The gentle scraping of a mouse on a desktop as a long island blinked into view on the office’s smartboard.
“This… is Moloka’i.” The Director uttered as the Doctor positioned herself near the smartboard in anticipation of her turn to speak.
“It’s a bit over 250 square miles in area and less than a week ago had an estimated population in the region of slightly under 8,000…” The Director stalled for effect and swivelled in his chair towards the Vigilante.
“…at present it would be significantly less than that. Maybe 8. Maybe…”
The mouse clicks. The image changed from the island to the figure of a human, considerably the worse for wear.
[BLACKOUT]
“Jeez-us f***ing Chr…”[/BLACKOUT]
“Doctor…”
“This is Patient Zero, from Queens, New York.” The Doctor stated. “Last Wednesday she began showing signs of her disease…”
[BLACKOUT]
“That’s a f***ing woman?!?”[/BLACKOUT]
“Keep it down.” The Director ordered sternly.
“…facial lesions and major skin trauma, extreme degradation of the flesh…”
[BLACKOUT]
“I’m going to be f***ing sick...”[/BLACKOUT]
“Hey!” The Director barked.
“…Thursday the lesions had begun to spread, although still nowhere near the level we’re now seeing…”
[BLACKOUT]
“Thank f*** for that…”[/BLACKOUT]
“…she was able to see a doctor, late Thursday afternoon and a diagnosis was made.”
[BLACKOUT]
“And her Doctor let her go to on holiday looking like that?!?”[/BLACKOUT]
“She still didn’t look like this at that point, this photograph is the most recent we have… now please.”
[BLACKOUT]
“OK, sorry… What was the diagnosis?”[/BLACKOUT]
“Well, fortunately for us she was mis-diagnosed... With a disease many mistakenly believe to be dead in the Western world… Hansen’s disease.”
[BLACKOUT]
“Hansen’s disease?”[/BLACKOUT]
“Leprosy.” The Director replied. “Now let her talk.”
“It became apparent that this was a gross misrepresentation of her disease on Sunday morning, but fortunately she was in relative isolation at this point.”
[BLACKOUT]
“Eh?”[/BLACKOUT]
The Director speaks up. “I’ll field this one. It’s one of our country’s dirty little secrets that there’s a leper colony still operating on Moloka’i. The island was famous for it up until fairly recently and it’s strong in their history.”
“Thank you. Sunday morning Patient Zero began to show strong signs of aggression… uncharacteristic of the disease. She had bitten and scratched many who had attempted to restrain her.”
“Yesterday, less than 18 hours ago, this was transmitted and we received it shortly after…” The Doctor indicated to the Director who clicked the mouse again.
.wav file of radio transmission said:
“Hello? Someone? Anyone? Over… We need assistance, this is Kalaupapa colony, please come in. Over… Please. Somebody please help us. Anyone. *Sobs* Over… Oh God, they’re all dead, somebody please for the love of God come in. Over… The patients. Something’s changed. They’ve all gone mad. They’ve killed almost everyone. Over… Hello? There’s only 12 of us in here. We’ve barricaded ourselves into the storeroom, somebody please answer if you’re receiving this. *Banging and scuffling in the background* Help us! PLEASE HELP USSSSS!...
…
…”
“The transmission at this point ends. We have two theories as to why. One is that they were also killed… The other is that they’ve been maintaining radio silence for fear of attracting unwanted attention to themselves.” The Director calmly stated.
[BLACKOUT]
“Fear of attracting her attention? But she’s frail, and they’d barricaded themselves in.”[/BLACKOUT]
“…Here’s where it gets a little interesting.” The Doctor began. “Patient Zero is the name for the first link of an epidemic. The disease, which we can now confirm is not Hansen’s Disease has been spreading via blood – these scratch marks and bite marks to be precise. And we can’t stress that enough. This disease is not airborne.”
“Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to like where this is going..?” Isaac thought.
“But the people she’s been scratching and biting have, upon infection, immediately gone into a feverish state…”
“I can feel it coming…”
“until their bodies have literally burnt out, died and…”
“Here it comes…”
“…re-awaken some time later. These people, after dying, are then in turn also prone to extreme acts of aggression, only unlike Patient Zero they have been found to be immediately aggressive upon re-animation.”
“aaaand Thank you and good night…”
[BLACKOUT]
“So your situation is that you’ve got an island full of zombies..?”[/BLACKOUT]
“Well, we intend to try to play it away from the ‘Z’ word somewhat, if and when this leaks…” The Director said.
Isaac gives the Director a penetrating glare.
“But effectively yes… View it however it best makes sense to you.”
Isaac pinched the balaklava from the bridge of his nose, [BLACKOUT]
“So where do I come into this exactly?”[/BLACKOUT]
“Well, after the seriousness of this situation was discovered a major meeting was called together. The Agency had just absorbed the human resources of the Guardians as assets a few days beforehand, which is why this was also brought to my own attention as well as various other Department heads and … well… Power Players.”
[BLACKOUT]
“Get to the point.”[/BLACKOUT]
“Well, with the recent loss of the Icon, Blake came to the conclusion that we really aren’t in a position to handle this situation and gave the executive order for Moloka’i to be scorched. Carpet bombings of incendiaries to wipe out all trace of the virus. That recording is no proof that there are still any survivors on that island right now and it’s hard to justify the risk of any other action at this point in time for “potential survivors” which may or may not exist.”
“I found that unacceptable.” He added.
“I said that I have an alternate strategy, but the President was still somewhat reluctant to consider it…”
[BLACKOUT]
“He was a stubborn prick.”[/BLACKOUT] The Vigilante interjected.
“Your words, not mine...” The Director, added before going on. “I mentioned that Moloka’i was clearly visible to Maui… And the many tourists all armed with cameras and the media who are currently on site due to the Maui Scholastic Surfing Competition which gets pretty heavy coverage… and did he really want to risk firebombing an entire Hawaiian island in full view of the American people without even a token effort to extract any potential survivors.”
The Vigilante gave a smirk of appreciation at the Director’s work.
“He reconsidered.”
“’The Guardians Initiative was put together for exactly this reason, and whilst they may be undergoing major changes they are still our first response unit.’ Were his exact words.”
[BLACKOUT]
“Changed his tune in a hurry… heh.”[/BLACKOUT]
“Well, not exactly. There was still some deliberation. Some conditions at hand. Well one, really.”
[BLACKOUT]
“And what was that..?”[/BLACKOUT] Isaac uttered, sensing that he knew what the answer would be.
“It had to be you.”
[BLACKOUT]
“Me? Why me?”[/BLACKOUT]
“Well, prior to Icon’s passing recently he would have been our sole option for this mission. He’d have been given express orders to remain in the airspace and not to touch down on Moloka’i soil unless it was completely safe to do so, and only to airlift survivors out to a vessel off the coast where they would be quarantined to confirm they don’t carry the virus. Any bites or scratches would be unacceptable and would require him to…”
[BLACKOUT]
“To kill himself. You were going to ask him to kill himself? Would that have even been possible? Through conventional means?”[/BLACKOUT]
“We would hope it wouldn’t come to that. We would hope that the order itself would provide enough weight for him to use extreme caution, for such an order to never be necessary.”
[BLACKOUT]
“Well how the hell did we go from Icon to me? That’s a pretty big power drop-off.”[/BLACKOUT]
“Well the President’s explanation was that with Icon’s own specific power-set risk would be minimal to himself if he took proper precaution. He could fly over the island, optic blast the hell out of the, for lack of a better term, zombies. Hear any calls for help. Fly too quick for them to touch him. Drop in, grab survivors and get the hell out. As close to zero risk as you could imagine… so long as he took precautions.”
[BLACKOUT]
“So how did we go from that to me.”[/BLACKOUT]
“Well…”
“…it was more the potential risk to humanity if we sent anyone else other than you.”
[BLACKOUT]
“What?”[/BLACKOUT]
“Knew it… That’s just great… Feels good to be loved, America…”
“Well, unlike ‘conventional’ zombies like in the movies. These people don’t exactly lumber around…” The Doctor started again.
“Whilst they are deceased, they still move and function in a way that they would generally be capable. They run, they chase, they… can jump, although it’s not the most co-ordinated thing in the world. We believe that because they are dead their hunger is strong because of their bodies’ rather unnatural function. Metabolising food is hardly efficient so they have to eat a lot, or their body effectively feeds on its own flesh to continue animation.”
The Director continued where the Doctor left off, “So since they are capable of maintaining many of their regular functions, we can’t send in someone who can run fast enough to run across the top of the sea. Any infection to someone would be unacceptable… Likewise Survivor, whilst it’s possible his body would regenerate and burn the disease out of his body before it would take hold, we still don’t know that. The potential risk of an unkillable zombie is unacceptable… We still don’t understand fully how the Archangel’s powers work… But a flying zombie isn’t really something we’re willing to risk either…”
[BLACKOUT]
“So basically you volunteered me because ‘F*** it, why not?’”[/BLACKOUT]
“Well, that’s not how I pitched it…”
[BLACKOUT]
“You think Blake isn’t thinking that way?”[/BLACKOUT]
“I wouldn’t presume to know the way the President of the United States thinks…”
[BLACKOUT]
“Nice dodge…”[/BLACKOUT]
"So you're not going to go?"
The Vigilante sighed deep and said exactly what the Director knew he would - [BLACKOUT]
"Now I didn't say that, did I?"[/BLACKOUT]
"Good, Gunny will be equipping you for the assignment. Please refrain from telling anyone else. With the delicacy of the situation at hand we can't have leaks. I would appreciate it if you wouldn't discuss this with the others until after your quarantine period as well. The less people know about this assignment the better, it will break eventually. But for now we keep it to ourselves. We 4, no more. Understand?"
[BLACKOUT]
"Perfectly..."[/BLACKOUT]
"Who would I talk to anyway these days..?" Isaac thought to himself as he left for equipment.
