Wonderland - Jags

have a hard time infecting anyone intentionally if we tried. If you have
an Episode you simply convince others that you are insane. Transmission
is difficult. But … not impossible.” He smiles at the irony.
“I believe that the government, in part, is aware of the danger of transmission
and has began taking steps to stop it. Covert steps. Dangerous
steps. If the disease was more easily transmissible or if it became so,
then we will see certain policies enacted. The creation of control-zones
and ‘firebreaks.’ I have it on some authority that certain ‘blackout’ protocols
will provide authority to shut down the media and, in some cases,
even power and shortwave radio.”
He looks at you seriously. “People have been killed over this already.
Worse than that even.”
MOONEY: “Tell him about Rockridge.”
DR. SHATTER: “Rockridge Asylum dealt with some 18people who we
would say were suffering CPD. That wasn’t the official diagnosis of
course, but it happened to be a centralized point for several persons
committed by the authorities in the upper New York area. It was also
the case of one of the only recorded mass disappearances that anyone
who’stalking will admit to. In 1997, some thirty patients and nine staff
vanished in the course of a morning. Although records are sketchy I
believe that several of the early respondents—police, firefighters, other
mental health professionals, were infected.”
His eyes flicker down for a moment.
“It’s what we’re calling a hot-zone. A transmission event. Whatever the
conditions were at Rockridge, they were right to transmit the infection to
many of the people who entered the building. Because it was on fire when
they arrived the disappearance of much of the personnel has some tenuous
explanations—but nothing really holds up. What is more interesting
is what was reported—what sketchy events were reported from those who
went inside that building.
“I believe that what happened at Rockridge was that something
expanded the episodes those people were having—something convinced
the people there that it was more than simple schizophrenia.” His last
words drip with contempt.
“That’s all,” he says. “That’s all I’m willing to discuss at this time.”
Mooney nods and stands.
MOONEY: “Come on,” he says softly. “We have one more stop to
make.”
You and he exit down the back stairs and out to the parking lot. In the
high office you can now see a faint light in Dr. Shatter’s office. You think
31
Introduction