Origin Z

by Tony Hartzell

  Abraham called the CDC on day three, and they were on site within two hours trying to enforce a new quarantine. They all knew it was pointless, but they cooperated.

  _______

  Seven days later a handful of Bio-Sure employees were watching TV in the lounge when a special report was announced.

  “Hello, I’m Jaff Geppert, and this is World News Network Breaking News. A new strain of flu is sweeping across the country faster than the CDC can phone ahead to the next city in its path. We’ll be right back with a live report with Katlin Telurite at the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia. More after this message.”

  Teeny looked at Marty. “Oh my God, this is faster moving than anything else in history. What have I done?”

  He looked at her with a puzzled look. “Wh…what? This is the best thing that has ever happened to the human race, Teeny. How could you think different?”

  Teeny sniffled, but it was because of the remnants of her own flu symptoms, not crying. She wasn’t that person anymore. “We know the short-term side effects, but who knows what may happen in months or years to come! Our miracle will likely change much more than our health.”

  Marty started to reply, but he stopped himself as he realized something. “Jesus. When you look at the long view, you have to stop and think about the philosophical and sociological effects of not having to deal with sickness. How will the medical profession and even the social structure change?”

  Just then Jaff Geppert came back to their TV screen. “Welcome back. We have a live report from Atlanta, Georgia, where Katlin Telurite is in front of the CDC with a WNN exclusive. Katlin.”

  “This is Katlin Telurite in front of the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, with a report about a new flu bug that will likely change the world. Even though the CDC and WHO are warning people that there is no way to tell what the long-term effects of this bug may be, it’s being billed as the flu you want to catch. Mothers are taking their children to play at homes where other children are sick with what is being called the boon flu.” Katlin sniffed. “Ha! I’m just getting over it myself, Jaff! I’ve never felt better in my life!”

  “I haven’t been so lucky yet, Katlin.”

  “I have Dr. Tammy Bishop from the CDC here with me. Dr. Bishop, what exactly are the side effects of this flu? And, if they are what we have heard, why wouldn’t the CDC and WHO be condoning its spread?”

  “Well, Katlin, the side effects seem to be beneficial. After you recover from mild flu symptoms, your immune system seems to be resistant to other viruses. The warning comes because we don’t know how long these effects will last.”

  Katlin interrupted her to say, “But even if they’re temporary, why would you not want your kids to catch it, Doctor?”

  “That’s what I was getting to, Katlin. Who’s to say that if or when these effects wear off, your immune system won’t crash and you become susceptible to every bug that ever existed in history? The human race has been building a resistance to viruses since time began. What would happen if this effect wore off to take all of the rest of your genetic resistance with it? It’s simply way too early to judge whether this truly is a boon or a curse.”

  Katlin had an abashed look on her face as she asked the next question. “H-how long will it be until we know?”

  Dr. Bishop now had a smug look on her face. That is, until she sneezed three quick times.

  Katlin smiled as she said, “I guess we will all have to wait and see. Back to you, Jaff.”

  “Phew. I sure hope this is the good kind!” He sneezed.

  _______

  Tin and O’Reilly walked toward Building 51.

  “Fuck, Tin.”

  Tin only smiled back at his friend.

  “How the hell do you end up immune to the plague of the twenty-first century?”

  “Don’t know, Tom. Guess I’m lucky.”

  “Lucky? Look at this, man.”

  O’Reilly pulled up his sleeve to show him the scar he had seen twenty times over the last twenty-four hours. He had accidentally had cut his arm deeply three days ago, only to have it heal well enough to take the bandage off within twelve hours. And it had been a pink scar in two days. It was amazing. And the implications were just as amazing. They had been working very closely with Teeny and Marty over the last two weeks. Teeny was very interested in why Tin was immune to the virus. He had been the only documented case so far. The odds were that there were others, but they were so few that they were only rumors rather than cases.

  They approached the door that, a couple of weeks earlier, they had not been allowed to pass through. Raines was on door duty, and he gave Tin a salute and then opened the door for them. O’Reilly almost crossed himself in thanks that it was not Odie. The guy had gone off the deep end about voodoo and zombies and all sorts of Cajun bullshit. They had almost put him in the brig last week when he stripped down and covered himself in ash and soot for a ritual to ward off evil spirits. He wasn’t the only one scared. There was an undertone of fear because, unlike most of the rest of the world, this was making the doctor who had invented it very nervous.

  Tin walked into the second-floor lab, where Teeny and Marty had been working diligently to create an antivirus. A vaccine was well beyond being effective now. It had gone way too far, and you would have had to restrain anyone you wanted to vaccinate.

  Marty was working at the centrifuge as Teeny was lowering some vials into a nitrogen bath. When she noticed Tin come in, she smiled from ear to ear. Tin smiled back and winked. They had developed a friendship that seemed to be becoming more, but that was not what she was smiling about. She was practically jumping out of her skin.

  “We got it!”

  O’Reilly flinched as if he expected her to do a spinning roundhouse and kick him in the side of his head. Marty guffawed at that. He had taken to making O’Reilly as uncomfortable as possible since their first meeting a few weeks earlier. O’Reilly wasn’t as uncomfortable as he had been at first, but he liked Marty, so he played the game to amuse him.

  “We were able to create an antivirus with your stem cells and amantadine to combat the Spartan virus. It’s a success!”

  She was almost screeching and jumped into Tin’s arms as she did so. Tin accepted her hug and relished it. It was their first one. When Tin squeezed back, she realized what she was doing and pushed away with a smile. Tin turned red but gathered himself enough to say, “Good. Those needles in my back were getting old.”

  It was her turn to get red faced. “Sorry, Tin. There was no other way to get the viable cells that I needed.”

  Marty and O’Reilly were watching this exchange. Both had their hands on their hips. They looked at each other, and Marty pantomimed putting his fingers down his throat. O’Reilly guffawed this time, and Marty noticed his stance because he looked like a pirate celebrating his recently captured booty. He smiled big when their eyes met again, and he put his hands back on his hips and gave a flourish of his hips in O’Reilly’s direction. When O’Reilly realized what it was about, he immediately pushed his hands down to his sides. He shifted back and forth on his feet and turned red. All three of the others laughed at that.

  “Fuck you, Marty!”

  Tin raised his eyebrows, and Marty flourished his hips again, batting his eyes while blowing him a kiss. O’Reilly couldn’t stand it anymore. He started laughing with the rest of them.

  RECRUITED

  Private Johnson walked into the barracks and over to where O’Reilly was sitting on the floor shining his boots.

  “O’Reilly. You need to report to Lieutenant Hardt ASAP.”

  He didn’t look up. “What the hell does he want?”

  “I don’t know, man. But he looked pretty serious about the ASAP thing!”

  O’Reilly twisted up from sitting cross legged to standing and then saluted Johnson. “Right away, sir.”

  Johnson shook his head. “How
have you lasted this long being such an asshole?”

  O’Reilly smiled. “Strength, skill, and a lot of drill instruction, sir.”

  Johnson turned and walked away. “Nah, I think you were an asshole from the day the doctor smacked your ass.”

  O’Reilly laughed out loud and pulled on his boots. He walked around the bunk to his footlocker to put on his camo jacket and cap. He squared away his uniform and slammed his locker shut. He saluted his bunk neighbor, who wasn’t paying any attention to him, and trotted out toward the command tent.

  When he arrived at the command tent, he noticed a black sedan and several golf carts that the lab geeks used to get around on campus. He walked up to the private standing guard outside the entrance and snapped to attention. “Corporal O’Reilly reporting as ordered.”

  “Stand by, Corporal.”

  As he turned, O’Reilly heard him say, “Corporal O’Reilly has arrived, sir.”

  He heard a voice he didn’t recognize reply. “Send him in, Private. Then post yourself twenty-five feet away and make sure no one comes within that perimeter.”

  The private barked, “Yes, sir.”

  Then he backed out and held the flap open for O’Reilly. The private didn’t meet his eyes, and it was obvious to O’Reilly that he was uneasy. O’Reilly stiffly marched straight to the desk without looking to either side, but he spotted Tin to his right in his peripheral vision and several persons wearing lab coats to his left. He started to turn to Tin but thought better of it and snapped a salute to the man in the suit behind the desk, saying again, “Corporal O’Reilly reporting as ordered, sir.”

  He snapped his hand back down to his side and stood at attention, waiting for some reaction. The man behind the desk looked over at Tin and then over at the lab-coat-wearing persons. Then he looked back at O’Reilly as he sat. “At ease, Corporal.”

  O’Reilly went to parade rest and kept his eyes directly forward, over the top of the man in the suit’s head.

  The man chuckled. “Really, Corporal. Relax and have a seat.”

  He looked at the man for a count of two then looked over at Tin. The lieutenant looked at him for a second and nodded toward the chair in front of the desk. His friend was acting odd, and the man behind the desk definitely looked like a spook.

  As he sat down, he looked over at the men in the lab coats. One of them had a deadly serious look on his face, as if he were studying a lab rat. The other had a big smile. O’Reilly had seen them around and knew their names but not what they did for Bio-Sure. They had been at Area 51 during the incident, now nearly two weeks ago.

  When he looked back at the man in the suit, he was surprised to see him also looking as if he were weighing him for something, leaning back in Tin’s seat with his left leg crossed over the right. He swung his head to look at Tin without realizing he was doing it. Tin had an unreadable look.

  After a couple of seconds, the spook said, “How are you feeling today, Corporal?”

  O’Reilly looked at Tin again and then back at the man. “I’m feeling good, sir.”

  The smiling man in the lab coat piped up then. “Have you contracted and recovered from Spartan?”

  O’Reilly looked over at him. “Yes, sir. Not even a sniffle left.”

  The smiling man nodded and looked back over at the man in the suit. “Christ, how rude of me. My name is Nelson Reed. I’m with Homeland Security, and this is Drs. Eli Abraham and Michael Tanner.”

  Abraham and Tanner nodded in turn. O’Reilly nodded back and then turned back to Reed, who leaned forward on the desk and entwined his fingers in front of himself.

  “The reason we brought you here today is for a special mission, Corporal.”

  O’Reilly looked at Tin again. Tin gave him an annoyed look this time. Seemed he didn’t want him looking at him so much.

  He turned back to Reed. “Anything to get out of this snore fest, sir.”

  Everyone in the room except Tin chuckled at that.

  Reed seemed to measure him again. “We need a patriot for this assignment, Corporal. Are you a patriot?”

  “Damn straight, sir. Tours in Afghanistan, mainly with Special Ops. I’ve killed me some high-ranking Taliban!”

  Tanner spoke up for the first time. “This will require absolute secrecy, and it requires your special permission to participate.”

  O’Reilly looked at each of the men in turn, ending with Tin, who was looking down at the floor.

  Reed spoke up. “Let us show you something before you make any decisions.”

  He then looked over at the doctors and got a nod from each. Then Tin half shrugged and nodded too.

  _______

  They all filed out of the tent, and Reed put his hand on O’Reilly’s shoulder. “I think you are going to be really impressed with what you see today, Corporal.”

  They loaded up on the golf carts, and Tin sat with him on the back of one. Once they started moving, O’Reilly turned to his friend and used his hands to signal, “What is this?”

  Tin pointed at his wrist, his eyes, and then his heart, using battle signals to tell him that this was a dangerous situation. He should stay alert and keep his eyes open.

  O’Reilly nodded and turned to contemplate what was ahead while they rode the rest of the way to Building 51.

  When they arrived, they all jumped off the carts, and Reed put his hand on O’Reilly’s shoulder again. They approached the entrance that O’Reilly had guarded many times and had crashed through a couple of weeks before. Raines was on door duty again, so Odet must have been walking the perimeter.

  Raines snapped to attention and saluted Lieutenant Hardt. “I’ll need to see everyone’s identification.”

  Tin saluted him back. “Mister Reed is a visitor, Private Raines. He is to be allowed entry under my authority.”

  Raines saluted again and checked everyone else’s ID as they passed into the building. As O’Reilly passed by, Raines looked him in the eye and gave him a questioning raised-eyebrow look. O’Reilly gave him the same sign he had gotten from Tin: wrist, eyes, heart. Raines gave him a slight nod.

  When they went through the door, O’Reilly noticed the smell of animals and formaldehyde. He saw cages with pigs, chimps, small monkeys, and a couple of German shepherds like the ones Laudner had seen in the Dumpster. As they passed across the floor, he saw about two dozen people in lab coats or khaki uniforms working at lab tables or attending the animals. Several pigs were laid out on tables in various stages of dissection, scrub-wearing employees standing over them cutting and making notes. As he passed by one of the pigs that was completely fileted open, he had to do a double take. He swore he saw the pig’s eyes move! When he looked back again, he definitely saw the pig’s eyes rolling around and his legs convulsing as the people over it worked and made notes.

  He looked up at windows, which he assumed were offices and more workrooms on the second floor. The windows were tilted and looked down on the floor of the huge pathology lab. When he scanned across the windows, he saw Teeny and Marty. They were staring at him and talking but made no acknowledgment of him until Teeny looked him straight in the eyes. Then she turned and walked away, back and out of sight. Marty stood for another five seconds and then did the same. No teasing smiles to make him feel uncomfortable. He had a different kind of uncomfortable feeling this time.

  They came to another secure door and turned right into an open room next door.

  Reed turned to O’Reilly. “There is a very good reason that I asked if you are a patriot, Corporal.”

  O’Reilly didn’t hesitate. “I pledged my life to the US Army, sir. That’s not something I take lightly!”

  “Good!”

  Reed turned his attention to Tin.

  “Lieutenant Hardt.”

  Tin looked him in the eyes for a second and then turned to O’Reilly. “I’ll have your sworn guarantee th
at nothing you see here will pass your lips until you are cleared to do so.”

  O’Reilly snapped to attention. “I swear, sir.”

  Tin looked at him for a few seconds and then continued. “If you accept this assignment, you will be getting your own special squad and become a sergeant prior to passing the sergeant test, O’Reilly.”

  O’Reilly smiled. “Thank you, sir.”

  “You need to pick three others you can trust, and they will also have to swear an oath like you just did.”

  “That won’t be a problem, sir.”

  Reed stepped up and grabbed O’Reilly’s shoulder again and looked him in the eyes. “What you are about to be shown and participate in is a matter of national security. Divulging anything without express consent from me or one of my agents will be punishable as treason.”

  He paused for effect and continued. “You and your men are going to be very special soldiers, Corp…Sergeant O’Reilly! It will change you physically, and you will have to be careful to hide this physical difference.”

  Reed then smiled really big, along with the other two men in lab coats. Tin was the only one in the room with a serious look on his face.

  O’Reilly felt his smile was swallowing his ears. “Why not Ti—Lieutenant Hardt?”

  “He is immune to Spartan.”

  He paused again before going on. “It is absolutely necessary to have the Spartan virus attributes to survive the physical enhancements for this unit.”

  He looked around the room at everyone and nodded at Reed.

  After everyone in the room congratulated him on his promotion, Dr. Abraham led them all through the secure door into a hallway space that looked like a zoo habitat.

  One chimpanzee was standing in the back behind the lone tree. When they entered, he moved up to the front by the glass and stood erect. At the same time, he puffed up and his muscles visibly grew. The veins on his chest and arms stood out as if he had just been lifting weights. He grunted aggressively. When a loud buzzer sounded, he moved over to a wall that had a bunch of holes and handles all over it.

  A half-inch-thick, two-foot-long piece of rebar popped out of one of the holes. It hit the floor with a clang, and the chimp was on it and had it in hand before it bounced and hit the floor a second time. He lifted it up over his head and grunted as he bent the rebar into curls before tossing it to the ground. He looked up to see a mango drop into a tray near the top of the thirty-foot-high tree. The chimp whooped and jumped to grab a branch about twenty feet up, and then he swing the rest of the way up to grab the mango and start sucking the flesh and juice out of it.