Breeder Plague: Chapter 1

It's a short chapter for all to see, but we're coming into a new, novella-sized story, where an ancient treasure leads to burgeoning changes on campus... and soon enough, beyond...

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It was a school prank that started it. Callington University, nestled under the looming Rocky Mountains was not exactly a party campus. In fact, given that the nearest big city was over an hour away and the small town that nestled between the great stone outcroppings the framed the college was hardly a party town itself.

In fact, beyond the 24 hour market, there was nothing that stayed open past nine.

Which meant that the students at Callington had to make their own entertainment. Like right now.

“C’mon, Mark,” Thomas said. “If we get caught the Dean is going to fucking plotz.”

Mark rolled his eyes as he kept working at the lock to the biomed facility. “Don’t freak. The cameras here don’t work. They just have a red light and that’s it.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. Remember Jack and his little garden?”

“Yeah?”

“Didn’t exactly want the security guard to notice him boosting the UV lights from the lab, so he fixed the cameras. They’re on a loop. They only record on Sunday…and every other day is just them replaying Sunday.”

“Huh. Smart.”

“Yeah, so if you’ll let me… got it.” Mark did something with the open panel and the door beeped and opened. A few moments later, and the panel was closed, the door looking like new, except for the fact that it was now open. “Right, c’mon, because if the guard happens by, we don’t exactly have a good excuse, what with the open door, and everything.”

A few minutes later, they were in the lab, the night lights lending an eerie look to the silent equipment and gleaming test tubes.

“So what are we looking for?” Thomas asked.

“Super sex, man,” Mark said. “I was talking to Judy—“

“You mean, mouse Judy?” Thomas blinked. “I thought you were into hot chicks.”

“Yeah, but smart chicks tell you stuff,” Mark reminded his friend.  “So they dug up some seeds from a bunch of people who got like, buried in a volcanic eruption.”

“Okay… Not seeing the reason we’re here.”

“Yeah, I’m getting to it,” Mark continued, flashing his little penlight over the lab.  “Supposedly they had some super aphrodisiac plant that only the priests could use. And I’m thinking, hey, instead of letting a bunch of nerds spent forever looking at it, and writing up some article about it, how about becoming rich selling super Viagra for old dudes.

“Okay… How did they use it?”

“Dunno, guess we’ll have to test it.” He grinned at his companion. “You up for it.”

“’Up” for it. Hardy har, har,”  Thomas rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’ll help you test the plant, and when you explode into hives, I’ll point and laugh.”

“What, you don’t trust me—“

“Every time they find something about the past, it’s ‘ooohhh look at how smart they were.’ If they were so smart, why are they dead!”

“Because volcano? Anyway… right…” Mark was checking the storage units. “Here we are!” He pulled out a  vial, full of tiny seeds. “Now just to take a  few…” he poured a little bit of the vial’s contents into his hand, and then transferred it into a little plastic box he’d brought. “And we’re done!”

“Great, let’s get out of here. Getting expelled from college is a shitty ancient curse from a forgotten culture.”

“Ha. Ha.” But Mark nodded, and the two headed out, pausing at the door to make certain the night guard wasn’t watching them. Then they were out, leaving through the door and heading out into the crisp air, the rising moon illuminating the campus, while the walkway lights cast their own yellow illumination into the air. Further back, the clouds cut off the stars, letting everyone know that pretty soon the big snow storm the news had been warning about was going to show up.

But now they just had to head back to the dom. Mark kept walking, just two students heading back after the college library had closed…

And he rubbed his palm as he walked. Some of the little seeds had stuck to his skin.

They fell off into one of the planters, the wind catching some others and blowing them away.

Didn’t matter. He had more than enough in the box.

And with that, the two kept walking.