Category Five: Box Set by Michael McBride

Author:Michael McBride [McBride, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Factor V Media
Published: 2012-07-18T23:00:00+00:00

IV

“Jesus,” Cranston whispered.

Lauren echoed his sentiment. That was the most horrible thing she had ever seen. So many people in pain, so many dying in the worst possible manner.

Cranston looked at each of them in turn.

“I need to know what the hell those things were, how they got into that elephant, and why they attacked like that. I want to know where they went. I need to put a name to every single one of those bodies. And I need to know what in the name of God was in those stingers.” He spun a slow circle. All eyes were on him. “What are you waiting for?”

The group spurred to life at once.

Lauren turned and headed back toward the tent. She was already making a mental checklist in her head. She needed tissue and blood samples from the elephant, a cross-section from several different corpses—

“Hey, doc!” Cranston called after her.

He jogged to catch up with her, took her by the elbow, and spoke softly so that only she could hear.

“I don’t have to tell you that time is a critical factor here. With what’s lined up in Atlanta, we need this resolved as quickly and quietly as possible.” He paused. “I really don’t like the timing of this.”

Lauren nodded.

Cranston searched her eyes for a long moment, nodded back, and then turned away to rejoin the others.

She hurried into the tent and began the slow, arduous task of cutting tissue from various points along the elephant’s digestive tract, from its tongue all the way through to its rectum. By the time she finished, she’d found four more intact wasp carcasses, minus their stingers, which she could only assume were embedded somewhere in the mucosal lining. She aspirated milky fluid from the boils on several of the human corpses, took samples of blood and cerebrospinal fluid, and collected more stingers and the striated skin around them. The medical examiner would perform a thorough examination of the remains to provide a conclusive mechanism of death. Right now, Lauren just needed to make sure there were no virulent microorganisms or otherwise contagious agents in the stingers. From there, she could move on to toxins and allergens, and determine if an immediate injection of antihistamines or steroids would counteract the life-threatening effects.

Her thoughts drifted back to the video recording. The wasps had chewed their way out of the animal’s bowels as she had suspected, but there were several things she had noticed that didn’t quite make sense. First, there was the high-pitched tone that had come from the speakers. It hadn’t been feedback. The sound had been too regular, unwavering. It not only appeared to have surprised the audience, but the performers as well. And it was shortly thereafter that the wasps had emerged from the elephant’s abdomen. Was it possible that the two were somehow related? Then there was the second occurrence after everyone was already dead, softer, as though attenuated by distance. That had been when all of the insects had flown away,

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