Gerry leaned on a lab table in the center of the room as the four Doctors of the W.H.O. lab were thinking over his ask. Fassbach and his team listening in on the Sat phone were also slightly puzzled at his ask. Logan, Akane, and Segan were on the sidelines watching as well and waiting if they were needed, though Akane was tapping the glass of an observation room a dead was trapped in. Logan was also a little out of it as he was thinking of the next movie, show, or anime they should head to next. Finally the female doctor, Dr. Kelly, broke the silence as she was completely confused.
"You want a what?" she asked him.
"Deadly pathogen, With a high mortality rate, but curable" Gerry answered again.
"Okay, well, um... You'd want a bacteria rather than a virus, I would think. Typhus?" Dr. Kelly asked while looking at one of her colleague.
"Meningitis, Scarlet Fever," he started listing with Dr. Kelly finished it with "Rocky Mountain Fever". "Anyway, excuse me, what's this for?" her colleague asked his boss.
"Mr. Lane believes we can use such a disease against the undead" The boss says. Fassbach frowns at that as he looks to his board on the boat. a few of the doctors around him are scoffing at the thought but he remembers what he saw at the base.
Wah?, ha," Dr. Kelly laughs but shakes her head. "I would give you points for originally, Mr. Lane, if we hadn't already tried that, first thing. One of the many things a virus or bacteria needs to thrive is a live host."
"A functioning circulatory system," her colleague says with a smug look. Gerry smiles back as the doctors fail to realize his idea.
"I'm afraid it boils down to one simple fact..." Dr. Kelly starts, but the Brit finished it looking annoyed at what he thought was Gerry's idea.
"You can't make a dead person sick" he says despondently.
"It's not for them, it's for us" Gerry sighs. The people around him look at one another before looking back to him. "I believes these things have a weakness."
"And that is Weakness!" Fassbach finishes as he looks at the board. "They don't attack the weak, injured or sick, they refuse them!" he shouts out making all the doctors present look at him in question. They were focused on what the weak held biologically that the virus didn't like, not at the weakness itself. Fassbach couldn't believe how much over thinking he did with the clue Gerry gave him.
"Right, you and me heard about Ellis being ignored, but you missed what I saw in Jerusalem. They avoided a blind man, and a clearly sick child" Gerry supplied.
"Oh yeah!" Akane said looking away from her glass tapping, "There was also that old homeless man in Philly still sitting on the street and not being bothered." Gerry pointed a finger at Akane and looked to the doctors.
"Okay, so they avoid the sick" a doctor on the line at the carrier said, "That's not killing them though."
"No it's not," Fassbach said while looking back at the phone. "Gerry, you should have never quit your job my friend. Listen people, we already have things that will kill the dead, what we need now is something to help us do that without reprisal."
"And what will this lethal disease do, give us some sort of... camouflage?" a doctor on the boat questioned. Fassbach pointed to him with a smile.
"Yes, right Gerry?" he asked the phone.
"Right, we cloak the healthy to kill of the dead" Gerry said. "Then when the world is better prepared we can start to find the actual cure." all the doctors think about the two's objective with different degrees of doubt and worry.
"You understand the only way to prove this theory of yours is to infect someone and send then in there with her?" Dr. Kelly said looking at the dead Akane was annoying with her tapping. Logan grabbed her hand when everyone looked there way and she harrumphed and stood where she was.
"Yes," Gerry said looking back at her. The W.H.O. doctor in charge walked forward and bit his lip.
"Do we have what we need to try it?" he asked.
"We could have all that you want, Typhus, H1N1, SARS" she listed off. "The problem is," she said looking at everyone with a frown, "They're all stored in B-Wing."
"What's the matter with B-Wing?" Gerry asked and Logan started walking.
"Follow me," he said and Akane walked with him backwards while smiling.
"Your gonna love it, and by that I mean hate it" She said while laughing.
#####
Standing now in the security room Gerry watched as Logan showed a recording of what happened in the B-Wing. The recording showed a scentist nicking himself with what appeared to be a vile of blood containing the virus. The Brit was explaining to Gerry that the labs had been sent samples of the virus and an unfortunate accident had cost them the lab's B-Wing. Logan switched over before the infected doctor started to spread the virus, and now showed hallways of dead, barley moving.
Gerry sighs dramatically as yet another problem has arisen for him to deal with. He was so close to finishing his mission before heading back to safety and his family.
"While you recovered I made sure to catalog what threats were nearby, and as such mapped out the infected dead zone that is B-Wing" Logan said. "At least eighty of dead in total from my count, and they seem to be in some sort of dormant state."
"We believe that they are awaiting some form of stimulus to spark there hunting instinct" the Brit said looking at the screens.
"Right," Logan responded as he checked his map and then tapped the control center to show the storage room for the deadly samples would be. "That should be vault 139, and the only way to get there is through here." Logan then showed the sky bridge hallway that connects the two wings. both the vault and bridge were empty at the moment but that didn't mean the trip would be easy. Logan then handed Gerry a map he made and went over it with him.
"Unfortunately there isn't a way to group up the dead in an out of the way lab, as the sound system can't be focused in one area. It's better if we sneak through then to cause them to run around like headless chickens," Logan said as he drew a line on the map. "You, Segan, and one of the doctors take this path with me and Akane as lead. This isn't the quickest path but the one with the least dead for us to move by." Gerry nodded looking at the map and then the screens.
"Lets get it done," Gerry says and gets up.
#####
As the day was coming to an end Gerry made another call to his wife and kids as he was about to risk his life once again. "I'm almost home hun, I'm almost home" he said as Karin listened before hanging up and checking his makeshift armor. Unfortunately he took the suit Logan and Akane made for him off before he got off the plane in Jerusalem, making the two mercs the only ones still rather protected from the dead. Walking out of the office he was met with Logan and Akane checking there guns, with Segan holding a bat as her rifle was tossed off by the pilot when they left Jerusalem.
Gerry nodded and then looked to see Dr. Kelly talking with the Italian doctor in charge. The man was in makeshift armor as well and seeming to take the role of the doctor needed to select the right disease. The fight didn't last long as the Doctor pushed passed the woman and walked up holding a crowbar. seeing everyone ready Gerry nodded and walked to the sky bridge.
"Try not to kill one," The Brit said walking with them. Gerry stopped and looked at him.
"It only makes the rest of them more aggressive," The boss answered for the Brit. Gerry looked at him before looking at the other two male doctors. They nodded and he shook his head as he kept with the plan. Getting to the door Logan removed the metal bar used to lock the door from opening, and got ready to breach with Akane right behind him. Looking behind himself at the small retrieval team made he gave them all a look.
"We know our mission, we keep quiet and out of sight" He said then looked at Gerry. "If things go bad, you take Segan and the doctor to the vault while me and Akane lead the dead away." Gerry started to protest but Logan glared at him. "Our job is to protect you, and to find the way to fight back. Don't worry, eighty of the dead isn't going to put us down, boss." with that he got ready to breach and then nodded to the Brit who opened the door.
With that Logan moved after Akane tapped him to go. hunching low he moved with the rest directly behind him. The Skybridge opened up into a cafeteria that was thankfully clear of any dead. With Logan leading they avoided the fallen food and cans as Logan followed the map's directions. this led to them pressing down a hallway, which caused the lights to snap on automatically from the movement. Pausing, Logan listened for any noise from the action, and hearing nothing continued down the hallway. His gun was raised as he took slow and quite steps from his clothed wrapped soles.
As they moved they gazed at the aftermath of the dead's rampage through the B-Wing. blood stained the ground and labs, with handprints that told of desperate fleeing from the threat. Taking a path through a lab Logan noticed the glass on the ground and signaled the group to look out for it. They nodded and curbed around a corner to walk into the next hallway and paused. closing his eyes for a second Logan took a silent breath and took stalk of the fully glass filled hallway. The others noticed as well and with Logan leading started to shuffle move through the glass.
It was still loud as the glass tinkled and clinked on the ground as the group moved. Thankfully no dead came from the sound and Logan started to walk again down the hall and into the next. The map called for a detour that was the only hallway empty of the dead. Unforntally that hallway had a roadblock. With soft steps Logan moved until coming up on Lab 123, which he stopped and pressed against the wall. With more people came more chances of failure as, like the movie, Logan signalled the group to play red light green light. Akane went first as Logan watched the dead inside the lab doing circles, looking for the next living host to infect. Her crawl was easy and fast, and she posted up to watch the dead with Logan. Next was the doctor, then Segan, both making it easy. Gerry went next and after a few false starts managed to pass by while the dead shifted to show the hallway it's back.
Finally Logan crouched and moved looking for Akane's signal. Amazingly it was at this point the dead walked away from the door entirely, making the risky move pointless. Seeing this she signaled and Logan made it easily to the otherside. He looked to see the dead had left and then to his wife with a "Really?" look on his face. She shrugged and mouthed the world "Random chance." Logan shook his head and started to lead the group to the next hurdle.
moving down the hall they passed by a stairwell door and pressed up to the entrance of the next hall. Unfortunately, a dead had shifted to be standing in the damn middle, making it a dead end. Seeing this Logan shook his head and pulled out the map to review another path. Gerry pointed at the doorway to the stairwell and then to the map, dragging out a new path. Logan nodded and started to put pressure on the door.
A loud creak picked up and Logan paused as it did. The dead groaned from nearby but no shouts of rage and hunting came. Biting the bullet Logan pressed fully and earned another loud creak but the door was now open. Unknown to him the dead had responded and the doctors watched as they started to converge at the noise. Holding the door Logan had the others move in while Gerry braced it open with his axe.
With that done Akane took lead with Logan in the back to keep an eye out for any reprisal for the noise. The group moved down the stairs and paused there as a waiting dead slammed it's head into a window. Seeing it completely focused on the action, Akane and Logan let Gerry, Segan, and the Doc move forward as they walked back slowly from it. Not a second later did a loud ring sound out as the doc slammed his crowbar onto a metal cabinet that was jutting out. The dead whipped it's head to the living and ended up brainless a second later as Logan put a round through its head.
Soon the sound of screams rang out as the dead found their next chew toys.