Jacqueline Druga - Omnicide

“See if you can get him to sip,” Art said. “Thank you.”

“Sure.” It was no secret Cass was out of her element giving care to people. “Can you sit up some?” she asked Steven and then helped him.

“Sorry. Thank you.”

“It’s okay.” She held the bottle near his mouth. “We just need you to drink.”

“I… I conserved mine,” he said, cringing as he drank. “They passed out everything to everyone and we were in charge of our own rations. It wasn’t much.”

“The heat had to be unbearable. It’s a miracle you survived that.”

“It was hot and then they opened the door and it helped. We hoped the night air would, you know, cool things. It didn’t. But…” He took another sip. “By the time we woke up yesterday morning the door was covered.”

“And it wasn’t covered when you went to sleep?”

He shook his head. “It got worse during the day.”

“Can you excuse me?” Cass asked, making sure he had the bottle of juice well in his grip. “I’ll be back.”

She backed away, heading toward the aisle.

“Cass?” Niles called out. “Where are you going?”

“There’s something I need to do. I’ll be back.”

When she heard Steven say that door was covered overnight, it made Cass worried. The fungus was consuming everything. If Griffin managed to remain unscathed, there would be nothing left in the world to take. No resources to run to. Nothing. She went into some weird flight or fight mode, or more so like a panic shopper and she knew what she had to do.

She stepped from the church. The squad car was parked in the middle of the street, the trunk was open, but she didn’t see Kit.

She crossed the road and walked into the one truck stop called The Trading Post. A little store and restaurant. It was where she’d grabbed the juice for the airplane people.

There were a lot of items in there, but Cass went into the back of the diner to the kitchen. She peered around, she didn’t know exactly where it would be, but knew it was there. It had to be.

She found it next to a small back office marked, ‘manager.’ It was the pantry.

Inside was her jackpot. Large cans of produce, boxes of pasta and rice, cases of water, cereal. Figuring she’d start to her left, she loaded up her arms with boxes of pasta and carried them outside.

As she approached the squad car, grateful the trunk was open, she saw Kit walking toward her. He had something in his hand but she couldn’t make out what it was. She basically just dropped the pasta into the trunk, then arranged them in a flat manner to add more items.

“What are you doing?” Kit asked.

Cass jumped. “Oh, sorry. Getting supplies. There’s more in there.”

“That’s a good idea,” Kit said. “Get what we can. Surplus.”

“This place is untouched.”

“For now.”

“What do you mean?” Cass asked.

“You heard Art and you even said you remembered it from science class.”

“The fungus that ate the world,” Cass said.

“Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat. How the hell did you remember that?”

“Who knows. I remember weird shit. What are you up to?”

“Just an experiment.” Kit tossed something in the trunk.

Cass heard the thunk and looked down to see a can of spray paint. “You doing murals now?”

“No. It’s an experiment. I’ll let you know about it as soon as I figure out if it was merited to even try.”

“Well what is it?” Cass asked.

“It’d rather not. I’ll help you forage supplies.”

“Forage.” Cass laughed. “That’s an odd choice of word.”

“Yeah, well, I’m pulling out all my survivor vocabulary.”

Cass led the walk back to The Trading Post. “Like scavenging.”

“Survivors.”

“Marauders.”

Kit nodded. “Good one. Speaking of survivors…” He stopped before the three-step wooden staircase of the post. “How are they?”

“Dehydrated. Too bad they aren’t like fruits we can just stick them in water and plump them back up.”

“That’s terrible.”

“I know. My bedside manner lacks. Some are in pain. Having muscle spasms, some delirious. Kit…” She stopped. “Steven, the one guy, he said the fungus grew over the door overnight. I mean that’s when I started grabbing supplies. It just clicked something in me. Do you think it’s possible it can grow that fast?”

“I’m not the scientist. But I think it could.”

“I wish there was a way to find out. Some way, so we have something to tell the people in Griffin.”

“I’m working on it,” Kit said.

“The spray paint?”

Kit just stared, then turned away from the post and merely told Cass to, “Follow me.”

Cass stared down at the red line painted not only on the road, but where it went off to the berm like a bookmarker.

“The fungus growth on the side of the road was a half mile out,” Kit said. “Northeast. A mile and a half north.”

“To our plane.”

Kit nodded. “I went off the northeast one, because it was closer, and every hundred feet, I painted a line. It’s raw science, but it will give us an idea how fast this is moving.”

“Weather conditions can change that.”

“Of course, and Art said it doesn’t hit anything alive. That’s why it didn’t touch the trees on Miller Run.”

“Oh my God, Kit, Miller Run is so close to town.”

Kit nodded. “Too close. But we can’t plan to do anything until we know what we’re dealing with and our scientists know as much as we do. I’m just not sitting around to wait.”

“Whatever Ada put in that spray bottle worked.”

“It did. Sadly, I don’t think there can be enough of Ada’s formula to stop what is happening to this world.”

“We only need to stop what is happening from happening to Griffin,” Cass said.

“If that’s even possible. But… we can try. We will try. I’m not giving up.” Kit exhaled a heavy breath. “Are you?”

Griffin, AZ

There was no fanfare when Eb and Ada returned. He didn’t expect there to be. Griffin looked normal. A mellow state on the verge of evening.

When he pulled into town, he saw Mayor Mark standing by his black, expensive SUV. Mark waved for Eb to stop.

He pulled the truck over and stepped out with Ada.

“How was Vegas?” asked Mark.

“One survivor. He’s in the truck,” Eb replied.

“How is he?” Mark asked.

“Fine.”

“Well, let’s not take a chance,” Mark said. “Doctor Craig set up a little hospital at the bingo hall. Take him over to have him checked out just to be sure.”

“I’ll do that,” said Ada. “Then I want to head home. Check on Lena.”

“She’s in the bingo hall,” Mark said. “She wanted to do something.”

“Even better,” said Ada.

“Hey, Mark, Vegas… it’s got that stuff,” Eb said.

“The mean green, as we call it?”

Eb nodded.

“How bad?”

“Getting there. I took my shortcut, but I’m thinking we need to go to Seaver, see the state that’s in. Flagstaff, too.”

“We’re already ahead of you on that. Bill, Art’s dad, and Kat took a ride to Seaver and Walt to Flagstaff. Looks like mean green is starting there. It’s crawling on the outskirts. Seaver not so much. Kat took some pictures. I think we should go back. Get what we can from there. You interested in going?”

“Absolutely,” Eb replied.

“Good. I wanna put together teams. Send people out in all directions. We need to get a grip on what we’re dealing with and where this thing is.”

“That’s a smart idea. What did Cass and Kit say about Willow Springs?”

“They aren’t back yet.”