by C. J. Boyle
JoJo's eyes started to tear up a little bit. He glanced at her briefly and back to his hands. "How'd you get past it?"
Kera didn't know it but Brody and Dr. Wallace were watching them from the doorway. Kera took a deep breath. "These people," she shook her head and smiled weakly, "they act like they can't get along without me. They need me."
A tear ran down his face. He was clearly trying not to cry, but it wasn't working. "Yeah, well, no one needs me."
Kera leaned over and hugged him. "That's not true." From behind them, Brody tried to enter but the doctor held him back until the hug was over.
Dr. Wallace and Brody walked into the clinic. Dr. Wallace looked at JoJo and nodded, "Hello." He looked at Kera and then noticed the pills all over the floor. "What happened here?"
Kera felt her face turn red. "It's just Advil. I have a headache." The doctor grabbed his little flashlight, leaned over, and then shined it in both of her eyes. When she tried to flinch away he grabbed her chin and held her still. She pushed the flashlight away. "I said it was just Advil, Uncle Shawn!"
Brody looked at JoJo. "When I brought you that chair, you said you were a cameraman?"
JoJo wiped his face with his hands and sniffed, "Yeah."
"So, you know a little about electronics?"
"I'm a god in that respect." JoJo showed no signs of joking.
Brody pulled out his radio. "These are the radios we use. We can use them within a twenty-five-mile radius of the prison. We need a way to talk between here and Denver."
JoJo examined the walkie. "Sat-phones would be the best option but I assume you don't have many of those," he looked up at Brody. "The only way you could have a twenty-five-mile radius is if you had a signal repeater. Denver is roughly forty-five miles away. There has to be a repeater tower somewhere between here and there." He shook his head, "But the repeater needs power." He started thinking to himself.
Carl walked in and heard the end of what JoJo was saying. "This entire place runs on solar panels and wind energy. If there is a repeater on the grounds, it's probably hooked up to a solar panel." He thought for a moment. "We have extra ones in the workhouse out back. The maintenance crew would switch out the bad ones for good ones and then repair the bad ones."
Brody took a deep breath, "Seems like we're forming a plan. Carl, why don't you stay here and see what can be done?"
Carl nodded, "Yeah, sure."
Kera grinned at JoJo, "Looks like you're needed after all."
~ The War Room ~
Martha walked into her lab deep in thought. She didn't feel any closer to unlocking the secrets of the Link virus then she was three months ago. She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a commotion coming from the containment area. She put her laptop and research papers on the counter and headed toward the noise. She blasted through the doors of the observation area and saw three of her assistants standing in front of the glass enclosure staring intently at a Link. Martha instantly got a bad feeling. She slowly approached them with her eyes trying to find what it was they were looking at. When she was finally able to see the Link, it was obviously in serious distress. Normally Links had a pale almost white color. They turned pink in warm or hot air. This one was almost blue.
"Dr. Decker, look, it's been almost twenty minutes!" One of the young techs exclaimed when he noticed her.
Martha was alarmed. She looked at the panel in front of the window. The techs had turned off the Link's oxygen. She pushed one of them out of the way and turned it back on. She watched as the Link began taking long deep breaths. Its color slowly turning back to pink. "What the hell is going on here!"
"We cut off its air for five minutes the first time and it..."
"THE FIRST TIME?" Martha was distraught and deeply concerned.
The young tech realized by the look on her face that he was probably in big trouble. He pointed at the Link, "It almost passed out and we turned the air back on."
"Yeah, and then when we did it again...it somehow adapted," another tech added.
Martha was appalled but couldn't help being impressed by the Link's ability to adapt. She looked at the Link and then back at the three of them. "This creature might be someone you used to know and you just tortured it and laughed while you did it. You're all fired."
"With all due respect, doctor, you can't fire us." The first tech looked at her bravely.
"No?" Martha stepped forward and looked down at him. "But you won't be working with me anymore. Go back to whomever it is that you report to for re-assignment or I'll personally have a discussion with Colonel Cockran on the matter." She pointed to the door, "Now get out of here."
She followed them out and closed the door. She was headed to the War Room for a briefing when she got distracted by those, for lack of better words, fucktards. The Links didn't murder and torture. They fed. They cared nothing about the terror their prey felt. They are what they are. Torturing the creatures, in her opinion, was just wrong. As she walked out of the lab she instructed the guards not to let anyone in while she was gone. She hurried to the meeting knowing full well she'd be scolded for being late.
She walked into the War Room and placed her folders on the table. Colonel Cockran and some other high ranking officials were at the table. General McNally sat next to him. Several monitors around the room featured more people from around the globe. Cockran looked at her sternly. "Dr. Wallace, weren't you the one who called this meeting?"
She looked around the room. "Sorry, everyone. I came straight from the lab." She didn't bother to sit. She didn't really have a speech prepared and she wasn't exactly a good public speaker. She looked up at the monitors. A few of the people she saw had been her colleagues for years. "Hello, everyone. My name is Dr. Martha Decker. As some of you know, I worked with the CDC for years until this Link Virus started changing people and the military recruited me to work for them." She sighed, "I've conferred with a lot of you over the last few months and I'm afraid that we aren't any closer to understanding the Link Virus than we were when this all started." She walked over to one of the largest monitors and stood in front of it. She picked up a clicker and pressed the button. A picture of a Link before The Turn appeared. "There are a lot of new people in this meeting. Some of you are on video and some of you are on phones. I'll be repeating some of the things you are already aware of so that everyone has the same information and we are all up to speed. Here is what we know about the Links so far." She took a deep breath, "The Link virus rapidly evolved about half of the humans on the planet. At first, it seemed like the changes were beneficial and mostly harmless until all of the Links seemed to make a full transformation at the same time. We call it 'The Turn'. There was widespread chaos." She paused for a moment. "Of which I feel I don't need to get into. We all know what happened. Planes fell from the sky, cars crashed, yadda yadda yadda." She clicked the remote. And a fully transformed Link appeared behind her. It was almost white and looked like a very tall and thin monkey with amphibious traits. "The Links are still evolving. I and my colleagues believe that the creatures have evolved to survive almost any environmental catastrophe." She looked around the table. Cockran seemed bored. "If I were to design a creature that would survive a nuclear winter, this would be it." She pointed to the screen again. "It can survive in both extreme cold and extreme heat. They can see in almost complete darkness and, like sharks, they can smell a drop of blood from a mile away. They immediately fed on every food source in sight in order to store up energy for a long period of time without food. They..."
"Excuse me," one of the men on a monitor interrupted, "are you saying that the Virus's function was to evolve humans to survive a global event? But there wasn't one!"
"No, there wasn't. Nor does it appear as if there will be. But Link Zero was from the Younger Dryas era. Just before an ice age. When they dug her up in Siberia..."
"This is all just theory!" Another person interjected.
"That's true. Except what we have learned about the Links isn't theory. It
's fact. As I've said, they can survive extreme cold or heat. They can go without eating for several months and...apparently, they can adapt very quickly to changes in oxygen levels." The room got very quiet. She cleared her throat. "And just to be clear, all of us "normals" were infected with the virus as well. It's in our blood too, so all of you who think some kind of germ warfare against the Links would be a good idea...it would probably kill us too." The Colonel suddenly looked up at her. "I hear things. People talk." She was speaking to him personally, but everyone was interested. "We still have no idea why they changed and we didn't. Also, as most of you know, regardless of how they started out, they are all female now."
"And what do we know about females?" Colonel Cockran looked around the room. He looked like he hadn't slept in days. "Anyone?" He looked around again. He lifted his hand up to Martha and shrugged, signaling her to continue.
"Females have babies." She nodded at Cockran.
"Females have babies!" He repeated.
"But if there are no males, then how can they have babies?" The voice came from the speaker.
"Dr. Decker, may I?" A black man with a British accent on one of the monitors spoke out. Martha nodded to him. "My name is Dr. Nathan Dixon. I'm in Wiltshire's Underground City in England. We planned for this eventuality, so the inhabitants of the city were hand selected. Many of us are doctors and scientists. Our theory is that the Links will eventually reproduce with a form of parthenogenesis." He thought for a moment, "Basically that means without the need for male fertilization. It's quite often seen in nature. For instance, there are two documented cases of kimono dragons that laid eggs and produced viable offspring without any contact with a male." He looked around the room from his monitor. "But I think we have some time before that happens. If these changes are a result of perceived global threat, the Links won't reproduce until conditions are stable and favorable. As Dr. Decker stated, they seem to be adapting and changing still. At first, they didn't like to be out in sunlight, but now their eyes have adapted and they move about freely. But they still eat just about everything that moves."
Cockran shook his head, "I say that we just kill 'em all."
Some of the people agreed.
Martha looked at him like the pathetic bastard that he was. "It's too soon for that. There are still some very important things we have to work out before making a decision like that."
"Agreed." Dr. Dixon and a few others said. "We need a few months before any big decisions that, we as people, can't come back from."
"I'm not willing to wait more than six months. After that, all bets are off." Cockran looked at the General who sat next to him.
General McNally sighed, "Agreed."
~ The Shopping Spree ~
Kera and Brody were sitting in the back of a speeding moving van with three other people. All of them were dressed like some sort of militants and heavily armed. The burly man with the scraggly beard sat next to Kera. She held the gold locket that hung from her neck and rubbed it. Every time she looked at him she remembered the unfortunate circumstances in which they met. Of course, during the last three months, she learned his real name. She looked at Dave who winked at her. He was a sweet man but definitely super gay. Brody was sitting across from her, staring at her. She sneered at him, "What are you looking at?"
Brody looked surprised for a moment and then smiled. "The prettiest girl in here," he said then glanced at Dave, "no offense, Dave."
Dave gave Kera a sideways glance then looked back at Brody. "Despite recent events, I don't think she likes you."
Dave's words informed Kera that everyone was aware that she and Brody left the party together and assumed that they 'hooked up'. She couldn't remember what happened the night before. All she knew was that she woke up in Brody's arms and that they both were completely dressed.
Brody looked at Kera and smiled like he knew something no one else did. "Don't be ridiculous. She loves me."
Dave laughed heartily, "No offense, Brody, but I have a better chance with her than you do."
Kera laughed too. She couldn't help it. It was funny. She smacked Dave in the upper arm. "That was mean! True. But mean!" She leaned into him and they both laughed.
Watching Kera laugh made Brody's face light up and he laughed too. After the laughter died down they all made small talk. They were actively trying to avoid talking about the shopping spree. A shopping spree is exactly what you'd imagine it to be in a post-apocalyptic world. A bunch of people with a truck and guns go into a place and scavenge whatever they can find and, hopefully, don't get killed whilst doing it. When the truck lurched to a stop, everyone grabbed their guns and started checking them, loading them, and checking the sites. The back of the truck rolled up letting the sun sear holes in Kera's eyes and then into the back of her head. The driver stood there looking at them all squinting at him. He was a dark-haired man of European descent in his thirties with a well-kept thin beard. "Hey Mitchell," Kera nodded at him and held her hand out. He helped her down off the truck. He was the only one of them actually wearing a bullet proof vest.
Mitchell's curly, black hair fell in his face, "We're in Joseph's territory."
"Yeah, I know. That's why Brody's going to bring him a donation," Kera looked at the boxes in the back of the truck, "it's part of our agreement."
Kera smoothed her jacket out. "Okay, everyone, same as always. If we encounter people that need help, this turns into a rescue mission instead of a shopping spree." She watched Brody jump down from the back of the truck. The other two men stayed where they were. "Does everyone have their markers and their radios?" They either nodded or actually showed them to her. "You have your lists. Mitchell, Dave, you're with me."
Brody stepped to her and grabbed her arm, "Kera. Wait."
Kera turned to him. "Brody, why are you up my ass all the time?" Brody looked hurt. "We'll meet you back here in two hours." She turned and walked away.
Dave and Mitchell walked behind her. Dave leaned in close to Mitchell, "If he was up her ass all the time, he'd be a much happier person." Mitchell laughed. The truck's engine revved up and it pulled away.
"I heard that," Kera glanced back at Dave.
"Why are we here anyway?" He looked at the informational sign next to him, "Hoover Medical Tower. I heard this place was horrible." He took out his marker and wrote: Need Help? New Hope Prison is a safe zone. He quickly scribbled the directions to the prison underneath the message and followed Kera.
"Horrible place or not, they still have medical supplies. Besides, the doctor wanted something specific." Kera watched Mitchell walk up to the building.
Mitchell held his gun expertly in front of him. He walked up to the door and found that it had already been broken into. He pulled open the glass-less door and held it for them both. Kera wondered just how long they had before the Links came out to play. She pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. "It's suite 108. It should be at the back." The hall was dark but at least it didn't smell like the usual blood, shit, and urine. She had been on many shopping sprees and somehow believed that she'd eventually get used to the danger. Like a policeman or a fireman. But each time she had to hold that gun with the probability of shooting someone or something, her heart rate would speed up so fast you'd think she was running a marathon.
"Here it is. 108." Mitchell stood next to the door. It was a solid door with a small window in it. He tried to open it. "No joy."
Kera grinned. No joy indeed. Dave and Mitchell faced away from the door pointing their guns down the halls while Kera took off her pack and searched through it. "Crowbar or hammer?"
"Hammer," they both replied.
Mitchell laughed, "Either way you're handling something long and hard."
Kera laughed and turned about three shades of red. "Mitchell, did I say or do anything that would make you believe that was okay?"
"Hey, I am what I am, baby," he scanned the hallway, "I ain't changin' for no one. Not even the beautiful Warden."
"Don't call me th
at, Mitchell." Kera stood in front of the door with the hammer.
"What? Beautiful or Warden?" Mitchell looked at Dave.
She did a silent prayer to the man above, asking him to keep them hidden from harm even though they were about to paint a target on themselves by making some noise.
"Just do it, Kera. Those bastards can see heat. Smell blood. Hear a pin drop. We might as well be swimming in shark infested waters while on our periods." Mitchell shot a smile at her. The man had dimples to die for. She shook her head at him.
"Gross," Dave looked at them both, "just gross."
Kera broke the glass with the hammer. It took her a few tries, but soon the glass was shattered and she reached through. "I can't reach the lock." She nodded at Mitchell who promptly took over. He strained but was able to reach it. Just as he got the door open, a pair of Links ran down the hall on all fours. Kera grabbed her gun, "Shit!"
Dave fired at one, but the creature was too fast. The Links were on top of the trio in no time at all. All three of them fired repeatedly. One Link jumped on Dave and sunk its teeth into his neck. Dave screamed. He jammed the shotgun into the Links' belly and pulled the trigger, blowing a hole through the bastard. The Link fell away from Dave as blood squirted out of his carotid artery. The remaining Link was instantly mesmerized by Dave's blood. It hesitated for just a moment allowing Kera and Mitchell enough time to fire at it. They hit the creature several times before it finally collapsed. Kera knelt down next to Dave and pressed her hand against his neck. Blood oozed through her fingers. She could see the terror in his eyes and it ripped at her heart and mind like an explosion tears away flesh. She watched him fight to breathe. Her mind raced as she tried to grasp the right thing to say in these final moments. There had to be something that would make him feel a little better before he slipped away. "I'm so sorry, David," she cried.