Eric shook his head. He had tried to perform tightly controlled clinical tests on Joe to find out why he had become what he now was and what it meant. Aside from their carelessness in the observation room earlier, he had tried to approach this in as professional and thorough a manner as he could.
Watching the two jokers the Air Force had sent over to transfer the subject to their facilities had been frustrating.
The disregard the Air Force seemed to have for his efforts with the severity of this situation was irresponsible.
But there wasn’t anything he could do now.
He began to prepare the injection to be given to the next subject.
He wouldn’t be so anxious to share his finding about the next subject with the military until he had more answers the next time.
He wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.
Charlie came back into the room as Eric was finishing up with the syringe.
“Did they manage to get him into the van or are they out there being chased around the parking lot?” Eric asked flatly.
“No,” Charlie replied, “They finally managed to get him into the back of the van with a little luck. The little guy however did manage to get himself bitten on the shoulder.”
Eric looked up, “You better call the Air Force and tell them to put him in isolation if they manage to find their way back to the base.”
“Who Joe or the little guy?” Charlie chuckled thinking Eric was joking.
“The little guy,” Eric replied. “I was watching the video and another theory struck me.”
“What is your theory?” Charlie asked.
“I noticed something on the video of our encounter with Joe. It made me think that if Joe had become what the biological agent was meant to make him, then what could Joe be meant to accomplish in that condition,” Eric replied. “That will be what I intend to verify with our next experiment. If I am correct in my thinking, the Air Force had better put that man in isolation within the next two hours. Call them now and bring our next subjects in to observation room #2. Observation room #1 is a mess and it smells like hell. But I need to verify this theory as soon as I can. If it is what I suspect, I think I know the purpose of this biological agent.”
“I’ll make the call,” Charlie said.
Chapter 8
Logan stood at the altar, his heart was beating rapidly.
He stared down at his shoes, took a deep breath and tried to compose himself.
Jamie would be walking up the aisle any moment and he wanted to greet her with a smile and a look of confidence to show her how happy he was.
“It didn’t seem this hard at rehearsal,” he thought. “Pull it together Logan, it will all be over in a few hours. I can do this. We’ve been planning this for a year now. This is what I want and everything has been going just as we planned it. There is nothing to be worried about.”
Logan smiled as he looked at his shoes.
Thinking about his shoes momentarily made him forget how nervous he was.
He had spent an entire week picking out these shoes.
He had bought two other pair of shoes before he had finally settled on this particular pair.
The first pair of shoes he bought seemed perfect, but the more he thought about them, black and tan wing tips, he decided they would clash with his brown suit.
The next day, it was decided he and all the groomsmen were going to wear gray suits.
They wouldn’t go with the new colors either, so he went out and bought another pair of shoes.
He felt the gray loafers looked good and would be comfortable.
When Jamie saw the shoes, it was decided they were too casual for a wedding.
She said they looked like something she had seen in a Salvation Army kettle last Christmas.
Jamie decided Logan needed some help and went with him to pick out new shoes the next day.
As Logan looked down at his shoes, he felt they were perfect. He had looked at them before and couldn’t understand why he hadn’t bought them himself.
The shoes were perfect, in fact everything was perfect.
He sighed and tried to smile, but suddenly a feeling that something wasn’t right ran through his body.
He didn’t understand why this feeling had come over him.
He felt the perspiration running down his forehead and begin to run into his eyes.
He raised his right arm and used his thumb to wipe the perspiration away from his eyes.
It was then he noticed that everything had grown quiet.
In fact, it was deathly quiet.
Logan lowered his arm and slowly began to raise his head to look out over the wedding guests.
They had all been talking quietly just a minute ago.
Logan began to relax again and a smile crossed his face, Jamie must have started walking down the aisle, drawing a hush over the crowd as they all turned to watch her.
Cold chills ran down his back as he started to look up.
His parents had been in the first row on his left a moment ago.
As he raised his head, from the corner of his eyes he could see that the front row on his left was now empty.
A knot began to form in his stomach.
He raised his head a little further and felt his stomach drop.
All the seats were empty.
The wedding guests that were here a minute ago, were now gone.
They were all gone.
“Where is everyone?” he asked.
A cold chill made goose bumps run down his legs.
He looked down and began to grumble to himself, his pants were gone now too!
Logan’s body shot up into a sitting position.
He was soaked in a cold sweat.
He threw off the covers and swung his feet off the bed.
His hand had shot out and switched on the lamp that sat on the night stand as his feet hit the floor.
He got out of bed, walked into the bathroom and poured himself a glass of water.
He was a nervous wreck, he knew that.
He had the same dream last night too.
He couldn’t wait until after the wedding so he could relax.
He knew he was having these dreams because he couldn’t believe that he was actually going to be getting married to Jamie tomorrow.
He knew the dream meant that he was just worried that something would go wrong.
He didn’t need to go and see a psychic to interpret his dreams to understand what they meant.
What he couldn’t understand was in his nightmare tonight, what happened to his pants?
He had no idea what that meant?
He wondered if that should be something he needed to worry about?
The wedding was tomorrow, he didn’t have time to go see a psychic now, but he would sure like to know what his missing pants meant.
Logan walked back into the bedroom and sat down on his bed.
He thought for a second, then picked up his cell phone.
“Seri, I just had a dream that my pants were missing. What does that mean?” Logan asked.
“It means you were out of breath,” Seri replied, “Pants is a term that refers to breathing hard.”
“No Seri, not that kind of pants. I meant I lost my trousers,” Logan said stifling a yawn.
“In order to avoid losing your trousers, I would recommend that you wear a belt,” Seri answered.
Logan smiled, he was too tired to play word games with Seri tonight. Seri, the I-phone personal assistant could be frustrating at times. Apple still had a long way to go with their speech recognition software.
He would quit while he was a head, “Thank You Seri.”
“You are Welcome,” came the reply from his phone.
He sat the phone back on the night stand, turned off the light and crawled back under the covers.
As he closed his eyes, he made a mental note to be sure he wore a belt for the wedding tomorrow.
Chapter 9
Ch
arlie walked down the aisle in the secure area where the “volunteers” for the project were held.
As he walked down the center aisle, he could see the two remaining men, looking with anticipation in his direction from their cots in the cells.
It was obvious they had heard him coming. They would have had to have been deaf not to hear him opening that heavy metal door.
In the past, Charlie would always laugh to himself whenever he opened that door. It reminded him of the old creaky door on the TV show, The Adam’s Family.
He had always expected to hear Lurch’s voice saying, “Good Evening!” when the door was finally open.
But today Charlie wasn’t in much of a jovial mood.
Robert Johnson was now standing, holding onto the bars as he pressed his face against the cold metal.
“Hey Charlie,” Robert said as a nervous smile appeared on his face, “tell me my assignment is ready. It’s all I have been thinking about the last few days. That and getting a tattoo.”
“A Tattoo?” Charlie asked.
“Yeah, I was thinking I would like to have a “XXX” tattooed on my arm. You know, like that Vin Diesel character had in the movie. Everything that has happened, it reminds me of that movie. I wanted to get the tattoo for luck,” Robert answered.
“You are going to need more than a tattoo for luck, my friend,” Charlie thought, but he kept smiling. “I’m afraid I don’t have any tattoo equipment here at our facility.”
“But it’s OK if I maybe get the tattoo after I am sent out on my assignment?” Robert asked.
Charlie shuddered as he imagined a “XXX” tattooed onto dark gray rotting skin.
“After your done with your assignment,” Charlie used the term loosely, “I don’t think anyone will tell you that you can’t get the tattoo, if that’s what you want.”
Robert smiled, satisfied with Charlie’s response, “Where am I going today? I am going to be prepared for my assignment, right?”
“Yes, your up today,” Charlie tried to look excited. He had come to know the two men in these cells a little over the past week. He knew they were on death row for committing horrific crimes, but that aside, they didn’t seem all that much different from other people that he knew.
They were still human beings, after all.
Having seen what Joe Reynolds had gone through had effected Charlie. He had watched Joe change from a human being into the monster the Air Force had taken away a short time ago.
He had watched Joe’s skin coloring change from a healthy pinkish color to the dead looking gray coloring of a corpse.
How Joe’s eyes changed from a dull blue to an eerie milky white. How the dark bloody drool ran from his mouth after the change.
These men were standing looking anxious and excited to go with him. The last image he had of Joe was of him struggling and frantically fighting to get free, like a cornered animal. A cornered dead animal.
The men in front of him had no idea what was coming next.
He knew what had taken place with Joe Reynolds was what was in store for these two men.
He hated to deceive them, but he knew it was better than telling them the truth.
If he was in their position, he knew he wouldn’t want to know. It was better for it to just happen.
If what he had observed with Joe held true, hopefully, these two men would never know what happened to them.
He also knew they were technically just lab rats, facing the original sentence that they had earned, but he too, along with Eric, was beginning to feel a little guilty about what he had to do.
He tried to push it out of his mind, remembering what he had told Eric. “If the death of these two men helped them understand this unknown biological agent, it would be worth the cost in the lives it would save.”
But now, even he was beginning to dislike what they had to do to these men.
He couldn’t remember having ever felt this way before.
Well, maybe in the early days of his career he felt a little guilty about feeding live mice to snakes.
But they were just animals, little rats, and that feeling had quickly passed.
But these men were people and that was starting to bother him.
When he first became aware of what they would be doing, he hadn’t given it much thought. Death row inmates, no big deal. He thought he could handle that.
That was before he got to know them.
He had made the mistake of allowing himself to become familiar with the men, allowing himself to see them as more than just subjects in an experiment.
“Oh well,” he thought, “just do it. It’s not that these two don’t deserve to die.”
He tried to brighten his smile, but the thought about how they would die wouldn’t leave his mind.
Joe pushed the key into the lock on Robert’s cell door, turned the key and pulled the door open.
The smile on Robert Johnson’s face grew even bigger as the door swung open.
Robert slowly walked out of his cell and just stood and looked around, taking in the feeling of freedom.
“Hey Charlie,” Ben called out from the opposite cell, “what about me?”
Charlie turned and inserted the key into Ben’s cell door next.
Ben’s eyes lit up when he heard the lock click and then his door swung open.
“You mean I get to go too?” Ben asked excitedly.
Charlie smiled weakly, “Yes, you both go today.”
“All right!” Ben said as he stepped out of his cell.
“Are we both going on the same mission?” Robert asked as he looked at Ben for the first time without cell bars between them.
“Yes, this assignment will require both of you,” Charlie replied as he looked away from the two men.
Robert stepped closer to Ben and looked him in the eyes.
“God, I’ve never seen you up this close. You’re as ugly as hell,” Robert grinned.
“You’re pretty damn ugly yourself,” Ben replied before grabbing Robert’s hand and giving it a hardy shake.
“Keep your comments to yourself,” Robert smiled, “Remember, you may need me to get that ugly ass of yours out of whatever jam you get yourself into.”
Charlie watched the two men, the smiles on their faces and the excitement in their voices, and knew it would probably be the last bit of enjoyment either of them would ever experience in this world, especially Robert, if he understood Eric’s instructions correctly.
When they were done shaking hands and laughing, they turned and looked at Charlie.
“Now what happens?” they asked in unison.
“Follow me,” Charlie replied, “the first thing we need to do is make sure you two receive fresh shots to boost your immune system.”
Charlie felt a sense of regret rush through his body as he remembered telling Joe Reynolds that same line when he took him to the observation room.
“Sounds good to me,” Ben replied, “I agree it’s best to not take any chances.”
“Follow me,” Charlie said again and turned to lead the two men down the hallway that would take them all to Observation room #2.
They walked out of the hallway into the brightly lit observation room.
Unlike their cells, the observation room was clean. The walls were painted a bright white color. The floor was tiled with clean one foot square tan tiles.
The ceiling was covered with large square sound deadening foam tiles decorated with small black speckles.
There were no dirty cobwebs hanging from the ceiling like there was in their holding cells.
A large mirror covered one of the walls and the room was furnished with two cots and a metal equipment cart.
The cart had three hypodermic needles on it. Two needles with blue labels and one with a red label.
Robert and Ben walked over to the mirror and studied their appearance in the mirror.
“I hate to admit it,” Ben said, “but I think you were right. I am an ugly son of a bitch.”
“It’s been years since I’ve had a good look at myself,” Robert added, “I don’t think either of us are going to win any beauty contests. Hey Charlie, is there anything you can do about our appearance? Maybe a haircut?”
“Maybe plastic surgery?” Ben laughed.
Charlie couldn’t bring himself to smile, “Don’t worry about your appearance. When we are done, you own mother won’t recognize you.”
Charlie sighed. It was probably the only truthful statement he had made to them today.
“I’m sure these guys are great with disguises,” Ben said.
“I certainly hope so,” Robert said as he took a last look at himself before turning back to Charlie.
“OK, please have a seat on one of the cots,” Charlie said as he studied the equipment on the cart.
He finally picked up one of the syringes with a blue label on it.
“Robert, I need you to lay down on the cart,” Charlie said. “Sometimes when people get this first shot it makes them a little light headed. Just to be on the safe side, it is probably better that you be lying on your back when I give it to you.”
“You want me to lay down on the other table?” Ben asked.
“Yes, please,” Charlie answered.
Charlie waited until both men were on the cots.
“Please roll up your left sleeve,” Charlie instructed.
The men did as they were told.
“After I give you the first shot, I want you to just lay quietly for a few minutes,” Charlie instructed again.
“The first shot?” Ben asked as he raised his head off the cot. “How many shots do we get?”
“Just two,” Charlie smiled. “I can almost guarantee that they won’t hurt too much.”
“What’s the matter Ben?” Robert laughed. “Are you afraid of needles?”
“Shut the hell up,” Ben growled. “Who bitched for two days after he got bitten by a spider. I swear Doc, I thought he was going to cry. It was the littlest spider I have ever seen. The way he bitched you would have thought he got bit by Moby Dick.”
Dead Man Walking Page 6