William Meikle - The Hole

It started with a knock on the door, so polite that Janet almost laughed out loud.

“Invite them in,” Charlie shouted. “We can make some lunch and have a nice chat.”

Bill answered the door. Two men, both of them carrying automatic rifles, stood outside.

“We’re ready for you in the main trailer,” one said. “One at a time, please.”

“And what if we’re not ready for you? ” Bill asked. He got no reply, but both men tightened their grips on their weapons.

“We’re ready for you,” the other man said, his intent clear.

“And I don’t suppose you’re about to tell us what you’re ready for? ” Bill asked.

“Just some simple tests. No one will come to any harm.”

Bill laughed in their faces.

“You ain’t been paying much attention, have you, boy?”

Janet saw the man’s grip tighten on his weapon.

This could get ugly.

She stepped forward to Bill’s side.

“I’ll go first,” she said.

Bill shook his head.

“You’re needed here,” Bill replied. “The wounded are looking to you…”

“Which is why I have to go first,” she said. “I need to show them there’s nothing to worry about.”

Bill wasn’t happy with her decision, but she knew he’d see the sense of it. And she had another reason for going first. She hoped she would be able to reason with the CDC scientific and medical staff, and get them to investigate the more outlandish of the previous night’s events.

As it turned out, she was only partially successful.

The two suited men escorted her the short distance across the parking area.

She saw three other suited figures inside the parked school bus, obviously taking samples and readings. She didn’t get a chance for a closer look as they led her into the largest trailer of the three that had come up the road. One of her guards motioned that she should get inside. She stepped up into what proved to a laboratory a modest town doctor could only dream of having access to. Even a cursory examination of the gleaming surfaces and the kit that sat on them told her that many millions of dollars had been spent just in this one trailer.

Another suited figure was inside waiting for her.

“Come and sit down, Doctor,” a soft female voice said. “This won’t take long.”

Janet couldn’t see much of the woman’s face through the visor, just blue eyes and a thin nose.

“And who might you be?”

“I’m Dr. Mullins. You’ve met the general, he’s in charge of the security side of things. I’ve been landed with making sense of the science.”

“I can help you there,” Janet started. “You need to check down in the mines and…”

Mullins put up a hand.

“We can’t act on anything you might tell us,” she said. “Your perceptions can’t be trusted in this kind of situation. As a doctor you know that?”

“But this is important…”

“And I’m sure you believe it. But last night we heard stories of Bigfoot, aliens, witches, ghosts, zombies, chupacabra and gremlins. All you’d be doing is adding another delusion to those we’ve already heard.”

The import of what had just been said hit Janet just as she was about to complain.

“Last night? You talked to other townspeople?”

“Some,” Mullins said. “We’ve managed to rescue a few people. They’ve all suffered some kind of breakdown, leaving them all with severe delusions. I suspect some kind of hallucinogen to be involved, given just how outlandish the stories seem.”

“Those stories have a hint of truth to them if you’d only…”

The doctor sighed.

“Please. Just let me do my job?”

Janet started to reply, then thought better of it, seeing the futility of even trying. She let the scientist get on with it. Over the next twenty minutes she gave blood, stool, skin, urine, and hair samples. Small patches of material were snipped off her clothes, soil was scraped from the soles of her shoes, and no notice whatsoever was taken of anything she had to say.

“Just promise me that you’ll keep an open mind,” she said to Mullins once all of the prodding, poking and jabbing was done.

“That’s also my job,” the scientist said. “Trust me, we’ll get to the bottom of this quickly. In the meantime, we’ll assess your wounded as they come in. We’ll quarantine any we think need more treatment than you can give them. Tell them not to worry. All of our equipment is state-of-the-art, and all of us have been trained specifically for situations like this.”

I doubt there have ever been any other situations like this one.

“And the collapses?” Janet asked. “How do they fit into these situations you’ve been trained for?”

Even through the protective visor, Janet saw the first flicker of worry in the scientist’s eyes.

“We have geologists looking into it,” she said. “They’re probably down there in one of the holes right now.”

Down there, and if I’m right, in mortal peril. But I’ll never get this woman to believe it. Not until she sees it for herself.

Janet decided to try a different tack.

“Would it be possible to see the quarantine area? If I see you’re looking after folks properly, it’ll make it easier for me to sell the idea on to those in the bar.”

Mullins nodded.

“I can see the sense in that,” she said. She turned her head inside her helmet and activated a comms device with her tongue.

They’ve got communications. So at least something is still working, somewhere.

She spoke too softly for Janet to hear, but the answer wasn’t long in coming.

“The general has given me the go-ahead,” the scientist said. “I’ll take you over there now. We’ll have to be quick… he gave me five minutes. But that should be more than enough time to put your mind at ease.”

It did anything but put her at ease. Mullins led them to a large field tent. The last time Janet had seen anything like it in size had been on a visit to a circus as a teenager. But there was little fun to be had here. Suited and hooded figures moved between rows of beds. There were over fifty patients , in varying degrees of mobility. Janet knew some of them to speak to, and recognized others by sight. But they all had one thing in common; the same blank stare that Janet knew all too well from the bar, the stare of victims.

She scanned the faces hopefully, but found none from the convoy that had been lost in the road collapse.

“Where are the rest?” she asked, scaring herself with the hitch in her voice and the tears that threatened to come. Seeing just how few had made it through the night finally made her realize the scale of what had unfolded. Her knees went weak and she staggered, having to use one of the camp beds to prevent her from falling.

Mullins was as her side immediately, and Janet heard both concern and fear in her voice.

She thinks I’ve been infected.

Janet managed to stand up, stiffened her back, and wiped the tears aside.

“ Where are the rest?” she asked again, more insistent this time.

“This is all,” Mullins confirmed. “Apart from those of you in the bar, and the ones the general had stopped at the barricade.”

“ Stopped? That’s a good word for it. Murdered is a better one.”

The scientist said nothing.

She disagrees with the general, on at least that point. That might be useful to keep in mind for later.

“Have you seen enough?” Mullins asked seconds later.

Janet nodded. The patients were being treated well enough. But she’d also seen the armed guards at all of the exits, and the tension in the men carrying the weapons.