Jacqueline Druga - Omnicide

She made it to the doorway and couldn’t go any farther. The entire room was filled. The branch-style fungus broke through the walls and created a gate in the doorway she could not pass.

She looked through. The sun peeked through the windows and gave enough light for her to see the outline of the sofa and loveseat. The green mounds of what looked like clovers and moss were on the furniture and Lena knew what that was.

It was her family.

She began to sob. Looping her fingers through the moss vines, holding on and staring out like a prisoner from her cell.

Lena was a prisoner of her own nightmare.

She wasn’t going anywhere, not yet. There she’d stand looking at what remained, praying they hadn’t suffered and missing them more than her soul could bear.

She didn’t know how long she would stay or even if she would go at all. She’d made it home, to her family, and at that moment, that was all that mattered to Lena.

May 11

Griffin, AZ

The police station looked like a war room. Maps covered the wall, the white board had numerous notes, and pictures printed from cell phone footage were plastered on the wall. Mark stood before a crowded room, trying to engage and answer while everyone seemed to talk at once.

Cass was engrossed looking at the pictures.

“This thing,” Mark said, “spreads over a hundred feet an hour. That’s a mile a day.”

“Anything on the other side of Miller Run Road,” someone said, “will bring it to Griffin in less than three days.”

“No. No,” Art said strong. “All of you are wrong. It’s not the Blob , it doesn’t move like a river or like lava. It’s like a pebble in a pond. It spreads that way. Wherever it was dropped. If anyone or anything was dead from OG-22X, then there were flies, if there were flies, they carried it.”

“Then it’s here,” Mark said, his words bringing immediate silence to the room. “It’s here in Griffin. We’ve had seven deaths from it. Why haven’t I seen it?”

Niles answered, “Because the bodies are in Fillman’s freezers. The temperature is slowing the growth, but trust me, if we go look I’ll bet it’s there. Just waiting for its chance to escape.”

“Jesus Christ,” Mark said. “What do we do?”

“Burn Fillman’s,” Art suggested.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Eb. “Cremate the bodies and douse the place with Ada’s concoction. We know it works and kills it immediately. In fact, we need to all be armed and ready with the stuff. Hit it as soon as we see it. Because I don’t see how we’re gonna be spared.”

Mark faced Art. “So will it hit us like the other towns? I mean, you said it wasn’t moving like lava, but will it spread here?”

“Eventually,” Art said, “yes.”

An eruption of moans filled the room.

Then Ada spoke loudly and with a firm voice. “What is our objective here? We’re losing focus. Mark sent everyone out to scout and fact find. Well, you got it. It’s out there. We know we can’t worry about it popping up here and there in town. We can squash them little fires when they happen. We need to treat this fungus like a wildfire burning outside our town and we have to stop it from reaching us. We can’t save the world, and I’m pretty positive we aren’t the only ones left, but we can save our town. We just need to think grand scale.”

“Niles and I, if we have time,” Art said, “could possibly create a bacterium that can kill this fungus.”

“Um… no,” Ada said. “You boys created enough of a mess.”

“What do you suggest, Miss Frontierswoman?” Art asked.

“Beat and treat like the thing it is… fungus. We aren’t talking about a skin thing,” Ada said. “This is a soil fungus, whether it’s a million years old or not. There are certain paths it will not cross. You yourself said it won’t touch nature, it doesn’t cross water. We create a barrier around town. A mile out all the way around. We overturn soil, we plant, we make a barrier of life around us it won’t cross.”

Art laughed. “Do you know how long that will take? Maybe a year. It will be upon us by then.”

“We hold it at bay,” Ada said.

“How?” Art asked.

“We spray. We see it closing in,” Ada said. “We spray to kill it using my stuff.”

“How do you propose we do that?” asked Art.

Kit spoke up. “We have a pilot lying in bed three at the bingo clinic, I’m pretty sure he can fly a crop duster.”

“It’s a good plan,” Niles said. “But the barrier you create will have to be wide, I’m talking whatever you plant has to have a safety measure.”

“Things die,” Mark added. “We’ll have to plan for that. And the areas where we can’t plant or build a moat. What about those, what do we do for those areas?”

Cass turned from the wall of pictures and joined the conversation. “Glass.”

Everyone looked at her.

“Has anyone looked at these pictures?” Cass asked. “Do you see the common denominator here? Where the fungus isn’t? The windows.”

“Cass, sweetheart.” Mark chuckled. “As great of an idea as that is, we can’t build a dome around Griffin.”

“Don’t talk down to me,” Cass said. “Glass has to be the solution.”

“It’s inorganic.” Art walked to the pictures. “Glass is inorganic. Cass you’re brilliant. Mold can grow on it, but it’s highly unlikely fungus can settle. It can try but it won’t attach long enough to release the properties to break down. And glass is not the only inorganic substance. There are many others we can use. In fact this… is our solution.” Art tapped the pictures. “This backing up Ada’s nature barrier may be what saves this town.”

“I am all for saving this town,” Mark said. “But you are saying building a glass wall around the circumference of our town is our only chance.”

Art shook his head. “No, the fungus could die off if it has nothing else to grab on to. That’s possible. Not probable. I’m saying, as insane as it sounds, as incredibly hard as it will be to pull off, you, Mr. Mayor, have been given the solution. Now it’s up to you and everyone in this town,” Art said. “What are you going to do?”

November 20

Griffin, AZ

It was the last one.

The steady but fading sound of the crop-dusting plane made Cass sad. She knew it would be the last one she would hear. Ada just didn’t have the supplies to make a huge drop. What she did have and was fermenting was for spot killing when the fungus popped up in Griffin. Over the previous six months it had shown growth, maybe on a rooftop or parking lot. Nothing major and nothing they weren’t able to stop.

At first it was like waiting for the predicted storm that didn’t come, the fungus was growing in areas around them, thickening and covering, but keeping its distance. It allowed those not working on the barrier to go out and scavenge whatever they could get.

Fifty-four more people made their way into town. Walking there, climbing through the new world of nature, bringing with them very few belongings. They all became part of the Griffin family.

One person never did return… Lena.

Ada and Cass waited for her, but she never came back. Cass understood Lena’s decision, but wondered if she had tried to return but couldn’t. Was she out there somewhere trying to survive? Was there a chance she’d eventually make her way back to Griffin?

The one thing Cass refused to believe was that Lena had died.

Too many had left the earth senselessly. Lena’s survival was something she held onto.

In fact, in the beginning there was a lot of hope. Cass had hope, like many others that maybe the fungus would stop, that Griffin and the area close by would be spared. But that didn’t happen.