Westvale

III

III

Clara got out of the car as the brakes made a deafening noise in front of Denny's house. She hustled through the front door and hurried down the stairs leading to the lab. It had been a good 5 minutes since the drone fell in front of the car.

"Denny! Please tell me you have figured everything out."

"Clara, I haven't figured everything out, but you have to do something about what I have found out."

"I can't do anything if I don't what is going on."

"Ok, here we go. That satellite I launched, you better thank the angels it's up there."

"What are you talking about?"

"So, you obviously know the town is in a desperate state. You also may have noticed people with severe skin irritation, many are unconscious, some are vomiting, correct?"

"Yes Denny, I am more than aware of the situation. Get to your point."

"Ok, ok. The people that are sick, they have acute radiation poisoning."

"How is that even possible? How come some people aren't sick?"

"Alright, alright listen. I've been flying drones around town to take a closer look at the problem."

"I think I'm quite aware of that too. Your 'message' almost smashed Ben's windshield."

"Yeah, I know, I'm sorry about that, there was a small cut in the transmission but anyways."

"So where is radiation coming from?"

"The water, Clara."

"The water? You mean tap water, the water we use in our homes?"

"Precisely. The tap water, the shower water, the everything water."

There was a long pause followed by a darkening silence.

"How exactly did radiation end up in people's homes?"

"I have no clue. I am still trying to figure it out. That's why I said you're lucky my satellite is up there. This started very recently so maybe I can look through some of the images my satellite caught and try to find something."

"So, I can't use my tap water anymore?"

"Absolutely not. No one should use tap water or any water that comes out of those pipes. You need to tell people."

"I'll do just that. No wait. Actually, I won't. You will."

"Explain?"

"You will hack into the Westvale TV Tower and transmit a brief broadcast to everyone. Hopefully people will have their TV's on. Try to send a general message to people's phones and radios too."

"Clara. Another reason communication is down is because the communication towers aren't working. The radio has been cut. I'll try to do it as fast as possible, but I can't promise anything."

"Just do what you can. I'll be back. Why aren't the towers working?"

"I'm working on that too. I will be able to send a message to people's phones including their TV's. I can create a signal myself in order to transmit the message to the radios. There is just one problem."

"Yes Denny?"

"Ben's car has a radio, right? I need its parts. It's crucial if we want the message to be heard on the radio."

"I don't know how keen he would be about that, but I'll let you. Just make sure the radio is the only thing you take and damage."

Denny ran out of the lab and came back two minutes later with the front of a radio and hundreds of wires hanging out the other end.