Origin Z

by Tony Hartzell

  “Oookkkaaayyy! Let’s hope that’s an exaggeration.

  “Former director of the CDC Dr. Reginald Lateen is in our Atlanta studio to help us understand the virus that is now called axola. Dr. Lateen, just where did the axola virus come from?”

  “Well, Jaff, we are still unsure of where it came from. There is all kind of speculation, from a bioweapon gone wrong…or right…depending on whether what we are seeing now is the expected result. I am certain that if it was intentional, the creators didn’t expect that it would spread to 99.99 percent of the population.”

  “So there are people who are immune to it, Dr. Lateen?”

  “Well, Jaff, effectively it is 100 percent communicable. We haven’t found anyone who is immune yet. We would like very much to do so, though! I say 99.99 percent only because in theory, no virus is 100 percent communicable.”

  “Hmm. Interesting.”

  Jaff turned back to the camera. “We’ll put contact information at the bottom of the screen. If someone out there has information about anyone who has not contracted axola, please contact us as soon as possible.

  “So, getting back to the virus, Doctor…”

  “Yes. One would assume that axola is a designer virus that did exactly what it was intended to do, which is to boost the immune system. If this is the case, then you could also say that it was an extremely successful experiment!

  “The name axola comes from the deep-cave-dwelling axolotl salamander, whose genes seem to have been spliced with human stem cells to create a supercell. The axolotl is the fastest-healing creature on earth. In fact, like other amphibian creatures, it can even grow back appendages! Humans with the axola virus have also shown that their amputated parts and pieces are growing back, though it will take years to grow back a finger and probably decades to grow back a hand or foot. A missing leg or arm could take a lifetime to grow back.

  “This supercell wouldn’t have been able to be introduced to the human body alone. Either accidentally or purposely, this supercell caught the flu and recombined to create this virus that has spread across the earth like wildfire.”

  “And what of these ‘wandering dead,’ as they have been called?”

  “The phenomenon as it was described earlier has been that the axola cells are keeping people alive that should be dead! That is, although being effectively dead, they just don’t lie down.”

  “So everyone understands: If they or their loved ones die, say from a heart attack, run over by a bus, or shot, they don’t die all the way?”

  “That is correct, Jaff. Destroying the brain or heart is the only way to give your loved ones mercy.”

  They went to full screen on Jaff.

  “Thank you, Dr. Lateen. I’m sure we will be checking back in with you at a later time.”

  “Thank you, Jaff.”

  A graphic filled the screen as a dramatic voice said,

  THIS IS WNN BREAKING NEWS

  “WNN has now reestablished contact with many of our reporters around the globe. Their reports have verified that what happened in Washington, DC, has happened across the country and around the world. Riots are raging in every major city around the world. We now believe that most of the rioters are actually these so-called wandering dead.

  “We want to warn viewers that the following pictures are not for those with weak stomachs.”

  They showed pictures of rioters in Washington, DC, overrunning police and National Guard and then in turn getting overrun themselves by the dead.

  They switched pictures from US city to US city at first, showing the same type of gruesome pictures over and over. They then started showing cities all over the world, and the same scene was played out again and again.

  “Jesus Christ on a cross, Katlin. You may not be far wrong.”

  “Now we will go to Will Teller and the 3-D modeler. Will?”

  “Thanks, Jaff. Here is what we are surmising from the information that we have been able to get from the field.

  “Two days ago we were getting sporadic reports from around the country about people who didn’t seem to be acting normally. By the end of the day, it was identified as a worldwide issue, and it was related to axola. It was a fact that people who should be dead were still walking around. These wandering dead were also attacking the living! This is what we are looking at today.”

  The 3D modeler spun an image of the earth into existence in front of him. He started tapping on a tablet to show the time lapse of the first reports.

  “Two days ago in the morning, these are the reports that were made.”

  The image showed red dots around major cities in every country.

  “By that evening, the reports were widespread and included stories of vicious attacks. Here is what the reporting looked like the same evening.”

  He tapped the tablet a few times, and the major cities now had many dots.

  “Now this is an hour-by-hour time lapse of the spread of reports since the riots started yesterday evening.”

  He tapped his tablet, and every major city lit up as if it were Christmas.

  “When the riots broke out, there were so many people in such concentrated areas that the dead multiplied too fast to contain or for people to escape.

  “There are now huge herds of wandering dead people in every major city. And they are growing exponentially by the hour!”

  “This is WNN breaking news.”

  Jaff Geppert filled the screen again, this time with sweat on his brow. There was worry in his eyes and in the tone of his voice.

  “This just in: The president has proclaimed martial law after failing to convince Congress that military intervention is needed immediately. They will try to block it, but the White House assures us that this is an action they can put in place with an executive order.

  “The secretary of defense has already gone on record saying that he is pulling all military personnel that are deployed overseas back to defend the homeland.

  “We’ll be right back after this message.”

  Rocky turned off the television.

  Jax stared at the floor for a few seconds and then walked over to peek out of the curtains. There were dozens of wanderers aimlessly walking and stumbling around the parking lot. He let the curtains fall shut and turned to Rocky. “What the fuck do we do next?”

  Rocky looked at her phone and tapped it a few times. “Well, whatever we are going to do, it has to be pretty quick. We have an uninvited guest named Claudette that will be banging down the door day after tomorrow.”

  Jax ground his teeth. “My brother is stationed down near Trudeau. It’s about two hundred miles south, but we would be going straight at that hurricane. He’s an officer, so he should know what’s going on with the martial law orders. Give me your phone. I need to call home to get his number. I lost my phone and don’t know his number by heart.”

  She handed him her phone and walked over to peek out the curtains.

  Jax tried several numbers over and over without getting anyone to answer.

  “Well, I guess we’re just going to have to show up. I hope we can find this place. I’ve never been there.”

  Jax checked the .357 they’d confiscated from behind a comic-book store counter. He dumped the bullets out of the chamber and saw that they were blanks. Looking into the end of the barrel, he noticed a metal cross. This gun wasn’t meant to fire actual bullets. He tossed it in the trash and grabbed the broadsword that they had also taken. They had both been surprised that a comic-book store like that could sell actual weapons. They had assumed that was the reason for the .357. Rocky grabbed her samurai sword and the keys to the pickup truck they had found abandoned.

  Jax held his sword in both hands and pointed his chin toward the door. Rocky grabbed the handle and flung the door open, and Jax stepped through and started hacking at the closest wanderers.

  A
fter taking out half a dozen groaning automatons, they made it to the truck and were on their way south.

  VIKING HORDES

  Marty felt his phone vibrate and ignored it. He knew it was probably “Mother” trying to contact him again. He couldn’t believe that she wasn’t running as far and fast as she could. They had tried to kill her!

  Now he was roped into helping her and that lieutenant rescue these soldiers who were on the brink of turning into monsters. He had let her know how sensitive the situation had become and that they needed to move fast. Civilization was falling apart! Soon having all the money in the world would mean nothing.

  He looked up at Michael making notes as he watched O’Reilly barely keeping it together in his habitat. They had stopped giving the two of them the RabAvert injections, and their cognitive condition had been deteriorating over the past few hours.

  Major Sanchez was pacing back and forth. He stopped and pointed at Michael. “You need to figure out what’s going on with these soldiers and fix it, Tanner! I am not going to be calling their families to explain this situation!”

  “Ha! The least of their families’ worries are these guys! Have you seen the news?”

  “That reminds me. Battalion leadership has called and put us on standby. We could be pulled to anywhere, very soon.”

  From the doorway, Reed spoke up. “Relax, Sanchez. The Russians will be here in a few hours. The new Spartan Team is getting their injections and shadow armor. We’ll have enough money to own a country by the time the banks open in the morning!”

  Reed thought, And it will mean nothing! The valuable asset will be having my own private army of Spartan soldiers!

  _______

  Marty exited the habitat monitoring room after having a couple of laughs with Michael about how they would spend their money. He didn’t want anyone to suspect that he was going to help Tin and Teeny get their friends out. That was still a very sketchy plan. He would have to find an excuse to not attend the Spartan show for the Russians.

  He stopped at the end of the hall, where he could keep an eye on the door he had just come through. After five minutes Reed came out and moved toward his sleeping quarters. Ten minutes later Michael came out and looked as if he was headed for his office.

  Marty went to an exam room, grabbed some RabAvert, and headed for the habitats. Hustling down the hallway, he saw Leonard coming and nervously gave him a head nod greeting.

  Leonard just smiled big and when they passed each other said loudly, “Boo!”

  Marty squeaked and growled, “Asshole!”

  Leonard laughed and kept walking.

  Marty made it to the habitat, where O’Reilly was pacing and shaking his head every once in a while. Marty took out the syringe and tapped it on the glass to get his attention.

  O’Reilly turned to him with a confused look, and Marty thought he might be too far gone. Then he shook his head, and Marty could tell that the lucidity was returning to his eyes. He held up the syringe again, and O’Reilly nodded. Marty pointed at the door and mouthed the words, “Put your ass by the door, and I’ll inject you.”

  O’Reilly scrunched his eyebrows and smiled, shaking his head.

  Marty realized what he had said and chuckled. “Ha ha, very funny. Not that kind of injection, shithead!”

  O’Reilly moved over to the door and pulled his pants down to press his butt cheek against the slot where they would give the normal inhabitants their food. Marty jabbed him and squeezed the rabies antivirus into the muscle of his buttocks.

  This would only last for a little while. The time was shorter every time he gave it to them.

  He moved over to Laudner’s habitat and saw that he was sitting cross-legged on his bed. He tapped the glass with the syringe, and Laudner opened his eyes. He nodded and moved over to expose his butt cheek to the slot in the door, and Marty jabbed it.

  The rabies virus seemed to be working slower on him. Laudner walked right back to his bed to cross his legs and close his eyes as if he were meditating. Marty watched him for a few minutes and then moved back to O’Reilly’s habitat. He was still pacing. Marty tapped on the window to get his attention, and O’Reilly moved over to the glass. When he had his attention, he put his fingers on his wrist as if he were taking his pulse, touched his heart, and then closed his eyes and pantomimed a Zen meditation pose. O’Reilly gave him the thumbs-up and moved over to the bed to lie down. He looked at Marty and gave the thumbs-up. Marty nodded and moved away down the hall.

  _______

  Marty ducked into an exam room and pulled out his phone. Dialing Teeny, he pushed a chair against the door.

  The phone rang twice before Teeny picked up. “Marty. Are we set?”

  “Yes. We will be having a meeting at two o’clock. After that we will be out at the training grounds for the show.”

  “What show?”

  “They have three new Spartan soldiers. Marquardt, Johnson, and Robard. I think they tried to recruit LaClaire but he wouldn’t cooperate. We haven’t seen him for a while. I think they might have killed him, Teeny.”

  “Oh shit!”

  She turned to Tin. “Tin, they may have killed Odie.”

  “Motherfuckers!”

  Tin punched the wall that was closest to him. “I’m going to choke the fucking life out of Reed!”

  Teeny put Marty on speaker.

  “OK. We have a secondary mission, fellas.”

  Tin got a wild look in his eyes and smiled really big.

  “No, buddy. We have to stop the Russians from getting that technology! Your designs on revenge are secondary.”

  “OK, Teeny, but if I get half a chance to take him out…”

  He raised his eyebrows and nodded his head at her.

  She hesitantly nodded back.

  Reed looked at Abraham and Michael after Teeny hung up the phone.

  “Looks like we won’t need a simulated demonstration for the Russians. We’re going to have the real thing!”

  _______

  Nelson Reed had his fingers making steeples in front of his mouth while he sat back in his chair and listened to Major Sanchez quibble about his issues. Johnson and Marquardt stood behind him like dark statues in their black-and-gray uniforms. With Tin AWOL, he had confiscated them from the army and made them his new Spartan Squad. They would give the Russians a show when they arrived.

  Why are military men such pussies?

  He hadn’t had any problems with things until now.

  Why now?

  Their buyer for the Spartan Enhancement Protocol was due in four hours.

  “But why does it have to be the Russians?”

  “It has to be the Russians because they won the blind auction, Major.”

  “Well, I’m not comfortable with this at all.”

  Reed could tell that this was a problem. The last thing he needed now was DOD interference.

  Sanchez looked to be deep in thought for a few seconds. Then he looked sideways at Reed before exiting his own office, leaving Reed and his bookend soldiers behind.

  Reed looked up at Johnson and flicked his head toward the door. “Throw him in one of the empty habitats.”

  Johnson was out of the door before Reed could swing his head around to give Marquardt instructions. “Go tell Leonard to hustle his ass over here. We need to talk.”

  He picked up his cell phone off of the desk and squeezed the sensor to unlock it. The face lit up, and he saw that there was no signal. Smiling, he threw it down on the desk.

  Robard was successful! The cell towers in the area have been taken out. Now I can deal with the Marty issue!

  Leonard walked into the office with Marquardt on his heels. “What can I do for you, Mr. Reed?”

  Reed leaned back in his chair and entwined his fingers behind his head. “Marquardt, go grab that little pest Marty Whyte an
d throw him in an empty habitat.”

  Leonard looked at the soldier expecting a questioning look, but he just turned and ran off down the hallway.

  “Are you sure he’ll do what you ask?”

  Reed opened a desk drawer and placed a vial on the top, sliding it toward Leonard. “This is a little something that my friends at R&D developed to control any uncooperative assets. Problem is, they lose all of their free will.”

  “But how is that a problem? Isn’t that exactly what you want?”

  “The problem comes when you need them to improvise. Or communicate thoughts. You see, they can relay a message but cannot create one of their own. The drug was being developed for renditions, but that factor made it useless for that. However, for our purposes…” Reed raised his eyebrows to imply the rest of the thought.

  Leonard gave him a toothy smile.

  “How would you like to work on some human subjects again?”

  Leonard’s face maintained its pleased demeanor as he pursed his lips for a few seconds. “Hmmm. Sounds interesting. So I can guess that little flamer Marty Whyte is one of them. I hope.”

  “Yes. I see that you are going to enjoy that one. Sanchez is the only other for now. We have some friends coming back to visit us too.” He broadened his own smile. “If they survive the demonstration, you can have them also.”

  Leonard was so happy at this thought he let out a maniacal laugh.

  Reed chuckled. “All right, go ahead and get started on your patients. We want them to be presentable for our uninvited guests.”

  Leonard turned to leave the room.

  “Dr. Leonard, one more thing.”

  Leonard turned to him with a smile.

  “I’ll need that vial back.”

  Leonard pulled it out of his lab coat pocket and held it between his thumb and finger to inspect the label before tossing it back to the now-grim-looking man behind the desk.

  “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

  With that he turned and walked out, turning in the direction of the habitats.

  _______

  Teeny walked around on the roof of the hospital holding her phone up and watching the screen. “Shit! No signal.”