Dead Man Walking

by Gary M. Chesla

  “Come on Buddy,” Lottie complained, “What’s wrong with this spot? It’s not like it is going to make a difference.”

  Buddy continued to pull against the leash as he continued into the woods, testing the air and Lottie’s patience.

  Finally, Buddy stopped pulling against the leash, and just stood with his nose in the air.

  “It’s about damn time,” Lottie said. “Another fifty yards and we might as well just find a seat and wait for the wedding to start.”

  Lottie giggled to herself, “That’s right Buddy, you weren’t invited to the wedding. I guess it’s because you aren’t as well behaved as George.”

  Buddy wasn’t listening to Lottie.

  In the past, whenever Lottie would say Buddy’s name, he would always stop and look back at her, or at least wag his tail.

  Today, Buddy was a dog on a mission.

  Suddenly, Buddy’s tail stopped wagging and a low growl rumbled from deep inside his chest.

  The sound of Buddy growling got Lottie’s attention. Buddy never growled at anything.

  The last time she had heard Buddy growling was when Logan took Buddy’s squeaky toy away from him, that had been years ago, when Buddy was still just a pup.

  Lottie began to feel a chill run down her spine.

  She looked around the woods.

  It had been, well she couldn’t remember when or if she had ever been in the woods alone like this before.

  She had lived all her life, all twenty-three years, in Huntington Beach, California.

  There weren’t any woods in Huntington Beach, in fact the closest thing to a forest in Huntington Beach was the two palm trees in her dad’s back yard near the pool.

  Lottie and Matt lived in Long Beach, California, now.

  There wasn’t much in the way of trees there either.

  Suddenly it felt strange to be in amongst so many trees by herself.

  Well, she wasn’t really all by herself, she was with Buddy.

  “Buddy,” Lottie laughed. “Buddy, your about as ferocious as a butterfly.”

  Buddy growled quietly again.

  Lottie began to look down the path ahead of her and Buddy.

  Buddy was a gentle friendly dog that would never hurt a fly. In fact, she had seen Buddy scratch at the door for someone to let him back in the house because a grasshopper had jumped on him.

  She had never seen Buddy growl or snap at anyone or anything, not even with George, who pestered the heck out of Buddy whenever her parents had doggy-sat the aggravating, ill-mannered, little French Bulldog pup.

  George would chew on Buddy’s tail, his ears and his paws, and Buddy would just look at George with a disgusting, but patient look on his face.

  If Lottie would have been Buddy, George would probably just now be getting his body cast off, but Buddy was just so gentle and mild mannered.

  Lottie, looked through the trees, wondering what kind of animals lived in the woods.

  The only animals she could think of that lived in the woods were bears.

  Bears came to mind because, the theatre where she and Matt had been working since they graduated from college, had just put on the play, The Wizard of Oz.

  For the last three weeks, she had been hearing “Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My” in her sleep.

  Now Lottie thought that maybe she and Buddy should maybe get out of the woods and go back to the cabin.

  Lottie was just about to tug on Buddy’s leash and get him moving back in the direction of the cabin.

  “You mustn’t have to go so bad after all,” Lottie thought when suddenly two squirrels shot past her and Buddy, playing tag or whatever it was squirrels did for entertainment in the woods, and disappeared up a tree.

  Lottie let out a sigh of relief.

  Seeing squirrels was definitely a lot better than seeing a bear, or “Lions and Tigers and Bears.”

  “Those are squirrels,” Lottie said to Buddy cheerfully. “I know you’re a city dog and have never seen anything like them before, but they won’t hurt you, unless you’re a nut.”

  Buddy whined again as he looked down over the hill, off the left side of the path.

  His tail that had stopped wagging a few minutes ago and was standing motionless in the air, suddenly dropped down between Buddy’s legs.

  Buddy let out a soft whine as he turned and started to pull Lottie back towards the cabin.

  Levi and Matt where still sitting on the porch when Lottie and Buddy came out of the woods and started to cross the yard towards them.

  Jamie came out of the cabin as Lottie reached the porch.

  “Does Buddy feel better now?” Jamie smiled.

  “He didn’t go to the bathroom,” Lottie replied.

  “Why not?” Jamie asked sounding upset.

  “He is afraid of squirrels,” Lottie replied and rolled her eyes.

  “Squirrels? How many squirrels?” Jamie asked as she looked at Levi, “All these wild animals around here. Maybe we should drive to the wedding instead of walking through the woods.”

  “There were only two of them,” Lottie laughed.

  “And they were only little squirrels, right?” Levi grinned.

  “Baby squirrels,” Lottie smiled.

  “See nothing to worry about,” Levi added, “I’ll protect you. Going through the woods is a lot easier than driving.”

  Lottie laughed.

  Matt decided to be quiet and just smile.

  No one paid any attention to Buddy, who was now hiding under Levi’s chair, staring out towards the woods.

  Chapter 13

  Eric sat at his desk, holding the phone to his ear.

  He had been on the phone for the last twenty minutes, mostly nodding his head, until they asked if he was still there, reminding him that the men at the Air Force base couldn’t see him over the phone.

  Now he said uh huh every few minutes.

  “That’s right,” Eric finally said speaking a full sentence for the first time. “My analysis shows that the cells infected by the biological agent are mutating into a different configuration every twenty-four hours.”

  Charlie watched and tried to follow the flow of the conversation, using what Eric was saying to guess what was being said on the other end of the line.

  “That is my theory at this point too,” Eric replied. “With the configuration changing every twenty-four hours, it is not possible to find a way to neutralize the agent that quickly. Even if I could find a way in that time, it would not be of any use since we would be confronted with a different entity twenty-four hours later. I am hoping that if we follow the changes close enough, eventually the change will be something we can deal with.

  That will give us a twenty-four-hour window of opportunity to eliminate the agent before it can due further damage.”

  Eric listened for a moment then continued.

  “I agree, depending where we would be confronted with the biological agent, twenty-four hours would not give us much time, especially if we had to react to numerous places around the world at the same time. That time could also be complicated if the agent mutation was at a different stage at each of the different locations where we were confronted with it.”

  Eric nodded, “I agree it is an almost impossible task. I believe whoever made this agent, they built this into the agent to defeat any attempts to stop it until the desired results have been achieved. The desired results of course, are obvious at this point. Once it has been released, it could snowball out of control in a matter of hours. This also makes me believe, whoever made this, they must have an antidote or a means to stop it unless it is their intention to commit suicide in the process.”

  He listened again, “Yes, suicide is not out of the question with the insanity that is out there. As I see it we have three chances against this biological agent at this point.

  We can hope that it will never be deployed. Maybe we discovered the agent and confiscated it before whoever made it knew what they had. Maybe whoever made it was killed
in the war before they could share what they had discovered. Who knows, but for whatever reason, we can just hope that the agent is never unleashed against any populated areas.

  Second, that we have enough time to figure out how to neutralize the agent before it is unleashed.

  I am hoping if we observe the mutations long enough, we will see a weakness. Hopefully, we will observe a mutation that will not be as strong or able to hide the internal string of code that dictates each change. So far it has resisted my attempts to analyze its makeup and internal code. The longer we observe the changes, the chances of us finding a weakness in the agent should increase.

  So, hopefully we will have enough time and get lucky before we are confronted with any largescale attack.

  The final chance we have is in hoping if we do have to confront an outbreak caused by this biological agent, that it has a finite life cycle. That one of the mutations programmed into the agent is to destroy itself after a specific time. If we can manage to survive the initial impact of the infection, that we can also find a way to live longer than it does.”

  The look on Eric’s face changed to a look of shock as he continued to listen.

  “No, I don’t need any more subjects. The two I have now is enough. In fact, at this point, one subject would be enough. If I am to discover any weakness as the agent mutates, it is imperative that I continue to observe and document the pattern of mutation in the current subjects. Another subject would only serve to put me back to square one.”

  Eric knew the more samples he had to study, the better his chances of finding what he was looking for. But he had no desire to watch another man die in this horrible manner, just so he might have a slightly better chance at finding the key to this insane puzzle.

  Eric started to shake his head, “No I don’t feel trying to transfer one of my subjects to your base is a good idea, especially after what happened the last time. I have everything here we need, send one of your doctors here instead. We can work together at my lab and both of us get what we need without risking further uncontrolled contamination.”

  Eric listened for another minute then put the receiver back on the base.

  He sat back in his chair and let out a long sigh.

  Charlie slid his chair over to Eric’s desk.

  Charlie started to laugh when their eyes met, “What did I miss, or do I really want to know? Watching you on the phone reminded me of an old war movie I saw where a prisoner was being tortured by having his fingernails pulled out, one by one.”

  “First, they wanted to send us more death row inmates,” Eric sighed.

  “I figured that part out,” Charlie replied, “I hope you managed to talk them out of that?”

  “They agreed not to send us anymore until we ask for them,” Eric replied, “But I’m not so sure they aren’t going to start their own experiments over at the base.”

  “Did that thought just cross your mind?” Charlie asked as he stared at Eric. “We are dealing with the military. What else did I miss?”

  “They sent out a search party for the men that were to transport Joe Reynolds,” Eric added, “Now they are sending out a search party to find the search party.”

  “Shit, that doesn’t sound good,” Charlie replied. “We may not have to wait for some foreign assholes to unleash this biological agent on us.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Eric said. “It could be why they are putting so much pressure on me to find a way to counter the effects of this agent. You know they never tell us everything. They could have started a shit storm out there, but we will never know about it until they need someone to clean up their mess.”

  “Or take the blame,” Charlie added.

  “Did I understand correctly from the bits and pieces I heard that they are going to send one of their doctors over here to work with us?” Charlie asked.

  “He’ll be here in an hour,” Eric nodded. “He and his assistant, Weapon’s Specialist Cooper.”

  “Weapon’s specialist?” Charlie asked as a puzzled look crossed his face.

  “Until we can break this agent down and find a defense against it,” Eric replied, “the military wants to determine what they need to do to kill the body of an infected subject, short of blowing the subject to pieces. I advised against blowing up the subject. I told them it would be like spraying an area with the biological agent, infecting everyone within twenty miles.”

  “I’m sure they were disappointed to hear that bombing an infected population was not a solution to an outbreak caused by the biological agent,” Charlie grinned.

  For the first time in the last hour, Eric smiled, “They did sound a little disappointed when I told them. But they insisted that they needed a short-term solution to stop the spread of the infection until we come up with a permanent resolution to the problem.”

  “How do they plan on proceeding?” Charlie asked.

  “I assume they are going to try shooting one of our subjects,” Eric replied, “since they asked me if we had tried to shoot or stab any of our subjects. I informed them we hadn’t progressed to that point.”

  “It actually may not be a bad idea,” Charlie said. “Remember the broom stick I put through Joe Reynolds?”

  Eric nodded, “It had crossed my mind, since our subjects don’t seem to require all the normal body parts or systems for them to function. I would be curious to see what body part, if any, that they couldn’t function without. However, to this point I have tried to focus on our main problem, the actions of the biological agent, and not destroy our subject’s physical bodies.”

  Charlie added, “I understand, but the military may have a point. If we can’t find an antidote or a vaccine against the agent, and if the military can’t blow up the infected without spreading the infection. If push comes to shove, they need to find some way to slow down the spread of the infection in order to buy enough time to figure all of this out if we are going to survive any major outbreak.”

  “Our job was to analyze and determine what we were dealing with,” Eric said.

  “You forget who we are doing this work for,” Charlie replied, “I’ve never seen the government get their fingers into anything that they haven’t managed to screw up. We need to take that into consideration.”

  Dave led the two men from the Air Force back to the lab, as he was instructed, when they arrived.

  He opened the door to the lab, announced their arrival, then left after the men had gone inside.

  Doctor Miles Davis had been with the Air Force for nineteen years. He only had one more year to go before he would be able to retire with a full military pension.

  He was looking forward to that day when he could retire.

  Being in the Air Force had been a good job.

  The Air Force had been in numerous wars or skirmishes during his time in the service, but being an Air Force doctor had been better than being an Army doctor during that time.

  He was a general practitioner and handled minor surgeries but never had to participate in battlefield medicine.

  Miles had reviewed Eric and Charlie’s research, had a basic understanding of what they were doing, but this sort of thing wasn’t his field of practice or anything of interest to him.

  Weapon’s specialist Cooper had been in the Air Force for two years. The title specialist was a little misleading. Cooper was called a specialist because he had qualified on the shooting range with three different weapons.

  His main job with the Air Force to this point was as a mechanic’s helper in the motor pool.

  Eric listened to Doctor Davis introduce Cooper and himself and tell a little about their duties.

  “Not to be disrespectful Doctor,” Eric said after listening to Davis introduce themselves, “But neither of you seem to have the necessary background to contribute to our research here.”

  “No disrespect taken,” Davis replied, “We only expect to be here a short time. As far as your research, I don’t intend to pretend I that I fully understand your work or tha
t I can help you in that area in any way. I am here for your assistance and hope to only take you away from your important work for an hour at most.”

  “What can I do to help?” Eric asked.

  “As you may have deduced, I’m sure the Air Force hasn’t come right out and told you, but we have a little problem,” Miles Davis said.

  “Charlie and I have discussed that possibility,” Eric replied, “If what happened is what we think has happened, I believe we all may have more than a little problem.”

  “To be honest, we are not sure what happened,” Davis continued, “The men we sent to retrieve the subject from your lab never returned to our base. The two search parties sent after them, also have not returned. I am here to get your opinion as to what may have happened to them and determine how our next search team should proceed. I understand you have determined the purpose of the biological agent that is at the heart of the problem and how it spreads. I can understand what you are saying, but we have not yet seen what we are dealing with. I was hoping you could help me put a face on the vague images we have so far only been able to imagine.”

  Eric nodded, “Follow me.”

  Eric led the men across the room to the two-way mirror that looked in to the room where Ben and Robert were staggering aimlessly around the room.

  Eric put his hand on the wall next to the window and flipped a switch.

  An eerie moaning sound instantly filled the room.

  Doctor Davis and Cooper walked to the window and stared into the observation room.

  “My God!” Cooper exclaimed.

  “How long did it take for them to turn into these things?” Davis asked. “Pardon my use of the term ‘Things’ because at the moment, it is the only word I can think of to describe what I am seeing. Honestly, this is far beyond anything I had imagined from reading your report. I guess I had imagined some guy with a crazed look in his eyes. These men look more like the walking dead.”