Day Zero
Chapter 9

Day 26

Abigail’s alarm went off at three a.m. and she grumbled before switching on her light. She sighed and rubbed sleep from her eyes before she slipped on her boot like slippers, yanked a sweatshirt on over her pajamas and wandered down the hallways first to the break room to put on a pot of coffee and then to the cytoplasm lab where she took the sample and placed the petri dishes on the counter. Before the examination she poured herself a mug of coffee and carried it into the lab with her.

She grabbed the petri dishes and began to take photo after photo of the dishes hoping to find something different with these new pictures than with the initial photos that she took before beginning the test.After she took nearly one hundred pictures she printed them off and grabbed the one hundred pictures that she had taken before doing the test and walked to an examination room where she could turn on one of the radiology lights to better examine the photos.

As she examined the pictures she looked for similarities and differences between the pictures stopping occasionally to take a drink of her coffee. The pictures seemed to change every time she looked at them. There was something within the cell itself that was shaped like a bullet. As she looked at the rest of the pictures she noticed that time after time the number of bullet shaped things within the cells continued to multiply and multiply that until the final picture of the entire sample was almost completely engulfed by the strange things found within the cell itself. The pictures were taken in ten second increments which could mean that during those ten seconds the mutations could have happened again and again and again.

She did the math from the numbers that she had scribbled down; remembering that Henry had told her that there was an average of 4.2 million cells in the average male’s body. The numbers of cells that were infected within the initial sample was around 400. These new cells were changing every ten seconds and at the last picture every cell had been infected. That met that sixteen cells were infected every ten seconds. There were now 1,600 cells in the sample. This met that in forty eight more minutes the entire sample could be infected. She jumped up from the table that she was doing math on, almost knocking over her coffee in the process and ran out the door. She looked at her watch realizing that it was 7:30 a.m. which met that everyone would hopefully be in the cafeteria.

She ran in and almost slipped on the floor in her slippers. “I found something! I found something!” she cried out as she regained her balance.

“What are you talking about? And why are you screaming this early in the morning?” James demanded.

She felt all eyes on here and she suddenly felt self-conscious in her Harry Potter themed sleeping shorts and her M.I.T hooded sweatshirt. She hadn’t bothered to change clothes at two in the morning although now she wished that she had at least put on jeans. “You don’t understand there is something growing and reproducing in the red blood cells. I think it might be a virus but I am not sure…out of the 100 pictures I took in the initial stage before I let the cells sit out there was an increase every ten seconds between pictures. Then after twelve hours the next on hundred pictures had even more cells and after every ten seconds they increased as well.” She exclaimed all in one breath

“It must be a virus if it is targeting the white blood cells” Henry stated as he looked around the room.

“Everyone grab their coffee and breakfast we are going to the conference room” Yumi demanded.

Abigail grabbed another cup of coffee almost running into Hunter, Fabiana, and Riley in the process. Riley caught her shoulders to prevent her from actually hitting the trio. Abigail felt herself blushing before stepping around them and heading to the coffee machine adding milk to her coffee before following the rest of the group out of the room. She arrived at the meeting just before everyone sat down.

“Abigail will place your photos on the table so that we can all examine them?” Dr. Suber inquired.

Abigail nodded and taking some photos out of her folder she placed five photos in a line across the table. the rest of the group stood up and gathered on one side of the table all looking at the photos.

“This is the first picture I took before I preformed the test,” she said indicating to the first picture that only had a few infected cells. “This is the first photo I took after the test.”

“Bloody hell” Benjamin muttered.

“These are a few others. All of them were taken at ten second intervals,” she pointed to each photo before ending on the last one. “This is the final picture” she explained indicating to the photo in which the cells were completely filled with the virus.

“This is the r-rabies virus.” Fabiana said softly.

“How do you know?” Marian asked skeptically.

“I am an animal b-b-behaviorist,” she paused to collect her thoughts ’I know what it looks like” Fabiana stated.

“But there have only been five reported cases of rabies in humans. There hasn’t been a reported case since 1929 and that was in Trinidad” James said.

“It takes three to ten days for the rabies virus to show symptoms, by then it is too late” Henry said.

“Didn’t the Pacific team report those same numbers before they were taken out?” Abigail asked.

“Those are the same numbers that we had on the ship” Marian said.

Strader nodded in agreement. “Jimmy caught it immediately within three days. The man who we attempted to save had just gotten back from the Middle East… he had been home for about five days before he turned”

“We this could be a rabies mutation?” Abigail asked.

“It seems that way” Yumi said.

“Henry write rabies on the board will you?” Dr. Kennedy asked.

Henry obliged spelling rabies wrong.

Riley gave Abigail a playful glance from across the table. She found herself blushing which didn’t go unnoticed by Fabiana or Hunter who both chuckled slightly.

“Is it warm in here, Abigail?” Hunter joked.

She glared at the man while Fabiana hid her smile under her hand.

Dr. Kennedy then dictated the symptoms of rabies to Henry. “The animal’s brain will not work properly, confusion, anxiety, agitation, delirium”

“Fabiana am I missing anything?” he asked the shy girl.

“F-flu like symptoms, f-f-fever and h-headaches” she replied

Henry wrote added those to the list, spelling headaches as two words instead of one.

“James, do you have enough of a brain sample to test for rabies?” Dr. Kennedy asked.

“No. I don’t even have enough to figure out what part of the brain it is” he stated as he shot a glance at Abigail.

She resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him. Well if you had almost been attacked by a zombie, you would have taken what you could get and then come back as soon as you could. Don’t give me that shit she thought.

“Looks like I need to go get you a zombie head” Strader said as he stood up.

“Are you serious? This thing is spreading ridiculously fast. It only takes days if humans catch it” Hunter stated.

“Well you can’t go alone” Yumi said.

“I’ll go” Hunter said.

“I’m in too mate” Riley stated.

Abigail shot a look at Riley. Is he serious?” she thought to herself.

Riley noticed her look and gave her a weak smile.

Abigail sighed softly, but of course James noticed.

“Worried about your little boyfriend?” he whispered.

“He is not my boyfriend.” she whispered back as she glared at the man. Why did James have to be such an asshole? Honestly she wasn’t sure how he managed to keep a job like this.

“Whatever you say” he replied.

I wonder how much trouble I would get in if I ‘accidently’ poured a mildly toxic substance into his coffee one morning she thought to herself.

“Well looks like we’re going” Strader said with a grim smile. Riley and Hunter nodded and followed suit. Abigail watched worriedly as the three men left the conference room.

Does Riley even know how to handle a gun? I hope that Hunter knows. I am sure that Strader will show them something she thought to herself. Hopefully they make it back.

∆∆∆

Strader didn’t want to bring anyone with him, especially not the scientist boy. Riley would have been dead within two minutes if Strader had not showed up. He wasn’t sure about Hunter either; he was at least better built than Riley. Where Riley was just short of the scrawny side, there was a hint, just a sliver of muscle that Strader could make out. Then again, his son had been the same way before he followed in his old man’s footsteps and joined the Navy.

Strader looked at Hunter; this man must have been an athlete at some point in his life. He was tall and strong his red beard had just reached the length of a mountain man’s. “Hunter what weapon can you handle?” he asked.

“Well when I was younger, my parents had me chop the firewood. So I guess an ax.” He said awkwardly.

Strader couldn’t help the smile that appeared on his face. This group needed someone who could fight in close combat and this was the guy. That explains where the arm and back muscles came from. He’s Canadian too so I am 97 percent sure that he used to play hockey. Strader thought.

“What about you?” he asked Riley.

He looked from Strader to Hunter. “I uh…I guess I’ll take a gun”

“Have you ever shot one before?” Strader asked.

“I mean I have shot a laser gun and the occasional water gun. How hard could it be?” Riley asked.

This kid isn’t going to make it Strader thought.

Strader sighed and pulled a gun out of the bag he had left by the entrance. He gave Riley a quick lesson, instantly noticing that the Riley had the same hazel colored eyes that his son had.

When the lesson was over, he turned to Hunter “Let’s find you an axe” he said as he grabbed his crossbow. The three men slipped out the door of the center and moved as quietly as they could towards the main road.

“How far do we need to go?” Riley whispered. Strader turned to him before putting his finger to his lips. This kid is going to get us killed he thought.

Strader ducked behind the wall of the entrance, and peeked around the edge before motioning for the other two to follow him around to the other wall. Strader admitted that his old military senses were coming back into play. Those have kept me alive before…those will keep me alive again. Especially against an enemy that isn’t exactly right in the head he thought to himself. They continued this pattern until they reached the downtown area where the streets where he first met Riley were at least slightly crowded. The streets were now even emptier with abandoned cars lining the roads, some of them with open doors and broken windows, reminding him of the day he and Jimmy were first attacked.

The remains of people were scattered along the road and sidewalk. The bodies of the undead were also lying along the road, by now the smell of decomposition was almost too much to bear- the bodies were bloated with the combination of sun and rain that was so prominent in Washington.

Riley covered his nose with his sleeve his eyes clenched in disgust while Hunter had mirrored his motion.

“Let’s see if there are any bandanas in one of these stores. I’ll go in first and let you know if it is safe. You two stay outside, watch my back, and stay alive” he said to them.

Both men nodded in agreement.

“I’m going to see if I can find you an ax as well, big guy” Strader said nodding to Hunter.

The inside of the shop was dark and unlit. “Wonderful” he muttered to himself just what he needed. He was in one of those hippie stores. Somewhere that he honestly vowed to never enter again after his last girlfriend. He looked around trying to find anything that could be used to cover their faces. He saw cloth headbands hanging on the walls and grabbed one to examine it. There was an elastic band and the top of the cloth headband actually got bigger and smaller so that it could be work as a bandana in a person’s hair or a small headband. This will work. He grabbed three before grabbing a handful of more just in case more than three of them ended up leaving the building again. Leave no Trace principle number 1: Plan ahead and prepare he thought. He continued to look around the store before his eyes landed on a Japanese katana. “No way” he said out loud. He walked over to the weapon and took it out of its sheath; Of course it’s dull, only hippie kids buy this kind of thing. But he took it anyway, they could probably sharpen it at some point if anything, Hunter could use it to bludgeon a zombie to death.

He was about to exit the store when he heard the sound of a gunshot, then another he raised his crossbow quickly and ran out the door. Riley stood in front of Hunter with a still smoking gun in his hand.

“Is it dead?” he asked, repeating the first words that he had ever said to Strader.

Strader cautiously moved toward the body and drew his own gun. He shot the zombie in the head and looked up at Riley before repeating the exact words he first said to him. “It is now”

He walked over to the other two men; first he gave Hunter the weapon. “It’s dull as anything but I figured we could sharpen it back at the institute…until then did you every play baseball?”

Hunter gave a sadistic smile. “That is the American pastime, I played hockey all through high school” he explained. Strader looked at this man who probably had the capability of hitting a slap shot over 80 miles per hour.

He turned to Riley “Looks like you might have something in you after all” he said with a smirk before giving him one of the headbands that he took from the store.

“Are you really giving me the pink one?” Riley demanded.

Hunter chuckled as he received the green one and Strader took the blue one. He pulled it over his face while the others followed suit…it didn’t do much to cover the smell but at least it reduced the amount of noxious gas they would inhale.

“Now for the fun part…” Strader trailed off as he pulled out his pocket knife.

“There has got to be something else” Riley said.

Hunter looked around, before saying “I thought I saw a fire truck a block over, there is probably an axe somewhere in there.”

“Well let’s go get it” Strader said as the three men began to wander down the street, stepping over all types of bodies.

They arrived at the fire truck to see the grim image of zombies tangled in the ladder while what looked like an arm was hanging out the window. The fire hose was still leaking slightly leaving a clean trail of water over a combination of blood and other substances that had spilled on the road. “What could have brought the fire truck into a town that was obviously overrun by something?” Riley questioned.

Hunter looked around before finding the fire hydrant. “They must have been trying to fill up and use the water to blow the zombies back”

There were fire fighters lying underneath the hose, throats torn. Strader walked to the side of the fire truck where the axe was located. Then he felt it, the grasp of something on his ankle. He looked down in terror to see the arm of one of the creatures with fingers wrapped around his ankle. The fingers had been blue indicating that there was not enough blood, flow while the fingernails were dark and bloody. He tried to yank his foot back only to succeed in dragging the monster further out from under the fire truck. He cried out at this point, stumbling backwards as he attempted to keep his footing.

He heard the sound of metal hitting bone and saw Hunter slamming his katana against the top of the zombie’s head until the skull was crushed in. The blood from the body splattered on his shirt but that was about it.

“Thanks” Strader breathed out.

“Yeah” Hunter also gasped out shakily.

Riley approached keeping his feet as far away from the bottom of the fire truck before yanking the axe from the side of the truck. “Let’s go” he said holding the axe in his hand.

Strader nodded, this kid was starting to remind him more and more of his son.

Hunter and Strader followed as the three of them once again wandered through the maze of bodies and empty cars.

“That reminds me of what attacked Abigail” Riley said.

“What happened?” Strader asked remembering that Abigail had mentioned something like that on the day that he found her, Riley, and Benjamin out on the streets.

“A zombie grabbed her leg, yanking her feet out from under her. She managed to kick it in the face and Benjamin and I managed to pull her to her feet. The arm of the zombie came with her and we ran. We got lucky that the creature was missing a leg but it still crawled after us as if that fact that it was missing the lower part of its leg and an arm didn’t phase it at all. When we got a safe distance we yanked the hand off of her. She was shaking and started to have a panic attack but we managed to calm her down” Riley explained.

“No wonder she looked so pale” Strader said.

Riley nodded.

The body of the monster was right where they left it, in front of the hippie store that Strader now realized was called Earth Bound.

“Hunter this is all you” Riley stated as he handed the axe to Hunter.

The Canadian man took it and tested the weight in his hand. “Stand back” he said to them. Strader and Riley backed away from the man before he let the axe drop in one smooth motion successfully severing the head from the body of the zombie the way that Perseus removed the head from Medusa.

Riley pulled the back pack from his shoulders and dug out a first aid kit.

Strader handed him a plastic bag that he intended to carry the head in, Leave No Trace Principle number one Plan ahead and prepare.

Riley nodded and gingerly picked up the head before placing it in the plastic bag. The zombie looked at them, almost wishing it could turn them to stone with a gaze of its blood stained eyes. Riley tied the bag shut and placed it and his first aid kit in his backpack. He stood up and looked at the other two men. “Well that’s bloody done. We might want to make a stop for a beer.”

∆∆∆

Abigail didn’t want to admit that she was worried about Riley but she was. The young man was about as useful as she was when it came to weapons which translated to not at all. She was also worried about Hunter and Strader, but those two knew how to take care of themselves. Hunter used to play hockey while Strader was ex-military.

“Worried?” Fabiana asked.

“Yeah, how is the rabies research coming?” she asked.

“Well…I injected a monkey and a rat with the virus. They h-have the closest DNA to h-humans …but we won’t know for up to two weeks, it takes longer to spread through those animals…I don’t think we h-have that long” the girl said softly.

“Are you any good with a weapon?” Abigail asked the girl, her mind still on Riley, Strader and hunter.

Fabiana chuckled “My father made me take self d-defense class.”

Abigail looked at the girl surprised.

“I’m shy not weak” Fabiana replied looking at Abigail.

Abigail then gave a weak laugh “Looks like I am useless in this situation”

Fabiana was about to reply when the door was opened and the three men returned from their journey.

All of them looked a little worse for wear but none of them were injured in any way. Riley dropped his backpack in disgust, making her assume that there was indeed a zombie head within it. Abigail found herself hugging Riley tightly and he hesitantly hugged her back. She looked at Hunter and Strader and smiled brightly at them. Giving Hunter a hug and looking at Strader questioningly before the man wrapped one arm around her shoulders.

“I was starting to get worried about you three” she said with a smile of relief on her face.

Fabiana had come over to join them and Abigail saw her nodding in agreement.

“This boy shot his first zombie” Strader said wrapping an arm around Riley’s shoulder proudly. He then turned his attention to Hunter before grabbing the Canadian man’s shoulder and squeezing it “And this one bludgeoned one to death,”

“That’s good, right?” Abigail asked.

“It’s a good thing” Hunter said to her.

“Now where’s James, we have a little present for him” Strader stated as he picked up the backpack and held it at arm’s distance as he wandered towards the neurology department, Riley following him.

“Look what we got,” Hunter said with a sly grin as he motioned Abigail and Fabiana to come closer. He pulled a 24 pack of PBR out of his backpack. Abigail and Fabiana both laughed.

“It may be shit beer- but its beer,” Hunter replied zipping the backpack back up. “Now where are the old people?”

“In the conference room, it’s starting to look like A Beautiful Mind in there” Abigail explained thinking of the notes and newspaper clippings that had started appearing on the wall.

Fabiana giggled.

“Well the odds of them all having Schizophrenia is rare right?” Hunter asked.

Abigail and Fabiana exchanged glances “Well I certainly hope so.”

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