I've been working on a new The Walking Dead fanfic lately, and honestly, I'm having a lot of fun with it. If you enjoy this fanfic, I think you'll feel right at home with The Walking Dead: Saving Merle First. Check it out and let me know what you think!
...
The photo itself was not particularly well taken. The Eiffel Tower in the background was blurry and out of focus, but the people were clearly visible.
Dr. De La Rosa stood slightly left of center, with a smiling young woman beside her.
"That's her," Calista said softly.
Brown hair cut in a neat bob, the ends falling just below her cheeks.
The young woman was half a head shorter than De La Rosa and looked to be in her twenties. She faced the camera directly, smiling brightly.
And to Dr. De La Rosa's right...
"She was torn out." Calista ran a finger along the jagged edge of the photograph.
There had originally been a third person in the picture, but they had been roughly torn away. Only part of Dr. De La Rosa's right arm remained. From the position, it was impossible to tell whether she had loosely placed an arm around someone's waist or was shaking their hand.
"Why?" Michonne wondered. "If it was about privacy, why not destroy the whole photo? Why remove only one specific person...?"
"Since it was openly displayed in a frame in De La Rosa's office, it was probably either a personal photo or a work photo.
"If it was personal, maybe De La Rosa had a falling-out with that person and couldn't stand looking at them anymore, so she tore them out."
Calista's reasoning was straightforward. "If it was a work photo, then maybe that person was someone who couldn't be seen?"
Michonne slowly shook her head. "Someone who couldn't be seen wouldn't have been sitting openly on her desk in the first place. I think the first possibility is more likely."
That was true. If the person truly needed to be kept secret, De La Rosa would never have displayed the photo in a frame.
It made sense when she thought about it that way.
And yet Calista still felt it could not be that simple.
If it really was a work photo, under what circumstances would it have been important enough to take and frame at first, only for De La Rosa to later decide she did not want anyone seeing one particular person in it?
"I need to see Professor Sorensen." Calista stood and brushed the dust from her pants. "First, we need to confirm who this girl with the bob is."
Martin was in the laboratory.
When Calista entered, Martin was holding a vial and discussing something with Milton, while Dr. Jenner operated a machine on the other side of the room.
All three looked up at once.
Dr. Jenner's eyes were unfocused from concentration for a moment before settling on her. "Calista? Is this about the walker repellent? We're almost..."
"I'm here to see Professor Sorensen about this." Calista walked straight over and held the photo directly in front of Martin. "Do you recognize the girl with the bob?"
Martin took the photograph and narrowed his eyes.
Then his expression changed, and he froze.
"That's Ashley Worth!"
"You're sure?" Calista's heart skipped a beat.
"Absolutely!" Martin removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes hard before looking again, making sure he was not mistaken. "Richard showed me a good look at her once when he was bragging about his daughter."
"Spark!" Calista suddenly raised her head. "She worked for Spark Biotech Company in France.
"And this photo proves Spark had ties to Sentinel Station. They were involved in the Black Fire Project too!"
...
By the time Calista returned to her room with the photograph, evening had already fallen.
She left the main lights off and switched on only the desk lamp.
Silas Norton, you old bastard. Just how much did you have your hands in?
A wave of nausea came over her. Not physical nausea, but the discomfort of having too many pieces of information slam into her mind at once.
She still did not have a clear picture. She needed to sort everything out.
Calista shook her head, trying to clear the mess in her thoughts, then walked over to the whiteboard in the corner of the office. She erased one section and began listing the clues, reconstructing the timeline.
Spark sponsored the French laboratory that researched the Wildfire virus.
After the virus was created, they developed an experimental vaccine. That old bastard had even secretly used Calista as a test subject and injected her with it.
Around the same time, Spark also got involved in the Black Fire Project, perhaps by providing equipment, funding, or even technical personnel.
Dr. De La Rosa might have gone to France as part of a research exchange, while Ashley Worth could have been the technical representative assigned by Spark to receive her.
Judging by where everyone stood in the photo, the person who had been torn out was probably more senior than Ashley Worth.
Later, Richard Worth accidentally discovered the Black Fire Project at Oak Ridge. He might have casually mentioned it to Ashley, or he might not have.
Then he and his eldest daughter died in a car accident.
And all of that happened before the apocalypse.
As for whether Ashley Worth knew that her father might have been silenced by people connected to the Black Fire Project, Calista had no idea.
Ashley might not have survived the outbreak at all. Or perhaps she never learned the truth and, as a company researcher who had already known about walkers, simply continued related research somewhere safe.
The person in the photograph was unlikely to have been torn out simply because of some personal falling-out.
No matter how serious a workplace dispute or power struggle became, tearing someone out of a photograph was too openly emotional. People in that kind of situation were more likely to undermine each other quietly.
A more likely possibility was that when the walker outbreak became uncontrollable and Sentinel Station could no longer hold, someone came to evacuate the station's leadership and key technical personnel like Dr. De La Rosa.
And those people might not have known that the third person had any connection to Sentinel Station, or more specifically, to its chief researcher.
In the United States, the Black Fire Project had been led by the U.S. military and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Those two organizations almost certainly had personnel stationed at Sentinel Station from time to time. They would have seen the photograph long before the evacuation, so De La Rosa would have had no reason to tear someone out of it while leaving.
Who was that third person?
Calista lowered the marker and stepped back, studying the timeline.
Her instincts told her that person was important to whatever had been happening behind the scenes, but she had absolutely nothing to go on.
If only she had known all of this before the apocalypse.
Back then, she could have gone online and searched for information about Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Spark Biotech Company. Maybe she could have found something.
Now she was stumbling around in the dark, forced to rely on guesswork.
A knock came at the door.
Calista quickly covered the whiteboard with a cloth and returned to her desk.
"Come in."
It was Leah.
She had been worried. Anything involving Silas Norton was rarely good news.
"Cali, what did you find?"
Calista hesitated for a second, then pulled the cloth away from the whiteboard.
Leah studied it for a while, frowning.
"So now you know who the girl with the brown bob is.
"A researcher in France. A victim whose family was silenced. A missing person who might know the truth."
"Or an accomplice," Calista said quietly. "She worked for Spark. If she was involved in this project..."
"But her father and sister are dead," Leah pointed out. "Even if Worth was involved, I doubt she'd have no resentment toward the people behind the Black Fire Project after learning the truth about what happened."
"If she's still alive," Calista said, "I really wish we could find her."
"Why?" Leah looked directly at her sister. "Even if we find her, even if she tells you everything, what would knowing the truth actually change?
"The Wildfire virus has already spread. The world is already gone. We're rebuilding from the ruins now.
"Would knowing who pressed the button bring the dead back?"
...
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