Amoeba (The Experiments)

by Jacqueline Druga

  Aldo whistled low, turning to Douglass. “I enjoy his enthusiasm, but I think the guy is off his rocker.”

  Greg paused by the door. “Colin, start working on a rescue plan, especially if we are able to freeze this island.”

  “Dr. Haynes.” Colin stopped him. “We have to work on our proof first.”

  Greg cringed. “Oh yeah. Proof. We’ll work on that too.” He reached for the door but stopped when a loud explosion blared out nearly cracking the speakers in the room. Greg tossed his hands up. “Now the volcano starts to erupt.”

  “Dear God!” Aldo stood slowly watching the monitor that showed the volcano.

  Lyle’s voice quivered as he called out. “Uh, Dr. Haynes . . . uh . . . come here.”

  Greg spun from the door, “What is it? I don’t need to see the volcano erupt, it’s not important now.”

  Colin smiled as Greg stepped closer. “I beg to differ, take a look.”

  Aldo pointed to the screen. “Is that black lava?”

  With a loud ‘yes’ and a little jump, Greg turned and shook his head to Aldo. “Black lava? No. Central nesting place and proof to save our island? Yes. Those, Aldo, are amoebas.”

  Aldo’s eyes widened as he watched them spew forth with a mighty blow from the volcano, thick and in the air, black, shooting high running down the sides of it, flowing like the lava that was supposed to be there. Quickly he shifted his eyes to Douglass. “Do you think this bodes well for our people?”

  I-S.E. Thirteen - The Island

  August 10th - 2:15 p.m.

  Another ‘boom!’ rocked the control building, and everyone stopped what they were doing in the recreation room.

  “Oh God, they’re nuking us.!” Richard screamed. “I have to get out of here!”

  “Richard!” Jake called to him as he ran out. “They aren’t . . . fuck him.”

  “The volcano,” Stan stated. “She blew.”

  “Jake?” Cal spoke softly. “Jake, do you hear that?”

  Jake zoomed in. It sounded like rain, thick rain crashing above them. “What the hell?”

  Horrified, Billy looked. “Jake, is that lava? Jake, tell me that’s not lava.”

  “It can’t be. We’re too far, the caverns would catch it.” Jake raced from the room, wincing at the screams of Richard that echoed in the hall. He darted across the hall to a room with a window. “If it was we’d be . . .shit.”

  It rained all right, but it was completely black.

  “That . . .” Lou pointed, “. . .is not lava.”

  “No shit.” Jake glared. “Welcome to round three of . . . shit.” Jake’s eyes bulged. “The amoebas.” He ran from the room. “Richard!” He bolted down the hall at a speed Cal rarely saw him run. “Richard!” Jake turned the bend.

  Everyone tried to keep up listening to Jake chasing a screaming Richard.

  Jake spotted him at the end of the hall near the entrance. Richard was running. “Richard, don’t open that . . .”

  Richard flew out, and the glass door slammed behind him.

  “Door.” Jake’s warning hand dropped and so did his head when he saw Richard step from the protective awning of the entrance way out into the rain of amoebas. No time for screaming, Richard disappeared under a black blanket. Shaking his head and letting out a slow breath, Jake turned around to everyone that had raced forward.

  “Jake?” Stan questioned. “Did Richard . . .”

  “Yeah. Lets’ uh . . . let’s do a double check right now of all ventilation, and pump the AC up full blast. Take no chances.” Jake looked over his shoulder at the amoebas landing like piling snow. Taken aback a little by what he was witnessing, Jake said no more and moved down the hall.

  Caldwell Research Center - Los Angeles, CA

  August 10th - 3:00 p.m.

  Barb’s mouth dropped open, staring at the monitor screens. Her eyes kept blinking in disbelief. “Where the hell did it go?”

  “There.” Lyle zoomed in. “You can see a speck of a window.”

  “Oh my God.” Barb watched the monitor that showed a shot of the outside of the two story control building. The black ground literally moved, and like snowflakes trickling down, the amoebas still fell from the sky.

  “We’ve got more time.” Greg raced excitedly in, skipping down the last two steps and running to the monitoring table. “The President is fine with our nesting theory, and we’ve bought more time to go ahead without . . .” Greg looked up at the screen that everyone watched and saw the magnitude of the amoeba. “Whoa. Anyhow. Cryogenics team is working on it. We’re under way.”

  “How much time did they buy us?” Colin asked.

  “He didn’t say. Why?”

  “Take a look at thermal graphics.” Colin handed Greg two photos. “It appears what blasted from our little Mt. Vesuvius may only be the beginning. We have more.”

  Greg’s eyes lowered to the pictures and peered at the darkened areas Colin had circled. More nesting areas. “I’m not worried about that.” Greg handed them back. “We’ll get them.” He cleared his throat. “Excuse me.” After turning around, Greg rolled his eyes and walked back out of the room.

  I-S.E. Thirteen - The Island

  August 10th - 9:00 p.m.

  Billy had long since resolved himself that he would have to face it. And since that resolution, jealousy was a rarity. But not as he sat on the floor, playing with the words he tried to edit. He wore headphones and played them loudly, trying to block out the conversation that floated his way. And Billy wished he could keep his eyes from floating up. He tried his hardest, but he couldn’t help but keep looking over to the corner where Cal and Jake were. And every time he looked, a spark of jealousy hit him. They shared an intimate moment. And it wasn’t as if he never saw them kiss or hug, he had. That never bothered him. What he witnessed right then did. No touching between them, not much. Jake’s hand resting on her leg, Cal on her back, him on his side. The book in Jake’s hand leaned in toward Cal’s stomach. And to Billy it had to be the most intimate moment he had ever witnessed between them. It showed another side to Jake, and the reason, Billy thought, for his jealousy. His staring was an intrusion, whether he was spotted or not, and Billy tried his hardest not to intrude. So he poured himself into his work, and turned up the volume on his headphones

  Jake’s voice was soft, almost soothing, as he read. “If I could speak in any language in heaven or earth but didn’t love, then I would only be making meaningless noise, like a gong or a symbol. If I had the gift of prophecy and knew all of the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn’t love, what good would I be? If I had the gift of faith so I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anyone. If I gave everything I had to the poor, and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn’t love, I would be of no value whatsoever.” Jake closed the book. “And that’s it. Get some sleep. You have to relieve me for watch early.”

  “Jake, I love when you read to me. You do it so well. The babies like it too.” She rubbed her stomach.

  “I’m glad.” Jake kissed Cal, then leaned down and kissed her stomach. He looked at her with a smile. “Since you sat real nice and listened to the bible tonight, tomorrow . . .” Jake winked, “. . .Clive Barker.”

  “Oh, good.” Cal adjusted down. “I promise. No nightmares.”

  “Yeah, right.” He pulled the blanket up over her. “I’ll be right here.”

  “You always are.” Cal lifted her pillow, moved it to Jake’s lap as he leaned against the wall, and laid her head on the pillow. “Night, Jake.”

  “Night, Cal.” Jake’s hand rested on her face, playing a little with her hair. Lifting it, moving it, but never taking his eyes off his focus, his peripheral vision of the area surrounding him and Cal. And even though the amoebas literally fell from the sky outside invading the island’s space, Jake was going to make sure with everything he had that nothing even remotely came inside and invaded his and Cal’s space.
/>   Caldwell Research Center - Los Angeles, CA

  August 10th - 11:45 p.m.

  The thought of, ‘three million dollars and I still have to pay for my coffee’ kept racing through Aldo’s mind as he placed his quarters in the vending machine. He pressed the ‘freshly brewed’ button and awaited his cup of coffee. Watching it fill, he watched something else, Caruso, Lou’s investor. Caruso rubbed his eyes over and over, exhaling deeply.

  “Headache?” Aldo asked pulling the cup from the tray.

  “No.” Caruso shook his head as he sat at the table. “Stress.”

  “Have a drink.”

  “I have. Many. It isn’t helping.”

  “Can I?”

  “Um . . . no.” Caruso tapped his fingers on the table. “I spoke to my wife in Switzerland. She . . . she didn’t know about any of it.”

  “Well, we sent them into seclusion before it was announced. Did you tell her?”

  “No.” Caruso shook his head. There was something drastic about it. “I thought it best to keep her in the dark. Besides, if I told her, she would know I knew ahead of time. And if she knows that, she’ll know as investors we are partly to blame.”

  “Oh that’s bullshit.”Aldo waved his hand at Caruso, then sipped his coffee with a gasping cringe.

  “Is it?” Caruso looked at Aldo. “We push and push for them to provide us with entertainment. Good entertainment. Haynes tried and it went out of control. We, Aldo, we investors, could very well be responsible for helping to end this world, believe it or not.”

  And Aldo chose ‘not’. He passed off what Caruso said as someone who was having a long day. He, himself, had often rambled nonsense when he was upset. And seeing Caruso was clearly upset, Aldo left the vending lounge, shrugging of the paranoid delusions of Caruso, and sipped on his coffee the whole entire time.

  CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR

  I-S.E. Thirteen - The Island

  August 12th - 8:10 a.m.

  They kissed, intensely and deep, like they hadn’t done in weeks. And pretty much Cal and Jake hadn’t. They bumped into things during their entanglement in that closet. Jake hands gripping Cal’s face, pulling her into him. Heavy breaths and moans emanated from every wide sweep of the mouths, hunger bites, and pulling of lips.

  “Cal.” Her name seeped from Jake’s lips as his hands helped her lift her shirt. He took advantage of the kissing separation to remove his shirt as well. He pulled her back into him gasping at the feel of her skin against his. “I miss being with you like this so much.”

  Cal felt his lips move to her neck. “God, when you’re like this you turn me on.”

  “Everything.” Jake brought his mouth close to hers and he smiled. “Turns you on.” He began to kiss her again undoing the button and zipper to his pants. He brought Cal back to him, embracing her as he turned his body leaning against the storage boxes there.

  Cal removed her lips from his. “And you love it.”

  “Oh yeah.” Jake slid down some when he felt the lead. Cal’s lips hit his chest and his arms extended out, gripping the sides of the boxes. He arched back his neck and rolled his eyes when he felt her sexual teasing, the gliding of her lips to his stomach, the light scratching of her fingernails against his sides as she grabbed for his pants. When he felt the cooler air hit him with the lowering of his pants, Jake flung his head forward and dropped to his knees to join Cal on the floor. So badly he wanted to hold her and make love to her. And with that desire and wanting, he brought his lips against Cal’s.

  “Jake!” Stan’s calling of his name and pounding on the door stopped them.

  Jake shifted his eyes. “Is someone dying, Stan?”

  “No. The uh . . . the President would like to know if you can take a moment to talk to him.”

  Jake kissed Cal. “Tell the President. . .” He bit his bottom lip. “Tell him my hands are into something very delicate right now.” Jake and Cal kissed again.

  “Jake.” Stan had griping to his tone. “I cannot believe you are blowing off the President like this. The world is in disarray and you’re fooling around in a closet.”

  “Stan, this whole building will end up being in disarray if I don’t take this moment with my wife. Leave.”

  “Fine. I’m telling.”

  Jake chuckled and imitated Stan. “Fine I’m telling.” He moved to kiss Cal again.

  “Jake, is it really a good career move for you to be blowing off the President?”

  “No more worse of a move than if I speak to someone and think he’s the President. It’s a mental endurance thing here, Cal. If it is the President, he’ll understand I’m trained not to believe it is. Now can we get back to more pressing matters at hand?”

  “Absolutely.”

  With an ornery, short chuckle, kissing Cal, Jake pulled her completely down to the floor.

  Caldwell Research Center - Los Angeles, CA

  August 12th - 8:45 a.m.

  A cultural man of many tastes, Aldo so desperately wanted an egg Mcmuffin at that moment as he sat in the lounge watching the news. But since all businesses were closed on this day due to the national emergency, he gathered McDonald’s wouldn’t open either, and he dismissed his muffin for a scrambled egg on toast sandwich he made himself. The news was the only thing on, except for that kid’s channel and cartoon one.

  “And he sits alone,” Douglass stated as he walked in the lounge.

  “Yep.” Aldo kept his eyes glued.

  “Watching the countdown?” Douglass joined him at the table.

  “I thought everyone else would be, too.”

  “They are, sort of. They’re in the control room listening to the expert talk about freezing that island. That’s why I came to get you. Thought you might like to hear what he has to say.”

  “I will. But I want to hear what this guy has to say.” Aldo pointed to the television.

  “I really don’t care for this news woman.”

  “Me either. She wears too much make up.”

  “Exactly.”

  They shared the long table in the news studio, Beth Chase on the right, an older redhead woman, Dr. Carmichael on the left. Beth nodded seriously while listening to Dr. Carmichael’s . “And is this virus similar to the flesh eating virus that ran rampant some years ago?”

  “Similar, yes.” Dr. Carmichael stated. “The only difference is, this is an organism, and it hits you and keeps moving. There is no way, unless caught immediately, that it can be stopped, nor the victim saved.”

  “So in your opinion, what will happen in Oahu in an hour’s time is validated?”

  “Without a doubt.”

  “Tell us, Dr. Carmichael, what we can expect from this blast?”

  “Well, Beth, as you know, they are covering the ground. Short range missiles, napalm, and burning out the land first, then a small nuclear detonation will follow. We shouldn’t feel anything on the east coast at all. Some on the west coast may have a tremor or two.”

  “Tidal waves, earth quakes, none of these will occur?”

  “They may.”

  “What about radiation poisoning?”

  “Well, considering the strength of the nuclear weapon used, I would advise those on the West Coast to not leave their homes if entirely possible, and if they do, keep exposure to a minimum.”

  Beth nodded. “Should citizens on the west coast be concerned with electromagnetic pulses?”

  “No.” Dr. Carmichael shook his head. “Now, neighboring islands within a hundred mile radius should be, and they will be affected. To avoid damage to televisions, radios, cars, all of these things should not be running or in operation when the blast occurs. If they are, they will never work again. Also,” Dr. Carmichael cleared his throat, “the threat of electromagnetic pulses does not end when the blast does. There is still a chance that a pulse wave could hit those neighboring islands for days, so use of antennas, satellite dishes, and such should be closely monitored.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Carmichael.” Beth gave a signature no
d and faced the camera. “As we approach the top of the hour, the destruction of Oahu a heart beat away, our prayers go out to them and their families. And America faces for the first time not only the explosion of a nuclear weapon for destruction reasons over our soil, but the implementation of Martial law, that has officially gone into effect for the entire western seaboard.” Beth smiled. “We’ll return in a moment.” A fanfare of dramatic trumpet music played as Beth faded out and the screen flashed to a reddened color video of a marching army brigade. And after the headline, ‘America Dying’ appeared momentarily, the station took a commercial break.

  Aldo shut off the television. “I hate that woman.”

  “So chipper.” Douglass shook his head. “Going to watch in the control room?”

  “Yeah, bigger screens.” Aldo followed him out. “Besides, I want to listen to the cryo guy.” They turned the bend to the control room.

  “Aldo, there may be something you need to know first.”

  Aldo slowed down when he opened the door and looked to his left. “What in the hell.” Greg and Colin were seated on the meeting level at the table with the cryo man. He wore a dark grey uniform, his hair a little dirty and messed up. Aldo could only see the man from the back and that made matters worse because Aldo could clearly see the golden letters that read ‘Bruno’s Heating and Air conditioning.’. Aldo shut the door, causing an ‘ow’ from Douglass when he hit him with it. “Haynes?” Aldo had a question in his voice. “Is this . . .” He gasped when the guy turned around and looked. Unshaven, maybe not even twenty-two years old. “Haynes, what the fuck? Tell me this kid is not our cryogenics expert.”

  “Actually.” Greg stood up. “I’d like you to meet Craig Lawson.”

  Aldo reluctantly shook his hand. “Not even Bruno?” Aldo rolled his eyes.

  Craig was nervous. “I work for Bruno, sir.”