Threshold Series (Book 1): Threshold

by Luquer, David

  “I can start on it right away while you finish going over this group,” Joel said.

  “I think we better watch them a few more days to make sure it doesn’t do anything else unexpected,” Blake suggested. “How many did we inject?”

  “Twenty-four,” Julie answered.

  “Give me necropsies on two of them,” Doctor Blake said. “I want to make sure the organs weren’t affected. If we sacrifice two of them, we will still have the rest to watch. Are you two okay with that?”

  “Do you have time to do it now?” Williams asked.

  “Yes,” Julie said. “Just let us put the rest of them away and we’ll get right on it”

  “We’ll be back when you have them opened up,” Williams said. “Call us if you see anything out of the ordinary before we get back.”

  Julie watched the three men leave before taking one of the cages and moving toward the necropsy room while Joel began moving the others to the rat room.

  * * * *

  In the cafeteria, Blake looked at the other two doctors before taking a sip from his mug of coffee. He knew that they, like him, were anxious to see the results of the necropsies. As difficult as it was to sit still, they would have to be patient long enough for Julie and Joel to get the rats euthanized, pinned to the boards and opened up. he knew that the two technicians were the fastest on his staff, but when you are waiting for results, nothing is fast enough.

  The three had decided to discuss the formulation to keep them occupied with conversation and keep their minds off of their impatience until it was time to poke around in the cadavers.

  “What do you think would cause such a rapid response?” Williams asked.

  “The accelerators you used,” Blake answered, though it was only a guess.

  Johnson shook his head. “No, the accelerators were not much different than the ones we used before. The new ones can’t be that much more aggressive.”

  Blake took ventured guess. “Radiation?”

  “There was nothing unusual,” Johnson said as he stood and paced along the table, coffee in one hand and the other hand on his hip.

  “There has to be something out of the ordinary you did,” Blake pressed.

  “We just repaired the severed nerves in twenty-four rats and caused them to fire in, and here we are racking our brains wondering where we messed up,” Williams said. “Shouldn’t we be toasting our success with a drink besides coffee?”

  “Maybe,” Johnson answered. “But I’m a bit too confused to think about celebrating just yet.”

  “Let’s just wait for the necropsy results before we get too stressed,” Blake suggested.

  “Did you change anything in the PEF07 from the formulation we went over?” Johnson asked.

  Williams cast him a glare for a brief moment. “I’ve never strayed from the formulations we map out and I certainly didn’t stray this time.”

  “I didn’t mean to insinuate anything or cast blame,” Johnson explained. “I guess I’m just reaching. This shouldn’t have happened so fast.”

  “We always deal with unknowns in these situations,” Blake pointed out. “Let’s just wait. We will have the results shortly.”

  “And how do I keep myself occupied until we get the necropsy results?” Williams asked.

  At that moment the paging system went off, Julie’s voice filling the cafeteria from the speaker overhead. “Doctor Blake and Doctor Williams to the necropsy room please.”

  “Looks like you won’t have to,” Blake said, getting out of his chair.

  * * * *

  The three doctors walked into the room with the “Necropsy” sign on the door as Julie and Joel continued standing over two rats, secured to boards and wriggling to get free of the pins holding their limbs to the wood. Julie was certain Blake could see the tension on their faces. She and Joel were likely not doing a very good job of displaying that something had them shaken up, something even more unnerving than the rapid recovery.

  The squealing was beginning to grate on her nerves. The fact that they were moving was bad enough. The fact that they refused to stop the horrifying cries was enough to make her want to scream and slam her fist down on them to silence the noise.

  “Why haven’t you euthanized them yet?” Williams asked, annoyance apparent in his voice. “They should be opened up by now.”

  “We did euthanize them,” Julie answered, her voice shaky.

  Joel stood beside her with his hands resting on the table, a scalpel in one hand. He looked every bit as ashen as she thought she must appear.

  “Then why are they still moving around?” Johnson demanded. “This is no time for jokes, Julie.”

  “It’s no joke,” Joel said. “We did euthanize them. We gave the injections ourselves. They had no pulse before Julie paged you, even though they were starting to move around.”

  “Who checked for a pulse?” Johnson asked.

  “We both did,” Julie answered. “And when we checked a moment ago and they still had no pulse.”

  “Then how are they moving?” Johnson asked.

  “If we knew the answer to that we wouldn’t have called you back early,” Joel said, setting the scalpel down.

  Doctor Blake grabbed a stethoscope from the counter and checked the rats for a heartbeat. “This is impossible.”

  “What’s impossible?” Williams asked.

  Blake listened a moment longer before answering. “They have no heartbeat, no pulse and they don’t appear to be breathing. But here they are, wiggling all over, trying to get loose.”

  “Let me see that stethoscope,” Williams said, reaching out his hand.

  “Son of a bitch!” Johnson muttered, his hand going to his forehead.

  “What is it?” Blake asked.

  “The neurons,” Johnson answered.

  “What about the neurons?”

  “They’re firing. Even after the rats were euthanized the neurons are firing.”

  “How is that possible?” Williams asked. “The only place they should be firing is in the right hind leg of each rat if that were the case.”

  “It’s gone systemic,” Blake said. “It’s hitting every neuron in these rats.”

  “I thought it couldn’t go systemic,” Julie said.

  “It shouldn’t have been able to,” Williams confirmed.

  Johnson pointed his shaking finger at the rats. “Open them up.”

  “Are you fucking serious?” Joel asked, his shock apparent in his voice. “You want us to open up two rats that are still moving?”

  “Watch your mouth!” Johnson said sternly. “And yes, I want you to open them up.”

  The two technicians took their scalpels and held the rats as still as they could while they made the incisions down the abdomens, opening the rats and exposing the organs inside. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary beneath the skin and muscle layers.

  “They look normal,” Johnson said.

  “What did you expect?” Joel asked. “They wouldn’t have started to decay in fifteen minutes.”

  ”No, but there are no signs that they were affected by PEF07,” Blake said, hoping to keep any arguments from escalating.

  “Why would they look any different?” Joel asked. “If it went systemic, wouldn’t it be in the blood and, possibly, along all of the neurons? You would have to draw blood to see anything, wouldn’t you?”

  Blake chewed his lip for a moment before responding. “Maybe, but the truth is we don’t know what we are dealing with here. We have no idea what effects to even look for.”

  Johnson removed his lab coat and tossed it onto a chair. “OK, burn the rats and I guess we better go find out what happened in the formulation.”

  The other two doctors followed him out as Julie and Joel put the still moving bodies into biohazard bags and headed to the incinerator with them.

  “You shouldn’t have argued with Doctor Johnson,” Julie said in a low voice.

  Joel shrugged. “He’s an asshole.”

  “Keep y
our voice down!” she hissed. “He may be an asshole but he’s still your boss.”

  “I hate to admit it but you’re right. If he had half the brain function of Doctor Blake or Doctor Williams, it would be easier to deal with him.”

  “Do you think Johnson got to where he is if he wasn’t nearly brilliant?”

  “I suppose not. Let’s get these rats taken care of.”

  They walked in silence the rest of the way, Julie feeling unsure of what else awaited them with PEF07.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Doctor Blake realized his knee was shaking nervously as he sat between Williams and Johnson before the desk of Franklin Benson, the senior doctor at NeurAx. Everything that took place at the facility had to receive the approval of Doctor Benson, who made a great effort to oversee every bit of research that took place. He had started as one of the research doctors on staff when the facility first opened but had been rewarded for his dedication when the senior position opened up. Now he made most of the decisions regarding formulation and testing.

  Blake wasn’t certain why he was so nervous at this moment. Any mistakes involved in formulations would fall on Johnson and Williams. He was merely in charge of the technicians and rats. If the shit hit the fan, he was in the clear.

  Benson removed his glasses and set them on his desk, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. He breathed a long sigh before responding to the report he’d just been given.

  “I’m afraid this story sounds a little fantastic,” he said.

  “I understand that, but it is all true,” Williams assured him.

  “And how is it possible that they came back from the dead?” he inquired.

  “They didn’t come back from the dead,” Blake explained.

  “But you just said they were moving.”

  “Yes, but that was the neurons firing. They were not alive.”

  “I fail to see the difference.”

  “There was no pulse,” Blake explained. “They were moving but not breathing. Though they were animated, they were still a corpse.”

  “So, we have zombie rats to show for all our hard work,” Benson said sarcastically.

  “That’s not what I meant,” Blake said.

  “Forgive me,” Benson said. “I’m a little punchy. We just spent the money and resources on the seventh generation of this formula and I have nothing to show the benefactors that will entice them to continue funding our research.”

  “I understand,” Blake said.

  Benson looked at Johnson. “Have you looked over the formulation again?”

  “Yes, Sir, but the formulation was fine. All the paperwork was in order and followed my notes entirely.”

  “Was there anything out of the ordinary in this formulation at all? I need to know this, so I want you to be honest.”

  Johnson looked down at his feet before answering. “There were a couple of experimental accelerators used to speed up results and, hopefully, stop any rejection like we saw in PEF05. We developed it in the chemistry laboratory on site, under my supervision.”

  “You synthesized these new accelerators?” Benson asked.

  “Yes,” Johnson answered.

  “Were they tested in any other application prior to PEF07?”

  “No,” Johnson admitted.

  “Is it possible that it caused this result in the rats?”

  “They were extremely aggressive accelerators, but I wouldn’t think it could cause this type of reaction. Not unless it is independent in making the neurons fire. If that were the case, then it would not be dependent upon an organ system. It would affect every species the same.”

  “Do you believe that is the case here?”

  “I don’t know,” Johnson replied. “But after what I saw this morning, I am inclined not to rule anything out.”

  “And this accelerator has never been used in anything else at all?”

  “No. It was developed specifically for this generation of PEF. It’s called AC0191, an extremely aggressive form that I developed to give better results at a faster pace.”

  “I would say it did that,” Benson agreed. “But perhaps it was a bit too aggressive.”

  “I believe it was,” Johnson said. “I was trying to jump the effectiveness to avoid the resistance we saw with PEF05.”

  “Without regard to PEF06.”

  Blake startled at the mention of the previous serum, the one they hadn’t received full results on. “What happened with 06?”

  “Never mind that,” Benson answered quickly.”

  “But if it will shed light on what may have happened here…” Blake began.

  “It won’t,” Benson said, cutting him off.

  “So, what do we do now?” Williams asked.

  “OK, gentlemen, here is what we are going to do,” Benson began after thinking for a moment. “Doctor Johnson, you will begin formulating PEF08 using only known accelerators, no more experimental ones. I want a report on the new formula when you have it together. Doctor Williams, you will destroy all the test subjects that received PEF07, then I want you to prepare a new test group for PEF08 once Doctor Johnson has the formula devised. Doctor Blake, I want you to have all supplies of PEF07 gathered up and destroyed. It sounds to me as though it is too dangerous to keep around. Are we clear on our duties gentlemen?”

  They all nodded and stood up to leave.

  “I want to thank you all for acting so quickly on this. I know it must be heartbreaking to scrap it and start at formulation again,” Benson added as they headed for the door. “I have the utmost confidence in all of you and your teams.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Blake said before making his way out of the office.

  * * * *

  Doctor Johnson peered into Laboratory Four before moving quietly inside, ensuring the area was clear of any technicians. He was aware that Blake would be here quickly with his staff to destroy the vials of PEF in the refrigerator. Though he knew it was wrong, he intended to keep two vials, intent on revisiting them later when things died down.

  It wasn’t that he intended to use them again. There was no way he would go that far to risk his job. He merely wished to study it. To see if there was any way to learn something more from it. He’d poured four years into PEF and six months specifically in the 07 formulation. He wasn’t about to just give it up without seeking further answers.

  He opened the refrigerator door and moved some things around, searching for two prepared vials. He wrinkled his nose when he saw two bottles of soda and a ham and cheese sandwich.

  “Why would anyone keep their lunch in here with all this shit?” he wondered aloud.

  He found two vials and swore when he discovered they were empty. Reaching deeper inside, he located two flasks, one liter each. Making sure the caps were tight, he slid them under his lab coat and exited the laboratory before anyone could catch him. On his way down the hall, he passed the first two technicians on their way to the room he’d just vacated. He nodded a brief greeting to them and kept walking apparently not alerted by his presence.

  He was almost to his office when he realized how foolish it would be to keep them there. He needed a better place to stash them. He entered his office long enough to place the flasks in a cooler, cover them with dry ice and carry it them to the parking lot, headed for his car. Surely the trunk would be a safe place, for the time being.

  * * * *

  Later that afternoon, Doctor Blake oversaw the team of technicians as they gathered up the supplies of PEF07 and took them to be incinerated. Normally anything they discarded from the laboratories was placed in biohazard bags and inactivated through high temperatures in an autoclave and then picked up by an outside company who collected the biohazard trash, shredded it and discarded it.

  PEF07 was going to be incinerated instead of neutralized because of the effects it had on the rats. Benson had not wanted to take any chances and neither did Blake. He would do what he could to make certain that this stuff disappeared and could not b
e found by a group of teenagers partying somewhere near a landfill.

  “It seems like you guys are having a tough time getting this stuff perfected,” one of the technicians said sympathetically as he gathered up some vials containing the serum.

  “Sometimes it takes years,” Blake said. “And sometimes it takes decades. We just can’t allow ourselves to get discouraged.”

  “Well, I’ll wish you the best of luck.”

  “Thanks,” Was all Blake could think of to say as he watched the supplies of PEF07 begin the journey to the incinerator downstairs.

  As he watched the last of it being packed into a biohazard bag, he bid one last farewell to the serum and headed for his office to begin assisting in the next phase. On the way, he grabbed two rat cages, one containing two new lab rats and another containing one of the rats who had received the serum. He knew that he was supposed to destroy everything, but there was one more test he wanted to run in secret. He needed one more question answered before he could put his mind at ease.

  As he entered his office and placed the cages beneath his desk, he glanced out the window. Once again, the rain began. It came softly at first but then became a downpour. The weather outside seemed to be a reflection of his mood: dismal.

  CHAPTER sIX

  Another late night in the office had Doctor Johnson nearly exhausted. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep up this pace, not that he had a choice in the matter. After all, he had to keep on top of the new formulation, just as he’d done for the previous seven.

  He deposited a stack of files onto his desk, looking at his chair as he contemplated. He was aware that he was far too tired to drive, yet he didn’t desire to sleep in his office. Everyone else had already gone home, leaving no one to catch a ride from. It was either drive or sleep in his chair.

  Grabbing his keys, he went with the former option. There was no way he was going to get a good night’s sleep if he was propped up in an office chair. Pulling on his coat, he headed out the door and down the hall.

  Outside, the rain continued its nightly assault, covering the asphalt with a layer of water. It moved like a stream over the lot to the grass, splashing with each step he took. Still, he decided nothing was going to keep him from his bed tonight.