The Dead World (The Dead Room Trilogy Book 2)

by Erickson,Stephanie

Mendi’s laughter started out quiet—a chuckle. It grew until he was jumping up and down, hugging Ashby, and then they were both laughing. Ashby’s assistant stood in the corner. She was crying happy tears as the two men celebrated the breakthrough.

  “How about that champagne?” Mendi asked.

  “Yes, sir. I do believe it’s time.”

  As they sat on the round metal stools, toasting the surviving rat, Mendi had a question. “So, what’s next?”

  “Chimps, I think.”

  “Mmm,” Mendi said through a sip. “Bit early for that, don’t you think?”

  Mendi was still working with chimps, having held off on his own human trials, wanting some assurance his technique worked before exposing actual people to it. Ashby could appreciate that, but the excitement of his own breakthrough pushed him forward.

  “No. We’ve proven it works in rats. That’s all you need to do really. I’m confident it will work on the next step. The science is there.”

  “I don’t doubt that, but there’s a lot to think about…variables to consider.”

  Ashby bristled. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying you shouldn’t be reckless with the science. It could cost you. Take the time to duplicate your results is all. Better safe than sorry, don’t you think?” His tone was anything but hostile, but all Ashby heard were the words, and they cut him to the core.

  “Just because you’re being overcautious doesn’t mean it’s entirely necessary or that we all have to proceed the same way.”

  Mendi tipped his head and raised his glass, conceding the point.

  Ashby sat rigidly on his stool, his moment ruined by Mendi’s doubt. He set his glass down hard on the metal table in front of them, no longer in the mood to celebrate.

  He stood so abruptly, Mendi nearly spilled his drink. “Well, I have a lot of paperwork to do now. Thanks for sharing a drink.”

  Mendi’s mouth hung open, half-full glass still in hand. “Now, Ashby, don’t be like that.”

  But Ashby didn’t respond. Instead, he went to his workstation and diligently started opening files.

  Mendi sighed. “Ben, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

  Ashby cut him off. “No problem, Mendi. I’ll catch up with you later.” He waved a hand over his shoulder at him without turning around.

  Mendi shrugged and left. Once Ashby was alone in the lab, he seethed for a few moments. Mendi was just jealous. How dare he try to stop his progress? But, soon, the rage subsided, replaced by logic. Mendi wasn’t the jealous type. Unlike Ashby, he was always happy for his friend’s successes. What if what he’d said actually held some merit, because he really did have Ashby’s best interests at heart?

  Ashby shook his head as he stared at the forms he had to submit to get his research ready for the next step. Getting chimps would mean a total changeover of his lab. Pages and pages of data, paperwork, and disruptions. It would be a project all on its own.

  His assistant reappeared. “Mr. Ashby?” she said, voice almost tentative, apparently sensing his unstable mood.

  “Yes?” Reluctantly, he turned his chair around to face her.

  She held out a small index card to him. “If you use this login information, I’ve had most of the forms filled out for you for weeks. You just have to fill in the successes, update the dates, and provide your online signature. Then, you’re good to go.”

  He could kiss her. He jumped out of his chair and hugged her, startling the girl. “Thank you, Hope. You’ve saved me days of work here.”

  “I know.” It was frank but not arrogant. Of all the people he’d had working in his lab, Hope was unique. She genuinely wanted to help him, not just further her career or move on to the next thing. She wanted to be helpful to him in this moment. And she was. Hugely.

  “Do you think it’s too early to submit?” It was only one rat after all. The risks were enormous. But they didn’t have time to wait. Mendi was breathing down his neck with successes. More than that, he believed in his bots.

  “Would I have filled everything out for you already if I did?”

  Ashby smiled widely at the girl, again filled with the urge to kiss her. “I knew I kept you around here for something.” He winked at her, and she smiled sheepishly. His mind raced with the possibilities of what was to come as he turned back to the computer.

  She’d filled out just about everything. Enough that he could submit that day if he wanted to. He wasn’t sure he should. Maybe he should sit on it for a night. Sleep on it. Make sure his rats were still doing well in the morning.

  His finger hovered over the touch screen while he watched the cursor blink in the last empty field. An online signature was all that was needed to say the information was true and correct.

  “To hell with it.” He flourished a signature in the field and hit submit, and then refilled his champagne glass, toasting the screen.

  “Godspeed to us.” Taking a sip from the glass, he turned his back to the monitor and watched his assistant as she carefully removed their prized rat from his cage and gingerly petted him.

  For every breakthrough, there were at least two setbacks. Ashby knew this well, and so did Mendi. Ashby just hadn’t expected this type of setback. The disappointment hit him in a way it never had before. He had so much riding on that breakthrough, and it all came crashing down with a single rat.

  With his approval for chimps still pending, he reluctantly dialed Mendi. Although Ashby and Mendi continued speaking, eating lunch together, and going on as if nothing had happened between them, there was a distance, a coolness that wasn’t there before. And now, Ashby had to reach out to his friend. Bridge that gap. He warred with himself, hating that he needed the man, but still needing him just the same.

  Swallowing what was left of his pride, he dialed Mendi’s lab.

  “Mendi.”

  “My rat died.”

  “The survivor? Why?” The concern in Mendi’s voice was clear as a bell. Suddenly, Ashby felt like an idiot for causing the fight to begin with.

  “I was hoping you could tell me that.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  And just like that, whatever had happened was water under the bridge. Mendi was at his friend’s side at the necropsy table yet again, but what they found was surprising.

  The rat looked just like the last one. Its innards had been decimated by the bot until there wasn’t enough left to sustain life.

  “How long had the rat been sick?” Mendi asked, his voice muffled through his mask.

  “A while,” Ashby admitted. He never figured out why, although seeing it now, he should’ve. The bot hadn’t stopped when its quarry was gone. Seek and destroy was its mission until it was turned off, but it wasn’t really that easy. Once inserted, the bots couldn’t be turned off without doing collateral damage. At least, not yet.

  “This is a problem,” Ashby said, sitting down on the round metal stool behind him. He tossed both of his gloves on top of the rat for good measure.

  “For every problem, there is a solution.”

  Ashby searched his brain. “Who’s going to want a cancer-eating robot that also eats your entire body once your cancer is gone? It’s an exponentially worse side effect than anything on the market today. It’s a death sentence.”

  “Those are the facts, not the solution,” Mendi said, frustrating Ashby a little bit.

  He took a breath, trying hard not to lash out at his friend. “What do you suggest?” he asked through gritted teeth.

  “All you need to do is teach the bots to heel.”

  That night, Ashby stayed late, writing feverishly in the journal. Teach the bots to heel. He said it like it was so easy. But the more he thought about it, the more complex it was.

  Then, an idea hit him, and he dialed his friend. “What if I just shut it down and left it in the body? Then it wouldn’t destroy anything else. Right?”

  “Hello to you too,” Mendi said.

  “Is that right or not? You’re the doctor.”r />
  “It is and it isn’t. You need to get the bots to do their job as quickly as possible. The rats may die anyway, because the bots might poison the subjects. Radioactive materials don’t play well with the human body. More studies would have to be done to see what damage they could do in the long term.”

  “Mmm,” Ashby said, thinking. More time. More studies. It was a luxury he didn’t have, with Mendi and his miracle cure breathing down his throat.

  “It certainly is a step in the right direction, if nothing else, Ben,” Mendi offered, and Ashby could hear the clanging of a plate landing in the sink.

  He glanced at his watch. It was later than he thought. He’d missed dinner. “Yeah. Thanks. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”

  Dinner. The thought made him pick his phone back up. It only rang once before his wife picked up.

  “Where are you?” she asked, more than a little irritated.

  “I’m sorry, love. I’m still at the lab. I had a bit of a setback today, and I’m trying to work it out.”

  “Yeah, well, your setback is ruining my dinner. I’m trying to salvage it as we speak.” She seemed stressed out.

  “I’m so sorry. I’ll be home soon.”

  “Good,” she said, a bit more shortly than usual. Then she hung up.

  That wasn’t like her at all. They always said I love you at the end of a conversation. He decided to swing by the store and pick up some cheap flowers on the way home as a gesture of good will.

  Glancing at his watch, he stood. It was already after seven. If he left right away, he could be home in forty-five minutes.

  He grabbed his keys out of the small desk drawer, his coat off the back of his chair, as well as the journal he’d been going in circles with, and walked out the door, hoping to salvage part of the night.

  Judy was over it by the time he got home, all smiles and sunshine for him. She was even a bit flushed.

  She sat with him while he ate, saying she’d already eaten with Ashley, who’d gone out with some friends. They were alone for the evening.

  After so many years of marriage, they knew better than to squander such an evening. They sat on the couch and watched their favorite show together, getting nearly caught up.

  Around eleven, Ashley came in and kissed them both, heading off to her room. She was a beautiful girl, favoring Judy with flowing curves, long brown hair, bright green eyes, and a magnetism unique to her. Boys were always calling her, but lucky for Ashby, his daughter had the same level head his wife did, and she kept most of them at arm’s length.

  As Ashby lay in bed next to his wife, he thought of Mendi. Ashby had gotten the girl, but he wanted Mendi’s success. The desire drove Ashby to stay late that night and irritate his wife.

  “Judy, why do you think Mendi never married?” he wondered aloud.

  The question seemed to catch her off guard. “Well, I’m sure I don’t know. We don’t really talk about it much.”

  “No, we don’t either.” Ashby wasn’t sure why he even cared. Except that, maybe the distraction would slow the man down. Give Ashby a chance to fix his problems and get back on track.

  “Maybe you could set him up with a friend from your book club?” Ashby asked.

  “I most certainly will not do that,” she said, more than a little defensively.

  “I didn’t mean to upset you, dear. I’m sorry. I just thought Mendi might like some companionship.”

  “Chris is an attractive man, perfectly capable of finding a woman if he wanted to. Seems to me since he hasn’t done that, he doesn’t want to.” The certainty in her tone let Ashby know he’d struck a chord.

  He knew it has been hard for Judy to choose between the two of them, but that had been almost two decades ago. Maybe Mendi would always have a small piece of her heart. Ashby frowned at the thought.

  “Goodnight, love.” She ended the conversation and left Ashby completely in the dark.

  In the months that passed, Mendi decided it was time to submit his paperwork for human trials. He’d had success after success with his DNA editing, and finally felt comfortable enough moving forward.

  Ashby’s lab was in upheaval as it was being changed over to accommodate the chimps. He wasn’t sure how he’d gotten any work done during the transition, but by some miracle, he’d made progress, and was very excited to start working with the chimps.

  Just before they closed up shop for the day, Mendi popped his head into Ashby’s lab.

  “What’s that?” he asked, gesturing toward a small, black box.

  Frankly, Ashby wasn’t sure how he’d spotted it among the chaos. Chimp cages were all along the back wall, and they took up a tremendous amount of real estate. As a result, he’d be working with smaller numbers. Less room for error, that was for sure. That was the point of advancement though, once a scientist got to chimps, there should be less error.

  “It’s a containment box. If I’m going to think realistically about human trials, and the bots being at other facilities, I have to be safer about the containment of the bots. I can’t have them running higgledy-piggledy all over. They’d kill people.” The matter of fact way he said it had Mendi doing a double take at his friend.

  “Can’t have that,” he said cautiously as he walked over. “Perhaps some further programming would help with that little problem.”

  “That too,” Ashby admitted. The programming was next on his agenda.

  “What is this?” he asked, pointing to the material the box was made of.

  “NASA helped me out with it. It’s light, strong, and not something the bots can eat through. Exactly what the doctor ordered.” Ashby couldn’t hide the enthusiasm in his voice.

  “Look,” he said, turning the box over. A complicated mass of wires and circuitry were underneath. “I’ve taught them to heel.”

  “You did?” Mendi’s voice went up as his own excitement mounted.

  “Well, I think I did. I need to run some tests.” He turned the box back over and set it on the table.

  “Do your tests tomorrow, Ben. Let’s go home.”

  Ashby fiddled with the circuitry. “Hot date tonight?” He didn’t know what had come over him. He never made flippant comments about Mendi’s love life. They had an unspoken agreement not to discuss it. So what possessed Ashby to violate that was beyond him.

  “Yes, with you and Judy,” Mendi said through a laugh. “We’re having dinner at your place, remember?”

  Ashby had forgotten all about their dinner plans. “Right. Well, let’s go then.” He looked longingly at the box.

  “It will still be here in the morning,” Mendi assured Ashby. He knew Mendi was right.

  Reluctantly, Ashby left his groundbreaking work behind, and went to have dinner with his family.

  Over the next few months, Ashby perfected his little black box, and the bots performed beautifully. Not only could he more safely insert them into the subject, but he could also recall them without destroying them. Rather than having them wasted, by just being sweated out, he could actually reuse them. Even better, the chimps took to it beautifully.

  Over a year went by with one success after another. Finally, Ashby felt ready to apply for human trials. In the meantime, Mendi’s paperwork had been held up. Something about lost paperwork, and then someone taking a leave of absence. It was frustrating to say the least. But Ashby held out hope that he might be able to catch up to the steely-eyed missile man.

  Still, time dragged on endlessly as he waited for his approval to start human trials. He’d miss the chimps. Even he’d become quite fond of them. They were much more affectionate than the rats, and they had personalities. A handful of them had been with him the entire time. Hope was, well, hopeless… already crying about their departure.

  And then, rather suddenly, his wait was over.

  He knocked on Mendi’s door. “Yeah!” his friend shouted from inside.

  Ashby went in, silently holding the piece of mail. He couldn’t believe he’d gotten his before Mendi. He’d
applied over a year before him. And yet, here it was. Maybe that meant he’d been rejected.

  “What’s this?” Mendi asked, removing a pair of small, steel-rimmed glasses and putting them on the table next to the computer where he’d been working.

  Ashby didn’t respond. He simply held the mail out for his friend.

  Mendi smiled and let out one short chuckle, puzzled by Ashby’s behavior.

  Then he saw the return address. “This is it.” He turned the mail over excitedly. “Why haven’t you opened it?”

  Ashby couldn’t speak. His mouth wouldn’t form words. It was too dry. Or maybe he was drowning in saliva. He wasn’t sure. He couldn’t think.

  Mendi laughed again, putting an arm around Ashby. He didn’t show a trace of jealousy, or resentment. “Come, sit down. We’ll open it together.”

  That was just fine by Ashby, as long as together meant Mendi opened it for him.

  Positioning Ashby in a rolling stool next to his desk, Mendi pulled a gold letter opener from the drawer and sat facing him, holding his future as a scientist and engineer in his hands.

  “Do you think it’s a rejection? Since it came before yours?” Ashby asked, his mind reeling. “Do you think you should call them, and find out where yours is?”

  “This isn’t about me. I’m not worried. Mine will come when it comes. This is yours. And there’s only one way to find out if it’s a rejection.” He held the opener to the letter and eyed Ashby. How could Mendi be so calm about it? Ashby was a total wreck, and he’d waited a quarter of the time Mendi had.

  “Do it,” Ashby whispered.

  Mendi took a deep breath. With one fell swoop, he opened the letter, releasing Ashby’s future into the world.

  With steady hands, Mendi took out the folded paper. Ashby didn’t know what his friend was hoping to read, but he was certainly calmer about it than Ashby. He rubbed his palms against his black slacks as he waited for Mendi to get to the point.

  “You have it,” he said. Was that disbelief in his voice? Or was Ashby just being paranoid?

  Mendi looked up at his friend, smiling widely. “You have it!” he said again, loudly and with clear enthusiasm this time.