Outbreak: LS-002

Part 1

Massachusetts Institute of Science

Boston, Massachusetts

23rd, September 2012

            “Dr.Brant, Lieutenant Brikshire is here to see you”, Emily stated as she burst into my office. “Thanks, Emily. Tell him I will be right out, please.” I shook my head; that girl will never learn to knock. Emily was a great assistant and a promising doctor, but she lacked certain finesse when it came to boundaries.  Gathering up my paperwork I headed toward the door, weary from another all-nighter spent observing the patients.  Out in the hallway everyone was bustling around, apparently unaffected by the fact that it was only 6:45 in the morning. The Lieutenant was waiting for me near the large set of observation windows. He stood tall and proud in his impeccably pressed uniform; every button and pin shone bright in the artificial lighting. His spotless appearance only made me painfully aware that I was wearing the same rumpled clothes from yesterday. My hair was probably sticking up from my head like a porcupine’s bristles and I smelled like a day old pot of cheap coffee. Wonderful. Oh well, I had more important things to be concerned about; like some of the worrying symptoms the patients were presenting.

            “Lieutenant Brikshire, I’m Dr. Samantha Brant”, I stated once I had reached him. He turned towards me and did a quick assessment of my appearance. While his eyes raking down my body unsettled me, I refused to blush or allow him to see any hint of embarrassment. I stuck out my hand, hoping that I came off with more authority than my rumpled appearance suggested. “Ah yes, Dr. Brant. I am Lieutenant Lucas Brikshire; it is a pleasure to meet you. I must admit, I was not expecting to see a woman running this operation.”  His admission grated on my frazzled nerves; not that his reaction was an uncommon one. “Well”, I said while his large hand enveloped mine in a vigorous handshake, “I was not expecting you to be so tall, but I doubt that hinders your abilities to do your job properly.” Amusement and surprise sparked in his eyes, I could tell that he was not expecting such a retort from me. “My apologies Dr. Brant, I meant no offense by my statement. I am sure that you are more than capable of running this facility and our little venture here.”  Now it was my turn to be surprised, in my experience, men like him were not so quick to apologize. “Thank you, Lieutenant. So what can I do for you?” He turned towards the observation windows, looking through to the patients that the large room contained. “I came to check on how things were progressing. There are many people who are highly interested in this project; not to mention all the money that has been invested. Is everything on track?”

 I cleared my throat, turning to the windows as well. Inside the room, twenty-five beds were spaced around the perimeter. And in those twenty-five beds were twenty-five individuals who had been submitted to our ‘little venture’, as the Lieutenant had so graciously called it. “Well, we initially thought that everything was going according to plan. However, we now believe that there have been some new developments that we were not counting on.” He turned towards me, steel eyes looking hard and concerned. “What sort of new developments are you talking about exactly?” Here it goes, I thought. How do you tell someone that you have no idea what is happening in an experiment that you are supposed to be in charge of?

“When we first submitted the patients to the LS-002 gas, everything went as we had planned. It took the patients about five minutes to become fully comatose, and after that they were out for about ten hours. We monitored their vitals the whole time they were under. Everything was normal, healthy. But once they started waking up, they were,” I paused, searching for the right word, “different.” I looked up; meeting the Lieutenant’s confused eyes.  “What do you mean, different?” His brow was drawn, mouth in a tight frown. I took a steadying breath, not sure just how to continue. “What I mean is that they are being affected by the gas in ways that we could not have predicted. Since awakening, the patients have all been complaining of severe headaches, which only seem to be getting worse. They have all become lethargic, irritable, and even aggressive in their behavior. We have noticed that some of them are having slurred speech and issues with their fine motor skills.” Lieutenant Brikshire had turned back to the observation windows while I had been talking. He now stared hard at the room’s occupants, as if trying to see these symptoms for himself. He looked like he was waiting for me to say more, so I continued. “Since the patients have woken up just over twenty-four hours ago they have gotten progressively worse.”