After the Cure, Deirdre Gould [the beach read TXT] 📗

She reminded herself again not to be ridiculous and walked through the airlock door.

She was in a dark, tiny passageway. She found the light switch and powerful overheads clicked on. The small room was lined with benches and white plastic suits. At the far end was a sink and another airlock door, again held open with a shoe. The first one’s mate. Nella wondered why there were no alarms. Wasn’t there supposed to be an alarm when the airlocks weren’t working correctly? She passed through the door and turned on the next light. The overheads competed with a small star of purple light sitting in the center of the room. She tried not to look at it, afraid it would somehow harm her and passed through the next open door, this one held open by a silver instrument cart. The drains in this room hinted that it was for decontamination showers, but nothing happened as Nella passed through, and she again wondered why none of the decontamination systems were working as intended. Was it because the samples were all dead? Or had they been disabled? And if they were disabled, who had enough knowledge of lab procedure to know how to do that? The airlock at the end of the shower room gaped open into a dark void. She held her breath without even realizing it and stepped inside, fumbling for the light switch, but it did nothing when flipped. She waited until her eyes adjusted to the dim, milky light seeping in through the high, dirty windows.

Nella immediately realized why no alarms were activated with the airlocks forced open. Whoever had opened the vault had attempted to incinerate it. She wondered how the rest of the floor, the rest of the building, actually, had avoided catching fire. All of the surfaces were covered with soot. The scavenger team and Dr. Schneider had left footprints in the thin layer of ash on the floor. Beakers had melted into coin sized puddles of glass, now dark medallions fused with the lab tables. Along the edges of the room were round vats, all hanging open like hell’s buried treasure chests dug up. Nothing else was recognizable. Nella walked carefully over to one of the vats. They had no soot inside and the glass vials seemed intact, which meant they must have been opened after the fire rather than before. Except one. She could see it in the gray light, its lid cracked and blackened. She walked over to it. She could only see into the top part of the cylinder, but it was enough. The vials had melted in place, their rack holders surrounding a thin stem of collapsed glass. Three empty slots were all that was left of the Recharge bacteria.

“I found it like this, except the other storage containers were closed.”

Nella whirled around, startled by Dr. Schneider’s voice. She was relieved to see Frank standing by the door behind the doctor.

“I tried to find out if it had been misclassified, or if the vials had been moved to another container.” Dr. Schneider peered into the closest container. “I went through the records and surviving vials for all ten thousand samples. One by one. But the Recharge bacteria was gone. That’s when I started on the security tapes,” she looked up at Nella, “which I recommend we get back to. We only have a few days.”

“Wait, Dr. Schneider. You never said anything about a fire. Aren’t these labs designed to initiate a burn when there is a containment leak?”

“It’s not automatic. You wouldn’t want someone burned alive in here. There is a panel outside the next door and one in the security office downstairs in case of an accident. The burn can be initiated from either place.”

“But the power would have to be on, right?”

“Well, yes. But the lab also has a back up generator. Besides, the entire building also has emergency power from the solar cells.”

Nella walked toward the lab door. She noticed Frank looked nervous and shot him a confused glance. “How long was the backup generator designed to run?”

“Seventy two hours. But right now it’s on the solar energy.”

“But those panels were not functioning when you got here, right?”

“Yes, they were luckily unbroken, but they were covered with leaves and sticks that had blown over them through the years. Where is this all going?”

“When the main power went off, how long would it take to switch to the solar panels?”

“Dr. Carton said the solar panels were already working when he left the lab after the outbreak. In fact, he said he had planned to stay here, but the solar panels couldn’t handle the whole building’s power and he was worried about lack of heat and running out of food. That’s why he left.”

Frank stared intently at Nella. At last he said, “I think we should watch the first security recordings. Not work our way backwards.”

“What?” asked Dr. Schneider, “Why?”

Nella turned to look at Dr. Schneider. “When I was in medical school, we were required to learn biosafety procedures, regardless of our final professions. Level four labs, which, I assume this is, are required to have the capability for a controlled burn of several hours in case of an accident. That means a steady stream of fuel. Which also means a steady source of power to control it. The solar panels just aren’t reliable enough. Dr. Carton would already have drained the battery significantly after the main lines went out. It had to be when the backup generators were triggered.”

“Well, that wouldn’t have been until the solar panels weren’t creating enough power to sustain this lab.”

“Right,” said Frank, “the outbreak was in December, remember? That’s why it was so bad, because travel and public interaction was so much heavier than normal.”

“I remember quite clearly, Mr. Courtlen. As I said, Dr. Carton was worried about the heat-”

“Exactly,” interrupted Frank, “And how much less would the solar panels have produced when they were covered with snow? The backup generators must have kicked on within weeks, maybe days. Certainly within the first year.”

“Whoever did this covered their tracks with the fire. And knew the control procedures were still in place and available for use.” Nella said it slowly, thinking it aloud rather than announcing it. Frank looked downright ashen and seemed to sway like a tall tree in wind as she said it. Dr. Schneider turned and ran from the lab. Frank sprang after her. Nella felt exhausted, the pain from her shoulder leaking into her side as well. She thought about the stairs she’d have to take if she avoided the elevator again.

She stumbled out to the changing room and sat on the bench. She disliked waiting for help, but she knew that Frank would be back soon, disappointed that the crucial footage was missing. Nella already knew that a person didn’t break into a level four lab, set a fire to cover their tracks and then smile at the camera.

She gently rubbed her sore shoulder, looking at the dead electrical panel near the airlock. Whoever did this had to have both the entry code and know how to activate the emergency purge. A lab employee? Or maybe someone that was able to get into the security office? It wouldn’t have been hard with the building abandoned in the panic. Nella closed her eyes, half dozing as she tried to think through who would have known about and wanted access to the Recharge bacteria.

Dr. Carton and Dr. Schneider were both obvious choices. They both knew the building procedures for the lab. They both knew about the bacteria, and they, more than anyone else except Dr. Pazzo, perhaps, would want to keep it secret. Without the samples and documentation, no one would ever be able to prove that they had caused the epidemic. That, in essence, was what Dr. Schneider was doing here now. But someone else had beaten both Schneider and Carton to it. And that person hadn’t destroyed the samples, just taken them away. What were they planning on doing with them? Why do nothing for almost a decade?

The only other people that knew about the existence of the resistant strain were Dr. Pazzo and Ann Connelly, at least, as far as Nella knew. If the samples had been taken in order to blackmail one of the scientists, then the thief would have had to ensure that Ann and Dr. Pazzo survived in order to be witnesses. Nella opened her eyes. Whoever had taken care of Dr. Pazzo and Ann also stole the Recharge samples. She shook her head. What were they waiting for? The trial had already started without Dr. Carton and without Dr. Schneider. The time to come forward or to get what they wanted had already come. Maybe it wasn’t blackmail.

Revenge? That seemed more likely to Nella. She had met many, many people who wanted revenge for what had happened. For what each person had faced, for what they had to do, even now, to survive. She had even met people so miserable and full of anger that they’d take the rest of the world with them by releasing the bacteria if it meant vengeance. She sighed as she realized that maybe even Frank had been that angry once. That maybe even she had been that angry once.

But then why keep Ann and Dr. Pazzo alive? They were readily available scapegoats. Nella looked back toward the seared lab. This had happened quickly. Too quickly after the outbreak for some elaborate plot of revenge. It was too fast. Who would have known that these particular people were responsible? It took the military years to figure it out. No one could know that fast. Unless Dr. Carton were lying about where he was after the outbreak. Or someone else was.

Nella was too tired to keep wearing out the circular path in her brain. She felt a buzzing behind her eyes and the heat from her shoulder was overwhelming. She closed her eyes.

 

Nella woke with a gasp as cool water hit her...

Nella woke with a gasp as cool water hit her face. “Wake up Nella, please wake up.” Frank was hovering over her.

“Is it the Infected? I don’t think I can get to the farm house.” It sounded wrong in her ears. As if she’d already said it.

“No Infected, we’re safe. In the lab, remember?”

Nella tried to turn her head to see but she became dizzy and she shut her eyes again. The cool water splashed her again. She shivered.

“You have to do something!” She heard Frank yelling at someone. He was so angry.

“There’s nothing I can do. She’s got a massive dose of antibiotics already.” The woman’s voice was nasty and cold.

Nella opened her eyes again. “What do you want me to do, Frank?” Her voice was dry and her throat felt as if it held the sun. He bent over her again. “You don’t need to do anything. Just rest.” He