Caldera Read online

  Caldera Book 1

  Heath Stallcup

  Copyright © 2017 by Heath Stallcup

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Edited by Rob M. Miller

  Cover: Jeffrey Kosh

  Created with Vellum

  To both of my girls.

  You both love zombie stories and this is a different twist on the genre for you.

  It may not be what you’re used to, but if the ‘zombie apocalypse’ ever really does come, it most likely will be some kind of rage virus versus the slow, shambling, walking dead.

  Rule #1: Cardio…

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Caldera The Series

  About the Author

  Also by Heath Stallcup

  Also From DevilDog Press

  Chapter 1

  UPPSALA UNIVERSITY, SWEDEN

  Dr. Neils Andersson stared into the microscope and watched for enzymatic changes as the pipette dripped the clear solution onto the slide below. He sighed as sleet beat against the window announcing the next winter storm to slicken the university campus and forming an icy cap to the foot of snow already blanketing the grounds.

  Rubbing at his neck, he pushed back from the workbench and made his notes in the lab book and tossed his glasses aside. He rubbed at his tired eyes and ran his hand through his thick blonde hair, then stretched his shoulders to regain some circulation into his upper body. Standing slowly, he stepped to the window to watch the gray black clouds that hung pregnant over the horizon dump their icy moisture onto the grounds below. Most of the students had already scampered indoors or had refused to venture out due to the weather and he couldn’t blame them. Most of their professors had cancelled classes because of the winter storm.

  He turned back to stare at the upcoming tests he had waiting and sighed once more…science never waited for those who searched for answers. Picking up his cooled mug of tea, he sat back at his station and prepared his next experiment. Working with Neanderthal DNA wasn’t exactly the sort of science that could make one a rock star in his field, but he enjoyed it, and the answers he hoped to find would satisfy his own curiosity and that of his peers. What happened to these people? How did they disappear when they had the obvious advantages? They were stronger, more adept to their environment, they were skilled hunters and had rudimentary tools. It was obvious they weren’t killed off by early modern man. So what happened?

  Neils prepared his next sample and settled in to wait. He was becoming worried that the samples were tainted. Mitochondrial DNA shouldn’t ALL be the same, but these samples were coming up that way, which made him fear they had somehow been tainted by the collectors. Mitochondrial DNA is passed from the mother to child only in mammals. Yet somehow, all the samples were coming up the same. And with no variations in the samples at all, he could only draw one conclusion…

  Neils prepared the next batch for replication and reheated his tea for the third…fourth time? He shrugged at the thought and smiled to himself. What difference did it make? Tea was tea. As long as it was warm on a day like today, that was what mattered.

  He took his seat and waited for the timer to sound when his computer chimed. Neils rolled his chair over and clicked the ENTER button to awaken the machine and saw the video conference icon flashing. Clicking it, the screen lit up and he saw the concerned face of a respected colleague, Dr. Vivian LaRue, who had been studying the caves of Nerja in southern Spain.

  “Vivian, so nice to see you again,” he said, smiling.

  “Neils.” She didn’t smile in return, and her eyes kept scanning something off-screen. “I keep finding something odd in this DNA profiling. I thought I’d double-check with you since you’re the expert.”

  Neils nodded and leaned closer, noting how he appeared in the little window in the corner of his own screen. “Anything I can do to help.”

  “We’ve run these mitochondrial samples four times…,” she began. Neils sighed, nodding. “They all return with disturbing results.” She finally looked up to meet his eyes on the screen.

  “I’m running into the same thing here, Vivian,” Neils replied. “I can assure you, the procedure is valid. We’ve been using it for decades.”

  She studied his image for a moment then glanced off-screen and lowered her voice. “I would offer that perhaps the DNA was compromised by whomever collected it…”

  Neils could tell by the sound of her voice that she had more to say. “But?”

  “Neils, I collected it myself,” she answered quietly. “I know I used proper protocols.”

  Neils sat back and considered the possibilities. “That only leaves two possibilities.”

  “Which are?” Her eyes widened with curiosity.

  “Well, it’s simple really.” He tossed his hands up. “If you used proper protocols, then the results are valid and you have the correct DNA profiles.”

  “Or?”

  “Or somebody tampered with the reagents.”

  Vivian sat back and studied his image for a moment, her jaw quivering. “We should meet.”

  “I agree,” he lowered his voice as well, “because I’ve run the same test on a different group of ’tals and I’ve gotten the same results.”

  This time her eyes bugged as she sat forward. “You what?” She paused a moment to collect her thoughts. “That isn’t possible.”

  He inhaled deeply and nodded. “I’m afraid it is.” He held up a printout of his results. “I printed it out and compared them just to make sure, and it is spot on identical.”

  “Neils…that isn’t…” her eyes darted to the side.

  “Not even with inbreeding to the nth degree it isn’t.”

  “So what does it all mean?” Her eyes probed his displayed image. “I simply couldn’t dream that anybody would want to conspire to—”

  “No,” Neils interrupted, “I’m not going to go that far.” He stood up and paced, not caring that he was walking in and out of the frame of the video conference. “But I might go so far as to think that perhaps the manufacturer of the reagents had a bad batch of chemicals.”

  Vivian sat back and considered the possibility. “I suppose.” But she shook her head again. “But they’re so basic, Neils, how could it slip past—”

  “I’m just playing Devil’s Advocate, that’s all.”

  “Fine. Where do you get yours?”

  He paused, looked at her, and shrugged. “I’m not…um…hold on.” He walked over to the workbench and pulled down the reagent box. “They’re from Germany. A research laboratory—”

  “Ours come from France,” she interrupted him. “So what are the odds?”

  He plopped back into his chair and stared at her image. “Where do you want to meet?”

  “Somewhere warmer than where you’re at?” She finally smiled at him.

  “Vivian, we’ve run the test four times. It always comes back the same.” Neils sighed and pushed his glasses up on his head. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

  “It isn’t possible that two separate groups of Neanderthals from two different regions would share the same mitochondrial DNA.”

  “I’m not disagreeing.” He wanted to pace to allow himself to think better. “But the science says otherwise.”
/>   “Then the science is wrong!” She slammed the notebook down. “Science is often wrong until it’s…”

  “What?” Neils asked, his brows raised.

  “Well, until it’s right.”

  Neils chuckled and set his own notes down. “Trust me, Viv, I understand your frustration.” He stood and rubbed at her shoulders. “But yelling and throwing things won’t change the results.”

  “What are we doing wrong?” she groaned as she stretched her neck under his artful hands.

  He shook his head. “Nothing.” He exhaled long and hard. “It simply is what it is.” He continued to knead at her stiff muscles as his mind kept working over the results.

  A technician entered with another batch of replicated DNA and placed the vials on the bench. “It’s ready doctors,” he said, setting the vials down. As he turned to leave, he stifled a rather loud sneeze into his sleeve, then turned abruptly to the two researchers. “Pardon, nasty virus going around.”

  Neils simply raised a hand and waved him on. The technician gave a quick apologetic nod of his head and stepped out. Neils chuckled. “Please remind me to use a hand-sanitizer after we strip these gloves. I wouldn’t want to catch this…,” he trailed off.

  “What?” Vivian turned a curious eye to him. “The bug going around the clinic here?”

  Neils sat down hard in his chair and stared at her, a silly grin forming on his features. “Virus.”

  “Yes?” she replied. “I believe that’s what he said.”

  “No,” he laughed. “A virus!” He slapped at his leg.

  “I’m not following you.” Vivian was lost as Neils began fumbling through his research papers.

  “We were looking for the wrong thing…” He pulled up the printout he had brought from his original sampling and pushed his roller chair over to Vivian’s research material. He scattered the papers until he found the printout from her own. “Ah-ha!”

  “I’m still not following you, Neils.” Her voice was hesitant.

  “It was a virus!” he giggled. “This whole time we thought we were mapping mitochondrial DNA, but it wasn’t. That’s the only thing that can explain it.”

  “No, that’s not possible, Neils. A virus isn’t that complex.” She pulled her glasses back on.

  Neils placed both printouts up to the light box and clicked it on. “Look. If it’s the same virus and it replicates itself, then it overwrites the host’s DNA. We know this, correct?”

  “Well, yes, technically; a virus enters a cell and uses the cell’s materials to replicate itself, but, we are mapping mitochondrial DNA, not cellular DNA, so…”

  “But what if this virus targets mitochondrial DNA?” His voice rising as he posed the question.

  She sat back and stared at him. “I’m no virologist, but I’ve not heard of such a bug.”

  “I’ve not, either, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.” He smiled at her. “And who’s to say what virus strains existed in the Paleolithic period?” He tapped the light box and indicated the repeating patterns. “Look at these patterns. They keep repeating over and over and over. Doesn’t that seem more than just a little off?”

  “Well…yes,” she finally admitted. “But do you really think we’re mapping a disease?”

  He sat back and chuckled again. “It would explain why two different groups from two different regions ALL share the same DNA when it should be lineal, don’t you think?”

  Vivian sighed as she stared at the light box and the repeating patterns. “So, despite having ruined samples, and no way to discern lineage, or good working samples, or ways to discern familial types…”

  “We may have discovered what really killed off Neanderthal man,” Neils theorized.

  Chapter 2

  “Jesus, Bob! Strike a match, will ya?” his wife Lucky called from the front of the RV. “We’re stuck in here, too, ya know!”

  Bob groaned as he sprayed the air freshener in the tiny space and waved his hand in front of his face. He forced open the door and practically fell out of the tiny bathroom, then quickly shut it behind him. “I’m sorry, baby. That dinner really tore me up.”

  “We can tell.” Her voice sounded nasally as she held her nose pinched. “Are you sure you couldn’t have held it ’til the next gas station?”

  “I almost didn’t make it long enough to drop my pants,” he muttered as he settled back in behind the wheel of the huge RV. He could feel his guts rumbling, threatening to let loose again. He glanced to the rearview mirror and noticed the door to the rear bedroom shut. He couldn’t see out the rear of the RV now. “Where are the kids?”

  “Are you kidding? When that stench rolled out from under the door, they headed to the back room and locked the door. They just knew you died in there so they claimed the big bed and the TV.” She smiled.

  “Great,” he mumbled as he fired up the large motor and put the behemoth into drive once more.

  “So how much longer ’til we get to Yellowstone and the great outdoors and nature and blah, blah, blah?” she whined, teasing him.

  He knew that this outing was his idea. He spent the better part of three months selling the vacation to his family. The great outdoors, mountains, fresh air, clean water, trees, wildlife…who knew how much longer it would still be here, so they had better experience it while they still could. In the end, he had to buy them off one by one.

  Although he loved his wife dearly, he was shocked that even she insisted on something in trade. He truly thought that she would support him in his desire to vacation in the great outdoors, but Lucky insisted on a new kitchen. He planned on remodeling the kitchen, anyway, and it bought him sexual favors in the bedroom as she picked out her new cabinets and he gave in to her extravagances. But it still bothered him that she didn’t back him on this with the kids and simply cross her arms across her ample chest and put her foot down. “Your father says we’re going camping, so guess what? We’re going camping. And, you will enjoy it, or else.” Because when Mom says it, it happens. He learned that a long time ago. Sometimes, it takes the kids a little longer to figure things out.

  Keri, his twelve-year-old daughter, who really acted more like twelve going on twenty at times, insisted on clearing out the Apple store. iPhone, iPad, iThis and iThat. As long as she had her technology, she was happy. He prayed that God wouldn’t be so cruel as to allow man to install cell phone towers or internet routers anywhere near where they were headed as he really wanted her to experience nature as it was intended…first hand, and not through a screen.

  His son Buck, though…he was a lot easier to please. He went to the sporting goods store with Bob and, after being talked out of the crossbow he wanted, settled on a lockback hunting knife, a slingshot, a .22 caliber pellet gun, and a recurve bow with enough practice arrows to keep him busy at the archery range for a while. The second part of the deal was the promise that as soon as they returned from their trip, if he behaved responsibly, the two would seriously talk about him finally getting his driver’s license.

  Bob had to admit that, of all of the blackmailing his family pulled, he was actually proud of his son’s list. A lot of the things he chose were actually ‘boy’ things that the two could make use of during their trip. He sighed inwardly as he thought of the fun things they could do together and glanced at the built in GPS.

  “We’re almost there, darling.”

  “Joy,” she moaned, “a week of bliss in the great outdoors.”

  “Two weeks,” he corrected. “And it was supposed to be a month, remember.”

  “And I was supposed to get a complete kitchen makeover, Bob. As it stands now, I’m only getting cabinets.”

  “And granite countertops,” he added. “Don’t forget the granite, Lucky. That shit ain’t cheap.”

  “No, but you are.” She turned away from him to stare out the windows.

  “Oh, for the love of…why do you do this?” He shot her a sideways glance. “This is supposed to be fun.”

  “No, rebuilding
my kitchen is supposed to be fun.”

  Bob groaned and shook his head. He had hired the carpenters to come in and do the work for him while they were gone as a surprise for her, but she was ruining their vacation over the whole thing. He saw the sign announcing the turn off and he flipped on the blinker for the huge house on wheels.

  “You know, you’d think we could just rent a cabin or something, instead of bringing this monster,” she sniped at him.

  “Jerry said we could use it,” Bob answered absently as he watched the road.

  “Your brother is a piece of shit,” she muttered, turning away from him.

  “I don’t know why you don’t like him.” Bob turned the large RV on to the side road.

  “Um, maybe because every time we see him, he has to show off all of his toys and brag about how much money he has,” she retorted in a hateful tone. “Plus, he’s always staring at my boobs.”

  Bob smirked. “Well, I can’t blame him there.” He grinned at her playfully. “You got awesome boobs.”

  She stifled a smile and hit him impishly. “Stop it. Don’t make me laugh when I’m mad.”

  “Well, you do. I’d stare at them even if you weren’t my wife,” he admitted. “We’ve been married fifteen years and I STILL love to see you naked.”

  Although she turned her face away from him, she beamed with pride. She liked the fact that he still found her so attractive. She had days where she didn’t feel attractive, but Bob always made her feel like she was the most beautiful woman in the world. She stared at the big oaf driving the giant land yacht up the narrow mountain pass. She glanced to the rear door and saw that the kids still had the door shut. A wicked smile crossed her face and she slid across the gap to his chair. She slid her hand to his crotch and caressed him. “Too bad the kids are right back there.” she purred.