Day Zero

Day 10:

Paul Strader paused mid climb. With one hand he kept his body loosely attached to the rock face that he was climbing, the other dipped into his chalk bag as he coated his taped fingers with the white powder. Climbing was a relatively new hobby for the middle aged outdoorsman. After his son had been killed in the Middle East, his friend Jimmy who he worked with at Outward Bound, was determined to keep the man occupied. The two were currently in Newhalem at the Ross Lake National Recreation Area. He looked down at his friend and sighed. This was the first time that Strader had attempted to climb a 5.9 before and it was kicking his ass.

This particular route was called Cold Beer in the River. Jimmy had told him that the climber who creates the route gets to name it, and looks like whoever created this route had the right idea.

Strader inhaled deeply and yanked himself back onto the wall.

“I feel like I’m freaking climbing the steps to Cirith Ungol!” Strader yelled down at Jimmy who was currently on belay, holding Strader’s life in his hands.

“Shut up and keep climbing, old man!” Jimmy yelled back, Strader’s Lord of the Ring joke obviously going over his head.

Strader sighed as he tried to find a place to put his calloused fingers among the slab like rock. His feet were screaming from being squeezed in his too small climbing shoes, his harness was squeezing him in places that he would not like to have squeezed, and he was pretty sure that he had another blister on his left hand and to top it all off he had to go to the bathroom.

He loved it.

He saw the next move he had to make. He swung his right leg out at a ninety degree angle and caught his toe on a small foothold. Pressing his hips up against the wall he slowly inched his right hand outwards to next hold, a crimp, a hold that was barely large enough to hold onto with the tips of his fingers.

“You got this” Jimmy said from below him.

Strader grunted as he leaned as far out as he could and managed get the tips of his fingers placed on the crimp. Letting out a deep breath he began to shift his weight to his right side, and place more weight on his right hand. He began to reach above his head for the next hold with his left hand when-

“Gah!” he cried out as his fingers gave out and his toes fell from the tiny foot hold that he was standing on.

He felt the sharp yet reassuring ricochet of the dynamic rope catching him as Jimmy caught him on belay thirty feet below.

“Bring me down, I’m done” Strader stated.

“Already?” Jimmy joked.

“Shut up and get your lazy self on this route”

Jimmy chuckled as he began to lower the man down.

Strader sighed and looked over his shoulder at the approach trail that led up to the rock face. He noticed two people walking towards them a man and a woman who looked to be in their late twenties.

“Hey looks like we are going to have company” Strader stated as Jimmy continued to lower him.

“Cool” Jimmy stated.

Strader turned his attention back to the approaching ground and when he felt his feet hit the ground he yanked down on the rope to give himself some slack before turning to Jimmy and saying the correct command, “Off belay.”

“Belay is off” Jimmy replied as he let go of the rope while Strader unclipped himself from the carabineer. Strader turned towards the couple. The man looked sick; he was leaning heavily against his wife as if his left leg was injured.

“Everything alright?” he inquired.

“My husband has gotten ill. He is complaining of slight paralysis, has a fever and is beginning to show a bit of agitation” the woman explained.

To which the man responded “I’m not agitated” Strader had to suppress a smirk, obviously the man would say something ridiculous like that if he was indeed agitated.

“Are you okay to drive?” Strader asked.

“That’s why we came down the trail. We needed someone to drive back to Seattle” the woman said sheepishly. “We were working on the Pacific Crest Trail, southbound and we don’t have a car.”

Strader and Jimmy exchanged glances. “I’m down if you are” Jimmy stated.

Strader nodded. “Let’s go”

“I’m Susan and this is my husband, Drew” the woman introduced.

After packing up the four began the trek back towards the car parked on highway 70. The pace was slow, Drew was not doing well. It looked like he was having trouble walking and his arm was twitching slightly. When he stopped and pointed out a child running through the forest, it became clear to Strader that he was hallucinating. “Do you need help?” he asked when Susan stumbled under her husband’s weight for the umpteenth time.

“No. I’ve got it” she said weakly.

The Drew looked ready to pass out at any moment. When they finally reached the car he leaned against it, trying to catch his breath. His breathing was getting labored.

“Shit. Buddy we need to get going” Strader stated, his Wilderness First Responder skills kicking in.

Drew had fallen to his hands and knees in a coughing fit.

At this point the woman hurried to him “Sweetheart” her hand landed lightly on his back.

Strader also had a hand on the man’s back. The man looked at him and Strader noticed the slight foam of saliva mixed with blood forming around his lips. Drew’s back arched in pain and his eyes were glazed over with signs of a fever.

“Drew” Susan said his name. He let out a yell and shoved her away from him violently.

“Calm down” Jimmy demanded now on the other side.

Drew let out a yell in pain or frustration Strader couldn’t tell.

He lashed out again, this time leaping on top of Jimmy and punching the man in the face. Strader and Susan struggled but managed to yank Drew off of Jimmy. Drew struggled in their grasp violently almost with inhuman strength. His yells echoed against the rock walls.

“Drew- Drew what’s going on?” Susan yelled over the man’s own screams.

Then he went limp.

“The hell?” Strader whispered to himself. He let go of the man, letting him collapse to the ground against his wife and walked towards Jimmy. His friend sported a busted lip and a black eye that was already forming but other than that he seemed fine.“The asshole bit me” he muttered observing a bloody teeth mark on his arm.

“Call an ambulance” Strader stated.

Jimmy nodded and rushed to the car to grab his cell phone.

“He’s not breathing! He’s not breathing!” Susan screamed

Strader turned and rushed towards Susan, she was already beginning to panic.

“In the trunk of the jeep there is a first aid kit. Grab it,” she looked at him blankly “Now!” she jumped to her feet and stumbled towards the vehicle.

Strader began to do chest compressions on Drew… Damn it. What the hell happened? He kept thinking to himself as he continued chest compressions.

Susan returned with the kit. “Do you know CPR?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Take over chest compressions while I grab the mask” he stated as he moved away and she took over.

Strader dug through the kit pulling out gaze and his CPR mask. He turned back to the man who was still not responding. Using the gaze to wipe away the blood on Drew’s lips, Strader said “Stop”

Susan stopped and Strader blew air through the tube on the mask.

Two breaths. Resume chest compressions.

He continued.

Jimmy appeared next to them. “The ambulance is on the way” he said.

“Did you tell them about his condition?” Strader gasped between chest compressions.

“Yes. They’ll get here as soon as possible” Jimmy replied.

Strader moved from chest compressions back to the breathing tube.

Two breaths. It had been a minute already.

“After this round switch with me” he rasped as he continued the compressions.

Susan nodded.

Thirty compressions later Strader switched to the rescue breaths.

Susan took over. Another minute had gone by and there was no response.

Strader looked at his watch, it had been another minute and he switched with Susan.

“Three minutes” Jimmy stated.

Thirty compressions, two rescue breaths.

A fourth minute had passed and Drew was still unresponsive.

“Susan switch with me” Strader commanded after another minute

“It’s been five minutes” Jimmy stated.

“Damn it!” Strader exclaimed.

He switched positions with Susan once again.

Strader pumped Drew’s chest again and again and again. Only stopping to switch positions with Susan and as soon as he had recovered switching back. Too soon Jimmy came up to them and put a hand on the panting Strader’s shoulder.

“It’s been thirty minutes. You remember the recertification class, he’s not coming back” Jimmy explained.

“No! I am not giving up on him” Susan rasped out as she continued chest compressions.

Strader and Jimmy exchanged sympathetic glances but didn’t bother to stop the woman “He just made it back from Pakistan. I am not letting him die” she gasped.When Susan leaned forward to do the rescue breaths, Drew’s eyes snapped open.

“Drew?” she asked. “Oh Drew” she sobbed as she yanked him into her arms.

Drew let out a raspy yell before grabbing Susan and tearing at her throat with his teeth.

“Holy shit!” Jimmy screamed as he and Strader tried to wrestle a screaming Susan from her husband’s grasp.

Drew continued to gnaw on Susan as she screamed and struggled violently to get away from the man. It wasn’t until she went limp that Jimmy and Strader jumped to their feet and scrambled away from the man. Drew was now doing the unthinkable; he was beginning to devour his wife. Blood was pouring from the jugular artery that he had just ripped open.

“We need to call someone” Jimmy stated.

“We need to get out of here” Strader replied.

Drew then looked up at them, the way that a lion does when it is devouring its prey when it notices another potential and easy target. He jumped to his feet and began running towards Strader and Jimmy.

“Get in the car now!” Strader screamed.

The two men ran to the jeep and climbed in. Jimmy shoved the keys into the ignition and the jeep revved to a start.

“Jimmy!” Strader screamed as Drew latched himself to the driver side door and began to claw at Jimmy through the open window.

Strader grabbed the knife from his pocket and unclipped his seatbelt before driving the knife into Drew in every possible place that he could reach. Drew screamed staggering back from the window as Strader frantically rolled up the windows. As if he wasn’t even affected by the stab wounds, Drew came charging back towards the car and began to claw and pound against the glass.

A crack appeared on the glass of the window.

“Go!” Strader yelled.

Jimmy groaned and Strader noticed all the claw marks on Jimmy’s body including the chunk of flesh that had been torn from his shoulder.

“Damn it!” Strader cried out. He shook his friend and yelled “We need to switch places. I’m going to climb over, you slide under” he demanded.

“Jimmy?” he repeated his friend’s name.

Jimmy groaned again before forcing himself to slide over the armrest and half-way into the passenger side seat.

Strader climbed over the man and hit the gas. The car sped away fromDrew. He saw the man chase after the car for a moment before coming to a stop.

“Hold on” Strader demanded as he pulled the car into a sharp U-turn.

He sped towards Drew until he hit what used to be a man.

Drew’s body crashed into the windshield, his body making a crack in the glass before hitting the ground behind them.

Strader yanked the jeep into reverse and drove over Drew again, hitting the cannibal as if he was a speed bump.

Once he drove over the man he climbed out of the car to assess the damage. Drew was a pile of blood and broken bones. His skull was crushed.

At that moment the sound of sirens blared up the mountain and Strader saw the ambulance pull up to the side of the road. A paramedic climbed out of the ambulance walking towards him. Strader remembered from his WFR course that most paramedics and First Responders walked towards a causality event in order to assess the situation. He recited the rhyme in his head.

Who’s number one, I’m number one. Number two what happened to you. Number three don’t get any on me. Number four are there any more. Five dead or alive.

When he hit number three he saw the paramedic yank latex gloves on his hands. The paramedic stopped to look at the dead Drew for a moment before walking to the partially devoured body of Susan. “What happened?” he demanded.

Strader opened the door and draping Jimmy’s arm around his shoulders half dragged the man out of the car. “We were attacked by the man. I hit him with my car out of self-defense” Strader explained as he brought Jimmy towards him.

“Explain the situation to me” the paramedic said calmly.

As a former Wilderness EMT, Strader recited the event.

“That’s a hell of a story” the paramedic replied as he was taking Jimmy’s blood pressure and testing for his responsiveness, beside him the other paramedic was filling out a form with all of the results that the first paramedic called out to him.

“We need to get him to the hospital” he said.

“I’ll follow in my vehicle so that I can get him home” Strader replied.

The paramedic nodded as his companion turned and jogged to grab a backboard. They placed Jimmy on the board before strapping him down and carrying him to the ambulance. Strader climbed into Jimmy’s damaged car before following the ambulance down the mountain.

∆∆∆

Riley was flipping channels aimlessly in the break room; it wasn’t until he found the local news channel that he stopped.

“In other news, a man and woman were attack today off of Highway 70. Eye witness said that he and the deceased woman performed CPR on the man for thirty minutes before the man awoke and attacked the woman. This is a grim reminder of the attack that happened in Florida when Rudy Eugene ate another man’s face in 2012. The man who was attacked is in the hospital being treated for wounds. The woman was partially devoured and died before paramedics arrived on the scene.”

“Oh no” he muttered before quickly leaving the couch and all but running to the lab where Abigail, Dr. Suber, and James were beginning to test different viruses.

“It’s spreading. There was a report on the local news about a man partially devouring his wife and attacking two other men” Riley quickly said.

“What?” Abigail demanded as she walked away from her examination and towards him.

“The disease has spread. It’s like Dr. Suber predicted. The disease has made it to the West Coast” Riley explained.

“It could be another outlier” James stated.

’I don’t think so” Abigail replied as she removed her goggles and lab coat before heading towards the door. “Remember what Henry said about global trade and the likes?”

The three of them made their way toward another laboratory where Yumi and Henry Suber were in the midst of a discussion on the idea of whether this disease could be passed along by animals.

“There are plenty of creatures that could be carriers of some sort of strain- For example there is a parasite called toxoplasmosa gondii. The bug will infect the rat, but it can only breed in the intestines of a cat. The rat is literally brainwashed into walking to the cat. And half the human population is already infected. Changes in personality are a common symptom. It could be a mutation” Henry explained. He looked over and noticed Riley, James and Abigail all standing together.

“It’s spreading” Riley stated.

“What do you mean?” Yumi asked.

“There was a reported attack up in the Ross Lake National Wildlife or whatever. The man ate his wife before attacking two other men on the scene” Riley explained.

“What about the man who was attacked?” Henry inquired.

“We don’t know” Abigail replied.

“Get the rest of the team and have them enter the conference room right away” Yumi demanded.

Abigail nodded before running off to find the rest of the team.

“What was this you were saying about it being passed through certain animals?” Riley inquired.

“Well you heard about the toxoplasmosa gondii. But there are other diseases as well. Come let’s go to the meeting room and we will discuss this further” Henry answered. Riley heard Yumi let out an exasperated sigh before following the two men towards the meeting room.

On the way to the meeting room they met Capitan Marian. “Come with us. You have witnessed this disease first hand, we want you to tell us if these symptoms caused by animals can lead to some of these other symptoms” Yumi stated.

“Yes, ma’am” Marian said.

The three scientists and one military woman continued to walk down the hallway until they reached the meeting room. Henry stood at the front of the room with a blue dry erase marker in hand as he stared at the whiteboard.

Riley couldn’t help but chuckle, he had never used this method when he and Benjamin worked together. The dry erase board and marker seemed prehistoric to him. Benjamin seemed to agree as he looked at the whiteboard.

He waited for the rest of the members of the research team to enter the room. Abigail sat next to Riley with a smile, which Riley found himself returning.

“You already know about the toxoplasmosa gondii” Henry trailed off as he wrote the name of the disease and how it was spread.

“Bugs to rats to the intestines of a cat?” Marian demanded.

Henry didn’t look up but instead continued writing on the board.

“Well the change in personality certainly matches” Marian muttered.

“Excellent! Now…onto the next one” Henry stated as he began to scribble quickly on the white board.

Riley heard the man muttering words to himself, as well as phonetically sounding and spelling words out loud to himself.When he stepped away from the board the word Neurotoxins was spelled incorrectly on the board. As well as the words “The Serpent and the Rainbow” which was underlined as it was obviously a book. The word serpent was also spelled wrong. Instead of the second ‘e’ there was an ‘a’.

“That’s a film isn’t it?” Riley inquired.

“I loved that movie” Abigail exclaimed. Riley and the entire room turned to look at the young woman.

She cleared her throat “Anyways” she said softly as she cast her eyes downwards, Riley smiled and lightly patted her on the shoulder.

“It is actually a record written by a member of the National Geographic Society, Wade Davis… and his experiences in Haiti where he was looking for documented cases of what are called zombie” Abigail explained.

“You can’t be serious” Marian explained.

“I am” Dr. Suber said agreeing with Abigail.

“The Serpent and the Rainbow, lovely book. Quite riveting” Benjamin stated.

“You’ve heard of it?” Henry inquired.

“Aye. Wade is a fine fellow” Benjamin replied.

“You two cannot be serious about this zombie nonsense” Marian stated.

Riley turned to the two men, who were currently bonding over their experiences with Wade Davis.

“Are you telling me that these people have the zombie virus?” Hunter asked.

“Of course not, that is just a load of ballocks. What we are thinking lad, is that this could be the effects of neurotoxin. Similar to those used in Haiti…what can happen is a person is poisoned and pronounced dead, an uncommon occurrence now a days. And an incompetent doctor could mistake the victim as dead. A 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” Benjamin explained.

“This is bloody insane” Riley stated. He turned to see Abigail twirling a strand of her silver blonde hair around a finger. Her lovely mutation of one green and one brown eye were intently at the white board.

Henry wrote on the board once again Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, once again misspelled.

“Mad cow?” Riley found himself demanding as he narrowed his blue eyes.

“Well lad, the outbreak did kill over 150 people in the UK” Benjamin explained.

Marian sighed before looking at the board. “What are the symptoms?”

Henry smiled brightly and began to write the symptoms on the board

“Changes in gait, hallucinations, lack of coordination, seizures, rapidly developing dementia” Henry explained as he wrote the words on the board.

Once again, multiple words were spelled wrong.

Riley also noticed the way that Marian’s eyes widened slightly.

“Hallucinations, seizures, dementia, and lack of coordination” she said

Henry nodded and placed a check mark by the disease.

“B-b-but this disease could stay dormant for up to a d-decade” stuttered Fabiana.

“There hasn’t been an outbreak in fifteen years” James piped up.

“That gives it plenty of time to have mutated. Not to mention the cure was never found” Hunter said.

“Cows…h-haven’t b-been allowed to eat animal protein since then” her cheeks burning red as all attention was focused on her.

“Doesn’t mean people haven’t switched back to the animal protein after all these years, maybe they just think that it’s just blown over… like polio or something” James stated.

“What else do you have, Doctor?” Hunter inquired. Riley smiled; it was good to know that someone other than Abigail and himself were enthralled by these possibilities.

Neurogenesis was written on the white board.

“Now that is preposterous” Benjamin stated.

“Think about it this way. We have the technology to essentially regenerate dead cells. Reanimation research is moving rapidly” Henry explained.

“How does he know about all of these?” Riley asked Abigail.

“He reads…a lot” Abigail replied.

“That’s it?” he asked.

Abigail nodded in response “And he is just a genius.”

“It’s amazing he can make such great decisions and find so many amazing cures when he uses such an ancient method as writing on a whiteboard” Riley said.

“He has been doing that for years. That’s how it works, he says that it allows him to see things, find flows, cross out, and circle and everything. It’s just what he and the rest of us from our team are used to” Abigail said.

“You would think that with all the reading he does, his spelling wouldn’t be so bloody awful” he whispered to her. Abigail covered her mouth to hide her laughter.

“This potential to keep a dead body in a suspended state of animation could cause anything” Dr. Kennedy said finally speaking up.

“This could be used as a biological weapon” Marian whispered.

“If zombies weren’t ridiculous enough, now we are taking about a sci-fi possibility” James scoffed.

“You have no idea the types of secrets the military keeps from you, the super solider has always been an experiment” Marian said narrowing her eyes at James. She is obviously not used to being spoken to in such a disrespectful way Riley thought.

An awkward silence filled the room.

She’s right Riley thought to himself. There are all types of secret government and military bases. The nuclear blast at Hiroshima was kept a secret, while the Chinese are still saying that the Tiananmen Square event never happened. How hard could it be to keep a laboratory a secret?

Henry cleared his throat. “There is a final possibility”

Riley snapped his gaze towards Henry.

Nanobots.

“Absolutely not” Marian stated.

“I agree. There is no way” Hunter said. Riley shook his head and noticed that Abigail was doing the same.

“All of our men have to do a physical before they enter the ship. There would be some type of indication of a wound from a nanobot inserted. Especially in the central nervous system” Marian said.

To Riley’s surprise, Dr. Suber crossed out the idea.

The members of the North American team all sat together in silence for a moment before Henry Suber spoke. “Yumi what are the other research centers saying?”

Yumi looked up from her notes. “The South American team believes that this could be some form or rabies or a similar virus that is spread by mammals.

“Anything else?”

“The team in Europe is testing to see if there is any possibility that it is a type of radiation” Yumi explained.

“So they are essentially where we are?” Riley asked.

“Yes. They are just as puzzled as we all are, but determined to figure something out.”