Dead Man Walking

by Gary M. Chesla

  It took three weeks before they realized, that in order to learn anything useful, they had to analyze the materials behavior when it was introduced to human tissue.

  It was when they began to introduce the materials to human elements such as blood and tissue that things started to happen.

  Ken Johnson was the original man in charge of the project.

  Ken had been excited when Eric confirmed that the chemical substance had been specifically engineered to attack or interact with human tissue and blood.

  Their efforts to identify the makeup of the substance had made little progress until Eric considered what all they knew about the substance.

  Their initial theory was that the substance was intended to be delivered into large populated areas.

  Large populated areas contained, of course, people.

  So, Eric, instead of subjecting the material to more of the standard tests which so far had not shed any light on what they were dealing with, began injecting the biological material into samples of human blood.

  The view under the slides that Eric was observing became an environment of frantic activity.

  For the first time, Eric saw the biological agent react to something.

  In all his other tests on the substance, nothing seemed to happen. Acids, antibiotics, and viral agents had no effects on the substance.

  It was as if there were two inert substances on his slides.

  Eric knew that could not be the case, it was impossible that there wouldn’t be any reaction at all, not with the acidic and viral agents he had injected into the unknown chemical substance.

  At the very least, most if not all the chemical substance should have been destroyed.

  Eric had never seen anything like this before.

  When Eric introduced the substance into a sample of human blood, the substance became active and surrounded the blood cells.

  It was a strange sight. Eric at first thought the chemical substance was attacking and destroying the blood.

  After watching the reaction for ten minutes, he saw that the blood cells were not destroyed, but somehow had mutated after absorbing the biological substance.

  Eric added a fresh drop of blood to the sample.

  The mutated blood cells that had absorbed the biological substance, now surrounded the fresh blood cells.

  The fresh cells began to mutate and were incorporated into the mass of cells that had originally been changed when introduced to the biological substance.

  Eric sat the slides aside and next introduced the substance into skin tissue cells he had taken from his index finger.

  Again, the skin cells seemed to mutate in front of his eyes after absorbing the chemical substance.

  It was obvious that the biological agent that had been found was engineered to resist any reaction caused by introduction to everything Eric had originally thrown at it.

  It was also obvious that the biological agent had been engineered to infiltrate human blood and tissue.

  Eric wondered why. There were other more efficient ways to kill human tissue.

  The result of a human being exposed to this biological agent should be death.

  Eric assumed it would be a slow painful death as the biological agent was absorbed into the cells, causing them to mutate and spread throughout every drop of blood and tissue in the body.

  Eric wondered if the biological agent was a failed experiment to create a substance that would quickly kill large numbers of people when dispersed over a city.

  It would probably kill an entire city if a missile containing the substance was to explode over a city.

  But from what Eric had observed, something just didn’t seem right. The biological agent seemed like a clumsy inefficient weapon to be used in that manner.

  Eric had seen numerous forms of chemical weapons over his time at Davis Enterprises.

  Most were much more efficient at killing human beings than the substance he had been trying to analyze the past few weeks.

  Eric decided to reexamine the slides the next day.

  Maybe after a good night’s sleep, he would see something that he was missing.

  The blood and tissue cells should all die within minutes.

  He would let them all die and begin to decompose overnight.

  Perhaps by examining the end results of the biological agent’s effects on the human cells, it would yield more information on the true purpose of the biological agent than what he had observed to this point.

  The following day Eric was startled to see that the blood and tissue cells were not dead as he had expected.

  When he put the cells back under his microscope, the cells were still active.

  All Eric could think was, “This is impossible. Well, nothing is impossible but this defies all the laws of science that I have ever learned!”

  Eric set out to make sense of what he was seeing.

  When he added additional fresh blood cells to the sample, they were absorbed into the cells that he had experimented on the day before.

  An idea came to Eric when he observed the actions of the still active mutated cells.

  He injected the samples with an acidic solution, which would have destroyed normal human blood and tissue cells.

  It had absolutely no effect on the mutated human cells.

  The cells now seemed to exhibit many of the characteristics he had observed in the original biological agent.

  Eric was now certain that the biological agent that had been discovered was not intended to kill large populations of humans. At least not in the way that he had become used to seeing in all his past projects.

  He was certain that this biological agent was meant to infect and change the people in the area where it was dispersed.

  The question now was, how would the people infected by this agent be changed? What was the purpose or expected outcome of infecting human beings with this biological agent?

  What was the purpose the creators of this substance had in mind when they developed this substance?

  That is if whatever this substance was, was what the creators had intended to develop.

  It was still more than likely that the biological agent was the result of a failed attempt to create something else.

  Eric took the results of his experiment to his supervisor, Ken.

  Ken met with the military and explained what they had discovered so far.

  The military was very agitated by what they were told and explained what they wanted to be done next.

  The next day, Ken Johnson resigned his position, saying he refused to do what the military and the board at Davis Bio Enterprises wanted him to do.

  That was the last Eric saw of Ken Johnson.

  He heard rumors that Ken Johnson, as required by what was in the contract he had signed, was transferred to an isolated base where he would have to remain at work for one year before being allowed to leave the company.

  Working on matters of National Security and with the government involved, there were always unusual clauses in the contracts the employees were required to sign.

  Eric could only wonder what would happen to anyone who tried to break their contract.

  Eric was surprised to discover that he had been promoted to project manager.

  When Eric was informed by Davis Enterprises what they wanted him to do, he understood why Ken Johnson had resigned from the program.

  He was also tempted to resign, but deep down, Eric wanted to know. He needed to know.

  The project was in line with Eric’s long term goals that he wanted to accomplish.

  The methods were not what Eric would have chosen on his own, but he had to admit that they would be effective.

  He was also a patriot, and he would be helping his country and maybe even the world.

  At least this was what Eric kept telling himself.

  At first, it had eased his conscience.

  At first.

  Chapter 4

  Levi looked at Jamie as they approached
their Pine Rose Cabin, “We have to hurry if we are going to get to the restaurant on time.”

  “I know,” Jamie replied, “but I just want to check on Buddy before we leave. You know how worked up he gets when we leave him for very long.”

  “He will be fine,” Levi said. “I gave him a fresh chew. It should keep him busy for hours.”

  “I hope it wasn’t one of those brown Costco chews like you gave him before,” Jamie replied. “He gets that brown slobber all over his fur and the carpet. It took me hours to clean up the mess he made and then another hour to get all the gunk out of his fur.”

  “No, these were different,” Levi smiled to himself as he remembered the pleading look on Buddy’s face as the poor guy was forced to sit still while Jamie clipped the hair out of his ears.

  Levi fished the kitchen door keys out of his pocket as they stood by the door.

  “It will only take a few minutes so long as you didn’t give him those brown chews again,” Jamie said.

  “Good, then this shouldn’t take long,” Levi said as he unlocked and opened the cabin door.

  Jamie rushed past Levi and entered the kitchen.

  “Oh my God!” Jamie shouted.

  Levi quickly followed her into the kitchen, closing the door behind him.

  He turned and stood behind Jamie.

  From the kitchen, they could see through the doorway and into the living room. It looked like the cabin had been looted.

  The pillows that had been on the couch, were now on the floor. The pillows had been ripped open and the stuffing was scattered across the living room. One lamp had been knocked over and two rolls of toilet paper had been unraveled and draped over the furniture.

  “Buddy!” Jamie yelled angrily.

  The tan sixty-pound Labradoodle came into the kitchen and quickly crawled under the table.

  “Buddy, get out here!” Jamie yelled again.

  Buddy slunk out from under the table and ran behind Levi.

  A moment later his head slowly moved out around Levi’s legs. Two large brown, guilty looking eyes looked up at Levi and Jamie.

  Jamie put her hands on her hips as she walked over to the door way to get a better look at the damage in the living room.

  “I’m afraid to see what he did to our bedroom,” Jamie complained as she entered the living room.

  “Buddy,” Levi said as he looked down at Buddy, “did you do this?”

  “Of course he did it,” Jamie’s voice responded from the living room. “Who else would have done it. Whatever kind of chew you gave him made him go nuts. I told you to stop giving him those things.”

  Before Levi could say anything, Jamie screamed and ran back into the kitchen.

  “There is an animal in there,” Jamie shrieked.

  Levi ran over to the doorway, “Where?”

  “It’s in the bathroom,” Jamie replied. “I heard it knocking over something. Did you close the bathroom window before we left like I told you? I bet something climbed in through the bathroom window. I bet it is a raccoon.”

  “I closed the window,” Levi answered.

  “I think there are two them,” Jamie said. “I hear them snorting at each other.”

  Raccoons don’t snort,” Levi replied as he listened to the sound coming from the bathroom.

  “Then what do they do?” Jamie asked.

  “I don’t know. I think they make a chattering noise,” Levi replied. “I never heard one snorting.”

  “Here take this,” Jamie said, “they could be dangerous.”

  Levi turned to see Jamie holding out a cast iron pan that had been on the stove.

  “Do you want me to fry them up,” Levi grinned. “I’ve heard they taste good if you cook them right.”

  “Funny,” Jamie protested. “Just chase them out of the house before they bite someone. Raccoons have rabies.”

  “Not all raccoons have rabies,” Levi replied as he moved slowly towards the bathroom door.

  “Just our luck we have two raccoons and they both have rabies,” Jamie said quietly.

  “If there are two of them, maybe I should just close the bathroom door and hope they will leave the same way they came in,” Levi said.

  “If they don’t leave right away, how am I going to go to the bathroom?” Jamie protested.

  “There is an outhouse out back,” Levi said quietly.

  “I told you I’m not going to go outside to use that outhouse,” Jamie snapped back. “There are raccoons out there.”

  Levi knew he had a problem and maybe two raccoons in the bathroom. He sighed, raised the large heavy pot over his head and slowly moved his head around the corner of the bathroom doorway to sneak a look inside.

  He had just started to look around the doorway when a black ball of fur shot through the door way.

  A roll of toilet paper followed the ball of fur, unraveling as it bounced across the living room.

  Levi jumped back away from the door way, fighting the initial urge to bring the large pan down on top of the creature darting past him into the living room.

  Levi stood upright by the bathroom door and dropped the pan to the floor.

  “George,” Levi shouted as first a smile then a frown spread across his face. “Where the hell did you come from?”

  George dropped the roll of toilet paper. It had almost totally unraveled by then, as he turned and ran over and sat in front of Levi. He looked up at Levi, snorted, wagged his stubby tail and barked.

  The little black six-month old French Bulldog looked up at Levi.

  Unlike Buddy, there wasn’t a hint of guilt on his face or in his entire body.

  Jamie walked in and stood next to Levi, “I just spotted this note on the table. It says, Dad, we are going to be tied up longer than expected. Would you please take care of George for us tonight? We’ll pick him up in the morning to get him ready for the wedding.”

  Levi sighed.

  “I told Logan George isn’t allowed to stay with us unless they bring a cage,” Jamie said sounding annoyed, looked around and said. “Where did he go now?”

  Levi looked down but George was gone.

  A second later, George came flying back through the bathroom door. Another roll of toilet paper bouncing along behind him.

  Chapter 5

  Eric looked at the readout of information from the sensors that ran across his computer screen.

  Charlie Anderson stood behind him and looked at the screen over his shoulder.

  “Are you sure the sensors are still working?” Charlie asked. “He has been moving around a lot. Maybe he dislodged them when he fell over the chair or ran into the wall?”

  “Maybe he could have disabled one of the sensors, but not all of them,” Eric replied. “I’m sure they are still working. The computer would indicate there was a problem if any of them had been disconnected.”

  “The readings don’t make sense,” Charlie said as he continued to stare at the screen. “Heart rate, zero. Blood pressure, zero. Brain activity, zero with an occasional fractional surge to point one. Body temperature fifty degrees, lower than room temperature.”

  “The readings are what I had expected to see. It has been twenty-four hours since we administered the injection of the biological agent,” Eric replied. “What I didn’t expect is to see that the guy is still walking around in there.”

  “Did you expect him to look like that,” Charlie asked as he looked at the man inside the observation room.

  “With these readings for all his vital signs, he looks pretty much as I would expect someone to look,” Eric replied and looked through the two-way mirrored glass. “I just never saw a guy with these readings still standing and walking around.”

  Eric and Charlie watched through the two-way mirror as Joe Reynolds staggered around inside the room.

  His reddish skin, red from years of heavy alcohol consumption, was now a dark gray color.

  His dull blue eyes were now a milky white color.

  His mouth hung open and a
dark red/black drool ran down his chin and dripped down over his white jumpsuit. The front of his suit was now dark red, there was little evidence to indicate the suit was at one time white.

  Joe mostly stood in front of the window and stared at the mirror with his lifeless milky eyes.

  Every few minutes, he would raise his arms and begin to pound on the glass.

  Charlie jumped, startled when Joe began to pound on the glass again.

  “Do you think he senses us or do you think he sees his own reflection in the mirror?” Charlie asked.

  “From the readings on the brain activity sensor,” Eric answered as he studied Joe, “Neither. There isn’t any indication that his brain is registering anything. If I had to hazard a guess as to what he is doing, I would say his actions are just some kind of muscle reflex without any thought or intent behind it.”

  They both continued to watch Joe’s movements, looking to determine if there was any awareness or purpose to what he was doing.

  Twenty-four hours ago, Charlie met with Joe Reynolds to inform him that it was time for Joe to hold up his end of the agreement he made to get off death row.

  Joe first wanted to be sure that his old life had been completely erased.

  Charlie informed him that it had. He told Joe that his fake execution had been pulled off without any problems. His ashes had been delivered to his distant second cousin.

  Joe wasn’t surprised to hear that his cousin tried to refuse his ashes.

  When his cousin was told that he had to at least sign to indicate a relative had acknowledged they had been made aware of the existence of Joe’s final remains, he sighed, signed the paperwork, then took the urn with the ashes. He then walked out to the curb where the trash cans waited to be picked up and poured Joe’s ashes into the trash can.

  Joe laughed and told Charlie that his cousin had always been a worthless piece of shit.

  “I never liked that son of a bitch,” Joe replied, spitting out the words slowly as he replied. His eyes barely hid the feeling of anger Joe felt.