Degeneration (62 page)

             
Andy struggled weakly against the nylon straps, trying to sit up.

             
Dr. Gladstone placed his hand on Andy’s chest and gently pressed him back down against the bed.

             
“
Relax
, we’ll have you out soon, I promise,” Dr. Gladstone said. “In the meantime, I need to order another battery of tests.”

             
“Raleigh… how is Raleigh? My brother? Did he get…? No, wait,” Andy winced and shook his head.

             
“Your
head
, Andy, how is your head feeling?” Dr. Gladstone asked, ignoring his questions.

             
Andy stared at the television and sighed. The television said that it was still acquiring a signal.

             
“I’m fine,” Andy muttered, thinking about Richard.

             
“I hope that’s true, and I hope that what we’re seeing is just acute radiation syndrome, but I… don’t like some of your test results. I’d like to schedule you for another MRI and take a better look inside your head. I want to make sure the brain swelling hasn’t gotten any worse.”

             
“Brain swelling?” Andy asked, alarmed.

             
“Yes, it can be an early symptom of infection, which is alarming given the circumstances. As a precautionary measure, I’d like to place you in a medically induced coma for a couple of days until the rest of the test results get back. It will slow the progression and slow the swelling. Do you know what a medically induced coma is? It’s perfectly safe. It will only be for three days, maximum, until we figure out what’s going on with you.”

             
“No,” Andy said, adamantly shaking his head. “I don’t want to be put under again.”

             
Dr. Gladstone injected the
propofol
into the IV injection port anyway, despite the objection.

             
“Three days, maximum,” Dr. Gladstone assured as the drug flowed into Andy’s veins and coursed throughout his system.

Within seconds, Andy drifted off again.

He had horrible nightmares about Richard.

Day 7

Day 103

44

T
he overhead
lights were dark when
Andy jolted awake and his eyes shot open.
A
wall-mounted emergency
lamp
illuminated a sick
yellow
glow in the corner of the room. T
he scent of smoke hung in the sour air
and had overpowered the hospital scent
. He groaned,
rubbed his aching head, and tried to sit up.

The nylon straps held him down against the bed.

Andy panicked and glanced around the room. His IVs were
dry and
their plastic sacks
hung
flat
. The television showed nothing but static.

Outside, it looked like another beautiful day in Atlanta. The sun was shining bright, the sky was clear, and the streets below were busy with the typical hustle and bustle of the commuters.

Muffled in the distance, he thought that he heard somebody moving outside in the hallway.

Andy tried to scream for someone, but found that he had no voice to scream with.

Andy violently twisted and contorted his entire body, struggling to free himself from the nylon straps holding him down.

The strap around his left wrist loosened and had some slack; he had lost a lot of weight.

Andy slid his arm free and methodically released the strap’s metallic clasps.

The straps fell against the floor one by one and he was free.

Groaning, he swung his feet to the floor and stood
, keeping a hand on his bed to support his emancipated and atrophied muscles.

T
he
bed
rolled away from him
and his head spun with vertigo.

Hunger consumed him to the core.

He
staggered against his IV pole and sent it chattering against the floor. The IV’s needle ripped out of his arm but didn’t draw any blood. \

He steadied himself.

             
Andy hoarsely yelled, trying to find his voice. He waved frantically at the camera mounted in the ceiling.

             
There was no response.

             
He staggered over to the door.

             
The door was pressurized locked in place by hydraulic mechanisms on all four corners.

             
Andy pushed against it, groaning, but it didn’t budge an inch. He pulled on the handle, but it refused to give.

             
He stumbled over to the wall mounted television and flipped through the channels. Most of the channels were static. Only one channel came through and it was broadcasting a foreign news network.

             
The grainy video footage showed protestors clashing with riot police in the middle of a wide cobblestone street. The caption at the bottom of the screen read: Grippe Se Propage!

             
He limped away from the television and went to the window.

             
Even though he was multiple stories high, the narrow ledge outside the window would have to be his only escape. Below, he saw that the streets were full of pedestrians. Perhaps, if he was lucky, one of them would spot him on standing on the ledge of the hospital and call for help.

             
He picked up the IV pole and smashed it against the window as hard as he could.

             
The video screen shattered and bathed the room in a shower of sparks. The image of Atlanta instantly disappeared and the shattered video screen filled the room with murky smoke that reeked of burnt plastic.

             
Andy, stunned, dropped the IV pole and slowly reached a shaky hand out towards the shattered screen, trembling.

             
The screen flashed again and threw out another shower of sparks into the room, making Andy cover his face and stumble backwards.

             
The air stopped circulating out of the overhead vents and the hydraulic door locks disengaged. The overhead emergency lights powered on and bathed the room in red light.

             
“
Priority alert,
” a monotonic female voice announced overhead, “
a critical containment system malfunction has occurred. Biological specimen containment has been compromised. Automated fail-safe programing has been activated. Facility will self-sanitize in five minutes. All personnel must evacuate immediately. This is not a drill.”

             
He quickly trudged towards the door and pushed against it.

             
The heavy door swung open.

The door was labeled ‘Specimen Room 1’.

             
He cautiously stepped out into the metallic corridor and stared in disbelief.

             
“
Priority alert,
” the female voice announced, “
Specimen Room One’s door has been opened without clearing biometric safeguards. Security breach, security breach... Sanitizing Specimen Room One.”

             
Andy turned and stared into his hospital room.

             
A fine mist started to spray down from the sprinkler heads in the room. It smelt like rubbing alcohol or some similar type of accelerant.

             
Andy slammed the heavy door shut and pressed his body weight up against it.

             
The room erupted in a giant fireball and a ball of flames flung the door open and threw Andy against the opposite wall.

             
The fire extinguished and black smoke churned out from the room like a furnace.

             
“Specimen Room One has been sanitized. Facility-wide sanitization will commence in four minutes and counting. All personnel must evacuate,
” the voice announced overhead.

             
Andy quickly got back on his feet and hobbled towards the elevator at the far end of desolated corridor.

             
The corridor was is dismal condition. Most of the overhead lights were off and the other specimen rooms were sealed shut. He passed a window looking into a laboratory on his right. The lab was abandoned and looked ransacked.

             
Andy focused his attention towards the elevator, hobbling towards it as quickly as he could.

             
“Sanitization will commence in three minutes and counting,
” the voice announced overhead.

             
Andy reached the end of the corridor and frantically pushed the elevator button.

The elevator hummed to life.

He looked over at the window next to the elevator into the security station. Two decomposing corpses wearing combat fatigues sat slouched at their static-speckled computer terminals. Their eyes had sunken deep into their skulls and maggots were snaking their way underneath the corpse’s leathery skin.

Andy looked away from the grotesque sight.

The elevator arrived and the lift’s heavy blast doors slid open.

A decomposed soldier sat slouched in the corner of the elevator, weapon beside him. His mummified-looking corpse sat amidst a swarm of ants and flies.

The stench was overpowering and beyond description.

Andy nearly vomited in revulsion.

“
Sanitization will commence in two minutes and counting.
”

An alarm blared as the system commenced the final sequence.

Andy held his hand over his mouth and entered the elevator. He stared at the buttons and mashed the one at the top labeled ‘Surface Level’.

The elevator doors slid shut as it started its rapid ascent.

Andy stared at the corpse of the soldier’s corpse, uneasy.

The corpse didn’t move, and, judging by the state of decomposition, hadn’t in some time.

“
Sanitization will commence in one minute.”

The elevator stopped and the doors slid open.

Unrelentingly bright sunlight poured into the elevator and blinded Andy, disorientating him.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and stared in disbelief.
Saguaro cacti
covered the flat desert landscape as far as he could see. The sky was clear the sun was bright, and the heat was intolerable.

Clearly, he was not in Atlanta or anywhere else even remotely near Georgia.

Andy stepped out of the elevator and looked around…

A small indiscreet chain-link fence surrounded the minuscule elevator shaft. Outside of the gated perimeter, there was an abandoned small landing strip and empty helicopter landing pad; both of them looked unused for quite a while. In addition, there were twelve rows of solar energy collection cells, all of which appeared very dirty.