Just Add Water

The door to Auditorium 11 opened very slowly, letting in a thin ray of green light which splashed against the floor. Max’s shadow entered the frame, blocking the ray off, before he reached into his pocket and removed his flash-light. He made his way up the carpeted darkness, to the first row of seats, smiling. He loved the fact that the theater he was employed in used stadium seating. He loved coming in during the morning, before anyone else got there and just sitting in the darkness, light pointed at the screen, smiling.

His light swept over the stairs, down in front of the screen, across the tile. There was something laying across the floor; he couldn’t make it out at the distance he was. He moved forward, carefully down the stairs, the thing on the floor coming into focus. His light hit the floor, spinning, as he sprinted through the darkness, out the door, out of the cine-plex, through the street, and into his apartment.

Max sat in the shower with scalding hot water pouring over him for over an hour.

He called in sick that day.

-

Jeremy found the body, clueless to the fact that naught two hours before, Max found it first. Jeremy, tall, wavy hair, dressed in a managerial suit with a small dribble of vomit over his lapel, sat in the corner of concession room, frowning.

The Cine-Plex 11 sat on the edge of the waterfront, overlooking the bay. In the moonlight, the interior of the theater was bathed in a green glow, ever moving with the wind chopping and breaking the surface of the water. It was exquisite when you came to catch an evening show and were greeted with the majesty of the green-hallway. The location of Cine-Plex 11 was lauded in several magazines, and considered one of the greatest movie-going experiences one could have.

The lobby housed the box office and a set of escalators that led to the first theater-floor, containing the concession stand and the first five theaters. On the second theater floor, theaters six through eleven sat, eleven being the largest, and that is where the body was found.

The police arrived, taking a look inside the theater, turning the cleaning lights on, examining the body.

Within an hour, the Center for Disease control had been dispatched to the Cine-Plex 11.

And in the span of three more, a specialized team was sent out.

The CDC had various branches dealing with various toxins and diseased, but when it came down to something they couldn’t place and didn’t know what to do about, it went down the pipe-line to Doctor Jonathon Dwells and his team.

Dwells stood at six feet, often hunched over. He couldn’t be bothered to shave his face or grow a beard; an almost permanent 5 o’clock shadow plastered onto his weary face. He had almost been dismissed from the CDC for giving misinformation about a less than deadly disease in order to keep Frankie Frakes under cuffs. He cut a deal, and now lead the team.

Janine Franklin was a foot shorter than Dwells, but looked older. She swore off make-up and often times didn’t bother fixing her hair after a shower. She was, in fact, younger than Dwells, and higher on the pay-roll. Her eyes sparkled blue against her brown hair, making one forget about the general frumpiness of her everyday attire.

Timothy Swift was the guy on the team that was sent in first; not that they didn’t like him and wanted him out, he was just the youngest, most brazen, and would lie about drawing the short straw so he could stick his neck on the line… And this was a fact he wouldn’t let anyone forget.

The final and fourth member was James Watts, longtime friend and partner of Dwells. He knew how to get on Dwells’ bad side, how to get on his good side, and how much the stupidity of people royally pissed Dwells off. Watts was younger, and Dwells considered him a protégé of sorts.

A prime example of Dwells’ dislike of stupidity was his first meeting with Jeremy. Jeremy stood behind concession, sipping down a courtesy cup of club soda.

“Hi there,” Dwells stopped, his team behind him, glancing down at the name-tag that adorned Jeremy’s coat, “Jeremy. We’re here with the CDC. Can you show me where the body is?”

“The CDC? Why are you here?”

“Well, sometimes, when a man and a woman love each other very much, they want to express their love physically –“

“No, I meant the CDC! I called the police!”

“You called the police to deal with a potentially deadly fungal outbreak. You know, Jeremy, there’s a reason they didn’t put the ‘special’ kids in front of the Enigma machine first.”

“I just want that stupid body out of my theater!”

Dwells frowned. “So, no love lost between you and your dead co-worker?”

Jeremy scoffed. “Terry wasn’t my co-worker. I was his boss. I was in charge of him, and he was a slacker. Now, can we get that body out of here, or are you just going to be snarky?”

“I do enjoy my snark. The police contacted the CDC, correct, Jeremy. Do they usually do that?”

“I wouldn’t think so, but –“

“Do you know what they found?”

“No.”

“Well, they found something interesting next to Terry’s body. And not ‘used condom in an all boys school rubbish bin’ interesting. Interesting as in ‘unclassified fungal outbreak’ interesting. So, we’ll deal with that first. Then we’ll see if we can’t get your theater back into working order. Now, please, take me to the body.”

-

Watts had found the entire exchange more than amusing. He stood behind Dwells, smirking. If there was one thing that pissed Dwells off, it was the disrespect of a co-worker. In their line of work, co-workers were the only people you could really count on. The fact that Jeremy could disregard the body like that clicking in Dwells’ head, and Watts could see that.

Janine, however, was not in the building. She was outside trying to find a place to park the car. She would have found the exchange less than amusing; she favored strict professionalism in the face of danger, or ass-hole-ism. Kill them with kindness, of just leave and let the disease do the job.

She was able to join Swift, Watts, and Dwells as they rode the escalator up the next floor. They walked down the hallway, silently, until Jeremy pointed to the police tape at the end.

“The body is in there.”

Dwells took a step forward. “You sure you don’t want to come in here, Jeremy? I hear it’s a real blast.”

Jeremy walked away wordlessly.

Swift walked past Dwells, ducking under the tape.

“Woah, Swift. I think this one calls for the suits.”

Swift frowned.

Ten minutes later, the white bio-hazard suits entered the theater in 2 by 2 formation, making their way up the slope.

Swift moved to the front of the group. “Stadium seating, man, just makes movies more enjoyable, you know?”

Dwells moved down in front of the screen, to the body. The clothes were particularly smooth, but that was the only part of the body that could have been considered normal. The body was shriveled, the arms moved up near the chest, the legs bent back at an odd angle. The eyes were sunken in, the hair was laying on the floor in a clump next to the body.

The only way anyone could have known this man was Terry was the name-tag, still pinned to his shirt.

“Well,” Dwells turned to the group, “It killed him fast.”

Watts turned to the body. “How do you know?”

“Well, I’m assuming that white substance in the corner is the fungus. The body is about three meters from it; he didn’t really get very far.”

Swift moved his light along the ground to the corner, where the white substance shone and twitched. “Jesus, it’s reacting to the light.”

“Yes, well, maybe it’s epileptic. Someone tell it no more video games.” No one moved. Dwells turned away from the group, “Oh, come on, that was funny. You all need to lighten up. Throw one corpse into a room, and suddenly everyone’s a critic.

“Swift, get a sample of the fungus, send it to CDC. Let’s just figure out what this is before we go about getting rid of it.”

“Well, what should we tell Jeremy?”

“That he can’t open his theater for a few days until we get the results. Janine?”

“Yes?”

“Mark the floor three meters from fungus. If it starts spreading, I want to know.”

Janine nodded, going through her bag for a piece of chalk.

“Watts?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Keep looking pretty.”

-

“So, Jeremy, as you can see, there’s no way you could possibly open the theater to the public. You’re going to have to keep it closed off until we can get rid of the fungus.”

“Mr. Dwells, you’re telling me that –“

“’Doctor’ Dwells.”

“You’re telling me that I have to shut down? You know what that is going to do for business?”

“Well, I’m no business major, but I’m going to say shut down business for a few days.”

“You can’t do that, Dwells.”

“If I have to, I can get a judge to tell you you’re wrong. Would that make you change your mind?”

“You get a judge down here, and then we’ll see. In the mean-time, I’m opening up the bottom five theaters.”

“Jeremy, did anyone ever tell you that you’re an idiot?”

Jeremy didn’t have time to respond before Dwells walked away.

-

The elevator door slid open, and Janine stepped in, eyeing Dwells, who was eyeing a magazine.

“What are you doing in here?”

“The elevator gives me the tickles.”

“Dwells.”

“It’s the only place I could go to hide from my nosy team and read. Ollie-Ollie-Oxen-Free.” He flipped the page.

“How can you stand to read in the face of this?”

“There’s no chair.”

The elevator dinged, but Janine slammed the “Emergency Stop” button.

“Janine, we’ve dealt with worse. The only thing we can do is sit on our hands until the other guys get back to us with the results. What do you want me to do, pace and act worried?”

“I just wish you would CARE for once –“

“Well, hello, there. Listen to this: ‘The Cine-Plex 11 is one of the most desirable locations on the east coast if you’re a movie-going patron, and lets face it, you are. From the cheery interior, to the lush green natural nocturnal lighting, you get more than your monies worth when you come to the Cine-Plex 11. Featuring 11 high quality screens, and ‘Closed Captioned’ events for the hearing impaired, you’re going to find what you’re looking for in the cinema experience.

“’Outside of the obvious vanity, you’ll find an extended concession stand, offering nachos, pizza, hot-dogs, and on some nights, Mexican dishes in Styrofoam containers. Complete with individual climate-control per theater, we’re going to have to give the Cine-Plex 11 two thumbs up.’

“No wonder Jeremy didn’t want the place shut down. An article like that has to be good for business, doesn’t it?” Dwells reached out and pressed the “Start” button, moving the elevator.

“A wonderful discovery, due to reading. Who would have thought reading would have been good for research?”

The doors slid open and Janine stepped out, stumbling.

“Janine, lay off the booze before work”

Dwells glanced at the ground.

“Wait, wait. The carpet in the elevator is different than the carpet on the main floor.”

-

“You called us all together because the carpet doesn’t match? Don’t you have anything better to be doing with your time, Dwells?” Swift rolled back in his chair, hitting the window in the café area of the Cine-Plex.

“It’s important. Trust me...”