Curiosity Can Kill

“What are the symptoms?”

“It’s similar to the common cold and flu. A loss of taste, fever, or coughs. Pretty similar.”

“Yeah. However, not that similar to the other strand of the virus.”

“It’s being genetically engineered to be stronger and more contagious. It’s occurred several times in the last centuries, you know?”

“Do you even know why we’re doing this?”

“I don’t know. Or care. The government wants us to keep our mouths shut about this.”

“Does it ever occur what they’ll do with this?”

“I don’t know. Maybe a biological weapon? Or a method of population control? Or just for research purposes?”

“Better to just keep our mouth shut and do what we’re asked of. The pay’s pretty good.”

April 1st, 2019

“You sure you want to do this?”

“Yeah! Why not. We say it every day! “Nobody except staff with identification is allowed to enter the building. Of course, kids can’t enter! They will understand. It’s like an April Fool’s prank!”

“Whatever you say, boss.”

Molly couldn’t believe it when her Dad told me he was allowed to take me to the lab. The Lab!

She was giddy, and couldn’t believe her luck. She had always wanted to go to the lab; it was her dream. 

“All set?” her Dad asked, pulling a jacket over his lab coat. 

“All good. Let’s go.”

It wasn’t that far of a walk-only a few blocks. 

And there it was. It was a pristine white building, complete with an accent of gray concrete. Rose bushes lined the edges and were followed by a fence. There was only one entrance, and that was where we were headed. 

Security guards stood at the entrances, carefully checking their IDs. There were other children there, and the security guards waved them in. Little did Molly know that the turnstile she placed her hand on registered her fingerprints and matched them to a government database. They had an instant file on her and scanned her face through a hidden closed-circuit camera. She entered and was in awe. 

They were standing in a large atrium, complete with scientific statues and futuristic models. Overhanging lights lit everything, and skylights in the roof brought even more glow to the area. There were various hallways that branched off, with their own security checkpoints. 

But Molly couldn’t see that well probably because of the large crowd that was gathered there. 

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know Molly. Hang tight.” 

Instinctively, Molly grabbed her father’s hand, but she was itching to leave and explore. 

She listened closely if she could hear anything. 

“Seems like it was an April Fool’s prank.”

“We need to send the kids home,” another person muttered. 

People were filling out, holding their children's hands. Molly recognized a few kids from her school, but they were all too busy heading out.

Just then, 2 men in lab coats approached Molly’s father. 

“Molly, you know how to head home, right? I have something urgent to attend to.”

Molly nodded as the two men whisked her father away. 

She turned around, only to lose herself among the crowd, not heading out. She then slipped behind the desk that was manning the hallway that her father had gone down. The security guards were managing the crowd, so there was nobody to stop her. 

Satisfying her curiosity, she headed down the hallway, stopping to peer into the windows that adorned each door. However, they were tinted, and she could only make out the faint outline of figures moving behind it. 

As she was creeping down, she heard the creak of a door handle. She was stuck in an open hallway, with none branching off it. There was nowhere to hide, but then she spotted a janitor’s closet. 

She quickly opened it just in time, and voices swept past, going down the hallway.

“What are you doing here?”

“Ahh!”

She looked back to see who it was. It was a boy, who looked just her age. She recognized him. It was her fellow spy. He seemed to never get enough and was always exploring.

“Marco, is that you?”

“It is indeed.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I believe that we both must be asking each other that question.”

“Let’s go?”

“Go.”

They crept down the hall, trying to pry some information. It was whitewashed corridors, with perfectly identical doors spaced evenly.

“We must be reaching the end of the building now,” Marco observed.

And then they saw it. A singular door at the end of the hallway. 

“That’s got to be the one.”

“We need to get in, though.”

They approached the door, only to find it locked by a card lock. 

Frustrated, Molly turned to leave, only to turn around when the door clicked open. Marco looked smugly at her, twirling his mom’s card between his fingers. 

“Dad brought me here, and Mom wasn’t feeling that good, so she didn’t come. Dad would have noticed if I had taken his card.”

They slipped in, making sure to look around. Nobody was there. They quietly closed the door, and then took in their surroundings. 

They were in awe. The room was a huge laboratory, with vials, chemicals, and huge machines. There was a whole containment room, with a decontamination chamber and biohazard signs. Beakers were dotted on the stainless steel countertops, and various liquids of different colors fizzled and bubbled. 

They explored, peering into the vials and pressing their face up to the containment room. They knew better to go in there; for all they knew, there could be a dangerous virus in there. 

They made a plan to only explore for 5 minutes, and then head out quickly. They had struck a gold mine. 

When exploring, Molly heard a crash. She whirled around, only to see Marco looking down at his feet, his eyes wide with fear. She ran over. He had dropped a beaker. The biohazard sign that was clearly printed on it was visible, with a label. They both looked at each other, afraid. 

Molly’s heart beat fast. 

They ran out of the room and went home. They washed thoroughly, not even telling their family. Everybody in the town was perplexed by the beaker. Apparently, it held a virus, one that was genetically modified. 

Luckily, they had the room cleaned by a team of experts to the last molecule. All traces of the virus were gone. But the label of the vial kept pestering Molly. Something was written on it… She had forgotten. 

Molly and Marco could finally breathe a sigh of relief. They played together, glad that nothing bad had happened. 

“Marco, what’s this?”

“Oh. That’s my mom’s card. They issued new ones after they cleaned the lab, so I just kept her old one.”

Molly stared at the card in her palm, which had been under Marco’s bed. She frowned but decided to leave it and play with Marco instead. Still, the label of the vial that Marco had broken pestered the back of her brain. 

-Two weeks later-

“Mom, I don’t feel so good.”

“Mom, I can’t taste anything.”

“Mom, I think I have a fever.”

“Mom, why can’t I stop coughing?”

And then Molly remembered what the label said.

It had a large biohazard sign, with a picture of a virus molecule. And below that, there had been a caption:

Coronavirus.