Today We Die (The Killing Sands Book 1)

by Daniel Wilde

  Finally, after looking into the eyes of each person in the room, Dr. Shevchuk said, “Anthrax E has been released here, inside our home. Monitors throughout the bunker have picked it up. John and Angel have confirmed its presence. The isolation chambers holding Mrs. Safar, Suvan, Dr. Case and Mr. Rabene are each wholly intact. Who did this to us?”

  Suddenly, or so it seemed, many of the members of the group began casting angry glances at their companions. Nobody spoke, but the eyes of the people certainly made it appear that everyone was a suspect.

  “Nobody leaves this room until I say so,” Dr. Shevchuk said with authority. “Shift, Anta, John, Angel—come with me. The rest of you will remain. Anyone who leaves this room, for any reason, will suffer consequences too great for me to say aloud. Mr. Kimball, keep them in here. Am I clear?”

  Every head nodded. Every mouth remained closed.

  Dr. Shevchuk turned abruptly and stormed out of the room. Shift, Anta, Angel and John followed, slowly, each more worried about what Dr. Shevchuk had in mind for them than about what may become of their lives as a result of the Anthrax E release. Street Kimball stood, walked to the door, then turned and faced the group. He folded his muscular arms across his bulky chest as the door closed behind him.

  The small group walked into the laboratory adjacent to the room with the isolation chambers where the Safars, Justin and Lucky had all watched and listened to Dr. Shevchuk through the holos.

  “Have a seat everyone,” Dr. Shevchuk said sternly as he closed the sound-proof doors.

  When all four people had sat, Dr. Shevchuk said, “I assume that none of you had anything to do with the release of Anthrax E, be it accidental or purposeful. Is there any reason I should assume otherwise?”

  Dr. Shevchuk looked deep into each of their eyes before continuing. “I have my reasons for not suspecting any of you. But you are not in the clear, yet. But for our purposes, I need your help to figure out what to do next. Any suggestions?”

  Nobody spoke. Even though Dr. Shevchuk appeared to be keeping his anger in check, nobody felt comfortable.

  Finally, Shift asked, using the doctor’s formal title, rather than the friendlier version of the man’s name, “Dr. Shevchuk, do you know when it was released?” Shift’s voice wavered as he asked the poignant question.

  “John?” Dr. Shevchuk said.

  John wiped beads of sweat from his brow as he looked up from the floor where his eyes had rested since the moment he sat down. “Well, the monitors just picked it up a few minutes ago,” John stammered. “So, we assume it just happened.”

  “But how did it happen?” Anta asked. “Who else, besides the three of you and Andrew have access?” Anta was referring to Dr. Shevchuk, Dr. Angel Robertson, Dr. John Silitzer and Dr. Andrew Jones. The four doctors had full control of the operations of the testing center and laboratory. But access wasn’t necessarily restricted. Security measures were in place, but they were not absolute.

  “Nobody has access to the labs but the four of us,” Angel replied. Her face masked the fear she had felt since the alarms first sounded in the lab.

  “Then how did this happen?” Shift asked.

  “That’s what we intend to find out,” Dr. Shevchuk said. “Starting now.”

  “I don’t understand why Shift and I aren’t potential saboteurs,” Anta said.

  Shift looked sideways at Anta, hoping she didn’t say something that would get either of them in hot water. He had done nothing wrong, and didn’t want to be lumped together with those that may have.

  “Anta, I know you didn’t do anything wrong because I have come to know you on a deep, personal level,” Dr. Shevchuk said. “If you were evil, or had any evil intent, you could have wiped out the entire world by releasing the disease in Egypt outside the quarantine zone. You could have released it on the plane, or in Boston, or in the bunker at any time. You could have maintained possession of some quantity of the disease without any of us knowing it. Any action you may have taken, to destroy lives, most certainly would have been taken long before now, on the eve of the creation of a vaccine. Because you didn’t know when a vaccine might come to fruition, you could have prevented any research at all with the simple act of killing us here, long ago. That is why I don’t suspect you. Am I wrong?”

  “No, you’re not wrong,” Anta replied. “I didn’t do this.”

  “Neither did I,” Shift said hastily.

  “Good, let’s move on then, shall we?”

  “What about them?” Angel asked, pointing a thumb over her shoulder to the room where Lucky, Justin and the Safars were cooped up in isolation chambers.

  Dr. Shevchuk began slowly, thoughtfully, “It seems it would have been impossible for either Dr. Case or Mr. Rabene to have done this personally. They were placed into the chambers yesterday. Obviously, the Safars did not do this. They haven’t been released from their chambers once since they got here.”

  “But they could have had someone else do it for them, right?” Angel asked. “All four of them know, or least think they’re safe.”

  “But that would be quite a risk for Lucky and Justin,” John countered. “We don’t know if the vaccine works yet. Any release by either of them would be rather premature, and either of them, if they held such evil intentions, is too smart to attempt a release at this time. I think.”

  “I agree,” Dr. Shevchuk said.

  “Excluding them and us, that leaves 18 potential saboteurs,” Angel said. “But isn’t it possible that this was accidental—a mistake somehow?”

  “Of course that’s possible, Angel,” Dr. Shevchuk replied. “But how such a mistake could have been made is beyond my ability to speculate.”

  “When was the last time any of you were in the lab?” Anta asked. “Could someone have snuck in and breached the security systems around the containment facilities?”

  “Not today. I was in there not two minutes before I called the emergency meeting,” Dr. Shevchuk replied. “John and Angel were with me at that time trying to figure out why the silent alarms were going off in the lab, and why alarms around the bunker were being registered on the computers. All three of us had been in there for several hours straight before the alarms sounded.”

  “Anta and I haven’t been in there in days,” Shift added. “Well, I guess I shouldn’t speak for Anta.”

  “You’re right,” Anta added. “It’s been several days. What about Andrew?”

  “He’s been in and out,” John replied. “His tasks have become more routine and he isn’t required in there as often as the rest of us.”

  “Could he have some kind of vendetta because of that?” Anta asked. “I mean, if he feels like he’s become expendable, or less important, could he have gone nuts?”

  “That seems unlikely,” Dr. Shevchuk replied. “I’ve known Andrew for many years. He is a close friend and colleague. That’s why I selected him to join me here in the first place many months ago. I don’t believe he would do something like this.”

  “What about Mike’s back draft theory?” Shift asked, suddenly remembering.

  “No,” John replied. “I had Carón show me how to look at the systems operation center after his big theory proved likely. I checked while Yurgi was calling the meeting a few minutes ago. The ventilation system is working fine.”

  “Then that leaves the other 18 people,” Angel said. “How do we go about eliminating them as suspects?”

  “More importantly,” Shift said, “how do we go about protecting ourselves now? We can assume that we’ve all been contaminated by now, right?”

  “Yes,” Dr. Shevchuk said. “The only thing I can think of is to vaccinate everyone and hope that it works. And I think it will. If it doesn’t work, it now makes no difference,” Dr. Shevchuk said solemnly.

  “I’m game,” Angel said.

  “Me too,” John and Shift added in unison.

  “When do we start?” Anta asked.

  “We better start right now,” Dr. Shevchuk said. “While we know
how long Anthrax E takes to germinate before symptoms show, we don’t know how long we have between the time of infection and the point of no return. There isn’t any information about that presently, from any bunker.”

  “I’ll start prepping vaccines,” John offered.

  “But we also need to know who did this,” Anta said. “If someone did this on purpose, that person is very dangerous.”

  “If everyone is going to be vaccinated now anyway, because we’ve all been exposed, then can’t we let those guys out of isolation?” Shift asked, pointing to the next room.

  “Yes, I think we should,” Dr. Shevchuk replied. “Do any of you have any reason to suspect Mr. Rabene? I would like him to spearhead our investigation, unless there’s any chance he’s involved.”

  “I don’t think anybody knew him before we came here,” John said. “But he did go outside with Street to capture animals. And there’s no way Street is involved, in my opinion. So, let’s get him in here and talk to him about Lucky. Maybe he can offer some insight.”

  “Get him in here,” Dr. Shevchuk said.

  Three minutes later, John and Street entered the lab. Street’s face was ghostly white, his limbs moving slowly as if petrified by fear.

  “Nobody left the conference room Dr. Shevchuk,” Street said as he stepped into the room.

  “Thank you. That’s good. Sit down Mr. Kimball,” Dr. Shevchuk said kindly. “We need to talk.”

  May 4, 2093—Shift

  After yesterday’s fiasco, every person in the bunker elected to be inoculated against Anthrax E. Justin, Lucky, Neirioui and Suvan were all let out of their isolation booths, voluntarily. Either we all die or we all live. I guess Neirioui and Suvan will live either way—they’re immune. But now, either the vaccination works, or it doesn’t. We’ll find out soon enough.

  Street gave us no reason to distrust Lucky. So Dr. Shevchuk put Lucky in charge of the investigation. His job is to find out how the release occurred and if any person here is responsible, either inadvertently or purposefully.

  May 5, 2093—Shift

  “We’re screwed, Anta,” I said, “even if E-rase works, and it appears it might.”

  “What do you mean?” Anta asked.

  “I know you haven’t spent a lot of time with Mike lately, but I have. USCAN reveals a lot, and it shows loads of dead bodies out there. We haven’t seen hardly any movement in the streets anywhere over the past couple of days.”

  “Is anyone alive anywhere near us?” Anta asked.

  “Yeah. There are a couple of small towns in northwest Canada. There’s obviously human life there even though we can’t see the people. Lights are going off and on at appropriate times to coincide with day and night, and not in any pattern which would suggest that the lights are on automatic timers. There’s also movement in windows on occasion. We can’t tell how many people are alive, but Mike’s estimate, based on the locations in which he’s tracking movement and lighting changes, is approximately 31 households. That’s the best place we’ve found right now.”

  “Well that’s good at least. Any place else?” she asked.

  “Sure, but the prospects look more bleak in other places. Mike’s keeping detailed records which show that, in many places with people still living, the numbers seem to be going down. Kinda sucks really.”

  “That’s quite the understatement,” Anta replied, without any hint of humor.

  “Yeah, I guess so. But if E-rase works, we’ll get to each of those places and vaccinate whoever is still alive. All the other bunkers like ours will soon have access to Shevchuk’s information and will hopefully be able to develop the vaccine. Then they can get out there and save some lives too.

  “Of course, we may all die in here. If so, then the vaccine didn’t work and all the other bunkers will be left to continue the work.”

  “Well, let’s don’t die then,” Anta said, smiling.

  May 6, 2093—Dr. Justin Case

  I feel strangely alive, four days post-injection. Not only do I feel no negative effects—yet—from the E-rase injection or from Anthrax E, but I actually feel invigorated! It’s really weird actually. I know that’s not a scientific way to explain my feelings, but it’s accurate. Perhaps it’s only in my mind. The other alternative is that E-rase may actually be changing something physically within my body. In either event, I can’t complain. I feel like I could run a marathon, or maybe one of those Iron Man races!

  May 8, 2093—Entry in the Anthrax E database by Dr. Yurgi Shevchuk

  Our test subjects (Dr. Case and Mr. Rabene) are well—very well actually. Presently, we see no sign of infection, nor does either complain of such. Strangely, Dr. Case reports feeling better, stronger and healthier than he did pre-injection. His vital signs and objective test data conclude that he is slightly more fit than pre-injection. This phenomenon will be closely monitored.

  Following the ‘accidental’ release of the virus in our bunker and subsequent inoculation of the remainder of the residents, all residents are now being tested and monitored. Only two illnesses have appeared. One, we concluded was a stress-induced headache. The other, Dr. Bodily, showed some of the early signs of Anthrax-E. However, we have concluded that her symptoms are psychosomatic rather than physical.

  Following the submission of our test data to the Anthrax E database earlier this morning, testing centers in Japan (2 of them), England, France, China and India have now each announced their intent to test human subjects tomorrow. Each center intends to inject two healthy subjects, as we have done. There will be a total of 14 intentional injections including ours, plus our 23 subsequent inoculations. Additional injections are planned in the next few days at other testing centers.

  Preparations are underway for the mass production of E-rase in our facility, subject of course, to confirmation that the vaccine actually operates to inoculate the human body.

  Because each of us was exposed to Anthrax E, in all its strength, five days ago, within one to three days, we may have conclusive data proving that our vaccine is proper for human inoculation. Nobody is sick, so at the least, the vaccine acts to extend the period of infection. If we die, may God help you all.

  May 8, 2093—Shift

  “Well dudes, it’s been six days since Lucky and Justin were injected with E-rase,” I said, trying to make conversation. John, sitting next to me, and Anta and Street, across the table, were all eating. All of us except Street ate lazily; Street ate with gusto. Where does he get his appetite?

  Our time hasn’t been required so urgently these last couple of days. Most of us are just waiting around now, except for Mike and his team who continue 24-hour surveillance of the world outside. The waiting seems to be causing depression. Or maybe everybody’s just so tired from all the work that their bodies are shutting down after the months-long adrenaline rush. I don’t know. I’m not that kind of doctor. Me? I’m mostly just apprehensive. I don’t want to die.

  Receiving no response, I continued, “Dr. Shevchuk says that neither of them has shown any symptom of disease from the vaccine. They both appear healthy and normal. He says he’s tested, retested, and tested again for both the presence of the disease in their systems and any signs of infection from the disease. And aside from Dr. Bodily, maybe, no one else has shown any negative effects from the accidental exposure and vaccination either.”

  John and Anta looked really bored. Street was so busy stuffing his mouth, I don’t think he even knew I was talking. That, or he doesn’t care what I think.

  “How does it work anyway?” Anta finally asked. “Is the vaccine just like others?”

  “Yeah,” John replied. “It’s just like others. Nothing special really. It just took a long time to make it work.”

  “How does it work John?” I asked.

  “It might be too complicated for your small brain Shift, but I’ll try to dumb it down.”

  “Thank you, oh great one.” He’s such an arse.

  “It works pretty much like the influenza vaccine. E-r
ase is composed of dead Anthrax E cells which are injected into the human bloodstream; except we had to modify the cells because they aren’t naturally-occurring. Because Anthrax E is manmade, we had to adjust our method of creating the vaccine. We couldn’t just use plain old dead cells. That would have been too easy.

  “Anyway, we hope our bodies will create antibodies to fight the modified dead cells and, in the process, become able to defeat the disease itself. With the influenza vaccine, the human body typically took about two weeks to develop any kind of immunity to the flu. Unlike the influenza vaccine, though, current science allows for most immunizations to begin to work within 12-24 hours.”

  “That’s awesome!” I said, trying to show enthusiasm and maybe get some reaction from Anta.

  “Yeah, pretty awesome,” John replied; although the way John said “awesome” and the way I said “awesome” were completely different. He looked like he was falling asleep with food in his mouth. He could have choked. That would have been adequate punishment for his earlier rub I think. “So, what does that speed mean for us now?”

  “Based upon that timeframe, Shevchuk appropriately estimated that Dr. Case and Lucky would either show symptoms or not show symptoms within 5-6 days of the injections, or, approximately one day longer than the billions of people who have succumbed to the disease. That’s today.”

  “So far so good!” I said.

  We’ve all been exposed to live Anthrax E now. John explained that we’ll have to wait another six days before Shevchuk will pronounce Justin and Lucky, and the rest of us, clean. During that time, numerous tests will be run, most of which I wouldn’t likely understand.

  “Has Lucky’s investigation gone anywhere?” Street asked, finally looking up from his plate.

  “Not that I’m aware of,” I replied. “He’s interviewed everyone and he and Mike have checked all the entry logs and databases trying to find unauthorized access to the lab. Nothing yet.”