Whispers on an Undying World

The Wall

Richelle and Sean teamed up for a while; it was clear from the first two minutes that they were a good match. They were in the back row of the room and was quietly working, only now and then showing the other something they had found.

Micha made rounds around the room for a little while, waiting for a table to be set up for her in the corner. She had to get back to making more darts before they headed out. However she was torn between making sure everything was settling together and making more darts. It was quickly apparent that each of the people in the room did not have to be baby sat.

When she was able to sit down someone would occasionally stop by her desk to talk to her about something that they were looking into. Each of them was focusing on a different four block radius in the northern most part of the city. Now that Micha was at the location she was able to see how everything was working on their end.

There were thirty-one other groups that were working on other sections of the city. The plan was to throw as much brain power at it as possible and hope that something stuck. From what Micha understood, or knew about, there was a main group that was doing trips into the city on hour long trips. They were grabbing people that were presumed to be uninfected; each of those thirty-one groups had a section that they supplied locations for those people.

In two more days they would stop all contact with any in the city, at dusk on the second day they were going to bomb they city in sections. It would take three days to complete the destruction schedule. Knowing now that Dr. Rosenberg had other teams out there working made Micha feel less like a rarity and more like a commodity. Finding someone that had a unique skill and had the brains to solve new problems was something that she specialized in.

Thomas had disappeared for a few hours but soon found his way back to the group. She only assumed that he was getting their trip into the city planned out. Micha was only the tech support on this mission, he was the one that knew exactly where they were going and at what pace.

“Anything new?” Thomas settled beside the 3d printing machine, handing her a freshly made burger. She had been smelling food for a few hours but it never crossed her mind to go and get some.

“Nothing significant, they were able to locate two small groups of kids an hour ago. I assume that those will be a later trip?” They stopped working for a few minutes to eat, the burger was a little burnt but overall tasty.

“They are scheduled for eleven and two. They plan four hour trips but leave some extra time for error.” He took a big bite before flicking one of her bullets.

“Am I invited on those trips as well?”

He nodded. “They are a few blocks apart, we need data from each section that we can.”

“How are you planning to get a group through the city in that short amount of time though? You haven’t been very forthcoming in that regard.” Micha stopped eating long enough to pull a pickle from her burger.

“The roof tops. The infected haven’t learned to climb walls with no hand holds yet. We have the route set.”

They ate in silence for a while, Micha’s foot bounced for to the beat of and internal song. Something that she had quickly realized was that a majority of the people here did not enjoy noise while they worked. Some even looked close to snapping when anyone walked across the large room.

“Did you become a scientist because of your mom or in spite?” The thought had crossed her mind while working.

Thomas passed to think for a second before answering. “She’s my aunt. My mom was a twenty-seven year old hippy that died from an autoimmune disease when I was twelve. My aunt took me in and showed me that people like her were pioneering a way to save people like my mom.”

That was not the answer she was expecting, she paused to think out her answer to no be careless. “Losing a parent is never easy, part of you die’s with them. With my father dying a few weeks ago, I’m now an orphan. Your aunt has clearly done something amazing for you and your mom. I think your mom would be proud of both of you.”

He sighed and put down the rest of his sandwich. “I found a medicine that has killed thousands of people and will probably kill more. I doubt there is any pride going around right now.”

“She probably doesn’t see it that way.”

“She’s dead; she can’t see it any way.”

Reaching out, Micha touched his hand. “We don’t know what happens when we die. I choose to believe that when I die I will see them again. When that happens I want them to be proud of what I have done with my life. In the mean time I will love myself and my family enough for them and for me.”

“You’re a scientist, how can you believe in an afterlife without proof?”

“Because I’m human, and I miss my parents. It’s how I live with the loss.”

Not long later Micha got an update; there were a few school systems with private camera systems. After locating a few groups of kids, the primary goal before tomorrow was to get communication going between them and the kids. They needed to assess the damage to the groups and see how much longer they have before they needed to move.

Each group took another part of a plan while still working on different projects. By the time it was night time they were able to get into multiple school camera systems, activating the power grid so they could get water and provide warmth to the kids that managed to hide out. It was just getting to winter so the days were warm but the nights were frigid, city kids don’t handle the cold very well.

Before calling it a night, Sean called out to her. Matt was with him as they pointed to the screen. That school was on their priority list, for a good reason. Now that they were able to look inside the school the saw that a group of around thirty students and teachers were hiding out in the cafeteria of the private school.

With some tweaking to the system they were able to turn on the intercom system only there and turn it down so it didn’t attract attention. They had been trying to send out an S.O.S. but the power turned off so they had been in the dark hoping someone would find them before they ran out of food. How they managed to convince a group of students to stay calm was beyond her.

The important bit came when they were able to find the girl that had been bitten; she was in fact still alive and not crazy. They brought the girl, Kaley, to the principal’s office so they could talk one on one. She recounted what happened between the beginning and now.

Thomas, Sean, Micha and the old man sat in front of a monitor. They were quietly talking with one of the teachers, finding out what they were going through while the student was brought into a counseling room down the hall from the cafeteria. When people started to get infected the school went into intruder alert.

The young English teacher was the one saying what they did, she sat on the chair holding the phone to her ear while rubbing her long brown hair between her fingers. There was a camera in the top corner of the room, the four of them were able to see her but Matt hadn’t yet been able to patch a link through to her monitor.

“Nancy?”

The young woman had been spacing out; she forgot to answer the question. She started, realizing that she had been talking to them. “I’m sorry, what were you saying?”

“Can you please recount the first few hours?”

She sighed that sounded more like a shudder. “Yes of course. The other teachers here, Carl and Temperance, we are part of the English division. We are in the same building as the cafeteria. After the alarm went off we followed procedure and stayed where we were for three hours. The screams started around then as well.” She paused; she was English so her accent was thick from emotion.

“Ok, why did you move from your classrooms to the cafeteria?” Micha was leaning back in her chair; the others were too close to the screen for her to fit in anyway.

“We heard the other teacher letting the students leave, but the radio was saying to stay where we were. It is our responsibility as teachers to protect our students. However because of how small our subject is we were only able to save so few.” She paused to breathe. “When the screams stopped Carl ventured out from his class to see if there was anyone left alive. He found my room and Temperance’s. We spoke and agreed that we should move to the lunch room. It is the safest place on the grounds. There are no low windows, three different exits and every door we can lock.”

“You did well Nancy, can you tell us what you did to block off the exits?”

“All of the teachers have keys to the doors; we locked us in then taped over the cracks and padded the floors. If they cannot hear us we hoped they cannot find us.” A woman came into the room; she was very small and looked to be in her early twenties. “This is Temperance.”

“Hello Temperance, how are you holding up?”

The younger woman took the phone. “As good as we can be. We are all scared and want to go home, is there even a home to go back to?”

Thomas held his hand up, speaking instead. “It may not be the same but safety is what we can give you. One more night of this, we will be with you in the morning.” He paused before glancing at Micha. “We need to know as much about what you have seen as possible. The more we know about the infected the quicker we will be able to find a way of slowing the spread.”

She nodded, her hand scratched at her shaved head. “Ok. I wish we knew more but we have seen very little of the infected. There were screams for a while, it quiets down during the night. There’s whispering but I don’t know what they say. It’s definitely the infected.”

“How do you know?” Sean held his hand up before anyone; it was a simple way of not talking over each other. The last thing they need is right now was chaos.

“Uh, it’s hard to explain until you’ve heard it. The voices sound human and not. It’s a change from gurgling to high pitch and anywhere between.” They could see the young woman struggle for words. “It’s like they are struggling with an internal conflict, just on the brink of insanity.”

Thomas spoke. “Is it just at night that you hear the whispers?”

“Yes, when the sun rises they get frantic. They start to bang against the walls and scream. During most of the day I don’t think they are near the school but during the night they group up against the wall.” She appeared so shudder before continuing. "The smell has started to be too much to bear. We have considered leaving this part of the building but none of us wanted to risk the children."

Sean spoke first. “The smell, from the rotting food?”

She shook her head. “No. The freezers have stayed cold enough to keep the food from rotting; we don’t even have that much fresh food in the building. It’s from the outside of the building. Where the whispers come from.”

“What does it smell like?”

She paused, glancing over at her co-worker. “Like rotting flesh.”