Day 10:
Paul Strader pauses mid climb. With one hand he keeps his body loosely attached to the rock face that he is climbing, the other dips into his chalk bag as he coats his fingers with the white powder. Climbing is 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, became determined to keep the man occupied. The two are currently in Interstate State Park, just an hour from Minneapolis, Strader looks down at his friend and sighs.
This is the first time that Strader had attempted to climb a 5.8 route before and it is kicking his ass. This particular route is called Old Man, and Strader is beginning to feel like an old man as he struggles to climb to the top of the route.
He feels around the rock face for a hold that he hopes he can wrap his hand around.
"I feel like I'm climbing the steps to Cirith Ungol!" Strader yells down at Jimmy who is currently on belay, holding Strader's life in his hands.
"Shut up and keep climbing, old man!" Jimmy laughs back, Strader's Lord of the Ring joke obviously going over his head.
Strader's feet are screaming from being squeezed in what he believes are his too small climbing shoes, his harness is squeezing him in places that he would not like to have squeezed, and he is pretty sure that he has another blister on his left hand. To top it all off he has to pee.
He loves it.
He sees the next move he has to make. Swinging his right leg out at a ninety degree angle he catches his toe on a small foothold. Pressing his hips up against the wall, he slowly inches his right hand outwards to next hold, one that is barely large enough to hold onto with the tips of his fingers. A crimp if he recalls.
"You've got this" Jimmy cheers from below him.
Strader grunts as he leans as far out as he can and manages to get the tips of his fingers on the crimp. Letting out a deep breath he begins to shift his weight to his right side, and place more weight on the tips of his fingers, feeling the rock dig into them. He slithers his hand above his head for the next hold with his left hand when-
He screams as his fingers give out and his toes fall from the tiny foot hold that he is standing on.
He feels the sharp yet reassuring ricochet of the rope catching him.
"Bring me down, I'm done" Strader gasps, regardless of how many times Jimmy has caught him, he still feels his heart racing and his hands shaking. Either that of fatigue, he isn't quite sure which.
"Already?" Jimmy jokes.
"Shut up."
Jimmy laughs as he begins to lower the man down.
As he is being lowered to the ground, he looks over his shoulder at the approach trail that leads up to the rock face. He notices two people walking towards them, a man and a woman who look to be in their late twenties.
"Hey looks like we are going to have company" Strader says as Jimmy lowers him to the ground.
"We can go to another route close by."
Strader turns his attention to the knot he has tied for protection. fatigue has turned the fairly simple knot into a struggle to untie.
Jimmy removes the caribiener from his harness, he turns his attention towards the couple as he begins to coil the rope around his shoulders. "We're all done here, the wall is all yours."
The woman smiles and drops the bag that is containing their rope on the ground.
Her climbing partner nods and shrugs off his backpack. Strader notices the wince that crosses the young man's features. The older man can feel his Wilderness First Responder training kick in as he notices blood beginning to pool on the right arm of the man's shirt.
"What happened?" Strader asks curiously.
"Something bit me a couple of days ago" the man he rolls up the sleeve to examine the mark.
Jimmy has finished placing the rope in the bag and joins the small circle "That's the strangest bite I've ever seen."
The man is beginning to pale. "I don't know what it was, but something bit me. It was something big, but I couldn't see it in the dark."
Strader and Jimmy exchange glances "Excuse me?"
"It happened a few days ago, when we were on vacation in Boston. We went to the Urgent Care, they cleaned it out, gave him some antibiotics. They said it almost looked like a human bite" the woman explains.
Strader cranes his neck trying to get a better look at the wound.
"It looks pretty fresh still." Jimmy says also inspecting the wound.
"It must've reopened it when I dropped my bag."
"I have some gauze and bandages in my pack, would you like us to help you clean it up and bandage it?" Strader asks.
The man turns to the woman. "Better safe than sorry." she says with a shrug.
Strader turns to grab his backpack. The man plops down heavily before him. As he is searching through his first aid kit, he mentally kicks himself for forgetting his plastic gloves. Looking back at his patient, he decides that the man is able to clean his own wounds.
"I'm going to give you an alcohol swab, can you wipe it down yourself?"
The man takes the swab. He gingerly touches his arm before releasing a hiss of pain.
"Do you want me to do it?" the woman asks quickly kneeling beside her partner.
"What's your name, man?" Jimmy asks, he is standing a respectable distance from the group. He has immediately take up the role of what Drew likes to call, the distractor, the one who will talk to the patient and keep them calm enough for treatment to be done.
"Drew." he manages to choke out.
"I'm his wife, Susan. Here Drew, give me the swab and let me help you out."
Drew lifts a shaking hand and passes the alcohol swab to his wife.
Strader moves a few feet back out the the way.
The moment Susan presses the swab back down on Drew's arm, he releases another scream of pain and shoves Susan away hard enough for her to fall to the ground.
"Woah dude, take it easy. Just a little bit of a sting, nothing to get worked up about." Jimmy explains as he moves into action and gets closer to the group. He looks over at Susan, "Are you alright?"
Susan moves to a sitting position, shock written on her face.
"Oh god. Susan I am so sorry." Drew exclaims finally processing his actions.
"He's loosing a lot of color." Jimmy notes.
Strader turns his attention back to the wounded man.
"Drew, how are you feeling buddy?"
"I'm just. Tired." he manages to slur.
"Drew, babe. Hey." Susan leans forward again, brushing the man's hair from his face.
"He's burning up."
"We need to get him out of here and to a doctor." Jimmy says calmly.
Strader nods. "Drew, do you think you can walk to the Trailhead?"
Drew manages a lolling nod.
Grabbing their gear, the four trek back to the Trailhead. The pace is slow, Drew walking lamely.
"We can stop and take a break." Jimmy says as Drew stumbles again.
Drew shakes his head. "My arm is burning. I j-just want to go." he wheezes.
"We should stop. You sound like you're having trouble breathing." Strader answers.
"No!" Drew screams with new found energy, swinging his fists wildly in Strader's direction.
"Drew!" Susan screams.
This time there is no look of remorse or shock to his reaction. Drew shoves himself weakly off the tree and continues his stumbling gait.
Strader turns his attention to Susan. "Run ahead and get your car started, pull up as close as you can to the trailhead."
Susan hesitates.
"Go." Jimmy urges.
Susan quickly follows the order and runs ahead.
"Drew, do you want to take a break, buddy?" Strader asks again.
"No!" he screams. "Where's my wife?"
"She ran ahead to get the car started. We are almost there."
Susan's Toyota Rav4 is parked right next to the trailhead, already running. She jumps out of the driver side and rushes to help Drew. He falls to the ground, Strader and Jimmy supporting each arm.
"Drew" Susan says his name.
Drew releases a howl.
He lashes out again, struggling against Jimmy and Strader. He yanks an arm out of Strader's grasp and uses his momentum to leap on top of Jimmy. Strader grabs the other man's shoulders and with Susan's help manage to shove the other man off of Jimmy.
Drew stumbles backwards and fall to the ground unconscious.
"The hell?" Strader whispers to himself. His friend is sporting a busted lip and a black eye that is already forming. "The he bit me" he mutters observing teeth marks on his arm.
Strader winces at the bloody mark.
"Call an ambulance."
Jimmy struggles to his feet and runs to Strader's truck where his cell phone is.
"He's not breathing! He's not breathing!" Susan screams
Strader rushes to Susan.
"In the trunk of the truck there is a first aid kit. Grab it." she looks at him blankly "Now!"
Strader begins to do chest compressions on Drew… Damn it. What the hell happened?
Susan returns with the kit. "Do you know CPR?" he asks.
She shakes her head.
How does she not know CPR?
"In the first aid kit there is a CPR mask." he manages to gasp between chest compressions.
Susan digs through the kit throwing out bandaids, gauze, medical tape, and finally finds the CPR mask. "Wipe the blood from his face, and put the mask on him. Narrow side on top. Strader is breathing fast, he'd forgotten how hard CPR really is.
Susan follows his directions. "I'm going to stop. Give him two breaths." He stops giving chest compressions. Breathing hard.
Two breaths.
"Is he breathing?"
Susan takes the mask from his face and puts her ear to the man's mouth. Panic stricken she shakes her head.
Strader begins chest compressions once again.
Thirty compressions, two breaths, rinse and repeat.
"Give him breaths" Strader commands.
Two Breaths.
"Is he breathing?"
"No!"
Jimmy appears next to them. "The ambulance is on the way"
"Take over." Strader gasps.
Jimmy begins chest compressions.
"Did you tell them about his condition?" Strader pants
Jimmy doesn't reply, he nods.
Strader lightly pushes a Susan aside and breathes into the mask.
Two breaths. It's been over a minute. He checks for breathing.
"Anything?" Jimmy gasps.
Strader shakes his head.
Thirty compressions later Strader checks again.
Another minute goes by.
Strader and Jimmy switch places.
"Three minutes" Jimmy says between gasps.
Thirty compressions, two rescue breaths.
A fourth minute has passed and Drew is still unresponsive.
"It's been five minutes" Jimmy says softly.
"Damn it! Switch!"
He switches positions with Jimmy.
He vaguely hears Susan's sobs behind him.
They loose track of time, switching between chest compressions and rescue breathing.
It's been nearly 30 minutes. You remember the recertification class, he's not coming back" Jimmy says softly.
"No! I am not giving up on him" Susan screams. She shoves Strader out of the way and applies rescue breaths.
"I am not letting him die" she gasps.
Drew's eyes snap open.
"Drew?" she asks through her tears. "Oh Drew" she sobs as she yanks him into her arms.
The man's own arms wrap around his wife and suddenly tighten. At first it looks like an embrace before Drew opens his mouth and tears at the space where Susan's neck meets her shoulder.
Strader and Jimmy jump to their feet as the blood begins to pour from the screaming woman's neck. Jimmy is about to rush forward before Strader pulls him back, Susan has gone silent.
Drew is now doing the unthinkable; he is beginning to devour his wife. Blood is pouring from the jugular artery that he had just ripped open. He grabs Susan by the shoulders and slams her body against the ground until the sickening sound of cracking resonates and the skull is cracked open.
Drew then looks up at them, blood and gray matter dripping from his chin. His gaze is hungry- He jumps to his feet, a predator seeing an opportunity for another meal.
"Get in the car now!" Strader screams.
The two men run across the parking lot. The doors are still unlocked as the two leap in the car, doors slamming.
Jimmy's hands are shaking as he tries to shove the keys into the ignition.
Strader screams as the monster latches itself to his window.
Jimmy grabs the knife from his pocket, leaning across Strader, he shoves the knife in every place that he can reach. Drew screams staggering back from the window, changes tactics he jumps on the hood of the car, pounding on the glass of the windshield. A crack appears.
"Go!"
Jimmy doesn't move. He groans and his head lulls back.
"Damn it!" He shakes his friend. "We need to switch places. I'm going to climb over, you slide under".
"Jimmy?"
An agonizing moan escapes the other man's lip, however he complies. His body turning and sliding.
Strader climbs over, puts the car in reverse and hits the gas. The sound of metal hitting metal as well as the sudden stop reveals that he has backed into another car, he doesn't care. Drew has fallen off the windshield. He puts the car in drive, he feels the bump of the truck going over the man like speed bump that was hit too fast. Strader stops and looks at the body through the rearview mirror. To his relief it's not moving, he backs over it again just in case..
There's a scream of sirens and Strader sees the ambulance pull into the parking lot. A paramedic climbs out of the ambulance walking towards him. Strader remembers from his WFR course that most paramedics and First Responders walk towards a causality event in order to assess the situation. He recites 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 sees the paramedic yank latex gloves on his hands. The paramedic stops to look at the dead Drew for a moment before walking to the partially devoured body of Susan. "What happened?" he asks, his voice is calm but there is a sense of authority.
Strader opens the door and draping Jimmy's arm around his shoulders half drags the man out of the car. "We were attacked. I hit him with my car out of self-defense" Strader explains as he brings a barely conscious Jimmy towards the paramedic.
"Explain the situation to me" the paramedic says calmly.
As a former Wilderness EMT, Strader recites the event.
"That's a hell of a story" the paramedic replies as he is taking Jimmy's blood pressure and testing for his responsiveness, beside him the other paramedic is filling out a form with all of the results that the first paramedic calls out to him.
"We need to get him to the hospital."
"There's a bite mark on his arm." Strader tries to explain.
"You mentioned that."
"I'll follow in my vehicle so that I can get him home" Strader answers.
"Sir, do you think that you will be able to drive? You look pale and a little shaken up." the paramedic's companion asks. He also looks over Strader's shoulder at the damaged jeep.
"I don't need treatment. I'll drive down and follow."
Strader turns to look at the jeep; the back is dented, the windshield and passenger side windows shattered.
"Looks like I'm hitching a ride." Strader attempts to make a joke. To his relief a smile appears on both the paramedics faces. Leave it to the paramedics to have a dark sense of humor.
They place Jimmy on the back board before strapping him down and carrying him to the ambulance. Strader climbs in behind him.
∆∆∆
Riley is flipping channels aimlessly in the break room; it isn't until he found the local news channel that he stopped.
"In other news, a man and woman were attacked today at the trailhead to Interstate State Park. Eye witness says 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. Another man 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 mutters before quickly leaving the couch and all but running to the lab where Abigail, Benjamin, and James are 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 says.
"What?" Abigail demands as she walks away from her examination.
"The disease has spread. It's like Dr. Suber predicted. The disease is making its way west.
"It could be another outlier" James muses.
'I don't think so" Abigail replies as she removes her lab coat before heading towards the door.
The four of them make their way toward another laboratory where Kaitlyn 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- toxoplasmosa gondiin for example. 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 explains.
"It's spreading" Riley deadpans.
"What do you mean?" Kaitlyn asks.
"There was a reported attack up in one of the state parks.The man ate his wife before attacking two other men on the scene. One is in the hospital"
"What about the man who was attacked?" Benjamin questions.
"We don't know" Abigail says
"Beau, I need you to find out which hospital this man was sent to. Hopefully he will be one of those whose symptoms and incubation period are long term." Beau disappears through the door in search of a telephone.
"What was this you were saying about it being passed through certain animals?" Riley asks.
"We will further discuss toxoplasmosa gondii in the conference room."
On the way to the conference room they met Capitan Marian. "Come with us. You have witnessed this disease first hand, we want you to tell us if this particular disease has the same symptom." Kaitlyn commands.
Marian looks slightly taken aback at a civilian giving her orders, she recovers quickly "Yes ma'am."
They walk down the hallway until they reached the conference room. Benjamin is already standing at the front of the room with a blue dry erase marker in hand.
Riley chuckles, he and Benjamin had never used this method before. Benjamin has always called it archaic and looks uncomfortable as he stands before the quickly filling room, he fiddles with the blue dry erase marker.
He waits for the rest of the members of the research team to enter the room. Abigail sits next to him with a smile, which Riley finds himself returning.
"You already know about the toxoplasmosa gondii" Kaitlyn says.
"Where is Beau?" Marian asks.
"He is trying to figure out which hospital the man on the news is currently being treated. The death of his companions sound very similar to the ones that we have seen in Africa and making their way over to America." Kaitlyn sits at the table, she looks over Benjamin "Will you please write that down."
Benjamin nods and writes the disease on the whiteboard.
"Bugs to rats to the intestines of a cat?".
Benjamin doesn't look up.
"Change in personality" Marian says.
"Excellent! Now…onto the next one" Benjamin begins to scribble quickly on the white board.
Riley hears his mentor muttering words to himself, phonetically sounding and spelling words out loud to himself, Benjamin can't spell to save his life. When he steps away from the board the word Neurotoxins is spelled incorrectly, as well as the title of the novel "The Serpent and the Rainbow". The word serpent was also spelled wrong. Instead of the second 'e' there was an 'a'.
"That's a film isn't it?" Riley asks.
"I love that movie!" Abigail exclaims. Riley and the entire room turn to look at the young woman. "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 defends.
"You can't be serious" Marian is exasperated.
"I am" Abigail answers
"The Serpent and the Rainbow, is a lovely book." Benjamin responds.
"I read it a few times myself." Beau chirps.
"Aye. Wade is a fine fellow"
"You two cannot be serious about this zombie nonsense" Marian rolls her eyes.
Riley turns to the two men, who are currently bonding over their experiences with Wade Davis.
"Are you telling me that these people have the zombie virus?" Hunter, the Viking man asks.
"Of course not, that is just a load of ballocks. What we are thinking lad, is that this could be the effects of a neurotoxin. Similar to those used in Haiti…what can happen is a person is poisoned and pronounced dead, an uncommon occurrence now a days. However, an incompetent doctor or a First Responder, bless their souls, 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 explains.
"This is bloody insane" Riley runs his hand down his face. He turns to see Abigail twirling a strand of her silver blonde hair around a finger. Her lovely mutation of one green and one brown eye glued to the whiteboard.
Benjamin, having become more comfortable with being in the spotlight, writes on the board once again Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, once again misspelled, the K in Jakob replaced with a C.
"Mad cow?" Riley narrows his blue eyes.
"Well lad, the outbreak did kill over 150 people in the UK" Benjamin explains.
"And over 400 in the US." James adds.
"What are the symptoms?" Marian asks.
"Changes in gait, hallucinations, lack of coordination, seizures, rapidly developing dementia" Kaitlyn lists on her fingers.
"Do you need help with your spelling?" James asks, obviously getting tired of Benjamin's errors.
The rest of the room ignores his comment, instead turning their attention to Marian who is confirming the words written above.
"Hallucinations, seizures, dementia, and lack of coordination" she says
Benjamin nods and begins to put a checkmark by all of the symptoms.
"B-but this disease could stay dormant for up to a decade" Isabella says. Riley notices that she has a stutter-the letters B, K, G and T.
"There hasn't been an outbreak in fifteen years" James pipes.
"That gives it plenty of time to have mutated. Not to mention the cure was never found" Hunter is once again balancing on the back two legs of his chair.
"Cows…haven't been allowed to eat animal protein since then" Isabella's cheeks burning red as all attention was focused on her.
"Doesn't mean that sketch-balls in the meat and farming industry 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 says.
"You mean like anti-vaxxers brining back measles?" Hunter rolls his eyes.
"What else do you have, Doctor?" Kaitlyn asks. Riley smiles; it was good to know that someone other than Abigail and himself are enthralled by these possibilities.
"Neurogenesis" Beau calls
"Now that is preposterous" Benjamin replies.
"Think about it this way. We have the technology to essentially regenerate dead cells. Reanimation research is moving rapidly" Beau explains.
"How does he know about all of these?" Riley whispers to Abigail.
"He reads…a lot" Abigail replies.
"That's it?" he asks.
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 your team uses something as ancient as a whiteboard" Riley whispers.
"He has been doing that for years. That's how it works, he's the one who brought this method to the team, it allows us to see everything. Find flows, cross out, and circle and everything. It's just what he and the rest of us from our team are used to. I'm surprised that Benjamin is using this tactic. You'd think that with how much research and scholarly journals he written, Benjamin would be a better speller." Abigail teases.
"Bloody awful, isn't it? That's why he has such a heard of medical students, most of them just check his bloody spelling. I think that there might be an MFA or two in the mix as well" Riley smirks.
Abigail covers her mouth to hide her laughter.
"This potential to keep a dead body in a suspended state of animation could cause anything" Beau finishes his explanation
"This could be used as a biological weapon" Marian says softly.
"If zombies weren't ridiculous enough, now we are taking about a sci-fi possibility" James scoffs.
"You have no idea the types of secrets the military keeps from you, let's just say that this Capitan America nonsenses, isn't too farfetched." Marian narrows her eyes at James. She is obviously not used to being spoken to in such a disrespectful way Riley thinks.
An awkward silence filled the room.
She's right Riley thinks 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?
Hunter clears his throat. "There is a final, although ridiculous possibility"
"As ridiculous as zombies?" James asks.
Riley snaps his gaze towards Hunter.
"Nanobots."
"Absolutely not" Marian says.
"I agree. There is no way" Isabella says. Riley shakes his head and notices that Abigail is 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 insertion. Especially in the central nervous system." Marian says.
Benjamin crosses out the idea.
"What about female soldiers?" Isabella asks.
"What about them?" Kaitlyn inquires.
"Women can have a contraceptive implant, like Nexplanon."
"You're saying that someone is using women to spread a disease?" James scoffs.
"Doesn't sound any crazier than anything else that we have so far." Hunter defends.
The members of the North American team all sit together in silence for a moment before Beau Suber speaks. "Kaitlyn, what are the other research centers saying?"
Kaitlyn 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, they are leaning in the direction of Toxiplasma Gondii."
"Anything else?" Beau asks
"The team in Russia is testing to see if there is any possibility that it is a type of radiation. Something that could have somehow been passed through Chernobyl."
"So the rest of the world is in the same boat we are in." Riley says
"Yes. They are just as puzzled as we all are, but determined to figure something out."
△△△
Strader is pacing back and forth in the ICU waiting room, he is waiting for Jimmy's wife, Andy to return to the waiting room to give him or update, or at least for a nurse to relay the message. Sitting down in the uncomfortable hospital chair, he grabs a random magazine off the scratched up wooden table before him. Flipping aimlessly, it takes about twenty pages of beautiful women, spray brushed men, and a sample of the new perfume by Chanel before he realizes that he is looking at a fashion magazine. Slightly embarrassed, he places the magazine on the table before he restlessly stands up and wanders to the coffee maker where he makes himself his third cup of coffee in the past hour.
"We have a code gray in ICU."
Strader's ears instantly perk up at the word ICU. He is in the ICU. Three security officers shove past him and into the ICU.
A protesting and obviously upset Andy is being half escorted and half shoved by a nurse out the doors. Screaming nonsensical words through her tears.
"Ma'am we will have the situation under control in a few moments." she says, although there is a slight tremor to her voice.
Strader is across the waiting room in seconds, helping the nurse move Andy away from the doors.
"What's happening?"
"He-he just snapped all of the sudden. The nurse was injecting something into his IV, and he suddenly stopped breathing, then he just jumped up and grabbed the nurse." Andy gasps through her tears.
Strader looks to the nurse for confirmation, he can tell from her pale face and the blood splatter on her scrubs that whatever Andy is trying to explain to him is true.
"We have a Code Orange in the ICU." the voice is strained and panicked this time.
"What does that mean? What does Code Gray mean. What does Code Orange mean?" Strader demands.
The nurse's eyes are wide, she is unable to respond. A doctor rushes through the doors, "We need to evacuate the area, get these people out of here"
"But what about? He's only been here a few hours." Andy is struggling against Strader's grasp.
"We are doing everything we can. Get out of here."