Dead Alive Trilogy (Book 1)-Before the storm

The Storm

Noah logged out of his office computer. It was almost the end of summer. Noah had to think of some way to teach Ham what to do if it hit the fan while he was in school. Noah exited his office, ready to go home for the weekend. He was stopped by Johnson.

“Hey, boss,” Johnson called, “Mr. Faulkner wants you in his office.”

“Can it wait for tomorrow?” Noah asked.

“He says it’s urgent.”

“Fine.”

Noah went over to Faulkner’s office. The secretary motioned him in.

“You wanted me sir?” Noah asked. He had trouble showing any respect for Faulkner after Svalbard.

“Yes I did,” started Faulkner, “We all know that express interest in Project Zulu.”

“It wasn’t a secret. Also it’s part of my job.”

“I realize that, but it’s taking up most of your time at work. It may be a distraction. So we’re taking you off and moving the experiments to a different location.”

“That’s not a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“You haven’t even been reading the test results! Zulus are stronger than people!”

“What does that have to do with anything? What are Zulus?”

“How are you moving it?”

“We’re packing a semi full of them.”

“They’ll bust out, or… make it crash or something! But they will get out.”

“How do you know?” Faulkner was getting angry, but not near as angry as Noah. Noah knew that this would happen, but that didn’t mean he had to let it.

“Have they left yet?” Noah asked urgently.

Faulkner looked at his watch, “No, but they’re leaving right now.”

Noah tore out the office and sprinted to the cargo garage. He burst through the door to the garage and spotted a small, white, unmarked trailer truck. The driver was just getting into the cab. Noah yelled for him to stop. The driver closed the door just in time to be oblivious to Noah. He reached the back of the trailer right as it left. Noah stood there in desperation.

Faulkner jogged in a minute or two later. Noah turned around and caught Faulkner by the tie. He dragged him over to the adjacent test room. As Noah predicted, a spare syringe filled with ZULU sat on the table inside.

He through Faulkner on to a gurney and held him down.

Noah grabbed the syringe. He pressed it against the left side of Faulkner’s neck without sticking it in.

“Internal jugular vein,” he said. Then he moved it to the right side, “common carotid artery. It will take the virus straight to the brain. You’ll be one of them in minutes.”

“Why?” Faulkner croaked.

“Because you stuck with something that is clearly too much for man to control. It came back to bite man in the ass. Because of you, millions of people will more than die.”

“Don’t tell me you weren’t enticed as well,” Faulkner added desperately, “You wanted to play God too.”

Noah shifted his weight to his other foot.

Faulkner continued, “You want to play God now too. You want to pass judgment on me yourself, as if it’s your place.” 

“No one deserves a fate worse than death,” Noah threw the syringe to the ground. It cracked and the virus leaked out onto the floor.