Chapter 41- Carrier

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was as though someone had built a football field underground and filled it with cozy little condos. We stood inside a steel and concrete cavern large enough to hold an aircraft carrier. Hundreds of feet high and well stocked, this little community seemed to have the capability to hold out indefinitely against almost any scenario. The homes looked comfortable and well lit, and their large windows showed cheery interiors lavishly decorated. Some of them were occupied with people watching TV, cooking meals, or working on computers. Others had small signs out front resembling real estate signs. "Available" was posted in red, and underneath were a list of various amenities or available customizations.

Behind each home were gigantic warehouse shelves stacked high with supplies. Crates of MREs, barrels of water, tents, sleeping bags, and rows and rows of guns stretched as far as the eye could see. There was literally enough food, water, and weapons to allow a small army to survive independently. A large school bus was parked in front of one of the homes, plated with heavy armor and thick, dangerous blades protruding from every possible angle. The words "Home Wrecker" were roughly spray painted on the side of the bus in red paint that had dripped dry.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Not bad, eh? A hundred thousand." The shopkeeper said with a gruff voice. I looked over at him. "Excuse me?" I asked, confused as to his meaning. He had a satisfied, resolute smile as though he felt he had the upper hand in some sort of negotiation. He folded his arms and stared at me resolutely. "Come on..." He said. "You know what's going on here. Where else are you gonna find something like this?" I backed toward the door. "This is some sort of sales pitch?" I asked incredulously. He nodded his head as though I was finally understanding him. "Not just a sales pitch" he said eagerly. "An opportunity! A chance to survive the madness up there!" I cocked my head to the side, wondering if he really understood the reality of the insanity growing every day. I thought perhaps it would be best to play along until I could find what I was looking for. I looked up at the ceiling as though I was inspecting it. "How strong is this?" I asked, pretending to show interest. "Would it withstand a nuclear blast?" I could see him growing greedy and eager. "Not a direct hit, but anything else, yes." He pointed up towards thin metal vents set into the thick concrete walls. "That air circulation system is the same used on submarines too, so you'd never need to worry about air quality."

A man in a lab coat approached us with a friendly smile. "Hello there!" he greeted me, hand outstretched. I was immediately skeptical, wondering about the connection between this location and VL labs, the organization we'd been running from for what seemed like years. "What do you think of our little community?" He asked as he shook my hand. He had a firm, strong grip yet his hands were soft and smooth. "Are you a doctor?" I asked, searching his eyes. He smiled and looked at me curiously. "Why yes, how did you know?" I pretended to relax a bit. "Just a hunch. You have the kind of hands I associate with doctors. Strong but soft." He smiled cheerfully, clearly not offended by the comment. "Very observant. My mother said the same thing when I was young, which probably encouraged me in that direction." I looked around and pointed at the closest house. "So you live here, huh? What do you think?" He was cheerful and forthright. "It's been amazing. With everything that is going on out there it feels great to know we are somewhere safe." My brow furrowed and I thought of all the people who had attacked me over the past weeks. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to their attacks, nor any infection they could have contracted. I had been in contact with these monsters multiple times, yet I had not been changed into one of them. "How do you know it's safe?" I asked, genuinely interested. Perhaps this doctor knew something I didn't know. The shopkeeper smiled knowingly, as though this doctor was his secret weapon in a finely tuned sales pitch. He clearly didn't care about what was going on, he was merely seizing a business opportunity. I guess I couldn't blame him, but I wondered if his attitude would change if anyone close to him were to be infected. The doctor turned and gestured me to follow him. "Let me show you what I've discovered."

A grey metal door was almost invisible against the thick cement of the wall. A keypad above the knob was illuminated a bright orange, it's numbers gleaming white. The doctor reached toward the keypad and then looked back at me. "Do you mind?" he asked, and I immediately averted my eyes to avoid seeing his passcode. A clicking sound followed by a whoosh softly lit across my ears. I heard a loud thunk as he pulled the door open. A cool breeze wafted through my hair from the opening. "Thanks" he said. "Nothing personal I hope." I nodded in agreement and followed him through the opening into a small room. The walls were covered with computer screens monitoring various items, reports automatically updating. A digital map of the world shown on the largest screen in the middle of the room, pins of red dotting the globe in various locations. The tables were covered with scientific instruments, microscopes, beakers with colorful solutions, and pages of notes and schematics. "Is that..." I pointed at the map. The doctor nodded his head. "All the known locations of the infection so far." He said solemnly. "There doesn't seem to be a pattern." I said, looking at the pins evenly scattered in major cities all across the world. "No, there's not an obvious one, unless you understand how this thing works." The doctor pointed at one city. "Look closely." He said. Notice the numbers in each city? It is spreading evenly in almost every location."

A tone called my attention to a new blip on the screen, and the graphic of red pin appeared on the map. It was located not far outside our city limits. "Another case" the doctor said sadly. "They happen more frequently now." He referred to a beaker of electric blue liquid. "Do you know how it works?" I studied the liquid, curious as to what it might be. "I haven't been able to see a pattern." I said. "Everyone who has been exposed seems to be almost random, and the people around them rarely get sick." The doctor nodded. "It seems that way, but it's not. You see, the virus is airborne, its everywhere, but it only infects certain people with the right genetic code." He referred to one of the screens behind him where the graphic of DNA rotated slowly. "It connects to those who have these proteins in this combination." A video showed a red virus attacking a blue, green, and yellow section of a DNA, wrapping itself around and then violently spreading across the entire strand. "We call these proteins the 'doorway segment' and once it latches on, it spreads across the strand, mutating the rest of the individual's genetic code, essentially turning them into something else." I studied the image on the screen. "So... If you're not compatible, what happens to the virus?" The doctor looked at me solemnly. "Then you become a carrier, a transporter of the virus, infecting everyone you come in contact with."