Z2012SITEHTHEDOCTORATTHEANNEX

__Story__
It was another dismal day at the infirmary. I had just been informed that eight more patients had arrived from the annex that morning and half of them would become my responsibility. We had been told that a contaminant had been found in the water supply at the annex, causing some sort of previously unknown ailment. It was our responsibility at the infirmary to observe these cases and develop a suitable antidote; however, over the past six months, the number of patients being admitted had more than doubled. I had lived on the base my whole life – my father was also a doctor in the infirmary before he died – and had never seen any disease worse than the outbreak of stomach flu that had struck when I was eleven or the odd wound received while working in the machine shop, both minor occurrences compared to what was happening now. I was becoming extremely suspicious, so I decided to poke around to see what the other doctors and nurses knew about what was causing this sharp jump in sickness. I approached a senior nurse, Gretchen, in the hallway and posed my question. “There sure have been a lot of patients from the annex here lately. What kind of work do they do there anyway, I wonder?” “Shush! What do you think you’re trying to pull here? You want to end up like Dr. Montgomery? If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop poking your nose where it doesn’t belong!” the plump nurse hissed, with a panicked look around. I had never heard of Dr. Montgomery, but judging from her tone, whatever had happened to him was not something one would wish upon himself. Deciding that perhaps the direct approach was not advisable, I resolved to go out to the annex and have a look around for myself.

Arriving at the annex after my shift (about 8:45 pm), I walked slowly through the trees toward the main building, searching for anything that seemed out of the ordinary. I searched the entire exterior, the whole time feeling as though I was being watched. Suddenly, storm clouds began to roll in and a bone-chilling wind picked up, freezing me to the core within minutes. Why would it be that cold in South Carolina in October? Short of knocking on the door and asking to take a look around inside, I searched the grounds thoroughly, but found nothing. As I was attempting to sneak away unnoticed, I felt a hand clamp down on my shoulder. Suppressing a shriek, I was yanked around to face my captor. “What did I tell you hooligans would happen if I found you out here again?” the man shouted in my face. I realized he was Dr. Weatherford, who, because of his position as head scientist on the base, lived in the annex. “Um, I, you see…” I stuttered, taken aback. I had met Dr. Weatherford at the annual holiday party at the base last year and he had been pleasant and charming; his transformation from the soft-spoken man I knew into the red-faced demon standing before me took me off guard. “Oh, Dr. Dupont! I apologize for my sudden outburst. We’ve had a bit of a problem with… vandals wandering about the grounds; I mistook you for one of them,” Dr. Weatherford told me, returning to the complacent man I was used to, though I couldn’t shake the image of his angry eyes from my mind. “Well… er, not to worry. Just a silly mistake, I suppose.” “Nonsense! That was incredibly rude of me. Now, what brings you to the annex on this lovely night?” he asked me, with what I took to be an accusatory tone. I wasn’t sure if I should come clean, I hardly knew this man, and after his little outburst I wasn’t sure if I wanted to. I decided it couldn’t hurt to ask. “Well, you see Dr. Weatherford, there have been a lot more patients at the infirmary than usual, so I was just curious to see if something was going on over here. Not to say that you or your colleagues are doing anything wrong, of course! But I can’t help but wonder...” I trailed off when I caught a glimpse of Dr. Weatherford’s stare. If looks could kill, I should have keeled over and died right on the spot; however, Dr. Weatherford again regained his composure as quickly as he had lost it. “Well Joseph, though I can’t tell you yet what exactly we’re doing, just know, it’ll change the course of history forever! You know, you seem to have an overly inquisitive mind. I think that may be just what we need here. A fresh mind, a fresh pair of eyes. Yes, I do believe I’ll put in a good word for you. You could be living up here at the annex within a few days, working alongside us scientists. No more of that dreary infirmary, you’ll be finding real answers up here, changing history right alongside us” he pronounced, suddenly jovial. “Hmm, that sounds nice, I guess,” I mumbled, still puzzled by his bizarre temperament. We shook hands and went our separate ways, leaving me to ponder our strange meeting on the walk home, to the chorus of the crunching autumn acorns beneath my feet.

Sure enough, two days later, I was being moved into my new rooms at the annex. Not being an important part of whatever was happening yet, I was living in the hotel-like building, not the main house. I hadn’t seen any other inhabitants of this building in the short time I had been there, but I was assured that I wouldn’t be alone. I suppose that the rooms were nice enough; however, I was a bit perplexed when I discovered that I would be locked in every night by a keypad from the outside “for safety purposes”. When I asked about this disturbing feature, I was told that, in the event of an emergency, the doors would unlock automatically, so I had nothing to worry about. I tried to feel comforted by this news, but only succeeded in feeling slightly less nauseous. The next day, I was visited by Dr. Weatherford, who informed me that I would be given a few days to acclimate to my new surroundings before having to begin work. Again, I had a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach that something wasn’t quite right, but again I ignored it. After he left, I began to move things carefully around my new home, so as to be more comfortable. Unfortunately, I wasn’t careful enough; I succeeded in running an armchair into the wall and creating a large hole. Swearing under my breath, I moved closer to inspect the damage. I noticed something protruding from the gaping hole, which was surprisingly uniform in shape. I reached into the crevice and pulled out a tattered journal. I opened to the first page and read, “Contained within are the findings of Dr. James Montgomery regarding the true nature of experiments conducted in and around the annex of the US Naval Base, Charleston, South Carolina, 1983”. Dr. James Montgomery? Could he possibly be the same Dr. Montgomery that I would be wise to not end up like? I turned the page and read on. Three hours later, after reading Dr. Montgomery’s journal cover to cover, the sickening feeling I’d had in my stomach since I met Dr. Weatherford outside the annex became much worse. Never had “ignorance is bliss” meant more to me than it did in that instant when I realized the awful truth behind the base’s purpose. I couldn’t decide what to do about my newfound knowledge. I couldn’t possibly keep quiet and let this continue to happen. On the other hand, look what happened to Dr. Montgomery. My head spinning, I spent the next few days in a stupor, still not having begun work in the annex, or seen the other residents as I had been promised.

Finally, I decided enough was enough. I was done worrying. I made a call to a friend with the US Public Health Service and arranged a meeting with him at the base so I could show him the journal and something could be done about the terrible things that were taking place. Speaking on the phone, I refrained from mentioning any specific details, as I couldn’t be sure that my phone calls were completely private anymore. When I hung up the phone, I breathed a sigh of relief. After days of nervousness and deliberation about what to do, I would finally have someone else to share the burden of this new knowledge, someone who would have the authority I lacked to do something about it. I sat down in the armchair that had begun my mental torment when it struck the hole in the wall, and closed my eyes. I fell asleep almost instantaneously, sinking into the nothingness that only comes from days without sleep. I slept dreamlessly, until I was jolted awake by the earsplitting trill of a warning siren, accompanied by a thump as the bolt holding my door securely shut slid out of place, granting me freedom. I leapt to my feet and threw open the door, immediately being accosted by drenching sprays of chilling rain and the infinite darkness of a moonless night. Swallowing my fears of what may lay just out of reach of the light from my doorway, I raced out into the night. "Aaaahhhh!"