Hyper

[Location: Decontamination Depot t3rm1nu5 - Hydrogen Filtering System Control Room]

“Boss… you there?”

Charlie looked from his computer monitor, grabbed his handheld and keyed the mic. “Yeah. What do ya want?” Then his eyes snapped back to the screen.

Roy’s voice was garbled through the handheld speaker. “You need to take a look at somethin’.”

Charlie huffed at Roy’s vague request. “I’m entering last month’s inventory right now.” He pecked at the keyboard and snapped impatiently. “I’m kinda busy.” He hated it when people tried to distract him while he was deeply involved in a task.

Roy keyed his mic again, but did not reply. After a few seconds he babbled a few incoherent words and released the mic button.

Charlie sat erect as the irritation was replaced by confusion and concern. He keyed his mic again and asked, “Roy? You okay? You hurt?”

Roy did not respond. Charlie keyed the mic again. “Roy? Where are you?”

After a few more seconds of silence, he closed his inventory spread sheet and tapped the keys to bring up D.D.315’s personnel positioning system.

A facility floor plan popped onto the screen and displayed three green dots. One dot identified Linda’s location and showed that she was currently in their living quarters; he was happy to see she was safe and sound. A second green dot represented himself and indicated he was in the hydrogen filtering system control room. The third dot represented Roy and showed that he was near the high power lab.

Charlie frantically grabbed his handheld and keyed the mic. “Roy, just hang on. I’ll be there in a second.”

As he stood from his desk chair, he heard Roy provide a faint response. “Yeah, get over here.”

Charlie bolted through the control room door that led out to the plant, his mind racing as to what might have happened to Roy. He pulled his ear muffs into place and slipped on his safety glasses as he followed the metal grate that headed toward the high power lab.

Working on industrial equipment can be a dangerous job. About a month ago, Charlie had read an email from Central to remind employees to properly lock-out and tag-out all equipment before working on it. Recently, a mechanic on another depot had forgotten to release the back pressure on a liquid hydrogen byproduct pipe before he tried to remove the relief valve. The liquid was under such high pressure that, when the mounting bolts were loosened, a thin stream of the solution cut through the gasket. Water-Jet Technology had been used in industry for many years to cut metal into smooth and intricate parts. The stream of liquid by-product had acted like a crude form of a water-jet, and severed the mechanic at his waist.

Charlie was in a dead run heading for the high power lab, his large work boots clanking on the metal grate with every step. His arms churned and his lungs sucked in volumes of moist plant air mixed with hydrogen soot. Adrenaline flowed and his heart raced as he turned the corner, went through a doorway, and headed down the hall that led to the lab.

Thoughts continued to race through his mind as to what might have happened to the chief mechanic. It might be that Roy had lost a body part by working too close to a pinch point and was bleeding out. Or maybe he had been the recipient of third degree burns from a ruptured steam pipe and was lying on the floor writhing in pain.

As Charlie turned the corner he saw Roy sitting on the ground next to the lab door, his hands covering his face. A small puddle of pink and yellow vomit lay on the floor next to him.

Charlie was winded but pushed out the words, “What’s wrong? Are you hurt? What happened?” Charlie frantically inspected Roy trying to find evidence of an injury while he continued to suck in the moist facility air to replenish his oxygen.

Roy lifted his head from his hands and gave Charlie a grave look. “That Russian guy…he’s dead.” He nodded toward the door. “Take a look.” Then he lowered his head back into his hands.

Charlie slowly raised himself from his crouched position next to Roy and lifted the muffs from his ears. His heart continued to beat wildly and he used the back of his hand to wipe some sweat from his forehead. He slowly walked to the door and paused for a second, wondering what type of tragedy he was about to see before he turned the door-knob.

There was a smell. A familiar smell—one that brought him back to the execution room of Tuscaloosa State Penitentiary. Burned human flesh. As he walked through the doorway he covered his mouth and nose with his hand to try and dissipate some of the stench, but it provided little help.

Across the room, behind a row of work benches, Charlie could see the repulsor that Jozef was to repair. It had been mounted on one of the test stands. Doing so, provided access to replace parts from any angle as well as a plug to connect main power. Parts from the repulsor had been removed and placed onto a work bench alongside some hand tools and a multi-meter.

As Charlie walked closer to the repulsor, he noticed that Jozef’s body was crouched on the floor next to it with his face toward the ground. His right arm, from his hand to his elbow, was lodged between the replusor’s positive and negative D.C. bus and was severely burned. A slight vapor of smoke could be seen rising from the skin of the mangled arm. Most of the fingers on his hand had vaporized and only small nubs remained. It also appeared that some parts of his clothing had ignited since portions of the dead man’s shirt showed burn marks. Charlie gasped and closed his eyes for a second. He hoped what he was seeing was just some crazy dream, but when he opened his eyes again the terrible sight was still in front of him.

The test stands circuit breaker had tripped and removed power from the repulsor, but Charlie reached over and opened the main circuit breaker just to be on the safe side. Then he walked to Jozef’s body, bent down, and did a closer inspection.

No movement. No moaning with pain. No breathing.

Charlie’s face winced as he whispered, “That God-awful smell…”

Thoughts of his days as a member of the Deadly Three ran through his mind. Charlie loved working at the prison while he was performing duties as a guard but had been less enthusiastic about being a member of The Deadly Three. But he realized that no job was perfect and one had to take the good with the bad. If it hadn’t been for the worldwide epidemic, he probably would have stayed at the prison until he retired.

Charlie gagged a little and covered his mouth to prevent himself from vomiting. The smell of burned human flesh had a way of soaking into the pores of one’s mouth and nose and would remain there for a long period of time.

He took his flashlight from its place on his hip and slightly nudged Jozef’s body. Still nothing. It appeared that Roy was correct and Jozef was indeed dead.

Charlie stood up and rubbed his nose and mouth trying to evict some of the nasty taste that had set up residence. He slid his flashlight back into its holder and tried to piece together what had happened.

Roy was standing in the door-way. “I met him about forty-five minutes ago. He was pushing the repulsor on that cart over there. I brought him back here, went over some of the test stand controls with him, but he said he knew what he was doin’. Looks like the moron forgot to turn the power off.” He hacked up some phlegm and shot it onto the floor.

Charlie looked at Roy and then back at Jozef’s smoldering body. He thought for a second in silence.

It’s plausible. Guy starts to repair a repulsor, he’s not completely familiar with the test stand and forgets to turn off the power. Could happen.

When Charlie was a kid, he heard a guy who cut grass at the cemetery lost a hand in a mower accident. The guy had been cutting grass for forty years and lost respect for the blade one day. A clump of wet grass got stuck on the side of the mower and he reached down and tried to get it off. The next thing he knew his hand was gone. The same thing happened to depot mechanics all the time. They became too familiar with a task and forgot how dangerous it really was.

Charlie looked at the scene in front of him again, trying to take it all in.

No evidence of foul play. It doesn’t appear that a fight or argument occurred. Story makes sense. Looks pretty much like a work place accident.

He pulled his flashlight from his hip once more. He crouched next to Jozef’s corpse and used the light to push the dead man’s head back. He wanted to look at Jozef’s face and see if it might supply any more clues as to what happened.

Jozef’s eyes were still open and the white portions had turned black. There were small brown scorch marks across his face where the electricity had arced and burned the skin. His mouth was closed but a dark brown foamy liquid seeped from between his lips and ran down his chin. Charlie inspected the mysterious liquid a little closer. Of the twenty-seven men he had executed, he had never seen one of them discharge a substance like this. Charlie moved his flashlight and Jozef’s head fell back toward its original position. He stood up and put his flashlight back in place. He had seen some pretty horrific sights in the execution chamber at Tuscallosa, and this was just as bad.

Charlie walked toward Roy. “I bet you’re right. Dumb-ass forgot to remove power before he stuck his hand in there. Huh—wasn’t as familiar with our test stand as he thought.”

Roy took a red and blue polka dotted handkerchief from the pocket of his coveralls and wiped some vomit from his chin. “What do we do now?”

The two turned, ready to walk toward the hallway as Charlie said, “What’da we do? Nothing yet. We’ll just—” Charlie froze and furled his brow as something caught his eye. He turned around, stepped closer to Jozef’s body and pointed. “Check this out.”

Roy stood motionless, still holding his handkerchief in front of his mouth, then turned and walked next to Charlie.

Charlie glanced at Roy and then back toward the dead body in front of him. “His side arm is missing.” Jozef was wearing a black military grade duty belt around his waist with a black polymer holster resting on his right hip. Charlie crouched down and tapped the edge of the empty holster. “You seen it around?”

Roy’s eyes darted back and forth across the lab. “No…hang on.” He pushed the handkerchief into his pocket and took a quick walk around the room. “Nope. I got nothin’.”

“If he had stored it on their ship,” Charlie stood up, inhaled deeply, then exhaled and put his hands on his hips, “I don’t think he’d still be wearing his duty belt and holster.” He paused for a second in deep thought as he tried to solve the riddle in front of him. “This doesn’t make sense. He would’a stored the whole thing.”

“I agree.” Roy nodded. “Why would he walk around with an empty holster?”

“I don’t want anybody in here until we get some pictures of what happened.” Charlie gestured toward the doorway as the two began to walk out of the lab and into the hallway. He pulled a ring of keys from his pocket and began to lock the door. “Central is gonna want documentation for the insurance company. You take a walk and get the e-pad so we can start filling out the forms. When you get back I’ll use my handheld to shoot some video of the scene.”

“Kay.” Roy nodded. “Back in a second.”

Charlie stopped him as he started to walk away. “Don’t tell anybody about this just yet… got it?”

“Got it.” Roy turned and began to leave. “Also, I think I’m gonna stop by the infirmary and grab a dose of Pepto.”

Charlie pulled his handheld from his breast pocket and dialed Linda using its secured line. It rang twice before she answered. “Hi, hun. What’s up?”

Charlie wanted to check on her to make sure she was okay, but didn’t want to scare her with any information about what had just happened. “Ahh…not much. Just checkin in…wonderin’ what you wanted to do tonight.”

Linda’s enthusiastic voice came through the handheld speaker. “I don’t know. Watch a movie, play a board game—hey, how about I pull up a cozy campfire on the entertainment center and we sit in front of it and do some passionate necking? We won’t have to worry about the bugs.” She chuckled at her own joke.

Charlie was silent for a second. Linda was in a good mood and he didn’t want to spoil it. “I vote for the campfire.”

“I thought you would. See you about seventeen-thirty?”

“Sounds good. Love ya.”

Linda’s voice smiled through the speaker as she spoke. “I love you more.”

Charlie disconnected the call just as Roy returned and handed him the e-pad. Loving thoughts of his wife and their date that night stepped aside and were replaced by documentation procedures and a dead body in his high power lab.

Roy spoke in a low tone. “So…ya think somebody took his side arm?”

Charlie arched his brow and shrugged. “Who knows? I wouldn’t put it past any of the guys from the Elysian Fields. I can’t say I really trust any of ’em.”

“What are we gonna do?”

Charlie glanced at Roy and then back to the e-pad. “Do? We’re gonna do what protocol requires us to do and document everything.”

Charlie started to page through the e-pad looking for the corporate accident forms. Without looking up, he said, “I want you to take a walk to the security room and pull up the video from the last couple hours. I’d like to verify what happened here and we can submit a copy with the rest of this stuff.” He looked at Roy. “Also…check and see if he walked in here with an empty holster.”

Roy sighed heavily. “I can do it, but I gotta say, watchin’ a guy gettin’ fried is gonna be pretty disgusting.”

Charlie found the proper form and tapped the screen. “If you’re not up to it, just find the spot on the video file and I can look at it myself. Get going. I want to get this bullshit filled out and some video of the scene. Then I want to move this guy to one of the storage warehouses. He already stinks and it’s just gonna get worse.”

Even with all of the tasks at hand, acid swirled in Charlie’s stomach as he thought about the empty holster on Jozef’s hip and if what he saw in front of him really was an accident.