The Fungal Trance
by William Quincy Belle
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Table of Contents parts 1, 2, 3 |
conclusion
Renfrew moved in and removed the mask.
Stone blinked and turned his head. “What’s happening to me?” he said in a muffled voice.
Haggerty leaned over and looked Stone in the eye. “Feel anything?”
“I...” Stone blinked and looked around. “I’ve stopped moving. That was strange. I couldn’t control my body. It kept moving, but I couldn’t stop it.”
Haggerty grabbed Stone’s right arm and shoulder and helped him sit up.
“It was like I was watching myself out of body.”
A phone rang, and Haggerty pressed the right side of his head. “Yes?” He spun around and took a few paces. “Good. Nobody home, so much the better. Make sure everybody stays out. By the way, make sure there aren’t any other ways in. There could be dirt lanes going through the pastures coming in the back way. Get up some government biohazard signs. Hopefully, they will scare the inquisitive off instead of piquing their curiosity to investigate.”
Kirby helped Stone off the table and led him to one side.
Several soldiers strode from various directions and came to the General.
“Team 5, sir. We’ve gone up two roads, visited three farmhouses and found nothing. Unless further investigation reveals something else, we have to assume the origin of the infection is here on this farm.”
“Team 3. We cataloged everything in the barn: half a dozen chickens, three goats, a cow and a calf, and a horse. All are dead, in the last stage of flowering.
“We went around the surrounding area and found a raccoon and some babies, three squirrels, a couple of chipmunks, and a fox, all dead.”
“Team 2. We’ve been through the entire house and the yard, checking food supplies and garbage. We found a bag of dried dog food, which appears to be contaminated. The dog food dish out back by the doghouse is empty. But if it were filled, would other animals, like squirrels and raccoons, help themselves? It seems like an obvious way of spreading the spores as those animals climb and would put themselves in the perfect position to release their contaminant into the wind.”
Haggerty examined the bag. “I want this company checked out right away. I’m guessing it’s a national brand.”
“Yes, sir.”
“How many distribution centers? How many dog food stores? Before we know it, this will be all over the country. Where did this bag come from?”
“I assume Liam shops in Cedar Creek,” Stone said. “It’s only a few miles from here.”
Kirby and Stone watched Haggerty pace up and down. He finally nodded to the last soldier. “Your report.”
The man saluted. “Corporal Jenkins, Team 6. General Haggerty, we have a problem. It’s spread. But we think you should have a look to appreciate what we’re talking about.”
“Where?”
“Behind the back pasture. It’s too far to walk.”
“Bring around a couple of trucks. Let’s not leave these civilians unescorted.” Haggerty turned to Kirby and Stone. “You’ve come this far. You might as well see it through to the end.”
Haggerty pressed the right side of his head. “Major Heart. This is substantial. We’re going to need a full clean-up of the area. We can’t take any chances and must ensure any area of infection can’t spread any farther than it already has.” He paused. “Good. I’ll expect you in thirty.”
He gestured. “Let’s go!”
They all climbed into the two vehicles and headed around the house.
“How do you feel?” Kirby asked, looking concerned.
“I feel sort of weak,” Stone replied.
Haggerty and Renfrew sat impassively, watching the two of them.
“It’ll pass,” Renfrew said. “The antifungal goes after what we could call yeast in your body. This process triggers your autoimmune system, and right now, your body is working overtime to rid itself of these foreign bodies.”
“What a weird experience.”
“We still don’t know how, but the fungus somehow taps into the voluntary muscle system, overriding the individual’s brain. It controls your body, and there seems to be nothing you can do about it.”
“Poor Liam.”
“I don’t think there’s physical pain, but the mental anguish of not being able to control your body must be frightening.”
“It’s surreal.”
Kirby and Stone glanced outside the window as the truck climbed an incline. The vehicle turned and stopped. They all exited the back door.
Jenkins pointed back to the farm. “This is more of a one-man operation. While there is a barn with a few animals, this back field is the extent of the land. Rather small.” He turned and walked toward the other side of the rise. They all followed, stopping at a fence. “This is the next farm, a commercial venture according to a local land registry.”
They glanced at a relatively flat pasture dotted with cattle.
“I’ve counted over a hundred head.”
The closest animals stood upright, a flower sprouting from their foreheads.
Haggerty leaned against the fence, straining to look.
“As far as I can see, General,” Jenkins said. “Nearly the entire herd is infected. Some have flowered, and some only have buds. A few are still grazing, but we have to assume they’re infected, just not showing signs yet.”
A gunshot rang out, and they all looked up. Several soldiers moved around the field, occasionally stopping in front of a steer, raising their sidearms, and firing between the eyes.
“I have men going through the herd doing the humane thing, as per your orders,” Jenkins said. “It’s curious. Even with a shot to the head, the animals remain standing. The pathogen seems to have complete control of the body.”
“I see buildings off in the distance,” Haggerty said. “What’s over there?”
“Cedar Creek. Population, five thousand. It’s a transportation hub for this farming region, providing various services for the population and businesses.” Jenkins held out a tablet and rested it on top of the fence. “I tracked the prevailing winds. They go from this farm onto this cattle ranch and several more farms before reaching the town. I figure any spread has moved out in an ever-widening V. After a few miles, who knows how large of an area may be covered?”
Kirby and Stone looked at each other questioningly before turning back to Haggerty.
The general studied the tablet. “I can’t say this is going to get out of control. This is already out of control.” He stood upright and idly massaged his left temple.
“I sent a couple of scouts to the town,” Jenkins said. “Both have reported flowering. Just before getting to the town itself, there’s a relatively new subdivision. Apparently, there are several flowered people on the roofs of their homes.”
“This is going to be a mess.” Haggerty let out a long sigh. “Have you given coordinates to team seven?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s get to it. One foot in front of the other.” He touched his right ear. “Team seven? As soon as you’re in position, do your controlled burn. Include bordering bush and make sure nothing escapes. I don’t want to take any chances of more contagion getting out.”
They all heard the far-off sound of trucks.
Kirby touched Stone’s shoulder and pointed. The front of several armored tanker trucks came between bushes and trees and stopped at the edge of the pasture. A turret mounted on top spun around, and a liquid flame shot out with a whoosh, covering grass and cattle. The crackle of fire and rising smoke unfolded before them.
“Is this the only way, General?” Stone asked.
“At this early stage of development, I’m afraid so,” the General said. “While our antifungal vaccine has shown some promise individually, it fails frequently and is therefore unreliable. So, we have no sure way of dealing with a pathogen on a large scale. At the moment, the best defense we have is fire. It seems like killing a fly with a hammer, but we can’t ignore this disease and hope it will go away on its own. These spores can get anywhere, and infected wildlife can pass it on to ever-growing areas of land.”
He walked toward the trucks. “Let’s move on. This incline is going to be torched next.”
A soldier stood with a spray can and hosed off the bottoms of the General’s shoes before returning to the truck. Stone, Kirby, and the others followed suit.
As the truck came back around the barn and approached the house, Stone noticed a similar truck with a turret. He looked out a back window when their truck started down the driveway to the road and watched as the turret opened up and set fire first to the tree, then to the house. Smoke was already rising out back where the barn was.
“Where did this pathogen come from?” Stone asked.
“We don’t know,” Haggerty said. “I leave it to the scientists to figure out where and how it originated. One country? One region? A genetic mutation? A manufactured variation? These questions require careful analysis but, right now, everyone’s concern should be how to deal with this. The house is on fire. How the fire started is second; putting the fire out is first.”
Their truck went down the rural road to the highway and stopped among a cluster of military vehicles. Stone and Kirby followed the others out and joined an assembly around General Haggerty.
“Gentlemen, this looks like a big one. Preliminary reports say it’s reached the town of Cedar Creek. We need to find out how much farther it may have spread. Teams one and two, I want you to follow the prevailing winds beyond the town and look for signs of infestation. Check with Corporal Jenkins about a possible V pattern starting from this position.
“Teams three and four, head into town and assess the situation. Is the entire population already gone, or do we have people to save? Going from person to person to administer the vaccine seems slow. I can’t help wondering if we couldn’t spray over an area for a wide dispersal and hopefully get any living thing to inhale it. We can’t just think of people. Animals are a big part of this spread.”
He sighed. “Then again, an aerosol would only get to surfaces exposed to the sky. Buildings would have to be fumigated room by room. Trees would have to have their foliage sprayed. Bushes, underbrush, and grasses would all have to be dealt with somehow.” He rubbed his temple. “I think I’m getting a headache. Oh! Have somebody look for a pet food store and see if we can get a list of those who’ve purchased that dry dog food.”
Haggerty looked over the men. “Sergeant Renfrew?”
“Yes, sir?”
“I want you to take Stone and Kirby back.” He turned to them. “Dr. Stone, we want to decontaminate and hold you for observation. We’ll run blood tests to verify that the fungus is out of your system.”
“How long?” Stone asked.
“I can’t say for sure. Hopefully, no more than a few days. We want to be careful. You should be all right, Professor Kirby. Since you’ve been well protected, we only need to disinfect the outside of the suit.”
“Thank you, General,” Kirby said.
“What about Muriel?” Stone asked.
Haggerty frowned. “Who’s Muriel?”
“That’s Liam’s wife; the man in the tree. She’s due back today.”
“How would she have traveled?”
“I assume by bus to Cedar Creek. I know there’s a bus at noon Monday through Friday.”
Haggerty turned back to the soldiers. “Check the bus station for schedules over the past twenty-four hours. We may have leads to other infections.” He turned back to Stone. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it. There’s a good chance she could already be infected. The question is whether we’ll get to her in time.”
Stone turned to look up the road at the burning buildings. “If she lives, what’s to go back to?”
“I’m sorry, doctor, but we can’t take unnecessary risks,” Haggerty said. “We must think of the greater good. Fire seems to be the only way of eradicating the threat until we have an effective means of inoculating man and beast.”
“How bad is it?”
“We don’t know exactly. And we can’t know how bad it will get. But in an unknown situation, it would be a mistake to proceed as if everything were going to be all right. If the Covid pandemic taught us one thing, it’s that people hate change, and they hate having their lives disrupted. In fact, they will go to any lengths to rationalize the situation in their favor. But here you are at the front lines. You’re a witness. You tell me, how bad do you think this threat is?”
“Well...”
Two Humvees skidded to a stop, and they turned to watch several soldiers pull a handcuffed man out of the first vehicle. He looked to be twenty-something with a leather jacket, long hair, and a defiant look. A soldier on each side held his arms and marched him up to the General.
“General, sir. This man drove around the biohazard signs and attempted to gain access to the neighboring farmhouse,” a soldier said.
“This is crap,” the man said. “You have no right to detain me.” He looked defiantly around him.
Haggerty stepped up to him. “Who’s this?
“According to his driver’s license, this is John Burkman, age 19. Address Cedar Creek.”
“Who the hell are you?” John asked.
“I’m the one giving the orders.”
“You can’t tell me what to do!”
“Actually, Mr. Burkman, I can, and I will. This area is under lockdown, and you violated that order. It’s supposed to be for your own good.”
“The government always says that. I’m a citizen. I have rights.”
Another soldier came forward. “General, we found two more flowered bodies at that farm. We think it’s Joyce and Frank Burkman. We have them bagged in the truck.”
“What?” John twisted his head around, trying to see who was talking.
Haggerty glanced at Burkman, then back to the soldier. “Bring out one of the bags.”
“Yes, sir.”
The soldier went to his Humvee and, with the help of another, carried a bag back and set it in front of the General.
“Open it,” Haggerty said.
The soldier crouched and unzipped the bag, pulling the sides back to reveal the head and shoulders of a dead man. A fully bloomed flower was sticking out of the middle of his forehead.
“Look,” Haggerty said.
“I don’t have to do anything,” John said. “You can’t—”
Haggerty stepped forward and seized him by the back of his collar, dragging him forward and pushing him down so he knelt in front of the body. “Look at that, Mr. Burkman,” he hissed, letting go of his collar. “That’s what awaits you if you don’t do as you’re told.”
John’s eyes grew wide as he stared at the corpse. “Oh, my God! Grandpa!” His body spasmed, then he leaned to one side and retched. The silence was interrupted by coughs and spitting.
Haggerty stood and turned slightly toward Stone and Kirby while watching Burkman.
“This is what I have to deal with. People hate authority and being told what to do. Their knowledge of the world is limited, and they have difficulty processing anything new. They have a tendency to dismiss it and mock it.”
Haggerty addressed the soldiers. “Get him out of here. Have him tested, and take the bodies for postmortem analysis.” He turned back to Stone.
“Collectively, we have the means of dealing with this issue, just like any issue. The problem is that not everyone is on the same page; not everyone wants to cooperate for the greater good. It turns out that we are our own worst enemy.”
“That sounds cynical,” Stone said.
“You say cynical; I say realistic. I’ve seen people at their worst, and when the going gets tough, it’s every man for himself. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that we manage to escape; it will depend on luck. If we hadn’t been informed and come out here, if we didn’t have this new antifungal vaccine, you would have been dead within twenty-four hours. And there was nothing you could have done to stop it. Luck, Dr. Stone. It’s going to come down to luck.”
Everyone turned as a military helicopter roared overhead, banked around, and settled a short distance away in the middle of the rural road. The soldiers instinctively held a hand to their helmets as the wash of the rotors kicked up dust clouds.
Haggerty yelled, “You have your orders. Let’s get to work.” He took several steps to the helicopter and stopped. “Good luck, Dr. Stone, and to you, Professor Kirby. We won’t meet again.” He dashed to the chopper and boarded it. The side door slid shut, and the machine powered up and took off.
As the quiet returned, a bustle of soldiers and machines prepared to head out. Stone and Kirby got into a truck with Renfrew, and he pulled onto the principal route to be met by an endless line of military vehicles headed in the opposite direction.
“Where are they going?” Kirby asked.
“Cedar Creek is five miles down the road,” Stone said.
They drove by dozens upon dozens of tanker trucks.
“What’s going to happen, Sergeant Renfrew?” Stone asked.
“As General Haggerty said, until we have a soft solution, we’ll have to use the hard solution. Until we have an effective aerosol capable of decontaminating land, vegetation, animals, and humans, we must rely on incineration.”
“What do you mean?”
“General Haggerty is going to level Cedar Creek.” The sergeant kept his eyes on the road.
“I beg your pardon? How is that even possible?”
“Rest assured. This will be the sixth time we destroy a town, and we’ve become exceedingly efficient at it.”
Copyright © 2023 by William Quincy Belle
