Mark and Lisa had arrived at the lounge. There were a five other uninfected people there, including Dr. Swanson. The lounge was designed to operate as a crisis center in the event of contamination. The entrance had two sets of doors, which were now setup a decontamination area. Dr. Swanson approached the inner door, he was genuinely happy when he say Mark and Lisa. “Dr. Thompson, Dr. Mueller! I see you’ve managed to remain uninfected, wonderful. Let’s get you decontaminated and inside.” Dr. Swanson turned the knob on his side of the door to initiate the decontamination system.
I spray of distilled water and disinfectants showered down over Mark and Lisa’s. Next an intense ultraviolet light bathed the room. In a matter moments Mark and Lisa were allowed entry into the uncontaminated lounge. Dr. Swanson and the other survivors helped Mark and Lisa out of their suits. Lisa noticed that the ultraviolet light burned her left index finger. This perplexed her since the environmental suits were specifically designed to be exposed to ultraviolet light.
Mark looked around the room at the rest of his companions, Dr. Swanson (the leader of project Cassandra), Dr. Jasmine Conners, Antoni Bertelli, Ray Goddard and a young girl that Mark didn’t recognize. Everyone settled back into their chairs.
Lisa was the first to speak, “Dr. Swanson, how did this happen?”
Dr. Swanson adjusted his thick glasses, “I still don’t know, Colonel Byrd and I were conducting a typical exposure experiment all of the safety protocols were followed. The subject was exposed and the event subsided. At that point the room was purged, but the subject relapsed soon after. I don’t know why”
Mark perked up, “My guess is something in the subject caused a mutation in Cassandra. What happened to the Colonel?”
Dr. Swanson was skeptical, “I’ve never seen a mutation take place so quickly. The Colonel and I separated. He wanted to head for the surface, I wanted to gather as many people as I could and hold up here till a proper rescue was attempted.”
Mark pointed toward the group, “So, who do we have here anyway Doc?”
“I’m sure you know Antoni and Ray from the team, Dr. Conners is the lead researcher for Project Achilles and the girl is Ray’s daughter, Jennifer.”
“Jesus, what the hell is a kid doing down here? What were you thinking Ray?” Mark exclaimed.
“I stopped in for 2 hours to clear up some paperwork before I took Jen off to college. My office is 30 feet inside the classified area and she had no access to anything sensitive. When the quarantine alarms sounded she was in the hall, going to the vending machines. I grabbed two environmental suits and rushed her into the nearest office. We didn’t have time to suit up and make it out. I was able to contact Dr. Swanson over the intercom, we were lucky, we didn’t run into anyone that was infected.”
The stress of the day had worn everyone out, the group spread out over the couches, chairs and tables. There would be time to sort all this out in the morning. Lisa was restless; her skin was tingling all over. She rubbed her burned finger, how did she get burned, why did she feel so strange?
Lisa made sure everyone was asleep; she made her way to the hooks where the environmental suits hung. She studied the left hand of her suit, to her horror she found a tiny friction tear on the index finger. She was infected. It was a minimal dose; the decontamination probably killed it all. Yes she was sure of it. She had convinced herself that she was fine. Unfortunately, she failed to notice that she was rubbing her crotch through her slacks.
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