Day Zero

Day 58:

Today was the day that they would hear Fabiana’s results. Although Riley had a pretty good idea what they were considering the fact that he and Abigail had visited her almost every day to see what her results were.

On the first day all the rats seemed fine, running around and interacting with each other. As the days went by the rats with rabies began to show the symptoms of rabies. Meanwhile, the rats that were infected with the five diseases began to show symptoms of the other diseases but not the ones that were human. He thought back to the conversations that he had with Abigail and Fabiana.

“This is getting us nowhere” Abigail had muttered on day ten.

“At least we know it’s not those d-diseases” Fabiana replied, always the optimist.

“This could also show that it takes more than ten days for this thing to show up” Riley found himself saying.

“All the centers have confirmed that it takes at the most ten days to take over the person. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and swims like a duck. Odds are it’s a duck” Abigail said glaring at the wall.

Riley and Fabiana sighed. She has a point Riley thought to himself.

∆∆∆

He and Abigail were currently sitting in the break room. He was asking her to tell him about herself, because he knew next to nothing except that she was bloody brilliant, had a great sense of humor, and was definitely a zombie freak.

“Tell me about your family” he said.

She chuckled slightly. “My parents and I were never really that close. When I turned fifteen I was sent to Harvard, so I guess I never really got a chance to grow up with them. They were always a lot closer to my sister than they were to me. They were always taking her to dance practice and dance competitions. She got the artistic talent and beautiful looks while I got the brains” she said laughing.

You are just a pretty I am sure Riley thought to himself. “Do you and your sister get along?

“Yeah, we are. I have always been supportive and a bit overprotective of my sister. When I found out that she was HPV positive I decided that I wanted to work on research and try to find the origins of diseases” Abigail explained.

“I wish my brother had been as protective and committed to me as you were” Riley said with a chuckle.

“Why what was your brother like?”

“Just the typical older brother I guess. We would get into rows every now and then. He would lock me out of his room and I would throw a fit. I was a bit of a pest too, but he would always help me out if I need it” he admitted.

Abigail laughed. I really like her laugh he thought.

“What about your parents?” she asked.

“My dad died when I was fifteen, my mom is a wonderful and strong lady. She managed to hold Cameron and me together. She is a beautiful lady too, but always turned down any suitors because she wanted us to still be a family after dad died” Riley said.

Abigail smiled “She sounds like a wonderful lady.”

“She is.”

“So do you have a boyfriend back in D.C? Riley asked.

Abigail laughed. “Nope. Do you have a girlfriend back in England?” she asked.

Riley shook his head “Well in that case” he said feeling abnormally bold, he wrapped an arm around Abigail shoulders and pulled her towards him. Abigail laughed before resting her head on his shoulder.

Riley was about to open his mouth to say something about how pretty he thought she was when Hunter came into the room. Both of them sat up straight and turned towards him.

“Am I interrupting something?” he asked with a knowing smile.

Riley felt his face heating up and smiled when he noticed Abigail’s do the same thing. Damn you, Hunter he thought to himself.

“Anyways, Fabiana is ready to tell us about her results” he said with a chuckle as he walked out of the room.

Abigail smiled at Riley and the two stood up and walked out the break room, both blushing. Riley took a deep breath before taking Abigail’s hand in hers.

She gave him a smile before shifting her hand so that their fingers were now linked. Abigail’s hands were cool and soft, Riley found himself instantly liking them.

They walked to the conference room together and right before they entered the room Abigail released his hand.

As he and the rest of the members of the research team settled themselves at the table, Riley took a seat next to Abigail who smiled at him before turning her attention to Fabiana who was standing at the front of the room in front of the white board.

She turned on the overhead revealing a PowerPoint presentation. The first slide showed the two different types of rat, the ones who were injected with the diseases and the ones who were not, the placebo. “B-b-both groups of rats were injected with rabies. The group that was solely injected with rabies was the placebo in this case.”

Her next slide showed the amount of time it took for each rat to show symptoms of the rabies virus. “Just as we predicted…the ones with the rabies virus took three to ten d-days to show symptoms,” the slide held the charts showing the groups of rats and the parasite that they were infected with. Each chart showed the symptoms that were present with the rats.

Her stutter has become less frequent Riley found himself noticing.

The next slide showed a line graph, each color representing the average amount of time it took for each rat to begin showing symptoms of each disease. “As you can see, the mean of the rabies is about f-f-five and a h-half d-days. Meanwhile the parasites d-don’t appear until the f-final seven to ten days. Or not at all, which leads us to believe that these parasites do not influence the virus” she further explained.

Abigail leaned over to him and whispered into his ear “She is doing great; her stutter has reduced so much. She’s becoming more confident in herself” Although Riley was only listening to half the things that she was saying to him as her breath tickled his ear and at the proximity. But he found himself nodding to her.

Her next slide showed the list of symptoms that appeared in the rats. “As you can see… the symptoms of the parasite d-do not match up with those of the virus as well. The only common f-factors are f-f-fever and seizures.”

Riley looked at the list of symptoms found in the victims of the virus as compared to those of the parasites she was right there was almost no commonality he thought.

Her final slide appeared that said ‘Conclusion’ “I guess that we could just conclude by saying that these parasites d-don’t show the same symptoms as rabies and we can conclude that the virus is not caused by a combination of rabies and the following parasites.”

The room sat in silence for a moment they are probably just as shocked as I am by how well she managed to give the presentation without stuttering. Sure she turned bright red and didn’t hold eye contact. But she was amazing Riley thought to himself

Abigail stood up and walked to the white board before writing the most absurd thing that Riley had ever seen.

Voodoo

“You are still going on about this?” Yumi, Dr. Kennedy and Hunter said at the same time.

“Hear me out” Abigail demanded as she shoved her glasses up her nose.

“You were talking about the ‘Serpent and the Rainbow’ when we first began writing down the ideas for this disease,” Abigail nodded her head towards Henry and Benjamin. “The idea of using neurotoxins with drug like datura stramonium can revive the victim and leave them in a trance-like state with no memory, but still able to perform simple tasks like eating and sleeping.” Abigail explained.

“We know that it’s a toxin that makes the person appear dead” Benjamin said.

Abigail rolled her eyes. “Obviously, so if we figure out the type of toxin maybe we can figure out something along those lines. Like watch her do it and then see if we can backtrack from there.”

“Where the hell are we going to find a voodoo doctor? In case you didn’t know already, Haiti is on quarantine” Helen voiced.

“That’s the other thing I have been looking up. There is a woman in a bayou called Mama Oilida. She is apparently the best voodoo woman in the United States. She learned all she knows from a witch doctor in Haiti” Abigail said.

“Why would we want to go and get some stupid magic voodoo?” James inquired.

“Are we actually going to depend on magic to solve this?” Helen demanded incredulously.

“Of course not but if we watch her do it, maybe we can try to replicate it using some type scientific formula. Try to figure out the hallucinogens or plant or drug that she uses to bring the person ‘back to life’ or what part of the brain it effects using a cat scan” Abigail said.

Henry spoke up then. “What have we got to lose? Not to mention that Fabiana will spend the next ten days running another test with rabies and mad cow.”

“I am?” Fabiana asked.

“I thought that we weren’t too confident in mad cow” Benjamin said.

“The team in Asia seems to think so, especially around India. They want us to run the same tests and see if we get the same results” Yumi explained.

“Well it’s an idea. And since there isn’t a cure yet, there could be an interaction between the two viruses. They both attack the central nervous system after all” Henry answered.

Fabiana sighed. “Alright…although I am b-beginning to run out of rats”

Strader sighed and stood up. “Looks like I am going to find this voodoo lady” he stated.

“I’ll go too” Marian said standing up as well.

“What?” Strader demanded.

“You and I both know that I am the most qualified for this job” the woman said crossing her arms.

The group all exchanged worried glances. It was true that the two were civil and able to work together, but they still avoided one another. There was silent resentment from Strader’s side and Marian wasn’t the most sympathetic of all women.

“I am truly sorry for what happened to your son…I tried to prevent it the best I could…but you know that I am the best option” Marian softly

Can’t argue that... Riley thought.

The two military personnel stared at one another for a minute. The tension in the room was high before it slowly diminished.

It was obvious that neither was happy with the situation but they both knew that they were the best shot to reach the voodoo woman.

Finally Strader held out his hand to Marian “Truces?” he asked.

Marian took his hand and shook it, “Truces” she said.

Strader turned to Yumi, “How long before you can get a military helicopter here?”

Yumi looked at them “I will have to check and see. The closest helicopters are most likely aboard carriers…considering the fact that a majority of the bases have been infected... I will get back to you as soon as I can.”

Strader turned to Marian. “Let’s pack” he said as he led the way out of the conference room.