Jacqueline Druga - Omnicide

Immediately, the room erupted vocally, with everyone reacting rather shocked and saying, “The internet is back?” It seemed everyone grabbed their phone.

Cass again shook her head in amused disbelief. Fucking people of Griffin, she thought then began to head out.

That was when she heard it, everyone must have discovered the same news at the same time. She imagined they popped open their internet browsers and, chances were, their home screen and news informed them of what they had been sheltered from.

The world outside of Griffin was falling apart.

The tension swelled in the air, it was thick at first, then it grew loud.

Voices meshed together, shouting concern, a few sobs in the air.

“Did you know?” one man asked. “Were you hiding it from us?”

“Why would I hide it?” Mark replied.

“Then you knew?”

“I haven’t known for long, I just…”

“You kept something like this from us!” another shouted.

“No, listen, people…” Mark tried to calm them.

“My sister lives in Tulsa,” a woman cried out. “Do we know about Tulsa?”

“We don’t know,” Mark replied.

“I have to go.” She stood. “She’s all I have. I have to go find her.”

“Now everyone sit!” The usually mild-mannered Mark raised his voice, loud and firm. “No one is going anywhere!”

But Cass was. That was her cue to leave and she decided to make her escape. Kit or Mark could fill her in later.

She walked down the far aisle to the front door exit, listening to Mark as he returned to a calm state and began his explanation of the situation.

She reached for the right side of the double glass doors. As she casually pushed it open, she felt an abrupt brush against her, shoving her slightly forward as someone ran out past her.

It took a second for Cass to register what happened, and just as she thought maybe someone got sick, she saw Lena in the street.

She moved frigidly, left to right, then in circles. She brought her arms tight to her body, slightly hunched over, then dropped to her knees and cried out.

One long cry.

It went through Cass because there was a familiarity in that cry, one Cass had made before.

Slowly she walked to Lena. “Lena,” she called softly.

“They’re gone,” Lena sobbed. “They’re gone, Cass. My mom, John, my b—” She cried out the words, “My babies. They’re gone. They’re gone.”

The ‘oh’ seeped achingly from her chest as she crouched down, reaching out a hand to Lena. “Oh, I am… I am so sorry. Lena, I am so sorry.”

Lena’s shoulders bounced as she sobbed, grabbing onto Cass’ hand that gripped her arm.

Cass was at a loss. She wanted to grab Lena, embrace her, and hold her. As she moved to do so, Lena jumped up.

“Lena.”

“I can’t.”

Cass reached out to her but Lena swiped away her hand. “Lena.”

Softly screaming out her pain, Lena spun and took off.

Cass called out once to get her to stop, but Lena didn’t. She thought about chasing her, trying to get her to stop. But what would she say, truly what could she say?

Having been there, Cass knew no words spoken, no touch or embrace would make a difference. Not in the immediate aftermath of crushing news.

Cass let her go and let her run. She knew, before long, Lena would learn she could run, but there was nowhere far enough she could run to lose the pain.

She came under the guise of a fascination over the fungus, but Eb knew Lena was the real reason Cass was standing in Ada’s kitchen.

Not that Lena was in the kitchen, she wasn’t. Nonetheless, Cass came for her. Lena’s loss and heartache hit home to Cass, to Eb as well. She wanted to be there to lend her support.

Eb knew that without her saying a word. Even if she pretended to care about the talk.

Niles was a few minutes late. Before he showed the conversation had hovered around the happenings in Griffin.

Cass sipped a cup of coffee, leaning back against the kitchen sink, watching and listening as Ada, Art, and Niles stood around the kitchen table.

“The thing is,” Ada said, “you need to know why this thing is entering the blood stream. Fungus has always been the devil to work with.”

Niles nodded. “I agree. This one is tricky.”

“And different,” Art added. “It lives a little longer.”

“And highly contagious,” Ada said. “While active. Tell me, Art, you said you saw results with my MMB tincture…”

“MMB?” Niles asked.

“Mad Man Bonanza,” Ada explained.

“Yes,” Art replied. “I did. On Mariah. She was the one I used it on first. I tried the other tinctures on other patients, but by the time I saw results on Mariah, it was too late to use it on the others.” He looked at Niles. “It worked on the rash, but by then it had already entered the blood stream.”

Ada released a short sarcastic chuckle. “And you said nature couldn’t beat it; you needed science to beat it. Maybe if we would have done full strength. I mean, I thought for sure that was the one.”

“It showed promise,” Art said. “Active spores died instantly. Stopping it in its track.”

“It’s good stuff. It cleared up a case of jungle rot like I’ve never seen,” Ada said.

“Still needed a science touch.”

Niles looked at him curiously. “Why do you say that? I mean, I would think battling it with nature would make perfect sense since the fungus is not man made.”

Eb asked. “It’s not? I thought you told Cass you created it.”

“In a way I did,” Art replied. “I manipulated an already present fungus.”

“Which one?” Ada asked.

“You wouldn’t know it.”

“Try me.”

“You wouldn’t know it and I’m not being arrogant.”

“So really, what you’re saying is,” Ada argued, “that schooling and stuff trumps someone that really knows nature.”

“I’m saying my education at Harvard and experience,” Art said, “may give me privilege to more information.”

“Fine,” Ada huffed. “I still think going basic is the way.”

“Why that one?” Eb asked. “I’m curious. Did you seek it out or did it fall in your lap accidentally?”

“I had read about it,” Art replied. “And I chose it because I knew how virulent it was.”

Ada laughed in sarcasm. “And you still felt you had to manipulate it?”

“If it was so strong,” Eb said, “didn’t it cross your mind it could be harmful to people and animals?”

“No. And there was nothing that indicated it would,” Art said. “We tested it on various lab animals.”

“Nothing,” Niles said. “No reaction. But—”

“You didn’t test the manipulated one,” Ada said.

“We did,” Niles answered. “We just didn’t have enough time. They needed to push the extermination. They had to. By July the world stood a good chance of not only starving but losing oxygen when the pred bugs multiplied and devoured the trees.”

“So we were doomed either way,” Eb said.

Art nodded. “It may have happened faster this way, but the end result is the same.”

“We also have to remember,” Ada said, “they could have run all the tests they wanted. Sometime, fungi are funny. They mutate, they adapt. The fungus may have shed the manipulation you did to adapt to its preexisting pre-mutated state. But when the fungus was mixed in the batch for extermination, it was delivered before it could change back. An Ada theory, not sure if that makes sense.”

Art bobbed his head side by side. “It does. Sort of. But you’re right, they are unpredictable that way.”

Cass had kept quiet, but finally she spoke, “Can I ask you guys a question?” She set down her cup. “If the spore things, the part of it that makes it spread and die within a day. If here we are with no more cases, if the threat is over, why are you even discussing how to beat it?”