"This is Packard."
"What do you have for me?"
"I'm in. Their "Boss" has assigned me to a team that's in your area right now. If you're still at the lab that is."
"I'm close but not there, the virus got out. One of the stupid workers dropped a vial. No one down there got out alive, I happened to be out of the building at the time. I haven't been back yet. Are they planning to get inside?"
"Yes, they plan to get information and a sample of the virus. Pretty much the same thing they try every time, from what I hear."
"Yes well, do whatever you want at their headquarters and then leave for Norrel as soon as you can. I'll be waiting for you. I will let you know what I want from you when you arrive. As soon as I am done with you, you can go report to the team you're supposed to be working with."
"Okay, I might just go ahead and destroy this place, what do you think?"
"As I said, do whatever you want, I don't care, call me when you're on your way."
Click.
"Yes sir."
3
Jess woke suddenly in the dark. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the low light as she looked around the room. She sat up and grabbed her gun from the drawer. She slowly walked to the door, opened it, and looked down the hall. She saw no one and after a brief moment, closed and locked it.
"What's going on? What are you doing Jess?" asked Sarah waking up.
"Quiet, there's something outside," replied Jess whispering.
She walked to the window and peeked around the curtains. The light made her blink for a second, then she refocused. Nothing. She sat there a minute leaning against the wall with her gun. "Weird. Oh well," she said aloud, climbing back into bed.
"Did you see anything?" asked Sarah.
"No. I guess I was just dreaming," replied Jess.
4
Outside, a creature -not alive, yet not dead- sat on the roof of a concrete building. The midnight sun shone down on the creature's warm, bloody muscles. It didn't have any skin left; that had rotted away with its true life, with the infection.
It licked its razor sharp teeth with its equally deadly tongue. It was hungry. It needed flesh, human flesh.
With inhuman agility the creature turned and with its claws, climbed down the side of the building and slinked away into the night.
5
The next morning Jess sat at the table with a fresh cup of coffee. She slowly swirled her spoon through the dark liquid as she thought about the night before. She was sure she had heard something. Something climbing on the roof or the walls maybe. It had to have been something. She was sure she hadn't dreamt it. But then, what could it have been?
Jess got up from the table, poured the remnants of the cup down the sink, took a shower and got dressed in jeans and a large blue t-shirt. As she walked by the window in the bedroom, she noticed that there were a large number of people flocking to the back of the building. Some of them were still in their robes and pajamas.
"Hey guys, get up, it looks like something's going on outside," said Jess grabbing her jacket and heading for the door. She walked out into the hallway; she could hear Sarah and Brad getting up, a little confused.
The two of them met her in record time, as she was about to leave through one of the back doors to the building. Sure enough, there was a crowd outside looking at the wall and ground. As the three of them walked closer, Jess saw large markings embedded into ground and all the way up wall that were very familiar and very disturbing.
"Ah crap. Do you guys recognize this?" asked Jess feeling slightly exasperated.
"Oh man, yup," came the replies.
The "markings" on the wall and street were about three to four feet long and about half a foot wide. The team knew only one thing that could make such indents in concrete and asphalt.
"Team, I think we have a Licker on the loose," said Jess quietly as they walked away from the scene. "I think that the new virus makes them bigger and possibly a lot stronger than the first two viruses did. That could be a problem."
"How soon do you think it'll start attacking people?" asked Sarah.
"How long will it be until the Licker isn't the only thing crawling around out here?" Brad added.
"Well I don't know about the other creatures but the Licker will probably start attacking people as soon as later on today. As we've seen before, these things mutate into bigger, stronger and smarter creatures with every person they kill," answered Jess. "We know for a fact that those things go after whatever they want whenever they want. I guarantee you that it's going to be looking for food." The three of them walked back to their room and sat down in the kitchen.
"I wonder when that new guy is going to get here," said Sarah.
"No clue, Boss said he'd let us know when he was on his way or something like that," said Jess.
"What the heck is Boss' real name anyway?" asked Brad.
"Who knows, he never lets anyone know much about him. He's just weird that way I guess, a little too into the secret agent stuff," said Jess giggling a little.
Sarah got up and turned on the radio. She walked into the kitchen and started breakfast. Brad got up and grabbed his book from his nightstand, sat back down and started reading. Jess stood up, walked to the window and looked down at the town. The people that had gathered around the wall were all leaving. The police were at the scene writing their reports and trying to figure out what the three of them all ready knew. Jess looked out farther across the town at the passing cars. Suddenly the song that was playing on the radio was interrupted by a news flash.
"This story just in, four children from the local high school have suddenly disappeared. The families are asking that if anyone knows the whereabouts of Gene and Valerie Lamont, Kellie McDonald and Richard Stewart to please contact the police," said the lady on the radio.
"In another story, police have found the bodies of the missing hikers early this morning about two miles from the Rowley Hunting Lodge. The bodies of Hilda and James Thomas were apparently partially eaten by some kind of large animal, possibly a bear."
She continued, "They were taken in for autopsy immediately. The cause of death was in fact due to animal attack. A substance was found in the blood of both victims that could not be identified. Animal control is being sent out to kill any animals in the area that seem to act aggressive toward humans in any way. The local authorities have closed the area to all civilians until further notice. More will be told on this story as things develop. Now back to your regular program." The radio flipped back to the last few lines of a song and then went to commercials. Sarah turned it down and looked at Jess and Brad.
"Okay now we know that things are starting to get out. This is really getting bad and I don't think we can evacuate anyone out of here. We don't have a cover story and if we told them the truth either no one would believe us or we would cause mass panic. Plus by now some of the people could be carrying the virus. If we were to evacuate, then the infection could get outside this town," said Jess turning from the window.
"Maybe we should call Boss back," suggested Brad.
"Good idea, I'll do it this time," offered Sarah.
She went to the phone, picked it up, dialed the number and waited. She hung up a moment later with a puzzled look on her face.
"Something's not right, the line was disconnected. I couldn't get through," said Sarah coming back into the kitchen.
"I don't like that," said Brad. "How is it possible that the line is disconnected? Do you think-"
"I don't want to say that just yet, it is possible I guess but there could be other reasons," interrupted Jess. "Maybe they're redoing some of the telephone lines or maybe they're doing a lockdown, you know they disconnect almost everything when they do that. Are you sure you dialed the right number?"
"Yes," said Sarah.
"Well, okay. In the meantime, let's walk down to the bus station and find out when the next bus is getting here," said Jess getting up to grab her jacket. "I want to have a better idea of when our new member will be arriving. The Boss said he'd be on the next bus out."
"I agree," said Sarah turning off the stove. Breakfast could wait.
They all walked to the elevator, then out the door and down the street to the bus station. They could somehow feel that the people were nervous and confused about something that was going on. It hung in the air like a thick fog.
Outside the weather was rather nice. The sun was shining with a nice, cool breeze blowing every now and then. There were darker clouds in the distant sky but they didn't seem to be coming towards the town. The only unusual thing was that there was a slight, smoky haze in the air.
As they walked up to the bus station, they saw that it was closed. There was a sign on the door. It read:
The bus station is now closed.
There will be one last bus in and out of Norrel on Saturday, June 9th at 4:30 p.m. When this bus leaves, there will no longer be bus service to Norrel. This is due to a strike started by the workers of the station in Fairbanks. Bus service in and out of Norrel had been suspended until the strike is over.
We are sorry for the inconvenience and hope to find another way to bring our buses out here.
Sincerely,
Hannah Jones
"Well that's just great. At least we know he'll be in today," said Sarah.
Jess walked up to the door and looked through the glass. The room was full of boxes and all the pictures had been taken down. They were definitely moving out of town. "That story doesn't check out at all. For one thing they didn't say anything on the news about this and for another we know that a ton of people from this town use the buses," she remarked. "I do believe it has started."
"Well, it was going to happen eventually, do you think we should wait for the new guy and complete our mission or just get out of here?" asked Brad.
"Well, since he's coming today we can just wait to complete the mission. Then we can get out of here," Jess answered.
The three of them walked back to their room and turned on the T.V. There was a news report on about a fire that was fifteen miles away from the town. It wasn't coming toward the town but it was threatening to cut off the road out. That explained the hazy air.
"Gee, I wonder if the bus will get past that," Sarah said.
"It probably will, it's already noon and they said the fire is still a ways off from the road," Jess replied.
"Well I'm going to finish making my breakfast, uh, brunch, do you guys want anything?" Sarah asked walking into the kitchen again.
"No thanks, I'll grab something later," replied Jess.
"Well, I'll take some of whatever your making, Hon," said Brad following her into the kitchen.
Jess lay back on her bed and listened to Brad and Sarah as she thought about what was going on. She wasn't sure about this Packard guy. She wasn't sure she would be able to trust him even though they'd never met. She had an odd feeling. Hadn't she heard his name before? Maybe she'd heard it on some other mission? She rolled over and looked at the clock. 12:07. She got up and grabbed her jacket. "I'll be back, I'm going for a walk," she said and walked out.
"Alright, be back-," she heard Sarah say.
"Soon. I plan on it," Jess finished. She walked out the door of the lobby and went to the back of the building. She walked along the wall and stared at the huge gashes.
As she got closer, she saw what looked like a dull orangey-yellow substance in one of the gashes. She stood up extremely fast and covered her mouth and nose when she realized that what she was looking at was the A-virus. She ran back to the hotel, into her room and immediately took a shower.
"What's up? What's wrong? I've never seen you want to take a shower so badly," Sarah stated putting her plate of food down.
When she was all dressed and out of the bathroom, she told them what she had seen. "I'm not sure if it's still able to go into the air from there, I don't think it's possible but still, it isn't a good idea to be around it."
"Yeah, I agree but shouldn't we do something about it? I mean we wouldn't want some kid sticking their hand in it; they'd be infected immediately. Did we bring the collection kit?" asked Brad.
"I think so but I'm not sure that it's a good idea to go out there and collect it right now. We might bring in too much attention," Jess said.
"You're right, well, it might work if just one of us went down and got it. I think I can do it. What do you think?" Sarah asked.
"Are you sure?" asked Brad.
"Yup," came the answer.
"Okay then, the stuff is in my bag," said Jess pointing to the closet. "You might want to take one of those little masks as well, just in case, and don't touch the stuff with your bare skin."
"Got it," said Sarah. She grabbed the small collection kit, hid it in her jacket and walked out.
"How dangerous do you really think that stuff is just sitting there?" asked Brad.
"Well, by the looks of it, I'd say it really isn't that dangerous unless someone touches it with unprotected skin, as I warned Sarah," Jess answered. "That seems like the only way it could infect someone right now would be if it got inside a cut or break in the skin. Unless some kid was to eat it thinking it was candy but that's highly unlikely."
"Okay then, so I guess we just wait now. Good thing we already ate. At this rate we won't get a decent meal in anytime soon," Brad remarked.
"Oh well, that's not the end of the world," Jess replied. "I do think it's very likely that one of the policemen might have touched it though. That could be a very bad thing."
"Yeah," replied Brad putting his and Sarah's plates in the sink.
About five minutes later Sarah came back. "I got it, it was pretty easy. I suggest that Jess test us to see if any of us are infected. Just to be safe," said Sarah putting the kit back and grabbing the testing supplies.
The test was simple. Take a sample of the persons' blood, mix a bit of a certain fluid into the blood sample and wait a few minutes. If the blood sample stayed red the person was fine. If the blood sample turned to a neon orange color, the person was infected.
"I agree, here hand me the needles," said Jess reaching for the testing supplies. First she took some of Sarah's blood, then Brad's then her own. She then mixed the special fluid into each of the samples and put the vials down. Five minutes later, all three samples were still red. Jess picked up all the supplies, destroyed the blood samples and put the rest of the equipment away.
"Well, now that that's cleared up," said Brad. They were all quite relieved.
"Now what do we want to do, lets see, it's almost 1:00 now. We still have about three and a half hours left before Packard gets here," Sarah said looking at her watch.
"We could go check out the lodge before we go in, find out what we need to prepare for," suggested Jess. "We could also check out the officers, see if any of them are infected."
"You always have adventure on the brain don't you?" Sarah said laughing. "But hey, why not? I'm up for it. How about you Brad?"
"Sure, why not," said Brad.
"Okay then. So we go," Jess said getting up.