AB (The Blake Reynolds Chronicles Book 1) (18 page)

“Where are they
located?”

The man pointed
up. “They are out there.”

“What is the
message that you plan to send?”

“That is up to
Lord Dameon, but I know it will be wonderful.”

Then the little
man looked at Blake intensely. “Do you have a family?”

“Yes, why?”

“How does it
feel to know that once the creators come they will be exterminated?”

Blake could
feel the frustration grow inside him. Blake stood so he could walk out of the
room, but an impulse overtook him, and he backhanded the AB across the face.

The infected
man’s smile never diminished, even though blood was trickling down the side of his
jaw.

Blake quickly
made his way to the commander’s office to brief him on what little he had
learned. Just after he entered, a soldier from the front gate came rushing in. He
was panting heavily and gave a quick salute when he saw the two men.

“Sir, one of
our missing soldiers just wandered through the front gate.”

“Thank you. Have
him escorted to my office as soon as he is checked out by the medical staff,”
the commander replied.

The soldier
saluted and sprinted back to the front gate.

“So Blake, what
did you learn?”

“Not much. It
just kept rambling on about the creators, their gift, and sending a message to
them.”

“Did he say
what the message was?”

“No, but he
made it seem like it is the most important thing in the world. Oh and one other
thing – it said that they are close to having the transmitter complete. It also
believes that once the message makes it to the creators, they will come here
and wipe us out.”

“Thank you,
Blake. That couldn’t have been an easy assignment. We really need to find out
more about the message. You might want to hang around and see what the missing soldier
has to say.”

“Yes sir.”

After the
soldier was given a quick once-over by the medics, he was hastily helped to the
commander’s office, where he was given a large drink of water. Blake entered
the room as the commander began questioning him.

“Son, we had a
report that you had either been captured or killed. How did you escape?”

“I didn’t, sir.
They let me go. They wanted me to deliver a message to you. They have two
nuclear bombs. I saw them with my own eyes. They say that they have the
knowledge to detonate them and will set them off if you launch any kind of
attack against them.”

“Was there
anything else?”

“No sir, that’s
all.”

“Very well, go get
yourself thoroughly checked out at the medical tent and get some food.”

“Yes sir.”

The soldier was
escorted out. Blake and the commander glanced at each other with concern on
their faces.

“We had better
inform Pacific Command and update them on our latest findings”, the commander
said.

As they were
waiting to be put through, there was a sense of urgency in the air with the
possibility of aliens coming to wipe them out and the ABs having nukes.

“So Captain
Reynolds, if you were in charge, what would you recommend we do?” Major
Williams asked.

“Well, sir, I
would throw all of your eggs in one basket. Seeing that it seems like they are
gathering in one place anyway, I would hit them with everything that we have. Retrieve
the nukes, destroy the communication tower, and kill the son of a bitch that is
leading them.”

“I have to say
I agree with you.”

The general was
quickly briefed. He let both men know that he would get back with them in
thirty minutes.

Both soldiers
quickly left the office to get some food before the general got back with them.

The light on
the video screen came on, and the general appeared. “Commander, Captain Reynolds.
I have just gotten off the phone with Washington. We have been ordered to
suspend all operations on the west coast and focus all of our efforts to bring
down the communication center that you and your teams have discovered and
retrieve the nukes. Air support won’t be involved because of the two nuclear
bombs. We don’t want to take a chance of hitting them since we don’t know where
they’re located at this time. Also, we can’t use heavy artillery for the same
reason. This will have to be an old-fashioned ground assault.

“It will be a
three-pronged attack. The naval forces will come in from the coast. All
available personnel, military and civilians, in the San Diego area will attack from
the south, and all the soldiers at Camp Pendleton and our forces north and east
will converge on your position to start their assault from there. The attack
will commence in twenty-eight hours once all the troops are in place. I want
every civilian capable of fighting to be included in the plans. If we fail and
they send that message, or the nukes go off, we have no future to worry about.”

Blake cringed;
he knew this would include Tara.

“Captain, you
are the most familiar with the area, so I am giving you a battlefield promotion.
You are now a major. Congratulations, I know that you will do a great job. I am
putting you in charge of leading the ground forces that will be attacking the
northern front.”

“Yes sir,”
Blake replied questioningly.

“I want status
reports every four hours on your preparations.”

“Yes sir,”
replied the commander.

The screen shut
off. The commander turned to Blake. “You need to get some sleep. Report back
here at 0600.”

Blake entered
his tent, set the alarm on his watch for 0530, and quietly slipped onto the cot
alongside Tara. He knew that sleep would be hard to come by tonight.

After the Mercy
put out to deeper waters, the medical staff was ordered to meet in the main
conference room. At the front of the room stood Captain Nellis and Dr. Fuller.
The captain tapped the microphone to get everyone's attention.

“You are all
aware of the attack that happened onboard our ship this morning. Many brave men
died in the defense of this ship and protecting Ensign James, whom we hope
holds the solution to this mess. We honor those who have died, and the best way
to honor them is to save this planet. I was informed by Dr. Fuller that Ensign
James is out of surgery and should make a full recovery. His blood and what’s
in it is what we truly need at this time. Dr. Fuller will now give us the plan
of action for the day.”

Dr. Fuller
stepped up to the head of the table. “First, we need to isolate the antigen
from Ensign James’s blood. Next, we need to see how it will react to the AB's blood.
Once we have determined the effectiveness of the antigen, we need to figure out
a way to distribute the antigen to any given area, if not to the entire planet.
We will split up in two teams: one to come up with the treatment, led by myself,
and the other to come up with a way to disperse it. Dr. Lee will lead that team.
I want status reports every two hours on all your progress. Are there any other
questions?” No one spoke. “OK, dismissed.”

Stacy and one
of the lab assistants had left Ensign James alone in his room where he was
resting after surgery. They had hoped to get about 50 milliliters of blood, but
with the amount he had lost during the fight, they decided it wouldn’t be
prudent to draw so much. Twenty would have to do for now.

Stacy and her
lab assistant stepped into the lab to take two different samples. First, some
of the infected blood they had collected. The other sample had some of the
bacteria growing in a culture that had been dispersed when the meteor exploded
and caused the infection. From what they had determined from their studies over
the last few days, the bacteria spread and replicated as well as the nanobots,
which used tissue from the host. Instead of metal and circuits, the nanobots
had a cellular structure similar to tissue. They also noticed that each nanobot
was perfectly reproduced from the original bot.

For the first experiment,
Stacy put a drop of infected blood onto a slide. They then put a drop of James’s
blood onto the same slide to see what happened as they watched through the microscope.
At first, it appeared that nothing was going to happen, and Stacy cursed under
her breath. As she was about to roll back and prepare another slide, she
noticed some movement in the infected cells.

The blood from
the infected cells lost its cohesion and dissolved into the surrounding liquid.
This didn’t surprise her, seeing that the blood had come from one of the dead
infected donors.

She had more
hopes for the next test because it came from a living sample. She scraped a small
sample and put it on the glass slide. Under the microscope, she could see the
bacteria growing and spreading. At the center of each infected bacterial cell
was the tiny nanobot replicating. It was programmed to grow and change its
host. She then put a small sample of the antigens extracted out of James’s
blood on the glass slide and watched through the eyepiece of the microscope.
Almost immediately, the antigens attached themselves to the cell walls of the
bacteria. Once attached, the macrophages and neutropils in James’s blood
identified the cell as foreign and started to break down the cellular wall. The
nanobot in the cell seemed to detect that it was under attack and tried to fill
the holes in the cell wall. However, the macrophages worked harder. By the time
the macrophages had finished attacking, the entire contents of the cell spilled
out. Without the cell wall, the nanobots quit moving as if they had died.

Stacy yelped
for joy, which startled her assistant. “It works! Now we have a way to fight
back.” She faced her assistant. “Run and get the captain.” The assistant rushed
away without a word.

It was only a few minutes before the assistant and Captain
Nellis sprinted through the door. Stacy couldn’t control her excitement before
she explained.

“Each of the
infected has a way to fight the infection. However, the bacterium is
suppressing the host’s immune system using the nanobots somehow to make the
body think that it is a natural part of the host. Then it’s left to uncontrollably
spread throughout the body. What I have discovered is that once the infected
blood cells come into contact with James’s antigens, the host body’s immune
system recognizes that the infection is foreign. Then it attacks the foreign
cells like it would with any infection.

“I suppose if a
person is newly infected they might be cured by this discovery, but
unfortunately, most of the infected people have had the nanobots in them too
long. With the infection being focused on the brain, most likely it will simply
shut down, and the host will die.”

Captain Nellis nodded.
“That is unfortunate, but at least now we have a fighting chance to save what
is left of humanity. I will inform Pacific Command of your results. Dr. Fuller,
what is the next step?”

“I suppose we
need to test our hypothesis. We need to inject an infected person with the
antigen from James’s blood and see what happens.”

“Very well. I
will have our returning SEAL team capture an AB and bring them on board for
testing.”

Dr. Lee put his
hand on Stacy’s back. “Good work. You might have just saved the world.”

After the SEALs
received their orders to capture a live infected, they put a plan in place to
fulfill their mission.

Through their
binoculars the SEALs noticed some movement not too far ashore. They crept close
to the movement to see what looked to be a small girl, about eight or nine
years old. She pulled a cart down the street, struggling with the weight of
whatever was inside.

They crept
behind a large bush by the street where the little girl was heading. Once she
passed the bush, they jumped out and grabbed the girl. She screamed and snarled,
but the SEAL covered her mouth. The girl chomped on his hand in retaliation.

“Ow!” the SEAL
yelped. His companions laughed. With his free hand, he slapped the AB girl
across the face and knocked her unconscious. The other SEAL turned and gave him
a stern look.

“This used to
be a little girl – now she’s just another AB enemy,” he said as he picked her
up and placed her over his shoulder.

The trip back
to the boat didn’t take long. The girl’s hands and legs had been tied tightly
so that when she woke up she wouldn’t be able to offer any resistance. The spot
where the girl had bitten the SEAL’s hand was still red. Once they were next to
the ship, their boat was hoisted onboard by several Marines, and the girl was
escorted to the main exam room while she protested.

Dr. Fuller and the
captain entered the room. The prisoner stared at Stacy with small yellow sad
eyes. The dirty little girl was wearing a pink skirt, and her blonde hair was
tied in a ponytail. Her mouth was gagged. Stacy looked at the Marines that stood
guard behind her.

“Why is she
gagged?” she asked.

“She was
spitting at us!” they protested.

Stacy turned to
the captain. “I don’t know if I can do this. She’s so young.”

John walked
over to the infected girl and placed his hand on the back of her head.
“Remember, this thing isn’t even human anymore. If given the chance, she would
kill you where you stand.”

“I know, but it
still doesn’t seem right.”

“Just focus on
how many lives you’ll be saving. Shall we get started?”

Stacy walked to
the table and picked up a small syringe off a cart. It contained a small amount
of the extracted antigens. Stacy reached for an antiseptic pad and cleaned off
an area on the girl’s arm. She knew that if the injection was successful, the
girl would likely die, but Stacy still felt like she needed to treat the little
girl like a human and sterilize the injection site anyway.

She stuck the
needle into the girl’s arm and injected the antigens. The girl screamed from
the pain and cried through her gag. Stacy stood back, crossed her arms, and looked
at the captain. “Now we wait.”

At first, the
girl looked around the room. Her yellow eyes seemed filled with tears, anger,
hate, and fear. After about fifteen minutes, the girl’s eyes began to lose some
of her rage, and she stopped struggling. Stacy took a blood sample and looked
at it under the microscope. Half of the infected cells began to dissolve, and
the nanobots stopped moving.

Captain Nellis looked
in the microscope and confirmed the observation. The captain placed his hand on
her shoulder. “Well done. These are encouraging results.”

Stacy tried to
smile but couldn’t. She stared at the young girl’s face. About thirty minutes
into the test, Stacy noticed something different about the young girl’s eyes.
She grabbed a small flashlight off of the tray and flashed it in the girl’s
eyes. It appeared that around the edge of the bright yellow eye, the color changed.
Stacy could hardly believe what she was seeing. It appeared that the little
girl’s immune system attacked the foreign bacterium and changed her cells back
to normal. The color around the edge of the pupil turned a bright blue.

For an instant,
Stacy had a sliver of hope that the little girl might be saved. However,
minutes later, the girl shook violently. Stacy pulled the stethoscope from
around her neck and placed it in her ears. She listened to the girl’s chest.

Dr. Fuller couldn’t hear a steady heartbeat. Instead, everything
seemed to be out of rhythm. As she continued to listen, the girl’s seizures slowed.
All the abnormal noises quieted until the only sound was her beating heart. The
girl’s eyes suddenly turned completely blue, but then they closed. The last
breath of life escaped her lips.