Honeybee

Chapter 34

Jason and Amanda were silent, their minds were trying to come to terms with what they just heard. Was it possible that a lone scientist in a city zoo could have created a vaccine? Or had loneliness turned the man crazy?

‘You have a vaccine?’ Jason finally managed to say.

‘Yes. Well, technically it’s a cure.’ Dr Stanton said.

Jason and Amanda’s faces looked sceptical, yet a glimmer of hope could be seen in their eyes.

‘Look at the monkeys.’ Dr Stanton said, waving his arm. ‘All of them I infected with the virus and successfully cured.’

‘This is amazing.’ Amanda said. ‘How did you do it?’

‘I’ve had a lot of time alone here. When the outbreak happened, these primates were in quarantine. While the other animals were dying, the monkeys outside were turning into those horrible creatures, just like the humans. I kept two of them in isolation to study, and eventually develop the cure.’

Jason and Amanda looked at each other, not sure if this was a dream or reality.

‘You’re wondering how one lone biologist could have possibly developed a cure. I can tell you it was purely hard work and a bit of luck. There was nothing else to do so I worked and worked until it worked.’

‘Ok, so what you’re saying is…’ Jason paused as he came to terms with what he was about to say, ‘…you can turn every one of those Screamers back into a human?’

‘Ah, now that, I don’t know.’ Dr Stanton said. ‘I’ve not tested it on human subjects. In theory it should work, but without a Screamer to test it on, who knows?’

‘So, you need our help to capture a Screamer for you to test on.’ Jason said.

‘In a word, yes.’ Dr Stanton replied.

‘That’s not going to be an easy task, in fact, it will be damn near impossible.’ Jason said.

‘I have complete faith in you.’ Dr Stanton said with a grin.

‘You’re crazy.’ Jason said, smiling. ‘Ok, we’ll give it a go. No guts, no glory.’

Amanda had been listening and suddenly interrupted, ‘Excuse me,’ she said, ‘You do realise that the Screamers are now highly evolved and our last encounter with one almost ended in us both getting killed.’

‘I know, but if we don’t do this, who will?’ Jason replied. ‘This is our one shot at ending this. There is no army, no team of scientists developing a cure. It’s just us and The Doc.’

‘Eric. Please call me Eric.’

‘So how do you suppose we catch one then?’ Amanda asked.

‘I have no idea. Before we even get close enough, they would lasso us with one of their vines.’ Jason said. ‘No. We would have to make a trap. Capture it while we are a safe distance away.’

‘We have some transportation cages here at the zoo. Strong enough to hold back a Lion, or even an Elephant for that matter.’ Eric said.

‘That should do it. We can place the bait in the cage and when the Screamer enters, the door slams shut.’ Jason said, excitedly.

Over the next few hours, they finalised their plan, going through every detail and every possible outcome. It had to run smoothly or it would end in certain death. It was getting late so they decided to execute the plan in the morning.

Leaving the office behind, they went to the zoo restaurant. Eric searched the pantry and emerged about a minute later with what he was looking for. In one hand he held a vacuum packet of Dauphinoise potatoes in a creamy cheese sauce, and in the other he held a tin of pork luncheon meat. Amanda and Jason exchanged looks, their mouths beginning to water. It had been too long since they ate properly, even if it was all packaged food. Eric disappeared again and produced another packet of potatoes, two more tins of pork and a tin of peas. He left the kitchen, and a moment later Jason heard the hum of a generator. When Eric returned, he turned on the oven and placed the potatoes on a baking tray and then fired up the gas hob to boil the peas and fry the pork.

As they ate, each one of them were lost in their own thoughts, thinking about tomorrow and how they would pull off such a difficult task. Jason shut it out of his mind, choosing instead to enjoy every mouthful of the delicious food on the plate in front of him. Tomorrow will bring whatever it brings, he didn’t let it bother his mind any more tonight.

He decided to break the silence.

‘So then Doc. Tell us how you’ve survived all this time.’

‘Well, I haven’t really left the zoo.’ He replied. ‘And no one has ever entered. I suppose a zoo is the last place people would go in this situation.’

‘Yeah, I suppose.’ Jason said.

‘Do you think we’ll succeed tomorrow? You say the Screamers are evolving?’ The Doc asked.

‘Yeah, to begin with they would smash away at things and were lethargic. Now it seems they are intelligent, clever creatures. The last one we encountered almost had us.’

The Doc thought for a moment, ‘Hmm, let’s hope that tomorrow they don’t figure out it’s a trap.’