Seeds Of Hunger

Chapter 1: Normal Day

"...and that was your local weather. In National News, a new plant discovery could be the missing component to an Alzheimer's cure. Scientist's say that the new plant, recently discovered in South America, produces..." Mirado Carter muted the TV so he could listen for his timer he set for his eggs. The work day just wasn't the same without a balanced breakfast as he was told growing up, but then again just two boiled eggs weren't really anything but cholesterol.

Carter grabbed his duty pistol, in this case a Glock 17 that held seventeen plus one in the chamber, and stuck it into the holster on his belt. He made sure a round was chambered by using his thumb and index finger and pulling the slide back just enough to confirm that a round was seated in the extractor. Seeing the round, he released the slide and snapped his holster closed around the pistol. After making sure everything was in its customary spot, he bent down to retrieve his boots. Should be another normal day, if such a thing exists for a cop. Carter wasn't a rookie anymore, he had been with the department for over a year now, but even his boss agreed he was on to bigger and better things. He had been chosen to have new police officers ride along with him so they understand the job better. His last ride along, Jack Casey, was making a name for himself already and he was barely six months out of the Academy. That drug bust he made was the best the departments had in a long time. The million dollars worth of Heroin wasn't to shabby either.

Carter finished tying his boots and stepped into the kitchen carefully avoiding the clothes he had knocked over when he had gotten home last night. Some jerk in a car plowed right into some poor guy on a motorcycle on the highway and since he was the senior officer present at the time, he had been forced to write the report. The driver in the car had been intoxicated and the motorcycle was a complete wreck. They were finding pieces of the guy still when he had left to take the driver to the station for drunk driving.

"After all the money the government spends on drunk driving ads, you'd think people would listen and understand that its a bad thing to do. Then again, people find it thrilling to stick a needle in their arm full of white powder." Carter said as he was making sure the coffee pot was turned off and unplugged. Carter halfway jogged down the few steps from his front porch and had just opened the car door of his police cruiser when the reports of a hit and run were being broadcast through his radio. Carter jumped in, turn the key in the ignition, and after making sure his mirrors were good, backed out of his driveway. He put his car in Drive and headed toward the scene of the hit and run. "So much for my normal day." Carter said as he put a little more pressure on his gas pedal, wondering how the rest of his day would go.

Dr. Allen Rich scanned the sheet from the initial findings of the new plant life discovered in South America. It was everything they had thought it would be and they got numerous samples to work with as well. This would be another research grant not only for his department but also for the rest of the facility. Mind you that the Carnegie Institution for Science was in no financial danger but it was nice to know you had some extra funds coming in now and again.

"So a day or two for the trucks to get here with the specimens then we can start out tests with the pollen samples. As long as it doesn't rain too hard on the plants we should be right on schedule." Rich told his co-worker, Dr. Michelle Markarth. Rich's field was botany, the study of plants. Markarth's field was ecology so they decided to collaborate when ever the other asked. It often involved a sharing of the grant and they rarely did anything not grant worthy.

"Sounds good. Hopefully the samples will survive the trip. The specimens aren't use to this environment so who knows how they will react." Markarth stated while reviewing a duplicate data sheet of her own. "The samples we had previously had some fantastic indicators but they only lasted a few weeks at best before the pollen samples decayed and they hardly produced enough pollen to experiment with. Hopefully with the new environmental systems we've installed, we can get them to produce pollen twenty four seven." Markarth knew it would be a stretch but the new systems that automated the environment so it would be a close second to those still left behind in the Amazonian rain forest.

"According to the boys from the excavation team, the plants were pure pollen. They said it looked like a three year old had spilt yellow powder everywhere. It helps the flowers are the size of basketballs too." Rich added with a smile. He could already see the grants being pushed into his mailbox.  

"This could be the scientific break through we've been needing for decades. I'm gonna go ahead and make sure that the environmental systems are still up and running. We don't need to kill the specimens before we get to play with them." Markarth grabbed her lab coat and button it, her badge dangling from the breast pocket as she adjusted it around her slender frame.

"Sounds good. Like some company?" Rich was done for the day, the samples back in the petri dishes ready for more work tomorrow. He fixed his lab coat back on as well, his badge dangling from around his neck. Markarth nodded as they filed the data sheets into Rich's desk and started for the door.

As long as traffic isn't too bad I might hit Virginia before I pass out, Daniel Lee thought as he passed the welcome sign for Greensboro, North Carolina. His trip had been stalled for an hour because the dock master got the orders mixed. No surprise there, he had thought, but the right load had been found and he was on his way. He had hit the interstate at nine thirty, he should have been on the road an hour and a half earlier, but he knew he couldn't plan for everything. When he had first saw the flowers, it looked like someone had dumped yellow cake mix over them. At least it didn't mess his allergies up, he had told the deck master.

He didn't know anything about them, he only knew that he needed to move them from point A to point B. He had passed a ton of cattle farms and had wondered if the cows would enjoy eating a flower or two. Lee had been raised around cattle since he was eight and knew if it grew on the ground it would find its way into a cows stomach sooner or later. Lee looked out the back of his rearview mirror and saw the pollen fly off the flowers so much that it looked like yellow snow. He slowed to the traffic stop and a cattle car had pulled up beside him. The pollen from the flowers had coated the once dull metal grey to a bright yellow. The cattle inside the cattle car were also covered in the pollen. One of the cows sneezed, sending yellow mucus across the car, hitting the other occupants.

"Sorry about that buddy." Lee said as the light changed. He checked his watch, it read three o' clock. He had been on the road for a solid five hours. Not bad for leaving an hour and a half later, he thought to himself, shifting gears. He stole another glimpse of the cattle car in his side mirror. All the cattle in the car was sneezing now, blowing yellow coated mucus on the cars on both sides.

"Sorry fellas." Lee said to himself, as he passed a sign that stated he was eighty two miles from Rocky Mount, VA.