Delta Squad: Area 51

 The clock ticked quietly against the backdrop of the silent room. It was on these late nights that Frank had truly figured out how passionate he was for his job. He was one of the most closely guarded secrets in America at any given moment and one slip up would be disasterous. He was a retrovirus engineer. Locked deep within the bunker of Area 51 he was nothing, but secluded from the outside world. Surrounded with the fastest computers and the best machines that money can buy. To the average citizen it would have come straight from a cartoon, but to him it was nothing more than an average day at work. Well if working on with some of the most dangerous natural and man made virus was average. He wasn't a very impressive sight standing only 5'2'' wearing a white lab coat. His short black hair was slightly longer than regulation dictated but he could care less. The pencil pushers that called themselves officers never visited this part of the base anyway.

Frank pushed his feet off his desk and strolled casually to the lab ignoring the armed guards that seemed to be positioned every ten feet. The door to the lab led to a decontamination sector which would run 24 seven if someone was standing in it. Frank donned his face mask covering the weathered face and once strong jaw line. After the second bulk head door opened. Frank seemed to straighten up ad walk with more pride than he did in the hallways. It was a strange phenomenon that had affected him all his life. Work seemed to bring out the best in him, despite the sloppy nature of his life outside it. The room was pitch white and loaded to the brim with viruses and things that the US government would never want outside that room. Half of these man made viruses had never seen a human body and therefore the effects of it on a human body had yet to be seen. Which is the exact reason Frank had a job here. He was the most qualified in the states, if not the world to test these things and because of that he worked alone. It was fine with him at any rate he enjoyed the silence.

The first set of viruses looked the same as the day before. Others showed little change, or the results of the tests were seemingly inconclusive. Which finally led Frank to his newest and potentially most lethal virus. SR-93 was the name that had been given to the virus by its creators, they weren't the most original lot, but it was just fine for frank who had gotten used to seeing names without any real meaning or emotion to them. The three petri dishes had been filled with human brain tissue, muscle tissue, and skin tissues. The skin seemed to be almost completely decayed and rotted despite its recent creation and lack of bacterial matter on it. The muscle tissue seemed normal, but upon closer inspection had been tensed to the limit of their ability to contract. The brain tissue on the other hand showed a very strange reading. As it was actually an entire human brain that had been donated to science upon the mans death. It had been "reactivated" with a continuous electrical charge. It had been given the virus approximately 72 hours before hand and was completely calm looking upon the surface. Frank looked in disbelief as it was suppose to cause an unnaturally fast death in its host. It must attack the muscle system and destroy the hearts ability to beat he thought to himself. He was just about to leave and chalk it up to heart attack death when he remembered he hadn't had a chance to MRI the brain and see how it had effected the brains function.

The MRI machine would have gathered dust if ithere had been dust in the lab. It was probably the least used device he had but definently the most important. He carefuly placed the brain into the machine and fliped all the nessacary switches to turn on the machine. He walked out of the containment unit to the MRI control room and started the scan. At first the brain nearly appeared to be normal. It showed normal activity ranges for a normal human, but as soon as the test appeared to be a bust something strange happened, The areas of the brain controlling logic and restriction seemed to go black, and in the same bonechilling moment the area of the brain of instincts such as hunger and survival seemed to light up. Frank stared at the screen in disbeleif as one by one function of teh brain seemed to turn off infront of him until only functions for basic motor control, and instincts remained.

Frank had seen the functions of many a virus in his day but never had he seen one that effected human tissues in this way. The next few days were filled with different brains and muscle tissues producing the same results in all the host cells even if only 1 virus was administered. Frank was in disbelief as he went over the consistency of the test results.

It was in the weeks that followed Frank ordered live creatures to test it on. Each of the creatures died and stayed that way without any of the effects that had been seen in the human host. But these animals had been rats, snakes, and mice. Maybe they are just too far away genetically to be effected by this. I'm going to need monkeys. And a whole bunch of them. Monkeys had been outlawed in the public realm for testing of any sort, but this wasn't civilian and it was necessary to make public these discoveries.

The monkeys screeched heavily from their cage as Frank fed them their food filled with sleeping powder. This will make them quiet frank thought to himself. He chuckled as the last of them fell asleep. Now for the shots. He picked up the needles each cleaned and filled with one virus and a saline solution. The shots went in smoothly and there wasn't even a twitch from the primates as they slept.

Frank sat down at his desk after the dat was over and couldn't wait to see what results these test subjects yeilded in the days ahead.

At the 16 hour mark Frank returned to check the monkeys. They all seemed fairly normal, they had lost their spunk and acted calmly as he took their readings. All showed signs of a slight fever but were all in all good health. Frank returned later at 24 hours to monitor the apes. This time they al ran severe fevers hotter than should have even been possible in the chilled air of the room. Frank seeing the strangeness of the virus decided to stay up all night, At 30 hours all of the monkeys eyes turned bright read, followed by a coma the likes of which he had never seen. They, despite being asleep thrashed violently and moved erratically for approximately six hours. At the 36 hour mark all of the monkeys lay dead in their cages. Frank disappointed decided to take a nap.

When Frank awoke, the monkeys all stood solemnly in their cages. Frank amazed by the sudden liveliness of the monkeys checked the time. It had only been forty hours, but all the monkeys at first glance seemed to be virus free. Frank made several notes in his log and began his way to the lab. He entered expecting to be greated with barks of excitement, but their was only a deep silence. Only broken by shuffling of the monkeys in their cages. Frank set his papers down on the desk as he approached the monkeys. At first they seemed indifferent at his approach but then as if a switch had suddenly been flipped they flung themselves at the cage biting at his face. Aggressive one arn't you he thought moving his face away from the bolted cage. But with each cage the reaction had been the same. He decided to take blood samples and with them he made another startling discovery. The blood was all coagulated as if it were healing a scab. He looked at it under several different microscopes he saw he virus attached to the red blood cells, but there was little or no movement in them. This defies everything about the body we know Frank wanted to yell. He spent several hours going over the test results again and again and again and again. Each time they yielded the same results. Frank upset with the fact the monkeys were dead but still alive threw his papers onto the floor shouting his anger into the halls.

Frank took one last sample of the DNA. He had been unable to get an MRI on the brain due to the very aggressive nature of the monkeys and their refusal to succumb to any of his sleeping measures. I don't understand how they are even alive it makes no sense. He had gotten lost in thought when those papers he had thrown on the floor began their call to fate. Frank took a wrong step on his fallen papers and fell face first onto the ground. With a loud thud he hit the ground. And as his feet had slipped so did his consciousness. When he awoke he felt numb from the waist down. He took little notice to his body and headed out towards his room. As he laid down to his bed tired from the long night he had. He noticed an odd blood stain on his pants in the form of a small circle. I must have fallen on the damn test tube he thought as the darkness of sleep swept over him.

* * *

The fact was Frank had fallen onto the test tube and the virus had entered his system. He would never know this as he died before morning. When the guards found him in the following days he appeared dead. But as they carried him out of his room the virus began the deadly transformation. His eyes opened and he took a large chunk out of the poor guard neck that had been carrying him. After the infection was seen the lower half of the complex was sealed off too all but the best of the best. Their goal was to eliminate the infected and discover what happened down there. This story is of one of those squads. Delta squad to be exact. This is their story.