by Joe Ducie
Sarah nodded. “I know. That’s because...” She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “That’s because it’s not a disease, John. What caused Z-Apoc was a nano-virus, developed at the Canberra Institute of Technology.”
“What in the hell is a nano-virus?”
“You have to understand,” Sarah whispered, and squeezed his hands, “that the people who did this were trying to cure disease, heal injury, and even eradicate cancers entirely, forever! They were trying to improve humanity. But the virus... it got out, a swarm of tiny little robotic bacteria—millions could fit on the head of a pin—and started turning people into... into monsters.”
“Robots?” John licked his lips. “You telling me this wasn’t a zombie apocalypse, but a robot uprising? Shit, two for the price of one.”
Sarah looked like she was going to be sick again. “That’s how they’re still moving, why the Z’s haven’t rotted away, and how they... how they digest what they eat. Each of the infected is a nest of self-replicating nanomachines that have taken over the host and kept most basic functions working. Like sight, smell, minor brain activity... rage.”
“And a mindless hunger for human flesh?”
Sarah sighed. “That’s the virus doing what viruses do—what all life does—pass on its code, reproduce, replicate. Some of us were immune from the start, I don’t know why. The swarm that got loose wasn’t big enough to overwhelm everyone. But once the machines find a host, start eating and reproducing inside that host, then they can spread quite easily to me or you through a bite. The machines evolved, having found a uniquely perfect delivery system. The bite passes on a concentrated swarm of the nano-virus into your bloodstream that travels to your brain, overriding whatever natural immunity we had at the start. You understand?”
John understood enough to feel a hot, burning anger in his gut at the people who had developed the virus. “And the glowing medicine that healed your leg?”
“That’s the nanomachines doing what they were meant to do. Heal.”
“How do you know all this?”
Sarah flinched, and her face crumpled.
That was, perhaps, all the answer John needed. “Doctor Bell?”
“I was part of the team that developed it. God save me, John, I was part of the team that destroyed the world!”
*~*~*~*
Z-Apoc will continue...
Until then, why not check out Joe Ducie’s novel?
DISTANT STAR
The Reminiscent Exile: Book I
For Declan Hale, the Shadowless Arbiter, life has been simple since he ended the Tome Wars and forced a cruel peace in the mythical realms of Forget. Exiled to Earth for his crimes, Declan spends his days managing a small bookshop.
So when a familiar looking corpse appears in the dead of night, spilling his scotch, Declan is less than amused. Especially because the body is his own. Someone--or something--has sent a calling card from the future.
Daring him to confront his monstrous past.
The last time Declan went to war, Ascension City burned and eight million people lost their lives. The Knights and Renegades should have left him alone...
*~*~*~*
An urban fantasy story that spans worlds, universes, and time. Join Declan as he battles friends, enemies, kings, and the gods themselves in his struggle for redemption.
"You will constantly be on the edge of your seat reading this book..." ~Cydney O'Sullivan
