Extermination Day (20 page)

“That’s a possibility,” Holly said.

“Too primitive,” Chen responded again.

“So, what do you think then, Doctor?” Jeff asked, since Chen obviously thought he was the expert.

“I think it would take humans hundreds of years to develop these types of technologies.”

“So, what, the virus and the
nanobots came from the future?”

Holly turned toward him. “We did discuss that possibility during our meeting. Remember? There is a distinct possibility that we are in the middle of a temporal war that we don’t even know about.”

“Well, we don’t have the name of the attacker, but we do have the method and date of the attack. This time we’ll be prepared. Right, Doctor?”

“Perhaps,” Chen said quietly. Then, louder, he said, “I’m thirsty; what do we have to drink.”

“Well, I’ve prepared some delicious filtered urine for our dining pleasure. Just try to think of it as an aged fine yellow wine.”

Holly laughed and Chen snorted gruffly.

After downing just enough water to moisten their dry mouths and throats, Jeff stood.

“I should at least start searching for a water source.”

“I’ll go with you,” Holly said eagerly, glancing at Chen. “You’ll be okay by yourself here, won’t you, Doctor?”

“Oh, I’ll be just fine,” Chen said coldly. “I feel myself getting stronger by the minute.”

Jeff didn’t doubt that, not with the strange nanovirus spreading through his body, healing his wounds. What he still couldn’t figure out was why the bots were healing Chen instead of killing him, as they did everybody else. Apparently Chen didn’t know the answer to that question either.

Or did he?

Forty-Eight Hours Underground

Jeff woke up and felt something sitting right beside him, breathing heavily. He could barely make out what looked like glowing blue eyes staring at him. He quickly turned on his flashlight to reveal Dr. Chen sitting with his
head extended close to his own. Chen's gaze was fixed directly on Jeff's face.

“What are you doing?” Jeff asked. “What . . . what happened to your face?”

Bluish veins protruded around his temples and eyes, and sections of his hair were falling out, revealing more large veins under his skull. He didn’t say anything.

“Doctor?”

“I don’t know,” Chen said, his voice noticeably deeper.

Jeff was a little scared of this strange, new Chen.

“Maybe we should check you again with the MedKit. How do your legs feel?”

Jeff turned the flashlight on Chen’s legs. Incredibly they had grown even more. The small root-like structures had spread out and solidified into legs. They had
begun to mold together just past the knees and were progressing into calf muscles. The flesh, however, wasn’t normal skin color. It was the same as the blue-silver membrane that had covered his legs when Jeff first found him.

Jeff quickly ran the
MedKit scanner over him while Chen sat silently staring, still breathing hard.

“Identification unknown,” Nancy reported. “Subject’s internal organs do not match human criteria. No database match.”

Jeff picked up the MedKit and started to back away from Chen.

“What are you?” Jeff asked.

Chen looked up at Jeff, the blue tinge around his eyes glowing brighter. Without warning he lunged toward Jeff. He was incredibly fast and grabbed onto Jeff’s arm with a vice-like grip, his nails digging deep.

Jeff tried to break free, and Chen reached up with his other hand and grabbed his throat. With ease he pulled Jeff down to his knees. Helpless and struggling, Jeff couldn’t breathe and he couldn’t break loose. He grabbed Chen’s wrist to pry it away, but it felt like a steel rod locked into place. Chen had the strength of ten men.

Jeff desperately reached into the MedKit, hoping to lay his hands on anything he could use as a weapon. He pulled out the bone saw he’d used to cut off Holly’s arm. The saw started buzzing immediately, and Jeff swung it up and jammed it into Chen’s chest. Chen screamed, let go of Jeff’s throat and arm, and fell back, clutching his chest. Jeff jumped to his feet, kicked Chen in the face, and knocked him on his back.

Holly woke up and said, “What are you two doing over there?” She must have gotten a good look at them, because she then said, “Oh my God!”

Jeff watched as Chen rose to his knees. The spot where Jeff had jammed him with the bone saw was bleeding profusely, but slowly starting to heal. Bluish tendrils were weaving their way across the area like a patchwork quilt, stopping the blood flow and sealing the wound.

“He’s not human, Holly! Stay back!” Jeff yelled as he crossed over in front of Holly.

Chen's face twisted from a cold lack of expression to shock and surprise.

"Run Holly! I . . . I can't control myself!" He struggled to blurt out before his face turned cold again.

“She’s mine, and I’m taking her,” Chen said in a deep booming voice, the apparent winner of the battle inside his mind.

He scrambled forward, crawling like a demonic spider across the rocky tunnel floor, dragging his still-growing legs behind him.

“Get behind me,” Jeff yelled to Holly as Chen quickly approached.

Jeff was still holding the bone saw, its
buzz
cascading through the tunnel. When Chen was close enough, he lunged out with it. Chen dodged to the side as deftly as a man could with half legs, and swung his hand, bashing Jeff on the shoulder with force. The pain was immediate and intense.

Jeff quickly flipped the bone saw to his other hand and lunged out again, this time clipping the side of Chen’s ribcage. The flesh sliced away as the cutting blades of the saw dug in. But the cut wasn’t deep enough and immediately began to heal over.

Chen backed away slightly, and Jeff stood in front of Holly, holding the saw out to keep Chen from moving closer. They were cornered, their backs to the wall. Chen was blocking the only way out, a path deeper into Lechuguilla.

“Patrick, please stop this,” Holly pleaded.

“I don’t think that’s Patrick anymore,” Jeff said. “I don’t know who or what it is.”

“Holly, come over here with me,” Chen growled. “T
here’s so much I can show you.”

“I don’t want to see anything you have to show me, Dr. Chen. Please stop this. We can help you.”

“Do I look like I need your help! I’m advancing beyond anything your pitiful little hands could create.”

Chen glared at Jeff, his brow furrowing in anger. “I’ve had enough of this. It’s time you both die, deep underground and forgotten.”

Crouching tiger-like,  Chen shifted his weight to the right, and started to lunge to that side. Jeff flinched and jerked the bone saw in that direction, but it was just a body fake from Chen. He shifted his weight fluidly back to the left, then leaped into the air, catching Jeff off balance. In midair he grabbed Jeff’s hand and twisted it violently. Pain streaked to Jeff’s shoulder, his hand went numb, and the saw dropped. It fell to the ground, silent, no longer spinning.

Chen punched up into Jeff’s jaw with a vicious uppercut. It was like being hit by a brick. Jeff’s teeth slammed together and his head jerked back. Streaks of lightning flooded his vision and agony pulsed through his jaw as he fell back into Holly. When he landed against her, he was barely conscious. Blood streamed from his nose, and he could taste it in his mouth.

Chen pulled him off Holly, then jammed his hand between Jeff’s legs and crushed his balls. Chen lifted him by the hair and balls and threw him across the tunnel. Jeff flipped once in the air and slammed into the rock wall upside down. Pain pierced through him as he fell to the ground in a broken mess.

Springing off both hands and knees, ape-like, Chen leaped across the tunnel. Jeff could feel and smell his horrible breath on his face as Chen leaned over him, grinning like a maniac.

“I think I’ll break both legs and both arms, then let you sit here and watch as I have fun with your little friend Holly. I want to hear her scream.”

Jeff
could barely even lift his head to see Chen making a nasty thrusting motion with his hips.

“
Oh and she's going to scream loud too.”

Jeff flinched when a rock came slamming down on the back of Chen’s head. It hit his skull with loud thump and broke into pieces. Chen looked stunned for a second, then shook it off. Bits and pieces of dust and rock fell down onto his shoulders.

Chen laughed, a deep, dark, evil sound. And Jeff couldn’t suppress the shudder that rippled through him.

“Don’t worry, my dear, you’ll get your turn soon enough.” He reached out and pulled Jeff’s right arm straight and rigid.

“Make a wish, Congressman.”

Jeff tried to pull his arm away, but this Chen was way too strong. Chen jerked suddenly, and Jeff waited for the inevitable snapping sound and the wrenching pain of his arm breaking, but nothing happened. Chen was still holding him. Jeff rolled, turning to see what had happened. A needle protruded from Chen’s neck. He dropped Jeff’s arm and pulled the needle out, but it had already delivered its ingredients.

Holly, shaking and pale, stood behind Chen. She’d managed to inject him with something from the MedKit. Chen’s eyes rolled back and his breathing slowed. He stumbled backwards, then fell forward, landing face first on the rocky floor beside Jeff.

“I gave him all the tranquilizer we had,” Holly said as she rushed over to help Jeff up. “It would probably be enough to kill most men, but with him, I have no idea. It may just knock him unconscious for a while. Come on, we need to get out of here before he recovers.”

Jeff grunted, still dazed and throbbing. He struggled to his feet, leaning on Holly.

“We need to go deeper into the cave and look for a way out,” she said.

“Should we finish him off, while he’s out?” Jeff asked, weaving and wobbling until he fell against the cave wall. “He was going to kill us both and rape you.”

They stood over the unconscious Chen, but studied one another’s faces.

“I’m no killer, Jeff.”

Jeff wasn’t either, but he could make an exception this time. He bent over and picked up the bone saw. He switched it on and moved it to Chen’s neck.

“Should I cut his head off?” Jeff asked.

Holly just walked away.

Jeff hovered over the other man, wondering what to do, the bone saw inches from Chen’s neck. He'd only met the man two days ago. They hadn’t started out on the right foot and had fought more times than Jeff had ever fought anyone in his entire life. Now Chen had turned into some crazed homicidal maniac bent on killing both him and Holly. Despite all that, Jeff was having a hard time cutting the man’s throat while he lay helpless and unconscious.

“You know it’s the
nanovirus making him act this way,” Holly said, her voice soft. “They could be controlling his mind, or maybe it just makes you crazy. If we get him out of here, maybe we can cure him. The old Chen may still be in there.” She shook her head. “And we might need him, Jeff.”

Jeff didn’t think he could cut the man’s head off if there was any hope he could be cured. Plus, even the
idea of using the bone saw again nauseated him. He thought back to cutting Holly’s arm off, all her blood splattering over his face, and he shuddered.

“Okay. We’ll leave him here and come back for him after we find a way out. Then we’ll see if there’s anything left of the real Chen.” Jeff let out a sigh of relief and lifted the bone saw from Chen’s neck. He was glad he didn’t have to kill the man; he didn’t have the stomach for it.

“Come on, then, let’s get out of here before he wakes up,” Holly said. “And we’ll get you a painkiller.”

"Wait," Jeff said. "We should at least tie him up first. Is there any rope in the
MedKit?"

"I don't see any rope, but perhaps we could use this
tourniquet?"

Holly reached into the kit and pulled out the device, still covered in her own dried blood.
Jeff grabbed it while suppressing a flashback to when he had to use it on Holly's nanobot infested arm. He pulled Chen's arms behind his back and tightened the tourniquet around his hands. It was a tight fit, but not tight enough to cut off the circulation.

"This should work," he said.

Jeff and Holly leaned on each other and hustled down the tunnel after grabbing the MedKit and flashlight.

“You know we won’t be able to signal anyone with our portables when they try to dig down into the cavern,” Holly said matter-of-factly.

“Going back isn’t an option. We need to find another way out. Let’s put as much distance between ourselves and Chen that we can, and maybe we’ll get lucky and find a landmark to direct us.” He looked over his shoulder, ignoring the additional twinge and pull on his battered muscles. “Sure hope that maniac doesn’t wake up any time soon.”

Jeff didn’t know what Chen was changing into, but whatever it was, he wanted to be very far away from it.

3:00 pm EST, January 16, 2038

Greenbrier Resort

Melinda lay prostrate over the table, Farrow behind her, ready to rape her, when she started coughing. It was slight at first, then heaving, rocking her body into contortions. Farrow backed away and released the pressure on her back. She turned and tried to stand, her pants around her ankles, but she fell forward, doubling over from the heaving coughs. She collapsed onto her side, then curled into the fetal position. There she lay, helpless as a baby, naked from the waist down, spitting up blood in wrenching agony.

“Christ,” Farrow said angrily.

Melinda caught a glimpse of his face and then focused on his expression. He closed his eyes, as if in deep concentration. Her coughing stopped and immediately her pain eased.

“I’ve stopped the virus momentarily,” he said. “I can stop it for good and you can leave here alive if you just tell me what I want to know.” Farrow smiled. “Or we can continue where we left off before we were so rudely interrupted.”

“No, no,” Melinda said. “I’ll tell you. I don’t want to die and I don’t want to be raped.” If there was any chance that she could live, she was going to take it, but she needed to think fast. Just telling Farrow the truth, that she sent out a blind message via wireless
telegraph, wasn’t going to cut it.

“There is another base where people are still alive. I sent them a Morse code message telling them that you were a spy and that I killed you.”

Farrow frowned, his jaw going tight. “Where is this base?”

Melinda climbed up off the floor and pulled her underwear and pants back up. Then she looked the Secretary squarely in the face, tears welling in her eyes. Her feeling of betrayal was still strong.

“Before I tell you, you need to explain some things to me first,” she said boldly. She needed to stall, give herself time to think. If she told Farrow everything she thought he wanted to hear, then he had no reason to keep her alive. He would just rape and kill her after she talked. And God, she wanted to be able to tell others there was a way to stop the virus.

Farrow apparently didn’t like her tone and pulled his arm back to hit her. Then he slowly dropped it down and placed his hand on his hip.

“Very well. Ask your questions. We’ve already won this war. It’s just a matter of cleaning up the last few pieces of trash. My patience is wearing thin, though, so keep it short.”

“Did you plant the bomb back on the plane?”

“Of course I planted the bomb. It was easy to smuggle it on with my security clearance. Who would’ve thought that the Secretary of State could be a terrorist bomber? I just wish it had killed more people. No matter; everyone is taken care of now.”

“You were prepared to blow yourself up?”

“I was never in danger. You’ve already seen that.” Farrow pointed at his chest.

“So why have you done this, betrayed your country, killed so many people?”

Farrow snorted. “We just want you dead. We want this land, the water and the resources, for ourselves.”

Her fear was still churning, but Melinda felt unholy rage building through her as she clenched her fists. She wanted to pound Farrow hard, smack off his sneer.

“I . . . I had so much respect for you. And you betray all of us!” Melinda was furious now, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Who is this 'we'? You’ve been working with the Chinese all this time, haven't you.”

Farrow laughed. “Stupid bitch! The Chinese are all dead, just like little insects. They crumbled and fell with no resistance. Their cities will be wiped from the planet, just like yours, you dirty Americans. The same with the Russians and the whole world. In days, there won’t be a human left alive on this planet.”

“But what about you? You’re going to die too, aren’t you? You’re human.” Melinda’s last words trailed off as she was filled with dread at the possibility that the man standing before her, claiming to be Secretary of State Cameron Farrow, might in fact not be human at all.

He laughed again. “Do you think a mere human could recover from this?” He pointed at the slight scars on his forehead where she’d shot him.

“I am so much more than human. The techno-organic virus now inside you can be programmed to heal the body, not just destroy it. It can rebuild damaged tissue, enhance speed, strength and endurance, and forestall aging to the point of near immortality. And this virus is coursing through my veins. If fact, with the right programming, it can change my appearance and turn me into whatever I want.”

Farrow held up his hand. Slowly, from each of his fingers emerged tiny claws in place of his fingernails. “A super predator, for example,” he said, smiling. The smile was just as creepy, as inhuman, as the claws.

“B-b-but how?” Melinda stammered, gaping at his hand in disgust.

Farrow snorted. “That, my dear, is a long story and my patience has worn thin. Let’s just say I got these enhancements from the future.”

“The future? What are you talking about?”

“This virus was engineered well beyond today and sent back in time, inside my body.”

“You’re saying you’re from the future! But that’s impossible. You were born in Hong Kong in 1963, started with nothing, built your fortune. Everybody knows your story.”

“That story is a beautiful fabrication. There was no Cameron Farrow until I invented him in 1992.”

“Well then, who the hell are you?”

Farrow pressed forward until they were almost touching, his smell and the predatory look in his eyes making her shake.

“My real name is Patrick Chen.”