Vickers sighed, but the action was lost on the young scientist. “What is it, captain? I have some very important calls to make, and time is of the essence.” He glanced at his watch.
“Sir, we’ve made some exciting discoveries that you need to be made aware of.” Andrews stated as he tried to lead the colonel back toward the tent. Colonel Vickers stood his ground, wanting to go to the station house where his satellite phone was set up. “Sir, if you’ll come this way, I can show you.” Andrews sounded very much like a child wanting to show a parent a good grade he had earned on a school paper.
“I don’t have time, captain. Show it to Major Chappell. She can brief me later.” He turned and marched toward the station.
“But, colonel!” Andrews shouted unnecessarily. “We’ve figured out how to attract the infected.”
Vickers paused and rolled his eyes. “Of course you have, captain. Wave live meat in front of their eyes and they’ll come running,” he said blandly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
“No, sir,” Andrews stated. “Ultrasound.”
Vickers paused and turned back. “What was that?”
“Ultrasound.” Andrews was smiling now. “You see, their brains are swollen and they’re in great pain. I think that’s partly why they’re so aggressive. But when they’re exposed to ultrasound, they become almost…,” he shrugged, “…docile.”
“Say again?” Vickers turned toward Andrews. “Are you saying you’ve found a cure?”
“No, sir,” Andrews corrected, shaking his head. “But it attracts them like…well, like a pied piper. It eases their pain and they come running.”
“So let me get this straight,” Vickers repeated. “Ultrasound makes them feel good and they’ll run to it?”
“At the right frequency, yes, sir.” Andrews was smiling now.
Vickers nodded. “Show me.”
Andrews waved him toward the white tent. “If you’ll follow me, sir, we have a demonstration all set up for you.”
“This won’t take long, will it?”
“No, sir, it won’t.”
“Tell me, captain,” Vickers asked, “if this works as good as you say, why aren’t they all running this way to feel better?”
Andrews pulled open the tent flap to allow the colonel to peer inside at the device that Andrews was pulling out. It looked like a space gun from a B-movie. “Mainly, colonel, because we haven’t had it on for very long, but also, because the volume is low, so the effects are pretty much localized.”
“But if we increased the volume, we could attract them all?”
Andrews paused and considered the question. “Hypothetically, yes.”
“No hypotheticals. I need to know.”
“We could pull them all in to a centralized area, yes,” Andrews said. He turned and smiled at the colonel. “Are they too scattered for your boys to hunt down?”
Vickers simply stared at the younger officer. “You might could say that.”
Vickers had a different idea. Plant the device in the ground away from the base, turn it on high, let the infected be attracted to it like bugs to a light, then drop a MOAB on them and toast them all at once. But he didn’t want to say anything to the young captain about it, lest he get cold feet. For whatever reason, this little creep liked working with bugs, like the one that infected all these people.
Andrews carried the portable device to the trailer and pulled open the door. Vickers followed him inside and watched as the creatures chained inside increased their screaming and snapping activities. The two civilians chained to the walls in the adjoining cells had gone past caring anymore and stared silently at each other, their faces stained with previously shed tears. The woman looked as if she might have even soiled herself at one point. The police officer sat in a pool of blood, no doubt from trying to escape the plastic cuffs that bound him.
“So show me.” Vickers thought he could see his breath in the trailer and his agitation was evident.
Andrews nodded and flipped a switch. The machine he held hummed slightly and the creatures began howling even louder at first. Vickers thought, If this is making them feel better, then they certainly aren’t showing it. Andrews made a few adjustments to the knobs on the sides, and suddenly their screams stopped. All three of the chained creatures, seemed to sigh in unison and stare off into nothingness. If Vickers didn’t know any better, he’d swear they’d all three been given a dose of some type of sedative.
“If I adjust this either way, it almost seems to amplify their pain. But right here, at this setting, it soothes them.” He seemed almost giddy.
“How did you find this out?”
“By accident, actually,” Andrews stated. “None of the anti-viral medications that we currently know of have any effect on this virus. I was trying radio waves, light, anything to break up the molecular structure. It was a logical progression to go to sound waves to try to destroy the molecular bonds that hold it together.”
“Whatever,” Vickers interrupted. “How did you find this?” He pointed to the ray gun.
“Oh. Well, I was using ultrasound when I noticed their screams were becoming more…” he chuckled at himself, remembering the increase in pain that the creatures felt, “pronounced?” Vickers waved him on. “Yes, well, it was then I realized that the device was having an effect on them. So I thought that maybe it could be used a ‘less lethal’ weapon on them. You know, to maybe capture some more live subjects for us to study. And, anyway, when I hit this one frequency, they started acting like…well…like this.”
“Like they’re stoned.”
“For the lack of a better word.” Andrews shrugged.
“Music soothes the savage beast.”
Andrews turned a quizzical face to the colonel. “Oh…no, colonel,” he stammered. “I-I wouldn’t call it music. More like a vibration. A hum, maybe, but more like a simple frequency tone generator that—”
“Doctor!” Vickers interrupted. “I really don’t care.” The look he gave Andrews indicated his full intent. “But you think this will attract
