Jacqueline Druga - Omnicide

“So that,” Kit said, “was how you determined which places were safe.”

Bill answered, “Yes, but it was a crap shoot. There are a few places that were clear, safe places. Griffin was one. There aren’t many.”

Art added, “If we’d just had more time. We tried to warn them but no one listened. Testing never went beyond the four-hour mark with humans, twenty-four hours with mice. It was so rushed.”

Kit shook his head in confusion. “I don’t understand. How can you not test longer?”

“There was nothing that indicated long-term effects. We were worried about the immediate effects since the bugs died instantly,” Art answered.

“Four hours is not long term,” said Cass.

“No, it’s not. My colleague discovered the mice were dying at the twenty-five-hour mark. They showed no symptoms whatsoever. It was by accident that we learned what it did to people. The tech that removed the live mouse, she didn’t have gloves on. The spores of the fungus transferred to her skin. It spread, the skin deteriorated, there was no way to stop it. We tried but she died in twelve hours. And that was when we learned. The fungus was releasing extremely high levels of mycotoxins. Which meant each mode of infection or affection caused different symptoms. Much like anthrax.”

Craig commented, “Cutaneous, inhalation, and gastrointestinal. Eat, touch, breathe.”

“Exactly,” Art said. “Sometimes all three. The symptoms would be horrendous. If they caught it by the skin exposure, a rash would just eat the skin, releasing the same deadly toxin into the blood stream until death. Inhalation or ingestion would be a faster, less painful death. But we don’t know. Because we were never able to see its effects beyond the tech. All our warnings were based on her and for that, we were dismissed.”

“So you ran,” Kit said.

“My team did,” Art replied. “I thought they’d be here.”

Kit paced some, then stopped with a swing of his hand. “Do we know though? Do we know it caused this effect? I mean what you are saying is the extermination carried out across the globe wiped everyone out except for a few places. Do we know this to be true? We are in Griffin, the out-of-touch capital of the world.”

Cass peered up to him. “You tried Seaver. No luck.”

“Then I’ll go there.” Kit walked toward the door.

“Officer, stop,” Art called out. “I beg of you not to. It hasn’t hit the twenty-four-hour mark. It takes at least twenty-four hours for the spores to die off, lose effectiveness. I know that. You go there; it could still be there. Wait. Wait until tomorrow and go. In the meantime, we need to go door to door. Check to see who was in town, who was not and if anyone has any symptoms. Our main goal is to give the fungus no more hosts to latch on to.”

“So contact tracing,” Craig said. “What do we do with those infected? If we find any.”

“Isolate. One area,” Art replied. “Make them as comfortable as possible. Twenty-four hours, spore free, we are in the clear.”

“What do we tell people?” Kit asked. “Just knock on the door and say hey, we need to check you in case you are going to die?”

Art shook his head. “Tell them the truth. Well, in part. Tell them there is a biological threat, you’re checking on anyone who may have left town and ask if they are experiencing any symptoms. After the town is in the clear, then we tell them. We tell them the truth when we know the extent of everything.”

“I don’t think you’ll find anyone,” Cass said. “No one really leaves. We’re not a big social town.”

“That’s optimistic and good to hear,” Art said. “The sooner we get on this the better. Officer, I need you to make sure no one leaves town.”

“I have two off-duty officers I’ll call in,” Kit replied.

Craig exhaled loudly, stood, and slowly shook his head. “I never thought it was possible. But we’re looking at complete omnicide.”

Art nodded his agreement. “Yes, because if I am right. This is global.”

Cass looked left to right, Art to Craig. “Wait. What? Stop. Omnicide? What the hell is that?”

Craig explained, “It starts with good intentions. Something that is to protect and better the world. Basically, it’s something man made that causes the extinction of the human race. Obviously, it has never happened. Yet, that’s what we have. If he is right, if this hit everywhere, it’s a pure definition of the word,” Craig said. “Omnicide.”

It had only been an hour, but it finally hit Cass that her friend was gone. Brian was dead.

She had to tell Walt, or would he just find out?

Without a doubt, she wanted Eb to hear it from her and since he had agreed to be part of Lena’s show, she made her way back out to Ada’s, bringing Art with her, just to check him.

Even though she was certain that Eb hadn’t left town or had any contact with Brian, she wanted to be sure.

While Art talked to him, ran that light over him, Cass stared out the kitchen window. She watched them filming the garden portion of Lena’s show.

Had she not known it was Ada, Cass wouldn’t have recognized her. Her hair was done and her makeup was natural looking and perfect.

She stood at the window, arms folded staring out for a while.

“Clear,” Art announced as they returned to the kitchen.

“Told you,” Eb said. “I didn’t leave or speak to anyone other than you, Cass. You okay?” He stepped to her.

“I’ll be fine. This is just a lot right now,” Cass said. She looked back out the window, saw they were gone and within a few seconds, the back door opened.

“Back again?” Ada asked. “Who’s your friend?”

Before Cass could answer, Lena smiled brightly. “Oh! Are you here for lunch? I made a lovely quiche and salad.”

Cass shifted her eyes back and forth from Ada to Eb.

“You don’t like quiche?” Lena asked.

“That’s not it,” Ada answered for Cass. “Something is going on. Spill it. Who’s the guy?”

“I’m Art Bohr,” Art introduced himself. “I’m a scientist.”

“Ada,” Cass said gently, “I know this is going to sound ridiculous and hard to believe, we’re all still processing it. But it seems the global extermination of the pred bugs, may just be a global extermination of the human race.”

Silence.

“Wow,” Art said. “That was simplified and blunt.”

Kat started to laugh. “She’s joking.” He paused and the smile dropped from his young face. “She’s not.”

Cass shook her head.

Almost as if she were expecting it, Ada walked to the fridge. “So, basically the super ‘kill off the bug’ stuff isn’t so safe for humans. I could have told them that.” She opened the fridge. “Iced tea, anyone?” She pulled out the pitcher. “Art, you have something to do with this?”

“I was on the team that invented the fungus that was meant to eradicate the pred bugs.”

“And you didn’t know it wasn’t safe.”

“Not at first,” Art replied. “By the time we figured it out, they wouldn’t stop. They said our data wasn’t strong enough. That the impact on human life was mild compared to what the pred bugs would do.”

“I take it they didn’t think about global extermination,” Ada said.

Art shook his head.

“So why are you in Griffin?” Ada asked. “Last town to try to save?”

“Last town alive.”

The pitcher nearly toppled from Ada’s hand at the same time as Lena gasped.

“There could be a few other places that weren’t affected with the drop. Places like Griffin, blips on a map that fell through the cracks of the wind patterns and jet streams that carried the fungus.”