Jacqueline Druga - Omnicide

“She wants to go,” said Kit. “She’s probably curious.”

Exhaling loudly, Art paced. “It’s been there since the fifth of May. It’s now the eighth. We don’t know what happened with these people. This could be a wasted trip.”

“Is it dangerous?” Mark asked. “I mean… can there be a danger?”

“Yes,” Art replied. “We stopped it here. But it needs a host—if it has one out there it can still be active.”

“It kills its host in twenty-four hours,” Niles said. “And everything else.”

“You can’t rule it out,” Art argued.

“So what do you propose?” Mark questioned.

Kit lifted his hand when the phone rang. “Hold that thought.” He lifted the receiver. “Griffin Police, Officer Modine… Yes, I am. I’m meeting with the mayor and our two new scientists. What’s up?” Kit nodded. “Okay, thank you.” He hung up.

Mark looked at him with question. “Who was that?”

“Crazy Ada. She said Floyd’s an asshole and hung up. Now,” Kit said. “Where were we? What is your solution, Art?”

“Me and Niles both go. You said it’s only two hours. We can see for ourselves if there’s a threat, and we know this fungus like the back of our hands. We go. Plus, if these people need medical attention, we can help.”

Kit turned to Mark. “You know, to be honest, it’s not a matter of needing permission. I just want you on board since you started the search and rescue committees. We need to establish that in the world right now, people just can’t up and leave any time they want.”

“I’m on board,” Mark agreed. “We need to do it right. Find a way to establish communication, medical, scientific. It may seem like overkill, but you never know,” he said. “We just don’t know what’s out there.”

As if the screeching of Ada’s brakes weren’t enough when she pulled up behind the parked police car, she made sure she slammed her truck door hard when she got out.

Floyd, shotgun in hand, turned around. “Hey, Ada.”

“You stupid fat ass, no good for nothing idiot,” she blasted.

“Hey, what’s with the name-calling?”

Ada walked to the back end of her truck, lifted her rifle, and slung it around her shoulder. “Thought you were supposed to be picking off deer up here, stopping them from coming into town.”

“I am.”

“Then how did one end up on my property?”

“I missed.”

She back handed him in the gut as she walked by him. “Remind me never to trust you to get my supper.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m looking to see if any are up here.” Ada marched forward.

“Okay! Let me know.”

With a slight roll of her eyes, she shook her head as she walked forward down Miller Run Road. She didn’t go too far; she knew exactly where to veer off into the woods. She knew the area well, that was why, twenty feet into her off-road walk, she stopped when it looked strange.

Something was different about the wooded area.

It was May and while everything had usually started to bloom, it was especially green. Almost as if she’d taken a hit of some hallucinogenic drug, the wooded area was too green.

The dead trees that had fallen during the winter months lay on the ground, green with a thriving moss.

But they weren’t what caught her eye, it was the two large green mounds. From a distance, it looked as if someone had buried a body and it had grown over. When she walked closer, she knew what it was and it was bizarre.

Immediately, Ada hurried back out to the road and she whistled once, short and fast to get Floyd’s attention.

“You find something?” asked Floyd.

“Yeah,” Ada shouted. “Get on the radio, get that hot cop fill-in chief up here with those two Harvard brains. I need them here now.”

After seeing he understood her instructions, Ada went back into the woods.

Kit Modine could be an obnoxious asshole and Ada realized that when she heard the blip-blip of the siren when they pulled up.

There was no reason for it other than to be annoying.

She went out to the road and saw the three of them, Kit, Art, and Niles walking toward her.

“What’s going on, Ada?” Kit asked. “How come you’re up here?”

“If your man Floyd had any sense of hunting I wouldn’t be here,” Ada said. “He let a deer slip through to my property. I shot it.”

Art asked. “Was it ill?”

“No, thank God, it was fine. No signs at all of the fungus. You can check if you want.”

“When was this?” Kit asked.

“About three hours ago,” Ada answered.

“What took you so long to come up here?” asked Kit.

“I had to field dress the thing,” Ada told him. “Didn’t want to waste good meat.”

“So what’s up? Why the urgent call?” questioned Kit.

“This way.” Ada waved her hand and led them off the road into the woods. “Whole area looks off. Lively. But not sure that’s the best word. Until I saw those. There are more. But those three are the closest.” She pointed to the mounds. “Go take a look.”

Kit led the way, with Ada staying close to Art and Niles.

“I’ve seen a lot in my years,” Ada said. “I have never seen anything like it.”

They stopped before the first mound. From a distance, that was what it looked like, a mound of greenery, until a closer look exposed a hoofed leg.

It was a carcass of a deer.

Part of the animal had decomposed, but instead of insects and maggots devouring the flesh, it was covered with a green and golden grassy and leafy substance. Almost like a new fur, it blanketed the deer, covering it nearly completely with the exception of one leg, and part of the head.

Niles bent down closer to the face of the animal. A portion of the head remained along with the nose. The strangest part of it all was the eye. It was an oxymoron. Dead but alive. From the blank, lifeless, brown eye grew some sort of foliage. A single green wiry stem with a clover-looking end grew straight from the open pupil.

Niles crouched close to the animal in his examination, then looked over his shoulder to Art. “My God, what have you done?”

May 9

When Eb was going to be a first-time father, because of one small fainting episode when they broke Cass’ water, he was wasn’t permitted in the labor and delivery room. That was more Cass than the hospital. He remembered that day well, pacing outside the door, waiting for updates.

He had the same feeling standing outside the motel, waiting on Art and Niles.

Bill had come out of the hotel office with updates they had phoned to him, but nothing concrete.

He had been outside the room all night, catching a nap here and there on the bench located in the smoking area.

No one told him to wait, but when Eb had found out they discovered something with a deer up by Miller Run Road, he merely was asking about it.

Art told him, “Listen, I know you talked about taking Lena to California. Not really sure how feasible that can be. You may want to hold off until we know something.”

Know something? Know what? Eb wondered.

What had piqued his curiosity even more was in Ada’s kitchen. Niles was there, and Lena’s friend Trixie as well.

“So you’re going with them?” asked Eb. “To experiment on this deer.”

“I found it,” Ada answered.

“But what do you know about this sort of thing?”

“Nothing. But I want to see and hear firsthand.” Ada looked at Trixie. “You’ll watch her, right?

“Absolutely,” Trixie answered.

“Doctor Craig will be by two more times. There is soup in the fridge to heat, please try to get her to eat,” Ada said. “I’ll let you in on what we find out.”