Origin Z

by Tony Hartzell

  “Holy shit, man. There was all kinds of dead shit in that Dumpster.”

  O’Reilly screwed his face up. “What the hell are you talking about, Laudner?”

  Laudner looked around again nervously. “All kinds of dead animals that looked disgusting. Like all cut up.”

  O’Reilly shook his head. “It is a lab, you know.”

  Laudner gave a disgusted frown. “But there were also dogs in there that looked all mangled, like they were run over by cars!”

  That caused O’Reilly stop and think. Why would they beat up dogs? “I’ll have to talk to Tin about it. Get back to your perimeter walk.”

  O’Reilly watched Laudner hurry off back to his perimeter walk as he thought about what Laudner had told him. He could think of plenty of reasons that there would be dissected animals. But he had never heard of dogs being used for lab experimentation, much less beating them up as part of it. As soon as their relief showed up, O’Reilly high-tailed it toward the barracks to find Tin.

  _______

  Tin was in his room folding his laundry and placing it neatly in his footlocker when O’Reilly came banging in the door as if his ass were on fire.

  Tin was startled. “What the fuck!”

  O’Reilly laughed but immediately got serious. “Jesus, Tin. Laudner just saw something at Area 51 that is gonna make you shit your pants!”

  Tin gave an incredulous look. “OK. I just did my laundry, so I got it covered. Make me shit my pants.”

  O’Reilly looked up then and saw that several other soldiers were outside Tin’s door and had been looking at him when he had busted into Tin’s room without knocking. He flicked his head toward the back door of the barracks and started walking.

  “Jesus, Tommy! This place is turning you into a paranoid freak!”

  O’Reilly looked back, flicked his head again, and kept walking. Tin followed him outside and then for about a hundred yards to the edge of the lake.

  Lake Pow-Wow was beautiful. It was between the Bio-Sure compound and the town where all of the 2,000 Bio-Sure employees lived. The town was Trudeau. It had a population of 4,200 mainly working-class families, and usually during this time of year, about 150 anglers were vying to catch the lake’s plentiful striped bass and muskies.

  Tin could see more than a few fishing boats on the water. As usual, more twelve-ounce curls were going on than angler aerobics. When he caught up to O’Reilly, he saw a concerned look on his face. Tom hardly ever looked like that, so he knew joking was aside.

  “I think they’re doing something really weird over there, Tin! They had dead dogs in the Dumpster.”

  Tin looked at him and started mulling over any reasonable answer for that. O’Reilly continued. “They weren’t dissected like the other animals in there. Laudner said they looked like somebody beat them up and broke them into pieces! One of them had his head twisted around a couple times!”

  Tin crossed his arms over his chest and looked at his friend. “So you didn’t see them.”

  O’Reilly looked sheepish. “Well, no. But why would he make it up?”

  Tin stepped forward and pointed his finger at his friend. “This better not be bullshit!”

  O’Reilly hesitated and looked toward Building 51 for a few seconds. “No way, man. All of the crazy sounds over there make me really nervous. I wouldn’t joke. This is some serious shit.”

  Tin looked down in thought, and then he walked over and looked out across the water.

  “Shit. That and what happened there yesterday makes me paranoid.”

  He turned and looked at O’Reilly. “Don’t make any plans for this Saturday. I know where the geeks go to let off steam. I’m definitely going into hunt mode to get some info.”

  Then O’Reilly smiled. “Don’t forget the friend! I like to let things slip too!”

  Tin got a big smile on his face.

  O’Reilly got a shocked look on his face. “Not that friend, dickhead!”

  Tin laughed out loud then. “Bring your own date then, Tom.”

  LEONIDAS

  In the days since his fight with the five dogs, Leonidas had become more and more confrontational with humans as well as with other animals. When he wanted something or needed to assert his dominance as an alpha, he would puff up like a body builder and break something or aggressively grunt at whatever or whomever he felt was a threat. As long as everyone was doing what he felt was not a confrontation, he would act and function normally. The problem was that the rage would come out of nowhere. You couldn’t discern what would set him off. Michael had chalked this up to the “low intelligence factor.” According to him, test subjects with higher IQs would not react in such a manner.

  Leonidas participated very well in subsequent tests of his strength and quickness. There was a clear transformation in attitude, though. When the tests started, he would react to a wide variety of situations with heightened strength and quickness. Fear was one of those situations. He no longer had the “fear factor” in any situation. Even in the direst circumstances, he reacted with clear and decisive actions. As far as injuries went, he was able to ignore them for the most part. Broken bones would slow him or cause him to be unable to use appendages, but he was able to make up for the nonuse without stopping to protect himself. Even deep cuts would only bleed for seconds before trailing off to a trickle. They started healing immediately and would be fully healed within a couple of hours. Leonidas had scars all over his body from injuries given to him under sedation as well as the fight with the dogs. While he was sedated, the pathologist would cut him on different parts of his body and then press the edges together for about thirty seconds before it would stay shut and begin the healing process. Broken bones would need to be set within twenty to thirty minutes, or they would start healing in their broken state. They had to rebreak several of Leonidas’s fingers to figure that one out. When a leg was broken and left, they had to perform surgery to remove the healed part of the broken edges in order for them to set properly.

  _______

  Teeny looked at Leonidas in his hardened cage. They had had to reinforce a normal cage due to his increased strength. He had literally ripped apart several cages before they found one strong enough. Previously they hadn’t had to put him in a cage. He lived in the habitat with other chimps and a few other animals. He was even able to be let out among humans and could be trusted to be gentle.

  Looking at him now was like seeing a completely different animal. His arm hung loosely at his side because the pathologist, at Dr. Abraham’s request, had broken the humerus in his dominant arm to see how it would affect his behavior.

  Marty was working next to her at the lab table loading blood samples into the centrifuge. He glanced at her a couple times while he worked. After he loaded the batch and started the machine, he walked over and stood next to her while they both looked at Leonidas.

  “It’s a damn dirty shame what we do the animals in this place.”

  He looked over at her again, and she didn’t turn. She kept staring at the chimp and slightly shaking her head.

  Marty scowled. “We have to do something. This is nothing short of torturing animals! Can you imagine if any of the animal rights groups got wind of what is happening?”

  That made Teeny jerk and turn to him. Her expression hardened. “This is a necessary evil, Marty. We can’t find out what Spartan can do without this type of testing!”

  She said it in a way that sounded as if she were trying to convince herself as well as Marty.

  Marty weaved his arms across his chest. “It still doesn’t make it any less horrible.”

  He looked back at Leonidas and walked over to the cage. Leonidas looked back at him with confident eyes. He puffed up the way he did and moved to the side of the cage that Marty had walked to.

  “I think he would face down a tiger! I don’t know how good this would be if given to hum
ans.”

  Teeny walked over to stand next to him. “Yeah, I don’t believe, as Michael does, that this has something to do with his intelligence. I’ve seen too many high-school football players with ’roid rage to buy into that.”

  They were facing each other and not Leonidas. He looked back and forth between the two and then smacked the side of the cage hard. Teeny and Marty jumped back in surprise. He continued to look at them in his puffed-up manner. They moved back away from the cage, noting that he had made a pretty good dent in the reinforced cage. After about thirty seconds of staring, he sat down in the corner of the cage and started to move his broken arm around. He was able to use it, but not for anything useful.

  Teeny and Marty stood dumbfounded for a minute, and then Teeny turned to Marty with tears in her eyes. “I have to think!”

  Marty watched her leave. He looked back at Leonidas, who grunted at him, and then he followed Teeny out of the lab.

  LAUDNER

  Private Timothy Laudner watched the back of Corporal O’Reilly as he ran away toward the barracks to tell the lieutenant about the dogs.

  “I’ll catch up with you later, Laud-nerd.”

  Laudner shot the bird at his back as Johnson and Marquardt walked up chuckling. Marquardt looked at O’Reilly trotting away. “Man, Laudner, I’d have to kick that guy in the nuts if he treated me like that.”

  Laudner grimaced, pushed up his glasses with his middle finger, and spat.

  The new arrivals noted that and chuckled.

  Marquardt leaned in. “You guys aren’t friends, are you?”

  They both laughed.

  “I don’t know about Johnson here, but I would look the other way if you kicked him in the nuts!”

  Laudner looked at him and smiled. “Yeah, see where you end up when you kick a corporal in the nuts!”

  Both of the fresh arrivals burst out laughing, and Laudner soon joined in. Laudner, laughing, said, “Maybe I could make it look like an accident. Ha ha ha.”

  Marquardt said, “His balls could be a casualty of war.”

  This started them all laughing hard again.

  Laudner got serious then. “Keep your eyes peeled. There’s been some crazy shit going on.”

  They looked at each other and then back at Laudner before Marquardt took the door post and Johnson started his perimeter walk.

  _______

  Laudner walked toward the small convenience store that was inside the compound. He was a nerd, really. He had been getting called that since he was eight. High school had been tough. Guys like O’Reilly had been giving him shit his whole life. If you took away the glasses, timidity, and low self-esteem, he was a decent-looking man. He had hoped that the army would help. But it had gotten worse. The types that joined the army had a more aggressive nature and ended up being much worse about needing to dominate every situation. Joining had been a terrible choice. But it was one he would be living with for one more year.

  He wanted to grab a bag of peanuts and lunch before he headed over to the lake to relax for a while. He walked into the store and gave the attendant a head-nod greeting, which the clerk returned. He grabbed the bag of peanuts, a tuna-fish sandwich, and a bag of potato chips. There were cold sodas in a barrel of ice next to the counter. He grabbed a diet cola and put that on the counter too.

  Matt, the guy behind the counter, asked with a smile, “So how long are you grunts going to be here?”

  Laudner smiled back. “Your guess is as good as mine. What, you don’t like our money?”

  Matt got a serious look now. “Nah, really we like you guys being here. It’s gotten pretty weird over the last couple of months. The garbage guy stopped in here a few days ago and said he’s been making a lot of drops of animal corpses at an incinerator.

  “That’ll be eight forty-three.”

  Laudner handed him a ten. “Do you have any idea what they’re doing over there in Area 51?”

  The clerk laughed. “Holy shit. Does that name make sense. No clue, man.”

  Laudner smiled as he paid for the items, then grabbed them up and started toward the door.

  Matt chuckled. “See you later, soldier. Make sure you keep us citizens safe from the aliens.”

  Laudner didn’t bother turning. He could feel the guy’s eyes on his back.

  As he walked to the lakeshore, he spotted the usual crowd. A yoga class was stretching under a copse of trees. Several people were jogging by along the crushed cinder trail. His favorite park residents were running up and down the trees over by the bench that he always sat on when eating his lunch.

  The squirrels were darting here and there, chattering loudly when they stopped to look at him. He chuckled as several ran over and checked the ground where he always threw the peanuts. They would chitter again and run up the trees. One big tree had a large, hollowed-out knot where a large branch had been cut off. It was about twenty-five feet off the ground, so he couldn’t see into it. Then a small gray squirrel stuck his head out.

  “Heeeyyy Rocky, are you hungry today?”

  The squirrel flung itself out from the knot and spread its legs. Flaps of skin attached between its legs caught the air, and the squirrel glided to the ground. It scurried over and jumped up onto the bench next to Laudner. Laudner cracked the shell of one of the peanuts between his finger and thumb and set it on the bench far enough away that Rocky would not feel threatened. Then he threw a handful on the ground for the other squirrels. Several quickly ran down the tree and started to chitter loudly at one another.

  He opened his tuna fish sandwich and bag of chips to eat lunch with his friends. It was a beautiful day, so he leaned back and took his time with his lunch. He looked out over the water, which was just ten feet away. As usual, there were several boats out about three hundred feet or so from the shore. There were also several people fishing on a pier that jutted out about twenty-five feet onto the water. From his experience, it was not good conditions for catching fish. There was a high, hot, late spring sun, and the water was pretty choppy.

  Then his peaceful feeling was broken by a rock clanking off the edge of the bench. The squirrels all scattered, and he jumped up and turned to see Anderson standing there about twenty yards away.

  “Oh, shit. He almost caught that pass. Laud-Nerd, did you see that?”

  Anderson looked at Laudner. “Maybe I’ll use a bigger rock next time.”

  He laughed again and walked away down the cinder pathway. Laudner walked a little farther into the woods and threw another handful of peanuts on the ground. He looked up to see Rocky peek out again and then headed out toward the barracks.

  _______

  Herman was a lab assistant to the pathologist, Dr. Leonard. He loved what he did because he got paid well, and he had access to an extensive weight room on the Bio-Sure campus. His name was Herman, but his friends called him Tank. He was a big guy, and he liked the nickname. Herman Tank! As he walked out of the shower, he sneezed three times in succession. Too much of an asshole to cover his mouth, he sprayed lockers and the back of another guy sitting on the bench between the lockers.

  “What the fuck, Tank! I don’t want your STDs on me!”

  Tank smiled, wiped his nose, and scuffed the guy’s hair.

  “Asshole.”

  Tank just smiled wider and flicked his head. As he walked down to his locker, he sneezed a couple more times. He got dressed and turned to the mirror, looking at himself and primping while he hummed and sang. “Brenda, I’m going to bump you on your fenda.”

  Laughing at himself, he slammed his locker and walked out of the locker room, sneezing three more times and yelling, “Fuck!”

  _______

  Eddie had gotten his job because his mother worked in the cafeteria at Bio-Sure. Being a janitor wasn’t a great job, but it was a job. He would keep it until he found something better.

  One of the
managers had told him that someone had made a mess in the weight room. Every once in a while, these meatheads shit their pants. Of course, the assholes never even thought about cleaning it up themselves. When he walked in, there was no one in the gym, which was very rare. He understood why. The stink was almost unbearable! He walked toward the bench station, rolling his mop bucket as that meathead Tank came slamming out of the locker room humming and singing.

  Tank looked at him. “What’s up, Eddie Basgetti?”

  Eddie hated him but gave him a thin smile. “What’s up, Tank? Was that you that made this smell?”

  “No fucking way, man! That was Baldy pressing three seventy-five today, ha ha. He did it, but I guess should have taken a shit first, ha ha.”

  Just as Tank said that, Eddie stepped right in it. He must have broken a congealed film off the top of it, because it really started to reek.

  “Holy shit, that’s bad!”

  Then Tank turned and hurried out the door, sneezing. Eddie stomped his foot a couple times to try to get the ooze off and then started to mop it up. He sneezed as he left the gym and headed over to the cafeteria to get some free food from his mom.

  He was leaving brown skid marks wherever his right foot hit the sidewalk.

  IMMUNE

  Everyone in Building 51 was sick, including Teeny and Marty. They had confirmed with blood work that all of them had the Spartan virus. It had run through the population of Bio-Sure like a wildfire through a Southern Cali forest. In the last forty-eight hours, it had even passed beyond the quarantine established when they realized a pandemic potential. The good thing was that its mild flu-like symptoms were not life threatening. In fact, the side effects were a boon. The healing abilities that Leonidas had shown were the same in humans: an immune system boost plus faster healing of cuts and abrasions.