Ex animo, p.26
Ex/Animo, page 26
part #1 of Ex/Animo Series
Aron shook hands with him. He turned toward his friends.
“C’mere!” Aron said. “I missed you guys! I know I was just asleep the whole time, but-”
They rushed toward Aron and covered him in a group hug.
“Dude, the arm!” Martyn groaned. “Too much strength!”
“Oh, sorry!” Aron chuckled, backing away. “Gotta get used to that. Did I miss out on anything important from the last three days?”
“Yep,” Martyn smiled at Sherry. “My girlfriend’s birthday.”
“What? Dang it!” Aron sighed. “Belated wishes, my nurse.”
“Thanks!” Sherry smiled sweetly.
Aron turned toward Elaine.
“This is outstanding work!” Aron raised his arm. “I never expected anything like it. I can even wiggle the fingers!”
“It’s not that big a deal,” Elaine looked away, blushing. “But you’re welcome, I guess!”
“Well,” Zeke clapped. “Now that that’s done with, we got some stuff to talk about. You need time?”
“Nah, I’m good,” Aron spun his arm around. “Let’s get down to business!”
“Good,” Zeke said. “Freshen up, have something. Meet me on the fifth floor in an hour.”
***
Aron had lent Martyn his phone before he underwent surgery. Martyn was gaming on it when Aron came after his shower.
“How are you feeling?” Martyn sat up.
“A lot better!” Aron dried his hair furiously. “This thing is seriously cool. Elaine is a gosh darn genius!”
“I agree,” Martyn said. “It was fascinating to watch her work on it.”
“She let you?” Aron sounded surprised.
“Yeah,” Martyn nodded. “Her lab is on the third floor. She has this 3D printer-like thingamajig and everything! She worked so fast like a machine herself!” Martyn chuckled. “She wasn’t very thrilled when Zeke came up with his own ideas for the arm.”
Aron nodded as he got dressed.
“But she agreed when he explained how it’s gonna help you,” Martyn said. “The two of them really are something! You were right to pursue Zeke.”
“Heh,” Aron rubbed his nose. “Feel free to praise me more! Aight, let’s go grab something to eat. I’m starving!”
Aron and Martyn set off for the kitchen, Selena and Sherry joined them on the way. They had lunch in the kitchen.
“How do you feel, Aron?” Sherry asked.
“Physically? Never better,” Aron seemed to be thinking hard. “But I can’t seem to shake off this weird dream I had.”
“What dream?” Martyn asked.
“I was in a lab of some sort, and my arms produced electricity?!” Aron looked perplexed. “And there was this annoying girl who kept asking me to electrocute her.”
“Girl?” Sherry looked puzzled. “Electrocute?”
“It was a foxgirl,” Aron nodded. “I remember now!”
“It’s just one of his anime things, I swear,” Martyn rolled his eyes.
“No, dude!” Aron said. “She looked so real!”
“Was she cute?” Martyn asked.
“Yeah, I guess,” Aron frowned. “But annoying nonetheless! And I woke up when she hit me with a giant mallet.”
“A mallet?” Martyn shook his head. “You need a long break from anime.”
“Huh?!” Aron looked indignant. “I haven’t watched a single episode in like, a week? That’s a long time!”
“You missed three days,” Selena pointed out.
“I rest my case,” Aron crossed his arms.
“Do you mind if I take a look?” Selena pointed at Aron’s arm.
“Go ahead,” Aron stretched his arm out to Selena.
“This is so cool!” Selena said. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
“Zeke was strongly against the idea of visiting you after it was installed,” Sherry said. “But guess who did anyway?”
Selena blushed.
“I see,” Aron smiled. “I’m guessing it had to do with the ‘zombie’ thing.”
“What about the lenses?” Martyn asked. “They feel weird?”
“Nah, Synthea taught me how to use them as regular contact lenses,” Aron said.
After lunch, they went to meet up with Zeke on the fifth floor. They met Elaine in the elevator on their way up.
The doors opened, and they got out. It was the first time the four were visiting the fifth floor. Zeke hadn’t allowed them access before.
“Welcome… to my paradise!” Zeke threw his hands up.
The team stared in awe at the ceiling and walls made of glass. Despite the afternoon sun in its zenith, the inside of the lab felt cool and pleasant.
“I thought you were a man about privacy,” Martyn pointed at the surrounding buildings. “I don’t see how this gives you that.”
“Oh, that’s where you are wrong,” Zeke nodded. “Synthea, can we get a beach?”
As they stared, the buildings outside disappeared altogether. They found themselves gawking at a sandy beach and the crashing waves of the sea. It appeared as if the entire floor had teleported off to a seashore. They were baffled by the view. Aron approached the glass and felt it.
“This!” Aron exclaimed. “This is not even a screen!”
“Smart observation,” Zeke complimented. “This is an invention of my own. I call it the Dream Glass, a lesser version of my Dream Holo of course.”
“The hologram that camouflages the building,” Aron said.
“Yep,” Zeke said.
“Dope!” Aron exclaimed.
“I know, right?” Zeke grinned. “Now, if you are done admiring, we can get to business.”
Aron caught Martyn staring at Zeke in awe and smiled.
“The tab and the USB,” Zeke turned toward Aron. “It did have some answers.”
“Cool,” Martyn said.
“But it also gave rise to new questions,” Zeke said.
“Not… cool?” Martyn shrugged.
“But before I show you that,” Zeke said. “Why don’t you say something, Aron?”
“Uh, about?” Aron looked unsure.
“The outbreak, ‘Zeroheads,’ churches,” Zeke shrugged. “What do you make of it?”
“Hm,” Aron thought for a while. “Well, for starters, the outbreak felt–off.”
“That’s right,” Zeke nodded.
He tapped away on a keyboard, and one of the screens showed a map of the world.
“Exactly a week ago, on this day at 4 PM,” Zeke sipped his coffee. “The first zombie case was reported.”
“At a hospital?” Sherry asked.
“No,” Zeke shook his head. “It was a tweet from someone whose father turned and bit their mother.”
“Whoa,” Martyn exclaimed.
“Millions of tweets followed like a maelstrom,” Zeke said. “The hashtag Zombie Apocalypse became most trending worldwide and the most short-lived one too while at it.”
“That sounds about right,” Aron shrugged.
The time popped up beside the map as 4 PM.
“I threw in an algorithm to calculate the spread rate using the tweets’ locations and sorted them using time, and here’s the result.”
Zeke pressed enter, and they saw the globe on the screen fill up with red dots as the clock moved an hour.
“That’s impossible!” Sherry frowned in disbelief. “You may be right about the 4 PM as we did get cases at the hospital around that time, but no virus can ever spread that fast!”
“Which is why it’s puzzling,” Zeke nodded. “The virus somehow managed to overcome the territorial aspect, despite the fact it’s a contagion. There is no real origin point.”
“Huh,” Aron smirked. “Well, it’s now clear that it’s manmade.”
“Manmade?!” Martyn narrowed his eyes. “I was even ready for some wild alien theory, but this? Who’s dumb enough to do this crap?!”
“Who wouldn’t?” Zeke shrugged. “It could have been an attack gone wrong.”
“No,” Aron crossed his arms. “It wasn’t a mistake. It was done with the intention to wipe out humanity in one go.”
“You think so too, huh?” Zeke grinned. “And the churches, of course. Weird things did pop up on the search. The stick confirms it.”
“As I thought,” Aron said. “I suspect the government.”
“The government?” Martyn sighed. “Really?”
“Yes,” Aron said. “The government censors media on a nationwide basis.”
“How about Twitter then?” Martyn asked. “Why wasn’t that shut down?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Aron smirked.
The others waited for an answer.
“They never expected anyone to survive the wave, of course,” Aron shrugged.
The others appeared shocked.
“The data is screaming evidence,” Aron said. “It’s several levels beyond a pandemic! I’d say it was purely intentional and was meant to put an end to human existence altogether.”
“Why would the government want such a thing?” Sherry asked.
“It wasn’t the government,” Aron shook his head.
“You just said it was,” Sherry narrowed her eyes at him.
“It shouldn’t strictly mean the government itself,” Aron explained. “It could have been someone who had a direct influence over the government.”
“Not a bad theory,” Zeke nodded.
“Someone pulling strings?” Martyn muttered.
“Who else would it be other than SILEO?” Aron raised his voice.
The others appeared startled.
“Yeah, about that,” Zeke said. “The soldiers you refer to as SILEO–aren’t actually that.”
“Huh?” Aron seemed puzzled.
“SILEO was a tech provider and an illegal one too,” Zeke sipped his coffee. “They had disappeared from the underground market years ago. The soldiers bought them out and now are being backed by them in terms of technology.”
“Then who are those soldiers?!” Martyn asked.
“Here’s your answer for that,” Zeke brought up an article on the screen. “A notorious, secret paramilitary organization known as ‘Phoenix’ with roots that run deep–deep as the murders and assassinations that have gone unsolved over the past few centuries. An elite army of soldiers who wouldn’t budge at even the most painful torture and carry out orders without questions. Minds of steel and hearts of stone.
“Their clean work helped them earn a reputation among the world leaders, but even they knew very little about them. A lot of information on them had vanished over the past several decades. Some believed they had ties with secret societies such as the Illuminati, and the others believed they were a myth like the men in black, but you know better.”
“Phoenix, huh?” Martyn nodded. “It’s clear they’ve got something to do with the apocalypse now.”
“The tattoos on the soldiers,” Aron murmured. “The churches.”
“A paramilitary organization,” Martyn rubbed his chin, “How are we going to deal with them and the apocalypse?”
“Are you planning to eradicate the zombies?” Zeke asked.
“I believe eradication should be a last resort,” Aron appeared thoughtful. “I’m infected. You said so yourself. But I don’t feel very zombie-like. It’s possible finding a cure could bring them back to normalcy.”
“And you saw the numbers,” Elaine pointed to the globe on the screen. “There is no point in finding a vaccine if there aren’t any survivors.”
“And that’s where we answer a question with another question,” Aron said. “We gotta find how this improbable outbreak came to be. Even Greenland, one of the toughest terrains a virus could get to, was zombie-fied instantly.”
“Someone’s asking the real questions,” Zeke chuckled.
“You found something, didn’t you?” Aron asked.
“The stick,” Zeke grinned. “It contained coordinates of certain Phoenix bases.”
“Their bases?!” Martyn exclaimed.
“Yep,” Zeke said. “Research facilities. Elaine, do you remember the project Super Unit?”
“Of course!” Elaine exclaimed. “Wasn’t that one of Doc’s more important projects?”
“Yes,” Zeke said. “The bases mentioned in these files correlate with those regarding Doc’s projects.”
“But that would mean-” Elaine appeared shocked.
“Interesting,” Aron crossed his arms.
“Very interesting,” Zeke chuckled.
“Do you remember anything about it?” Aron asked.
“The project?” Elaine said. “No. Doc rarely shared any details about his projects. I believe even Zeke knew nothing about it.”
“That’s not entirely true!” Zeke grinned. “Remember that time I snuck onto the chopper?”
Elaine nodded.
“Sure, I got caught not too soon after we took off, but Octagon let me tag along,” Zeke recalled.
Zeke brought up a map on the big screen and zoomed in on a blue marking labeled ‘Area V3, primary research facility; abandoned.’
“I believe we flew here,” Zeke murmured. “I remember the heated argument he had with someone about the project’s unethical side, but the man refused to listen to him and threatened him. I still remember Doc’s face. Never had seen him that frustrated before.”
“Area Version 3,” Aron murmured.
“No, no, no,” Zeke shook his head.
“It’s actually Area 53; the ‘V’ stands for 5,” Zeke grinned. “Clever, isn’t it?”
“Erm,” Aron shrugged. “I guess.”
“So, in conclusion,” Martyn crossed his arms. “We’re gonna visit an abandoned base to find some answers!”
Aron and Zeke nodded.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Sherry raised her hands. “Area 53, as like in Area 51?!”
“That’s right,” Zeke nodded.
“Really?” Sherry asked. “Wow! Wasn’t that place like, heavily guarded?”
“I don’t really get the fuss about it,” Zeke shook his head. “There are hundreds of other bases that’d house otherworldly creatures. Why are people into one particular base?”
“Um-” Martyn raised his brow. “Probably cos they don’t know about the other bases?!”
“Raiding a military base, huh?” Aron murmured. “What can go wrong?”
“How’s the new arm?” Zeke asked him.
“Better than the old, that’s for sure!” Aron grinned. “The lenses are awesome too!”
“Synthea made those,” Zeke nodded.
“Really?” Aron looked surprised. “Wow, they’re amazing, Synthea!”
“Thank you, Aron,” Synthea spoke cheerfully. “Consider it–a welcome gift from me.”
“I see,” Aron smiled. “I promise to take good care of them.”
“Now, there’s something else we gotta discuss,” Zeke said.
Zeke pulled up Aron’s vitals on the screen.
“This was before conducting the procedure,” Zeke said.
“What?!” Sherry shrieked. “I knew something was wrong, but that’s plain blasphemy!”
“You’ve every right to freak out,” Zeke said. “He appeared perfectly fine, no signs of infection, blood count average, heart rate normal–a man of perfect health at first sight.”
“The wound should have jeopardized something,” Sherry insisted.
“It did,” Zeke nodded. “Take a look.”
Zeke brought up the cross-section of Aron’s organs on the screen. They found the organs engulfed by green viscous liquid.
“God almighty,” Sherry gasped. “What is that?!”
“That apparently is,” Zeke nodded eagerly. “The virus.”
“Huh?!” Aron exclaimed.
“You are one-fifth of a zombie, dude,” Zeke said.
They stared at the screen in shock.
“How is that even possible?” Aron said. “I feel completely fine!”
“Yes, you are,” Zeke nodded. “It was the virus that helped your body recover at a blazingly fast rate.”
“The virus,” Aron muttered. “Helped me?!”
“Yep,” Zeke crossed his arms. “Instead of turning you into a zombie, it healed you.”
“That’s–how?!” Martyn exclaimed.
“He should have died from the wound,” Zeke said.
Selena looked down.
“He’s only alive because he was bitten,” Zeke said. “The fever he had was the virus scrambling his immune system, but it looks like it wasn’t enough to turn him into a full zombie.”
“That is so–strange,” Aron muttered.
“Yes,” Zeke nodded. “It is.”
“I can’t believe this,” Selena looked dispirited. “I was the reason he almost died, and the virus helped more than I did.”
“What are you talking about?!” Aron placed a hand on her head. “I’d have died if you hadn’t saved me when you did! Or turned into a Zerohead!”
She didn’t look him in the eye.
“The map of Aron’s immune system,” Elaine faced Zeke. “What was its response to the virus?”
“His immune system didn’t exactly fight it like it should have,” Zeke shook his head. “It was pretty much down when the virus integrated itself into his system. The same as with the other specimens we’ve observed, the only difference being that he didn’t lose it. The virus is dynamic and multi-behavioral. It’s difficult to rule out one strain the same as all. And all I can say is that–Aron could be immune.”
“Huh?” Martyn looked shocked.
“Yes,” Zeke nodded. “I’ve tested other samples with his blood. It didn’t make any notable difference. And no, we can’t possibly find a vaccine from this since his condition is–different.”
“Immune, huh?” Sherry murmured.
“Doc,” Aron changed the subject. “When did you use those tweets to determine the outbreak?”
“Yesterday,” Zeke said.
“And what did you use to find it?” Aron asked.
“The Internet, duh,” Zeke shrugged.
“You have Internet?!” they cried out in unison.
“Not exactly,” Zeke said. “I’m connected via a special satellite. And it is not the ‘old’ Internet, you know.”
“Huh?” Martyn said. “Can we like, use it? Please, please, pretty please!”
“You didn’t give them the password?” Zeke asked Elaine.
