Chapter 3
Saturday, October 29th, 1983.
1720. Thirty hours after outbreak.
US Legion Base Fort Grove
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
Too tense to sit, Ice stood in front of the TV with Hazard and Jax, watching yet another newscast. He held Hazard in front of him, his arms wrapped around the omega’s waist and his chin resting on top of his head. Usually, Hazard would teasingly grumble that he was taking unfair advantage of their height difference when he held him this way. But today he rested quietly against Ice’s chest while they watched the havoc taking place on the TV screen.
Despite the containment teams working ‘round the clock to capture the infected, it was madness out there in Tulsa. The number of infected continued to rise with alarming speed. They attacked citizens, spreading the virus and moving on before the containment units even knew they were there.
The rapid rise was due to the large victim pool available in the city. Some people didn’t learn of the warning in time. Others were trapped in locations such as malls or grocery stores where they were unable to barricade themselves away from the infected. And of course, some citizens foolishly refused to heed the warning to shelter in place and went outside, only to find that the scourge was indeed as deadly as the reports said.
Road blocks were set up on all highways in and out of Tulsa and all arriving and departing flights were cancelled in an attempt to stop the virus from leaving the city. But there were other ways for the infected to slip out. The virus wouldn’t be contained to Tulsa for much longer. They needed to stop it soon before the powers that be began to consider using the ultimate containment method - bombing the city into non-existence.
The news broadcast they were watching cut to commercial just as the door to their barracks opened and Ortiz walked in.
“Boys,” she said, giving them all a nod in greeting.
“News?” Ice asked.
“Yes. They need us in the strategy room now. Colonel Gibbs found someone who says they can stop the spread of the virus.”
Ice sighed with relief. Sitting inactive while a Code Z ripped through the neighboring city had been tough.
Hazard flicked off the TV and the four of them immediately hustled up to HQ. The base grounds were eerily still and largely empty. Most personnel were indoors under lockdown. Armed soldiers patrolled the base grounds in protective suits. And although the siren was now silent, yellow emergency lights flashed a constant reminder that they were on a Code Z alert.
Inside HQ, they walked down unusually quiet halls until they reached strategy room six. Another armed soldier was stationed outside the door. She opened it for them and stepped aside to allow them entry. Everyone seated around the table - Lieutenant Colonel Gibbs, his aide, two other senior ranking officers, and someone Ice didn’t recognize - all looked grim. Their frowns and furrowed brows were appropriate considering the circumstances.
All of the military personnel were armed with side pieces holstered on their hips. Ice approved of the precautions. Even though they were on lockdown and there were no reports of infected in the immediate area, no one should be unarmed right now.
There were two large monitors set into the wall at the front of the room. One was currently blank. The other was on, the screen showing the weathered face of Brigadier General Stone. Stone, an older African American man with short silver hair, was in command of the three special forces units stationed at Fort Grove. He would have final say on how the 448 handled this Code Z.
A young civilian man sat among the military personnel. He wore a non-descript gray sweater over a white and brown striped button-down shirt. His brown hair was styled in big frizzy curls and gold wire rimmed glasses perched on his nose. A big gray toy castle sat on the table in front of him. Ice recognized it from the commercials that played on Saturday mornings. It was Castle Grayskull from the He-Man cartoon.
After saluting Gibbs and Stone, Ice and the other 448 members took their seats at the table. Gibbs started the meeting.
“Team, this is Dr. Burke,” the colonel began. “He has information that will help us stop the Tulsa scourge before it gets worse.”
“How do we know he’s not some crackpot?” Ice asked.
General Stone answered. “His identity has been verified.”
Ortiz rapped her knuckles on the table. “Let’s hear it then.”
“Dr. Burke, the floor is yours,” Colonel Gibbs said.
Dr. Burke cleared his throat and rose from his seat to speak. “I worked for KV Perkins Pharmaceuticals, a company headquartered in Tulsa.”
“Past tense?” Hazard questioned.
“Yes. I was fired yesterday.”
“And what did you do at KV Perkins?” Jax asked.
“I was the lead scientist responsible for developing enhancement supplements to improve athletic performance. What makes our product revolutionary is that unlike steroids, athletes would be able to use it in competitions without being penalized or disqualified. And the supplements wouldn’t show up in drug testing. We were very close to the final product. In fact, we had an earlier version fully developed and ready for market.”
He paused to clear his throat and smooth a hand down the front of his sweater.
“But our CEO Bray Egan wanted to take the drug to the next level for even better results. At his request, we created strength enhancer RX-2. That product wasn’t finalized yet. However, despite the delay, the CEO called a board meeting. He wanted to demonstrate SE RX-2 to the board & shareholders, and push it out to market before the quarter ended. But since I knew the product wasn’t ready, I refused to administer it to humans. That’s why he fired me.”
“And he went ahead with the demonstration without you,” Ortiz surmised.
The curly brown head nodded.
“Exactly. Company profits and the CEO’s own personal bonus were at stake. Mr. Eagen had the test subjects injected with strength enhancer RX-2 yesterday morning. And the results of that demonstration were much much worse than I anticipated.”
“You’re telling me all of that mayhem out there is the result of corporate greed?” Hazard asked in disbelief.
“I’m afraid so, yes.” Dr. Burke answered.
Ice’s lips curled in a sneer. “Fucking pathetic,” he spat in disgust.
Colonel Gibbs spoke next.
“What exactly does SE RX-2 do?”
“As I said, it’s a strength and performance enhancer. It’s original purpose is to make the user stronger, faster, and more aggressive. The injection also heightens awareness and reflexes, blocks pain receptors, and speeds up health and injury recovery. It works beyond anything anyone has previously created.”
Jax leaned forward in his chair to ask the doctor a question. “Does it work on both humans and shifters?”
“Yes. Although I haven’t done many trials with shifter cells so I don’t have a complete workup on the full results for them.”
Gibbs swore. “If the wrong people got their hands on a drug like that, they could use it to create super soldiers.”
Dr. Burke nodded. “That is a possibility. However, KV Perkins doesn’t have any military contracts. So this was strictly for commercial use.”
“Why isn’t SE RX-2 fit for human use yet?” Hazard asked.
Ice wanted to know the answer to that too. Because in that answer would lie the explanation for why the enhancer turned people into face-eating zombies.
Dr. Burke paused before answering. “We discovered that Lyssavirus had qualities that worked especially well to enhance strength and aggression and isolated them to use in our product. Unfortunately, we couldn’t completely eliminate the virus’s usual side effects.”
“Lyssavirus?” Ortiz asked with a frown.
Dr. Burke shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
Ice easily clocked the movement, along with the way the man’s eyes suddenly refused to meet any of theirs, as signs of guilt. He knew he wasn’t going to like whatever the doctor said next.
“Lyssavirus is a genus that includes rabies. That’s what causes the feral rage, hair loss, drooling, and biting in the infected.”
At that bombshell, the room went dead silent for several long, stunned moments. Ice could barely wrap his head around the doctor’s reveal.
“You injected people with rabies ?” The question burst out of Jax, breaking the silence.
“ I didn’t inject -.” Burke stopped and shook his head. “No. I need to accept responsibility for my role in this. I should have never started this project to begin with. The risks were too high.” Squaring his shoulders, he met their eyes again. “I can’t turn back what I did. But I can help put an end to it. When I left, I managed to sneak out files of my work.”
The doctor rested a hand atop the toy castle on the table. Opening the draw bridge, he pulled out three floppy disks from inside. “These disks have most of the files for the SE RX-2 project, including my notes for the antidote I created.”
“Most?” Ortiz asked with a brow raised in question.
“We’re not allowed to make copies of our work or take any proprietary information home. I had to sneak and copy my research whenever I could. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to do so for the last few weeks, which means I don’t have the completed product on these disks. But I can rebuild the project with what I do have and from there I can recreate the antidote.”
“How long will that take?”
“At least two weeks.”
“Shit,” Ortiz cursed. “If we wait that long, this virus can potentially spread throughout the entire country. It’ll be the worse Code Z we’ve ever seen.”
“Yeah. And we won’t be able to keep the fact that these outbreaks aren’t just urban legends a secret from the wider public.”
“The top brass won’t let that happen,” Stone said. “They’ll green light a full-scale elimination of Tulsa before it gets to that point.”
Ice wanted to curse too. Instead, he sat there silently, dread heavy in his gut.
“There is another way to stop it,” Burke said.
“How?” Jax asked with a frown tight on his brow.
“There are vials of the completed antidote in the lab. With them we can reproduce copies to cure the infected and make a vaccine for those not yet infected much faster than if we have to use my research to start from scratch.”
Hazard leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “The lab in the KV Perkins building. That’s no doubt filled with infected.”
Burke nodded.
“How do you know your lab wasn’t destroyed and the antidote along with it in the chaos of the outbreak?” Ice asked.
“The lab isn’t easily accessible. It’s locked at all times with a security code that only myself and a few others have. And the antidote is inside the lab, secured in a locked, climate controlled unit. It should be protected from the infected. But if they were somehow able to get to it, then we’ll have to go with the plan to rebuild the antidote from my research.”
Ortiz sought additional clarification. “And your security codes to the lab and the unit will work?”
“They should. The I.T. department wouldn’t have had time to change my security codes considering this all happened a couple of hours after I was fired.”
Jax shook his head. “We’re working with a lot of shoulds here, Ortiz.”
“We’ve worked with less,” she replied.
Ice had to admit that she was right. And they didn’t have a choice if they wanted to put a stop to this Code Z before a bomb strike was called in on Tulsa.
Colonel Gibbs cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention.
Ice already knew what the colonel was about to say, his muscles tightening in anticipation of the order.
“Ortiz, you and your team will infiltrate the Perkins building and retrieve the antidote. Bring it back to base and our science division will produce copies. Once that’s done, we can put a stop to this scourge.”
“The retrieval needs to happen fast,” Burke said. “Unlike pure rabies - which has no cure once symptoms appear - the antidote can reverse the symptoms of SE RX-2. But there is a time limit. The first people infected have about twenty-four hours remaining before the virus raises their temperature high enough to burn their brain and kill them. And the longer the virus is out there being spread, the more likely it is to mutate into a new variant. If that happens, my antidote may not be effective on the new strain.”
With those warnings, Hazard said what they were all thinking.
“Lots of pressure on this mission, Major.”
“Good thing we work best under pressure,” Ortiz returned with her typical steadfastness.
The mission was a go.
Burke gave them the codes they would need to get into the lab and told them what to look for. Once they had all the information they needed, he gathered his belongings to leave.
“One last thing. Don’t get bit. If you do, you’ll only have about ten to fifteen minutes before the virus starts to take over. Without the antidote, you’ll be a danger to everyone around you and you won’t be coherent enough to finish the mission.”
Ice huffed a short, unamused laugh. “Don’t get bit. Copy that.”
The doctor was escorted out to begin work on re-developing the antidote with the base’s science team just in case, leaving the 448 to go over the mission specs. Colonel Gibbs rose from his seat. He signaled to his aide and they clicked a button on a remote. Details for the mission, including a photo of the Perkins building came up on the previously blank screen.
“The target location is 40 stories high,” Gibbs said. “Assume all levels are compromised. Someone in there had the presence of mind to initiate their building’s lockdown protocol soon after the outbreak began. Obviously, some of those afflicted escaped, but the lockdown prevented a mass exodus of infected into the city. Unfortunately, it sealed them all in for you to have to deal with. And there are hundreds of people who work for KV Perkins.”
He nodded at his aide and they advanced the screen to show blue prints of the building.
“The lab is on the thirty-seventh floor. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to enter at that level. To protect against corporate spying and espionage there are no windows on the highest levels because that’s where Research and Development are located. You’ll have to rappel down to floor twenty-nine - the last floor with windows - enter there, and make your way up to the lab.”
“What about roof access?” Ortiz asked.
“You can’t enter from the roof. There’s no way to tell how many infected will pop out when you open the roof access door. We don’t want to risk your exit location being overrun. If that happens, your helo won’t have clearance to land and pick you up. It’s best to keep the roof clear for ex-fil.”
Ortiz cursed. “Damnit. That adds time and risk to the op but tactically it makes sense.”
“I’m afraid that’s not the only logistical issue you’ll have to deal with. The architect who designed the building went for something a little different than usual with the stairs.”
“How so?” Ice asked.
“Each flight only goes up one floor. You have to cross the length of the floor to get to the steps that go up to the next level. The design is supposed to foster movement and interaction among staff. Unfortunately, that means you won’t have a straight shot up the stairs from floor twenty-nine to thirty-seven. You’ll basically have to zig-zag your way to the top.”
Jax whistled soft and low. “Fight our way through eight floors of super powered, face eating zombies. Sweet Mother Wolf.”
“Don’t forget the three floors we’ll have to pass through to get back to the helo on the roof,” Ice said.
Jax choked on a laugh. “Thanks for pointing that out, Captain.”
“You’re welcome,” Ice dryly replied.
“I don’t know about you all, but this is exactly how I wanted to spend my Halloween weekend,” Hazard joked. “It’ll be like we’re in a real life haunted house.”
Ice huffed a laugh at his mate’s joke. A year ago, he would have been annoyed at the chatter. Now he appreciated the attempt to keep them loose before a dangerous mission.
“Alright, boys. We have all the info we need. Let’s gear up and get after it,” Ortiz said.
The four of them stood. Ice was already mentally shifting into Go mode, his mind clearing, body humming with the urge to take action. But before they could salute the officers and leave, General Stone called their team leader’s name.
“Major Ortiz.”
Ortiz paused to look at him on the monitor. So did everyone else.
“Yes, sir?”
“If anyone on the team is... compromised you will need to eliminate them. Immediately.”
Colonel Gibbs sucked in an audible breath but didn’t speak.
Ortiz clearly didn’t like that order. She crossed her arms over her chest and rocked back on her heels. “The doc said there’s fifteen minutes before the virus takes effect. And once we have the antidote, the infected can be saved.”
“I understand that,” the general agreed with a nod. “But we can’t afford to have one of you turned and attacking the other members of the team. You heard what Burke said. If you’re infected, you won’t have the mental acuity to complete the mission. It is vital that we get this antidote out of ground zero and into the hands of the people who can fix this situation. A compromised member jeopardizes that task. Eliminate anyone bitten.”
Stone’s tone made it clear he expected his order to be followed.
Ice looked to Colonel Gibbs. He appeared as if he wanted to protest, but Brigadier General Stone outranked him.
Ortiz was silent for a long moment before she gave a single, sharp nod. “Understood, General.”
Stone nodded in return. “Good. Don’t fail, 448. Tulsa, and the rest of the country, are counting on you.”