Jacqueline Druga - Omnicide

Eb wanted to scream. What did they find on that deer? Was it sick? Was the fungus still alive and well?

“Trixie,” Niles said, “what did you see on your way here? Anything peculiar?”

“Not really. I wasn’t looking for anything except driving,” Trixie replied. “But”—she reached for her phone—“I did see something strange when I went to my friend Anita’s house to check on her. I saw the same at Lena’s house. I didn’t know if this was the norm. I knew from Lena doctors were here in town.” She handed him the phone. “I took pictures of Anita.”

“Wait,” Eb said. “You took pictures of your dead friend?”

Eb could hear the hard breath seeping through Niles’ nostrils as he stared at the phone. “This is new. Show this to no one. Not yet. Not until we have answers.” He handed the phone back.

“I won’t.”

The last straw come when Eb asked Trixie if he could see and she told him no. It was then he decided to tail Niles and Ada and had been at the motel ever since.

“Anything?” Cass asked as soon as she approached Eb.

“Nothing,” Eb replied. “Like nothing I have ever seen. They have been in there all night long. Cass, they said something about me maybe not taking Lena to Los Angeles.”

“For her health?”

“No, I think it has something to do with what they found with that deer. And whatever it was Lena’s friend saw something like it in LA.”

“How do you know?” Cass asked.

“She showed Art a picture of her dead friend.”

“Oh, that’s so wrong. Did you see it?”

“She wouldn’t show me.”

“That’s even more fucked up. But you know those Hollywood types. So, we don’t know?”

Eb shook his head.

“Do we know what was found with that deer?” Cass asked.

“Kit didn’t tell you? He was there.”

“That fucker. No, he didn’t.” She placed her hand on her hips and shook her head. She stopped cold when she saw Kit. “Let’s ask him.” She led Eb, marching to Kit before he got close to them.

“Six more people,” Kit said. “Are you gonna open up your house to let someone live there until we figure out things?”

“No,” Cass replied.

“What?”

“No, that would mean I would have to clean. Anyhow…”

“Anything yet?” Kit asked.

“Kit.”

“What?”

“What is up with that deer Ada found?” Cass asked.

“You didn’t see it?”

Eb and Cass shook their heads.

“Oh, man.” Kit pulled out his phone. “Take a look.”

Cass took the phone. “What is it with people taking pictures of… oh my God!”

“Yeah.”

Cass handed the phone to Eb. “What is that? It looks like the ground grew over it.”

“I know, right, and that thing wasn’t dead that long. Two days. In my opinion, our two science guys know what’s up.”

“How do you know?” Cass asked.

“Niles said to Art, ‘what did you do?’”

Eb’s eyes widened. “This is crazy. So the people that started the end of the world are here, alive and well.” He gave the phone back to Kit.

“According to them, the world was ending any…” His speech slowed down when Art, Niles, and Ada emerged from the hotel room. “How.”

Art walked over to them, leading Niles and Ada. “We need to talk.”

Art’s audience sat in the police station patiently waiting for him to begin. Mark was there along with Bill to hear his explanation.

He felt as if he should have been giving a visual, a slide show or something, but all he had were his words and the backup of Niles.

“There really is a lot of good news about this,” Art said.

“And with that,” Mark added, “I hear a ‘but.’”

Art nodded. “The four deer that Ada found were killed by OG-22X. Which is the name I gave my compound to kill the pred bugs.”

“OG?” Kit asked. “Original Gangster.”

The corner of Art’s mouth raised. “Something like that. We found traces of OG-22X in the remains of all the deer. Dead of course, inactive. What happened to those deer, what covered those deer was not the result of OG-22X.”

“Is that the ‘but’ leading to bad news?” Eb asked.

Art shook his head. “No, it’s good news. Sort of.”

Everyone groaned.

Mark paced some. “Look, just get to the point okay.”

“There’s more to the point, and there are facts you need to know,” Art said. “For one, many of you know, the fungus I created was something already here. I merely manipulated it. So OG-22X is not my creation, it is a manipulation. The original strain alone had properties that were remarkable. The spores were active longer, it carried easier and it reproduced faster. The problem with it was it wasn’t deadly. Like most fungi it covered and deteriorated things that were dead or useless—anything immobile—and could attach itself to dying things. For example, it would take over and kill a tree that was dying. The positive thing was as long as something was alive, it didn’t touch it.”

Ada inquired, “So you manipulated it to make it deadly?”

“Yes,” Art answered.

“So immobile meaning…?” Ada asked.

“Anything not alive,” Art answered.

Cass lifted her hand. “So what covered that deer and… I’ll assume Trixie’s dead friend was what? OG-22X?”

“No,” Art replied. “What covered the deer and what we assume from images covered Trixie’s friend, was the original strain.”

“This thing,” Ada said, “was so powerful, it shunned the manipulation like a cancer and regained its original form. Meaning, I was right, Mister I-went-to-Harvard?”

Art nodded. “You were right. Fungi are resilient. They adapt, and to adapt it regained its original form.”

“We’re ninety-nine-point-nine percent positive,” Niles said, “that any contact with the original form is not deadly to humans or animals.”

“Because we’re living,” Kit said.

“Exactly,” Niles answered. “There are decades worth of research that back that it is non-lethal. It’s a destroyer—it will eat anything dead or nonviable.”

“If this thing is so strong,” Mark said, “why in God’s name did you make it stronger?”

“We didn’t,” Art answered. “We weakened it and added the property to kill the pred bugs.”

“So all this research with this fungus,” Mark said. “This thing has been with scientists for a while—you said decades. I take it this fungus is old.”

“It is,” Art said.

“Where did you get it from?” Mark asked.

“It was discovered in the arctic fifty years ago,” Art said. “It dates back four hundred million years.”

“Jesus Christ!” Ada exclaimed. “You brought back a prehistoric fungus?”

“We had to, we needed something strong that would attack immobile, nonviable things,” Art said. “The pred bug, like OG-22X, was manipulated by man. The shell of the pred bug has such minimal biological properties that the fungi attacked it like it would a rock or dying tree.”

Kit lifted his hand. “So you’re telling me whatever died from OG-22 whatever… will be covered with this prehistoric fungi?”

“And some.”

“Excuse me?” Kit tilted his head.

Eb groaned. “Now I know why you don’t want us to go to Los Angeles or say something about the timing. This thing is spreading, isn’t it?”

“I’m afraid, if I’m right,” Art said, “it won’t just be the deer, it’ll be Trixie’s friend or anyone else that died. It will be anything immobile or nonviable around them.”

Cass let out a slight shriek. “Eb! Kit, we learned about this in Mr. Simon’s biology class. Remember? The fungus that ate the world.”