Linda Andrews - Extinction Level Event

“Aunt Mavis!” Heat flashed through her body, burning away her lethargy. Sunnie leapt from her chair. “You can’t mean to not tell people!”

“That’s a double negative.” Staring into the entryway, the older woman tapped the phone’s antennae against her chin.

English lessons. Now. Had her aunt’s mind snapped? Sunnie stormed toward the kitchen.

“Stop.” Aunt Mavis held the phone up like a crossing guard’s stop sign.

Sunnie slid to a halt on the tile. Of course, her aunt would tell people. She wasn’t a politician.

“There’s glass on the floor, and you’re not wearing shoes.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” She stamped her foot. “I’m worried about Armageddon and you’re worried about a cut on my foot.”

Her aunt set the phone on the counter. “Cuts can be serious things, especially as medical care is risky.”

Sunnie’s arms flapped at her side. Now what was her aunt droning on about? “What? The hospitals are open.”

“What’s left of them.” The older woman opened the pantry and removed the broom hanging from a clip inside the door. “But that’s where the first wave of infected will head.” She unsnapped the dustpan from the broom’s handle. “That’s if they seek medical help at all.”

Sunnie backpedaled out of the kitchen. This new world sucked! Worse, it showed no sign of improving. “Maybe they wouldn’t go to the hospital if you issued that press release and let them know the Redaction is back.”

“I can’t do that.” Aunt Mavis lowered the broom’s bristles to the tiles and swept it back and forth in measured increments. “If we’re going to survive, I’m going to need all the information I can get. Through the Surgeon General I can access lots of data.”

Sunnie stared at the motion—slow and methodical. Shaking off the sweeping’s spell, she folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot. “You’re trading our lives for someone else’s?” Someone like chesshire8, catsin99 or nymetsfan1K.

“I’m making a choice to give us the best possibility to survive.” Her aunt bent over the pile of debris and picked up the bottom shell of the glass.

“But…” Sunnie scraped her hair into a ponytail. This couldn’t be happening. “Sending that press release could save one person’s life. Just one. Is that too much to ask?”

“Yes.” Aunt Mavis chucked the piece into the garbage then turned her back on Sunnie.

“God, why do you have to be so selfish?” She spun on her heel and stalked down the hall. Well, Aunt Mavis could let all those people die, but she most certainly would not. She bitch-slapped her bedroom door open and flopped into her chair.

Her cursor blinked next to the words: RDXON back.

She cracked her knuckles. Back to square one. No one would believe that without proof. She set her hands on the keyboard and worried the ridges on the f and g keys.

So what could she say?

She had to have overheard some tidbit that would prove her case. Where had the butt-headed officer said it had started? Asia?

She added: Outbr8k in Asia.

Picking up her soda, she chewed on the straw. Would it be enough? Asia was far away. More than an ocean. Maybe if she said where… The straw squeaked against the plastic cap.

From the kitchen, she heard the slam of a cabinet door. Aunt Mavis must be finished cleaning. Would she come down the hall and stop her from sending the information?

And what if Aunt Mavis lost her job?

Or her douche bag boss ordered her shot?

Ordered both of them shot? Sunnie’s leg twitched. Maybe she shouldn’t send it. She set her cup down, ice rattled. But could she live with herself if she didn’t even hint at it? She hit the backspace key until the cursor stood alone in the box.

“Did you chicken out?” Aunt Mavis murmured from behind Sunnie. “Or can’t you find the words to tell your friends that nineteen out of twenty of them won’t be here after this thing strikes?”

Sunnie straightened in her seat. “I’m not a chicken.”

“So you sent the announcement, then?”

“Not yet, but I will.” People had a right to know. And if she took a bullet for it… So be it.

“Good.” Aunt Mavis walked into the reflection on the computer screen. She carried a box under her arm.

Folding her arms across her chest, Sunnie spun in her chair. “You’re not going to talk me out of it.”

“I’m not the enemy here, Sunnie.” Aunt Mavis set the box on the desk.

“Yeah, well, with friends like you…” She eyed the black rectangle. Could that be some kind of mind-washing device? Could it make her forget what she’d heard?

Aunt Mavis chuckled and lifted the box’s lid. “Just because I’m not going to issue the press release doesn’t mean I’m not going to warn people.”

Leaning forward, Sunnie peered inside. “That’s a laptop.”

“Yep.” Aunt Mavis pressed the power button. “But this one runs off a satellite link that makes it virtually untraceable.”

Sunnie gritted her teeth as drives groaned to life. Her very first computer had made that noise. “It’s pretty ancient.”

“It’s six months old. Most of what you see is the encryption programs and other stuff Miles glommed onto it to make sure no one could trace its source.” Her aunt’s face glowed red as a Chinese flag filled the screen. “When the Department of Defense’s computers trace the message, it will lead them to someone in the basement of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.”

“China?” Duh, Sunnie. Do you know another Beijing? “But I thought your boss told you to kill the press release?”

“The President and the Republican Party did. And so we shall.” The desktop popped up on the screen. “But Miles sent this laptop to me before I’d been transferred to the military, so he must have known about China and guessed that the government would cover it up.”

She recognized some of the icons, but not the characters underneath. “Is that Chinese?”

“Of course.” Aunt Mavis hit an image of a globe. “The laptop came off a Chinese spy.”

Sunnie rubbed the wrinkles from her forehead. Her aunt could read Chinese and knew spies. “What will happen to the person on the computer in the basement in China?”

“Might be shot. Might be awarded a medal for all I know. Either way, he or she might be able to save thousands.” The web browser opened and a countdown appeared. Three minutes. Aunt Mavis snorted. “Seems this computer isn’t as clean as Miles thought.”

With a few key strokes, her aunt switched from Chinese characters to English letters.

“Miles is your boss, right? And he wants you to leak the information.” Sunnie gulped another mouthful of soda. Her head was beginning to hurt.

“He told me so when he mentioned Kuwait.” The Redaction in Action skeleton slowly populated the screen, and the clock lost another minute.

“Is it supposed to do that?”

“The government is spying on the website, looking for any hint of outbreaks being reported as well as doing damage control.” Aunt Mavis scratched her nose. “Chesshire8 is an FBI agent; nymetsfan1K is either NSA or some black ops thug even I can’t get info on.”

Cool air rushed into Sunnie’s mouth as her jaw dropped. “But, I’ve known them for months… Since the beginning almost.”

“That’s because they’ve been watching you, Sunnie Bright.” Aunt Mavis’s fingers flew over the laptop’s keys. “They’re monitoring me by monitoring you, in a six-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon kind of way.”

Yeah, and that made sense on what planet?

Her aunt punched the enter key, and then continued typing.

“What did you say?”

“Check the boards under Did This Happen to Anyone Today?” Aunt Mavis continued to tap on the keys.