Plague Book: One Final Gasp

by Druga, Jacqueline

  His dreams didn’t help either.

  Although it wasn’t the first time he smuggled a germ out of the country, it was the first time he had done so with something so deadly.

  Every time he fell asleep he dreamt the same thing.

  A clock. The second hand moved quickly, spinning over and over as if time were running out.

  He started drinking about noon and consumed a cheese sandwich to stop instant inebriation. He was on the cusp of ‘drunk’ when a driver from the lab showed up to take him immediately to see Director Rob Corley.

  There was no time to change, and Elias didn't even have a chance to put on better shoes. He brewed a quick cup of coffee with the one cup machine and got in the car with the driver.

  The driver didn’t know what was happening, only that it was an emergency and Elias had to get there.

  He was rushed there and inside.

  “You reek of alcohol,” Corley said, waiting for Elias just outside his office.

  “I’m on vacation.”

  “It’s about to end.” Corley opened his office door.

  Inside were two men.

  Instantly, Elias knew something was wrong. His head spun, his thinking grew fuzzy and he barely heard the names as they were introduced. One was from the government, another was from WHO.

  “What’s going on?” Elias asked.

  The one man, some government guy, held a tablet. “How long have you known Frederic Petit?”

  “Years. Many years,” Elias answered.

  The WHO official stepped forward. “I need you to be completely, one hundred percent honest with us.”

  Nervously, Elias nodded.

  “Elias, this is serious,” Corley said. “We have a situation. Dr. Petit is dead, so are thirty people at his lab.”

  “What?” Elias, asked shocked.

  Corley continued. “Some died slow, some died instantly.”

  “We’ve isolated it. A virus. We have reason to believe that he stole the virus on his visit here. The timing would suggest that.” The WHO official said, took the tablet form the government guy and handed it to Elias. “Is this … your virus X.?”

  Elias peered down.

  “This is the virus we found in them,” WHO said. “We have no idea what it is. It’s not only them, but others. It’s out. We’re trying to figure out how and when. Is this your virus?”

  Elias swallowed. “Yes, yes, it is. That’s … X.”

  Corley asked. “Did you know he got ahold of this?”

  After a brief hesitation, Elias shook his head. “No, I did not. I’m in shock. He was acting strange when he left and hasn’t returned my calls.”

  “This is why.” Corley stopped back. “This is why. Jesus.”

  “If it’s out … it’s bad,” Elias said. “For lack of a better word, it’s bad.”

  “Then we need you,” The WHO worker told him. ‘Your team, your knowledge, all your research. You created this, you need to find a way to beat this before it’s too late.”

  In a total state of shock, Elias mumbled out, "Absolutely, Right away." he stood and excused himself from the office. Before he left, he asked them to get him all the information they had.

  Elias tried to stay composed as he passed Corley’s secretary, but once in the hall he nearly crumbled. He held onto the wall for support.

  What had he done? He wanted to scream, punch the wall, and throw himself out the window. He created X to save the world from an unknown, emerging extinction level virus and in a cruel irony, he was the one who brought the virus to the world.

  Even though it was wrong, without thinking he allowed for Frederic to take the fall, to be the bad guy. After all, dead men can’t talk.

  It had to be that way. If Elias confessed to giving it to Frederic, if he told the truth, then the legal ramifications would have had him arrested immediately and Elias wouldn’t be able to work on the virus.

  Elias had to be the one to do so.

  He was the only one who could, and it was the most imperative consideration at this time.

  The virus was his creation, his Frankenstein’s monster. Elias had to be the one to destroy that monster.

  If it was at all possible.

  Elias knew, more than likely, his efforts would be futile and it was already far too late.

  15 – MAKING WAVES

  Magnificent Jewel – Cruise Ship

  In no way would Glen consider himself stealthy. It wasn’t that he was too large to sneak about, it was because he had presence. Plus, with the ship under lockdown, walking around with a camera wasn’t going to cut it. He needed to get footage. He was part of a news team and this was big news.

  So once back in his cabin, he grabbed his Go Cam set up. A tiny camera hidden in the emblem of his baseball cap, and to make sure he was getting the correct angle and so forth, Glen had a special pair of glasses that had a tiny cup size monitor in the corner of the left lens.

  He wasn’t out of his room more than a minute and ten feet down the hall when he was stopped.

  “Sir, I need you to go to your room.”

  Glen drew upon his acting experience back in the day when he was in school. He played as if he were frazzled, worried. “I need to find my wife. We got separated at the pool. I need to find her.”

  “I’m sure she is fine.”

  “No, no,” Glen shook his head. “She went off with that rock star, that Silas guy. I can’t have my wife locked up with some rock star. I need to go find her, I need to go to his suite.”

  The ship steward looked perplexed, “Um, yeah, go on.”

  “Thank you.” Glen kept the camera rolling. He knew how to get to the suites, but that wasn’t where he wanted to go.

  He needed to sneak around with his ears and eyes open. His section of the ship was empty. He supposed people had made their way to their cabins and hunkered down. But why? Glen couldn’t be the only one searching for answers. He had to formulate a plan. Where could he sneak to and find something out?

  His floor was a bust so he took the stairs to the next floor up.

  As soon as he emerged from the staircase he was stopped again. Only this time the steward was different. He wore one of those paper face masks. “Sir, the halls are under lock down. Please return to your room.”

  “I know. I am on my way ...”

  “Unless you are sick, you need to return to your room.”

  Bingo.

  That was it. It wasn’t pirates. Or a terrorist siege.

  The face mask meant it was the cruise ship and some sort of sickness.

  Probably the norovirus that always seemed to hit cruises. Only this one had to be big if they were making people lock themselves in their rooms.

  Glen groaned ... badly, “Yeah, I’m feeling pretty bad.”

  “Level five, the small show room. That’s the closest to here for medical attention. A member of the medical staff will examine you there.”

  Thinking, well that was easy, Glen made his way to the elevator and to level five.

  He was stopped once more, but Glen knew what to say. He was proud of himself. And Eve would be proud too. He’d get her the footage, use the Satellite phone to call in to BNN and hopefully lock on to a strong enough Wi-Fi connection to send the pictures.

  That was if the Wi-Fi was still operational.

  It wasn’t going to be a puppy story, that was for sure.

  Glen didn't have a clue how big the story was going to be until he turned the bend toward the showroom and saw the people lined up in the halls, most were leaning against the wall for support, some sitting on the ground.

  There was no way all of those people were waiting. No way.

  And this was only one section?

  In the hall there had to be at least a hundred people, and they weren’t even in the showroom.

  Glen joined the ranks of those who were waiting in the hall

  “Is this where we wait for a doctor?” Glen tapped the person in front of him

  As soon as t
he person turned around, Glen knew it wasn’t a case of the dreaded, cruise stomach virus. His face was too pale, eyes dark and he had sores around his mouth that blistered in a trail to his chin and neck.

  Glen didn’t know what it was, but he knew one thing, at that moment, he wished he had one of those masks.

  ◆◆◆

  National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL), Boston, MA

  After wandering the streets near his home all evening, in thought and in desperation, Elias returned to the lab.

  X was out.

  There was no cure or treatment. They had anti-viral medication they created that came close to fighting X, but nothing was successful.

  Elias knew they had nothing to combat it.

  The best course of action was to know what X was capable of doing to its victims. Understanding and knowing was the difference between X and an ordinary flu strain.

  Immediately answers were wanted and needed from all ends of the spectrum, the World Health Organization, United Nations and political leaders.

  “What are we looking at?”

  Elias could tell them without a doubt the X virus was airborne.

  The R-naught ratio was double that of the measles, which historically had the highest communicability rate.

  But there wasn’t any general list of symptoms, because X didn’t work that way. It was designed to be a smart virus. Like all viruses it was a parasite of sorts, only X was like an alien invader seeking out the host’s weakness and attacking there first before spreading to the rest of the body.

  If someone had a heart condition, X would strike the heart, more than likely causing the person to drop over before they felt more than a case of the sniffles.

  In a healthy person, they would feel like they had no more than an ordinary case of the flu.

  Eventually the virus would manifest to the full blown state, in which case, the ravaging symptoms would be similar in everyone who caught it. However, how the symptoms befell a victim changed from person to person.

  Where one person would start out with a runny nose, another would experience nerve tremors and shakes.

  The start of the virus could be different in each person, but the end was always the same … death.

  No one would survive.

  There were those who wouldn’t get sick, that was a given.

  But they would be few and far between.

  Elias had research that Frederic didn’t get. Mainly because it veered so far off the test rats, he had feared Frederic wouldn’t believe it was the same virus.

  It was the most telling. Giving him the ominous picture, but also an inkling of hope.

  Guinea Pigs, A, B, C, D.

  GP-A, as Elias noted, was directly given X. The virus in pure form. Similar to how Frederic caught it. Straight from the strain itself.

  Symptoms set in within ten hours. GP-A was dead in two days.

  GP-B was exposed to A upon symptoms. He contracted what was called a primary case. Most people would get a primary or secondary case.

  It took B twenty-four hours to get symptoms of the virus. B died within three days.

  Now GP-C was exposed to B, but near the end of B’s life.

  Again, twenty-four hours to show symptoms, less than three days until death.

  The most interesting thing happened with the fourth guinea pig. Elias waited an entire day until after C had died before exposing D to the room. The virus was still present in the air and on surfaces. Yet … D never contracted the virus. D never got sick. It wasn’t that D was immune, he wasn’t. A blood test proved that.

  X weakened.

  While those who caught a primary or secondary strain were doomed, it was possible those who caught a tertiary strain stood a chance of beating it.

  The virus X, like many other viruses, weakened the more it was passed down a line.

  And after not finding a host for twenty-four hours, it weakened to the point it wasn’t contagious.

  That was the hopeful part. It was conceivable, to stay healthy, people could quarantine themselves away and avoid others until the virus ran its course.

  It was valuable research and valuable information. But it was research Elias couldn’t share. Not until he figured out another way to explain it.

  He couldn’t share it because it was unethical.

  Anyone with half a brain in science could look at the blood samples and results to see he didn’t use furry little guinea pigs.

  Elias’ guinea pigs were human,

  Four homeless men who lived in his neighborhood, each of which volunteered for the medical research, but none of them had a clue they were going to be exposed to a deadly virus.

  Elias paid the fourth and surviving man the thousand dollars he was promised, sent him on his way and thought no more of it.

  Until X was loose.

  Now Elias couldn’t stop thinking about the man whose name he couldn’t recall.

  He’d work a little bit more, then head back out to search the streets for that homeless mad. He had to find him before someone else did.

  ◆◆◆

  Boston, MA

  Abraham Boone had worked at NEIDL longer than Elias Marcum, but had been his assistant since day one.

  Now Abe wanted to scream.

  In fact he did. He left the lab, got into his car, grabbed the steering wheel and screamed at the top of his lungs.

  Not so much because Frederic Petit got ahold of X and accidently released it, that didn’t bring anger, it brought fear.

  Elias brought the rage out of Abe.

  Abe knew of the unconventional and unethical experiments. He was just as guilty as Elias for taking part.

  All in the name of science … even if it was wrong.

  But Abe had something in him he believed Elias had lost … humanity.

  When they should have been working on a way to destroy X, Elias was focusing on finding Rich Singer, the man who survived being exposed to X. Finding him and destroying all research related to him.

  “You have got to be kidding,” Abe said to him.

  “We have to find him, and you need to get rid of anything we have regarding that week.”

  “That research contains vital information.”

  “That research is incriminating to us both.”

  “I don’t care,” argued Abe.

  “You should.”

  Abe excused himself, saying he needed air and went to his car for his emotional freak out.

  Elias was selfish. The outbreak was potentially extinction level and all Elias could think about was not getting in trouble.

  In the eight hours since hearing about the outbreak of X, there were already hundreds of known cases in France. Not to mention those on the plane with Frederic. They all went different places.

  The virus was the pollen, every person on the plane were like bees spreading it around.

  Abe knew X as well as Elias and he didn’t see any outcome that was positive.

  Especially after hearing there was a potential outbreak on a cruise.

  X wasn’t just out, it was everywhere now.

  Abe guessed by morning he’d hear about even more cases.

  He sat in his car for a while, watching the building. He saw Elias leave again, then Abe went home,

  He woke up his wife, gave her a few minutes to get her wits and then he told her everything.

  The virus outbreak was still classified and was to be kept confidential, but he not only told her about X, the creation of it, but what he and Elias had done.

  She told him there was only one thing he could do … and that was to do what was right. Abe knew what it was.

  His wife was forgiving but angry, Abe begged her to pack a bag and leave the city, to go somewhere isolated.

  Go and don’t come back.

  She refused. She was staying with him in Boston.

  Then Abe left. He left to do the ‘right’ thing, he found himself back at the institute waking up Rob Corley who was asleep on his
office sofa.

  “What is it? What’s happened?” Corley asked.

  “All of us,” Abe said. “You, me, Elias, anyone that worked on X … we put a gun to the head of every person in this world and pulled the trigger.” Abe handed him a memory drive.”

  “What is this?”

  “Research files on X.”

  “Elias turned everything over already.”

  “Not everything, not this. Give it to WHO, the CDC and anyone who is working on X,” Abe said. “If there is a way to stop it, it could possibly be on there.”

  “Why didn’t Elias turn this over?” Corley asked.

  “As soon as you look, you’ll know.”

  “Thank you.” Corley clutched the drive. “It was the right thing to do.”

  “No.” Abe shook his head. “It was the only thing to do.”

  It wasn’t an act of valor handing over the research, Abe knew that.

  It didn’t make him feel better, nothing would.

  Even if it all ended the next day and X was no longer a threat, there wasn’t anything that would make him feel better or remove the crippling guilt Abe felt.

  All he could do now was help and work on it until the day he died.

  Which, with the way X was predicted to sweep the globe, death wouldn’t be too far off.

  16 – REVEALED

  August 2

  Magnificent Jewel – Cruise Ship

  Eve was hungry. An early lunch the day before was the last time she had eaten a real meal. It was just about dawn, and it didn’t help her hunger that she couldn’t sleep.

  She had heard nothing from Glen, she even tried to call his stateroom from Silas’ in room phone, but there was no answer.

  Last she saw him he was going to get his camera.

  Maybe he found a story.

  Eve had fallen asleep briefly on a couch the back of which perched against a long line of windows overlooking the ocean.

  She kept looking over the back of the couch, staring at the view deep in thought.

  They were still under lock down, and while the ship provided food in the Concierge lounge of every floor, Silas insisted they stay put.