Edict 42

Chapter 3 - Ryan

The wind blew through the window gently causing the blind to move and the bright sun to warm Ryan’s face. Ryan opened his eyes and sat up as the purple sheet fell to the floor. His head hurt and he still felt tired. He gazed around the spacious room it was predominately white. Diane was fascinated with the colour.

He took his phone off the white countertop. He had placed it there to charge from last night. From the moment he turned it on a string of messages came up on the phone. Many concerned friends had messaged him, including Danny. He wondered if Danny would believe him if they talked. He should, shouldn’t he? He always had those long drawn out conversations with him about Aliens. He would need Dan to help him when everything goes crazy. He was the one who had made a bunker but he never got there. The two had lost contact and when Ryan arrived at the bunker he didn’t have the code to get in. He wouldn’t allow that to happen again. More than friendship Dan was the perfect man to get the job done especially for what he needed to undertake.

He pulled up the number and pressed it placing the phone to his ear, it rang.

“Hello,” the voice spoke.

“It’s me,” Ryan responded.

“Ryan, geez man you had me worrying for a long time. Where are you?” Danny asked.

“I’m home.”

“Alright, I will swing over there in an hour,” Danny said.

Ryan got up from bed, bathe and changed into new clothes. He had to start planning again for what was to come, but he needed people that would believe him first.

He walked towards his study.Through the glass door, Ryan saw the many books on both sides as he opened the door. Greeting him in the centre of the room was a laptop seated on a table and behind it a chair. On the right of the table was a white board with a few markers at the bottom.

Ryan wasted no time getting to work. He compiled all the information that he had. First, he wrote the date of the first wave of the attack it was a few years from now. He wrote the date out on the board, he tried to remember where he was when it happened but couldn’t get a true grip.

The parasite is dorminant now it cannot spread to others but the population is misled to believe that touch might bring it back. Nothing scientific just people and their own superstition The parasite can be spread from water, the soil, insects, blood and s*x. Outside the human body it can only last a day or two on its own maybe because its not accustom to our atmosphere or it being alien. Ryan wondered but he had never been able to conclusively determine this.

The parasite’s awareness started with cannibalism and people going missing, but was it something he could cure? He knew he was immune but not everyone else was. Those that were immune became the parasites first target. He figure statistically, it would be one in twenty people that would be out right immune.

Those who were not immune first started to feel extremely hungry and unable to satisfy their hunger, this basic instinct caused them to attack other humans. The Manere Parasitus was an after effect of the immortality that was created and implanted in children at birth and adults which was also how everyone had their own ID chip. The scientist who had created the immortality had died and the government had classified all of his information. Not even his name was known, he was just called the father of immortality. He had always found this strange but never questioned it because the reasoning was it could be dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands. If he wasn’t able to cure this, his options were to survive with his family and whoever else he could and that’s where convicing Danny would be the greatest asset. Out of all the people Ryan knew he was the only one capable of preparing for something like this.

The people with the pins evolved into flesh eaters and those that did not have it did not change. There were also some people with the pin that didn’t change at all, what were the conditions for these changes? He had summised it before to the Blue Poppers stimulating the parasites into awakening and with that they made their way up towards the brain.

The parasites hijacked the human’s brain and coordinated these changes in their body and if the human resisted they couldn’t go pass the first stage, the flesh eaters. The parasite was still capable of multiplying even in its dormant stage. If he could find out what made the body reject it maybe it could be applied to others, but that was a long shot. In cases where the Manere Parasitus couldn’t take full control of the host. The host body would start to change and take a mix between a human and parasite as it spawned its way into a grotesque monster holding onto the host’s head. Maybe if he stopped the Blue Poppers from being distrubted out he would be able to stop the parasites in the future from awakening. But not having the information from Alina was a problem on the break up of what she had identified. Where was she anyway?

The doorbell rang, breaking Ryan out of his concentration.

Danny was already here?

Ryan walked quickly out of the study down the hall and through the kitchen to the door. He peeped through the hole and was surprised with what he saw outside. It was the government again. The same man he had spoken to yesterday.

He slowly opened the door as the man smiled at him. He was not alone, two others stood by his side.

“It’s good to see that you followed the rules, Dr. Matters,” the man said, as he glanced inside the house and waited. “Aren’t you going to invite me in. I know you’re wife isn’t home.”

“Are you following me?” Ryan asked as his hand slipped from holding the door.

The man entered.“My job is to ensure public safety and when certain things get out of hand.” He walked further inside causing Ryan to have to follow him. The two other men waited by the open door.

He stopped in the kitchen.“We have to ensure that it goes back to being quiet. When you go back to work, you won’t speak a single word of what happened. A meeting is scheduled soon and you will be notified when, until then don’t do anything stupid.”

Ryan didn’t know how to respond as he watched the man escort himself back outside. Should he tell him or ask him if he knew something about what he had mentioned or should he ask why wasn’t he able to talk? He knew he was aware of what he had told the interviewer, but why were they not writing him off as crazy or even firing him from his job or reliving him from duty? It didn’t make sense, nor the fact that they didn’t seem remotely interested in the fact that Dr. Cox almost like---

“Goodbye for now Dr. Matters don’t forget, don’t do anything stupid. Everything else has already been taken cared of.” As Ryan was closing the door behind him he overheard one of the men outside, “Another one.”

Ryan bit his lip, but he knew right now he would not be able to tell him anything upfront. He had just received a warning. Were there cameras in his house? Or did the only have outside survillence on him? Was his phone tapped? Ryan had far too many questions than answers. Three days ago, he thought himself dead. Now he was standing in the middle of a serious game of cloak and dagger. There was a lot more going on here than what met the eye.

What exactly did they mean by another one? Ryan wondered.

It was an hour later when the door bell rang again, Ryan sighed to himself as he went to open it. This time, however, a very familiar face greeted him with a smile. Dan held out his hand and when Ryan reach to shake his hand, it was turned into a hug.

“Man you had me worried, I thought something had happened to you. Don’t scare me like that again.”

“That wasn’t my intention Dan, come inside lets go to the cave.”

Dan followed Ryan down to the basement as he turned on the music as loud as he could.

Using his hands Ryan relayed messages through sign language to Dan that only the two would understand. It was a technique they used a long time ago when they were both at school in detention.

Ryan: We are being watched from outside, some men from the government.

Dan: I realised, I noticed it when I was coming in but I didn’t know they were watching you.

Ryan: Yes it’s a long story.

Dan: What were you doing Ryan? What have you gotten into?

Ryan: If I told you that I came back from the future would you believe me?

Dan laughed as he grabbed two beers from the small refrigerator behind the bar and placed them on the counter. “This takes me back.”

His hand went back to creating a language. “Your joking right?”

The two men took seats in the couch listening to the music as it played and pretended to be playing a regular game. Feeding information in between, about random stuff that had no real point.

Ryan: I am not joking, three days ago Dan I died and I need your help.

Dan: That’s a hard one to believe. What do you need my help with?

Ryan looked up to the ceiling before responding. He chugged the end of alcohol.

Ryan: Saving the world. In three months the first wave will attack. I know what I am saying sounds like bullshit.

Dan: No, I believe you, I always knew this world was going to come to an end. Now the government is outside of your house and your spewing this information. I know you for my whole life to know that you don’t say random things like this.

Ryan: Thank you.

Dan: Don’t thank me yet. What can I actually do to help you win this battle. You know my expertise is in actually killing stuff.

Ryan: I know, this is enough for now. Let’s watch the rest of the game like normal and then I want you to check my house for wires and bugs.

Dan: That is no problem, I know a guy that can do that.

#

By night time the whole house had been checked and many bugs in the house had been found, they were in almost every single area that Ryan could think of. The effort they went through to do this, solidified one fact for Ryan and that was the government probably knew what was going on and then it dawned on him, was this the reason why Alina is missing?

The wires were done in a way of a loop to make it seem as though action and sound were happening in certain parts of the house the only area that was wire free now was the study since no cameras were there. The C 75 played a part in making it seem as though Ryan was there as a repitiore of idle chatted words were repeated over and over using his voice and Dan. To the outside it would seem like they were having a conversation and when Dan left it would go back to pure movements based on the C 75 to make it seem as if Ryan was moving. On there screens the C 75 was projected as Ryan. And with this beacon in Ryan’s hand, he would not be seen if he didn’t want to be.

The technician nodded as he left leaving both Dan and Ryan in the study.

“I knew you were into these things Dan but I would expect you to be more shocked at this. Diane didn’t take this news well at all.”

“When did Diane ever take something good. So tell me everything from the beginning,” he said, as he looked at and then touched the board. “How did the world end up into this crap?”