Chapter Six
Containment
Jarod woke to the sound of his phone ringing. Reaching over to grab the phone, he saw that it was 6:15. "Yeah?" his groggy voice answered.
"Jarod, this is Frank. Justin's here and wants to take some samples from the two of you. How soon can you be here?"
As he listened to Frank, Jarod was aware of how hard his cock had gotten. At the very least, he would have to masturbate before he left. He was sure Marie would feel the same way. "It will take about half an hour."
"Okay. See you shortly. Oh, and Jarod, try not to have any sex or bathe before you get here. Justin wants to work out how the bacteria is accomplishing its effects."
"Okay, I'll try."
As he hung up the phone, he saw Marie standing naked in the door to his room. He could see the need on her face. Her pussy glistened with moisture and her tits had erect nipples. Even at this distance, he could tell that they were hard enough that they could be painful.
"That was Frank. His friend is there and they want to see us to get samples. They don't want us to clean off or have any sex."
"No sex! God, I'm so horny I could fuck a frat house."
"I know," he said, throwing his covers off. "I feel the same way, at least the same way about a sorority house. But Justin wants to try to determine how the bacteria is acting, probably to try to come up with a symptomatic stop gap."
"Darn. He's right. They need to find out how..."
Marie started gasping for breath. She was hyperventilating, badly. Jarod, recognizing what he had gone through earlier, rushed to the bathroom and recovered the bag he had used from his waste can. But, when he got to her, she put her hand up, stopping him from giving her the treatment.
"No... gasp... impor... gasp... tant... gasp... run... gasp... course..."
Recalling that she had felt something of importance about his bout, he held off, waiting for her to ask for help. As he watched, her breathing became shallower and faster, as if each breath was not doing what it was supposed to do. She collapsed to her knees, too weak to stand. She put her hand up again when he moved to put the bag over her face.
"Marie, you're going pale, almost white, dead white. Let me help!"
Marie's vision was beginning to tunnel, blackness edging her periphery and expanding. She knew she was beginning to pass out, her resolve to wait it out fading. She put her hand out, pleading to Jarod.
Responding to her distress, Jarod put the bag over her face and let her body replenish it's carbon dioxide level so that it would know to breathe again As she breathed in and out of the bag, the white pallor that had covered her skin faded to blue. This he knew was a sign of oxygen starvation, the blue being full of CO2. Her breathing returned to normal as she went blue, letting Jarod take the bag off. Once able to breath fresh air, her skin visibly pinkened, her color returning to normal.
"What happened?" Marie asked as she came to her senses.
"You almost passed out, of course. Why?"
"Damn! I just can't put my finger on it. There is something important about the fact that we both had a hyperventilation attack, without cause. Oh God, the stench! Can you back off?"
"Yeah. Sorry. We should get dressed, get over to the lab."
"Okay. The car ride is going to be murder."
"We'll use the 2/20 air conditioning." At her confused look, he clarified, "Two windows open at twenty miles per hour."
"Cute. Good idea, but too cute."
They threw some clothes on and drove to the Envirolabs offices. There, they were interviewed by Justin.
"Start from the beginning. Tell me everything you can about this infection. I'm going to collect some samples while you do."
While Jarod and Marie told of the events of the last few days, Justin took blood samples, skin scrapings and nasal swabs. He was able to confirm, while they talked, that the bacteria was present and it died quickly when exposed to the air. Unlike Jarod and Marie, he had a much better microscope and could see the remains of the dead bacteria in their blood samples. He also saw that the same residue was present on their skin scrapings and in their nasal swabs.
"I'm curious," Justin asked when they had finished. "You both lost control and had sex with a stranger, almost against your will. Since then, you haven't. Why is that?"
Marie answered first. "I'm not sure. Knowing an incredible temptation is coming does make it easier to resist, but I can tell you that both of you," pointing at Frank and Justin, "are looking incredibly sexy. Holding off sex is getting harder and harder. This is the first time since Kevin, that I've gone more than six or seven hours without having sex. At least since I was infected."
"Yeah," Jarod added, "We have been getting some sort of sex every six hours or so since we figured out what is happening. Even masturbation deals with the craving. Good thing the bacteria can't tell that they're being wasted."
"So, once people are informed, they could keep from spreading it. Good. Now, how significant do you think this hyperventilation thing is?"
Marie spoke forcibly. "It's critical. I can't shake the feeling that it could be the clue to the whole thing. But, I'm so sex starved that I can't put my finger on it. That's why I insisted Jarod let me pass out from it. I was hoping for a clue."
"Bacteria can't cause you to hyperventilate, Marie."
"They can't make you burn at an infected person's touch, either, but this one does. We're dealing with an alien life form. Don't make assumptions. That's what gets people in trouble in science fiction." Jarod looked unapologetic at his reference to scifi. He remembered the book Footfall. When dealing with what had never been encountered before, sometimes fiction was what you looked to.
"Jarod's right," Justin said. "We can't put any artificial constraints on this thing. I've got enough information to justify a quarantine. I'm calling Atlanta and the National Guard. I just hope that none of the tourists have been infected. If so, they will already be spreading it into the general population. Frank, there's no police in Humbol, is there?"
