Day Zero

Day 5:

Abigail McGee sat in the conference room in her white lab coat; around her were other members of the World Health Organization (W.H.O) of the Pan American Center.

She had spent the last year working in the research lab, one of ten dressed in white lab coats in a white laboratory with white walls and black counters, exactly the way they are portrayed in the movies. Her job was to figure out the origin of diseases, an etiologist. She had been spending the last two months with her team trying to figure out the origins of a strand of the flu virus.

Today, Abigail and three others were gathered in the conference room. They looked at the PowerPoint displayed on the overhead. The pictures were of a city, the city still looked like a city, just abandoned. It was what Abigail imagined the world would look like after Judgment Day. It was desolate.

“Is that Abuja?” Juana Rubio inquired.

Dr. Beau Kennedy paused in the middle of his speech and nodded.

The typically buzzing city was forsaken, carnage along the streets. The streets themselves were stained a rusty red color, the only sign of life was a ragged looking dog wandering among the trash. “The disease has spread throughout Abuja, Islamabad and Kabul. It’s only a matter of time before it spreads throughout the rest of the world.”

“This looks like a scene from The Walking Dead” Abigail muttered.

Dr. Kennedy and the rest of the room looked at her as if she were a child.

Technically speaking in their eyes she probably was. She had graduated from Harvard when she was 18 and receiving her Ph.D. at only 23. She took the job with W.H.O because after her sister was tested to be HPV positive, Abigail wanted to find or at least help find a cure for her sister.

“All science fiction jokes aside. This disease is spreading at a rapid rate. Reports are coming in from the rest of the world…there is no definite cause” Dr. Kennedy explained.

The room exchanged glances.

“What information does Nigeria provide?” James Cassidy asked. He was 35 years old and in Abigail’s opinion was an asshole. He was cocky and believed that the entire world revolved around him. He’s just more important when it comes to everything. She thought to herself. She didn’t particularly like him due to the fact that he never treated her as a colleague but instead like a child.

“Those centers were infested. The only information that we received from them was that the disease spreads rapidly. However, it is the incubation period…the incubation period lasted for days without much consistency,” Dr. Kennedy replied switching slides. The next slide was a line graph, “The center in Pakistan has a diagram showing the incubation period. A few test subjects were brought in for research…but that is also how the members of W.H.O in the Middle East were killed.”

The line graph was all over the place, looking more like a scribble of mountain ranges than a graph. Abigail squinted her mix matched brown and green eyes trying to make heads or tails of the graph. The numbers didn’t make sense. The purple line ended at 5, the red line ended at 7, the yellow at 2, the blue line at 10 and the red at 8.She exchanged a glance with Juana; the older woman was the head of the department that worked with diseases in Costa Rica.

“What do you need us to do?” Abigail asked.

Henry Suber had been sitting silently at the table his friendly blue eyes unusually hard. Dr. Suber was the veteran. He had been with W.H.O. for over 30 years now. Rumor has it that he was supposed to be where Dr. Kennedy was, the Senior Director, but he turned down the position.“You have chosen us to figure out the origins of this virus” Dr. Suber stated his hand beneath his chin.

“Yes. The four of you will be working with some of the top researchers to figure out where this disease comes from and what causes it” Dr. Kennedy answered.

“The four of you will be transported to a research base in an undisclosed location. There you will meet with a new team.” He was sweating from standing in the light of the projector a small gleam forming on his forehead. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and swiped it over his forehead. “If you choose to do this, you must be ready to leave tonight by midnight, only you.”

Abigail looked around the room. “You mean to tell me that you will have the four of us leave in…” she paused looking at her watch “Ten hours, without our families, and without telling them where we are going?” her question came out as more of a demand.

“Not to mention, we do not know if we are going to ever see them again” Dr. Suber added.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“It’s like Beau said… this disease is spreading rapidly. At this rate; looking at the direction of global trade, and the fact that our military personal is on its way home, this disease will reach the port cities first. From there it will head either east or west depending on which port a ship left from.”

“How would you not notice a person with zombie like qualities on a ship?” Abigail demanded.

She heard James snort next to her at the idea of zombie.

“That’s what it sounds like” she whispered to him bitterly. There were days when she couldn’t stand James.

“This is why Dr. Kennedy shouldn’t hire kids” he muttered back. Abigail found herself resisting the urge to stab him in the hand with the pen that she was currently twirling in her twitchy fingers.

Juana gave her a slight smile. The Guatemalan woman was kind, having children Abigail’s own age. “One of those incubations periods shown on the line graph lasted about ten days. It could be possible that this disease is mistaken for another disease and that people didn’t find out until it’s too late”.

Abigail nodded suddenly feeling like an idiot. She knew that. She looked around the room. Juana had a husband and three children, James had a long term girlfriend, Henry was a husband, father, and grandfather…and she had parents and a nineteen year old younger sister. Granted she and her parents weren’t exactly too close, but Abigail was protective of her sister.

Dr. Suber sighed and removed his wire rimmed glasses from his face. “How long do we have to make the decision?” he inquired.

All eyes landed on Dr. Kennedy, this was like the draft during the Vietnam War. Although the choice to refuse was implied, it was not true. Refusing to assist to save the human population was selfish and she knew it. But how selfish was it to want to keep your family safe with this impending epidemic? If she refused she was reducing the probability to literally save the human race. They needed the best chance available.

The question hung heavily in the air.

“You have until four” Dr. Kennedy answered.

Abigail sat at the table staring at her hands; finally she asked the question that was on everyone’s mind. “What do we tell them?”

“You tell them the truth. Tell them that there is an epidemic coming, to go to the grocery store and stock up for a long period of time.”

For what felt like the thousandth time, she looked around at the others in the room. None of our families would not know where we would be and what we were doing she thought.

“Will we be able to keep in contact with them?” Juana asked.

“Yes.”

Abigail found herself releasing a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. At least we would be able to stay in contact.

“I will leave you all to make your decision, once it is made come tell me individually in my office. I know that this is a lot of ask, but you four are the best shot we at the American W.H.O. have” Dr. Kennedy answered before he walked out of the room.

The rest of the room sat in silence.

Abigail stared at her slender hands, her linked fingers squeezing one another as she rested her forehead on clenched hands and closed her eyes. If she had believed in God, she would have looked like she was praying. She had built a life for herself in D.C. She had friends, she had a life. Her family was up in Boston, living on the Bay and her sister was going to school at Julliard.

Juana was across from her looking pale.

James stared blankly ahead.

Dr. Suber sat motionless with his eyes closed.

Finally Abigail stood up. I can’t stand by and let this plague wipe out humanity; I joined W.H.O to save people, to save my sister. If locking myself away and making a sacrifice to save the world was what it took then it was worth it she thought. She stood up and walked out the door.

Dr. Kennedy’s office was down the hall, as she walked towards the office, she yanked her curly blonde hair back from her face and pushed the thick rimmed black “hipster glasses” as her sister liked to call them further up her nose.

She knocked on the door and waited.

“Come in.”

Abigail stepped through the door and stood awkwardly in Dr. Kennedy’s office.

Dr. Kennedy stood looking out the window that took up an entire wall of his office. His desk was organized with folders of different colors, Abigail knew that each paper within a folder had a tab with the corresponding color on it. One of those annoying desk ornaments, the Newton’s Cradle, knocked back and forth. It bothered the hell out of her.

“Did you know that scientifically speaking a major extinction happens every few million years?” He asked not turning to look at Abigail.

“Yes” she replied.

“It’s about time for a new one…scientifically speaking that is. Do you think this is it?” he asked now turning.

“I-I don’t know.”

Dr. Kennedy regarded her with his gray eyes. “It is safe to assume that you have decided what your answer will be?” he asked.

She nodded and looked up at him, “I’m in.”

He walked around the desk and shook her hand roughly “Thank you” he said.

Abigail was at a loss for words. She had never been chosen to do something important, the most important things that she had ever done were give the valedictorian speeches in high school and Boston University.

“You will meet with the rest of us on top of the landing pad at midnight, get your things together, pack lightly…Go home now and make the necessary arrangements” Dr. Kennedy urged as he dropped her hand lightly.

“Yes sir, I will see you later tonight” she replied as she turned and walked out the door.

As Abigail closed the door behind her, she saw Juana approach. She gave the other woman a questioning look to which Juana replied with a small shake of her head. Juana was not joining.

∆∆∆

Riley Walker sighed as the initial ascent from the London airport ended and the plane finally stopped gaining altitude. He was not one for flying; in fact he was terrified of heights.

“Bloody hell. I’m glad that’s over” he muttered to himself as he leaned back in his chair and released the arm rest that he was gripping tightly. Next to him sat Dr. Benjamin Norwich, his colleague at Oxford.

“You know lad, if you ever want your name to be in the books. You have to get over this fear of flying. You can’t take a train across the ocean” the older man stated in his proud Irish accent.

Riley looked over at the older man and sighed. “Human beings were never met to fly”

“Yet they are able to invent, create, think and destroy. Do you really believe that we would not think of a way to do something that man has always dreamed of doing?” Benjamin inquired.

Riley sighed. He hated it when the old man was right. Benjamin had been one of Riley’s professors when he had been a medical student at Oxford. Riley had become a research assistant under Benjamin and the rest was history. Benjamin had taken Riley under his wing and taught him just about everything he knew.

“Now, where is that bloody flight attendant with the beverages?” Benjamin inquired.

Riley smiled slightly, if it was one thing that Benjamin hated it was missing his whiskey at 5 o clock. The flight left at 5 o clock. Riley knew that the man did not have his evening whiskey yet today, Benjamin also hated inconsistency. Apparently he had been having his whiskey at that exact same time for the past forty five years.

Riley removed his iPad and reread the e-mail that had been sent to him as well as other medical researchers around the world. An epidemic was spreading; some of the top minds were requested to gather in different research laboratories in an attempt to figure out the cure. There would be seven different teams, one for each continent. Riley and Benjamin had originally been placed on the Islamabad team, but before they could reach the laboratory, the disease had spread and the entire staff had become infected. Riley and Benjamin were brought in to work on an actual cure; they were two of the top virologists in the world. Once the origins of the diesease had been determined, the data would be given to them to work on the cure.

The flight attendant finally came around with her tray of beverages. She was a nice enough looking woman, a name tag said Myrtle; she could do with a little less purple eye shadow.

“Whiskey” Benjamin demanded.

“Yes sir, we have Jack Daniels and Canadian Club” Myrtle replied.

Benjamin sighed, and gave Riley a disgusted look. “Jack is fine. Riley anything for you?” he said before Myrtle could ask.

“A gin and tonic please” he said the first drink that came to his head.

“That’ll be fourteen euros, please.” Myrtle said flashing them a smile.

Benjamin held out his Visa without much regard for the woman, who was apparently interested in older men.

Myrtle returned the card to him and Benjamin took it from between her too long red fingernails. “Thank you” Riley managed to squeeze out before the woman continued to the next aisle.

Benjamin stirred his beverage with his finger and looked over at Riley. “What do you think about this plague, lad?”

“This is a load of bullocks and rubbish. Zombies? This whole thing sounds like something a school boy would write about”

“It is interesting you say that. There is a man in America by the name of Max Brooks, his books are entertaining at best. But they speak about a disease that is surprisingly similar to this one. Some type of disease that causes humans to suddenly lose all their senses and attack one another, spreading the disease through bites and the like,” Benjamin muttered taking a drink and wincing slightly. “Bloody hell, you would think that they would serve something better on a plane.”

“But that is fiction and horror, sounds more like rabies than a new plague…there is no way that this is true. Not to mention zombies are a form of reanimated dead. It’s through the voodoo that originated in Haiti.” Riley explained.

“Do you think that these people are dead?’ Benjamin asked.

“I wouldn’t know. I haven’t seen anything yet.”

Benjamin leaned back in his seat “Safe answer, lad.” He said as he cradled his whiskey, despite not really enjoying the beverage, he did seem to be rather protective of it.

Riley couldn’t help but think about the joke that his father used to tell him when he was younger, especially during a futbol or rugby match. His father would take him up in his lap and say- ’Riley, you know the reason why God invented whiskey…it was to keep the Irish from conquering the world.’

Riley sighed and turned his attention back to his iPad. Saying goodbye to his mother and older brother had been hard.

His mother looked up at him with her big brown heartbroken eyes, her husband had died five years ago and now she was about to lose one of her sons. ‘Do what you must’ she whispered. His brother gave him a tight embrace and held him back by his shoulders; he looked into his eyes and answered the unasked question. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of mom.

Riley had given his mother and brother every bit of information that he had about the disease. Telling them to stock up on food, water, and he hated to add weapons. But regardless, it was better safe than sorry. He wasn’t too worried about his brother, his brother worked in the shipyards. University had never been Cameron’s calling, the other boy was better with his hands. A kinesthetic learner as they liked to call it. Cameron got an apprenticeship and became a welder. His mother on the other hand was a kind soul. She was a passive woman who had always been rather frail. Even if it was this zombie nonsense- she avoided conflict and violence like the plague. He wasn’t sure if she could handle a 28 Days Later scenario.

Riley rested his head against the window of the airplane and stared down at the endless blue ocean below him. Benjamin had called it a simple jump across the pond. The idiot he thought to himself, it was at least an 8 hour plane ride to New York. Then they would fly to Washington, DC. Riley had to admit he didn’t even know where that was on a map. But he assumed it was far.

Benjamin nudged him. “Yes?” he asked turning his attention towards him.

“Whatever happened to you and that Evangeline lass?” Benjamin inquired.

Riley couldn’t help but laugh. “We are flying a quarter of the way around the world in an attempt to find a cure for a virus that has the potential to wipe out the human race and you are seriously asking me about a girl?”

“Aye. But I am assuming by your tone that the young lady is no more?”

Riley nodded.

“What a shame. Riley you are twenty years old and very intelligent.”

“I am also one of those freaks who went to university at fourteen.” Riley reminded the older man.

“Exactly, most women would want a man like yourself, lad. Intelligent, in a good position at one of the most prestigious universities-”

“A nerd.”

“Yes a nerd. No wait” Benjamin stuttered.

“I will meet the right girl eventually. Just not yet.” Riley replied simply.

Benjamin sighed and a silence fell between the two men as they drank their beverages. The ice in Riley’s gin and tonic had melted slightly, making his drink a bit too watered down for his liking.

“Well, we have a long day ahead. Get some rest, boy.” Benjamin said as he gulped down the remainder of his whiskey and placed the empty glass on Riley’s tray table before raising his own and settling down in the uncomfortable airplane chair.

Too antsy to sleep, Riley decided to check out the movie selection on the airline. He took the complimentary earphones and plugged them into the armrest before pressing the necessary buttons to find out which movies were playing.

He sighed and eventually settled for a pointless movie by the name of Resident Evil. From what he had read about it in the synopsis, it was ironically enough a zombie movie. He needed a distraction and something to just keep his mind occupied, not to mention if this was a possibility for a disease then he might as well learn something about the plague.

“I can’t believe I’m watching this” he muttered to himself as he yanked the thin airline blanket up over himself and lowered the shade over the window.

∆∆∆

Abigail had just hung up on her sister and was now standing in the bedroom of her studio apartment trying to figure out what to pack. She walked into her closet and yanked the suitcase down from the top shelf.

I don’t even know where the hell I am going. How am I supposed to pack? she asked herself as she glared at the clothes hanging in her closet. She grabbed a little bit of everything. Sweaters, tank tops, dresses, jeans, t-shirts, workout clothes, even something that could be worn in a semi-formal event, just in case. Shoes and undergarments were shoved in to the empty spaces in the suitcase, while her toiletries and accessories were shoved wherever there was room. Thank God I don’t pack like my sister she thought.

She finished at 5:00 p.m. and she still had time before she had to be back at the W.H.O. She wandered to her bookshelf loaded with a combination of books, movies, and the occasional miniature animal statue. Her fingers with chipped green nail polish trailed along the spines of books before she landed on World War Z. Curiosity got the best of her as she flipped through the book. Although she would never admit it, Abigail was a closet zombie geek. According to her logic, out of all the supernatural horrors that Hollywood had created, the zombie seemed to be the most probable. She stopped on the bits that mentioned the zombie epidemic as a disease and what could have caused it. There wasn’t a whole lot mentioned in Brooks’s novel, the book was actually a commentary about the ethics of war, using zombies as the enemy instead of other human beings. The cause of the disease wasn’t ever found, mankind just persevered.

Maybe Dr. Kennedy was right. Maybe this epidemic that was going around was like the Bubonic Plague and the world was up for another major extinction, after all the Black Plague killed one third of the world’s population, could this epidemic kill that many people? But the world never really ended.

When she arrived at the W.H.O Headquarters later that night she was met by James, Henry and Dr. Kennedy. As she predicted, Juana did not join them.

“Where is Juana?” James inquired; he was dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a faded Yale sweatshirt.

“She decided to stay with her family” Dr. Kennedy replied as he led them down the hallway and towards the stairwell. Unlike James he dressed professionally.

Abigail risked a glance at Henry- did he wish he had stayed behind with his family?

As if reading her mind, Henry met her glance with a sad smile.

Dr. Kennedy paused at the top of the stairs. “This helicopter is going to take us to a private airport before we will board a plane to Seattle.”

“Seattle?” Abigail found herself asking.

“There was a report on the news about a woman mauling her husband to death in Portland, Maine. We can’t take any chances of being somewhere where this epidemic strikes first” Dr. Kennedy explained.

“It could just be a freak of nature coincidence too” James added.

“Or an outlier” Abigail found herself saying. Remembering the incident in Florida where a man bit off another man’s face after allegedly snorting bath salts.

“Regardless, there has not been any type of disease reported on the West coast” Dr. Kennedy explained.

“But how much longer it could take us to arrive in Seattle, there could be an outbreak by the time we arrive” Dr. Suber argued.

“Or Portland could be overrun tonight” Dr. Kennedy shot back.

“Does whoever is going to meet us know?” Henry inquired.

“There is someone waiting at J.F.K now. When Doctors Norwich and Walker arrive, they will be placed on the first flight to Seattle” Dr. Kennedy replied.

The door behind Dr. Kennedy was yanked open and Abigail jumped. “The helicopter is waiting” a soldier with the name KINGSTON printed on his uniform stated.

“Right, follow me” Dr. Kennedy said simply.

Abigail picked up her luggage and followed the four men out the door into the cold D.C. night. She handed her luggage to the soldier aboard the helicopter and took the hand offered to her as she climbed in. She sat down on the closest seat, next to the soldier, Kingston. A silence filled the helicopter as the machine lifted itself off the ground.

“Where are we going?” Henry demanded.

“Dover. Then you will be put on a plane and taken to Fairchild” Kingston answered.

“Which center will we be taken to?” James inquired

“The Infectious Disease Research Institute” Dr. Kennedy answered.

Abigail nodded. She had never been to IDRI before. She had to admit that she was curious about what their facilities looked like. There was a silent rivalry between IDRI and the W.H.O. about which center had the better research facility.

The soldier or should she say boy looked over at her with a slight smile. He looked to be about seventeen, a boy who signed up right after high school and was going to turn eighteen that year. “So tell me about yourself” she said to the solider sitting next to her.

He turned to her obviously surprised that she initiated a conversation “My name is Peter Kingston, ma’am. He introduced himself.

Abigail made a face. “Please don’t call me ma’am. I am not much older than you are”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty three” Abigail said with a slight chuckle.

Kingston let out a surprised laugh “And you are supposed to solve the cure to a disease?” he asked.

“You’re what… seventenn? Age can certainly be deceiving. You are willing to die for your country” Abigail challenged.

“I suppose you are right” he replied.