Day 6
#8 of Days
Ok, I layed off the slow, sappy love songs, got some more of Mr Reznor and his Nails on my mp3 player and got the plot back on track. Can they follow the threads of hope? Will there be a shred of redemption or will it just be another lost scrap of lies.
Ok, I will wall the woefully woven weak wagging wit.
Yeah, no more typeing at two am. Really this time.
With too much energy, the two of us were still at it...
I was carefully moving the tray of test-tubes from the incubator to the desk beside Karen, "And for the four hundredth time, this is so not what I thought you had in mind!" I teased, taking the sting from the comment with a lop-sided grin.
"But, but. What else could you possibly have had in mind for us to do, alone, together, with so much time on our hands?" She reposted, giving me a little peck on the nose. "Besides, you are actually good at this. You said you were studying before all this, were you in chemistry?"
I barked a short laugh, "Nah, engineering, but I did enough chem to know how to carry things and open tight jars and such.". I earned the little kick she gave me as a result of that.
At first I hadn't noticed it, but after nearly nine hours some noticeable changes were occurring in the good doctor, her muzzle was slowly pushing out, the dusting of fur was getting thicker, although unlike me, she didn't seem to be getting any smaller or slimmer, I guess I was just too much to be a fox.
I also noted that she had a small lump pushing back on the lab coat from her rear, and waiting until she had her arms empty and was standing clear of anything important, reached back and grabbed the growing appendage.
"Agghh, what the hell!" She yowled.
My reply was the very literal definition of Rolling-On-Floor-Laughing-My-Arse-Off, and seeing my defenceless position, she pounced.
Our rolling bundle of tickling, and ticklish, foxes was disrupted by the pilot, "Lady and Gentlefox, we will shortly be arriving at our destination. Please return all chairs to their upright positio... actually, you know what? Screw that, mosh up and down and bang your heads!", following that we heard some heavy metal coming from the cockpit speaker.
"We better go and sit down, or he may start playing country and western!" Karen yelled, faux alarm written all over her face.
We made sure the experiments, into the rate at which already animal infected cells will propagate their mixed DNA to a second host, were secured, and raced back to our seats.
Now all that we could hear from the speaker was 'Danger-zone'. "Is he always like this?" I asked Karen.
"Only when the 'big' doctors are not around, the first time I didn't know how to take it, I thought he did it on purpose to mess with us but one time I snuck on-board while he was alone getting ready for a trip and he had Nirvana blaring away. What I want to know is how he managed to convince the W H O engineers that a CD stacker was a required option for the pilot."
"Possibly the engineer needed a lift somewhere? Its easy to curry favours, I am betting, when you have access to a plane that is allowed to break most borders and customs without any fuss made." I postulated.
It was at that point that we landed, it didn't take much taxiing before we felt the movement of the aircraft cease.
"Now, normally I would have had to shut off the music, so when the air-traffic controllers called, they didn't get antsy, but the tower was dead silent." Harry said, walking past us as we were unbuckling.
He preceded to a metal cabinet beside the main door, pushed a bunch of numbers on the combination lock and opened it, revealing a row of shotguns and a row of pistols. "You both know how to use these?" He asked.
Karen nodded to him, accepting a pistol and two magazines of ammo, pulled the slide back, let it go, pushed one clip home, all the things you see someone do in a movie. "Uh, not really." I said.
"Thanks for the honesty kid, here have this instead.". With that he handed me a reasonably big knife. "You can still do yourself an injury with that, but your less likely to kill me." And he winked with that revelation.
He also removed a shotgun, pistol and two clips for himself. "Oh, almost forgot.". He reached further down into the cabinet and pulled out three badges with 'WHO' Logos, a fancy box-barcode thingy to us. "These will cover our arses if we do happen to run into anyone official in there.
I looked at Karen, she had the pistol down the front of her pants, "Isn't it dangerous to wear it like that?" I asked.
"Nah, safety is on, no round chambered. And damn it looks bad-ass, am I right?" She struck a pose.
"Grrr" I mock-growled, pressing our muzzles together.
"Ok you two, knock that off. We don't have the regular welcoming committee, so we have to use the ladder." Harry told us and led the way down said ladder.
Karen went next. I was about to start down when I realised that bare paws were going to be a problem with ladders and, after a second or two testing my legs for spring, jumped down, landing perfectly.
"Show off." Karen grumbled with a grin.
"Are you two done? We need to get to the locker banks, didn't you say? Well, by the look of things it ain't going to be pretty." Harry said, gesturing toward the terminal.
Just then, the wind changed, coming to us from directly ahead and it almost felled me where I stood. "Holy fuck what is that... smell...", I knew what it would be almost seconds after saying it, airports would be the first areas struck by the plague, this was not going to be anywhere near as pleasant as, say, going through TSA security checkpoints.
I pulled off my shirt and tore it into three parts, handing each of the other two a rag to tie over their face and saving a piece for myself. We started into the terminal.
Quiet, I thought it would be quiet, silent even, still as a tomb. I didn't expect the rats. The large broken windows, obviously smashed by people in a panic, let in a few vultures and a horde of crows. In all, the place was a seething mess. I kept my eyes up, tried to not look down at the... meat, on the ground. As long as I didn't think of it as 'people' it would be ok.
Then a sound in particular broke through the cacophony of noise from the scavengers, it was a sob. Instinctively I reached out and grabbed Karen to me, pulling her head in and against me. "Come on, its over, we can't do anything more for this, survivors take precedence, and there are none here." I murmured to her, giving her something to think on other than the sights and, due to her newly changing senses, almost overwhelming smells and sounds. The biggest problem was, according to the part of my mind I now associated with everything 'fox', what was down at our feet was... 'Food'. "Lets just get the key and get the fuck out of here."
The pilot knew his way around thankfully, and got us to the lockers as directly as he possible. After yelling out the locker number on the key, we split up to find it. "Got it!" Harry called. We homed in on him.
I put the key in the lock and twisted, opening the door swiftly. Another suitcase.
'The Thinker.
Since you have made it thus far undetected I will let you know that the chance of getting to the last airport before this whole world coming to rest at the Lords feet is very slim, however we made a promise, and despite what some scripture says about unbelievers, I pray that your soul shall be saved, redeemed by this very act.
The key and the location of the container are at your next destination, the ticket and-'
Some lines were scratched out here, but it continued after those.
'Oh call me sentimental but I like to quote the bible for this bit:
"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth"
You will have a quarter of the earth, my Rider of the Pale Horse, and of course that will be one of the four arable continents you have not visited so far, but that you originally called home.
Your ticket is for Sydney, and there will you find as much of that drug as you can stand to take, for the rest of your life. Short as that may be.
I await your arrival on the shores of hades.
Lamb of God.'
Reading that, I had a thought, turning to the doctor, I said, "Did it spread to Australia? Do we dare to go there?". She had tears in her eyes to match mine.
"Yes, reports were from every continent, no part of the world will be spared."
We returned to the plane and, as Harry instructed, we helped refuel it and piled back on board.
"How long we got for the next leg?" I asked Harry.
"I can make it there in around thirteen hours if we fly straight there, or my names not Harry Jones."
"Bet you can't do it in twelve!" I replied, grinning to the pilot.
"That, sounds like a challenge, boy." The man replied. "Get your arses back there while I get this bird back into the air, then you can be about your work doctor."
We did just that, although this time, Karen relented, and said, "Well all this testing is fine, but I think we need to examine the results of continued exposure to mixed DNA on cells already undergoing the metamorphosis."
Her tone and, after a few seconds of repeating it back in my own head led me to believe that it wasn't test-tubes she wanted me to manipulate this time.
In surmation, I LOVE ENGLISH, its the best most obtuse and easily messed up language I know (and I even know Australian).
I hereby claim full copyright and do trademark 'thingy' as MY WORD.
That is all.
PS, threw the mild horror tag on there, just to warn people of that airport scene, gives me the willies just thinking about it.