Blood Soaked and Invaded - 02 by James Crawford

conspiracy theorists spontaneous orgasmic contractions, we were all dumbfounded.
    Shawn was the first to break the silence with a “Fuck me,” in full Southern drawl. It was repeated around the room like grace before dinner, and I would have added my own to the round, but I couldn’t form the words.
    “Baj, correct me if I’m heading down the wrong sewer pipe,” Shawn croaked from a little farther down the front row. “What you ended up building was the technological version of the biological virus… A virus that was from outer space to begin with. Am I tracking or am I lost?”
    “Yes. Yes on both counts, or so it seems.” Bajali’s voice sounded strained and quiet, a few seats away from me, and I imagined that he was having a terrible time processing it all. “When I started working for Hightower, he gave me a set of project outlines and some very interesting data. I did not ask for the sources of the data. Then he told me to ‘Make That Happen’ using nanotechnology rather than biological source material.
    “Somewhere along the line after the project had commenced, someone unleashed the virus on humanity. Unfortunately, we would probably never know if that was intentional or simply the largest screw up in the universe. You couldn’t even really discuss the ‘death toll’, because they didn’t stay dead. Regardless, that singular event changed the world forever and no one could argue that.”
    Omura looked at each of us in turn and said, “The issue we have, neighbors, is this: we harbor the technological equivalent of the zombie virus. This gift we’ve been given is more contagious than that it is. We have to be contained, and we agreed to it, if I may remind you. Bajali is going to work on modifications to our little friends that will make it impossible for us to pass them on to other people.”
    There were affirmative noises and general nodding from around the room. They’d heard this bit before, I’m guessing.
    “I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. The problem we have is that we are being observed, guarded, and restrained at gunpoint. Am I right about that?”
    My storeroom erupted into unhappy noises. Shoei, standing at the front of the room, nodded, and gestured for everyone to simmer down. It took a few minutes for the gang to subside into muttering attentiveness.
    “This is the point I want you to truly consider: dangerous weapons require tight security. Someone made that mistake with the biological virus, and we are living in the aftermath of that error.” He put his hands in his pockets. “The world will not survive another accident of that kind, even if it manages to get out of this one. As much as I hate to call being held at gunpoint ‘necessary’, the government doesn’t have a better choice. I hope that when Bajali has perfected the updates to the nanomachines, we will be much less of a threat and the measures required to keep us in check will be modified.”
    Matt “Flower” Wilson, sniper and swanky Man About Town, spoke up from his customary seat near the door.
    “What you’re doing is trying to put a polite spin on military reality. Everybody, when the decision was made to join up instead of being nuked, we became government assets and signed away a lot of personal freedom to stay alive.” He uncrossed his long legs and leaned forward, scowling slightly. “I don’t mean to be unnecessarily cruel to any of you, but the situation is very simple: do or die. You are not civilians any longer.”
    Following Matt’s unusually blunt speech there wasn’t a noise to be heard, and the almost-positive spin that Shoei had built for us disintegrated. Shawn stood up with a grunt, and walked out. Chunhua followed right behind him. It was the start of a very sullen exodus.
    Only Baj, Jayashri, Omura, Charlie and I were left to hear the Army Corps of Engineers arrive.
    That week following that discussion was very quiet, at least in terms of our community interacting as a