Extinction Horizon

-19-

Kate rushed through the cafeteria line. She hadn’t eaten in over twenty-four hours and felt like she was about to fall over. Her stomach growled, but she had no appetite.

Grabbing a deli sandwich, yogurt, and milk that she suspected was expired, she hurried down the line. The mess hall was nearly empty now, only a few Marines talking in hushed voices a few tables away.

Glancing at her watch, she saw it was only one p.m. She still had a few hours to wait for the toxicology results to come back.

As she walked toward the exit, the double doors to the facility cracked open. Three men stumbled inside.

Kate froze when she saw the lead man stare at her.

Beckham.

“You made it,” she said.

The man acknowledged her with a solemn nod. Not exactly the response she was looking for.

“Didn’t think we were going to,” Beckham said. He ran a hand through his hair and wiped his nose with a sleeve. “Go get some grub, guys,” he said to Riley and Horn. They didn’t hesitate.

“That bad?” Kate asked.

He nodded again and changed the subject. “How’s the research going?”

“Slow, but we are making progress.” She lifted a curious brow. “What’s it like out there?”

“Hell on earth. We got you a live sample though. The specimen’s just a kid. Probably only eight or nine years old. He attacked us with another group of infected when we were trapped inside a stairwell. Compared to some of the others, the kid’s in decent shape.”

Kate tried to imagine what they had faced, especially during the night. The few hours she’d been trapped in the lab at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta were bad enough, but an entire night? She shivered.

“You look tired,” Beckham said.

“You do, too,” she said.

“I am. And I’m starving.” He glanced over at the buffet line.

“Where’s the boy?” Kate asked.

“Gibson’s men took him into one of the buildings as soon as we landed. They’re probably cutting him right now.” His jaw moved, but he refrained from his next comment.

Kate blinked. The boy was infected, but he was still just a kid. The thought of Gibson’s team tearing into him was horrifying.

Beckham looked at the food line again and then hesitated, glancing back at her. “You doing okay?”

Their eyes connected, briefly. There was a kindness and strength there. She felt the same reassuring sense of safety every time she was with him. With a short nod, she managed to say, “Yes, I’m fine. Thanks.”

Beckham stepped aside as the doors swung open. Ellis came rushing into the mess hall, out of breath.

“Kate, the toxicology reports came back early. You have to see these!” He panted and in between breaths said, “I know… why the virus is… changing people into… monsters.”

An involuntary spasm shook Kate. She felt cold again, but this wasn’t from the chilled air-conditioned room. This was from something else.

“I need to go,” she whispered.

“Good luck,” Beckham replied, his lips twisting to the side as if he was unsure of what else to say. With a nod, she followed Ellis out of the building, terrified at what the results were going to show.

Kate skimmed the notes as quickly as possible when they got back to the lab. She was nervous, but this was a different type of nervous—this was the nervous she always experienced right before a major discovery.

And Toxicology had made a major discovery. The tissue screenings revealed traces of the VX-99. The technicians had used detergents and a variety of chemicals to digest the tissue samples. Then they used mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance to identify the chemical compounds of VX-99 present in the structure. Electron microscopy then revealed what Kate and Ellis had missed. Tiny nanostructures of VX-99 had attached to the Ebola virus strands.

But something was still off—something that didn’t make sense. The chemicals weren’t just solubilized in the tissues and absorbed in the cells.

Ellis nodded as she read. “The VX-99 exists in a hybrid nanostructure form.”

“So we know how Doctor Medford modified the virus, but this still doesn’t explain the mutations and transformation of the victim. The violent behavior, the physiology changes,” Kate said. “Unless…”

“Keep reading,” Cindy said. She sat next to Ellis, her hand cupped over her mouth.

Kate nodded and scrolled down to the next section titled Epigenetic Changes.

The two words made her pause. What the hell did they have to do with the Hemorrhage virus?

She read on, digesting the information slowly.

“The VX-99 chemicals disrupt the normal cell to cell signaling that regulates what genes are turned on and off within cells.”

Ellis stood and pulled back a clump of hair that had flopped over his forehead and exhaled. “Holy shit,” he said enthusiastically. He broke into a rapid speech. “There are twenty to twenty-five thousand human protein coding genes. Only about ninety-eight percent of those are actually active. Some of them are remnants, dating back to the primordial ooze stage of evolution. The sucker lips are reminiscent of early multicellular organisms and some more complex parasites. The vertical pupils with the double membrane could link to a number of species. And the flexible joints could relate—”

Kate held up a hand in disbelief, cutting Ellis off. She closed her eyes. She couldn’t believe it. She didn’t want to believe it. “So, Doctor Medford used VX-99 to turn on genes that harken back to the lineage of evolution.”

“It’s insane,” Cindy said.

“But it makes sense,” Kate replied, ashamed she hadn’t thought of this before. When she opened her eyes everything was crystal clear. How could she have missed the signs? The chemicals from VX-99 reactivated the protein-coded genes that separated humans from wild animals. Ellis was right. Some of them might even date back millennia. Simply put, the chemicals turned the infected host into a predatory animal. That’s what had made the weapon so deadly back in Vietnam.

Hunching over the screen, Kate read the final paragraph out loud. “Endocrine cell signaling is causing an increase in the stem cell population with dermal and bone marrow tissues.”

Cindy nodded rapidly. “Fascinating. It’s like their body is telling them they are constantly injured, which in turn produces a constant supply of hormones that tell stem cells to proliferate and circulate in the bloodstream.”

“So their glands have likely been altered as a result of VX-99 as well,” Kate stated.

Ellis nodded. “Exactly, the specimens are producing more and more stem cells, which also explains their fast metabolisms.”

“And,” Kate said, her voice softening as she spoke. “It explains why they are hungry as hell for raw meat. It’s the quickest and most digestible source for the proteins they need to keep making stem cells.”

“Maybe zombies aren’t science fiction after all,” Ellis said. There was a hint of shock in his voice. The enthusiasm from before had vanished.

“These aren’t zombies,” Kate said sternly.

She reread the three paragraphs just to reinforce what she already knew. When she finally looked away, the room was silent, and both of her colleagues sat staring at her. Their eyes pleaded for reassurance, begging her to offer a different opinion than the one they had already formed. But the facts were right in front of them. Shaking, Kate said, “Doctor Medford was never working on a cure for Ebola. He was working on a bioweapon.”

“But what about the endothelial cells?” Ellis said, his voice low like he already knew the answer. “Maybe he was really working on a cure…”

“No,” Kate said. “He was working on a weapon—a contagious, deadly, and untraceable weapon. That’s why we never saw the nanoparticles. They were already filtering out of the body. If it weren’t for the liver sample, Rod would never have even known.”

“A weapon killed Javier and Michael,” Kate whispered, almost to herself. “A weapon is killing the entire world.” Her voice grew louder. “The Hemorrhage virus is manmade!”

Cindy and Ellis stood, but neither said a single word.

An abrupt surge of anger washed through Kate. With her thoughts spinning in all directions, she directed that anger toward Gibson. The colonel was the engineer of more than Plum Island. He was the engineer of the Hemorrhage virus. The outbreak may very well have been an accident, but the creation of the virus itself wasn’t.

Kate reached for her forehead, suddenly feeling overwhelmed and lightheaded. “Cindy, do you have access to any of Doctor Medford’s research?”

The technician shook her head.

“But you work for USAMRIID,” Ellis said. “You’re telling us you don’t have access to their files?”

“There are no files,” Cindy replied firmly. “There never were.” She shot Kate a frightened look. “I’m just as shocked as you are.”

The words spoke louder than anything Kate had seen. She knew then with certainty that Medford had engineered the Hemorrhage virus under orders from above. He’d covered his tracks to make it look like it was actually a cure for the Ebola outbreak in Guinea. But the secret weapon had never left Building 8 inside a secure case—it had left Building 8 by accident in human form.

The chain of events no longer mattered. All that mattered was that the Hemorrhage virus wasn’t from some jungle in Africa. It was engineered in a lab on U.S. soil. Which meant it would be even more difficult to cure. And behind all of it was…

Gibson.

A man Michael had trusted. Taking in long, deep breaths, Kate whisked away from the monitors. Overwhelmed by anger, she walked briskly for the exit. Her mind was clear and focused now. She knew exactly what she was going to do next.

“Where are you going, Kate?” Ellis yelled after her.

“If you want to know, follow me,” she replied.

Colonel Gibson walked across the small lab to peer through a thick glass panel separating the room from a holding chamber. A bank of bright oval lights hung from the ceiling on the other side, illuminating a trio of technicians strapping the limp body of a young boy to a metal gurney. They were the same type of lights they used to study the sole survivor of Operation Burn Bright so many years ago. They brought back flashbacks of Lieutenant Brett’s frail body as he twisted in the chains that bound him in the tiny cell they had kept him in for the better part of a decade.

He reminded himself why he’d reactivated the bioweapon program, as if justifying it might somehow make things seem less horrific. VX-99 was supposed to have transformed the lieutenant into a super soldier, but instead it had wiped away his humanity. Gibson’s vision for the weapon had changed over the years. He’d abandoned the idea of creating a super soldier and instead had ordered Doctor Medford to create a bioweapon. VX-99 was supposed to replace the need for boots on the ground. His vision was for VX-99 to save the lives of thousands of American soldiers. Men like his son, who had died from the cowardly IEDs that insurgents used to turn young soldiers into ground beef. And best of all, the weapon would have been mostly untraceable.

No matter how he justified the past fifty years in his mind, the irony bled through. The bioweapon he’d ordered Medford to create wasn’t saving American soldiers’ lives—it was turning them into monsters, along with billions of innocent civilians.

The colonel closed his eyes, filled with an overwhelming guilt that tugged at his core. He’d known at the beginning of the Vietnam War that it was lost. Many would call him crazy for his actions, but in reality he was logical. Now he was starting to wonder if this new war was lost too. Operation Reaper had failed miserably. The military had retreated from all major population zones. They were losing the country city by city.

Gibson stepped up to the glass, concentrating on the boy. His pale skin glistened under the lights, clean from the decon shower. As Gibson looked closer, he saw the symptoms of the Hemorrhage virus were already reemerging. Blood oozed from under his eyelids and trickled from his nose. Red blotches lined his naked arms and legs.

It was his fault that the innocent kid had transformed into a monster, but that was never his intention. Goddamnit, he had only wanted to save lives! To protect the country he loved so dearly.

War had changed since Vietnam. Like the boy in front of him, it had evolved. America had new enemies, enemies that were merciless and brutal. Terrorist groups would stop at nothing to inflict harm on the country he loved so much. The military had done everything to take the battle to foreign soil, but the blood of too many American soldiers had already stained the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan. VX-99 was supposed to end all of that. The bioweapon was supposed to be killing terrorists and then fizzling out before anyone knew what had happened.

Instead, Gibson was staring at a child infected with the viral monster Doctor Medford had inadvertently created. Gritting his teeth, he looked away from the glass. It was only a matter of time before one of the scientists on the island discovered the truth. Hell, he would have told them the truth and explained how the virus worked if he had known. But he didn’t. That’s why he had sent the Delta Force team in days before to collect a sample.

Sighing, Gibson forced himself back to the window. Watching the struggling boy, his troubled mind had a second of intense clarity. In that moment he knew one thing for sure. He was responsible for the end of the world, and he could only pray that Doctor Lovato and the other scientists would find a cure before it was too late.

With his head tucked against his chest, Beckham moved at a half-run along the concrete path leading across the island. A steady and cold drizzle beat against his bare face. He yawned, still exhausted from their mission to recover the infected child.

He stopped to take in the view of the two guard towers on the north side of the island. The concrete structures protruded out of the ground, large spotlights sweeping the shoreline beyond. A random flash of lightning lit up the skyline and illuminated the fortress of walls built around the hexagon-shaped base. He suddenly felt like a prisoner trapped inside a maximum-security prison.

But soon that would all change. He was on his way to meet with Gibson and secure their ride back to Fort Bragg.

Thunder boomed in the distance, rattling the ground as Beckham continued walking. He approached a pair of guards standing outside the administration building with his badge at eye level.

One of them, a skinny, dark-skinned man, stepped under the light and studied it. He looked at Beckham’s face, and then nodded. “All clear, Master Sergeant.”

Inside, another pair of guards waited. They repeated the same process. “Follow us, please, Master Sergeant,” one of them said.

Beckham peered into each office as they walked. They were all empty, the lights inside dim. When they reached the far end of the hall, the two soldiers stopped. The smaller of the two gestured toward the last door in the hall; just then, alarmed voices rang out behind them.

The guard unstrapped his rifle. “I’ll check it out,” he said, nodding at the other soldier.

Beckham stiffened and listened.

“I want to see Colonel Gibson.” The raised voice was familiar. Female.

“Kate?” Beckham whispered. He took a step back from the door. There she was, at the other end of the hallway, arguing with the first two guards in her best Don’t fuck with me right now voice. Ellis stood behind her sheepishly, his mouth moving but no words coming out.

“You’re not listening, doctor. You can’t see Colonel Gibson,” the guard on the left said.

“No. You’re not listening!” Kate replied.

Beckham decided to intervene.

“I’m sorry, Doctor Lovato, but—” the soldier began to say when Beckham put his hand on the man’s thick shoulder.

“Let her through,” Beckham said.

The man regarded him with a quick glance and then backed away.

Kate and Ellis shoved past the man. Both of them were breathing hard, like they had run the entire way to the building.

“What’s this all about?” Beckham asked.

“You’re about to find out,” Kate replied. Her face was flushed red. She walked briskly toward the colonel’s office and entered without knocking; Beckham followed right behind her.

Inside Gibson was standing, his arms crossed, his features darkened. “Doctors,” he said in a low voice.

Beckham stood in the doorway, blocking the two guards from entering. He crossed his arms and waited.

“We know,” Kate said. “Did you really think the truth wouldn’t come out?”

Gibson exhaled a deep sigh that sounded like relief more than dread. Then he slowly sat down in his chair and reached for a pack of cigarettes. He jammed one in his mouth and said, “I knew you would find out.”

Kate shook nervously as she spoke. “The Hemorrhage virus is a bioweapon, a weapon that you had designed.”

Beckham stepped forward. “What’s she talking about, Colonel?”

The man held up a hand. “Let her finish.”

Kate glanced back at Beckham with a look of uncertainty. He gave her the shortest of nods and she took a step closer to Gibson’s desk.

“Doctor Medford created a hybrid nanostructure by bonding nanoparticles loaded with VX-99 to a genetically modified Ebola virus. At first we didn’t see them. I suspect that was the point. The weapon was supposed to be untraceable. And with the endothelial cells reacting differently than they do in other strands of Ebola, I was almost convinced he had created a partial cure. I had my suspicions, but I had secretly hoped that the other scientists were right, that he was working on a cure and had created the Hemorrhage virus by accident.”

Catching her breath, Kate shook a finger and then continued, speaking more rapidly. “But what didn’t make sense were the other changes. The sucker mouths, the distorting of the bodies, the vertical pupils, the morphed hands and feet. Nothing made sense. It wasn’t until we sent samples to Toxicology that we discovered the truth. It was then we found the epigenetic changes.” Her hands shook as she approached the colonel’s desk.

“That weapon!” she choked. “Your weapon!” She narrowed her eyes. “It turned my brother into a monster! It killed Michael, and it’s rapidly killing the rest of the world!”

Beckham put a hand on Kate’s left arm. She was shaking uncontrollably now.

“And you!” Kate pointed a finger at Gibson. “You were the one that ordered Doctor Medford to design the bioweapon.”

“I fucking knew it,” Beckham said. He stood by Kate’s side, supporting her like he should have done from the second they walked in the room.

“She’s right, isn’t she, Colonel?” Beckham said.

Gibson very calmly took the unlit cigarette from his mouth and placed it on the wood surface. In the same calm voice he said, “Yes, she’s right.”

Silence filled the room. A cricket chirped outside, and then the noise faded away.

“You’re right,” Gibson said again. He stood and looked at them in turn. “I never meant for any of this to happen. When I sent Team Ghost to Building 8, I was trying to stop this from happening. Doctor Medford’s last message said he created something that was too contagious.”

“But it got out,” Kate said. Her breathing was steadier now.

The colonel nodded. “I ordered Doctor Medford to create a bioweapon that could be used in hot spots around the world. I wanted to end the need for American soldiers on foreign soil. Too many of our sons have died in sandboxes that aren’t worth a fucking shit. My son died…”

Beckham narrowed his eyes at the failing man in front of him. Saliva webbed across the colonel’s open mouth. He tried to speak, but only a croak came out. His eyes fell to the floor, his head downcast. The blood of so many was on his hands, including three members of Team Ghost.

Beckham felt his right fist moving at his side. He wanted to strike the colonel. God, it would feel good, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. The sobering truth was that Gibson had been motivated by the death of his only son in Iraq. His justification of the bioweapon program wasn’t much different than the missions of other weapon programs. The Manhattan Project was designed to save American lives and force the Japanese to surrender. It sounded insane, but the broken man in front of them now wasn’t much different in Beckham’s eyes than anyone that had created a weapon of mass destruction.

“Why?” Kate whispered. “Why didn’t you tell us what we were dealing with?”

“I didn’t know!” Gibson said, his voice snapping. He looked to Beckham. “That’s why I sent his team into Building 8. If I had known, I would have handed you the info on a silver platter!”

There were footfalls from the hallway. Lieutenant Colonel Jensen and Major Smith burst into the room, shoving Ellis out of their way.

“What the hell is going on here?” Jensen asked.

Colonel Gibson bowed his head in defeat and in a low voice said, “Doctor Lovato can tell you.”

Jensen scratched his chin and eyed Kate. After a brief pause he said, “Well, is someone going to fill me in?”

“The Hemorrhage virus is a bioweapon,” she replied. “And your boss was the engineer.”

The lieutenant colonel’s eyes shot up to meet Gibson’s. He nodded confidently, a final moment of strength in a career that had spanned decades. “You’re in charge now,” Gibson said. He held out his wrists and said, “Lock me up and destroy the fucking key.”

“Sergeant Singh,” Jensen said without taking his eyes off of Gibson.

One of the guards from earlier stepped into the room. “Yes, sir,” he said.

“Take Colonel Gibson into custody.”

Singh hesitated.

“That’s an order, Sergeant,” Jensen snapped.

Beckham scrutinized Gibson as the guard grabbed him under one arm. Flashbacks tore across his mind. The briefing on the Osprey, the pile of bodies in Building 8, and finally Tenor’s terrified face as the bioweapon consumed him. In a blind fit of rage, Beckham placed his right foot forward, twisted, and threw a punch that landed square on Gibson’s jaw.

The colonel collapsed. Sergeant Singh faltered trying to catch Gibson’s limp body and both men ended up on the floor.

“That’s for my men,” Beckham snarled.

Gibson whimpered out a reply. “I’m sorry,” he cried. “I’m sorry for everything. I never meant for any of this to happen.”

Jensen shot Beckham an angry glare that overshadowed what looked like a smirk. The two men shared a moment, something passing between them that only a soldier would recognize—an understanding. Beckham had done exactly what Jensen had wanted to do.

“Get him out of here,” Jensen said.

A second guard bent down and helped Singh drag the colonel out of the room. As they were leaving, Gibson paused and looked at Kate with a pair of glazed eyes.

“Find a cure,” he said. Then he looked at Beckham and said, “I’m sorry, but Fort Bragg is gone. I just heard an hour ago.”

And then he was gone, leaving Beckham and Kate standing in shock at the news.