The Year of the Dog

It was dark, pleasantly cold and it smelled like dog food.

– Someone is dead, – said David.

Ivan knew to believe him this time without asking. David’s hunch has proven itself to be impeccable.

It’s been a year or two since the plague got under control. Everyone who was cured developed a kind of subtle ability.

They carefully proceeded to the darkness, searching for clues with their flashlights. Suddenly, a woman with fiery orange hair ran in screaming.

– Jesus, lady, you scared us. Please calm down. What happened? – said Ivan with a thick Russian accent.

“There was... there was...”, the woman kept shaking and trying to put words together.

“What did you see?” asked David.

“It-t had a tail, and it killed my husband, the pest control officer, and it said – You got what you deserved, bark!” – replied the woman.

Mindy, as her name turned out to be, had a look on her, like she didn’t know if she went crazy. She agreed to take us to the spot where she saw what she saw.

We followed her through the dimly lit corridors of the floor, until we reached a spot under flickering fluorescent lights. David picked up a thick hair from the floor, “Looks like a golden retriever”, he mumbled, as if he was amused.

“Where did it come from?” – asked Ivan.

Mindy seemed to have recuperated from the shock and was anxious to help. “How about that?” she hinted at the door, with a sign that read “BEWARE OF DOGS”. With a shocking ease, Mindy broke off the lock with her bare manicured hands. We proceeded into the room. To our surprise, there was an elevator where the bathroom was supposed to be.

There was only one button in the elevator: the -1st floor, labelled “Gyungho Bio Offices”. As we left the elevator, we saw a young engineer working in a room with glass walls. There were green glowing liquids in small glass beakers all over the lab. He was so consumed by his work that he didn’t notice us and Mindy.

The man said in Korean: “I developed a novel mRNA compound that enhances your plague-induced abilities, and injected my own RNA into this dog.”

Ivan replied in perfect Korean: “You’re under arrest, sir!”.

“You are under arrest too”, David collared the dog, “and you have the right to remain silent.”