Effeight

3 The Water Plant* (cont.)

Porter rolled his chair back from his desk a bit, and leaned back in it. He was watching Finster, and appeared to be sizing him up. Finally he spoke.
"There's no use trying to hide it, this has been a major disaster. We are shutting down here, and evacuating the town."
"Evacuating the town?" Finster repeated. There didn't seem to be anyone left to evacuate.

"Most of the people are already in the city."
Finster assumed he meant the larger city, about 50 miles away.
"What about the government?" he asked.
Porter looked at the other man again, and answered.
"We are the government."
Finster didn't understand. Porter was only the head of the Water Department of a small city.

"Things have changed." Porter continued. "It's a whole new world. And we need men like you, who know how to do the things that need to be done."
Something had happened for sure. But he didn't understand Porter's attitude. And he didn't like it, or his friend, Larry.
"Well, I'm glad you made it in. We'll need you to check things out. And get the plant ready to shut down, first thing in the morning. You can leave with us then."

None of this was making sense to Finster. But he went to his locker and picked up his tool belt and hard hat. He didn't know what else to do. As he began his rounds, he noticed Porter and Larry driving off, into town.

Finster moved though the plant, checking the machinery. Here and there he made some necessary adjustments. Then he found something unusual. Along with the usual chemicals, something different was being added to the water. He found some empty bottles labeled "V-48.3 (Water Borne)" and with the word "Caution" in red. There was also a date noted.
As he continued his rounds, behind the plant, he found something else. There was a pile of empty canisters dumped in the area behind the building. They were labeled, "V-48-7 (Air Borne)", with the same date. Finster realized that this date was shortly before they had all begun to get sick. Could this be a coincidence?

He had an uneasy feeling. But his curiosity had been aroused, and he headed up to the office once more. Porter was not back yet. But he found the office door had not been pulled completely closed, and swung open at his touch.
What were these bottles of V-48.3 and this V-48-7 about? He had never heard of them. Finster knew that there was a log kept of all the plant operations. He wanted to find it. After a short search he did.

On the date in question, along with the usual notations, he found "Operation 'Sneezy' initiated". But that was all. There was no indication of what "Sneezy" actually was. The entries continued for a few more days, and then stopped altogether.
Finster went over to Porter's desk. He was surprised to find that his computer was only asleep. It booted up with no password necessary. Finster was no hacker, but he did have a basic knowledge of the system. He began to search for "Sneezy" or "V-48". He had no luck, but did stumble onto a folder titled, "Initiate".

He read with growing disbelief the details of a plan to release a genetically engineered virus, V-48, into the environment. The plan had been carried out on that specific date, simultaneously, throughout the world. V-48.3 had been introduced into the water, and V-48.7 released into the atmosphere at numerous locations.
Finster searched unsuccessfully for more details. He was so absorbed in this that he did not hear Mr. Porter entering. He stood at the door watching Finster. Finally, he cleared his throat, and Finster looked up in surprise.

"I see you've been busy while we were gone." He walked into the office and sat in a chair facing Finster.
"I don't really understand why you're here. You were not one of us. But you are now," Porter said.

"Welcome to the New World."


*The Fuzz realizes that if someone were to actually read this stuff, they would be getting it sorta backwards. There is a link in the sidebar, "Finster", that will take one to another page with this mess in it's proper order.