Jess stared out the dusty window of the city bus. She watched as the small, secluded town came closer and closer. The early June sun beat down, its lasting summer rays pounding on everything.
What was waiting for them this time? What should they expect? Would this be like the last time?
She turned away from the window and looked at her partners, Sarah and Brad. The two of them sat next to each other on the opposite side of the bus, sleeping.
Sarah was twenty-four years old -a little more than a year older than Jess- was Jess' best friend since elementary school. Sarah had sapphire blue eyes and long, thick, wavy, red hair. She had her favorite dark green tank top and tight blue jeans on.
Brad was twenty-five years old and Sarah's husband of two years. Brad had dark brown eyes and scruffy, dark brown hair. He was wearing a black sweatshirt and baggy jeans (with the occasional hole here and there). His headphones were around his neck; the cord trailing down to his sweatshirt pocket where his hands and CD player rested.
Jess looked away from them and glanced around the bus. It was quiet; the three of them were the only ones on board apart from the driver. The old, hard, brown leather seats ran in two rows; one on each side with two seats in each row. There were metal bars on the roof of the bus for anyone who was standing to hang on to. The windows and floor were dirty and the seats needed to be cleaned but Jess didn't care. They wouldn't be on the bus much longer.
She got up and put the money she had to pay for their long bus ride in the little black collection box, sat down, then picked up her bag and put it on the seat next to her. She looked out the window one last time as they passed the city limit sign. It read:
Norrel Population 6,254
'Six thousand two hundred and four people, this isn't a small town after all. We could have some trouble if the reports are true…' Jess thought as she gathered her things. She walked across to where Sarah and Brad slept and plopped into the seat in front of them. "Hey guys, time to wake up, we're almost there."
The two of them stirred, and then woke. "How long were we asleep?" asked Sarah, looking out her window. They were driving into town, passing a church and a grocery store.
"About two hours, maybe a little more. Do you know where the hotel is?" Jess asked.
"It's supposed to be about two blocks from the bus station and I figured we'd just walk. I think we can get a map of the town when we get there," said Sarah picking up her bag. "Speaking of the station, it's just ahead, did you pay the driver?"
"Yeah," came Jess' reply as the bus slowed down.
"This place seems a little boring, how many people live here?" Brad asked looking out the windows.
"The sign we passed said there was just over six thousand people here," said Jess.
They grabbed their bags, stepped off the bus and walked into the tiny brick building that the bus was parked in front of. They walked up to the desk, rang the bell and waited. Jess set her bag down and looked around.
The room they were in looked old and was very small, with just enough room to park a car without hitting the walls. The floor was covered in pile after pile of papers and books leaving almost no place to stand. A path led to and from the door to the desk and back. What little floor you could see was green tile, worn to almost a greyish color. The white walls were covered with pictures of wolves, bears, moose, caribou and various buses driving along Alaskan roads.
Jess looked back at the large desk that blocked off the rest of the room; it was a huge mess; papers and books everywhere, almost worse than the floor. Behind the desk was another room, much cleaner, with only a few papers strewn here and there.
"Who is it?" came a bored female voice from somewhere in the other room.
"Travelers, uh, tourists. We were wondering if you might have a map of your town," Sarah answered.
"Tourists huh? Well okay, here," she said as a rolled up paper flew over the desk (just missing Brad's head by a few inches).
"Whoa, thanks… I think," Brad said, catching the map.
"I doubt you'll be staying long with what's been going on here lately. Have a nice day."
The three of them walked back outside and stopped to look at the map. Just as Sarah had said, the hotel was about two blocks north of the bus station. They put the map away and started walking.
"That thing the lady said back there was a little disturbing. Maybe we're too late?" Sarah suggested.
"Well things don't look too bad around here, nothing like what would be the norm if an outbreak had occurred some time ago," Jess said. "It does take time for a whole town, even a small one, to get a full scale infection of its entire population, so maybe we still have some time. She could have been talking about something that has nothing to do with the mission anyway. We did just get here; we won't know what's been going on around this town until we get to the hotel."
"All good points, I'll forget about worrying until we've had a chance to look at the information. How are we going to get it anyhow?" Sarah asked. "After all it is classified. We wouldn't want some 'average Joe' getting his hands on it and reading up on all our Intel."
"I can answer that one," Brad said, "It's being given to us at the desk. One of us has to ask for it after we check in. We'll just have to hope that no 'average Joe' got his hands on it."
"That's risky." said Sarah wrinkling her nose.
For a moment the three of them were silent as the same thoughts went through their minds. It would be horrible if someone got a hold of those papers, especially if the people at Byol Co. somehow got it. If that happened the mission would be over and so would they.
About ten minutes later they walked into the small hotel. Jess went straight to the counter. "One room for three, the reservations were made last week."
"Ms. Allard?" asked the woman behind the desk. "May I see your I.D.?"
"Here."
"…Okay, good. Your room was paid for in advance; we have you in for two weeks. Here's your key, your room is on the second floor, have a nice stay," the woman replied.
"Yes, that sounds right, thank you," Jess confirmed, putting her I.D. back in her pocket, grabbing the key and picking up her bag.
She walked back to the others, showed them the key and started towards the elevator. Sarah and Brad followed and then wrestled to push the elevator button. Jess backed away from them and rolled her eyes, shaking her head.
'Why do they have to do this all the time?' she thought.
Sarah finally climbed over Brad and pushed it. They all walked in, Jess pressed the button to the second floor.
"Do you two like being back in Junior High in the middle of a public hotel?" Jess asked, holding back a giggle.
"Sure, you gotta have a little fun now and then," Brad answered.
Sarah just laughed as the elevator came to a stop and opened up.
They walked down a long, narrow, low-lit hallway. They took a left halfway down the hall and continued walking. Finally, Jess stopped in front of a door numbered 284. "This is it," she said, inserting the key into the hole.
"I get the bed closest to the kitchen!" Brad exclaimed.
"Whatever," Sarah replied rolling her eyes.
They walked in, put their bags down, turned the lights on and looked around. Three small, neatly made-up beds were set up against the right wall, each with its own bed-side table and lamp. The sheets were heavy down comforters with a moose and caribou pattern. The floor was covered with a thin and very worn blue carpet.
On the wall across from the beds were two large dressers, one holding a small mirror. There was a desk with a small T.V. and a telephone in between the two dressers. The far wall had a large window looking out on the town.
The other room was a small kitchen with a small refrigerator, sink, stove and a microwave. In the middle of this room, there was a small oak table with three oak chairs. There was another large window by the table.
Lastly there was a small, all white bathroom in the hall between the two rooms, next to a small closet.
"Wow, this place looks about as boring as the town," said Brad plopping onto one of the beds.
Jess opened the drawers and pulled out the towels that were inside. She put some in the top drawer of the first dresser and Sarah put the rest in the bathroom. Then Jess and Sarah began putting their other things away. After doing some exploring, Brad did the same.
"Okay, I'm done so I'll go head down to the desk and grab the stuff he sent us," said Jess.
"Okay, we're not going anywhere," replied Sarah.
Jess walked out the door and to the elevator. In no time she was in line at the desk. When it was her turn, she asked the lady if there was a package for them.
"Um, yes, I'll get it for you, one minute please," said the lady. She walked through a door behind her and emerged with a medium size box and a manila envelope, both labeled with Jess' name.
"Here you go," the lady said handing her the items.
"Thank you," Jess said and walked off before the lady had time to reply.
Back in the room, she locked the door and sitting on the bed closest to it, opened up the envelope. Brad and Sarah were sitting on the middle bed watching her. Inside the envelope were a bunch of photos, a letter and some other papers. Jess read the letter out loud:
Team,
This mission should be much simpler than the last. This time the lab is located about five miles south of the city (the only road in and out of Norrel comes in from the east) and has been built under the house and hunting lodge business of James Rowley, one of Byol Co.'s top workers.
He happens to be one of the richest employees in the company and works directly for Dr. Gene Fredric, the creator of the Alpha Virus. I have included a report on the virus done about two months ago. It should have come in the folder. The other papers are the local news reports for Norrel over the past couple of months.
The photos are of some of the activity in the lab, some of the personnel and some of their experiments. The photos are estimated to be about six months old. Some of the information that came with the photos might be a little old so be on the look out for any current information that you can find.
The box contains some items for the three of you to use. Your mission is as follows:
-infiltrate Rowley's lodge
-get into the lab
-get the information we need
-get a sample of the Alpha Virus
Be warned that the last team we sent into this lab a month ago was never heard from again. It is assumed that the four of them were caught and either killed or used for experiments. If you can, find out what happened to them. We do not believe that the virus has gotten out but be on alert.
It won't be easy but it is necessary. You're the finest agents we've got and are the only ones we can depend on to complete this mission.
Do not fail.
Jess finished the letter and put it down. So typical of their agency, 'you're the best we've got so we can send you to what may be your death without second thoughts'. Oh well, that's how it was and that's how it would always be until Byol Co. and every other company like them was brought down.
"That's just about the same letter we get every time, what else did he send?" asked Sarah.
"Lots of things, pictures, documents, newspapers, Intel for our mission, whatever's in the box, etcetera," replied Jess. "Hey, here's the report about the new virus."
"Okay, read that then," said Brad.
Jess picked up the report and read it:
WARNING: TOP SECRET
Alpha Virus Report
The Alpha Virus, or A-virus, created by Dr. Gene Fredric, is a new and improved version of both the T and G-viruses.
The A-virus turns its victims into "creatures" within thirty minutes of infection as apposed to an hour with the T and G-viruses.
It is transmitted through many of the same ways and even in ways the other viruses could not be. It can survive on a solid surface, such as a desk or a floor without nutrients for approximately two years and still infect someone.
The virus is protean, changing from liquid, to airborne, to blood transfusion, depending on its environment, though it can only remain airborne for the first twenty-four hours of its life. It can live up to seven months inside a body whether or not the body is alive. The only way to kill the virus is to inject it into the body of a subject, kill the subject, then burn the body.
The A-virus causes much the same effect on its subjects as the T and G-viruses do, though infected subjects live longer and have slightly elevated levels of intelligence. Physical differences include: much greater strength, large teeth and nails/claws, better eyesight and slower decomposition of the body. The subjects also are more aggressive.
Subjects with O-negative and O-positive blood types become the strongest types of creatures, such as the past Tyrant, and Nemesis experiments. This also bares similarities to the case of William Burkin, the man who created and injected himself with the G-virus after suffering a mortal wound. Subjects with other blood types become the zombie versions of the creatures.
Symptoms of infection are as follows; nausea, vomiting, aches and pains, loss of color in skin, headache and dizziness until the victim looses consciousness approximately twenty to twenty-five minutes after infection occurs. By this time, the infection will have spread through the body too greatly for the anti-virus to have any effect.
There are currently fifty vials of the A-virus and twenty vials of the anti-virus in storage inside the lab.
"That's it. Here's a paper about Rowley's lodge," Jess said putting the report down and picking up a new paper. "It says that he started the lodge about ten years ago. He came here with the company and set up the lodge for local hunters. He put the price at $5,000.00 per person. This guy really is nuts. He takes the hunters out into the middle of nowhere and brings them back after a few days. That's if he's not working in the lab. If he is apparently he sends someone else to take the hunters out," she said. "It looks like he has been under investigation because he took someone out and the guy disappeared. From the sound of this I'd say it's happened more than once. Let's open the box now," she said getting up for a moment. She grabbed her pocketknife and slit the top open.
She ripped the cardboard up and began pulling things out. There were three handguns, one for each of them, and a large number of spare clips. There were three radios and three small-sized sets of equipment packs. There were also a number of forged I.D. cards for gaining access to the lab and other facilities they'd need to get into. There were a few other items with less significance in the box, but Jess just put them and the box under her bed and handed out the others. They all put their things in the small drawers of the tables next to their beds, hiding them with a blanket or handkerchief. When that was all taken care of, the trio finished looking through the rest of the papers from the envelope.
Jess picked up the newspapers and began reading while Sarah looked at some of the Intel papers and Brad looked at the photos. Jess grabbed the box from under the bed and threw the letter and the Alpha Virus report in it and then picked up the newspapers again.
"Uh-oh, it looks like this is going to be a little more complicated than we thought," said Jess looking through an article out of a paper from two days earlier. "This explains why no one is infected around here… at least for now."
"What? What happened?" asked Sarah and Brad, almost in unison.
"This paper says that there was some kind of accident in Rowley's lodge. The whole place was cut off from local police and emergency personnel after a fire broke out. There were gates up and a sniper started shooting at them from some unknown position when they tried to cut through the fence. The fire ended up burning itself out and neither the emergency personnel nor the police ever gained access to the lodge. Apparently no one was hurt from the shooting or the fire," said Jess.
She continued on as she read more of the article, "They just left after the fire died because they didn't want to 'risk it'. Now two days later, they're considering the case closed and have decided not to look into it any further even though the sniper was never caught. Sounds really weird. Someone must be paying them not to go after the sniper or something because I don't think they'd just let him go. He could start shooting people all over town for crying out loud, it'd be no problem for him. I'm guessing they did that to try and keep their secret from being discovered."
"Yeah, no kidding. Well, we have to go in there anyway so I guess we're just going to have to deal with it. That is, if there's anyone even alive in there. This Intel says that the only reasons they would put up that kind of barrier could be one of two things. Either they found out that one of their employees is a traitor but they aren't sure who it is so they didn't want anyone getting in or out until he or she is found or an outbreak occurred. We already know what goes on if that happens and with the new virus it'll be a miracle if anyone survived," said Sarah taking the report out of the box and looking it over.
"The twenty-four hour period of possible air-borne infection has passed but you're right, I don't think it's possible for someone to have survived. That makes our mission a little easier, there won't be any security issues but in turn it also makes it a ton harder. The whole place will be crawling with zombies and other lovely creatures," said Jess with a sarcastic tone. "We'll have to be extra careful and take some of the anti-virus back with us if we can find it."
After looking at the rest of the papers and photos Jess and Sarah put them all back in the box, hid it in the closet and threw away the envelope. When everything looked natural again, Jess pulled out the map and looked for a restaurant. There was one right down the street. She put the map away, looked out the window, saw the place she was looking for and grabbed her jacket. "Anyone up for dinner?" she asked.
"Not right now. Those pictures were a little graphic and well, I guess it isn't dark outside but still," said Brad.
"Oh, is Brad scared?" Jess teased as she threw her jacket back in the closet. They could call for room service whenever they wanted. She walked over to her things and started looking for something to do.
"No, I'm just not in the mood for a stroll right this minute," said Brad trying to defend himself.
"Yeah, well, okay then," said Sarah, edging him in the side with her elbow. She sat next to him and they started playing cards.
Sarah and Brad both jumped when 'Its My Life' suddenly came blaring out of Jess' CD players' speakers at nearly full volume. "Oops, sorry guys," laughed Jess as she turned it down.
"No problem, hey, is this your burned CD?" asked Sarah.
"Yeah, it's my second actually," answered Jess.
"Cool, what's on it?" asked Brad.
Jess threw him the CD case and walked into the bathroom to wash up. She looked into the mirror. Her bright orange t-shirt and blue jeans needed to be washed but hey, they worked for now. She put her dark brown hair (though at the time it was dyed to look reddish) up in a ponytail. She washed her face and stared into the reflection of her eyes. She had always gotten attention when it came to her eyes because she had one light brown eye and one dark brown eye.
When she was done she walked back to the beds and picked up the phone. She called up room service and ordered three burgers and three drinks for dinner and then turned on the T.V. She flipped through the channels until she happened upon a local news program. A short bald man in an expensive-looking suite was forecasting the weather. About five minutes later a woman started talking about local events.
Jess turned it up and listened. The first two stories were not important: plans to build a new shopping center in the middle of town and a girl in the local middle school starting a group to help train dogs for older people. Then finally the lady said something that caught the attention of all of them.
"In another story, two people are missing as of yesterday. Names have not been released but according to the families, the two were out hiking near the Rowley Hunting Lodge where the fire broke out two days ago. The police and families of the two will be out searching for them during the next week. More will be told on this story as the information is released," finished the lady. "That's it for today, tune in tomorrow for your local news."
Jess turned off the T.V. and looked at the others. "That's really strange. Something must have gotten out."
"Yeah, oh look, our food is here," said Sarah getting up to let the waiter in.
"Thank you," said Sarah paying the man. He nodded and walked out. The three of them grabbed their meals and sat down to eat.
"Nothing seems too messed up around here but I think that's going to change if we don't complete this mission and destroy the lab soon," said Jess through bites of food.
"Yeah, we need to call the Boss and find out when he wants us to go down there and what exactly he wants us to do," added Brad.
"We should also let him know what's been going on around here lately," said Sarah.
"Yup, in fact," said Jess putting down her burger, "I'll call now and get this all straightened out."
She dialed the number to their command center and waited.
"Who is this?" came a voice from the other side.
"This is Agent 63. I need to talk to the Boss, can you patch me through?" answered Jess.
"What's your code?"
"678230D"
"One moment please," the voice said. There was about a second or two of silence then she heard the line click over.
"Boss?" asked Jess.
"Yes, is that you Jess?" he questioned.
"Yes sir, I called to let you know that we got here and well, it's looking like the virus got out, though it hasn't gotten past the hunting lodge area. We just heard today that two people went missing around there yesterday. The three of us were also wondering when you wanted us to start the mission and if there were any changes in our objectives," stated Jess.
"Well, now that I have that information, I'd like the three of you to wait until a fourth man can get there. He's new but he checks out and he seems very bright. I'll send him out on the next bus to Norrel immediately. His name is Tim Packard," he said.
"What? But sir, we work alone!"
"Not this time Jess. Now I have to go, I have a meeting in fifteen minutes."
"But…" started Jess but the line went dead before she could finish. She hung up the phone, gave it a disgusted look, then looked at Sarah and Brad.
"Well, what did he say?" asked Sarah.
"He said that he wants us to wait, he's sending some guy named Tim Packard to 'help us'. I tried to tell him no but he wouldn't listen to me. Oh well, I guess it won't hurt," said Jess falling onto her bed to finish her dinner.
"I don't agree about that but hey, I guess we really don't have much of a choice do we?" said Sarah.
"Nope," said Jess shortly.
After dinner, the three of them played a few games of cards, and then dressed for bed; it was 10:37.
"Well, g'night all, we'll check this guy out when he gets here I guess," said Jess climbing into bed.
"Good night," she heard the other two say as they climbed into bed as well.