The Keepers

Note: story contains mysterious deaths.

The Keepers

Sundown is coming fast and Lee is scrambling to finish her notes so she can leave for the day, stop for her check-in and get home. The protocol seems to change almost daily - since the incident a year ago.  How could they penalize the entire community because of some fool who thought they could beat the system?

Lee Burgess has been the Chief Health Controller of the community’s Testing Laboratory for a year now in the town of Saint-Berry and never imagined she would be forced to implement the newest set of laws. The special police have arrested more than twenty people so far. It has become extremely strict - you flaunt the curfew and you pay the price.

This change to the town all started a year ago with the curfew, the Check-in Station, the Testing Facility and the protective suit and helmet. A strange yellow mist that only appears at night made its way into the town. The mist is highly toxic but at first, it smelled sweet and calming then when you thought it was some harmless phenomenon - it quickly changed into a deadly gas. People were caught completely unaware - dropping like flies to the ground - the mist poisoned the affected. It is still not known what is causing this and the town of Saint-Berry has been in the State of Emergency for a year. No one is allowed in town or out of the town. The kicker is the town is the only one affected by the mist. The town is essentially cut off from the world.

The streets are eerily quiet, hardly anyone is out and about. Most people are just arriving at the Check-in Station as she pulls into the parking lot. Lee activates her protective suit and helmet before she exits her car. A suit and helmet are mandatory! It was quickly developed by Lee’s laboratory to protect the town's citizens. The drawback of the suit is it only gives you protection for 30 minutes. When you are close to your suit's limit - it will give you a verbal warning "You are reaching your exposure limit - please make your way inside."  

 As she makes her way into the Check-in Station people begin to recognize her because of her identification marker on her upper arm CHC (Chief Health Controller) and begin waving her in her direction. “Hey Lee I hope the curfew will be lifted on Friday!” a man named Frankie yells to her across the parking lot. Lee turns towards Frankie who she knows from her high school days and yells back, “So, do I Frankie, so do I.”

The town’s people thought it was some industrial accident from the mine that just shut down but it has been ruled out. The cause has not been pinned down so the town council formed a special police force and a new set of laws and protocols to keep the community safe. It had been working at the beginning but now people are becoming restless and a new curfew was put into place due to a member of the community attempting to leave and cross into the neighbouring town. They did not make it the protective suit and helmet - can only protect an individual for 30 minutes maximum. The town member was found on the street the next morning their suit and helmet melted through.

This is the fool that Lee refers to who thought they could beat the odds and make it out. But the town's person was caught unaware he tried leaving during the day - thinking he was safe. This was the first time the mist appeared in the daytime. Witnesses to the event said that the mist came in quickly and surrounded the person way past the suit's time limit of protection. It was like the mist knew what the suit represented. The Town's people watched from their homes, storefronts and businesses in horror as their fellow citizens died a slow death.

Lee walks into the scanner to make her record for the day and quickly leaves the station.  The Check-in Station is to scan the towns' citizens for any changes or exposures to the mist - a catalogue if you will of any abnormalities.   She gets home just in time and makes it into her house. She walks to her bedroom and gets ready to take a shower and then makes a late supper. 

Her mind is buzzing from her work day trying to figure out what the mist is and where the mist is coming from the mindset that has been plaguing her thoughts for the past year. She scans the piles of papers dispersed across the kitchen table looking for any kind of link that would tie together the meaning of the mist. Lee is essentially working on her own with help only via phone calls, zoom calls or emails. She keeps repeating a particular scenario in her head, “What if the mist was man-made??” Lee frantically looks through the piles of papers on the table for one file containing information about a failed experiment from the 1960s. 

“Hi Brady, it's Lee do you remember the Yellow Bird Experiment from the 1960s - the one that was scraped and hidden due to the ramifications if leaked to the public?" Lee waits for Brady's response holding her breath because she knows he remembers the experiment his father was the head of it. "Lee, are you saying that the mist fits the same criteria as in the Yellow Bird Experiment?" Brady asks Lee in a slow nervous voice. "Yes, Brady I think they are the same - from what I tested today at the lab and what is in the file matches all of the elements!" Lee suddenly realizes that the mist is indeed man-made. "Lee, do you know what this means for your town?" Brady can barely ask through tears streaming down his face. 

Lee holds the phone receiver tightly in her trembling hand, “The experiment is in play again and my town the people - we are the test subjects!” The phone line abruptly goes dead.  "Lee, Lee are you still there please answer me!" Brady frantically screams into the phone. The phone rings and Brady answers, "Hello, Lee thank god are you alright!?" Brady says relieved. "I am now the Head of the experiment and soon I will take over other towns - your town is being visited by the mist as we speak - this time we will not fail," Lee has been assimilated. Brady hangs up the phone and waits for his fate.