Chapter One
THERMOGRAPHIC DETECTION REPORT
WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED PERSON(S) DETECTED IN SECTOR SEVEN…
There hadn’t been reports of any persons, authorized or unauthorized, in any secure sector for over eighteen months now–whoever had survived, beyond the exclusion zones, must’ve perished a long time ago. For that reason, our team leader Carrington told Bryant and I to drive out there and investigate.
‘You’ve both had your monthly immunizations,’ he said. ‘You both know the secure sectors well. Travel along the perimetre. Check all security systems are fully operational. We don’t want another Yellow Sector meltdown now, do we?’
Once down in the docking bay, I asked Bryant about the incident Carrington had referenced.
‘The Yellow Sector meltdown, you mean?’ He looked up from checking his portable oxygen supply. ‘You’ve never been briefed on what happened out there?’
I shook my head.
’Well, ‘bout three years ago, they received a similar thermographic report–much clearer and stronger than anything they’d ever received before. Only they chose to ignore it. Years had passed since any hostile forces had been active in the region, so they thought it was no more than a computer error. Within half an hour, the secure unit was overwhelmed by rogue elements. Internal sensors showed that contamination had already reached a critical level. Facing certain death, they did the only honourable and pragmatic thing–they set timed explosives and blew up the entire compound.’
‘What? So they–they all died?–they committed suicide?’
‘That’s right,’ said Bryant, ’–each and every one of ‘em. It was either that or risk contracting the mutated form of the virus. And we both know what that means.’
ACCESS RECORDS: YELLOW SECTOR MELTDOWN REPORT…INFORMATION DISCLOSED INACCURATE…RECORDS SHOW THAT OPERATIVE AT ONLY OTHER SURVIVING COMPOUND IN REGION SUFFERED FROM DELAYED MUTATION SICKNESS…OPERATIVE WENT ON A RAMPAGE KILLING ALL COLLEAGUES…STATUS OF YELLOW SECTOR COMPOUND: STILL UNKNOWN…
