Two Alive, стр. 62

“And the way you do that is by inciting the community to want blood?”

Julia saw Ben moving through the crowds, trying to avoid being seen. She called out to him and he looked her way, flushed and almost frightened by her finding him. He felt the most at fault with letting the boys into the compound in the first place and with how things were developing, he wanted to avoid being seen. Nonetheless, Ben moved through the not-yet-suppressed, unruly crowd and met Julia and the major in the middle of everything. Ben wasn’t an official committee member anymore so to see him stepping forward during all this of course rose questions, and Ben wasn’t sure how to answer them. Julia, however, hadn’t asked him forward for decision making or campaigning for one side or the other.

“Ben, take the boys to the back office.” Julia said, then turned to Brandon, “Will you come with us. I have questions that need to be answered.”

Brandon swallowed and nodded his head. “Yeah, ok.”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Carver’s teeth were clenched, and he started coughing.

Julia turned to address the gathering, eyeing the major before she spoke. “I know there is a lot of emotion right now and I know that things have escalated very quickly. But there still must be order. We made a committee exactly for this purpose.”

“And the committee has been fucking up for a while now!” someone shouted above the rallying people.

But Julia bulled over the statement and continued. “You appointed us to make decisions so after getting more information we’ll make a reasonable judgment.” She turned to leave and the major stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

“So what the fuck happens next?” Carver said in a low growl as the crowd’s voices started to rise.

Julia snatched away from him. “You can calm everyone down and convince them that things are being handled. And tell Torrez and Lincoln to hurry up and deal with that fucking body!” She shook her head when she saw the two soldiers continuing to the security room in the back of the store.

Julia started leaving with Ben and Brandon and the boys were following, still restrained with Baker behind them. Carver watched them leave and the ire coursing through him was enough to make him see red. But he somehow managed to keep himself calm and address the people gathered around him.

At the back of the store, in Manson’s bathroom laboratory, the scientist went to the counter sink and placed the samples down as he rushed to wash his hands, put new gloves on and prep his microscopes. He was sitting in his rolling chair, brimming with anticipation as to what he might find with his new samples. The doctor took a deep breath, removed his glasses, and licked his lips as he rolled forward towards the counter. Before he could even ready the sample he got from Bates on his slide and look through the scope, his door burst open and Burrows was standing there.

“Doc! What the hell is going on?” Burrows entered the bathroom and quickly closed the door behind him; stopping to check if anyone was coming before the door shut.

Manson’s shoulders dropped and he let out an exaggerated sigh. “Where the hell have you been? You were supposed to be watching the lab.”

“What? They told me the freaks in back were all gone! I had to see for myself. Was it those kids? Did they really get rid of those things?” The soldier approached Manson, who put a hand up to stop him.

“Stay right there. I don’t need you coming over here and contaminating the sample.” The scientist took a breath and put his eye to the microscope.

Burrows said something under his breath but shook his head as he stepped back a few feet. He found himself staring at the stall again and looked down at the foot of the corpse inside. He stared long enough to make sure the foot wasn’t moving and the body was still dead inside.

“Incredible! Absolutely incredible!” Manson belted out and Burrows backed up a few more feet.

“What, what is it?” The soldier asked.

“This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life. This specimen is alive and intact.”

Through Manson’s scope, the blood slide was magnified to a cellular level and the blood cells were still active with a foreign agent infecting the cells. A black spot centered each infected blood cell and vibrated intensely, spreading to each nearby cell to continue vibrating. The scientist was smiling from ear to ear when he looked up from the microscope. It was a strange smile that made Burrows feel uneasy; the soldier shifted his weight from one leg to the other.

“It’s still alive? The virus is still alive?” Burrows asked, still eyeing the foot in the stall.

“It’s actually quite remarkable, really. Those boys were able to identify the change so quickly. And the specimen is still alive after killing the host.” Manson jumped to his feet and ran to the file cabinet he placed against the wall. “I’ll have to take the utmost precautions.”

“What the fuck? So Bates was infected?” Burrows was becoming even more uneasy. “That’s fucking crazy. So what happens now? Are you gonna burn it or something?”

“Burn it? Why on Earth would I do that?” He chuckled and removed a baggy to ziplock the blood vial he got from Bates. After writing on a piece of tape, he placed it on the bag, labelling it Bates. “This is a scientific discovery that no one this far along into the apocalypse could ever dream of obtaining! Even in a sham of a laboratory like this, with my brilliance I’ll be able to do what not even the fools at the CDC could do! This specimen is the key to humanity’s revolution and it’ll be all