Amoeba (The Experiments) (85 page)

11:50 a.m.

“Sarge, like
, you said to get him as high as I could. I did. Check out Billy-Meister. He’s, like, to the limits.”

“Yes, Rickie
, I know.” Jake grunted, pulling on a strap. He looked up to the ceiling at another loud ‘crack.’. “Thank God they aren’t freezing again. I don’t think this structure can take it anymore.” Jake stood up and walked out as they stood by the entrance door. They could see the frosted amoebas outside. He wore his headset and gloves and he visually checked Billy. He laid on a table top, covered with blankets, strapped down. And to those straps that held him, there were four belts close to the corners of the table. Along with baggage, each of them, Jake, Cal, Rickie, and Stan would grab a belt and pull Billy.

Billy’s words were s
low and slurred, yet with a hint of ‘up’. “Explain . . . to me. One more time.” He coughed. “How this is gonna work. Rickie, says I’m dinner and . . . um bait. Yeah, that’s it. For the amoebas.”

Jake looked at Rickie who snickered. “It’s real simple
, Bill. Again, for the tenth time, we’re taking you out of here. More like sliding. Do you remember sled rides?”

“Yeah.” Billy smiled.

“I don’t,” Rickie said.

“You’re from California
,” Jake snapped.

“Jake?” Billy called him. “So are you gonna push me
?”

“Yeah, we’re gonna give you a running start, push you
, and all jump on for the ride.”

“Jake.” Cal gave a warning tone to him. “No
, Billy, this is just an easy way to get you there.”

“Thanks
, Cal.” Billy looked up and smiled at her. “You’re the greatest.” Billy coughed and made a wincing face, smacking his lips together. “Now . . . am I supposed to get this nasty taste in my mouth?”

“Like bleach?” Jake asked him.

“Yeah!” Billy pointed.

“Yes
,” Jake told him. “That’s the infection.” Jake looked at everyone. “All right. Take your positions. Grab your gear and get ready. As soon as we get the ‘all clear’, we move out of these doors.”

“Um . . . Jake.” Billy called his name again. “One more thing.”

Jake looked straight ahead with an annoyed face before turning around. “Bet me I know what this is.” He swayed his head back to look at Billy. “Yes Billy?”

“I’m leaving the island
, right?”

“Yes.”

“So you and I are gonna . . .” Billy winked and made a single click of his tongue. “Work out that deal, right?”

“Bill
,” Jake stated firmly. “Ten times. Ten times in the last ten minutes you brought up that deal. Now bring it up one more fuckin time and your amputee ass will be hopping the mile and a quarter to the beach.”

“I could do that if you guys don’t want to carry me.” Billy looked at all of them above him. “I’m up for it. I can do it.”
He peered at Cal. “I can.”

“I know you can.” Cal smiled down at him.

“Sarge, I say we let him. Wouldn’t it be funny?” Rickie snickered.

“No.” Jake grumbled
and let out a breath of relief when he head static in his earpiece. “Thank God.” Suddenly, Jake released the strap and spun to look at the others. His lip curled in bewilderment. “Why . . . why is Aldo talking to me?”

Cal grinned. “Oh Jake. Tell him I said hi.”

“No,” Jake snapped, then spoke into his microphone. “What was that, Aldo? Yeah. We’re on our way.” Jake reached down for his strap. He and Rickie were in the front by Billy’s feet. “Everyone ready? It’s gonna be cold out there. But . . . it’s time.” Securing the two fire boxes over his one shoulder, Jake gripped the strap, and he and Rickie pushed open the double glass doors. The five of them, Billy lying on the home made sled, very slowly and carefully made their way out.

12:22 p.m.

Aldo looked like ‘the man’. Or rather he felt like he was. Standing arms folded, stern look on his face, staring at the monitors, snapping out orders. Like the star of some movie in which he was leading a space command, Aldo stood there.

“Zoom in on that aerial
,” Aldo instructed Kirk. “I wanna see how they’re doing on that beach.”

“This is the best we can do
,” Kirk stated bringing in the shot to the beach where Jake and the others had arrived. They were in the distance.

“How are we coming with those amoebas
?” Aldo asked Douglass and Ivan.

They looked at each other, then Douglass answered. “They’re um . . . still frozen?”

“Colin.” Aldo faced him. “How are we doing on time?”

“Right on schedule. In fact, let’s run a signal test.” He looked behind Aldo to Daniela. “Daniela, you’ve been waiting for this. Test the signal. Hit the button on the left not the right or you’ll blow them up.”

“Got it.” Daniela hit the button. Instead of the six beep signal connection sound, there was only a click.

Colin’s eyes widened. “What happened? Press it again.”

Daniela did. Another click. “It’s not working.”

Aldo lightly smacked him in the back. “What the fuck did you do to it
? I told you not to play with it.”

“I didn’t.” Daniela defended. “Honestly.”

Kirk rolled his chair closer and watched the light as he tried to test the signal. There were a series of clicks. He looked up to Colin and Aldo. “It’s not the boxes, it’s the link. Something is wrong with the central box.” He pulled the control center up on the screen. “I’m guessing the amoebas covered it.”

“What do we do?” Aldo
looked at Colin.

“It’ll have to be checked out. How
, though?”

Aldo hesitated then looked at the screen. “Graison.”

12:24 p.m

Bags loaded in the boat along with Stan and Billy who was lying conformably, Jake and Cal prepared to get in along with Rickie.

“Sarge
,” Rickie said softly looking at Billy who was coughing with his eyes closed. “He, like, just had the shortest high in the history of drugs. What happened?”

“He’s bad
, Rickie. He’s going to need immediate medical attention when we get back.” Jake held Cal’s arm helping her in the boat. He noticed she stopped. “Cal, what’s wrong?”

“Amoebas.” Cal looked to the water’s edge. “Why aren’t they getting me
?”

“The cold slows them down. Weakens them. Get in the boat.” Jake helped her in at the same time Rickie stepped in. His fingers slipped from her arm. He stepped back holding the earpiece to his ear. “What was that Aldo?” Jake spun his back to the boat. “So.”
He looked back at Cal. “I’m not wanting to be the hero here,” he grumbled. “All right! All right. But you tell the choppers to pick them up as scheduled and get me in the water. I’m not making them wait. I’m on it.” he lowered the microphone.

“Jake
, get in.” Cal looked up as she sat down.

“Listen. You hold on to Billy
, Cal. Rickie and Stan are gonna have to row out . . .”

“Get in the boat Jake!” Cal snapped at him. “What the hell.”

“Cal!” Jake moved closer. “Listen to me. There’s a problem with the detonation link up and . . .”

“That is not your problem. Get in the boat.”

“It is if this whole entire scenario ends up being real, now isn’t it?” He softened his voice. “It’s not that far out there. You guys row out. I’ll head back to the control center, do what they need me to do, and then I’ll swim for it. Pick me up in the water. But head out there now.”

“Jake.” Cal grabbed his hand. “I don’t want you to stay behind.”

“I won’t be behind for long. Now get going.” He kissed Cal, and before any more could be said, he gripped the edge of the boat and pushed it forward over the ice, through the slush, and into the water. “Go.”

Cal, Billy against her, kept watching Jake as Rickie and Stan picked up the oars and began to row.

Jake stood on the beach for a minute and tried to make eye contact with Cal one more time before he went back to the control center. When he felt as if he did, he took a deep breath, and even though it wasn’t something he wanted to do, Jake headed back to fix the box. He moved as fast as he could on the slick surface, and just about halfway through the wooded area, Jake could hear the sound of the choppers returning and drawing nearer. To him, it was a sign of relief. If nothing else, even if something went wrong while he was on that island, at least Cal was being lifted off.

12:36 p.m.

“This is fly boy.” The chopper pilot spoke over the control room speaker. “Baggage in, the injured man is in, and we’re loading in the last three now.”

“Good
,” Aldo said. “Now hang tight until I tell you. We have one more you’re gonna have to pick up in the ocean.”

“Roger that
, Caldwell. We’ll lift up and circle around.”

Aldo looked to the screen and the shot of the Control building. He could see Jake with the box
. Aldo nodded in anxiousness. “Let’s go, Jake. You can do this.”

Jake’s voice came over the radio. “Found the problem
. Infrared signal is totally iced up. I’ll clear it, and it should be fine.”

“Excellent.” Aldo smiled and winked at Colin. “It won’t be long. He got it.”

“And we got something else.” Kirk spoke with worry. “Look at the aerial.”

Aldo lowered the microphone to the headset. “Holy shit.” He
, like the others that remained in the control room, looked at the screen. In the middle of the grey frozen island, a black spot appeared. The roundness of the small dot seemed to grow wider with each passing second.

12:42 p.m.

Cal was the last to get into the chopper which hovered so close to the water. She nearly rolled in her entrance inside.

“Ma
’am.” The pilot looked back. “Secure yourself. And I need someone to shut that door.”

“We’ll leave it open!” Cal yelled above the noise. “And I need a line to secure in
case we have to just lift my husband from the water.” Cal leaned into the pilot’s seat.

The pilot pointed back. “There’s one right behind the back seat.”

“Go on and lift up,” Cal told him. “I can balance.”

The pilot took a quick double take at a pregnant Cal. “If you say so.” And he began to lift the chopper as Cal grabbed the line.

12:43 p.m.

Jake set the central detonation box down. “Got it. Check your signal,” he told Aldo.

There was a pause before Also came back on. “It works. But Jake . . . you may have another problem.”

Aldo didn’t have to tell Jake what it was. As soon as he said that, Jake knew what he meant. Slowly, Jake rose to his feet and he realized he was no longer standing on ice but slush. Thick watery slush. And there was a slight hissing, slow and low. The reviving amoebas could be heard.

“Shit.” Jake’s eyes shifted around to the slow moving of the trees.

12:44 p.m.

“Timing,” Daniela called out. “We can time it.” He looked up to the screen. “It takes three seconds for the signal to go off. When we see Jake hit that beach, we hit the detonation, and he can dive under the water and avoid the fire.”

Colin swayed his head. “That’s got to take great timing and coordination.”

“Hell, I’m the video king. I can do this.”

Aldo shrugged. “What choice do we have
?” He spoke in the headset again. “Jake! Are you running?”

“As fast as I can.”

“Move your ass faster, Jake. We’ll send the chopper for you in the ocean. You may see some fireworks, but they’ll get you.”

12:45 p.m.

Jake’s long stride and heavy running steps caused large splashes as he raced through the woods. He charged the fastest he could, wishing he could run even faster. But in his heart he knew he could never be as fast as the amoebas that began to drip in their revival from being frozen down from the trees at him. The hissing pitch grew higher and quicker. The trees rustled more. “Aldo,” he called out hearing the chopper close in. “Tell them to pull back. I won’t make it. They’re reviving too fast. Tell them to pull back and get my wife out of here!” Jake kept running, hoping against all hope he could make it to the beach.

12:46 p.m.

“What!” Cal blasted out.

“We have orders, Ma’am, to head back.”

“You will do no such thing! Turn this chopper around.” Cal slammed her hand on the back of his seat.