The APOCs Virus (7 page)

He adjusted the output monitor of the microscope. 

"First, I'll demonstrate the MDR
-
V6 solution on the living tissue at 500x magnification." 

The screen displayed a brackish yellow solution, foaming and bubbling, spreading over the pink susceptible tissue of the rat's back. 

"Now here's 5000x magnification," he said, slowly adjusting the microscope. "That will take us down to a cellular level." 

The monitor displayed a team of white and brown cells ingesting the smaller red and white.  Consumed by the much larger white and brown cells, the smaller red and white host cells remained intact, trapped inside the invaders.  Then the most enigmatic part of the process happened.  The invading white and brown cells intertwined with each other forming an impenetrable bond. 

 "Unbelievable!”  Ava exclaimed.  "The mdr
-
v6 solution is like an acid." 

"Not quite, when an acid is applied to a substance, a third new substance is created.  What we're seeing here is 'A' being applied to 'B' and not making 'C'.  Instead, it creates a stronger 'A'—one that is virtually indestructible.  The bond that is created is unaffected by every antibody and anti
-
viral drug now known to man.  Even toxic substances that should kill the host leave the MDR
-
V6 unscathed." 

Within five minutes the screen was filled entirely with the white and brown infesting cells. 

"But watch as I put a single droplet of ordinary water on the transmuted section."  He squeezed a droplet on and stepped back to observe. 

"Incredible," Ava said, "it's like an explosion!" 

The yellow and brown cells were dissipating almost instantaneously, leaving perfect red and white ones in its place. 

"The red and white cells look completely rejuvenated. Are they?”  Ava asked. 

"Not only are they normal, they're better." 

"Better?  How so?" 

"In the cleansing or purifying stage as we call it, when the water is added, there's more than just a breakdown of the MDR
-
V6 infection.  It's like straining the host cells through a sieve.  Anything foreign, any form of toxicity, stays with the deteriorated MDR
-
V6, and is expelled.  In living specimens this happens through the skin."  

Puck put on his glasses and took off his bloodied apron, reached inside his lab coat and unbelievably pulled out and lit a cigarette.  Ava had never seen anyone smoke in a laboratory much less a government building.  She stared at him with amazement and shook her head, she supposed some habits were hard to break. 

She focused back to the screen displaying the cleansed tissue. “How long is the cleansing process a viable option?  The reason I ask is, I heard we immersed a captured Apoc victim and he almost completely dissolved."  Ava moved to avoid the smoke of his cigarette.  She thought his smoking wasn't the only incongruity she had encountered with her boss. 

"The best results have been achieved with the research animals sometime between the infectious and metamorphic stages.  An hour on the low end, on the high end . . .  we're not sure.  We've had a chimpanzee survive and thrive two hours after exposure to MDR
-
V6.  It's impossible to calculate the optimum point of cleansing.  The host cell needs to be intact inside the already linked MDR
-
V6 cell.  If the cleansing process is performed after exposure, but before the MDR cells are joined total chaos follows.  Observe." 

Puck picked up a beaker full of water and placed it on the still screaming rat.  The animal stopped shaking.  Large bulbous eruptions appeared and disappeared on its body and tail.  The rat began a shuddering, that turned into an intense shiver.   Its fine white hair started falling off, revealing large patches of pink skin.  The front paws clawed at its ears until they began ferociously bleeding.  The rat's red eyes grew dark and filled with blood.  Both finally burst and overwhelmed the rest of the cage with gore.  In less than a minute the rodent's entire body was reduced to a swirling, gelatinousness mass on the floor of the enclosure.  

Ava gazed into the smoldering mound and could see parts of the rat's feet, tail, and internal organs consolidating. 

"This is all quite amazing and frightening Dr. Puck, but what is my part in all this?" 

"The MDR
-
V6 concentrates we are using have been gathered from two of the three Apocs we are keeping captive here at the center.  The virus has to be from a live carrier, even one hour outside of the host is too long.  Plus, and we have no idea why it works this way, but if the host succumbs, the virus turns off, dies, is not longer viable.  The two Apocs that we are using have only been exposed to the virus for seven days."  Puck wrung his hands together and moved to a stool next to the woman.  She could feel his unease as he took her hand. It was everything she could do to not yank it away in revulsion.

"Ava, I may call you Ava can't I?"  He continued without giving her a chance to reply. 

His gratuitous demeanor automatically sent up flags of warning to her.  He was looking at her hand like he was going to eat it. 

"We have had the two Apoc patients for the duration of their infection.  You see Miss Porter, excuse me, Ava, they were—ah—they were infected here at the center.  It's the yellow team." 

"Miles and Fernandez?" she exclaimed. 

"I'm afraid so." 

She quickly withdrew her hand from his and walked halfway across the room. "What did you do to them?"  

"Wait, it's not what you think," he said as he got up and moved toward her, then stopped. 

"I thought they were the ones that provided you with this information."

  "They are, or were indirectly, until they too, were infected." 

"How did it happen?" 

"We lacked a grasp of the highly infectious state of the MDR
-
V6 Virus.  We only first heard of this two weeks ago, and for only ten days have we thought of it as a serious health threat.”  Sensing her growing anxiety, he motioned for her to sit.  "Please, let me explain."  He moved nearer to her and she could smell his smoky breath. 

"You're aware that the Maryland National Guard and Baltimore Police have been providing us with dead Apoc victims.  Or at least what's left of them.  A week ago a police cruiser collided with an Apoc.  The accident crushed his legs and left him unconscious.  Before he could come to and his legs had a chance to regenerate, a medical team sedated him and then flew him here by helicopter.   We placed him in a cage we use for the apes."  Puck tried to read Ava's face to no avail. 

"When the thing came to us we were surprised it could speak.  Not only could it speak, but could carry on a conversation.  It told us its name was John Spencer and before the change, he had been an investment broker.  We asked him a barrage of questions—everything from what the transformation had felt like, to how often a day he felt the need to urinate.  He really appeared to be quite rational, and even agreed to help us with the research, offering himself up as a guinea pig. 

"After a while we started feeling guilty about keeping him in a cage meant for a laboratory animal.  He acted so rational, so reasonable—not at all like the other Apocs we’ve encountered. Except, every now and then, he would ramble on about, the need.  We found out the need was the MDR
-
V6's need to consume more red blood cells, it needed human DNA.” 

Ava was happy she was sitting down because suddenly she felt nauseous.  "You mean to tell me Dr. Puck
--
" 

"Angus." 

"Dr. Puck!  You mean to tell me that what we’re dealing with is some sort of, genetic vampire?" 

"What I'm trying to tell you is we're dealing with a highly infectious virus.  A virus that yes, has some of the same symptoms of the vampires of lore, but I see a closer kinship to the malady I described as sham rage or even rabies." 

"Tell me . . ." she found it very hard to speak.  "Tell me what happened to Miles and Fernandez?” 

"We felt the need to bring in the red team also, once we got an idea of the gravity of the matter.  They were working in shifts with the Yellow.  Miles and Fernandez were working in twelve hour shifts.  The strain and urgency was getting to us all.  It was about ten hours into one of their twelve hour duties when it happened.  Both team members were working in a Level 4 Alpha lab with this Apoc Spencer, this highly cooperative Apoc. According to the observation video, Fernandez claimed that instead of this Spencer, it was his dead father in the cage, and that he needed to let him out.  Before Miles could stop him, Fernandez had unlocked the Apoc's cage." 

"You didn't have restraining chains on him?" 

"We did, and the thing broke them." 

"Impossible." 

"You would think wouldn't you?  We have it all on videotape.  Before security could stop the beast—they at first tried to sedate it and they used enough tranquilizers to stop a herd of elephants, they finally had to shoot it, but not before it had nearly drained the two of all their blood.  They were already starting the genetic transformation by the time the medics got to them. 

"It's a good thing they were in the Alpha Lab, or we would have never been able to contain the thing—or Miles and Fernandez." 

"But what about their families?" She asked. 

"Both the yellow and red teams were hand picked.  They had none." 

"So there weren't any questions asked?" 

“By whom?” Puck tried a softer approach. “It gave us a wonderful opportunity to study the virus in all its stages—on human subjects." 

 Ava got up and turned her back on Puck.  She knew they all were expendable in his eyes. 

"Until then, all we had to work with were expired Apoc victims.  Since water immersion is still the best method of controlling them, the only ones that didn't disintegrate before we could study them were the Apocs that were decapitated.  Even then, the MDR
-
V6 rapidly deteriorates almost immediately outside a live host.  If we were—are, going to find a cure, we need an active MDR
-
V6 culture.  What we need now is an Apoc that has gone through the complete metamorphic stage." 

 "And just how long does that take?" 

“We are not sure—two weeks, three weeks, it's hard to tell.  We calculate that the current rate of infection, figuring differing absorption rates for different individuals, to be somewhere around twenty
-
one.  Of course, it's hard to tell.  We didn’t even know about this disease before two weeks ago.  For reasons we don't understand as yet, some parts of the body change over much slower, for instance: the heart, the spinal column, and brain." 

"How come I keep getting the feeling that there's a third and final stage that you're not telling me about?"  Ava probed watching his face for clues.  She knew that the years of being head of the center, and the countless sessions before congress for money appropriations, had made him a tough nut to crack.  She usually followed her instincts, and her instincts were telling her not to trust him. 

"We're not sure if there is a third stage," he was saying until he caught the woman's piercing gaze.  "But we believe that there is."  He measured his words carefully.  "As the MDR
-
V6 virus strengthens its genetic bond, it emits off increasing amounts of magnetic energy.  In the seven days we've been examining the Apocs
--
" 

"Miles and Fernandez," she interjected.  

"Miles and Fernandez . . . .  The amount of energy doubles everyday.  Plus the skin takes on a crusty covering." 

"Like something's changing inside?" 

"Yes, like something's changing inside," he chimed in, “a metamorphoses of some sort is taking place it seems. 

"Why have you shared all the information with me?  Where do I fit into all this?" 

"We desperately need to study an advanced case of MDR-V6, a sentient one like Spencer, or this one that doing all the talking down in Virginia, this one that calls himself Abaddon.” 

"How do you plan to do that?  The Apoc condition has only been in the area for a week and a half we think?" 

“All three infections have been traced back to  . . . to Virginia . . .  Norfolk." 

"The Navy Base?  But why me, how can I help?  I work more in public relations than science now.  You were the one that pulled me off research." 

"We need to capture a Apoc alive in the advanced stages.  We need your public relations skills to head up our operation there.  We probably will be met with much opposition in the area." 

"Opposition!  Don't people want this tragedy to end?"  

"There will be a couple of different forces at work there.  We haven’t ruled out that this isn’t a homeland security issue.  These things are damn hard to kill.  A normally fatal blow can repair itself in a matter of hours.  Water and decapitation can kill Apocs, a shot to the head or heart, but hardly anything else can. 
Since the Navy is based there, they'll have the full cooperation of the local authorities and National Guard." 

"And what's the other group?" 

"The borderline, fanatical, Church of the Glorified God is based in Norfolk also." 

"Aren't they the group that gave the MDR
-
V6 Virus its name, the Apoc.” 

"Yes, the end of the world syndrome, Apoc, purification, Sodom and Gomorrah, blah, blah.  Their donations have never been better.  Oh yes, there is one other thing you should know."

"And what is that Dr. Puck?" 

"In the videotape from the lab when the yellow team was infected . . .   Well, we can't be sure but . . . " 

"What, what else?”  she asked impatiently. 

"We had experts go over it a hundred times.  We've examined pictures from Fernandez' personnel file . . .  it really does look like his father in that cage."  This came out as barely a whisper.  

He turned and removed the rubber gloves from his hands.   When Puck turned back to face her, he looked more composed and said,  "Good luck, you leave tonight.”