The Zyne Project
Page 8
***
Getting Rick’s body on the makeshift operating table was difficult. His body was engorged with fluids, making his normally stocky frame nearly impossible to lift. He had also become quite slippery; the ooze from his sores leaking out everywhere in a disgusting mess. They all found themselves gagging as they tried to maneuver around the liquid and ignore the acrid stench emitted from the decaying flesh.
Finally, after nearly ten minutes of struggling, they were able to hoist Rick’s body into position. It landed with a loud splat on the shiny metallic surface. The group immediately restrained him by tying his body down with a series of ropes they’d taken from the storage closet, wrapping it around his legs, arms, and knees.
When Rick was entirely secured, Dan went and quickly filled additional syringes with sedatives. He returned to the room and emptied several syringes into the unconscious man’s arm.
“Don’t want to take any unnecessary risks,” he said, grinning without any humor.
He then went and unlocked the cabinet containing the anti-therapy, carefully pulling out the vials. Extracting the bright blue liquid into a clean syringe, he found a vein and injected the infusion into Rick’s arm.
“I’m going to try this on Rick first,” Dan explained, “Then, we’ll know if it is safe to administer to Rosa.”
They all stood quietly for a moment, watching the creature sleep in a dark, unconscious haze. Even in this controlled state, the Rick-creature looked awful. His skull continued to pulse as blood leaked from his ears and nose. His useless eye was coagulating in its socket as the chasm separating the two sides of his face continued to glisten and run; a river of disintegrating flesh and sickness.
Suddenly, Rosa fell back as a sharp bolt of pain shot through her skull, traveling down to her toes. She dropped to the ground and watched as a stream of blood flooded her vision, leaking down into her nose and mouth. Gasping, she looked up at Dan and whispered, “Help me…”
Dan rushed over, and pulled off his lab coat, gently wiping down her face. The blood was coming from a gash in her forehead that had appeared out of nowhere, but was now slowly growing in a vertical fashion. He held the fabric close against the wound and pressed down to stop the blood from seeping out, while Rosa clutched his arm and shook against him.
“Why is this happening? What’s in the therapy you gave us?” she asked, pleading with him to provide her with some sort of explanation.
“I’m not sure,” he replied, “It could be that your cellular structure has been impacted by either the virus we used to transport the genes or it could be the genes themselves. I’m not sure and without the proper instrumentation and time, it’ll be impossible for me to figure out.”
Rosa was silent. She knew that if the infusion didn’t work on Rick…all was lost.
***
Once the bleeding stopped, Dan was able to leave Rosa’s side and check in on his other patient who was still lying on the table, snoring loudly. Blood had pooled under him and ooze continued to seep through and drip past the table on to the floor.
In the doctor’s experience, he knew that he had to give the infusion at least several hours before he could do any sort of tests, but he didn’t have that type of luxury. So, he found another unused syringe in one of the drawers, and carefully extracted some of Rick’s blood. He pulled out the syringe and set it down on the table, preparing to view slides under a powerful SEM microscope to see exactly what was going on with the cells. He pulled up a chair and set it down next to the equipment. When he was positioned properly, he carefully handled the blood, while moving as quickly as possible.
He sat and stared at the specimen under the lens. He could see all sorts of strange activity but wasn’t sure exactly what was going on. The red and white blood cells weren’t acting normally. If anything, they appeared to be dividing over and over. But as he watched, the cells weren’t replicating themselves; rather they were diluted somehow…and seemed like faded replicas of their original state.
Pushing his chair back from the table, Dan ran his hands through his hair. The original infusion was flawed…hence, the anti-therapy was also flawed. It only made sense.
How can you fix something, when you don’t know how bad it’s going to get? he thought bitterly.
Looking over, he watched as Rosa and Greg stood together against the wall. Rosa’s head rested against Greg’s chest and she stared out into space, pain reflected in her red eyes. Greg had his head against the wall, his eyes closed, as if saying a private prayer that would save them all.
Dan realized what he had to do. It was an extremely difficult decision for him to make, but there was no choice now.
Pulling the gun out of his pocket, he slowly pointed it at Rosa.
“Rosa, I’m sorry to do this, but I’ve got to restrain you. Please don’t hate me…but I’ve got to do this.”
Rosa stared at him in disbelief. Despite her pain, she was still able to hang on to clarity and looked into the barrel of the pistol as it pointed straight at her.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked. “I’m ok…I’m still ok. Can’t you fix…” her voice died away when she realized that the answer was now crystal clear. “You can’t cure me. I’m sick and there’s no way for you to fix me.”
“I’m not sure. Initial test results aren’t good, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work. We don’t want to make things worse, so I’ve got to make sure the infusion is safe before giving it to you. It’s probably best to restrain you until we can be certain of the outcome.”
Greg had not backed away from Rosa and was staring coldly at the doctor. He hadn’t said a word in hours, but now looked calm and serious. He stepped between Rosa and Dan. “Put down the gun,” he said, “If you don’t, you’ll have to kill me too and then you’ll have more blood on your hands than you can imagine. I’m not going to let you tie her up. She’s sick, but she’s not a threat. And you,” he said pointing at the doctor, “You caused this. You’re the reason all these people are dying.”
With that, he took Rosa’s hand and the two of them walked out of the laboratory. For a moment, Dan considered shooting them both, but realized that Greg was right. If he killed them, he would be arrested for murder, because Greg was healthy and unaffected.
But the decision to leave with Rosa worried Dan. She was very sick and changing rapidly. In his expert opinion, Greg was making a potentially deadly decision.
Chapter 6
Outside the Illusions building, there were layers of officials, guards, scientists, and gaping onlookers who had pulled over to see what all the commotion was about.
The first layer closest to the building consisted of armed national guardsmen who patrolled back and forth, guns cocked and ready to fire. They were positioned at every end of the building, sweating in the Florida sun, and a bit bored. This was not the most exciting assignment but according to their superiors…one that required the utmost scrutiny. They hadn’t been fully briefed about what was going on inside, but understood that a clinical trial involving gene therapy, and sponsored by a beauty products giant, had gone very wrong and the general public could be in danger. Immediate containment had been required and within a few hours of notification, the group had arrived and commenced quarantine.
Behind the national guardsmen, small white tents had been erected and were filled with government officials as well as representatives from the Zyne Corporation. With grim faces, reports were filed and updates were given as authorities at a much higher level kept an eye on the situation from afar.
One of Zyne’s top executives, Clarence Diamond, listened on a cell phone as his contact within the pentagon relayed instructions. The trial was a success in that it had proven that the infusion could create massive cellular changes capable of creating chaos and death, hence proving to be a powerful weapon in warfare scenarios when the enemy was contained in close quarters. With the infusion, the enemy would kill each other, saving the US military time and money. The element of hair color had
been a decoy, but also seemed to be working. It was a bit of a shame, but an understandable trade-off to ensure the creation of an ally for national security.
The inclusion of the celebrities had been anticipated. They’d been hand-selected for a reason. For starters, each of them was wanted dead, whether by their own families, or by others in very powerful places. The Zyne Project was the perfect opportunity to get rid of them for the benefit of national security as well as the almighty dollar. And they needed to be famous in order for the conclusion of the trial to make sense. Things were working according to plan. There were only two people Clarence would be reticent to lose…
Dr. Dan Johns and Rosa Rodriguez.
The two had become victims of the study. In order to maintain the highest level of confidentiality, the Pentagon had not revealed the purpose of the study to the CDC and had allowed them to send in one of their own investigators as a precautionary measure.
Damned leak, thought Clarence.
Once the CDC had discovered the trial, the high-profile nature of its subjects, and the danger of rushing to market, they’d intervened, but he’d been told not to worry. It would just be a minor distraction.
As for Dr. Dan Johns, a number of people had tried to convince him to not attend the study. In fact, they had hired a robust team of nurses and technicians to support efforts inside in an attempt to dissuade him from overseeing the trial.
He had…after all…perfected one of the greatest biologic weapons ever constructed…
But now, after listening to instructions, Clarence realized that like the others, Dr. Johns was a drop in the bucket…a minor player in a much larger game.
He also came to the realization that Zyne had just become one of the most powerful corporations in the world.
Chapter 7
It was getting harder to walk…harder to think…
Rosa and Greg made it outside to the pool area, where she motioned for him to sit next to her on one of the plastic white chairs strategically placed in order to catch the best rays of sun. But without the sun, the warm, humid air smelled a bit like plastic and it was difficult to take deep breaths. In the pool, Jennifer had slowly floated to the top and was now facedown in the water, her scalp shiny and red.
The gash on Rosa’s forehead started bleeding again and Greg grabbed a towel from one of the chairs, gently pressing it down. The gash was larger now, and as he looked closely, he could see that the skin on her face appeared stretched, with little marks lining her forehead and along the tip of her nose.
Rosa sighed sadly and allowed him to press down on her wound, despite feeling pain from the compression. It actually felt better to close her eyes, because within the past few minutes, she’d been feeling extreme pressure behind each orb. It was a pulsing pressure and she knew, after looking at Rick for nearly an hour that it would only be matter of time, before her poor eyes popped out of the sockets.
Tears formed and dripped down her cheeks. She couldn’t believe that she was going to die as a hideous creature. Normal life seemed so far away and they were now trapped.
Trapped until they died.
She gently moved Greg’s hand away so that she could look him in the eye. “I really appreciate you saving me back there. But I think you should leave me here. I could fully change at any time and I really don’t want to hurt you. It’s just that I’m not sure how long it’s going to be before I turn into something like Rick.”
Greg didn’t move, “I’m not leaving you,” he replied, “You’re sick…yes, I know that. But, you’re not scaring me and we’ve got to try to find a way out. Didn’t you say you were able to communicate with the people who have us trapped in here?”
Rosa nodded yes and pointed to the hole in the tarp. Surprisingly, it had not been covered over by the guardsmen and looked to her like the only beacon of hope in an otherwise yellowish prison.
As Greg stood up and walked over to the opening, Rosa called out, “Greg…be careful.”
He turned and smiled at her, then directed his attention towards the small hole. He was operating on adrenaline but at times throughout the day had reflected on how this job had turned his life upside down.
Greg was a pretty normal guy. He’d been unlucky enough to work at a Miami manufacturing plant in the product distribution department when the economy tanked, leading to extensive lay-offs throughout the company. When the plant manager had called him in for a ‘talk’, he’d been aware of his fate, even before any words were spoken.
After losing his job, Greg hunted around for months, searching for anything that would help him pay the bills. Despite living with a roommate in a beaten-down, old apartment, he was finding it financially challenging living on unemployment checks alone.
Then, he’d seen the advertisement online to become a part of the cleaning crew at the Illusions building. For the past year, he’d been helping out in all aspects of facilities…cleaning rooms, sweeping floors, delivering food…there was nothing he wouldn’t do.
Life had been getting better. Just getting a regular paycheck helped so much. He’d actually started saving a bit each week and was preparing to get his own place. He was dating a nurse he’d met at the gym and was actually looking forward to life. In fact, that same morning after a particularly intense lovemaking session that had left them both exhausted and happy - they’d been lying in bed and talking about the future.
He remembered how she had gently stroked his sensitive penis as she whispered how much she cared for him in his ear.
It had been amazing.
But then…this happened…and everything had stopped.
Greg was now operating on automatic and knew that he couldn’t stop to think too much about the possibilities. He wasn’t sure why all of this was happening, but did know that he couldn’t sit around and let the chips fall. He had to take control and part of that meant caring for Rosa while they looked for a way out.
There had to be a way out.
Stepping up on the chair that was positioned underneath the gap in the yellow material, he cupped his mouth and shouted out, “Hello? Can anyone hear me?”
Silence followed, so he tried again, “Hello? Can anyone hear me? We need help!”
Now, there were sounds of gravel and feet shuffling. A loud almost robotic male voice responded through a megaphone, “Sir. We’re looking for Dr. Dan Johns. Is he with you?”
Greg thought fast. If he said no, they wouldn’t talk to him. However, he wasn’t sure exactly how to stall and get more information.
“Yes, he’s with us, but he can’t talk to you right now. He’s treating a patient.”
As soon as the words tumbled from his lips, Greg felt ridiculous. Treating a patient? They’ll see right through that, he thought.
Surprisingly, the voice responded rather quickly, “We understand. But we need to speak with him before we can take any action. When he’s done with the patient, please have him come talk to us. Until then, please try to remain calm. Help is on the way.”
Rosa moaned in pain and aggravation. She couldn’t believe that their captors were repeating the same nonsense they’d said to her.
Greg looked over as if hoping for some guidance, but she was devastated by a reality that was ice-sharp and cutting right down to her soul.
We’re all going to die, she thought.
But Greg wasn’t giving up that easy. He tried one more time.
“Please, can you just tell me why you’re keeping us locked in here? We’re not a danger to anyone.”
“Sir,” the disembodied voice responded, “It is only a temporary situation. We’ll be sending in help shortly. Now, we’ve got to get back to work, so please only call out to us if you’ve got Dr. Johns.”
Greg wondered if maybe he should impersonate the doctor, but worried that if he was asked a specific question about the infusion that he wasn’t able to answer…he might ruin their chances entirely.
Stepping off the chair, he looked back at Rosa and froze. She was sitting up, s
taring into space, but her mouth was opened in a large O and she was drooling. Suddenly, she fell to the ground and began to shake as if she was having a seizure.
Running over to her, Greg crouched down, unsure what to do. Rosa continued to shake and jerk until she finally gasped and ceased. Lying on the ground, she was positioned in an unnatural angle and stared silently at the sky.
Placing his head down on her chest, Greg checked for a heartbeat. He was relieved to feel her heart beating quickly, but was afraid she might die or end up a perpetual vegetable. Gently lifting her off the ground, he carried her back inside to the only person who could save her life.
***
Peering into the microscope, Dan prayed for a miracle. The cells were continuing their unusual division, having diluted themselves to watered down replicas. The specimen itself was changing in its texture, becoming watery and strange.
Lying on the table, Rick was continuing to break apart. It was a gruesome sight. His face had now completely broken in half, the skin slowly sliding off the skull, dragging ropey muscle as the flaps methodically slipped down, succumbing to gravity. Piles of useless flesh were now littering the table, creating mountains of grayish-pink lumps.
Turning away from the destroyed man, Dan stumbled and sank down to the ground. He was utterly exhausted and desperate to figure out how to save him. But with each passing moment, it was becoming more and more difficult to hang on to hope.
Suddenly, he yawned. What time is it? he thought. Looking at his watch, he was stunned to see that it was 6:10pm. The day had flown by in a haze of death, panic, and urgency. But now, sitting alone in the laboratory with a creature he had created, the world slowed down and the weight of failure was sitting on his shoulders.
He was beaten.
Suddenly, he remembered that Rosa had spoken with their captors, relaying that they would not speak to anyone but him. Perhaps he could convince them to let everyone out and quarantine the sick…