The Rabid Mind

by Bruce Buckshot Hemming

  As he raced home, his thoughts were all over the place. He tried to make sense of the situation. The scientific, logical part of his brain took over. Why was Omega killing the other rats so soon? Normally this stage took five days before a reaction started. Suddenly illuminated, he smiled. The new vaccine was working better than he could have ever hoped for, quickly causing an acute neurological syndrome in its victim. The general would surely be pleased, no matter what became of the day’s events and Becca. He tried not to get too excited, but couldn’t help wondering if he’d have his first human tester if Becca was bitten.

  When he arrived home, he ran inside and quickly suited up, then pulled open a recess at the top of the door. He pulled out a metal bracket that had thick sheets of plastic on three sides, which would make a small, sealed bubble in front of the door. He swiftly unfolded it, before fastening it securely to the wall and the floor. He stood and then looked at the door, with his heart pumping so fast he could feel it crushing against his ribs. He couldn’t determine if it was fear or anticipation. His hands were shaking. He carefully opened the door and then sealed it shut behind him. So far, everything was normal. He rushed into the lab as fast as the suit would allow. He looked all around the room, assessing the situation. The isolation room was still sealed and Becca didn’t look like she had been bitten. His body lost some of its rigidity as his anxiety decreased. He looked around again and wasn’t sure if he was feeling relief that Becca was okay, or disappointment. Becca was standing in front of the computer, staring at the monitor with wide shocked eyes. She was hyperventilating. As soon as she saw him, she tried to say something, but only a small squeak escaped past her lips. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath.

  “What in the hell is going on here?!” She screeched, waving her hands about. “This vaccine of yours is supposed to be helping, not turning them into raging cannibals! What have you done?! This is horrible!” She managed to utter in contempt.

  Dr. Dulling sighed and took his helmet off, placing it on a counter top, careful not to disturb any equipment. That was one drawback of having a woman that wasn’t yet a scientist in the lab. Men were not emotional like that. Although, he thought, she should have been more familiar with what could happen in a lab with test subjects during an experiment. Maybe he had been too hasty in hiring her. He would think about it later. Right now he had to deal with this overly emotional woman. His face had a hard look on it as he stared into her eyes.

  “Stop being so sensitive and start acting like the scientist you want to be. There is no room for emotions in a science lab. Get control of yourself. I do understand that seeing something like this is distressing, but in a lab these things can happen! If you cannot handle things of this nature, then this is not the field you should be studying. When dealing with the brain, which has many unknown aspects, unexpected results can occur.”

  He turned and looked at the monitor. It was perfect, he thought. All the rats that were still alive showed bite marks. It was exactly what he had been trying to accomplish. Success was very close indeed. Trying to hide his feeling of joy and content, he turned to Becca.

  “I’ll deal with this. Just go on home and have a few drinks and calm down. You have some serious thinking to do about your field of study and the emotional reaction you just displayed. This is the reason we use animals as test subjects in our experiments. It is to protect humans from this sort of thing.” He paused, his face softening with a look. “Go home, rest and calm down. We will overlook this emotional outburst, okay?”

  Becca stood there for a few moments in shock and horror at what Dr. Dulling had just expressed. He thought it was wrong to care about the animals as a scientist. He thought she had overreacted. What kind of a monster would let this happen? He wasn’t even upset! He was right about one thing - Becca had a lot of thinking to do. The animals in the labs were being treated worse than she’d feared. She turned around and grabbed her things, walking over to the door with her shoulders held high. She knew she wasn’t the one that was in the wrong here. It was his attitude and others like him which had led to the current situation. But she would find some way to help the poor animals and stop the horror from happening again. She made a promise to herself. She would stop this, or die trying.

  As she drove home, trying to see through her tears, she realized that it was a good thing she had already filmed the video because, after this, there was no way in hell she would ever let him so much as touch her arm, let alone touch her intimately.

  She opened the apartment door and stumbled inside. Jason saw her face and rushed to her. “What’s wrong? What happened? Are you alright?”

  He cradled her in his arms and kissed her on the forehead. She stared up at him, with horror in her eyes. He picked her up and walked over to the couch, setting her on his lap, still holding her tight. Everything she was feeling came pouring out of her in a rush. He listened and didn’t interrupt, rubbing her back in sympathy. He needed to do something before that bastard could hurt anymore animals. He stored the thought for consideration later and tried to hide his disappointment that she didn’t get any of this captured on film. Now was not the time. Right now, he needed to calm Becca. She was a good soldier and had been through a horrible experience.

  He gave her a few pills to help her settle down. Soon after that, she was in a deep sleep and that was when Jason grabbed his jacket and left the apartment. It was time to make a detailed plan to have the ALF pay that monster a visit. Jason pledged his revenge against Dr. Dulling, knowing exactly what he was going to do. Becca didn’t know it, but Jason had already made a floor plan of Dr. Dulling’s house and lab based on her descriptions.

  Chapter 5

  Dan (the CI) laid out the plan to his superiors. He would have a variety of weapons, including full auto AK-47’s, hand grenades and RPG’s from Mexico as part of his supply. The objective was to brand the survivalist group as ‘domestic terrorists’ who were stock-piling illegal weapons that may be used on innocent Americans. The agencies carefully reviewed the plan and recommendations. A release form was signed, authorizing the mission.

  The best chance of arresting the whole group at one time was during their monthly Friday meeting at Dr. Brash’s house. No one would have a clue that Dan had illegal weapons in his truck. Once the bust went down, the FBI would find the weapons cache, leading to the arrests. Undoubtedly, the bust would be that evening’s six o’clock top news story, something the agency could be proud of, you know — ‘saving the American people from terrorists’.

  After everyone arrived, but before the meeting started, Dan planned to call Dr. Brash over to his truck to show him his cache of weapons. He would hand Dr. Brash a weapon to inspect and, as soon as he took the bait, the property would be raided.

  Three members of the group would not be attending the meeting this month. Matt was going on a backpack survival trip for the weekend. He was hiking to a remote lake to camp, fish and perfect his survival skills. Phil, the retired Denver police officer, his wife Debbie and their children, were going on a week-long vacation. The FBI was disappointed that Phil wouldn’t be there — they wanted to show the public that no one was above the law, not even police officers.

  Plans were made for the arrest of Matt, Phil and Debbie, but the FBI wanted to ensure no one would have an opportunity to warn them of the coming event.

  Chuck had volunteered to supervise a few of the older children on the property’s shooting range before the meeting. He picked three of them to kick-off that evening’s target practice. The shooting range was built on a hill with a high bank at the back side of the range, to keep any stray bullets from leaving the area.

  Two boys, Adam and Jake, both fourteen years old, and Katie, thirteen, followed Chuck to the range. Chuck was packing a 9mm on his hip and planned on practicing later that night, after the competition. “Each of you will have a turn shooting the.22 rifles.” Said Chuck. “The person with the best score will win a ticket for a free DVD or game rental from Video Mania.” />
  Chuck hadn’t made the competition very easy. It was fierce and everyone wanted to win, but not so much for the free rental as for the bragging rights. After all, the kids were shooting at empty 12 gauge shotgun shells about 50 yards out and were having a heck of a time hitting them.

  The FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) had an arrest warrant for every member of the group, as well as documents for conducting a full search of the property. Team One arrived just outside the property and quickly assembled out of sight. To ensure the property was fully surrounded, the men split up into smaller groups, using nature to conceal themselves. Before moving in, they scrambled all communication devices — computers, cell phones, radios and land lines. No one would be able to warn Matt, Phil or Debbie of the raid.

  Connor was the newest and youngest member of the HRT. This was his first raid and while he lacked experience, he was strong, ambitious and determined to prove himself amongst the elite team. Connor was separated from the others, navigating through a maze of trees as he made his way towards the shooting range. He was slowly approaching, when gun shots suddenly pierced the silence of the night. Frantic and confused, he yelled into his shoulder radio. “It’s an ambush! It’s an ambush!”

  That alert set off a horrifying and violent chain reaction. The HRT scrambled, opening fire with their MP5 sub machine guns and shooting everyone in sight. Adam, who was target shooting, fell to the ground instantly, as if his legs were cut out from underneath him. Frozen in shock, Jake watched as Adam’s body jerked repeatedly and uncontrollably by his side. Consumed in fear and completely disoriented, his head jolted back and forth as he scanned the property, searching. That was when he discovered armed men in black racing towards him.

  “Help! We’re under attack!” Jake aimlessly fired his gun once at the men in black, then turned to run away. A second later, he was gone. He never felt a single hit.

  Katie screamed in horror at the sight of her dead friends bleeding on the ground. She picked up her gun, but had no time to shot — she was hit multiple times. Chuck was pulling his pistol out to return fire as he shouted into his FRS radio to notify the others of the attack, but went down in a hail of bullets before he could fire a shot. He was hit in the back numerous times. Screams of horror echoed everywhere as other children were mercilessly gunned down.

  Voices were heard just behind the shooting range. “Agents down! I repeat agents down!” The HRT continued firing in every direction.

  Allison, a woman watching several toddlers at the playground, grabbed them close to her when the shots starting ringing. “Get down!” she yelled. She reached for her cellphone as she shielded the children. She managed to dial 9-1, before going down in the crossfire. The children beneath her were left screaming, with nowhere to run. One child grabbed Allison’s phone and tried to complete her call, but never had a chance. At a blink of an eye, he and the others were gone too.

  Shortly thereafter, a radio crackled with a message and the gun fire suddenly stopped. It was as if the world suddenly held its breath.

  Dr. Brash’s house was riddled with bullets. It all happened in a matter of minutes.

  Inside, a young mother with her baby cradled protectively in her arms, was found dead, along with countless other bodies carpeting the floor. In all, 22 men and women, as well as 14 children, ranging from two months to fifteen-years-old, were killed. Only two survived the raid — Dr. Brash and his wife. They were with Dan (the CI), inspecting the illegal weapons in his truck when the chaos ensued and were taken by complete surprise.

  The media had been dispatched by the FBI moments before the raid began. As planned, they arrived in time to witness and record much of the horrifying event.

  It was discovered later that the agents who were shot had been hit by friendly fire as Chuck and the kids were gunned down. The ballistic rifling marks on the bullets were matched, proving that every bullet fired had come from their own guns. But no one would ever find out. Instead, the FBI would twist the series of events to produce a credible and believable story, at the expense of so many lives. Three FBI agents were killed and two others were wounded, but, in the eyes of the public, they were all heroes for having saved the citizens of Denver. The media focused on the items confiscated during the raid — machine guns, rocket launchers and hand grenades. Denver could breathe a sigh of relief now that the FBI had taken out the ‘domestic terrorists’ before they could strike.

  Dr. Brash and his wife were charged with three counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and a whole list of other crimes, including the possession of illegal weapons, yet neither of them had ever fired a single shot.

  The FBI could not find Matt. They had no idea where in the wilderness he could be. Matt drove an old Toyota pick-up which lacked the modern technology of a GPS tracking device. He had even left his cell phone in his apartment on purpose. For now, he was safe from prying eyes, but little did he know that the FBI had raided his apartment and torn it apart, looking for hidden weapons. They had taken all his legal guns, ammo, equipment and supplies.

  The FBI contacted the Colorado State Police to assist in the capturing of ‘fleeing felons’ that were wanted for the murder of FBI agents. They also contacted On Star in an effort to locate Phil and Debbie’s Chevy Tahoe. The family was headed into the mountains towards Golden, Colorado. They had no clue that federal agents were working hard to track them down. It wasn’t long before the FBI located their vehicle and sent the State Police to apprehend them.

  Phil, Debbie, and the kids were enjoying their drive to the mountains. The kids were playing with their Nintendo DS, while Phil and Debbie admired the scenery. Unexpectedly, their car came to a halt as State Police Officers surrounded their vehicle, lights flashing and guns drawn. Phil and Debbie had no idea what was going on as an officer contacted On Star for assistance.

  The On Star operator replied. “We will flash the vehicle lights.”

  The Policeman answered. “Yes, the lights flashed. This is the vehicle.”

  “Roger. We are now disabling the vehicle and locking the doors.”

  “Thank you, On Star.”

  Phil tried to open the doors, but they didn’t budge. The officers yelled at him to put his hands up. He quickly complied. Debbie was scared out of her mind and shouted “What’s going on?”

  “This must be some kind of mistake. I’ll straighten this out. Just do as you’re told,” said Phil.

  A policeman instructed On Star to unlock the car doors. “Get out of the car and keep your hands up,” ordered the policeman.

  Phil stepped out with his hands raised and said, “There must be some kind of mistake; I am a retired Denver Police officer.” He reached for his wallet to grab his police credentials and was cut down by two shots to the chest from an officer who thought he was reaching for a gun.

  “Phil! No!” Debbie screamed.

  The officers swarmed the vehicle, yanking Debbie out roughly, handcuffing and throwing her into the back of a police car. Having had her heart ripped out without warning, she sat crying uncontrollably and trying to explain that her husband Phil (the man they just shot), was a retired cop, but they knew that and refused to listen.

  The kids held each other in the backseat of the Chevy Tahoe, crying and screaming hysterically as their father lay still on the ground, unable to run into the arms of their mother.

  An officer called for an ambulance, but it was too late. Within minutes, Phil was dead. The police began searching the Chevy Tahoe while they waited for Child Protective Services.

  When the social worker arrived, she took custody of the kids, putting them into her car and driving off just as paramedics disappeared with Phil’s body. The police left the scene with Debbie, tears streaming down her face, unable to comprehend how a beautiful day could suddenly turn into a violent nightmare. She needed to know why this was happening to her. Why did they kill Phil? Why did they take her children away? How could the police kill one of their own in cold-blood? When had the world gone crazy? No
ne of this made any sense.

  Debbie was booked and transferred to an FBI office.

  Chapter 6

  The head of the Fusion Center was Dr. Edward Banks. He was an evil, powerful, heartless, insensitive and greedy individual, who could care less about the lives of the men, women and children his team just killed. To him, they were completely useless and totally expendable. They were non entities. The only thing they were worthy of was to be a stepping stone to further his career and power. He was well on the way to creating his dream society.

  Dr. Banks was married with two children. He had a house built in the mountains, which he returned to on weekends so he could be with his family. During the week, he stayed in his condo, located in Salt Lake City. Despite having a loving wife, Dr. Banks was frequently involved in extra marital affairs. He wasn’t much for ethical conduct, having two mistresses to prove it, and hated Christians, or anyone else with a moral compass for that matter. He rationalized that that kind of psycho-babble was for the masses and not for a great man like himself. He believed it was that attitude that had allowed him to advance so far up the chain of command over the years. Dr. Banks always did what was necessary, no matter how difficult, and had no emotions to stand in his way. His social engineering plans to break children of traditional values and beliefs were being widely used in schools across the nation, unbeknownst to the parents of those children.