Authors: Pamela Foland
Angela stared at her in wide eyed panic, “You’re the doctor. I just know how to fight the bad guys. Germs are your job!”
“Yeah, and tactical decisions are yours! I diagnosed the problem, and can probably figure out a cure, but you are the one that is going to have to catch and contain the patients,” Tina growled back, “Chief.” Tina began tapping away at her pop-pad.
Angela’s inner child screamed silently in her head, “I don’t wanna play chief no more!” Angela steeled herself, despite her inner child choosing that time to throw a tantrum, “Well, first we need to figure out who it has and who we have.”
Tina nodded with a grim smile, “I think I can come up with a scan to figure out who’s on our side. Oh, I have also sealed Sanctuary off. It, rather he, can’t send in any more reinforcements, but we aren’t going to get any either.”
They both jumped as Angela’s door rattled from a knock.
“Do I let them in?” Angela asked herself out loud.
“Why are you asking me?” Tina flinched away from the door.
“Do you think it’s one of Them?” Angela asked.
Tina pulled out a medical scanner and waved it in front of the door.
She checked her pad. “It’s your husband, as to whether or not he’s one of them I can’t say.”
“Does have the same signature anywhere on him?” Angela longed to see Daniel, she needed him.
“Can’t say, there’s a shielded door in the way. My gut says don’t take the risk,” Tina shrugged.
Angela couldn’t ignore the next batch of knocks, “Come in.”
Daniel came smiling into the room, “Honey, I got the sense that you were a little stressed out. How
>
bout lunch?”
Angela eyed him closely, “Sorry, lunch plans are cancelled until further notice. There’s something hinky going down.”
He held his arms out to offer a hug, Angela was drawn to him, she almost leapt over to get to him. He wrapped his arms around her and started kissing her, urgently. He started with her forehead, moved down her nose and just before he made it to her lips he went limp, slumping to the floor. Tina stood behind him with a stun capsule.
Angela felt betrayed until Tina held up her pop-pad, “The signature was definitely there.”
Angela looked down at her sleeping husband, a black oily mucus oozed from the corner of his mouth. Angela watched while Tina took a deep scan of Daniel. “We should get out of here, whatever it is inside of him is neutralizing the tranquilizer.”
Angela shivered, “Can you get it out of him?”
“Not yet, I don’t have enough information, and I haven’t had enough time for the information I have to be much use,” Tina replied. Daniel began to stir, Tina slipped him another dose of sedative, “We need to go somewhere where no one else will look for us, long enough to figure out what I need to do.”
“My paint room should be safe, no one but you and I know about it. There’s no reason for anyone else to even be there,” Angela responded.
“Good plan!”
- - - - - - - - - -
“Happy birthday to me,” Annette hummed to herself as she slipped into her swimsuit. Today was the first day of the year-end finals, and the pre-training classes were canceled for the week.
Annette knew this, yet she couldn’t sleep in. Her internal clock was set for early calisthenics and her nerves over the tests obliterated every attempt to reset that clock. So, free to chose her own exercise routine and awake at her usual five in the morning,
Annette chose to swim. She slipped into her purple suit, suddenly nostalgically realizing that this might be the last time she wore it. After the testing, she would officially be a third year student and her wardrobe color would become blue.
From her locker came the tweet of her pop-pad. Purposefully ignoring it’s summons,
Annette telekinetically plucked her remote pin from her shirt and pinned it to her suit. She’d been developing her telekinesis for almost a year now.
“Prima, your pin is waterproof isn’t it?”
“Yes, miss, do you want me to handle your calls,” Prima chirped.
Annette thought about it, she’d been trying hard to ignore the summons issued by her pad, “Could you figure out whether or not it was important. Oh never mind, they wouldn’t be calling at five a.m. if it weren’t,” Annette grabbed her pad and tapped it on.
Carl’s face greeted her, “Quick, I was hoping you’d be here before breakfast. I had something to show everyone.”
Annette smiled back at him, “I’m doing a morning swim, I’ll stop by before breakfast if you want, or you could show me during breakfast if you want.”
“No, it’ll wait,” Carl replied stiffly. Annette was beginning to get a bad feeling, something was wrong. Carl always called her Annette, never Quick like the other F.I.T.S. Then there was the limp nature of the message, he’d called at five in the morning but whatever it was could wait?
“Is anything wrong Carl?” Annette asked.
“No, Quick,” A bead of sweat broke out on his upper lip, “Everything’s fine I’ll see you at breakfast.” His hand tapped the screen on his side and the pad went blank.
Annette puzzled over the conversation. Twice he’d used her nickname, the second time in response to her questioning if anything was wrong. Something was wrong, and Carl had tried to tell her so. Annette’s gut squirmed, and she thought of contacting the chief.
But what would she say, “It’s five a.m.,
my odd friend is acting weird and my gut is telling me it is a serious emergency?” No, it was probably nothing too serious.
Annette shoved her things into her locker and locked it.
“Miss, I can handle your calls, really I’m ready!” Prima squeaked.
Annette grunted, then sighed. “Prima, I know. You are very helpful, but the trouble is that most of the people calling me at this point are wanting a real person, not just cyber simulation. They still see personal data organization programs as tools not people. If you fielded my calls you’d have about as much luck as I do with Chavez.”
“But I hardly get to do anything,” Prima whined.
Annette rolled her eyes, a gesture not picked up by the camera in Prima’s remote, “I’ll see what I can do about that, later. For now shall we go for a swim?”
Annette padded through the pool exit from the locker room. The water was placid, not so much as a ripple disturbed its surface.
Annette thought of running and jumping in but decided that with her luck she would slip and crack her skull open on the concrete. So Annette tiptoed over to the shallow end.
Slowly, and carefully she dipped her toe in, watching the tiny ripples. With as much control as her muscles could bear Annette slowly slipped into the water, trying to disturb it as little as possible. Even so, ripples spread out from her, echoing slowly back at her from the far end of the pool.
Enough, Annette splashed as she kicked off from the bottom. She pulled through the water with sure, crisp strokes, kicking mechanically. Annette focused on the form of each stroke, the pressure of the water, the taste of each breath. Her whole being was in the doing. She was so absorbed within herself and didn’t notice anyone entering the pool room. She missed Carl slipping slowly, as she had, into the pool. She would’ve swum right past him if he hadn’t made a grab for her.
Annette planted her feet on the bottom of the pool, and sputteringly yelped. She coughed out, “Carl! What are you thinking?”
“Sorry, um, Quick,” Carl responded, his mouth twitched, his overall look was strained,
“I just thought I’d come see you.”
Annette felt a gut-wrenching urge to be somewhere else, anywhere else, as long as it was away from Carl. She began backing her way out of the pool. “What about?”
“Oh, nothing much I just have a surprise for you,” Carl answered following her out of the pool.
Annette felt the need to flee acutely. “I’m not up for surprises right now.”
Carl’s face flashed a blank emotionless expression, then his hand snapped around her wrist, pulling her to him. She sensed his intention to kiss her, and to her horror saw a black oily substance ooze from the corner of his mouth.
All of her fear focused on the goo. Carl twisted her arm bringing her even closer, and grabbing at her other arm.
Annette took it as time to struggle. With the quick jab at his swimming trunks with her knee, Carl released her and
doubled over.
Annette took advantage of his incapacitation, and ran. At first she ran aimlessly away from him then she headed for the locker room. Briefly she thought she would be safe there, until reality hit her. Whatever was controlling him wouldn’t be stopped by a sign saying “girls.” Annette grabbed her duffle bag out of her locker and darted out of the other side of the locker room.
Rather than trying to sprint across the training cavern, something she was sure she couldn’t manage before Carl came out after her, Annette ducked quickly into a storage room a few paces from the locker room. The room was dark and full of boxes, perfect for a place to hide. Annette ducked behind a stack of boxes, pulling more boxes to complete her concealment. She sat on the rock floor wrapping her arms and legs around the duffel. She focused her mind on regaining control of her breathing. Rapid panting would give her hiding place away faster than anything.
Annette heard the door slide open, against lungs aching for fresh air she held her breath. The lights came on and Carl’s footsteps echoed from the walls and boxes. Annette crouched lower, and prayed her recent swim was enough to mask her scent. That prayer brought to her mind that she had been neglecting her prayer life quite a bit since she became a trainee a year ago. Carl’s footfalls came within feet of Annette, she heard him inhale deeply. He exhaled and his footfalls retreated, and the lights went back out. Annette didn’t risk breathing until after the door hissed shut again.
Annette didn’t know how or why he missed her, whether her prayer had anything to do with it.
Any way around it Annette was grateful. “Remind me to pray more Prima,” Annette whispered.
“When miss?” Prima asked equally softly.
“Later. . .” Annette answered.
Annette carefully unzipped her duffel and fished out a jumpsuit by feel. Fumbling in the dark Annette managed to pull the jumpsuit on and zipped it up. Annette felt around in the bag for her pocket-sized pop-pad and tucked it into the appropriate pocket.
Then she rose carefully and made her way back to the door.
“Prima, could you open the door just a slit so I can see out, but not so much that Carl might notice?” Annette asked.
“Yes, miss,” The door did just as Annette had requested. Annette considered stroking Prima’s electronic ego with a “good computer”, but decided it was too big a risk. Annette put an eye to the slit and saw Carl heading out the main door of the practice cavern, Annette watched for a while before hesitantly tapping the door panel to open it fully. Trotting as quickly as she could, Annette headed for the instructor’s quarters. She was just around the bend in the hall when she nearly ran face first into Niri.
“Whoa! Where are you off to in such a hurry at this hour?” Niri asked, seemingly normal.
“Something black and gooey is controlling Carl. We have to do something!” Annette howled.
“It’s okay,” Niri wrapped her arms around Annette and began patting her on the back. Suddenly the embrace tensed and Niri’s arms became like a steel cage. Carl appeared to Niri’s left, holding a pale greenish slug.
Annette tensed and struggled against Niri, but the older though smaller woman was more experienced, easily keeping Annette in control.
Carl raised the slug towards Annette’s face the slug oozed the same black oily substance. It felt cold and slick as it came in contact with her skin. Shivers went up and down Annette’s spine as each hair and pore on her face made report of the slime’s movement towards her eyes. Black lightning played itself across her mind as pain seared through her where the slime entered behind her eyes, and climbed down into her lungs.