As they drew even closer, Diachi grabbed a grenade, pulling the pin, throwing it into the mass of infected. Yuuto looked away as the explosion filled his ears. For a moment he couldn’t see any infected, hoping it had stopped their advance. This hope was quickly dashed as the dust settled, and the horde reappeared. Without skipping a beat, the soldiers began to fire at them once more. Yuuto could feel the tension amongst them all as the horde neared. He thought about retreating but knew he couldn’t leave the others here.
Before he knew it, the horde was at the wall, attempting to break their defenses. A couple of soldiers had already expended their ammo, resorting to hand to hand techniques, using their rifles as clubs. Yuuto had a magazine and a half left when he heard Diachi's rifle click dry. Diachi pulled out his sidearm, unwilling to give up, although he was down to very limited ammo.
Only a few moments later the wall was overrun by the sheer numbers of the horde. The force of so many infected pushing at the same time quickly toppled the wall allowing them to flood through. Yuuto backed away still taking shots; he could hear screams of intense pain through the gunfire, knowing that those were his fellow soldiers screams.
Diachi was grabbed by a soldier who had already turned. Yuuto aimed at the soldier shooting him off Diachi, but it was too late; blood soaked his chest. Yuuto saw that himself and one other soldier were the only two still alive out of the ten that defended the wall. Yuuto's mind was running through all the scenarios he could think of to escape.
The other soldier had the same idea and took off running down the street abandoning Yuuto to be the sole responsible person of stopping the horde. He quickly ran by the command tent, stopping quickly to grab a handful of ammo, shoving it into his pocket to fill his magazines later.
Before he could leave the radio in the tent squealed, and someone began talking, “We need reinforcements, there are too many! Does anyone copy?”
Yuuto started to run, with the horde in tow. After hearing another checkpoint asking for help he knew that this wasn’t isolated. The only thing he could do now he thought, warn as many checkpoints as possible to retreat. It was clear they had lost the city, and the only way to survive was to regroup.
He ran and ran, not stopping. Yuuto was on a mission now, to try and warn other checkpoints. Running in the direction of the next one, Yuuto turned the corner of the block, the checkpoint coming into view, smoke billowed from what had been the checkpoints command tent. Bodies littered the street, mainly infected, but he could see several soldiers’ uniforms amongst them.
Hopelessness set in, as he fell to his knees, letting out a primal yell of frustration and anger. Yuuto looked around at the destruction and death, deciding to give up right there at that moment. There was no winning against this infection, nowhere safe. He knew that he was doomed as was everyone left in the city. It was the beginning of the end.
The Virologist
The source
Chapter 1
Dr. Fumio looked through the microscope, inspecting the specimen underneath it. He scrutinized it, wanting to learn it, understand it. It didn't matter; he had barely learned anything about this virus. Being unable to produce anything worthwhile left him frustrated to end of the earth.
He was quite renowned in the world of virology, having worked on many projects, teaching the subject, and then finally getting his current job. Ever since he signed the contract for his current position, Dr. Fumio had been listed as retired. The virology community knew nothing of his work at his lab, purposely kept out of the loop. Even still, he wasn't entirely in the loop either.
He didn't even know who his boss was, or who was leading it, only that he was working for the government. They paid him seven times what he made as a tenured professor at a university. That's all he needed, or cared, to know. He had a private lab, two personal research assistants, and the newest and most expensive equipment he had ever seen.
Regarding his career, Dr. Fumio was in the big leagues. What every scientist ever hoped for, unlimited resources, the best of everything, and no deadline. Well, until now he had no timetable. Earlier that morning he received a phone call from someone heading the project.
It was always a call from the same phone, the only phone in the entire lab, a red phone on his desk. Anytime it rang he knew to answer it, as it was the only rule that had been stressed to him when he first signed his contract. It was always the same voice, a disconcernable male voice. The phone calls were still the same, until today.
Typically when he answered, with a hello, the man asked how the research was going. Dr. Fumio gave reports of progress once a month, and then the man on the other end asked him if he needed any supplies, to which he would list any if he did. He never got a reply after that, as the line would go dead, and two days later the equipment that he requested would show up. He liked it this way, less interference from anyone the better he could concentrate on his work.
Today, however, he was having the worst time concentrating, but he knew the pressure was on. The phone only rang on the first day of the month, but today it rang as soon as Dr. Fumio swiped his badge to get into the lab. He had rushed to reach it in time, picking the phone up at the fourth ring.
The man on the other end spoke rapidly, “Dr. Fumio, we need you to push your research forward, as quickly as possible. There have been…some unpleasant occurrences; Lab number three has been compromised. We moved the surviving team to a secure location; we are allowing you to work with them, but from each of your respective research stations.”
Dr. Fumio raised an eyebrow at the mention of another research location. He wasn't even aware there was another, and he began what happened to the other research facility.
The man on the other end continued, “We will have a secure line setup for you to use, as we will open communication between you and the other facility on your main terminal. Dr. Fumio, I…we need results, anything, a vaccine; I expect results within the next two weeks. Do you understand?”
Dr. Fumio wasn't even sure this was the same man that he usually talked too, because they never used names, or mentioned the virus. He was stunned for a moment, but quickly regained his composure, “I will make sure I get results.”
“Good, Dr. Fumio. You will hear from us soon,” the man on the other end said.
Chapter 2
He held his head in his hands, his mind heavy with too much use and exhaustion, having no success at all, no matter what they tried. It weighed on him, and his staff; they could see themselves in him, and him in them. They all wanted and needed a break.
The deadline was coming closer and closer, and he didn't think it was possible to meet it. Dr. Fumio removed his head from his hands and stood up, walked to the door, opening it to the brightly lit hallway. He moved down the hall to the lab, walking up to the door but ignored it. Instead, he pressed the intercom button on the wall.
“Finish what you are doing, then meet me in the break room,” he said.
His assistant put down a petri dish on the counter carefully, walking to the wall. He pressed the intercom button his side of the thick glass wall, “Yes, doctor, we will be there momentarily.”
Dr. Fumio walked back down the hall and went into the room across from his office, sitting at the table within the room. He could hear the decontamination procedure start, meaning they would be joining him in a few minutes. He rubbed his face, attempting to release some tension he felt, as he wondered how much longer they could all go without sleep.
His two assistants filed into the room, both sitting at the circular table where he was already sitting. They both looked terrible, heavy bags under their eyes.
“I know we were told to get results, and that the deadline was short. But, I feel that if we don't start getting some sleep, then someone might make a mistake. I want us all to take a break and get some sleep; I've already set up cots for us all. I want us all to start sleeping in shifts. Which one of you has been awake the longest?” He asked his assistants.
“I think
about thirty-four hours now,” one replied.
“Thirty-one,” spoke the other.
De. Fumio fought to convey what he wanted to say, “Well, let's all get six hours of sleep, but one of us will sleep in for an extra two. I want one person to be sleeping while the other two work, in eight-hour sleep intervals. Understood?”
They both nodded wearily.
“Good, let's get some sleep then,” he said semi-excitedly.
Standing, Dr. Fumio returned to his office where he had a small cot set up, removing his lab coat, as well as his tie. He laid down on the cot, feeling it sink down as he did.
The pillow was a little hard, and the blanket was slightly scratchy, but for all he cared, the pillow could be made of wood, and the blanket, paper. It mattered little to him, as before he had too much time to think about it, he fell asleep.
✽ ✽ ✽
Dr. Fumio opened his eyes, even the dim light burned, and he closed them again, his brain begging for more sleep. He blindly reached for his watch, which should have started beeping by now. He was hoping he was just paranoid and he still had a couple of hours of sleep left. He flung his arm out reaching until he finally found it, but something was on top of his watch.
He finally opened his eyes, begrudgingly pulling himself into a sitting position on the cot. He grabbed what was on top of his watch; a small piece of paper. He pulled it close, rubbing his eyes and began to read it.
Dr. we both know you haven’t slept more than a few hours in the past three days, so we decided to let you sleep and do the work ourselves.
He smiled, knowing that his assistants were worried about him. It was time to get up, though, and join them in work. He stood up, grabbing his watch, putting it back on his wrist. As he donned his lab coat he heard something, it sounded like a distant thud, repeating over and over. He froze, trying his hardest to determine what was making the noise.
He approached the door, slowly opening it. The noise got louder, but only just, coming from the direction of the lab. The lab, itself, was sealed from the rest of the building, soundproof as well, was impenetrable. The safety lights in the hallway were flashing in the dark.
Something wasn't right, the emergency failsafe had been enacted, and that could only mean one thing. The virus was free in the lab.
Chapter 3
Dr. Fumio immediately set into his work, trying to figure how this virus worked. It was nothing like they had ever seen before, it was freeze and heat resistant, as well everything they introduced it to, it killed, or completely ignored. The virus as it stood had a one hundred percent mortality rate once a subject was infected. It had some various after symptoms that baffled him and his assistants.
In common mice, after death, the virus still worked to replicate itself and would keep the mice's body alive for hours before they terminated the mice. The mice would regain mobility and become violent to any other mice nearby it. They would terminate the subject once it began to show these tendencies. Still, they had seen nothing like it before; no virus had ever taken control of an infected creature or person after death.
That was the real mystery, how it could become so powerful as to take over its host. Its RNA was very odd indeed. A singular strand like normal, but what was different was the ability it had to reanimate the dead and allow the virus to resume the most basic of motor functions. It was a tremendously unstable virus, as well, which attacked the major organs, speeding along the process of flooding the immune system, leading to death. It was something they hadn’t explored before, and therefore, they couldn't fully understand its function.
They could visibly see it reanimate the mice but not how it carried out the command in the mice. What was in the RNA that told it to take over the host, was missing to them and was frustrating. Once they figured that part out, they could quickly start to piece it all together, well easily regarding mapping out unknown RNA. With learning all they could about it, they would solve the biggest mystery in his career.
As Dr. Fumio worked, rushing to get something resembling result, his mind kept coming back to the phone call. He didn't believe himself when he said that he would have results. He had been told from the start to analyze the virus, decode it, find a vaccine or cure. They had found nothing towards a vaccine or cure. There was still too much work to do, and he had only started cracking the first layer of the puzzle. What he really couldn't get over was that other labs were working on the same thing as he was.
It wasn't unheard of to have several different virologists working on the same thing, but separate from the same source, now that was very peculiar. The government wanted all hands on deck for this virus, several teams all working independently to find results. This thought only led to another conclusion; why did they want this virus figured out so badly? Having multiple teams working separately would only lead to possible duplicate work. It seemed redundant, but he wasn’t the one in charge of overseeing the whole operation. Maybe someone thought it would mean increased productivity, but without linking each team’s work together, it meant nothing. He wondered if he could find anything on the server, now having access to the full thing, the other labs logs, and files.
Dr. Fumio finished what he was doing and made his way back through the decontamination process, before heading back to his office. He sat down at his terminal and began to look through the other lab's logs. It seemed like they weren’t any further in the process than he was. He was ahead of them by several months.
Digging deeper he found files containing each labs expenses, equipment, and hours logged. He could see each person's login and logout time from when they entered the lab, and when they left. Transferred files, requested files, it could all be found here. He saw the transfer of the basic information to each lab when they first started. He remembered sitting at the very same desk and reading the file.
The contagion of unknown form acquired from the remote Siberian post, name retracted from the record. Origin of contagion also listed as unknown. As his eyes scanned the file once again, he noticed something that always left him with an uneasy feeling. The team that acquired his raw specimen was from the United States and had listed over twelve members Killed in Action.
He closed out from the file, straining to find more information, but didn't see anything else of use. Once again frustrated, he sat back in his chair. His hopes of learning additional information about the virus ended up nowhere. He thought about how he was going to come up with some results, as he went into the kitchen area and made some coffee.
He drank a cup before returning to the lab once more, where he joined his two assistants. Refocusing his mind on his work, he grabbed a sample of the virus from the cooler and began to run more studies on it.
Chapter 4
He moved closer to the lab, his heart racing. If the virus was free, it could only mean that the possibility of one of his assistants being infected. Dr. Fumio knew that he would be stuck until the government sent a decontamination team to unseal the entire lab. Risking himself, he walked closer to the lab, trying to make something out on the thick glass that separated the two rooms.
The door into the decontamination room was still sealed, at least from his side. He knew that he was safe, but he was worried about his assistants. Approaching the glass, he could finally make out what was on it, a bloody handprint, smeared halfway, leading down until it disappeared. His fears were confirmed, the virus was free, and at least one of his assistants had been infected. The lab inside was destroyed; most of the equipment thrown on the floor.
A loud thud snapped him back to reality, jumping back from the glass. His heart was beating quickly again. He found one of his assistants, still in his biohazard gear. A large gash in his suit on his arm revealed his dead skin underneath.
His assistant's face was barely recognizable, bloody and waxy. The plastic cover that generally shielded a person's face had broken, only eyes, filled with blood, stared back at him. His former assistants slammed his hand into the glass several times, before aim
lessly wandering off into another part of the lab.
Dr. Fumio was frozen in place, not wanting to attract attention. He had never seen an infected person before; they had only tested on mice, nothing more. It was extremely frightening to be so close, knowing that if he walked into the lab, his assistant would attack him, but on the other hand, it also fascinated him to see the virus being able to control a human being. Again, he heard another thud, this time much softer, coming from the decontamination room.
He was hopeful that it was his other assistant, Diasuke, was trapped inside once the virus was released. Carefully approaching the door slowly, he looked through the small circular glass window. Dr. Fumio couldn’t immediately see his assistant through the window, and the room within looked empty. Then the banging noise sounded again, this time from the door, his assistant was probably up against the door, which would explain why he couldn’t see them.
Dr. Fumio knocked on the glass hoping it was loud enough to catch the attention of his assistant. He knew that there was still a chance that his assistant was trapped inside the decontamination room could be infected too. Knocking on the glass again, hoping to catch the attention of what was inside, he found his answer. An average face popped up from below the window, begging, pleading eyes, asking him to let them inside.
Dr. Fumio couldn’t quickly make the decision, as he could be hiding a cut. Motioning for Diasuke to back away from the door, his assistant knew what he wanted, backing up, showing his arms and legs. Dr. Fumio saw that he was unhurt and decided he could open the door.
The electronic keypad to the door was luckily still working but was currently locked out. Fortunately, again, Dr. Fumio was allowed to have a master code allowing him to override the system. He quickly punched in the code, hearing the magnetic seal release. Diasuke pushed open the door, quickly closing it behind him.
What Remains (Book 2): Quarantine Page 14