Extinction Level Event

by Jose Pino Johansson

2 Days Later

  At 6:30am the alarm emits a ringing, piercing screech that would jolt a man like Mr. Freeze out of bed. Today, Michelle and Mike get up, rubbing their eyes groggily, as they contemplate another work day. But it’s Friday, so a weekend is right around the corner. And anyways, my job is occasionally fun. Michelle gets up, picks up some underwear and socks from her closet and heads to the shower. After showering, dressing, eating breakfast, doing her hair, and putting a touch of make-up on Michelle deems herself ready to head to work by 8:12 am. She hears Mike getting out of the shower as she walks into the master bedroom to fetch the car keys. The kids and their grandmother are still sleeping upstairs. Michelle puts the keys in her purse, throws a glance at her watch, and heads for the door. She opens the door to the garage, gets in her car, and pulls it out of the driveway. Getting out of the car she walks over to close the garage. When are we going to fix that remote? Closing the garage by hand, she starts to head back to the car when she notices the phenomenon on the ground. What the-?

  Worms! The ground around the house is crawling with worms. Wriggling, writhing, creepy-crawly worms all over the driveway, all over the yard! “What the hell??”, wonders Michelle out loud. Is this normal? They are everywhere! Oh my God, should I tell Mike? We didn’t have rain today or yesterday, did we? No! Heading back into the house, she runs into Mike, putting his pants on over his boxers. “Mike!”. Mike, a six foot-tall man of 40-odd years with almost no beer belly, turns around with a mildly surprised look on his face, “Hey Babe, what’s up? Didn’t forget the car keys again, did you?”. “Honey, I just got out with the car, and there are all these worms outside? Whats going on? Did you do something?”. “No.”, replies Mike, now genuinely surprised. “What worms?” “Worms, Mike, worms. They’re all over our front yard, crawling around like we just had a thunderstorm!”. “Weird. Lemme see”. Mike pulls on a button-up shirt, and heads for the door with Michelle behind him. He slips on a pair of flip-flops and steps outside.

  “Jeez. You’re right. Look at ‘em!” exclaims Mike once out the door, “This really is weird. What's happening? Is the ground like too moist or something?? How much did those kids water the plants?” “I really don't know honey”, replies Michelle, “we’ll have to ask them about it”. “It doesn’t really matter. Just leave them for the time being, they’ll go back in after a while.” “Are you sure,” Michelle asks worriedly. “Yeah definitely, babe. Just look at ‘em. By the time we’re back from work this evening they’ll be back in the ground and nothing to worry about. You’ll see.”. “Ok, fine”. “Lemme finish up breakfast, and get going you. Hey, you should too,” chuckles Mike, and with a mischievous wave he gets back into the house and closes the door behind him. Michelle turns around and gets into her car. Revving up the engine, she turns around and gets onto the road. They’ll be gone by the time I get back, says Michelle to herself. Not giving too much more thought to the matter, Michelle heads for her firm office and doesn’t look back. Little does she know that this miniscule little incident could be the beginning of a much greater problem.

  Miles Farm

  A day in the Corps is like a day on the farm. Every meal a banquet, every paycheck a fortune. I love the Corps!. Aliens happens to be one of Greg’s favorite movies, and that line by the character Sergeant Apone often keeps him working throughout the day on his farm. Getting out of bed, he puts on some flip-flops. Walking out of the farmhouse, he goes over to the chicken range and, after a minute of looking around, finds himself two eggs. Ahh, breakfast! He brings the two eggs into the house, breaking them and throwing the contents into a frying pan. Simultaneously he throws two pieces of toast into the toaster and opens the fridge door. Taking out coffee, he puts the coffee in the coffee-pot to start heating it up. After about five minutes, his breakfast is complete and he puts everything onto a tray and plops it down onto the small wooden table in the middle of the kitchen. A routine for many people around the globe, breakfast for Greg Miles starts at generally 6:15am, earlier than many of his fellow human beings. After a hearty breakfast of eggs, cheese on toast, tomatoes and coffee Greg feels ready to get to work. Utilizing his “new” dishwasher, he throws his silverware into the machine and heads out of the farmhouse.

  Along the path to the cow-house, where the self-milking machines are located, Greg notices some worms on the ground. Kneeling down to check them out, he steps on a bunch and then realizes that there are hundreds of them out of the earth. What the ----? It didn’t rain recently, what the hell is this? Miles leans down and scoops a handful of dirt up with his right arm. Definitely didn’t rain, the earth isn’t wet enough. Why are they all coming out of the ground? Its like seawater is coming in and driving them out. Greg gets up and continues to walk the remaining hundred meters to the cow-house. He sees the same phenomenon all along the path. Earthworms are burrowing out of the ground in the thousands, wriggling slowly and meticulously on top of the earth. Making a mental note to check back on the sudden rise of the worms, Greg walks into the cow-house to check the milk containers and carry to milk to the silo where he keeps it all. Some milk will be sent to another location to be frozen and put in cartons, the rest will be processed to become yogurt and various sorts of cheeses. After taking care of the new milk, Greg walks over again to the chickens to give them their feed. All in a days work. Wow, even more worms. . . .

  9 hours later. . .

  Michelle Williams returns home from work tired and hungry. To hell with work on the garden today. Straight to dinner. Realizing that Mike’s car is already parked in the garage, she pulls into her driveway and parks next to the front door, in the only available parking spot since one of the houses’ two garage is full of tools. Turning off the car, she grabs her purse and a file folder next to it and gets out of the car. In the dark, she doesn’t see much on the ground, and walks into her house quickly. The kids are watching a television show, which they’re only allowed to do since its Friday night and their favorite shows run throughout Friday afternoon. Grandmother is sitting in a chair sewing a sweater. Michelle heads into the kitchen, sees a pot of soup cooked probably a few hours ago, and a box of chicken nuggets in the fridge. Deciding that that would be enough for dinner, she eats, changes, and goes to bed.

  The next morning, Mike unusually goes out the door even earlier than Michelle. Just when she thinks he’s headed off to work already, he returns inside with an odd look on his face, as if he had just eater a very bitter lemon. “About those worms. . . they’re still all out there”, he states grimly. “What do you mean, still out there? I thought you said they wouldn’t be there today,” asks Michelle not liking the news, . “well, they are, and . . . its really odd. . . they’re just. . . all, like. Dead.”.

  “Dead?” Shocked into silence, Michelle simply sits stone-cold, contemplating the thought over and over again. “Dead?”. “Yeah, all of them. It's like a graveyard. All those worms coming out yesterday or the day before, they’re all just lying out there dead. It’s a mess.” Mike just slumps into a sofa with the same odd sour look upon his face, and grimaces. “We’re gonna have to clean up, and it’s a big mess. I don’t want dead worms all over our yard”. Michelle simply sits in silence, going over the strange turn of events over the last two days. Mike just sits looking like a man stunned, multiple unknown thoughts flicking across his face.

  “Alright. We’ve got a lot of worms, but that’s not a problem. Lets get ready, and do this together. You get the brooms, I’ll get the trash bin and a spade. We clean it up in about two hours, and case closed. We don’t have to talk about this again”, says Mike. Michelle replies kindly, “ok. But how did they die like that? We should think about that before simply sweeping them away and forgetting about it. What happens if it happens again?”

  “I don’t know,” Mike slowly murmurs, twisting his fingers around in a way he usually does when thinking. Several seconds pass. “But we don’t have to worry about that”. Let’s just clean it up. If there’s a problem tomorrow, we ask someone”. “
Fine, I guess. So let’s do this?” replies Michelle. The couple gets off the chairs that they were sitting on and move with a renewed sense of purpose.

  The next hour and a half are spent sweeping the patio, the backyard, and the front yard of worms. Tired, worn out from both work and the strange ordeal, the two decide that it is enough work for one day. Most of the area around the house seems to be cleared of worms. The couple looks at each other, each with a broom in one hand and a spade in the other. “You think we should go in now? I can hardly see anything anymore”. “Yeah, me too. I’m so tired, and I think we’re done here.” “Lets go to bed”.

  The next morning, when Michelle steps out of the house for some fresh air, she notices that there are no worms lying on the ground. Well, thank God. Looks like that dilemma finally ended. Michelle smiled, and knew that whatever happened, it wouldn’t repeat itself again. Still smiling, she went back into the house after picking up her mail.

  Miles Farm

  Gregory Miles couldn’t believe his eyes. All these critters- dead! How? And why? Greg paces around his farmhouse, thinking of what to do. Every worm in the vicinity of the farmhouse seems to have decided to leave the safety of the earth, crawl out on top, curl up and die. He couldn’t explain it at all. He had never seen anything like this.

  Gregory Miles decides to wait for an hour until two of his ranch hands, Jeffrey and Miguel, show up. Then we can work together and clean this friggin’ mess up. What the hell is this? Some kind of mass extinction? Miles walks along the path between his farmhouse and the cows’ field. All along the dirt path he sees dead worm carcasses littering the path, as well as throughout the shrubbery along the path. He keeps going over what could have caused such devastation on his fairly small, supposedly secure farm. Now I know I didn’t water the plants too much. The grounds’ not soggy at all. And I sure as hell didn’t friggin’ salt the ground. That would be suicide. “Shit”, mutters Miles to himself. It is the only answer he can come up with.

  An hour later, Jeffrey and Miguel show up in their pick-up truck. “Hey boys, look here. We’ve got a major problem today- no regular chores. I need you both to help me clean all this land of some mad, bad worms that died out today. Got it? Get brooms, shovels, and we’ll sweep ‘em and dig ‘em in”, orders Greg to the two. The two, both young adults working for extra cash, look slightly puzzled. “worms, sir?”, inquires Jeffrey politely. “Yes, dammit worms! You’ll see ‘em as you walk around, eh? Just get those brooms and stuff and let’s meet by the farmhouse”. “Sure thing Mr. Miles!", reply the two men simultaneously, and run off to fetch the required tools.

  Cleaning up the fields is hard work, especially so since Miles doesn’t know how wide the affected area from the worm die-out is. Nervously these thoughts course through his mind as he works alongside Jeffrey and Miguel. This could be a bigger problem than I thought. Maybe I should call someone, like the cops. They’ll know someone who’ll know someone who knows what to do. I can’t do shit ‘bout this. With that resolution in mind, after five straight hours of work in the fields, along with large hats on their heads to shield them from the intense sunlight, Greg drops his tools and tells his ranch hands to do the same. They go over to get some drinks and take a break. Greg goes into his house to dial the phone. There are important calls to be made.

  Back at the Williams’ home, five days after the original outbreak of worms Michelle steps outside of her house and once again sees the same nightmare. Worms by the hundreds are all over her front yard, and this time she knows that they will probably soon die. Michelle spins around and heads into her home. In the living room she grabs a phone by the armchair and dials 911. “Hello 911 here. How may we help?” “Hi, this is Michelle Williams. This isn’t an emergency, but I need help. I have worms crawling all over my yard and they are dying by the hundreds. Whom do I call? I need help really badly. I want to know what’s going on”. “You need to call the Department of Agriculture. They should be able to help you. You can reach them at the following number." The lady provides Michelle with a contact. “Thank you for your time. I’ll call them right away”, replies Michelle curtly as she sets down the phone.

  “Good Morning, US Dept. of Agriculture. If you wish to leave a message, press one. If you wish to refer to our seed policy, press two. If you wish to speak to a service representative, press three”. Punching three, Michelle is greeted by the usual melodramatic orchestra of telephone waiting music. “Our customer service representatives are all busy right now. Please wait, and one will be with you shortly”. Seven minutes later into the conversation, a representative picks up his end of the line. “Good Morning. US Department of Agriculture, Stockton Office”.

  “Hi. This is Michelle Williams from California. I recently have had a huge number of worms come out of the ground and die in my yard. Do you know what might have caused this? “Sorry, could you repeat that? A huge number of worms came out of the ground and died?” “Yes”. The representative pauses for a second, trying to make sense of the information that he had just received, “Did they all come out at the same time?” “Yes, all out one morning and dead the next, really”. “And you say you don’t know the cause?” “Not off the top of my head, no”. “Did you notice any unusual activity beforehand”. “No, not that I can remember”. “Hold please.” “Sure”. Michelle hears a hand come over the other phone’s speaker as the representative talks to another person in the agency.

  “Hello? Mrs Williams?” “Yes, I’m here.” “Ok, we’re sending someone over to your place. Your address is?” “It is 16 Lake Road, Oakridge, California”. “Very well. They should be over in about three hours. Have a great day”. “Thanks, you too!”, replies Michelle before hanging up. Listen to the irony of that- have a great day! Even if my tire is flat, my taxes still have to be paid, and there are dead worms in my yard, what should I do? Have a great day! Michelle turns around and walks over to the fridge to get some orange juice. “What was that all about babe?” Mike walks in, to drink his daily coffee cup before heading off to work. “We’ve got the worms outside again hun”. “AGAIN? What the hell is going on? I thought we took care of that two days ago!” shouts Mike, more than a little irritated. “I don’t know honey, but they’re out there, and I’ve call the Department of Agriculture so they can come over and take a look. We can’t do this on our own”. “The Department of Agriculture is coming over? When?” asks Mike, now curious, while sipping on his coffee. “In about three hours, he said”, replies Michelle. “Ok fine. I guess that should be a good thing. Tell them about all the problems we had with those things for the last three days. You going to work today?” “Actually, I’m probably going to be late at the very least. Maybe I should take a day off. But I don’t have too many more of those I can take”, states Michelle matter-of-factly. “Just take it. You could definitely use a break, especially with this. Take it easy. Make sure those Agriculture guys get every detail. I want this problem fixed.”, With that said, Mike finishes his coffee and walks heads to the garage. Michelle hears the car start, and after a minute of warm-up Mike pulls out of the garage onto Lake Road and heads off to work.

  Michelle decides to wash the dishes and dust the shelves in the living room before the Agriculture specialist shows up. After changing into something more comfortable, even though by this time her work clothes were getting comfortable; Michelle washes the breakfast dishes, puts a new cloth on the kitchen table, and sets up the kids’cereal. She then starts to dust the tops of the book shelf and the glass silverware table in the living room. After thirty minutes, Mike Jr, 8, comes slowly down the stairs, “Mom?” “Yes dear, I’m here. Mommy’s not going to work today. Breakfast is ready in the kitchen.” “Sweet!”. Mike Jr. goes over to the kitchen and pours himself a bowl of honey-nut Cheerios!. “Mom, when are we going to get Frooty-Loops? I’m getting sick of Cheerios”. “Baby, you’re getting them after we finish those Cheerios. I’m not going to go over this again. We already bought way too many cheerios last time at the supe
rmarket after you asked for them”. “Oh, whatever. It’s so unfair”, remarks Mike Jr, in the very usual way kids remark that everything is “unfair”. That though seemingly out of his mind, he quietly goes back to eating the cereal.

  Mike Jr. then goes over to the living room and turns on the television. After ten minutes, “Mike, get up and start showering or you’re going to be late for the bus. I’m not driving you to school”. “Ok, Mom!”. Stabbing the remote and turning off the television, Mike Jr. hurries upstairs. Michelle soon hears the shower turn on, and she gets back to cleaning the flower vase. Carefully removing the turquoise flowers out of the vase and placing them in a different one, she turns the vase around and sprays it. Cleaning it carefully, she then takes it and dumps the water into the sink. Filling it with fresh water, she replaces the flowers into the vase and puts it back in its normal resting place.

  After fifteen minutes, Mike Jr. comes hurrying down the stairs with his backpack on his back and carrying a notebook between his elbow and body. “Hurry on. The bus should be here any minute now” “I know, Mom”. Mike runs out the front door and within a minute Michelle hears the school bus’s familiar engine noise as it rumbles down the road. After it stops briefly and then continues going, Michelle feels she can get back to work. Well, that’s kind of enough work for right now. Lets rest a little. What should I do now? She picks up a cooking book from the bookshelf and starts to look through it for any new recipe that may seem interesting. Maybe not that. How about this? Putting down the first cook book, she picks up another- Southeast Asian Home Recipes. Perhaps something a little more exotic? The delicious aromas of fried rice and seafood pop out from the book and entice her to continue reading when the phone rings.

  “Hello?”. “Hi, this is Peter LaJoy. I’m from the Department of Agriculture. I just wanted to tell you that I should be at your house in approximately ten minutes”. “Sure, no problem”. “See you then”. The connection breaks.

  After ten more minutes, a black Ford Taurus pulls into the driveway. A slightly balding, thin man with spectacles comes out. The man carries a camera around his neck, and is wearing a pair of casual dress-pants with a button-up white work shirt. Michelle sees the car and comes out of her door. Extending his hand to her, he introduces himself, “Hi, I’m Peter LaJoy with the Department of Agriculture. Pete for short. Pleased to meet you”. “Michelle Williams. You got here a little early”. “The traffic conditions weren’t too bad, this morning most of the traffic was going the other way. Lucky for me. So, what seems to be the problem? You said the worms were coming out of the ground and dying all over the yard?”, inquires Pete. “Yes, exactly that. I’ll show you”. Michelle, followed closely by Peter, go around the house along the asphalt path to the garden. “Yeah, I definitely see what you’re talking about now. This is odd. Really odd. All over the place.”, comments Peter, while taking out a paper and pen. Michelle stops near the garden and points to all the dead worms that are littered over the yard. Peter nods in response, while scribbling notes down on his notepad.

  “Do you use any pesticide, or herbicide for the garden over there?”, asks Peter. Thinking for a moment, Michelle remembers the new herbicide that she only recently used, “Uhh, yes actually. My husband Mike bought Groundup SuperPower a few days ago. We used it at the end of last week to try it out. Do you think it’s responsible for this mess?” answered Michelle to Pete’s inquiry. “Well, I don’t know for sure. But now that you mention GroundupII. . . who makes that product?” “I could get the can. I think its MalSanto”. “Yes, please get it. I need to have a closer look at this product”, replies Pete as he continues to walk around the garden taking notes and trying to take in every little detail.

  Michelle goes back into the garage and finds the empty can of GroundupII. Yup, definitely MalSanto. Grabbing it, she brings it out to the yard and hands it to Peter, who is snapping close photos of the lawn and garden. Peter takes a look at the can now in his hand, and starts scanning every label on its side. Michelle stands by and watches. Pete takes out his cell phone. “I have to call the department. I may need to get a team of specialists here to look into this. Sorry if there’s an inconvenience”. “Not a problem, we’ll manage. Is it a big problem?”, asks Michelle. Peter is not listening. He is waiting for someone to pick up at the other end of the line.

  Michelle was listening to every word that came out of his mouth when he got through. “This is Peter LaJoy. I’m working on a possible field contamination of a herbicide product. I don’t know how widespread an area has been contaminated. . . what? Yes, the central California worm case. Wait, what?- another case? Where? A farm half a mile from here? Did you send someone over? You were about to ask me to go over there? What's the address?”, Michelle sees Peter scribble down an address on top-right corner of his notepad and notices that it belongs to a farm in the area. “I’ll get on it right away. Make sure to send someone over here”, and he hangs up.

  “What's going on?” asks Michelle to Peter. “I’m going over to check out another site. It seems to have the same problem you’re having. This could be more widespread than I thought. Someone’s coming over here, though, with equipment and so forth. I have to leave- it was a pleasure meeting you”. “Same here”, replies Michelle while shaking hands. Peter then heads back to his car, parked in the driveway. Michelle heads back into her house. Well that was quick. How bad is this going to get?, wonders Michelle as she watches Peter back out of the driveway and head down Lake Road.