Foundation of All

“...I think that the addition of PEGylation to the exterior layer of the virus would disrupt the efficiency of replication due to the additional complexity we would have to include in the genetic replication sequenc—”

Emily paused and heard the faint whispers at the edge of her hearing.

“And that’s my thoughts,” Emily said, “Good talk. We can pick this back up later.”

She started sweating and walked to her office as quickly as she could without it being obvious that she was running as the whispers grew louder and louder around her.

“Ma’am. I don’t think this formulation is—”

“Please not now, Matt!” Emily snapped, “I’m going to my office.”

Matt grumbled, but Emily brushed past him and went inside and shut her door, locking it as the two voices grew to a fevered pitch around her.

She quickly went to her desk and pulled out the bottom drawer, revealing the puffy pad folded up inside. She had bought it after the first time. She took it out and spread it out on the floor, gritting her teeth and feeling her eyes grow wet as the pain grew unbearable. As soon as the puffy pad was fully unfolded she collapsed onto it and curled into a ball, sticking her face into her knees. Everything grew silent around her, and she just remained there without moving. Like a turtle curled into its shell.

“DOn’T buiLd thE VirUs,”

“DOn’t bUiLd The ViruS,”

“Don’T BuiLd the ViRuS.”

“I fEel TeRRible aBout tHis,” Sinestra said, “PLease jUst LeAve. Out tHere, pEople lOve yOu. PlEase. We oNly wAnt you to be Happy. YoUr fAmily and friEnds are oUt there wAiting for yOu to cOme bAck and be wIth tHem. It’s tEaring my hEart in two sEeing you liKe tHis! PleAse just liStEn to us aNd go, Emily. The wOrld will End if yOu doN’t.”

The male ghost continued his chant. Sinestra kept speaking, trying to convince Emily to leave in every way she seemed to know how to.

Emily just stayed there curled in a ball on the soft pad, face pressed into her knees. If she just waited long enough, then it would all go away again.

“DOn’t bUiLd The ViruS,”

“Don’T BuiLd the ViRuS.”

“PleAse, EmiLy…”

With one final plea from Sinestra fifteen minutes later, Emily heard the distinctive pop and sound around her returned to normal. The voices stopped. She waited a few seconds before taking one long shuddering breath and slightly uncurling herself. She looked around the room and wiped her wet eyes off on her sleeve. She had managed to not let out any tears this time at least.

She furled up the mattress again and returned it to its drawer in the desk. After making sure she was more presentable and had smoothed out the wrinkles in her white coat and clothing underneath, She closed the drawer to her desk and walked to her door and stepped outside again.

She walked over to where she had been before.

“Insane, I’m telling you. I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors, but apparently she’s the same one that was on the news for that video a few years ago. Talking to thin air. Maybe that’s why she keeps running to her office all the ti–”

“And how the fuck is that any of your business, Matt?” Emily said as she rounded the corner and saw Matt and the other two he was talking with freeze in place. She hated that guy so much, always trying to undermine her at every turn. But he was the most knowledgeable and skilled out of everyone, and the actual lab coordinator that helped Emily with the paperwork told her that he was too important for the project to convince anyone to transfer him somewhere else.

But that doesn’t mean she couldn’t punish him sometimes

“Matt, I see you’re not busy. How about you go through and sterilize all of our vials again? All of them.”

“Ma’am, we have dedicated staff for that. My talents are better used…”

“Better used to spread rumors, is that it?” Emily said, trying to contain her anger, “I’m sure with how competent you are, you’ll make sure all of those vials are sterilized to perfection. Who knows if one of the cleaning staff might make a mistake as they go? It’s not like they have a degree for it. Better for you to do them all yourself so we know they’re all good for us to use.”

The other two scientists glanced at each other and edged away from Matt, who shot them a look of betrayal.

“Fine,” he eventually spat, “I’m your greatest asset on this project and you have me cleaning. Waste of my talents.”

He turned around and stormed off in a huff. Emily clenched and unclenched her fist a few times as she watched him go. Then with a deep breath she calmed herself. She turned to the two nervous scientists nearby.

“Now that he’s gone,” She said, “Before I had something come up, we were discussing PEGylation, weren’t we? You were saying that having an alternate central core structure could help solve the problem?”

The two men relaxed and the one on the right nodded as they returned to more comfortable territory. They continued their conversation roughly where they had left off, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of different additions or changes to the structure.

Eventually the conversation ended and Emily wandered off to check on one of the other groups working on a different virus manufacturing method. She had thought that Matt would find out eventually about her past given what was happening to her with her hallucinations during work, but she hadn’t thought that it would take less than a month for him to do so.

She could only hope that people… Oh, who was she kidding. No one here liked her. Matt had made sure of that, poisoning the well with the whole group before she could even introduce herself properly. Sinestra was right, she hated it here.

But she couldn’t leave. Not yet. She couldn’t disappoint the people that believed in her, helped her, and gave her this opportunity to prove herself to them.

— — —

“It’s finished,” Emily whispered, with something sour churning in her gut. The rest of the team was celebrating around her, someone had brought in an expensive bottle of wine and glasses were being passed around the break room.

“Hey.” Emily looked to the side and saw Matt standing there holding two wine glasses, one in each hand.

“Hi, Matt.”

“Congratulations,” Matt said, “We did it. I doubted you the whole way, but you led us right in the end. I can respect that and admit that I was wrong about you. This thing has the fastest infiltration rate through the body cells I’ve ever seen in the rats. Little to no immune response at all. This could do a lot of good for a lot of people. A cure for every genetic disease that’s eluded us so far.”

“Or hurt just as many…” Emily whispered.

“Hmm?”

“Just wondering about the failsafe. Cure. Whatever you want to call it.”

Matt nodded, “I know how fixated you were on safety. It’s what I respected most about your work once we got to the later stages. A single counter protein made by us will completely cause the viruses to die completely and cease replication. Delivered as a vaccine your own body can even produce them on its own to fight off any reinfections. Targets some of the critical structures of the virus so even mutations won’t cause it to lose effectiveness without severely decreasing its replication rate to near nothing. It’s standard practice these days to keep things safe. No need to worry about release. It would be handled in no time.”

“It’s worked for hundreds of years I suppose,” Emily replied, “Still feels odd to think about. So strange that it only took seven months to do it from start to finish.”

“Indeed. One of the fastest projects I’ve ever worked on. All that’s left are the more rigorous animal and human trials now,” Matt said and held out a glass to her. She stared at him before gingerly accepting it and taking a sip.

“Good work. Boss,” He said.

She glanced at him in surprise. He never called her that.

“Thanks Matt.”

Matt raised his glasses and his lips raised slightly in the corners. “To a successful project?”

Emily clinked his glass.

“To work well done,” She answered. The party continued and Emily put aside her bad feelings. She only had a few months before the ghost's self imposed deadline of doom was set. Once she pushed through she could prove to herself that it had all been in her head.

— — —

No, no, no, no! How can this happen?!

We- We did everything we could, didn’t we?

Can- can we even stop her anymore?

Why is it still happening?

I tried being her friend, we tried being cruel.

But none of it worked.

Now all that suffering, everything that we put her through.

It was all for nothing.

Are you sure you can’t remember what exactly happens?

Maybe there’s some detail, some small clue that we can still tell her.

Something when she can use once she finally realizes that we were right.

No.

It’s all patchy and filled with holes.

Why do I remember more about the stupid fucking Zeena movie

Than the end of the world?!

But I know now that it doesn’t matter if she destroys the virus.

Somehow it still gets released.

By the… Revival Empire I think? I remember that it was them.

If I could just remember how…

What exactly happened so Emily can stop it…

Wait, where are we?

What are we anchored to?

Oh, is that Peter Rose in his office?

“Yes,” Peter said stoically as he stared out of the window of his office, a phone held up to his ear, “Yes. Make sure that the virus is absolutely secure when you transport it. I don’t want any mistakes. I want it held in a more secure location as soon as possible. Make sure to remove any files left behind in our system that could be a security risk.”

He waited for a few seconds as someone spoke on the other side, then nodded.

“Get it done.”

He hung up the call and put the phone flat down on the table. He sighed and rubbed his temples and stared up at the ceiling.

“Shadow,” he mused, “Is this what you imagined for me all those years ago? Sometimes I wish you hadn’t given me this gift at all. The responsibility to guide humanity to a better future… I just wonder if it’s worth it. I’m so close now… So close. I just hope CODA is ready to lead the way when our time comes to rise. Hmm. Speaking of the future. I should make sure to call in Emily Stenson tomorrow to congratulate her. She’s done so well in such little time…”

— — —

“You’ve done well, Emily,” Mr. Rose said as he gave her a smile, “Even I never thought you’d do so well in your new position even if your employees labeled you as eccentric. Eccentric and successful is still successful after all. I’d like to promote…”

Suddenly his phone rang and he frowned and took it from his pocket to check. Immediately he glanced up at her.

“I’m sorry, I’m going to have to ask you both to leave. I’ve had word of an attack on the lab, it appears to be an attempt to steal your results. We were supposed to transport the virus later today to a more secure facility… You and John wait outside. I’ll call you when I know more about the situation. I have to deal with this urgently.”

Emily froze and had to be prodded by John to hurry to the elevator. They stepped inside and rode down to the lab. Emily was in shock. The lab, attacked. Was this it? Was this what the ghosts were talking about?

But it wouldn’t be world ending if the virus was released. Emily and a few others knew how to make the protein that would deactivate the virus, and a few even knew how to make a vaccine directly. And the protein itself was backed up on the CODA database. Emily let out a sigh of relief. Yes, Matt was right. Even in the worst case CODA could have the vaccine and save it if the virus was released accidentally. Yes, everything was fine. And that was even if they got anything.

After an hour and a half of nervously waiting, Mr. Rose called them up to his office. He was grim faced as he stared between them. He took a deep breath before turning to Emily. “I’m sorry for your loss,” He said somberly, “Everyone at the lab was killed.”

Emily gasped, “E-Everyone? What happened? Who did this?”

“We don’t know who did it. We’re still scouring the surrounding countryside for any survivors who may have fled. But the perpetrators set off a massive explosive, destroying the building and killing everyone who was inside at the time. Likely to hide exactly what they stole.”

Emily felt weak at the knees, barely able to keep standing as that washed over her. All of them were dead. Max, undermining her at every turn but giving her grudging respect in the end. Henry, someone almost as smart as her, is always ready with a joke to lighten the mood to break the tension between her and Max. All the others she had known there. All of them dead.

“I know this is a hard blow to you,” Peter said sympathetically, “This attack on our nation, on CODA… I will not rest until we bring those responsible to justice. I’ll arrange a memorial service as soon as we can to pay our respects to their memories in the wake of this tragedy.”

Emily didn’t answer.

She and John left, and Emily didn’t say anything as she made her way home.

Okay, so that was suspicious as fuck, wasn’t it?

Why did Peter call her out just at the perfect moment the lab was hit?

Why is he so quick with a response?

Why would he want to have a memorial service quickly?

And why would the Shadow show us the scene before

unless there was something more going on with him.

Something doesn’t add up.

It must be a coincidence.

He said it, the team he was talking to were going to move in that afternoon.

Peter probably just wanted to show to Emily that he didn’t forget about it with the memorial service.

He’s not perfect, it is a little insensitive to do so ‘quickly’.

But he’s dealing with trying to find the people responsible for the attack.

He can’t be everywhere at once.

And it was over an hour and a half before he called them back.

That’s hardly a quick response.

I think I would know him a little better than you would.

It may not even be something malicious.

But he’s hiding something, I’m sure of it.

The scene of him before proves it.

I don’t know what it is.

But we’ve got to keep a close eye on him.

Fine.

But I don’t think we’ll find anything.

We’ve got to focus on Emily.

I’m not even sure what else we can do at this point.

But I’m sure we can think of something she can do.

She helped build the virus, maybe she could cure it.

Okay. Wait, you see that?

No, she doesn’t hear it. We’re being too loud!

Oh no, Emily watch out!

Behind you!

Emily grunted and put her hand to her head as the whispers grew louder and louder. Caused by stress again. She was in her apartment, sadly eating a tub of ice cream she had bought from the store on the way home, sitting at her kitchen table. Suddenly the whispering suddenly grew in intensity and she straightened up. What had upset them? Before could react something jabbed into her neck and she felt something cool flowing into her veins.

Her body immediately fell slack, and she only got a brief glimpse of three men dressed in all black and faces covered. They were armed with automatic rifles as they stood in her apartment, the front door wide open behind them. One was standing behind her and pulled the syringe out of her neck, the plunger pushed all the way to the bottom. Before she could formulate another coherent thought, Emily fully slumped over her table and fell unconscious.