Dead in Love

by Colby Van Wagoner

  “The changes in the behavior of the infected are very specific, giving rise to the term “zombie” and tuned for the benefit of the compound. When the dead are repositioned in various other situations, further growth and sporulation either fails to occur or results in undersized and abnormal reproductive structures. The discovery of a gene in caterpillars that makes them susceptible to a virus that literally takes control of their brains and makes them climb to the the treetops, where their bodies liquify and rain down to the ground.”

  “The method virtually ensures that the virus continues to thrive as it develops inside the host. Luckily for us, in the wild, the baculovirus that causes this behavior only affects invertebrates. However, the CU1 and OU2 compounds are not completely non-affective to us. A bite, a scratch, or the blood of the infected being transferred via a bite, open cut, or by saliva.”

  The animals were then removed from the presentation room and Dr. Weiss continued, “This is the final section of my presentation and includes a more intimate description of zombies and how they act. The Creole word “zombi” is derived from Nzambi, a West African deity. Accounts and personal experiences about zombies have been collected from Haiti, including the walking dead. Some describe sightings and say the eyes are dead and lifeless, glazed over, like the eyes of a dead man, not blind, but staring, unfocused, unseeing. The face, was bad enough, it was vacant, as if there was nothing behind it. It seemed not only expressionless, but incapable of expression. Zombies were once normal people, but underwent zombification by a “Bokor” or voodoo sorcerer. 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.”

  “There have been attempts to explain zombies in Haitian voodoo culture as a kind of pharmacological act; that the Bokor was using a cocktail of neurotoxins and dissociative drugs to bring their victims into a zombie state. These hypotheses have been met with much skepticism as whilst the theory of drugging a person into a zombie-like state does make some logical sense it does not account for their stilted gait or deathly trance.”

  The general interrupted, “I will have the panel take this part of the presentation very seriously, because what the doctor and his team have generated is a bio-chemical compound that does just that. Our CU1 compound will be very useful for developing a special ops team and we can utilize the OU2 compound on our enemies.”

  One of the committee members from the Department of Defense replied, “This will be considered in extreme violation of ethics, not to mention the moral aspect pertaining to the issue. I mean giving soldiers, our boys a compound that will turn them into “zombie soldiers,” I can only begin to remind the director and this panel of the nonproliferation treaties and the Chemical Weapons Convention. The arms control agreement which outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons.”

  The general raised his arm and stopped the disagreement, “Let’s look at all the evidence, research, testing and other information the doctor has to present, before we make any judgments.”

  The doctor paused, looked at the general and continued, “There have been many accounts of zombies in modern Haiti; stories of people that die, then many years later return to the shock and surprise of relatives. A man named Caesar returned 18 years after he died to marry, have three children and die again, 30 years after he was originally buried.”

  “Another case involved a student from a village Port-au-Prince who had been shot in a robbery attempt. Six months later, the student returned to his parent’s house as a zombie. At first it was possible to talk with the man, and he related the story of his murder, a voodoo witch doctor stealing his body from the ambulance before he reached the hospital and his transformation into a zombie. As time went on, he became unable to communicate; he grew more and more lethargic and died.”

  “Papa Doc Duvallier the dictator of Haiti from 1957 to 1971 had a private army of thugs called Tonton Macoutes. These people were said to be in trances and they followed every command that Duvallier gave them. Duvallier had also his own voodoo church with many followers and he promised to return after his death to rule again. He did not come back but a guard was placed on his tomb, to insure that he would not try to escape, or that nobody steals the body.”

  “A writer described a zombie he witnessed in 1912 in this way: a man had at intervals a high fever, he joined a foreign mission church and the head of the mission saw the man die. He assisted at the funeral and saw the dead man buried. Some days later the supposedly dead man was found dressed in grave clothes, tied to a tree, moaning. The poor wretch soon recovered his voice but not his mind. He was identified by his wife, by the physician who had pronounced him dead and by the clergyman. The victim did not recognize anybody and spent his days moaning inarticulate words.

  “Another case involved a student from a village Port-au-Prince who had been shot in a robbery attempt. Six months later, the student returned to his parent’s house as a zombie. At first it was possible to talk with the man and he related the story of his murder, a voodoo witch doctor stealing his body from the ambulance before he reached the hospital and his transformation into a zombie. As time went on, he became unable to communicate; he grew more and more lethargic and died.”

  “Haitians so greatly fear the bodies of dead loved ones being stolen and turned into zombies, they will often dismember a dead relative before burial. Others will stand guard over fresh family graves until decomposition makes the body worthless. The Bokor is the voodoo sorcerer of Haiti and instills terror into the hearts of the living. He can create paralysis or death by spreading a powder on the ground where someone walks.”

  “He will often create misery by ritually damaging a voodoo doll representing an intended victim. But his greatest power is his ability to make zombies. Voodoo lore suggests that the Bokor traps his victim’s soul by sucking it out of the body and sealing it in a bottle. Death and burial soon follow. The Bokor goes to the grave at night, opens it and calls the victim’s name. The bottle containing the victim’s soul is passed briefly under the nose to revive the body, and the zombie is led away. Rituals, drugs and shocking beatings are issued to the zombie in copious quantities to ensure absolute compliance.”

  “A zombie or zombi is an animated human body devoid of a soul. In contemporary versions these are generally reanimated or undead corpses, which were traditionally called “ghouls.” Stories of zombies originated in the Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief system of Vodoun. According to the tenets of Voodoo, a dead person can be revived by a Bokor or Voodoo sorcerer.”

  “Zombies remain under the control of the Bokor since they have no will of their own. “Zombi” is also another name of the Voodoo snake god Damballah Wedo, of Niger-Congo origin; it is akin to the Kongo word nzambi, which means “god.” There also exists within the voudon tradition the zombi astral which is a human soul that is captured by a bokor and used to enhance the bokor's power.”

  The general stood and finished closing the meeting, “Gentlemen, as you can see this research and compound is extremely beneficial to our military. The testing results and all the information are before you. This information and testing are strictly confidential and of the highest, top secret, priority. There is no way any of this information can or should be leaked to the public. In our positions and ranks, we have taken oaths of secrecy and silence; therefore, we are all accountable to keep it this way. Dr. Weiss, we will convene tomorrow and discuss the future of your program and continuing research.”

  Chapter Four

  That night, while the officers and scientists broke for the evening, some of the officers were meeting in the mess hall and discussing sports and other random world events. Some privates and sergeants were sitting nearby, eating their food from metal trays. The officers were keeping to themselves about the earlier meeting and seeing the testing, which had taken place in the conference room. The look on their faces said something different, because they all knew there was someth
ing wrong with the whole idea of injecting unknowing soldiers with a strange compound. What would they ultimately decide, to make the military an unstoppable entity, or knowingly send soldiers to their deaths in some laboratory?

  A heavy rain began falling against the windows of the mess hall. A strong wind had picked up and lightning began flashing in the distance. Moments later, thunder echoed out and rattled the loose objects all over the facility. The inhabitants of the facility braced for a rough and sleepless evening.

  The storm raged into the night and a thick layer of water covered the ground. Soldiers and military policeman walked through the rain in ponchos and protective rain gear, getting to their destinations as quickly as possible. Search lights wandered the base searching the night and lighting up the perimeter fencing of the base and vehicles patrolled along the fencing.

  The following morning, horns could be heard echoing across the base, indicating it was wake up time for the workers and soldiers at the base. Slowly, movement could be seen and the facility was slowly coming to life. The rain had stopped from the prior evening and a light breeze was blowing through the air. As the officers convened in the conference room, more and more of the scientists came into the room.

  General Raymond walked into the room holding a cup of coffee, “Gentlemen, it has come to my attention we have received orders, earlier this morning that the testing, Dr. Weiss is accomplishing, now received top priority from the highest office. Now, I know that many of you have concerns regarding the outcomes of the testing and what the effects will be on human subjects, but I can assure you, as well as Dr. Weiss, we will not proceed, unless the compounds can be introduced to a primate species and show us there will be no harmful effects.”

  The general sat and looked at the other officers, “Now is the time for you to all present your feedback and paperwork on yesterday’s presentation and your overall analysis.” The officers and members of the National Security Agency handed in their paperwork and feedback, which was passed up to the general. He collected all the binders and stacked them, neatly at his side. “We will keep all the agencies updated on the progress and in the loop with any new breakthroughs and concerns. Now gentlemen you are all excused from these proceedings. Dr. Weiss, if you would meet me after lunch, in my office, I would like to discuss how you are to proceed with further testing.”

  “Yes sir, thank you general.” The group slowly filed out of the conference room and down the hallways of the facility. The lights were flashing, on and off, on some of the ceiling panels and there was mumbling from some of the members of the N.S.A. and Department of Defense. It was obvious there were major concerns about a powerful compound that could manipulate life and death. What would happen if it fell into the wrong hands, how would the military and the offices of United States security be able to defend against such a weapon?

  Jan. 26, a missing vial of a nerve agent led to a 12-hour lockdown at the base. A statement said the missing amount, less than a quarter-teaspoon, of the nerve agent VX were discovered to be missing during an inventory check. "No one was ever in danger," the Army said in a statement. Nothing was said immediately about where the vial was found or why it was missing. On January 26, 2011 Dugway Proving Ground was placed on lockdown. A public affairs specialist for the installation would only say that the lockdown began at 5:24 p.m.

  Employees and soldiers were not allowed to leave the facility and those coming to work were not allowed in. There were no injuries, no damage and no threats reported on the proving ground. There were about 1,200 to 1,400 people at Dugway when the lockdown occurred. It was later announced that the lockdown was in response to the temporary loss of a vial containing VX nerve agent. The lockdown was lifted on January 27 following recovery of the material.

  Dugway’s gates closed at about 5:30 p.m., Mountain Time, Wednesday, but officials emphasized that no injuries or damages were reported and that no threats were received. The installation, has small amounts of chemical and biological weapons for defense testing purposes and is used to test conventional military weaponry and ammunition. It also is used by the U.S. Army Reserves and the U.S. National Guard for maneuver training. Normal traffic entering and exiting Dugway resumed at about 4:30 am, Mountain Time, Thursday.

  Up to 1,500 employees, military personnel, contractors and civilian workers, reportedly were forced to stay overnight at the facility. In a statement issued soon after the lockdown, a Dugway commander said authorities were “working as quickly and as thoroughly as possible to resolve a serious concern within the Test Area,” but didn't elaborate.

  The Centers for Disease Control's Web site said VX is an odorless, tasteless, man-made chemical warfare nerve agent in an oily liquid that evaporates about as slowly as motor oil. This is why some of the N.S.A. members and Department of Defense were so concerned. It is one thing to be working with some of the chemicals involved in warfare, but a compound that could manipulate the behavior and actions of humans was another story.

  The following weeks produced many busy days for General Raymond, answering phone calls, emails and replying to mail received from the different department heads of the different agencies involved in the base’s operations. The only response he could give was that testing on human subjects has not yet been approved and that Dr. Weiss was still busy with his assistants in the lab, developing, testing and applying the new compounds to primate subjects. The testing was a lighter compound of the CU1 and OU2 mixtures and slow progress was being made.

  Military officials from the Department of Defense and the top officials from the National Security Agency, including the Department of Homeland Security, were now all involved in the feedback and progress of Dr. Weiss’s testing. Dr. Weiss was strictly instructed he only communicate testing, feedback results and outcomes to the general directly, who would then disseminate the material and forward it to his contact and director of the highest department, which name he was to leave out of any communications for reasons of “plausible deniability.”

  Dr. Weiss’s assistant and a second scientist in charge, Dennis Kenmore was taking charge of the tours of the Bio-safety Level 1 zone. This included rigorous training with those included in the tours and a week long presentation. In the presentation, scientist Kenmore began with an introductory course on the first day. He was speaking to unnamed officials from the Department of Defense for the first course. “For those of you who have not gone through bio-safety training this will be an eye opener for many of you. If you have gone through the training, it will be a good refresher course for you.”

  “The concept of bio-containment, also called laboratory bio-safety, pertains to microbiology laboratories in which the physical containment of highly pathogenic organisms such as bacteria or agents such as viruses is required, usually by isolation in environmentally and biologically secure cabinets or rooms, to prevent accidental infection of workers or release into the surrounding community during scientific research. This is something that is taken very seriously by the all the members of this facility. With the general, down to the maintenance teams, charged with cleaning the base.”

  “Primary containment is the protection of personnel and the immediate laboratory environment from exposure to infectious agents and is provided by good microbiological technique and the use of appropriate safety equipment, such as biological safety cabinets. Secondary containment is the protection of the environment external to the laboratory from exposure to infectious materials and is provided by a combination of facility design and operational practices.”

  “Now many of you may have heard of the various rumors regarding some of the employees here being irresponsible or even removing potential compounds from the base. I can assure you that our security teams are on top of every potential security breach known and their training involves every possible scenario possible.”

  Dennis Kenmore worked at the base before Dr. Weiss was transferred from a remote and undisclosed location in Missouri. He would never discuss what his prior work detail en
tailed or what he was responsible for. As far as Dennis was concerned, the less he knew the better. “Now gentlemen, I am now going to take you through some of the work materials and equipment that we use in our day-to-day workloads and testing.” “Biological safety cabinets, the first commercially available in 1950, are fairly common devices. They are designed to provide effective primary bio-containment in laboratories working with highly infectious agents. Three general levels and types have been devised Class I, Class II, and Class III.”

  Dennis pulled a suit from the ground, held it up in front of the group and began putting it on, demonstrating how to properly and safely apply the suit, “Bio-safety suites are suites of laboratory rooms which are essentially equivalent to large Class III cabinets in which positive pressure personnel suits or "space suits" serve as the "outside" environment for workers. Examples include the bio-safety suites at USAMRIID at Fort Detrick, Maryland and the Maximum Containment Facility of the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia.”

  “I will now individually instruct you in putting on the suits and how to seal them correctly. This seal is an airtight seal that is essential in maintaining containment, preventing infection and allowing you to breathe inside the suit.” The members were each instructed on how to put on the suits and what to do in the event the suits were breached. The group then broke for the day and the members were instructed, by the general, to stay on the base for the week and not to leave for any reason.

  The following day representatives met to share knowledge and experiences regarding bio-safety, chemical, radiological and industrial safety issues that were common to the operations at the three principal biological warfare laboratories of the U.S. Army. Because of the potential implication of the work conducted at the laboratory, the conference was restricted to top level security clearances. Over the first week, the conference grew to include representatives from all federal agencies that sponsored or conducted research with pathogenic microorganisms.