Genesis Plague (41 page)

A
ny misgivings I had about my location were cleared up by the
large “Section 0-5” cut into the stone wall to my right. A thin blue strip of
light ran beneath the text and along the wall, turning the corner of the
hallway ahead.

The walls were stone
but the floor and ceiling were polished jet-black, so it seemed as if I were walking
over a void in which I was reflected from above and below.

My footsteps echoed
sharply as I walked down the corridor, following the strip of glowing blue
light. The hallway terminated at a black door which opened automatically upon
my approach.

Still no sign of Flint
and Maria. I couldn’t even tell if I had entered the section of the building
near the clinic. Hard to keep track of things when you were running for your
life.

The next room was a laboratory
straight out of a science fiction movie: computer screens built into the wall
every few feet; sleek machinery that wouldn’t be out of place on the bridge of
a starship.

At the far end of the
room was an illuminated plastic cube large enough for one person to stand in.
It was a clean room, although I had never come across anything that remotely
resembled its design.

Glass tubes protruded
from the wall between the computer monitors. They were like large vials,
attached to the wall by magnetic locks. Most were empty, but four contained
smaller versions of the larger glass tubes: vials holding thick red liquid. The
label on the first one I inspected read
M. Loa, Spec. 0-2, 1
^st
Gen
.

These were the samples
Xander King brought back with him from Mauna Loa in Hawaii. Whatever he pulled
out of the strange rock in the cavern beneath the volcano was in these tubes.
If anything held the possibility for finding a cure, it was the red liquid in
these vials.

Now I was left with the
problem of getting the samples to someone who would be able to make use of
them. I could get part of the way, sure, especially after helping Johann create
a cure for the first generation of the virus. But to formulate a mutating cure
that could stay one step ahead of the infection… well, that was going to take
more experienced hands than mine.

So how would I get four
vials of this stuff to the research base in Greenland? First I needed to get
them out of the facility, which, at the moment, seemed utterly impossible.

One step at a time.

Beneath each of the
computer monitors was a cabinet door built perfectly flush with the wall. The
doors clicked open with a light push, and I searched through each one until I
found a small Styrofoam packing box that would fit the four vials, with extra
space for more if I happened across a similar room.

It only took a couple
of minutes to detach each large glass tube from the wall and extract the
smaller, filled vials within. Soon the foam packing box was carrying all four
vials, and I was left standing in the middle of a futuristic laboratory in the
heart of a genetic research facility, my primary mission seemingly
accomplished.

It was in that moment
that the full reality of my situation crashed down on my shoulders. I dropped
to the floor on my knees, exhausted beyond imagination, sobbing and cradling
the box to my chest.

I was never going to
see my family again. I was never going to hold my niece and hear her tell me
she loved me in her small, soft voice. I would never shake my brother’s hand
and let him know he has a beautiful family, and that he should be proud.

The thought that
eventually calmed me down was that I might still have a chance to see Cassidy
again.

I left my tears on the
cold, black floor as I walked down a long hallway leading away from the lab.
The walls of that hallway turned from polished black to rough stone, and soon
the supporting studs in the wall were visible, as if there hadn’t been enough
time to finish construction in that part of the building.

The hallway ended in a
room that resembled a subway platform, with only one exit for a train. A set of
tracks began at the barricaded wall to my right and ran a straight line into
the blackness of a tunnel to my left.

On the tracks sat a
train car, much like a single carriage that transported commuters through a metropolitan
subway, though it was designed with as much futuristic flair as the laboratory.

It was a bullet on
wheels, sleek and uniformly black except for the soft green light that glowed
from its round windows.

The platform station was
utilitarian at best. Coils of exposed wires spooled from ragged holes in the
wall. Metal pipes lay in haphazard piles in every corner. The only light came
from two banks of buzzing fluorescent bulbs in cages hanging from the ceiling.

Now that I was this
close to the train car, I found myself hesitant to enter. The packing box in my
hand was suddenly a welcome distraction, and I turned away from the car to
search for a carrying bag in a row of storage lockers that were secured to the
wall.

None of them were
locked, which at first I thought was odd. I guess it made sense if you thought
no one was going to be around to steal from you.

Most hold only clothes
on wire hangers and shoes with a single pair of socks tucked into them. A
wallet stuffed with hundred-dollar bills was in one locker, an expensive
wedding ring in another, and a small leather satchel with a thin strap in the
last. I quickly emptied the contents of the satchel and stuffed the packing box
inside. It was a perfect fit.

Then I turned back to the
train car.

As I approached the
round, black door near the nose of the car, a small red light blinked on above
it. A glass circle the size of a shirt button tilted down at me: a camera. The
red light turned green and the door silently slid open.

It was at least thirty
degrees cooler inside the train car. The compartment was sterile, with little
else except for the seven-foot lifepods along the walls, six on either side.

Each sealed pod
contained a human suspended in clear, viscous fluid. Each person wore a
full-body suit of black material that clung to them like plastic wrap.

Though they appeared
dead, their eyes were open, and they seemed to stare at me as I walked down the
aisle, bathed in the glowing green light of their pods.

I nearly dropped the
leather satchel containing the vials when I reached the last two pods. They
stood across from each other at the end of the train car, and their occupants
stared across the space between, directly into the other’s eyes.

In one of them was Alexander
King, and in the other was my Cassidy.

I
slung the leather satchel over my neck as I approached
Cassidy’s lifepod. She hung suspended in the thick gel, her dark hair sticking
out in wild strands around her head, as if she were frozen in time.

Her hands were open and
almost touching the glass barrier between us. I pressed my palms to the outside
of the pod and rested my forehead against the glass, staring in at her,
wondering if she could see me.

My trance broke and I
began searching for the control mechanism that would set her free.

The lifepods were
secured to the walls, floor, and ceiling. Whatever machinery powered them must
be embedded behind the pods, because I could find nothing that resembled a
power supply on the inside of the train car.

There were several
blank wall monitors, and a console near the nose of the car, which was most
likely for a driver. The console didn’t respond to my touch, and none of the
buttons I pressed had any effect. I could see no way to open Cassidy’s pod.

Then my eyes fell upon
a small fire extinguisher in the corner of the train car. Without hesitation, I
ripped it from its strap on the wall and carried it back to Cassidy’s lifepod.
I moved the leather satchel around to my back and I raised the extinguisher
over my head, preparing to smash it against the glass.

“Paul, wait!” shouted
Maria from the door to the train car.

I faltered and looked
over. She and Flint walked toward me quickly.

“Wait for what?” I said,
raising the extinguisher again. As I brought it down, Flint shoved me to the side
and the extinguisher bounced harmlessly off the glass.

I roared and sprang to
my feet, running to tackle him. He wheezed and collapsed to the floor, cradling
his bandaged ankle. Maria stepped in front of him and I stopped, barely able to
see through the rage that clouded my vision.

“You don’t know if
she’ll survive if you take her out, Paul,” said Maria.

I turned away,
breathing hard, and looked at Cass.

“What are you talking
about?”

“These people aren’t
just suspended inside for protection from whatever happens out here,” she said.
“The pods are doing something to their systems, changing them somehow. Flint
and I found documentation in the clinic. If you wake Cassidy, you might kill
her.”

“But I might not.”

“After all your
searching, are you willing to take that risk?”

I gripped the fire
extinguisher tightly, wishing for the strength to crush it like a tin can. But
I was just as helpless in that regard as I was in all of my endeavors to save
Cass.

Then a clear thought,
like a beacon in the darkness, shined out to reveal itself in my mind. I turned
to the pod across from Cassidy’s, lifted the fire extinguisher, and said, “I’m
willing to take that risk with
some
body.”

The glass of Xander’s
pod cracked under the first blow, and with another two bashes, the glass
shattered outward, spilling Xander to the floor of the train car in a pool of
the thick, clear gel.

He lay there like a
dead fish until I reached down and smacked him square on the back. His back
arched. He took a deep breath before spewing a stream of clear gunk onto the
floor. Maria backed away, disgusted. Flint scooted back and sat cross-legged,
still trying to catch his breath from his earlier exertion.

Xander, still bald as
an egg, turned on his side and saw me standing over him. On his face was a more
confused look than I had ever seen on another human being.

“Paul?” he said slowly,
then he spat more clear gunk onto the floor. “What? What the hell? Where am I?”

“At PharmaCor in Rapid
City,” I said.

He got angry and tried
to stand, but I pushed him back down with a light kick of my heel.

“You—” he said, shaking
his head, “You woke me too early.”

“Ask me if I care, you
bastard.” I knelt next to him and he glared at me. “Is it safe to open
Cassidy’s pod?”

He studied my face for
a moment, then grinned. “You thought you’d try it on me first, is that it?”

“Damn right it is.”

“Oh, Paul,” he said
mockingly. “That sounds like something
I
would do.” He swiped a palm
over his scalp and flung away a layer of clear goop.

“Is it safe to wake
her?”

“Why don’t you just
wait and see if I die?”

“Wish I had the time.”

“Time,” said Xander. He
lay on his back in the goop and stared up at the ceiling of the train car. “All
we have is time, Paul, because there is nothing else left.”

“Speak for yourself.”

“Our world is being
stripped away from us by an organism that is more adaptable than we could ever
hope to be.”

“You’re talking about
the virus,” said Flint.

Xander chuckled and
shook his head.

“The parasite,” said
Maria.

Xander looked at her.
“Good to see you again, beautiful. Still sticking by your man, I see, even
though he doesn’t return your affections?”

“That’s enough, Xander,”
I said.

“Is it? I have
something I’d like for you to see, Paul, if you’ll allow me to stand up.”

I didn’t give him
permission, but I also didn’t try to stop him as he slowly stood on shaking
legs and hobbled to the wall across from Cassidy’s tank. He touched a wall
monitor next to his broken lifepod and the screen blinked on. With deft
movements, he navigated a series of complex menus and scrolled through a list
of files faster than I could read them. He stopped the scroll on a particular
file and tapped on it.

A video opened in a window
on the monitor, and it showed Cassidy, alone, sitting at a metal table in a
dark room.

Xander spoke from
off-screen.

“State your intentions
for joining the project.”

Cassidy clasped her
hands together on the table, fidgeting nervously. She cleared her throat and
said, “I want to give humanity the best chance it has for survival.”

“So you realize that what
we’re doing here is for the good of everyone?”

She nodded hesitantly.

“And what can you do to
help?”

She looked off-screen,
presumably at Xander, and her eyes were filled with pure hatred.

“I volunteer to give of
myself whatever is necessary for the research and creation of a cure for the
virus that is wiping out humanity.”

“And you do this
willingly, leaving behind all connections, all relationships, all ties to your
past? You admit that it is your sole desire to never again see a single person
you claim to know and love, if it means saving them and keeping them safe?”

Cass stared at her
hands and scratched at the table.

“You must speak the
words, Ms. Baker,” said Xander. “It is the only prerequisite for an invitation
to the project.”

Through clenched teeth,
she said, “It is my desire to never again see a single person I claim to know
and love.”

She looked into the
camera and Xander tapped the screen. The video disappeared.

He sighed and rubbed
his finger against the broken glass of his lifepod.

“So you see, Paul,
there would be no point in waking her at all. She never needed to be rescued in
the first place. She’s finished with you. I offered her something in Hawaii,
something you could never dream of being able to offer, and she accepted. I
don’t think you realize just how strong she is. Cassidy chose me over you, and
that’s the end of your story together.”