Reset: A Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Fantasy (Contaminant Series Book 1) (5 page)

Jenna documented her experiment by hand, occasionally getting overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the situation until a loud pounding at the lab door gave her a start.  Through the window, she could see Anna, who had arrived sooner than expected.  Anna didn’t wait for the door to open.  She entered the lab and put on her personal protective gear.  Jenna went back over the experiment and filled Anna in on the data.

Chapter Six

Michael and Peter were sitting across from one another at a table on the ground level library, when Anna returned with Jenna in tow.

Anna gave a loose introduction, “Jenna, Michael” She was waved her hands willy-nilly, “Michael, Jenna”

Jenna and Michael      shook hands and made brief eye contact.

Anna hopped up on the table, clearly invading Peter’s space, but he only looked up at her before turning to Jenna and said,

“Michael just connected with his counterpart and was filling me in on the conversation.”

 Everyone looked at Michael, even Anna who halfway turned around to do so.

He nodded and began, looking at Jenna, “Well… uh, I was a Presidential aide in the White house before it was overrun by a mob.  I was able to get in touch with my counterpart, Christine.”

He turned to the rest of the group, “She had finished organizing the receipt and distribution of food shipments.  And, we can expect a shipment here in about….” Michael checked his watch, “Four to 6 hours, so anywhere from eleven to one.”

“She would do that for you?” Jenna’s head was cocked to one side.

Michael cleared his throat, “No, actually.  It’s for you.  All of you.  Heavily populated cities and research facilities get priority.  We need all we’ve got to try and get the food shortage under control.

Anna looked at Jenna then back at Michael, “What else did you tell them?” Her voice practically accused him.

“Nothing.”

Anna gave him a doubtful look.

Michael sat back in his chair, “Nothing!  Look, I know you think I don’t know anything.  But I know something.  I know how the top officials think.  I know how the White House works.”

Jenna said softly, “What good does that do us?  The White House is gone.  You said it yourself.”

Michael looked from the face of Peter, to Jenna… to Anna, “The White House isn’t
dead
.  We have a military, and a President.  And believe it or not, that is
enough
.”

“We get it.  You’re saying that there is nothing they won’t do to stay on top.” Anna snorted.

“That’s not it… That’s not
entirely
it.  I’m just saying that I can be of use.  I’m not some goody-twos, buying into patriotic propaganda.  I’m saying that I want to help.  I could… maybe, I could help get you some resources so that you can figure this
thing
out.
I can be of use to you
.”  Michael punctuated the last few words.

Anna spoke with a softer voice that Michael had never heard before, “Here’s the deal.  I think you could be of use to us, but not as a presidential aide.  What you need to understand is that the information we’ve uncovered… if put in the wrong hands, could get a
lot
of people killed.  Not enemies, but people...  Not overseas… but here.  Right here.  People get scared and when they get scared, they get stupid.”

Michael pouted his lips letting the words sink in… but then he opened his mouth, “We saw first-hand what scared people do.  I know the risks associated with this information, okay?  I do.”

Peter finally spoke up, “I know that as much as you do Michael.  But, I think that we would all feel safer if you discontinued communication with your counterpart or anything government related.  It’s that, or we can find another way for you to be of use.”

Michael again looked each of them in the face and in the eye.  With a breath, he took his phone out of his jacket pocket and placed it on the table. 

Anna reached for it, “Now that that’s out of the way, allow us to get you up to speed.   Our original facility was second to none.  We had more scientists than room to work, so we branched off and came to the university.  Its biology department could have rivaled our own.  John Gordman…”

“The millionaire.  He recently died, I read it in the paper.” Michael interrupted.

“Newspaper.” Anna scoffed.

Jenna shot Anna a disapproving look and jumped in, “He was more than just a millionaire.  And, he didn’t just do
peace
stuff.  He pumped millions into biology departments nationwide.  This school received a lot of that funding and so, we set up shop here to branch out and use the equipment.  So far, it’s been more than adequate.”

Anna shot Jenna a look, “Back to the point.  There are a few other groups at work here: food preparation, farming, trash removal, yada, yada, yada. You get the idea.”

Michael gave a quick nod.

“There’s a several other scientists on our team and the department is headed by a guy named Jeff.  We reconvene regularly to share what we’ve learned.  So, that’s how everything pretty much works around here.”

Peter spoke up, “You’ll be working with me, if you want.  We have crops we tend to.  As soon as we realized the soil was contaminated, we put together something akin to a vegetation grow room.  And, so far, we’ve been pretty successful.  I was part of the agricultural department when the school was still functioning.  We already possessed a bit of vegetation that was sheltered from the effects of Crop-Dust.” 

He turned to the two women, “Now, what’s this I hear about…” Peter lowered his voice, “nanotechnology?”

Jenna put her hands on the top of her head as she began a light pace. 

“I’ll start with this: all we knew at first was that there is something in the dirt, in the plants, that wouldn’t allow… growth.  We turned to electric currents.  It’s been shown to help stimulate plants.  When the plants received electric stimulation, the chemicals within the plant rose as well as the amount of energy.  It jumped by two hundred percent.  Assuming that the extra energy was, in actuality, one hundred percent, that would mean that… it, whatever it is, was only operating at about a third or so of its full capacity.  Other phenomena regarding the experiment included the plant’s ability to regenerate.  The initial state of the plant was sunburned and wilting.  When stimulated, parts of the plant regrew.”

“Quite the change from a plant that quit growing because it was infected.” Peter threw in.  Nobody could disagree.

Jenna continued, “It exhibited a bluish tint most likely from the energy escaping the contaminant.  I upped the voltage and was able to cease the activity of the contaminant by destroying it, but at the expense of the plant.”

Peter was now sitting backwards in the chair with his chest against the back rest, facing Jenna, “It was alive?”

Jenna stopped pacing long enough to answer, “No.  Not we can tell, but it does seem to carry a bit of code.  We don’t know what it does.  When observed in the plant, however this code remained inactive.”

Michael stole a glance at Anna who wore a strange look as she looked at Peter.     

Peter looked back at Michael, and then turned the other way to look at Anna, “Code?”

Anna spoke in that eerily soft voice, “Like… human immunodeficiency....”

Michael nearly choked on his words, “Like HIV?!”

Peter rounded on Michael, his voice assuming command, “Keep your voice down…” Turning back around, he spoke softer too, “Like HIV?!”

Anna hopped off of the table and turned to face Michael and Peter, “Not HIV.  It operates
like
HIV.  All you need to know is that it can enter the blood stream.  It reprograms T-cells just like HIV.  Only, we don’t know what it is reproducing.  We haven’t seen this activity, most likely, because the contaminant isn’t fully operational.  Another question is… why isn’t it?  We don’t have answers.  That’s why it’s imperative that this information stays between us.  We don’t need a panic.  What we need is time to figure this thing out.  And, we’ll have answers soon.”

Michael still had questions, “When you say, ‘enter the blood stream’…”

Jenna cut him off, “As in, the water supply, contaminated food and soil.  We can only assume that, by now, it’s everywhere and that somebody, somewhere, if not everybody, everywhere… is a carrier.”

Michael thought of all the times he got dust in his eye, “Is there a way to check?”

Peter looked at Anna and Jenna for answers

“Maybe.” Jenna said, “I’ll need blood samples.  Like with the plant, perhaps when charged, these samples should give off a hue or tint or something.  If nothing else, a microscope should tell us something.  We’ll find you all later after we meet with the others.”

As Michael stood, so did Jenna.  He could see Anna reach up to give Peter a quick kiss out of the corner of his eye.  Michael loosely minded his own business as did Jenna.

***

Moments later, Peter and a crisp speed walk were leaving the library followed by Michael.  Peter rounded a corner and came up on the elevators.  He hit the up arrow, causing it to light up green.  When Michael came around the corner, only a second later, the elevator was just preparing to open.  They entered the elevator and Peter signaled for the 3th floor.  For Michael, the time seemed to slow and the silence was just a tad bit awkward.  The elevator door finally closed.

Michael went back and forth in his head before he finally spoke.

 “So… you and Anna?” Michael tried not to mean anything by it.

Peter looked over at Michael with a lighthearted smile, “Yeah?  What about it?”

Michael shrugged, “She’s so… tough.”  With that last word, Michael grimaced as if to reiterate his point.

Peter only half-smiled and said, “A product of her time.  Where she grew up, you had to be tough.  And in any case…” Peter grinned at him, “She’s a real sweetheart.  She’s only tough on you.”

By now, the elevator had come to a stop and the doors were opening.

Peter nodded for Michael to get a move on and stepped off.

They walked for quite some time across the built-in skywalk connecting the different buildings together.  At one point, they took another elevator down four floors.  They made their way to the indoor pool.

Michael entered after Peter and stopped, his jaw hanging wide open.  The pool had been drained and filled with close to three feet of dirt.  The pool even had thin posts on a grid system.  They sat upright in the soil creating a semi-solid structure from which the UV lights could hang.  A combo of straw and dirt was strewn about the floor forming a plush step.  It was prevented from spilling over into the pool by the thin posts against the pool wall.  They had been wrapped in plastic that extended under the organic makeshift floor.  It even smelled like a garden.  One locker room housed chickens and other housed rabbits and a handful of pigs.

Peter walked up to a table to the left of the pool and grabbed a chart.  He flipped it around to where Michael could see it,

“You work; you eat.  That’s how it is.  We have a few shift managers that keep an eye on things.  This here is a list of chores that need to be done daily.  When you show up, print your name and clock-in time.  Get a shift manager to sign off on your arrival.  Then, get to work.  When you get done, clock out, sign your name and have a shift manager sign off on it.  You’ll get a ticket for food.  DON’T LOSE IT. 

“There’s a black market around here somewhere, operating off selling tickets.  Money’s damned near no good anymore, so… you don’t want to know what they trade in.  Some people double up on shifts so that they can save up a couple tickets.  That’s they only way to get a day off and still eat.”

Peter turned to Michael who was nodding his head.  He looked like he understood, but he really looked more like an overactive bobble head.

“One more thing,” Peter added, “The best way to make sure that you don’t lose out on tickets is to come-in early.  You don’t want to run out of tickets on a day where everyone decides to double up.”

Michael took a deep breath and with that he said, “Let’s get started.”

***

Peter worked alongside Michael for the next four hours, showing him the ropes.  Michael felt good about pushing his body hard but Peter hardly broke a sweat.  They finished up and Peter lead Michael to the bird bath where they took turns loosely dousing themselves in water to get some of the straw, feathers and dirt off of them. 

The younger man was borrowing a pair of boots and had taken off his suit jacket and button-up shirt during work.  He didn’t put them back on but instead, left the garden somewhat wet.  Peter insisted that Michael take a more rugged shirt or two from him.

They made a brief stop at a storage closet which doubled as, Peter’s quarters.  When Michael gave him a questioning look, Peter only responded, “What?  It comes with a lock.” He shook the keys at Michael.  With a fresh pair of shirts, and somewhat clean hands, the pair headed towards the cafeteria, tickets in hand.

Chapter Seven

It had been three months since Michael joined the university.   He settled nicely into the routine of work, friends, and the bloom of a relationship.  Jenna had been put off by him at first, ignoring him for a few weeks.  And she had good reason.  Politics had tied up the efforts of science for so long that it’s a wonder she even spoke to him.  But the day she did, they each learned that they were more curious about each’s other’s world than spiteful.  The questions rolled out faster than either could answer but they were quick to go with the flow.

Sometimes, Jenna would let Michael watch her work; she could see on his face that he felt nothing but awe and respect for science.  Other times, Michael told Jenna stories about the Oval Office.  She didn’t believe half of them, especially the one where Michael prevented a declaration of war, diffusing a heated discussion between the two world leaders simply by offering refreshments.  He enjoyed being able to tell his stories of the craziness of the Oval Office.  Nobody would believe how many crises are averted and threats offered on a day to day basis.  He was glad that she was interested in them and in him.  There was nothing to hide now that everything was on the fritz.