Bacteria Zombies

by Jim Kroswell

  ***

  Lawson was waiting on Bernard to answer him. He had other things he needed to attend to. The rate of bacterial infections was increasing at a tick he was satisfied with. He had programmed the DNA of the bacteria to take control of the humans infected, as well as making sure that the bacteria he was using was of a strain that was absolutely impenetrable by antibiotics. This part really wasn't hard, as the medical community was doling out antibiotics as if they were tic tacs, thereby rendering them practically useless again most DNA at this point. This was another reason Lawson wanted to do humanity in, their sheer and utter stupidity. They were simply too stupid to be allowed to take up anymore oxygen, not to mention cruel, to themselves and anything else living around them. Lawson was done with people. And he would soon be done with them in the more literal sense as well. All he had to do was to flip the switch. He had already tested the bacteria by region, as he had implanted a kind of GPS into the bacteria he could control whichever bacteria he chose to at any given time. It was quite ingenius if he were to say so himself. The programming of these bugs was truly illimatable and he took full advantage. He was a science guy and he used it for his exploits. Lawson was devious and destroying people was all he cared about and for no other real purpose other than that. His motives were superficial, but there was beauty in his simplicity, pure annhilation. He had not heard from Bernard so he zapped off another letter to him. Bernard was the money behind his ventures and he needed money for more contamination. Bernard handled the logistics of the modes of contamination, the sending out of the infected conveyors at airports and such. Now he needed Bernard to enact the second phase, which was to send out conveyors of the bugs to not only US airports and bus stations, but to expand the reach to every continent on the globe, to ensure quick and permanent spread, before some smart alec scientist found some way around his plotting.

  ***

  Samuels realized what he must do, he had to get out of that house and return to the hospital. At this point, he and Wesley were barricaded in an upstairs room. He devised a rope out of some clothing and hung it out of the window. Luckily, the infection also caused the target's mind to become cloudy and Renaldo was not thinking too clearly, as was evidenced by his continual banging at the door but not much else. Dr. Samuels hoisted himself out the window first and had Wesley jump out after him so he could help to guide him down. The descent seemed like it was forever but they finally reached the lower level of bushes that went around the perimeter of the house and he managed to work themselves over the obstacle. Renaldo was still banging on the door as Samuels could hear him. He ushered Wesley over to the car and they blazed away from the house.

  He was in his office at the hospital in no time. They had dodged the couple of infected patients roaming the halls in search of people to eat. Most of them were still in their rooms mostly catatonic. He wrote down what needed to be done and with paper in hand marched he and Wesley over to the lab. He started to withdraw blood from Wesley and then had him sit on one of the lab stools. He knew that Wesley could become dangerous but he didn't have time to do much else with him, he needed to work on this. He went ahead with smearing the blood sample onto petri dishes and placing them in the chambers that harbored the samples for quickest generation of bacterial colonies. He waited. Once enough time had passed he went over to the dishes and just as he had thought, the bacterial colonies were growing like mad. He needed to isolate some of the bacteria, so he went ahead and grabbed some off of the petri dish and looked at it under the microscope. He could see the little buggers there, looking like innocent little bacteria. He grabbed the petri dishes and ran over to his office. He opened up his computer email and shot off a dozen email. He sent messages to the top bacteriologists in the world. He needed to enlist their help. He needed to find an antibiotic to stop these devils, or their would be no more human race left for them to feed on, left for them to turn human upon human. It hit Samuels that bacteria were now so powerful as to dominate the world of humans, lead of course by humans, deformed to the inhumanity of their human manipulators, during this year 2076, the 400 year anniversay of when humans first found bacteria under the microscope in 1676.

  Dr. Samuels had the idea that if these bacteria were somehow being turned on by Lawson, if they were somehow programmed through their DNA to act as mini computer that could control the human brain and turn them into some sort of flesh eating zombie, then maybe this same DNA could be reprogrammed. What can go up must also be able to come down. Dr. Samuels wrote out his hypothesis to these other doctors, leaders in their field of bacteriology, to see if they had experience in DNA programming and if they had not only programmed DNA, but also reprogrammed it. The trick was not to kill the bacteria with the antibiotic, but rather to create a conveyor of new DNA to inject itself into the existing monster bacteria and reprogram these attackers into benign agents. If he thought it, he knew it could be done, he just had to find the master minds behind bacterial DNA programming.

  Doctors and scientists from all over the world immediately responded to him. Apparently this scourge had reached beyond American border and hospitals in other countries were reporting patients of similar design being admitted and then metamorphizing into these crazed zombie creatures. Samuels' plea did not fall on deaf ears, rather the ears were open to any sign of hope that could shed light upon this most horrorful of situation. Scientists agreed that something must be done and agreed to consider the approach Samuels proffered. They had not thought of DNA programming as a viable option for dealing this kind of evil, but agreed the technology was being used for different studies and outlandish uses, such as teaching bacteria to play chess and memorize poetry, all through the programming of the DNA and the transformation of the bacteria into miniature computers of sorts. They agreed to begin work on the reprogramming aspect right away, as soon as they could figure out the pathway being used by the bacteria to actually tap into the basal cortex of the human brain in order to gain control of it. Since the frontal lobes, housing the prefrontal cortex, are considered the executive control centers of the brain, that is where the bacteria must find blood flow to in order to travel there, implant itself and take control of the human mind and subsequently, the human body.

  Samuels heard some squirming and looked over at Wesley. It looked as if something had changed in the boy's eyes. Samuels ran to the supply closet and grabbed a straight jacket used to subdue patients. He quickly wrapped it around Wesley before he became too agitated. The boy looked up to him, and Samuels could catch a faint glimmer of his innocent son and reassured him that this was only temporary, help was on the way.

  ***

  Bernard had set up financial accounts on every continent in the world and he was now using these to pay off his hired guns in each of these. They were contracted to deliver the bacteria, that they received in the mail one day, to major airports in their cities. In transmitting the bug, they had no idea how easily communicable it was and that the mission was basically that of a kamikaze. Bernard, the greedy snake that he was, knew that the money transferred to their bank accounts would never actually be withdrawn, they'd be dead long before that, so he never even wired the payments. He was a wry character and nothing mattered to him more than money. Lawson had promised his plenty of it, all the world's vaults to be exact. Lawson cared little for money, he only wanted revenge on people, which Bernard saw as some sort of maniacal character flaw, but a wonderful one to exploit for financial gain. The two made a gruesome couple.

  Although Bernard did not mind using Lawson for such exploits, he differed in opinion with Lawson on one slightly major point, he did not quite want the entire destruction of the world and all who lived in it. He was not that crazy, he needed somewhere to spend his money. He knew if he left Lawson too much to his own devices, the inevitable would not be good, so Bernard built in a fail safe. He really did not believe Lawson when he told him that he could take control of all people through DNA programming of antibiotic resistant bacteria, but he went along
with him as he had heard science stories, he believed mostly made up, of doing strange things with bacterial behavioral control. But it really seemed like so much science fiction and although Bernard dabbled in science, especially pharmacologicl drugs that earned him humongous profits, the fringe areas were really beyond his scope and interest. There was one continent, that of Australia, where Bernard purposefully did not send his bacteria carrying agents to. This was where Bernard was hoping to retire, human population in tact, and with loads of money in his bank account, his Australian bank account. He even had his mansion already set up there, replete with a staff of servants and tennis courts. He lead Lawson to believe that the entire world would be infected and he did not know that Lawson had the capability to track the bacteria at such a specific level, as Dr. Lawson had not revealed all of the technology to Bernard and had intentionally left out the degree of GPS location information he was receiving from the little red blinking dots representing bacteria on his computer screen. It was at this moment that Bernard heard a deathly knock at his office door. It seemed to reverberate throughout the room. His assistant never knocked, so Bernard knew this must be someone else and no one had the ability to side step his assistant, except for... Lawson.

  The door busted open. "Hello Bernard." " Hello Dr. Larson." "Bernard, you have betrayed me." "I don't know what you're talking about Buddy. We've got bugs everywhere, we've got bugs coming out of the wazoo." "Don't be trite with me Bernard. There is something you don't know." Bernard felt his face become sticky with sweats and his palms started producing water. "Whatcha talkin about. We're a team, right." "Bernard, I have been tracking the bacterial infections. And there is one place where I have not found traces of the bacteria in the human populatoin." "Whatta ya mean, you already have been able to get samples from different places, you can't work that fast. I know you're fast, but you can't have samples already." "I don't need samples. Each bacteria has a homing device, an electrictronic signal that gets transmitted by satellite from it to my computers. You have neglected one continent. You have betrayed me. Were you planning on killing me off and then retreating to your own country? Huh, were you Bernard? You've betrayed me like every other person I've ever known, not that I did not expect it." And with that Lawson produced a small pistol out of his white suit pant pocket. "No, Lawson, you don't understand. You're my friend. You're my only friend. I was going to have us both go to Australia. I already had your house picked out. We were going to live there together, as blissful pals. Really, I'm loyal to you." "That was not the plan." Lawson set off a bullet that pierced Bernard's heart and the man sat in his chair with his head hanging forward. Bernard was no more and the task of dominating the world now lay completely with Lawson.

  ***

  Dr. Samuels sat at his compter waiting. He had bolted all of the doors to his office shut and propped chairs up against the door knobs, as he had seen in a dozen scary movies when they're trying to keep the intruders at bay. He was anxious and excited all at once. He knew that the man power was out there to get this done, to take technological leaps that had never been taken before, but when humanity needed it the most he knew humanity had the fortitude to take huge leaps. He was just hoping they also had the aptitude. He ran his fingers through his hair over and over. He looked over at Wesley and noticed that the boy had his eyes closed. His face really looked like a bloody mess. He was infected and he wore it on his skin, the dirty bloody pussy green sores everywhere. He had to save his son. It was all he had left.

  He kept refreshing his e-mail screen. Finally there was something. One of the doctors was named Herbert Bell and this was who got back to him. He hurriedly clicked on the subject line which read, "might have an idea", to reveal the message. Dr. Bell proposed the idea that possibly the bacteria could be affected by other bacteria which would deprogram the evil bacteria. Bacteria could change other bacteria by sharing their DNA. They put whatever information they want in one bacteria and allow it to share its DNA with all the others. It's the same way that bacteria share their DNA in order to make other bacteria resistant to antibiotics. He said it was a long shot but he heard of something similar once in Denmark, that a scientist working on DNA programming had come up with something sort of like this. He then wrote that the main problem of this massive infection was that even if they could reprogram the DNA, change the very character of the little bugs into something that did not transform people into zombies, these strains of bacteria were antibiotic resistant, so they would still kill all those infected, unless they could also program the bacteria, through the DNA, to somehow exit the body. This could be the clue to saving the human race. Dr. Samuels was exhilirated. This was exactly what he was hoping for. He pounded his fist onto the desk and his son, in the haze that he was in, jumped.

  Dr. Bell had many legitimate points and his logic was sound. He knew it was about reprogramming but he didn't know about doing it through DNA transferance. This was the missing link they needed to whip this thing in the pants. But the true genius was in tricking the bugs into leaving the body of their own accord. Maybe they could be told to go to the bladder and would just end up getting urinated out, or possibly the nasal cavity to be blown out into a tissue, it was genius and the possibilities were endless.

  Now he needed to make this happen. Dr. Bell was in Poland, where the infections were only recently, within the last day, starting to rear their ugly their. They would be able to work there. He opened the site to book his flight. He turned to Wesley, "Saddle up Boy, I think we're heading out." Wesley just drooled. Dr. Samuels hoped that the airlines were still in business.

  ***

  Lawson was glad to be free of Bernard and back at XLaw Labs. He lay on his red leather couch. All continents were now infected, although he had yet to turn on the little monsters in all of those locations, he was frothing at how amazing it would be. Soon, not just the U.S. would be in chaos, the entire world would be. Revenge would be his for the tasting. First he just had to get rid of this nagging feeling that someone was watching him. He looked over and caught someone looking at his through his window. Although Dr. Lawson was a rotund fellow, he was also as sneaky as a cat. He lumbered slowly over to his door and exited his office. He left the office building, walked slowly around the building, and from a spot behind a bush, witnessed a strange looking fellow trying to look through his office window, standing on a small box. He thought to himself that this guy must have thought he just got up to go to the bathroom, not knowing that he had been caught snooping.

  Lawson crept up slowly behind the man and once he was about three feet away, yelled out, "By george man, what do you think you are doing!" The man looked at him and Lawson could tell right away this was not a healthy person. He had sores on his face and a crazed look in his eye. He was infected. The man lunged at Lawson and Lawson fought back as much as he could. He could not allow it to end like this. The man clawed at the fleshy white pastey skin of Dr. Lawson and started to bite into the lard that was Lawson stomache. Lawson grabbed the pistol that was in his pocket that he had luckily not yet removed. He pointed it at the temple of the crazed infected man and shot a single bullet. The man was blown back several feet and ly there on the grass, blood pouring out the side of his head. Lawson was in trouble and he knew it. He had been infected by his very own invention. It was only a matter a time before the small mites would be raging through his blood stream and take a hold of his mind and will. He needed to do something quickly. He thought about the pesky Dr. Samuels.

  ***

  Dr. Samuels took the elevator to the 8th floor with his straight jacketed son in tow. People around him were looking at the two of them strangely. There weren't pockets of chaos on the streets here yet, as in was in America. They showed no real signs of an infected population here in Poland. The elevator dinged and the doors opened. Dr. Samuels knocked on the door that had the name plate ouside of it reading Dr. Herbert Bell. It was a big wooden door and looked out of place in this hospital / laboratory setting. Dr. Bell opened the door
and gave a wide toothy grin. Dr. Samuels immediately felt a surge of hope, "You must be Dr. Samuels, and this young Wesley. Come in, come in, it is so nice to make your acquaintance." "So, Dr. Bell, do you have anything for me?" "Oh, I have so much for you. Sit here, sit here, let us talk about this." Dr. Samuels and Wesley were ushered over to some green vinyl chairs and the three of them sat down.

  ***

  Dr. Lawson breathed a sigh of relief as he examined the petri dish and found now growth of bacterial colonies. He had not been infected as the immunity that he created for himself fended off the bacteria. He panicked in a momentary lapse of memory that he made sure that he was protected from the scourge he so readily dealt on the rest of humanity. Truly, the world would never be rid of him. He planned to rule a world of zombie like people until the rest of eternity.

  ***

  Dr. Samuels was beginning to become comfortable in Herbert Bell's office. However, he felt an icy chill run down his spine. Something told him that there was something wrong. "So, you see, Dr. Samuels, really, it's all worked out. This shouldn't be a problem at all. I see most of the bacterial infections being contained within a week or so." "Thank you so much, Dr. Bell. You have no idea how much this means to me, and my son. We've already lost his mother." "Oh, no need to thank me, I am only glad that I can be of service to mankind in this way. I think that as soon as we have it all under control you'll be able to breathe a lot easier. Dr. Samuels noticed that as Bell was sitting on his desk, his left hand ran across the table and hit a red button. Several men came in at once. "Actually Dr. Samuels, I work with Dr. Lawson. He is really a great man, and I plan to do even more research for him. But, my men here will show you to quarters where you can relax. You really are in good hands here, and like I said, you will be able to breathe easier soon. Dr. Samuels' face turned white. This was not what he thought would happen. This only confirmed his suspicions that Lawson was behind it all. And here it was that he was. "I'm disappointed Dr. Bell. Disappointed, is an understatement." He grabbed Wesley's hand and squeezed it. It was going to be a very long road.