreated to regroup.
“We have a serious problem on our hands,” Leo said.
There was a banging on the glass entrance in the lab behind them. It was Patel. He looked to Josephine with a look of confusion on his face.
“Leo, we’ve got to run, now,” Josephine said, climbing out the window.
They made their way down to the guard’s police cruiser that sat in the parking lot. Leo st
arted up the car. Really terrible reggae music blasted from the speakers. Leo pressed pause on the CD and began to drive after the mutants.
“Are you alright?” Leo asked, now that they were out of harm’s way.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” she said, inspecting her body for wounds. “It’s just… there was this look in his eye when he got my scent. Like he lost interest in me, almost as if he knew…”
“I’m happy you’re okay,” said Leo. He would have hugged her under normal circumstances. “What is the drastic thing we’ve got to do?”
“You remember the artificial intelligence that helped me with the Enoch Pill?”
“Uncle?”
“Yes. I’m going to restart him and ask him how to solve this.”
“Are you sure he can help?”
“This is an extinction level event,” Josephine exclaimed. “What other choice do I have?”
“It’s just you seemed so frustrated with him most of the time,” Leo said.
“Brilliant minds are like that.”
“If you say so. We’ll head there first?”
“Not quite,” Josephine said. “I called the girl last night, when I noticed the cure going bad.”
“And?”
“We need to get her to a safe location.”
“What’s so special about her?”
“She can have kids which makes her the ultimate insurance policy,” Josephine said. “I just hope she’s okay.”
6
Kizzy sat with her head in a burlap bag and her hands in steel cuffs on her lap. The jeep was jerked to the right and to the left as it traversed the abandoned country road.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked the constable, the rough material of the sack rubbing against her lips.
“The court house,” the constable answered.
“To be executed?”
The woman said nothing.
“You don’t know what you’re doing,” Kizzy announced. “I’m extremely important.”
The woman still said nothing.
“Do you know who Josephine Yanloo is?” Kizzy asked, hoping that name would prove to be a get-out-of-jail-free card.
“Do you?” the constable asked skeptically.
“I’ve met her.”
“No you haven’t.”
The Enoch Plague (The Enoch Pill Book 2) Page 5