The Amoeba From The Ash

by Mercedes Prunty

  “Tabitha, you know you and Ellen were both my best friend’s right? I loved you both equally… Even if I was a bitch to you sometimes, I was just… Jealous of how clever you were”, Alicia sniffed she noticed Glenn had gone out the room to give them some privacy.

  “I know, I’m the clever one remember”, she laughed but it hurt her and she clenched up in pain, “Remember when I was mugged in town and even though you both didn’t liked me you found it in your hearts to help me. Because under the whole Alicia ‘Mask’ is a girl with a big heart who is indeed clever, more than she lets on. You have to live on Alicia, for me, for Ellen… For everyone. Don’t let… Our memory… Fade and be forgotten”.

  “I won’t”, Alicia sobbed.

  “Take this”, Tabitha gasped and pulled out something from her bloody pocket.

  “What is it?”

  “The ring I got for my 18th from my parents. Its 18 carat you know… With a Tigers eye stone in the middle. Take it… And remember me”.

  “I…I…”

  “Just take it”, and she shoved it into Alicia’s hand with her own blood smeared one. “Please Alicia, don’t drag it out anymore, I can feel it coming, the change”.

  Alicia nodded and lay her friends head back on the carpet, “You ready?”

  She nodded.

  “Goodbye my friend”.

  “Goodbye…”

  Alicia lifted the hilt of the knife up, tears streaming down her face as Tabitha closed her eyes for the final time. Then she brought the blade down on her friend’s eye socket, making sure to hit the brain. Tabitha’s last breath exited her body and she didn’t take another.

  “I’m sorry”, Alicia wailed throwing off her mask and leaning up against a table, she cradled her face in her hands and sobbed, hot tears dampening them. “I’m so goddamn sorry”

  “Alicia”, Glenn whispered, “Come here” and he knelt down next to her, holding her head into his chest, “You did what was right, you did what needed to be done”.

  “Why me? Why am I still here and they’re not? She was the clever one not me”.

  “Because you need to look after me and Daniel”.

  “But I failed Daniel, I wasn’t there for him, I went running off in a strop and now he’s hurt. And I’ll fail you too”.

  “You didn’t fail Daniel, the world failed him, the world failed you, the world failed us all”.

  She sat there for a while not saying another word, lost in the heartache.

  A few minutes passed and he shifted on his knees, “We need to go. We need to catch up with the others”, he told her passing her the mask she had thrown. She took it and put it back on, her hands shaking and covered in Tabitha’s blood and then she placed Tabitha’s ring on her index finger, she would do right by her and wear it to remember her by.

  Then she said to him, “Could you do it? For me?”

  “Huh?”

  “If I… If I was going to turn, would you do that for me?” She asked him.

  “Yes and I hope you would do it for me too”, he replied.

  She looked up at him, her eyes wide with pain and fear, “I need to get to Daniel, I can’t let him down again”.

  “Then let’s go”.

  5.33pm Eastbourne District General Hospital

  Rosetta injected Daniel with the medicine that Ned had found, it was indeed still kept in the hospital and luckily was still in date but she had no idea whether it would work or whether the time limit had gone too far for it to reverse any damage.

  “Now what?” Pippa said irritated, “Has it worked yet?”

  Rosetta turned to the annoying woman and said, “I have only just administered it, I will not know for a while, not without running bloods and other tests”.

  “Well we’re at a hospital, what’s stopping you”, Pippa hissed.

  “What’s stopping me is that we haven’t seen any infected for a long while and I’m betting they are hidden deep in the catacombs of this place. I don’t want to go looking for trouble and anyhow we should just wait it out, even if I did take bloods it all takes time to get results, time we could just wait and see if it works”.

  “That is my son’s life we are talking about, I don’t want to just wait and watch to see if he turns”.

  “Then go do something useful then”.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Go find some supplies, food from vending machines, medicines”, Rosetta told her, “I don’t think we should stay here long, this place is giving me a bad feeling”.

  “What are we stocking up for?” Ned asked.

  “I’m going to try and contact my boss, see if I can have clearance to go to Germany. If I do, I will need supplies and so will you guys, you will all need to find somewhere safe to stay”.

  “We can’t go back home”, Ned said.

  “No”.

  “Can’t we just go with you?” Daniel asked his voice weak but trying to be strong.

  She smiled at him, “I don’t think it will be safe, I’m trained in this field of work. You guys aren’t, I can’t risk all your lives to come with me, plus the amount of infected there could make it a mine field”.

  “Here”, Ned said passing her a phone, “I found it in one of the lockers, use it, see if you can find out and stop this thing”.

  She nodded and dialled the number for the headquarters of the Public Health Organisation, it rang four times before a voice answered it, “Hello?”

  The voice wasn’t very professional in its tone, in fact the person sounded annoyed, angry that someone had called but Rosetta knew who it was and for him to not be professional scared her, “Dr Elias? It’s Doctor Rosetta Lawson from the Sussex Health Protection Team”.

  “Ah Doctor Lawson nice to hear someone is still alive”, he sounded washed out and wheezy, she could tell he had the symptoms of the illness without seeing him, “What can I do for you?”

  “The illness, is it caused from the meteor that hit Germany? Could it have mutated with the Amoeba in the Volcanic lake?”

  “Amoeba mutation seems most likely Doctor yes”.

  “I need permission and transportation to go to Germany. I need to study it to see what it is that is making everyone infected on such a high scale. I have administered the Amoeba vaccine on an infected person but I don’t know if it works yet… I was hoping by going to Germany I could make a more solid finding to make a true vaccine. To help stop this from killing more people”. She trailed off, “Sir?”

  “By all means Doctor go to Germany but I cannot provide transport, everyone is dead, everywhere is dead, England is dead. There is nothing left on this island”.

  “But we have to try right, if I can do something I could reverse the clock on all the infected?”

  “I don’t think that is possible, this country is too far gone. By the time you engineer one and come back there will be no one left to help”. He told her, “The Amoeba kills its host within a week usually. By the time you have it to hand most of the infected would have keeled over. There is nothing left here, there is no hope…”

  “Sir you don’t mean that, there is always hope”.

  “There is no hope this time Rosetta. But by all means go to Germany, do what you think you can do but I’m going home to spend my last hours with my wife and kids”. Then he hung up.

  She let the phone drop to her side in her hand.

  “Well?” Ned asked.

  “I can go but there is no one left to take me”, she said, “There is no hope left is what he told me”.

  “I could take you”, Ned said.

  “What?”

  “No”, Pippa ordered.

  He held up his hand to silence his wife, “I fly the air ambulance, the helicopter parked right outside on the helipad now. It could get us to Germany at a push”.

  “Really? You would do that?” She said.

  He nodded, “I let you down with the vaccine and Finch, so let me make things right by getting you there and it’s not like we have anywhere to call home here
anymore”.

  “And what will that achieve?” Pippa asked, “Taking her there and what? Leaving us here? What if you don’t come back?”

  “We’ll all go… Britain is gone right”, he motioned to Rosetta, “Her boss said so, so why don’t we all go and then eventually find somewhere that is safe for all of us, to start a fresh, to start again”.

  “And where do you think is safe Ned? We go to Germany it is going to be like here if not worse. Where on Earth is not hit by the ash yet?” Pippa said.

  “America”, Rosetta answered her question, “America is still ash cloud free, the weather systems have slowed it down from crossing the oceans to the other side. If I can find something else out about the Amoeba and take my evidence to them before the ash cloud hits them… Then maybe we could save a lot of people on that side of the pond”.

  Ned nodded in agreement, “We go to Germany, find out some things then we go to America”.

  “Will the helicopter make it that far?” Pippa asked.

  “If I can refuel in Germany it should carry us most of the way but… we might have to land on an island and contact them via some sort of comms link”.

  “Then what, just hope someone picks us up from some random island?” She hissed at her husband, “This is ridiculous”.

  “What would you prefer Pippa, to wait here and die? Or to die trying to live and save lives because I know what I would prefer”.

  “Of course it’s what you would prefer, you’re a paramedic and saving lives is what you do”.

  “You always said that’s what you loved about me”.

  “It was…It is…But we have Daniel and…Alicia to think about…”

  “Then we have to go to make sure they live on”, Ned told her, “I’ve made up my mind, we are going all of us, now let’s go find Alicia and Glenn”.

  ~

  Alicia stood just inside the main entrance to the hospital with Glenn, just out of the way of the ash, a cigarette in her shaking, bloodied hands. She took in a long drag and breathed out a shaking breath.

  “Do you think they will be long?” He asked, “Should we go look for them?”

  She shook her head making her now loose bun fall into a ponytail, “No, we wait here. They will come looking for us”.

  There was silence between them for a while until he broke it, “I love you”.

  She paused her breath and looked at him, “What?”

  “I mean it, I really do love you. I admire you for surviving, I admire your strength and doing what Tabitha and Ellen needed you to do. You need to remember that you are living on so they didn’t die in vain. You have killed but are still human and I love you for it”.

  Her bottom lip trembled as she thought about Ellen and Tabitha, “I don’t want to talk about them Glenn”.

  He nodded, “I know, I just wanted to tell you”. He held something in his voice, pain almost, was it because she didn’t say it back? She had told him so many times before that she did love him, that he meant so much to her but he had broken her heart… Now they were two very different people, even in just a few hours they had changed.

  “There you two are”, Ned exclaimed coming out from the main entrance, Pippa, Daniel and Rosetta in tow, “Did you find anything?”

  She looked up at her dad, “Huh?”

  “At the college, did you find what you were looking for?”

  She nodded, “Yeah”.

  “And?”

  “They’re… Gone now”.

  He nodded, “I’m sorry”, he put his hand on her shoulder. “Was it Ellen and Tabitha?”

  She nodded, “It’s ok, they’re in a better place now”, the words caught in her throat, choking her, “How’s… Did it work? Daniel? Did you find it?”

  He shrugged, “We found it and Rosetta administered it but we won’t know for a while but she seems hopeful about it”.

  “So what do we do now?”

  “We go to Germany, then America”.

  “Huh? Why there? Why America?”

  “It hasn’t been hit yet, it’s still ash and infection free”.

  “And Germany?”

  “To find some of the meteorite to take to the states so they can work on a better cure, a truer vaccine”, he told them both, “Rosetta said that as America will be on lockdown we may have to bargain our way in and information about a cure should secure us a way in”.

  “When do we leave?”

  “Once I have refuelled the chopper”, he smiled and set off to get the helicopter ready.

  7.40pm Germany – Laacher See

  The ocean whizzed past them all as Ned guided the helicopter towards their location in Germany. They could already make out from the bird’s eye view how damaged this part of the world was, the ash cloud had dispersed here mostly but all in its wake were bodies, hundreds, maybe thousands of them all lining the roads, the streets and the buildings… Everywhere was full of death.

  “Are they all dead?” Glenn asked Rosetta.

  She bit her lip and nodded, “The Brain-Eating Amoeba normally can kill an infected human within 3-7 days, my guess would be that after spreading the infection it will die out when there is nothing left to infect”. She felt sick inside, that the world could potentially lose mankind within a few weeks, that there would be nothing left of humans other than their skeletons ready for the next intelligent life to discover them in thousands of years, wondering what killed off the humans.

  “We’re here”, Ned called out, pointing to a large crater type hole with bubbling and smouldering water. Buildings had been destroyed within a blast radius but some still half stood. Rosetta could make out in the distance the old Maria Laach Abbey, the Romanesque building half standing and half melted by the soaring temperatures that would have rocked this part of the town. Then she spotted something, “There, there it is”. There was a large portable lab on the grounds, the letters reading ‘NASA’ were clear to see.

  Ned circled for a moment finding somewhere safe to land then brought the bird down. Whilst he was doing this Rosetta gave Daniel quick look over, so far it all seemed good, he wasn’t showing any symptoms and it had been over two hours since she had administered the vaccine. As the whirring of the propellers slowed Ned opened the doors and they all climbed out, “I don’t think we should all go”, he told her, “I think some of us should stay here to guard the helicopter, if there are survivors they would see this as their ticket out of here, although I would try to help them we need to keep it safe for us”.

  “Ok that’s fine, who’s coming with me?” Rosetta asked knowing full well who would volunteer, Alicia and Glenn came forward, Pippa, Ned and Daniel all stayed put, “Right we won’t be long, I just want to see what it is NASA found and whether it will help with the vaccine. Keep an eye on Daniel, any changes come and get me but at the moment he looks stable”.

  Ned nodded, “I will”.

  “Hurry this up, this place gives me the creeps”, Pippa shivered.

  Rosetta had to admit it didn’t make her feel good being here either, it was silent, no noise of anything, no creatures, insects, humans, the only occasional sound was the hissing and popping of the boiling water in the volcanic lake and the dry cracking of the cooling lava.

  “Give us half an hour. Any trouble we leave sooner”, with that she walked towards the NASA lab with Alicia and Glenn in tow behind her. She noticed how Alicia already had her knife out at the ready, Glenn had a long pole in his grasp but Rosetta had nothing to arm herself with. She began to feel foolish, having a seventeen year old and an almost nineteen year old armed to protect her, she needed to find something to arm herself with so she wasn’t a dead weight in their small group.

  The walk to the lab was hot, the ground moved under foot slightly as the cooling lava throbbed under the hard crust on top making it feel spongey but not enough to fall through but she did warn them to tread carefully, that was all they needed was someone to fall into the hot lava but she knew from her studies at college on Volcanos that lava
did actually cool quickly. The whole place was steaming and she could feel the sweat pouring down her face, off her neck and down her back. She reached the lab door first and turned to the other two, “We go in low and slow, I have no weapon and I feel guilty for asking you but…”

  “It’s ok”, Alicia smiled, “You’re the doctor, you do the searching and we’re do the rest”.

  “You sure that’s ok?”

  “Doc, I have no idea what to look for you do. Now come on let’s do this, I’m sweating buckets”, Alicia said and tapped her knife on the door, almost like knocking.

  “Why you knocking?”

  “In case anyone is still alive, or half alive”, She replied.

  There was no noise so Alicia grabbed the handle and nodded to Glenn, he stood poised at the ready with Rosetta now at the rear, “3,2,1” and she pulled the door open to reveal, no one, just an empty lab.

  They walked in closing the door behind them and were welcomed by the coolness of an air-conditioning unit. The lab was small but well kept, microscopes lined one wall with objects all placed on them in Petri dishes to be studied, jars of liquids and solids where labelled and stacked up in cupboards, notes on papers were strewn around like someone had left in a hurry. The florescent lighting was harsh in the small space but gave them scope to see everything. She went over to the microscopes and glanced over them, the Amoeba was present in all of them in all three stages of its life cycle, the cyst was in one, the mutation on it but not thriving, it was in a fairly dormant state. The next one held the Throphozoite which was the infectious form of the Amoeba, again the mutation was there, moving around trying to find its new host. The last form was the Flagellate form. Then she then moved onto the last microscope and viewed it, her heart stopped, inside it was the Brain-Eating Amoeba with the mutation but it lookeddead. She pulled away and took the Petri dish to examine the writing written on the outside. ‘Amoeba Vaccine’.