The 50/50 Vaccine

Chapter 15

Two weeks later

Thanks to the funds I received from the vaccine, I have finally set up all the furniture in my townhouse. I ordered most large items in the store to be shipped, as nothing really would fit in the Lexus, but I have it parked in my parking lot. I’ve been calling and talking to Lexi every night and helped get her furniture. Thankfully, Sasha dropped off a spare key to Lexi’s townhouse so I could get everything in. Lexi thinks she’ll be another few months before she’s released, but at least she’ll have a bedroom set when she arrives. The cot I had to sleep on for a week until my bed was delivered was torture on the back muscles.

I’ve been working with the welcome committee trying to get everything set up for the facility to open its doors to the public. We began by brainstorming ideas on a welcome routine to do as an orientation presentation, before doing interviews. It took a week to agree on a plan for orientation, now we’ve been discussing the various questions we should ask during the interviews. The only thing we have agreed on is that we need to mix up the order in which we ask them. I’ve written down all the suggested questions everyone has suggested as we keep circling around. Having 5 people with the ability related to the mind, you’d think we’d be more agreeable.

After another grueling meeting, I walk to Lexi’s car to drive home. “Mandy!” I hear my name shouted and look around, as Nolan comes running over to me. “Hey, I didn’t know you’re out.”

“Two weeks ago. Lexi is still in.” I answer. He gives me a quick hug.

“We’ll have to catch up, but I’m on my way to work.”

“I just got done with work.” I reach into my bag and pull out the notebook I’ve been using in the meetings, jot down my address, and tear the page out. “You’re welcome to come by when you have time.”

“Yeah, absolutely. Maybe this Saturday afternoon. I work overnights so, I sleep past noon time.” Nolan explains as he takes the paper from me and folds it up into a small square to put in his pocket.

“I’ll be around. I’m expecting the furniture to be delivered on Saturday. I’m on my way home now, before Lexi’s bed arrives.”

“I thought you said she’s still in?”

“She is. Before I left, she pushed a deal to have us share a townhouse, so she’ll be my neighbor.” I explained. “We’ll be sure to call her when you visit.”

“Cool, I have to run. I don’t want to be late.”

“I’ll see you later, Nolan.” I wave as he jogs back towards the building. I get to the Lexus and head home. I have just enough time to use the bathroom before the doorbell rings telling me that the furniture delivery has arrived. I answer the door, then unlock Lexi’s house to show them where it’s going. They spend about 45 minutes unloading and assembling select pieces. After everything is set up the delivery people leave, and I can return home and make myself something to eat.

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I’m so happy I don’t have to work today. This entire week was just meetings full of back-and-forth discussions and disagreements. Now we go to the interview questions. We finally realized that all the questions that we suggested were important, so we are going to stagger the questions throughout the interview and orientation. Next, we are figuring out what to do if we encounter someone who is either dangerous, posing as a vaccine recipient, or just not a good fit. The way it’s set up, it’s up to the discretion of the family members, once we open the doors, we have to maintain control over who we allow in and divulge information to.

An urgent knocking on my door has me stop what I’m doing to go answer it. “Hey,” I smile when I see Nolan on my front porch.

He rushes in and looks around. “Where’s your remote?” I hand it to him and he quickly turns it on as the news begins to report on a very serious story. The headline reads ‘Vaccine recipient has mutation… Are we safe now?’

“Oh My Lord,” I whisper sitting down on the sofa and texting Lexi to turn on her tv. The reporter goes on to talk about how a known vaccine recipient just had a gas explosion in their house. The man exited his house, dazed, confused, and charred but not burnt. “Is he fire?”

“Has to be. He has some scrapes from debree, but look at him. No one wants to approach him.”

“How do they know he’s a vaccine recipient?”

“Guy was doing some kind of blog about his life since receiving the vaccine.”

“So much for that NDA we all had to sign.”

“Right, I would think he’d still be on fire if he was fire. Could he be gas?” Nolan speculated.

“No, if he was in the house when the waterhose was turned on, it could have put him out. We had all fire retartent devices throughout the facility in case someone combusted.” I remind him.

“I want to know how Greenway Industries spins this. Do they come out and admit the mutation, or try to cover it up?” Nolan asks.

“My money is on a cover up. Though I think this delays my job from coming to light any time soon.”

“Why’s that?”

“They are planning to accept any and all recipients, but they will have to go through a rigorous interview process,” I explain.

“You never told me about your ability.”

“No, I have not.” I smile. I’m curious how true his stories were versus just stories to make him look cool. “Did you really get the vaccine on a dare?”

“I told you, I did.”

“I want to know the truth, Nolan. Not half-truths. I have never been fawn of liers.” I reply after I see yellow.

“I was dared to get the shot, but as I was walking into the building my friends all texted me saying the dare was off, I won. They begged me not to get the shot, but at that point, I was going into the room to sign the papers. I hesitated but ultimately signed the papers to get the vaccine because I could use the money. I wasn’t even thinking about the risk of death until the first rejection took place.” Nolan confessed. “I didn’t lie, I just left out the part that they renigged their dare before I signed the papers.”

“Thank you. Are there any other stories you told us that were embellished?”

“I don’t think so, but we talked about so much stuff. What are you a mind reader?”

“Human lie detector is the name I’m going with.” I shrug. “Like, some of the things this reporter is saying aren’t completely true. Go figure, the news is embellished for shock purposes.”

“Can you pinpoint what is the lie?”

“Only if it’s a complete lie. Otherwise, it just shows half true.”

“That migraine you got on my last night in the facility.”

“Was caused by my ability. Every time someone talks around me, my surroundings change color briefly. It caused my vision to blur and cause me to become dizzy with vertigo until I learned to control it or handle it. Exposure therapy worked best for me, it just took time. Lexi was a huge help, we even had her trying new things that they weren’t doing. It turns out her family was playing a joke on her that whole time, which I pointed out was childish and irresponsible given the danger of her ability.”

“Damn, so she was just wasting her time. If they were training her correctly from the start, she’d already be out.”

“Yeah, now she’s making her own challenges before she tells them she’s ready. She’s currently playing around with the idea that if she manipulates the magnetic field around an object just right, she can change the form of the object.” I explain. “Thankfully, she took my idea and has only been working with tin cans and tin objects. The last thing we want is for her to attempt with a damn car and crush herself under it.”

“She would just for the go big or go home aspect.”

‘You and her get along so well because you both like the idea of a challenge.”

“That’s why we hang out with you, Mandy. You are our moral compass that keeps us in check, and ultimately out of trouble.”

“So glad I can play mom to both of you.” Nolan just laughs. A notification on his phone sounds and he glances at it before changing the channel. The owners of Greenway Industries are holding a press conference. They are assuring the public that the incident with the man in the explosion is not a result of the vaccine. When a reporter questions the disappearance of several vaccine recipient survivors, the owners play dumb. They proceed to remind everyone that the protesters have become more and more aggressive towards the survivors causing many to seek help from the company to relocate to a secure location. “And there you have it folks, they are obducting people to be experimented on in secure locations. That man is about to disappear from police custody through a bunch of red tape, and bureaucracy smoke and mirrors.”

“Tell us what you think.”

“Greenway has made millions to develop this vaccine. The survival right has dropped despite the reports that are released to the public. Add that to the violence on us survivors, and Greenway disappearing us. I fear if we go public, we will be exposed to the government and/or Greenway relocating us. I’m not convinced the government isn’t involved in the development of this vaccine.”

“I’m waiting for it to become mandatory,” I admit. “Population control. Right now, it’s doing its job getting willing participants, but eventually, they will run out. If the government is involved as you speculate, it’s not going to be long before we have politicians urging us all to get the vaccine.”

“They would have to manufacture a disease that the vaccine will cure, and release it into the public to issue a mandatory order like that.” Nolan continues. “Think about it. People only give advice when it becomes mandatory, and medicine can’t be mandatory unless there is a serious illness that can potentially be life-threatening. The Measles, the mumps, the flu, and hell, recently Covid. So many illnesses now require vaccines to help prevent the spread. So many were and still remain against any vaccine, but more strongly believe in the medical science behind them which causes people to get the vaccine.”

“I’m waiting for two survivors to have a child. Will that child have a mutation like their parents? How will the vaccine affect future generations of recipients?”

“I’m not sure anyone has thought of that. Time will tell, but if this vaccine does become a population control method, the whole world is in danger.”

“I think we have already stepped into the danger zone here. That man is only the beginning of the stories about to come out about recipients. If we go public about the facility, we are all in danger.”

“I hope the family is paying attention to the media reports because things are about to get real for all of us,” Nolan says as the news switches back to reporters in a building reporting from their desk. They promise to continue following the story about the vaccine recipient closely and keep their viewers updated. “God, help us all.”

“Will recipients be used as weapons or lab rats?”

“Why not both?”

“Nolan, I’m serious.”

“So am I. They will experiment on them, then use them as weapons once they learn how to control the recipients without getting injured themselves.”

“You watch way too many movies.”

“All preparing me for this reality.” Nolan points out.

I can’t shake this uneasy feeling. We continue to watch the news reports for the rest of the afternoon. They show the dwindling line into Greenway, they interview protesters who agree that their voices are finally making a difference in people’s minds, and several have thought twice about it and left not going into the building. My guess is that people are going earlier like I did to avoid dealing with the protestors altogether. They interview a scientist who has been independently studying bloodwork from an unnamed recipient and assure the reporter that there has been no mutation at all. Nolan believes the scientist is paid by Greenway to lie. I didn’t get that what he said was a lie. It could be the recipient just recently got the vaccine, or our abilities don’t affect our bloodwork at all. In the end, like always the media leaves us with more questions and speculations than truth and answers. Oh, the joys of being able to report anything they want for viewer ratings.

After the news, we spent time talking and putting together some pieces of furniture I had bought for my house. Lexi finally answered my message by video-calling me. She was in a meeting with the family discussing the potential ramifications of the news story. They are not going to open the doors to the public for concerns of safety for all that are here in the community and facility that have trusted them with their lives. We will, however, begin trying to locate known recipients and offer them to come here which will still give me a job. I think this is a better solution than the idea of going public in a more flamboyant way. It sounds like anyone going in is allowed to tell up to ten people at a time to ensure it doesn’t get out to the employees of Greenway, but still inform recipients of the safe haven we have here.