“So what brings you here, Eric?” asked Dr. Fall.

“Insomnia. I can’t sleep. The state of the world, the current administration, it’s too much. I was reading up on meds like zolpidem. I wondered…” 

“You want a prescription? Sure. Might as well while Jr. still lets us prescribe these things, huh? Is there anything else?” Dr. Fall asked. He appeared to be in a hurry to end the appointment. 

Eric shook his head, “No, that’s pretty much it.”

“Well, make sure you’re getting lots of exercise, and maybe speak to a therapist. But I can definitely help you out with the meds.”

Eric nodded as Dr. Fall squinted at his computer screen, typing in a few things. He inquired about Eric’s preferred pharmacy, then typed something else.

“You got any kids, Eric?” Dr. Fall asked. 

Eric shook his head. 

“You’re not yet fifty. You could settle down, you know. Get a wife and a baby. Might take your mind off the woes of the world.”

“I’m pretty sure it would just add to them, doctor. I believe it’s too late for me.”

Dr. Fall shrugged, “Suit yourself. Now, don’t take more than the 10mg dose with this stuff, and don’t try to quit cold turkey once you’re taking it consistently, or you’re gonna have a bad time. Let’s have a followup in about three months, okay? Unless there are issues before then.” Dr. Fall gave a hearty chest cough into his sleeve, and then stood up, shook Eric’s hand, and left. The session was over. 

Later that night, as Eric was crushing up two of the zolpidem, and scooping their contents into a little baggie, before crushing up two more into a separate baggie as backup, he found himself smiling for the first time in months. A genuine smile. Not one forced out of him at work to try and fit in. 

He continued to scroll through Dr. Raj’s Facebook, Wikipedia, and linked in pages, as well as every other social media platform and article he could get his hands on regarding the man. He had already been at it for weeks, but this was like cramming for the test. He didn’t want to mess this up. 

This was it. This weekend, the long weekend, he would finally have a chance to make the world a better place. His last chance.

*****

“Dr. Raj, your daughter is calling. She says she has been trying to get a hold of you,” came Mara’s voice over the headset.

Dr. Devansh Raj, Dr. Raj to most, Dev to his best friends, and papa to his daughter Anika, took a deep breath in his hazmat suit as the air flowed around him somewhere below the roar of an airplane.

“Tell her I promise to call her back when I’m out of here,” Dev spoke as loud and clear as he could, hand trembling slightly as he returned the remainder of the rapid-acting virus to its container, and began to seal and sterilize everything with the bottle of diluted bleach. He glanced over at the ammonium salts bottle, wondering why Evers hadn’t bothered to finish cleaning up his station. Oh well. They could worry about it on Tuesday when they finished the process of shutting the lab down. 

Dev set about putting his tray of cryovial samples in the deep freeze, putting the viruses in one freezer and the vaccines in another.

He sealed the freezers, then walked over to the cages where they housed the Rhesus monkeys. Eeyore was the only one left, the sole survivor, and first of the monkeys given Dev’s current vaccine. Dev opened the cage and placed a handful of vegetables and nuts in the special container set up to avoid contamination. Almost before the cage was closed, Eeyore was snatching them up and devouring them rapidly.

“You’re about to go on a long journey, my friend,” Dev said. “I hope they treat you well.”

The results in Eeyore had been so promising, his cells so resilient to the virus now, that Dev had gotten assurances from the Boston lab that they would keep Eeyore alive for observation.

In a way, Dev was relieved that his beloved lab was closing down. His hard work being sent away. Well, relieved only in the sense that he wouldn’t have to watch everyone else do the research he could no longer do as his tremor and panic attacks worsened. It was a straight path to teaching now for him, assuming the current administration would allow It. 

It was a selfish thought he permitted himself as he genuinely did care about all his fellow workers at the lab, and the years of research they had done. He wished them all the best in their next endeavors, and prayed that shutting down these labs wasn’t going to bite humanity in the ass.

Who was he kidding, of course it would. Humanity was fucked when ignorance prevailed. 

He entered the chemical shower in his positive pressure suit, turning to make sure the disinfectant reached every square inch of him. Several minutes later, once he was satisfied that his suit was clean, he stepped out of the containment zone and carefully removed his gloves and suit.

Several minutes later, after a rigorous personal shower, he was changed back into fresh clean purple scrubs, his favorite work atire since it was so easy to don, and happened to be his daughter’s favorite color. Finally, he was standing outside the lab area with security. Eric Quinn and Trevor Bailey looked up at him with somber faces from their positions at their computers. 

“Guess I’ll see you Tuesday, Dr. Raj,” Trevor said. “Then it’s sayonara.” 

“Don’t be a stranger,” Dev gave a gentle smile to the men before heading to his office to finish up some work. It took him half an hour to remember to call Anika back, and by the time her phone was ringing, it went straight to voicemail. She must be in class, he thought. He left a short message. 

“Hello Pipette, sorry I missed you. I know you’re thinking about your mother a lot this weekend, and I am too. We’ll get together for dinner on Sunday and reminisce, okay? Sorry again, but with the lab shutting down, everything has been so chaotic. Love you, Pipette.” 

Dev hung up with a sigh, setting his phone on his desk and taking off his glasses to lean forward with his face in his hands. It had been one year this weekend. How had it been a year already? And why did the lab have to be closing down now? It all seemed like too much. 

There was a soft knock at the door, and he looked over to see Eric waving at him through the window. Dev gestured him in with a forced smile, still caught up in his own feelings about everything happening. The memory of his wife. 

“Sorry to intrude Dr. Raj,” Eric said, looking sheepish. “I just wanted to bring you this as a thank you for everything, you know? You’ve been so generous to all of us here at the lab, and offering to be a reference for my next position really meant a lot to me. So, I went to your favorite coffee place across the street and got that Chai you love so much.”

Eric held out the cup of tea, and Dev couldn’t help but genuinely smile at the sweet gesture. 

“Thank you so much, Eric,” Dev said, taking the cup, “this will help me power through the last of my work tonight before I head home for the long weekend.”

“Don’t work too hard,” Eric insisted, fidgeting with the string on his hoodie as Dev took a sip from the cup. 

“Mmm, perfect,” Dev grinned.

“Well, I’m gonna go help Trevor finish wrapping things up,” Eric said. “I’ll walk you out later, if that’s alright?”

“Of course!” Dev nodded, taking another sip of the tea, and relishing in the sweet flavor. Such a kind gesture. 

Eric nodded and left, closing the door behind him and leaving Dev to his work. 

****

“Dr. Raj must have been working his ass off,” Trevor said as he and Eric walked by Dr. Raj’s office. Eric glanced in to see Dr. Raj with his arms on the desk, face down, fast asleep. 

“Oh jeez,” said Eric, “Hey, you go on, I’m gonna make sure he gets home okay.”

“I didn’t see his car in the lot today,” said Trevor. 

“He mentioned something about having a flat tire this morning. Said he took an Uber in. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he gets home,” said Eric, heart thumping as he watched Trevor stare at Dr. Raj’s unconscious form. 

“I can’t believe it’s been a year since that business with his wife,” Trevor said. “That poor poor man.”

“Yeah,” Eric nodded, wishing Trevor would leave already. 

“Well, I’m gonna go home and drink to the end of our beloved lab. Hit me up later if you want to celebrate the end,” Trevor said. 

“I might just do that,” said Eric, lying through his teeth. He watched Trevor finally leave, heading for the elevator. Eric let out a sigh and walked into Dr. Raj’s office. He closed the door behind him and shut the blinds, before picking up the cup of tea. Dr. Raj had consumed the whole thing. Eric vaguely wondered if he’d had a chance to use the bathroom. He picked up one of Dr. Raj’s arms, and dropped it on the table. The man didn’t budge. He was out cold. 

Eric pulled out his laptop, checking the security cameras he had uploaded to his personal device. Edward, the front door guard, was downstairs at the entrance, chatting away with Trevor, probably being invited to his end of the lab drinking session. Eric typed in a command, and a red alert button lit up on Edward’s display, cutting his conversation with Trevor short as he had to check on whatever had triggered the alarm in the bathroom. 

As soon as Trevor was out the door, and Edward was distracted trying to figure out the bathroom sensor, Eric inputted the camera footage he had secured from three weeks ago of him walking out with Dr. Raj around this time. The remainder of the building’s footage now showed no one else around. It was too difficult to make it look like he and Dr. Raj had actually swiped out with the way that security was set up, but he would deal with that issue in a little bit. 

For now, with the cameras no longer showing him or Dr. Raj being in the facility, Eric was free to start his little project. He went and grabbed the wheelchair that they kept in the upstairs closet in case of emergency, and maneuvered Dr. Raj into it, before using the elevator to take him way down to the sublevels before Edward got back to his desk. 

****

The first thing Dev noticed when he woke up was how stiff his neck and shoulders were. 

The second thing he noticed was that he couldn’t move his arms. 

He blinked repeatedly in an attempt to remove the cloud of drowsiness he was currently enveloped in as he tried to understand what was happening. Hadn’t he been in his office? Doing work?

He recalled feeling drowsy, and laying his head down on the desk for a moment of relief, and now…

He looked around, feeling the crunch of his aching neck as he did so, letting out a small hiss of pain. He was in a strange room he had never seen before, one loaded with different boxes of files. To his left, a door was slightly ajar, the light to the next room on, and he could see a toilet. To his right, the door to the room he was in was closed. He was seated on a mat, his arms secured behind him with what he could feel were handcuffs. He looked up, realizing that he was wearing his glasses, and saw that he was attached to a thin pillar that went from ceiling to floor. A discovery he made along with a great deal of noise as the handcuffs clanged against the pillar. 

“Oh good, you’re awake,” came a voice from the bathroom. Dev startled, watching anxiously as the bathroom door opened all the way, and Eric Quinn came out, a grin on his face. 

“Eric? What-” Dev shook his head in an attempt to try to make sense of what he was seeing. He only succeeded in making his neck tense more, feeling a definite strain on his shoulders. 

“I’m sorry, I know it can’t be that comfortable. I promise it wasn’t my goal to make you miserable,” said Eric, sitting down on the floor across from Dev.

“What are you doing?” Dev asked, reality beginning to set in as he looked at the man across from him who seemed to have no intention of freeing him from this pillar. 

“I just want to talk,” said Eric. “I just want to convince you to help me save the world, Dr. Raj. Save it from all the evil terrible people that would do it harm.”

“How exactly would we do that?” Dev asked, looking around the room for any sign of something that could free him from this place. From this insane moment. 

“We’re going to release your virus, doctor. The extended one. The one with the potential to kill 88% of the world’s population. We’re going to save the planet.”

“What-what do you mean release it?” Dev asked, sensing that all too familiar rush of a panic attack tickling the edge of his brain. 

“I said extended, didn’t I?” Eric clarified. “Sorry, I looked this all up and everything. Wanted to do this right. The one with the long incubation period, with the asymptomatic shedding. It killed nearly all the animals in the lab, save for Eeyore the Rhesus monkey. Lucky little dude.”

“I destroyed it!” Dev blurted. “Just today. It-it’s gone.”

Eric scoffed and shook his head, and Dev felt his heart flutter at the dark look on the man’s face. 

“You and I both know that’s not true, doctor. You said yourself that you’re sending it on to the Boston lab so that they can replicate the results of your vaccine. It’s going to be here until Tuesday. It’s currently 11:22 pm on Friday night. By the end of this weekend, you’re going to help me release your virus into the world.”

Dev shook his head adamantly, “No, absolutely not. I do my work to save lives. There is no conceivable path where I release my virus  anywhere.”

“I know you think that now, I understand. I used to think like you. I used to believe the world was full of good people that needed to be saved, but then I watched them. I watched what they were doing every day to destroy each other and the very planet we live on. I saw them raping and pillaging our natural resources with no intention of repairing the damage. I witnessed them use and use and use until there was nothing left, then move on to the next area and purge and destroy all of nature and her beauty. Drill baby drill.”

“Eric,” Dev cleared his throat, which was extremely dry now, and swallowed against his rising fear, “I understand that you’re frustrated. That you’re angry. But this is not the way. We can get you help. There are resources, therapists. I’m seeing one myself, it’s been life-changi-”

“It’s too late for that,” Eric said. “Our species needs to step aside. The survivors will flourish or they will fall. That is on them.”

“Eric, you’ve had some sort of mental break, but I promise you there is help out there. Please, you have to release me. You have to let me go. We’ll walk out of here together. I’ll get you help, I promise.”

Eric chuckled and shook his head, “You’re not getting it, Dr. Raj. I’m past the point of no return. I’ve been plotting this for months. The current administration gutted this place beyond any reasonable chance at actual security, and I’ve got all the access I could ever need. How do you think I brought in those handcuffs? And it’s not the only thing I slipped past security when I made sure they were looking the other way. Hell, how do you think I managed to get you all the way down here when Edward has access to the cameras? This whole thing is going to end how I say it will end.”

Dev’s head was spinning. He felt very close to throwing up, and forced himself to take several deep breaths as he tried to process everything that Eric had just said. 

This was it. 

Worst case scenario. 

They had trained for this, but the training hadn’t involved being chained to a pillar, or having the attacker hacked into the security system to this extent and with this much intimate knowledge of the building and its systems.  

Dev shook his head back and forth, trying to take a moment, to think of something to say or do to fix this. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something sticking out of one of the file boxes. Pages were clipped together with the familiar silver spiral of a paperclip. 

If he could just…

“B-breathe,” he muttered, forcing himself to start hyperventilating. He wasn’t in full panic mode yet, but it was easy enough to pretend. He was curious about just how versed Eric was in pharmaceuticals.

“What is it?” Eric asked, looking genuinely concerned. 

“Need my-need-beta-blocker, in my desk,” his breathing was loud and raspy now. Frantic, like a real panic attack. He wasn’t entirely sure it wasn’t one. 

“The Propranolol?” Eric asked. 

Dev nodded, deciding not to concern himself at the moment with exactly why Eric had such intimate knowledge about him. 

“Okay,” Eric said, seeming to take a moment to collect himself, “okay, I’ll be right back. Just hang on, alright?”

Dev didn’t answer as he continued with the panic performance. He watched as Eric rushed to the door, listened as he headed out and closed it behind him, and his footsteps took off down the hall. When Dev felt Eric was far enough away, he immediately began to maneuver toward the nearest file box. It was impossible to reach with his hands. 

He succeeded in knocking the box down, dragging it toward him with his shoe, and just managed to pull some of the papers up onto the mat. The nearest pages had a paperclip hanging at the top, and he twisted around to shove the papers toward his hands until he was able to grasp the pages with his fingers. 

With a deep shaky breath, he pulled the paperclip off, and pulled one end straight, before using his fingers to find the keyhole of the cuffs. As he searched blindly, it occurred to him that he had never done this before, never had cause to. Wasn’t even sure if he could. But the alternative was unthinkable. He winced at the repeated clanging of the metal of the cuffs on the pillar as he finally pushed the paperclip into the circular keyhole and twisted it around, hoping for a click or release or something. 

Instead, he found himself fumbling the paperclip, which went flying out of his hands in his frenzy. 

“No, no,” he breathed, reaching around for it behind him but unable to find it. The cuffs clicked and clanged against the pillar. 

“Who’s there?!”

Dev straightened up immediately at the sound of a familiar voice in the hallway. It wasn’t Eric. 

“Here!” Dev called, clanging the cuffs repeatedly against the pillar to make as much noise as he could. “In here! Help me! Please!”

His heart leapt as he heard footsteps rushing across the hall, then the door swung open, and Edward was there looking at him in surprise.

“What the hell!” Edward breathed. 

“It’s Eric!” Dev gasped. “He’s had some sort of psychotic break! He wants to release a virus from the bsl-4 lab! You have to get me out of here!”

Edward shook his head, “I knew something was up when his car was still in the lot, but this?”

Edward was looking around, clearly trying to find something that could release Dev. He pulled his phone out of his pocket. He was starting to dial a number when in one horrible instant, an arm came around the front of him, sliding something silver smoothly across his throat. A waterfall of crimson came spraying from his jugular veins, and Dev cried out in horror as Edward collapsed to his knees, clutching his hemorrhaging throat. Eric stood behind him, breathing heavily, staring passively at the man who was now collapsed on his front on the ground, gurgling, choking violently on his own blood as he died. 

The panic attack was real this time. It crashed over Dev in a wave, locking him in tight, making it nearly impossible to breathe. Rapid breaths in and out as his head swam, as his vision blurred and his chest tightened. 

“It’s okay,” said Eric, getting on his knees on the mat next to Dev. “I’m sorry about that. He wasn’t supposed to come down here.”

Dev was not in control as wave after wave of panic washed over him. He began to wonder if he would pass out. Eric was too far gone to reason with, and now Dev was completely at the man’s whim, and an innocent person had been murdered. 

“Breathe, just breathe. Slow down,” Eric said, placing his hands on Dev’s knees and forcing Dev to meet his gaze rather than continue to stare at the pool of blood growing across the room, flowing out from Edward’s throat.

He couldn’t. 

Dev couldn’t rein it in. 

He continued to hyperventilate, fighting to get oxygen into his lungs, to surpass the moment where he felt like his heart would explode in his chest. 

“Hey!” Eric gripped his head, forcing Dev’s gaze toward him and only him. “Deep breath in. Deep breath out.”

Dev struggled past the shuddering breaths to suck in as much oxygen as he could. He let it out again in one long shaky exhalation. 

“In, and out,” Eric repeated. 

Dev did as he was told, breathing in and out again, trying to focus. 

“In and out.”

Over and over he did this, until finally he managed to trick his body into thinking he was okay. That he wasn’t at the whim of a madman who had just murdered their coworker. 

That he wasn’t being forced to annihilate humanity. 

“We need to establish some trust, doctor,” Eric said, once Dev had managed to calm down. “I got all the way to your office before it occurred to me that your beta-blocker wouldn’t work fast enough to stop your panic attack, that you were trying to get me out of the room. And now look what’s happened to poor Edward. The man was only here because he agreed to take on a double shift tonight. Unfortunately, this does accelerate things a bit. We’re going to need to get a move on before his coverage gets here in eight hours. I can’t keep stabbing everyone who comes into the building, you know?”

Dev nodded, unsure of what else to do as he looked at the pond of blood behind Eric. His gaze trailed to the socks on Eric’s feet, which were now soaked in blood. It occurred to Dev that Eric must have removed his shoes in order to make a sneak attack on Edward. The forethought was frightening. The man really did think of everything. 

Eric looked behind him at the body, then clicked his tongue, “Let me just take care of this really quick.”

Dev didn’t respond. 

Eric stepped over and crouched low over Edward’s body, before lifting him with a grunt and dragging him awkwardly into the bathroom. Dev heard the thumps, thuds, and clear sound of a door in the bathroom being shut. He continued to focus on keeping his breathing steady so that he didn’t go into another attack at he looked out his blurry glasses at the streaks and pools of blood leading into the bathroom. 

They reminded him of the effects of his virus on the poor monkeys, a hemorrhagic fever inducing virus that came with violent expulsion of blood and bodily fluids. No amount of painkillers could make the monkeys’ passing any less horrific, and Dev deeply regretted it every time. But he did it to save others. He created a vaccine that would stop the most terrifying hemorrhagic virus known to man or nature, then with some tweaks could be used for other similar strains. 

He had created his specifically when he learned of a longer asymptomatic contagion window on an ebola adjacent virus occurring in nature that had caused the death of almost an entire village in Zaire. Nearly unheard of, but nature was ever changing. Rapidly accelerating at this point with climate change and habitat destruction so rampant. 

He had also created an accelerated virus of the same strain to help speed up the process of his vaccine. It worked at the speed of the common cold, showing symptoms within 12 hours. At the moment, he desperately wished he had destroyed all of his samples. 

Eric came back into the room, fussing about as he cleaned up as much of the mess of blood and papers as he could. He shoved the bloody papers all into a box out of the way. 

Eric left the room and returned a moment later with a wheelchair, which he set up across from Dev. He was just about to sit down when he glanced at Dev and noticed something. He crossed the room and crouched down on the mat, reaching out a hand towards Dev’s face.

“Mmm,” Dev flinched away instinctively. 

“You’ve got blood on your glasses-oh,” Eric trailed off, looking at the blood all over his own hands. “I’m sorry about that.” He gently removed the glasses from Dev’s face, and walked to the bathroom. Dev could hear the sink water running and the sound of soap as Eric presumably washed his hands. 

Dev was staring into the distance, feeling dazed,  when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He glanced over to see, even with his fuzzy vision, the unmistakable shape of a phone, Edward’s phone, just out of Eric’s line of sight, under a shelf next to the bathroom. It must have slid across the room in all the chaos, and neither man had noticed.

Eric returned with visibly cleaner hands, and Dev’s glasses. He carefully positioned them on Dev’s face, before taking a seat on the chair across from him so that they were once more eye to eye. 

“Now doctor, let’s-”

“I have to pee,” interrupted Dev.

Eric raised an eyebrow in surprise, but nodded after a moment. 

“Of course. I want you to be comfortable. Straight to the bathroom and back, okay? I’ll leave you uncuffed for this, but don’t try anything.”

“I won’t,” Dev said, half glancing again at the phone. He would have to do this very carefully. 

“If you can be chill about this, you won’t have to stay in the restraints while we have our talk. How does that sound?” Eric asked. 

“Preferable,” Dev said, breath hitching as Eric leaned down close to him to undo the cuffs. Dev gave an audible groan as he pulled his arms around to rub his wrists and stretch his back. He moved his head back and forth to relieve the ache in his neck, feeling the hours of tension still twinging throughout his body. 

In all honesty, he did have to pee, so that at least wasn’t a lie. Eric helped him up and he walked toward the bathroom, purposely managing to slip on a pool of blood, catch his foot on the wheelchair, and go crashing to the floor with a gasp. He hoped it looked believable, and he realized with horror that his purple scrubs were now coated in Edward’s blood. 

“Sorry,” he murmured, subtly snatching up the phone as he stood up, “my legs are stiff.”

“Leave the door open a crack,” Eric warned. 

Dev nodded as he stepped into the bathroom, phone down at his left side as he swiped up the emergency phone icon from the lock-screen, desperately trying not to think of the body tucked away in the closet behind him. He unzipped and began to relieve himself as he glanced down at the phone, quietly tapping the emergency number icon and typing in 9-1-1 and the green call button. He kept glancing at the doorway as he did so.

The call stalled.

Dev’s heart thundered as he hit end-call and tried again. No luck. There was no signal. He tried to swipe the phone open, but it was locked of course, so there was no chance to attempt a text message. He tried the police one more time, shoving the phone into his pocket as he went to wash his hands. Checking it after he dried his hands with a paper towel.

“No signal down here.”

Dev jumped, the phone clattering from his hands as Eric stood in the doorway, looking at him with something like disappointment. 

It was now or never, he realized. He was unrestrained, and though Eric had several inches on him, Dev was still fit for a man just turned fifty. He charged forward, shoving bodily into Eric, knocking him backwards into the nearest shelf. Dev booked it past him, slipping and sliding on the pool of blood, his legs definitely cramped from how he had been sitting. He made it to the door of the filing room when he felt the excruciating arc of electricity travel through his body, collapsing him on the spot. 

Moments later, he was being dragged to the pillar, his wrists secured behind him once more. Eric slumped down in the chair, breathing heavily, looking pissed, a taser held in his right hand.

When Dev managed to recover, he collected his thoughts, chest heaving as he looked at Eric. 

“I will not release that virus, and there is nothing you can say or do that will change my mind. My sole purpose in life is to save others. To protect lives.”

“Tell it to the monkeys,” Eric snapped. 

“I understand the concerns you have for nature. The compassion you have for living beings. You are aware that this virus crosses species? That humans aren’t the only ones that will suffer.”

“People always talk about getting rid of parasites and disease, but you and I both know that there’s a reason they exist, doctor. To restore balance to the system. People will die. Animals will die. Then it’ll stop, and nature will flourish again without the blight of mankind to smother her. And perhaps the greatest minds will remain, scientists that we can personally save to make a better world. A better humanity. To start over from a broken system and create something pure and good and worth saving. You and I could be masters of a new world, doctor. We could be its shepherds.” 

Dev shook his head, “You sound just like every eugenics lunatic who ever decided that they knew what the world needed to be perfect. That is not our place. Not our right.”

“You mean just like the men who murdered your wife, Dr. Raj? The white supremacists whose goal was to rid the world of those “lesser humans”” Eric made quotation marks with his fingers for emphasis, “choosing their victims merely from selection of skintone and culture. You think I’m like those men? The ones who stalked the both of you in that park, leaving you for dead and beating your wife again and again?”

“Stop,” Dev breathed, seeing that night, that moment smashing its way into his memories unbidden.

“I saw the footage, doctor. I watched over and over again the moment they took your whole world from you and ran away, never to be found. Never to be brought to justice. Are you going to tell me you want to protect men like that?”

Dev closed his eyes and shook his head, attempting to pull away from the conversation. 

“Can you imagine the breakthroughs your wife might have had, were she still alive? She was a doctor too, right? Working in pediatric research. All of the suffering she could have ended if that merry band of meatheads wasn’t around to end her.”

Dev felt his tremor coming on. It was so strong that it was rattling the handcuffs against the pillar. 

He had thought of killing those men. The ones who had beaten him bloody with a tire iron, then smashed his beloved Indira on the head until she collapsed in agonal breathing and he was unable to reach her, held down by the beasts in their white masks. When Indira had taken her last breath, the men freaked out and let Dev go before bolting away into the darkness. 

Dev vividly recalled crawling over the pathway to his wife, pulling her close to him. His phone had been taken, smashed. Pictures of Indira and Anika lost forever. He had begun CPR, crying out for help. Eventually, an older man heard him and came over, calling 9-1-1, but it was too late. Indira was pronounced dead at the hospital.

“Think of all the shitheads we could wipe out in a matter of weeks. Even if someone managed to mass produce your vaccine, do you think these idiots would take it? You and I both know they would be exterminated with the rest of them.”

“The rest of them,” Dev repeated, opening his eyes. “Everyone else. Children, mothers, fathers, great thinkers, innocent men and women across the world would suffer a horrible fate for your ego. You’ve seen those monkeys, Eric. You’ve seen them hacking up literal chunks of their lungs, drowning in their own blood. You know perfectly well the effects of this virus. Humanity isn’t just going to disappear, it’s going to suffer horribly for days, all ages, all walks of life, the worst and the best of us. Nothing makes that okay.”

“We’re already in the midst of the next great extinction. Humanity will suffer either way. All ages. And they’ll do it in a way that there will be nothing left for anyone. No possibility of sustaining life once we’ve decimated Earth’s resources. You have samples of the vaccine doctor. We take that, release the virus in a few weeks, a month, two months from now the world will be a much better place.”

“I won’t do it,” Dev said. “You’re going to have to face that, Eric. No matter what you do to me, I will not.”

“Of course, Anika would be first in line for the vaccine,” Eric said quietly. 

Dev’s blood went cold. 

“She’s one of those brilliant minds in our new world. I’ve looked into her. Talented and beautiful like her parents. Imagine the things she could do with that brilliant mind. Top of her class, right? Accelerated to her post-doc in a fraction of the time it takes others to do so. A doctorate in ecology. Think of what she could do for the future.”

“What did you do to her?” Dev hissed.

“Nothing yet. She’s on her way to this facility now, I expect her in,” Eric checked his watch, “just over an hour. I’ll head out to the gate to meet up with her. See, Terry there always takes his nighttime bathroom break around that time, not much to guard around 1am. With all the cuts, there’s no security backup. Perfect time to bring Anika in, and, well, Edward won’t be around to say anything.”

Dev shifted up, body trembling and straining, feeling utterly helpless as Eric talked so casually, so evilly about the most precious person in his life. 

“You’re lying,” Dev insisted. 

“Am I? I suppose we’ll have to wait and see, won’t we,” said Eric. “And maybe we can come to a decision about the future we want for Anika. The one where she’s protected and safe in a flourishing new world, or, well-” 

He gestured around the room at the crimson pools of blood. 

“She’s not coming,” Dev shook his head. “There’s no way.”

It couldn’t be true. He refused to believe it. 

Eric grinned and pulled something out of his back pocket. It was Dev’s phone. He waved it teasingly in his hand. 

“I have copious footage of you typing in your phone’s passcode around the lab, doctor. As if your daughter’s birth year wasn’t obvious enough. I had full use of your phone while you were asleep. That’s before I turned it off so no one could track where you were. I mean, Anika knows, obviously. But the message she thinks you sent has her coming in a real hurry from her university. She wouldn’t want her beloved father getting in trouble for the virus he’s about to release, so she is on her way to stop you. Can’t lose two parents at the same time of year now, can we?”

“You!” Dev cried out, pulling so violently against the cuffs that he ended up wrenching his back and wincing in agony. “You fucker! She wouldn’t! She would never fall for that!”

“You don’t think so?” Eric asked, sadistic glee on his face, “Let’s see shall we?”

He turned on Dev’s phone, waiting until the lock screen came up, then typing in the passcode. He tapped a few things on the screen until messages came up, then crossed the room to kneel on the mat, the phone held in front of Dev’s face.

There before him, clear as day, were messages back and forth between his phone and Anika. Warning her that he was in bad space from the anniversary of Indira’s death, that he needed Anika’s help. That if she called anyone, he would likely be shot, that maybe it was for the best. She had begged him to reconsider. Well, begged Eric’s version of him. Eric had told her to come immediately, that Dev needed her. She had promised she would. 

Dev let out a sob as he thought of Anika showing up, of Eric hurting her, or worse. 

Eric turned off the phone and sat back in the chair. 

“And when she gets here, and papa is nowhere to be found, I’ll be there with a soothing drink and  kind words to calm her down,” he pulled a small white baggy of powder out of his pocket and shook it for emphasis. “She can rest just like her father did, while you and I figure some things out.”

Dev felt fire in his gut, a burning urge to murder Eric right then and there. Something he had only felt once before. 

“Now imagine it, doctor. A world where your daughter can be a leader. Given the vaccine, she would be safe, and the monsters who murdered your wife would choke on their own blood like the pathetic cretins they are.”

Dev couldn’t speak, he was so angry. So freaked out at the prospect of Anika being involved in this insane nightmare. 

“I mean, we currently have the country following a leader who suggested injecting bleach into our veins to cure a virus, instead of actual scientists, doctors, nurses, and people who knew what the hell they were talking about. Just think of how many brilliant people may be lucky enough to survive anyway because they can follow the basics of science and sanitation.”

Injecting bleach. 

An image popped into Dev’s mind. The bottle of ammonium salts that Evers had left out in the lab. Even Evers, a brilliant scientist, was careless. The rest of the world didn’t stand a chance. 

He slowly turned his gaze up to meet Eric’s. He needed to say something to allay the fire within him, to collect his thoughts until he could figure this out. 

“How would you start the spread?” Dev asked, genuinely curious. 

“What?” Eric blinked. 

“How would you start the spread of the virus? How would you ensure it goes global?”

“I’m so glad you asked that,” said Eric, looking giddy now. “International Airport. Spread it around bathrooms, kiosks, those plastic security trays that are already teeming with germs. In no time at all it would be propagating across 6 continents. And because nature is adept at adaptation, and your genius expanded on that, it would take weeks before anyone could even begin to try and slow it down. A longer incubation window and asymptomatic infection will spell doom pretty damn quickly. A few months from now, it’s all over. Billions dead. Then you come out with the vaccine, and you’re a hero. A god among men!”

“We would no longer have the systems in place to produce the vaccine,” Dev pointed out. “No one able to manufacture it. We wouldn’t even have the abilities to dispose of the bodies of all the dead. Do you know what a world full of rotting corpses and dying people drowning in their own sick would smell like? How long it would take to clean up all the contamination? What would you suggest we do then?”

“I’m actually pretty handy with an excavator, from one of my first jobs. And lucky us, having the only supply of the vaccine. We can make it a lottery for the survivors, or you can choose the best scientists in the world. It’s up to you. Personally, I could give a shit if all of humanity died.”

“Yourself included?” Dev raised an eyebrow. 

Eric smirked, “It would be nice to live long enough to see the effects. I won’t lie.”

“No one else has had a chance to confirm my vaccine works,” Dev pointed out. 

“Your Rhesus buddy, Eeyore, seems proof enough for me. I saw you on the lab video the day you found him still alive. You were so ecstatic, so proud, and that’s all I needed to know.”

“He was one case out of twelve others that died.”

“Let’s not be disingenuous. There are also fourteen thriving mice down in the lab who all survived the virus with your vaccine. Only one died, if I recall. And Eeyore was only the start of your current vaccine in monkey trials. The other monkeys never had a chance, they never got the vaccine. You’re so brilliant, doctor, that the Boston lab even had you pegged for finishing the vaccine on the Marburg virus, if our lab wasn’t being shut down. I’ve read your emails.”

“I’m not stopping because of our lab being shut down,” Dev corrected, “I’m stopping because of the tremor I’ve developed from my panic disorder after my wife’s death. I thought I could get past it, but it’s only gotten worse. It’s made my work in the lab unsafe for everyone. That’s why Tuesday was meant to be my last day.”

“I’m helping you come out of retirement. A mind like yours shouldn’t stagnate in academia. You deserve to be by my side in our new world together.”

Dev wanted to point out how dangerous it was that there hadn’t even been human trials for the vaccine, that Eric was putting his blind trust into something so novel that it could take months, even years to figure out if the vaccine could work in humans, but it was like talking to a brick wall. 

A brick wall that was about to be holding his daughter hostage. 

“You very well may not live to see your new world, Eric. In fact, the odds are stacked against you.”

“Then I’ll go out the easy way,” Eric shrugged. “Either way, it’ll be a new world of my making. Of our making, doctor. How incredible will that be?”

Dev leaned his head back against the pillar, steeling himself. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath before he spoke.

“Alright. Let’s do this. Before Anika gets here. Let’s go to the lab.”

He opened his eyes to see a smile had broken out across Eric’s face, a sadistic grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes. 

“What changed your mind?” Eric asked. 

“It was a combination of things, really,” Dev shrugged, “not the least of which involves protecting my daughter. I’ll be honest though, you have made some convincing points. You really did think this through. When I started my work, I thought I would be saving the world. A bold, narcissistic thought, I now realize. I watched pandemic after pandemic take place and wipe out so many people, and I just wanted to help. I wanted to save villages, cities, entire countries. I wanted to save all of humanity. But I’m just one man, a weak man who couldn’t even save my own wife. You’ve made me realize that I have a chance now to wipe the slate clean. That perhaps, it is time for the virus to reign and for balance to be restored. The fact that you are willing to die to save the planet shows me just how noble your cause truly is.”

The whole time Dev spoke, he was clenching and unclenching his right hand, attempting to keep the circulation strong despite the pins and needles from wearing the cuffs and being positioned with his arms behind him for so long. The tremor was still there, strong as ever, but he ignored it.

They had to get to the lab. They had to get to the vaccine before Anika arrived. He would do whatever it took to protect his daughter. 

“You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear that,” said Eric. 

“I won’t fight you, anymore. I swear on Anika’s life,” said Dev. “Take me to the lab, and you’ll have your virus, and your vaccine.”

“Your virus doctor. Your beautiful creation. Magnificent, elegant, deadly.”

Eric crossed the room to kneel on the mat in front of Dev, who used all of his willpower not to flinch away. 

“Time to share it with the world,” Dev said, forcing a smile. 

Eric leaned over to unlock the cuffs, and Dev held his breath. After gripping the cuffs, the clang of metal on metal evident as Eric worked the key, he paused, casting a side-glance at Dev. 

“You do understand that I’m going to take precautions. You’ve lied already tonight, doctor. I’ll have the taser and the knife, so don’t try anything, or I’ll zap you, cut your Achilles tendon, and wheel you upstairs in that chair if I’m forced to. Then I’ll do the same thing to Anika. Understood?”

Dev nodded emphatically, swallowing against the lump of fear in his throat. He wouldn’t do Eric a lot of good if he couldn’t walk, but he understood that Eric was counting on him complying first and foremost, especially with the threats to his daughter. 

“Right,” Eric nodded, clearly attempting to reassure himself. “Alright. You and me, doctor. One, two, three, up!”

Dev nearly fell over as his hands were released and Eric lifted him bodily to a standing position. He fell back against the pillar at first, feeling wildly unstable on his feet after having been tased and spending so long in a stress position against the pillar, but managed to catch himself. 

“You good?” Eric asked. 

“Y-yeah,” Dev breathed. 

“Good, let’s go,” Eric ordered, gesturing toward the door with the taser now held quite visibly in his hand. 

Dev walked toward the door, feet slipping on a particularly thick pool of blood. He felt the revulsion bubble in his gut at being reminded of poor Edward, now left behind, crammed into a bathroom closet. Dev imagined his sweet Anika shoved into that same closet, and his heart beat furiously at the thought of Eric getting his hands on her. 

They reached the hall, leaving bloody footprints in their wake. Part way down the hall, Eric instructed Dev to wait as he slipped into his shoes which had been left there tucked by the wall when he went to murder Edward. Dev eyed the taser in Eric’s hand, which was once again pointed in his direction as they continued on to the elevator. 

He saw that they were currently in Sublevel C. Dev had never ventured down that far in the many years he had worked at the lab. Eric leaned over and swiped his keycard, and hit the button for floor three, occasionally glancing at Dev as they ascended up to the BSL 4 lab level. 

They reached the outer door of the lab, and Eric swiped again, before gesturing for Dev to scan in. Dev took a deep breath and scanned his iris at the door, which clicked, letting them into the PPE and shower room. Eric stepped in after him, and the door sealed behind them.

This was it. No turning back now. 

Eric was practically giddy with excitement. He had felt a rush from the moment he took the air out of Dr. Raj’s tire that morning to make sure the doctor couldn’t easily leave the lab before Eric had a chance to follow through with his plan. This was it. His dream was coming true. 

Still, he was very much on edge, acutely aware that even now Dr. Raj was likely playing him in order to protect his daughter. Eric was proud of himself for coming up with that threat on the fly. He had cloned Anika’s number while Dr. Raj was asleep, creating an imaginary conversation with her on the doctor’s phone. In all likelihood, she was probably fast asleep at her apartment. 

She was too much of a variable to bring to the lab, but Eric wished she really was on her way. It would be a lot easier to inoculate her without having to travel so far. He had no ill will toward Anika or the doctor. He found them both incredibly brilliant and refreshing, and genuinely wanted them to be a part of his new world. 

Their new world. 

The first family, as it were. He allowed himself this funny little thought, because why not. This whole experience might well bring them all close together, and surviving in the new world meant building alliances.

“We have to decontaminate before we go in,” Dr. Raj pointed out, indicating the showers. Eric noticed just how much blood was coating the doctor’s body. Edward’s blood. The unfortunate man was just supposed to sleep like Dev had. Eric had intended to slip the zolpidem into Edward’s coffee later, but Edward had sped up the process. Eric realized it was likely Edward had gone downstairs because Eric had used the keycard in the elevator to go get Dr. Raj’s meds. Ah well, he couldn’t hack everything, and it didn’t matter now. 

This would be the tricky part. 

“It’s not like we’ll use the lab or the suits again. Let’s skip that step,” Eric suggested. 

Dr. Raj hesitated a moment before nodding. They started the process of checking the suits for leaks. Eric kept the taser and the knife nearby, checking repeatedly on Dr. Raj to make sure he wasn’t going to attempt anything. He then signaled for Dr. Raj to put his suit on, which the man did after applying several layers of gloves and taping them on his wrists to seal them. 

Dr. Raj placed on the headset so that he would be able to communicate with Eric. After a brief moment of panic, wondering if the doctor would attempt to call out, Eric did the same thing, before slipping into his suit and awkwardly zipping it up. He felt like he was a child, clumsily traipsing around in a giant bubble of air and plastic as Dr. Raj expertly attached Eric’s air hose to his suit.

Eric snatched up the knife, which was more difficult to wield with three pairs of gloves on. He figured it would be safer to bring into the lab than the taser, easier to wield at any rate. His heart was whooshing in his chest as they made their way through the inner doors, after Dr. Raj punched in the code, and walked directly into the lab. 

“Can you hear me alright?” asked Dr. Raj over the radio, the woosh of air extremely loud around him. 

“Yes,” Eric replied, before quickly positioning himself on the doctor’s left to block his access to the panic button on the wall. 

“It will take a few minutes for the samples to thaw,” said the doctor. “It may be more prudent to keep the virus frozen for now…”

“Let’s not try anything, doctor,” Eric warned. 

“I-I simply meant that if you intend to wait to release the virus until the vaccine has had a chance to work-” Dr. Raj started.

“We both know this virus will last just fine for weeks unfrozen before it’s time to release it. Get to it, doctor.”

“Right,” Dr. Raj muttered, leading the way to the freezers. He pulled out what Eric assumed was the vaccine first, then walked over and pulled out the box containing the cryovials of the virus. Dr. Raj carried both boxes to the biosafety cabinet and set them down. He then filled two containers with water, presumably warm, and placed the samples inside the water in their vials.

There was a chirp from the corner, and Eric looked over to see the cages where Eeyore was currently being kept. Eric took a curious step toward the cages, before glancing back at Dr. Raj, who was readying some syringes, presumably for the vaccine. Eric’s gaze swept over the panic button, then back to the doctor who seemed very intent on his work. Then his feet were carrying him right to the cage, curiosity getting the best of him as he looked in at the little monkey who peered back at him with doleful eyes. 

“He’s quite something, isn’t he?” Dr. Raj asked over the radio. Eric turned to the doctor, who was still seated at the biosafety cabinet, staring in deep concentration at his samples. 

“He’s incredible,” Eric said, staring at Dr. Raj as he spoke. Eric walked over to the biosafety cabinet, looking down at the virus warming in the water. “What we are about to do, doctor, cannot be put into words. The whole world is about to change.” Eric continued to squeeze the knife in his hand, feeling confident he wouldn’t have to use it now. They were so close. 

He smiled at Dr. Raj, who gave him a strange look in return, before the doctor’s hand suddenly swung forward, impacting the plastic mask of Eric’s suit. A moment later, there was an agonizing burning sensation, and Eric screamed as his throat, nose, and eyes seared in pain. He thrashed about in a wild attempt to put distance between himself and the pain, but it was no use. It was inside the suit, somehow, ripping through his throat, his lungs, causing him to hack and cough. He couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe. 

He crashed violently into something hard, his hand swung out, making impact, and he could just hear the doctor cry out as he tumbled to the ground. Panic engulfed Eric as his throat seared, on fire, struggling to breathe air in. A moment later, he collapsed on the floor and died.

It had taken everything in Dev’s power not to strike when Eric was putting his suit on. For the briefest moment, he had considered it, poised to lunge when Eric was zipping up, but the tremor in Dev’s hand became so pronounced that he had to pause and take several steadying breaths to try to bring the panic down. Eric picked up the knife again, and the moment was gone. 

They were past the point of no return now. As they stepped into the lab, Dev eyed the panic button, cursing silently when Eric crossed over to block him from accessing it. There was still the chance that he would call for help and no one would come in time. Or Eric would leave him for dead and abscond with the virus. 

Eric’s domain was technology, and Dev’s was this lab, right here. So, knowing what he must do next, he continued to play the part of the agreeable psychopath intent on releasing the virus as they reached the freezers. The terror he felt as he pulled the vaccine out of the freezer was matched only by the horror of pulling the virus from the frigid cold. A vague attempt at getting Eric to wait on retrieving the virus was quickly shot down, and Dev didn’t protest. His only goal was to get back to the biosafety cabinet, whatever that took. 

He was relieved that Eric didn’t seem to know the difference between the containers of the rapid onset virus and the deadlier one with the extended incubation period. Dev was able to pull the rapid virus out with trembling hands, with Eric none the wiser. Worst possible scenario, a fast-acting hemorrhagic virus might escape the lab and be quickly contained, limiting the potential deaths. 

Limiting, but not negating. The fear of releasing this virus was raging inside Dev, and he fought against the panic to steady himself as he carefully carried both containers to the biosafety cabinet. 

It seemed fate was favorable this time as Eeyore caught Eric’s attention, taking him away from the cabinet, from Dev and his syringes and the bottle of ammonium salts that Evers had left out earlier. 

Thank you, Eeyore.

Thank you, Evers.

Eric seemed utterly fascinated by that monkey. 

Dev plunged one of the syringes into the ammonium bottle, drawing back a hefty amount of the caustic liquid as he continued to glance at Eric. He briefly considered dumping the ammonium on the thawing virus, but he knew he only had one shot at this. And a strange part of him couldn’t bare to part with the samples he had worked so long on. Besides, what if he messed up, and Eric went back to the freezer for more?

“He’s quite something, isn’t he?” Dev said through the headset, trying to keep things casual. He needed Eric’s guard to be down for this to work. 

“He’s incredible,” Eric said. Dev set down the syringe while he squeezed and relaxed his right hand as Eric walked back over to the biosafety cabinet. “What we are about to do, doctor, cannot be put into words. The whole world is about to change.”

This was it. With a wave of rage, of utter defiance, Dev picked up the syringe full of ammonium salts and slammed it into the plastic cover of Eric’s mask with all of his strength, shoving the plunger down at the same time. 

It worked!

A spray of toxic liquid was dispersed into the positive pressure suit, and Eric was immediately gasping and flailing in pure agony. Dev watched in horror as Eric careened into the biosafety cabinet, which shattered open. As Dev dove to catch the virus, to stop the vials from shattering on the floor, he felt the impact of the knife ripping down through the chest of his suit, tearing open his skin. He fell back into the cabinet in a daze, sliding to the floor as Eric thrashed next to him. 

Then Eric was still, and Dev was in a daze, staring at the smashed vials of virus spattered on the floor, droplets visible across his suit which was currently leaking oxygen through the tear over his chest. Dev slowly pushed himself off the floor and hobbled over to the panic button, slapping down the button before collapsing on the floor in searing pain from the wound in his chest. 

A voice crackled over his radio, “What’s happening? No one is supposed to be in the lab.”

“Contaminated,” Dev breathed, pressing a hand down over the wound in his chest. “Eric Quinn tried to release my virus. He killed Edward. The guard. His body is on sublevel 3. Eric is dead now. I’m injured. Was held hostage all night. I have to contact Anika.”

“Doctor? I’m bringing in authorities now. Are you saying someone released a virus?”

Dev took in a deep breath as he spoke, “The lab is contaminated. Call Anika, now, please. Put her through for me.”

“Doctor, we’re sending in people-”

“Please! Please call her. She’s my emergency contact.”

“Okay, doctor, okay. Just hold on a second.”

Dev was acutely aware of the pool of blood gathering in his suit and now spilling out to trickle down into his lap. His eyesight was starting to go. He knew that in the unlikely event they managed to get him stitched up in time, he would already be infected. His body already at a disadvantage from the wound would take no time at all to expire, with a great deal of suffering to boot.

It seemed to take an eternity, but he heard a crackle, and the sleepy voice of Anika, “Papa? What’s going on?”

“Anika, where are you Pipette?” Dev asked. 

“I was sleeping. What’s happening, Papa? Why do you sound like that?”

Sleeping. Eric had lied. Somehow, he had faked his conversation with Anika. Dev smiled as he slumped a little more against the wall. His daughter was safe. As horrible as this would be for her, she was protected.

“I’m sorry, Pipette. Something happened tonight, something bad. I won’t be coming home from this. I love you so much. Your mother loves you so much. You are my whole world, my darling. You are my moon and my stars.”

“Why are you talking like this?” she asked. He could hear the panic in her voice, and it occurred to him that he could no longer feel panic himself. He was slipping away into something peaceful, something warm and inviting. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he could sense a presence. Loving and kind. Indira. Welcoming him. Waiting for him. 

“I’m so sorry. I never wanted it to happen like this. Just know I did what I did tonight to protect you and everyone else in the world. I did what I did because I had to.”

It was becoming too painful to speak, but he forced out the words, “No matter what, I love you. I love you more than anything, Pipette.”

The blood loss was making him dizzy. Dev’s eyes were fluttering shut as he heard the unmistakable sound of the emergency disinfectant spray being activated in the lab. He heard Eeyore screeching anxiously in the corner. 

“Papa! What’s happening!? Where are you?!”

He no longer had the strength to answer as he began to slip away. 

Everything would be okay now. 

Everything would be fine. 

The world was safe. 

His daughter was safe. 

Dev closed his eyes and drifted away.