The Virus (13 page)

“It has been arranged for you to take
a regular shower, Miss Hanson,” he hissed her name, “and if you
would be so kind as to write down the products you require, they
will be provided as well.” It was apparent by the doctor’s strained
features, that, since his departure, he had been somehow coerced
into cooperation.

Although Delilah couldn’t quite fit
the pieces of this sudden change together, that didn’t matter just
now. What mattered was that she was finally getting what she
wanted. The doctor reluctantly handed her the writing utensils and
exited the room in a huff. She lost no time making an extensive
list of name brand facial treatments, hair moisturizers, lotions,
and the like, until she was satisfied. When she finished, she
waited to see if anyone would come to retrieve her list.

When no one did, she began to yell for
assistance. “Hello? Is anyone there?” she beckoned into the open
air. She wasn’t a gadget geek, but she knew there must be some kind
of surveillance equipment in the room, even if she couldn’t see it.
Sure enough, it wasn’t long before someone came to her aid. A
white-suited man she had not met before, came through her room
door. “Where’s Dr. Crangler?” she asked.

“Dr. Crangler is, uh, busy at the
moment. I will take your list and if you’ll follow me, I’ll take
you to your shower. Dr. Crangler will be with you
afterward.”

Delilah thought this over.
“I need the things on that list first. I can’t wash with regular
soap. Just doesn’t work for me. And the shower you taking me to,
it’s a
regular
shower, right? With running water and a new loofah and
everything, right?” the assistant nodded, even though he had no
idea what a ‘loofah’ was. “Good. Good. Well, first, I need these
things, and I’ll follow you wherever I need to go.” The assistant
looked flustered as he took the list and backed out of the room.
After about two and a half hours passed and Delilah hadn’t heard or
seen any sign of another living person, she began to fear that
perhaps she pushed her luck too far. Perhaps, she was mistaken in
assuming that she had the upper hand. Perhaps, she had dug herself
into an even deeper hole than that which she was already in. These
and other similar apprehensive musings quickly dissipated, however,
when she heard the heavy locking mechanism of her door giving way,
and in walked two of the doctors from earlier, each pushing a
rolling cart filled with the things Delilah had listed.

Everything was there and the exact
name brand that Delilah’s lengthy list stipulated. She looked at
the arrangement and smiled. This was the closest she had felt to
home since all this craziness began. The doctors left her to her
things but one returned a few moments later with a gown, underwear,
shoes, and a few other things—everything white—for Delilah to
change into after she had taken her shower. Most everything fit,
and she felt pampered (or at least close to it) again. With her
vigor—not to mention her assessment that perhaps she could work an
angle on this situation after all—renewed, she asked for Dr.
Crangler.

“He will be with you later on, Miss.
Hanson. After you’ve had your shower.” One of the doctors
answered.

“Please tell him I’d like
for him to keep his promise, please.” Delilah returned. “He said
that
he’d
show me
to the shower and I’d appreciate it if he did.” The doctor
addressed looked puzzled, almost the same look that Dr. Crangler
displayed earlier, but eventually acquiesced. Delilah knew what he
must be thinking, but didn’t bother to correct him. She would’ve
much rather been in her own home where the only people she summoned
in the first place were those on the payroll, but since this was
obviously not the case, she preferred to deal with one white-suited
stranger at a time, and right now, that stranger happened to be Dr.
Crangler. The two doctors in attendance left her, but not before
assuring her that Dr. Crangler would be with her shortly. It didn’t
escape her notice that they, too, spoke and dealt with her as one
might deal with expensive china too valuable to be
broken.

It was ironic that now
Delilah truly began to understand, at least in a manner relevant to
her, the truth of what Dr. Crangler had told her about The Virus
that was wreaking havoc on womankind and how important she now was
since she seemed to be the last woman on the planet who had not
been infected with it. The absolute gravity of the situation was
still not something she was able to digest, but if there was any
part of the story she
could
grasp onto for perspective, it was the fact that
she was extremely important. Even though Dr. Crangler had set out
to make this haughty young lady understand that here she would not
have her way so effortlessly as she was used to, it would seem that
he may not be as much in the advantage as he would’ve liked. Now,
as is often the case, the weightier struggles of mankind would be
predicated upon the incredibly less important contentions of a
select few—in this case, a select
two
.

Chapter 12

When Geoffrey came to, he immediately
noticed two things. One was an eerie crawling sensation on his
skin, as if a thousand more spiders had been added to the ones from
earlier, and though they seemed to no longer be armed with the
microscopic incinerators, they were still performing what felt like
terrain practice on his flesh. The heightened sensation sent a deep
shudder through him but did nothing to quell the feeling. The other
thing he noticed was that his room now had a small array of
furniture in it. Beside the bed he found himself on, he was also
now privileged with a small recliner, a settee, a simple rolling
table (on it were a few magazines with covers that suggested the
information inside was as bland and sterile as this secret
facility), and a small desk equipped with two drawers. All of
was—of course—white.

Geoffrey was glad to see that there
were some additions to his room, but disappointed to find that two
of the most important additions, a television or a radio, were
still missing. “Well, at least they gave me something to look at
besides four blank walls.” He mused aloud. He got up and scratched
his arm to see if it would help stop the invisible roving spiders.
It didn’t. He checked the new furniture more closely and found that
everything had been sturdily built and that the recliner was fine,
white leather. No standard issue stuff here. He checked the drawers
of his new desk. Both were filled with containers he wasn’t
familiar with, but they looked to be hygiene products he had never
seen populating the aisles of any Wal-Mart. He picked up a few of
the containers and studied them more closely. The labels had
detailed user instructions, but were nondescript otherwise.
Geoffrey expected as much. What he didn’t expect was the hand that
lighted on his left arm and the voice in his ear.

“Geoffrey,” said Dr. Crangler.
Geoffrey’s heart skipped a beat—a couple of beats actually—and the
spot on his upper arm where the suddenly materialized doctor had
touched, the same place that he had rubbed too hard earlier in the
sterilization shower, protested instantaneously. He nearly knocked
Dr. Crangler to the floor in an attempt to shake his hand loose
before he could catch himself.

“Sorry, Son, I was actually
trying
not
to
startle you,” said the doctor once he narrowly avoided being
assaulted.

“Well, you failed. Miserably.”
Geoffrey observed heatedly, gently stroking his upper arm. “Have
you been in here the whole time?” The doctor nodded. “Why didn’t I
see you, then?”

“I’ve already explained to you,” the
doctor began, “why everything in this facility has to be white, but
one of the adverse effects of that is that when your eyes see
little to no difference in their surroundings, they can start to
play tricks on you. You’re familiar with what happens when you
drive for any distance through heavily-forested routes?”

“Yeah, you get really tired, really
fast.”

“It’s something like that. Everything
starts looking the same and, well, you can miss things.”

There was one thing Geoffrey
definitely hadn’t missed and though it was nauseating to remember,
he needed answers. “What was that I saw on the monitors, Dr.
Crangler? What happened to that woman?”

The doctor sighed. “What you saw is
what every woman who intends to have a child can expect to happen
to her, unless we find a way to defeat this virus.” The doctor
sighed again, more heavily this time. He began stroking his chin
and though his eyes were meeting Geoffrey’s, his gaze seemed to be
focused inward. “We’ve tried test tube babies, in vitro
fertilization, everything we can think of. Nothing works. As soon
as the eggs are implanted their infected by the mother’s blood and
we don’t yet have the technology to grow children completely
without a womb…”

“Is there any way I could be taken out
of here for a while?” Geoffrey interrupted. The doctor started at
Geoffrey’s voice. He had almost forgotten his presence
completely.

“What was that?” he asked now that
Geoffrey had his attention again.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing some of those
heavily-forested areas now.” Geoffrey answered quickly. He had
wanted answers but the answers seemed more than they were worth at
the moment.

“We’ll have to see about that,” was
the doctor’s only reply.

“Well, to what do I owe the pleasure
of this visit, then?” Geoffrey asked, seeing that he could expect
to receive no further answers on the subject just now.

“You’re going to talk to your friend,
Mr. Reynolds, today.” Dr. Crangler answered
matter-of-fact.

Geoffrey’s face lit up. “Really?” he
asked.

He was surprised at his own
vigor. It wasn’t that he was excited to see Mr. Reynolds, rather,
he was excited to see
any
familiar face besides those of the doctors’. “So,
he’s out of his coma, or whatever was going on with him? Is he all
right? Does he remember anything?” Geoffrey was almost
giddy.

“No offense, Son, but if I never have
to deal with another slew of pressing questions from a patient
again in my life, I won’t be too upset.” observed the doctor.
“Hopefully, most of your questions will be answered when you speak
with him. But, before we go, I need to show you how to use some of
the things that have been brought for you.” Dr Crangler reached
into the top drawer of the desk and pulled out a rectangular
container with a small perforation on the upper side. He pulled out
a cloth that resembled a thick paper towel. “I assume you’ve been
experiencing the after effects of the sterilization
shower?”

“You mean the feeling that ants have
taken over my skin?” asked Geoffrey, sardonically “Yeah, I’ve been
experiencing it all right. What the hell is that
anyway?”

“Well, like I said, the human body has
long since formed a symbiotic relationship with the microorganisms
that the shower rids you of. The sensations you feel are your
body’s way of trying to adjust without them. But your body has
become so dependent on some of these organisms, that it cannot
function properly without them. That’s what this is for.” he
gestured toward the cloth that was now sitting atop the container.
“These are special. They’re saturated with a unique compound of
chemicals that aid your skin in adjusting to the lack of certain
bacteria. I developed it myself.” Dr. Crangler beamed just as he
did back when he was explaining the Cleaning Lights to Geoffrey.
“You are only to use them once a day. Be very careful that you
remember that—only once a day.”

“Oh, don’t worry.” advised Geoffrey,
seriously, “After that little shower incident, you can believe I
understand the importance of following directions to a tee
now.”

“Good. Good. All right, I’m going to
leave you alone for about an hour. As soon as I leave the room, you
are to rub this chemical over your entire body. When I return, I
will escort you to Mr. Reynolds’s room and I will instruct you on
what you are to do. Do you understand?”

“Sure, cover myself in whatever’s on
those towelettes and wait for you to return with further
instructions.”

“Good. Good. I will see you in an
hour, Mr. Summons.” Dr. Crangler exited the room.

Geoffrey watched him as he left and
realized it was easy to see the truth of the effects all this white
could have on the human eye. With his lab coat, pants, and shoes,
the only visible part of the doctor was his hair, and that, too,
was not far from white. In reality, it looked like Dr. Crangler had
exited as soon as he turned his back to Geoffrey because he blended
in so well with the surroundings.

“What if
we’re
the aliens?”
Geoffrey spoke to himself, as Dr. Crangler closed the door behind
him. “What if we’re really the ones mounting the invasion?” It was
certainly a plausible question, but not one that Geoffrey’s already
taxed mind was prepared to delve into. Instead, he headed toward
the desk. He grabbed the thick cloth that the doctor had left out
and undressed so he could cover himself in its thick chemical
mucous as he was instructed. He had no clock by which to gauge
time, but when the doctor returned, he thought that it had been a
full hour.

“Are we ready, Mr. Summons?” Dr.
Crangler asked from the door way. “I thought I’d announce myself
before I entered your room. It would seem that you can be quite
violent when you’re startled.” Geoffrey figured the doctor was
trying to lighten the mood, so he answered in a brief, dry chuckle.
The doctor glanced at the desk. The towelette container was back in
the drawer, but the one Geoffrey had used was crumpled up on top of
it. “Good. Good.” Answered the doctor “I see you’ve used the
cleansing cloth.”