by Tarah Benner
We all crowd onto the megalift, but my controller shoves me face-first into the corner so I can’t make eye contact or talk to Eli. I hear them board, though, and a deep groan tells me the controller must have kicked him.
I squirm the entire trip up to Control, but there’s no escaping my current position. Finally the lift dings, and when the doors slide open, the smell of urine and unwashed bodies seeps onto the lift.
My controller shoves me out into the tunnel, and I breathe through my mouth to keep the stench from overwhelming me. I squint around at the poorly lit receiving area and get a jolt of fear unrelated to whatever they’re going to do to Eli.
I’m under arrest. They’re laying charges against me, and I’m one hundred percent guilty.
I am so screwed.
The doors groan as they start sliding closed, but I don’t hear Eli struggling behind me.
I wheel around, causing a painful cut to open in my wrist.
Eli’s controller disembarked right behind me, but Eli isn’t with him. When he shifts, I see why.
Eli is still aboard the megalift, flanked by Jayden and the secretary. Two large men dressed in black have replaced the controllers, and horror settles over me.
They’re from Constance.
When I catch Eli’s eye, I only have a second to read his look of terror. Someone lowers a black bag over his head, and the doors slam shut.
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Outbreak. This was the first book I wrote as a full-time writer, and I honestly thought it would feel different now that writing books is my job.
I don’t buy into the idea that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. If you love what you do, you work every day of your life because you don’t want to stop.
Luckily, writing this book didn’t feel much different than it did when writing was just a side hustle for me. Every night when I go to bed, I’m already looking forward to waking up and working on whatever book I’m writing.
But once I started talking to readers about Outbreak, I could tell something had changed. Many of you were waiting for this book, which made me that much more excited to release it. I’m so grateful for your emails and your infectious enthusiasm. It pushes me to write faster and makes everything more fun.
One of the best things about being an author is the ability to share experiences with people and achieve a true understanding that’s so rare in the real world. I put a little bit of myself (or people I know) in every character, so it’s a relief when readers can empathize with their flaws.
Another perk of being an author is the excuse to learn about new scientific discoveries as I’m doing research for the books. I want to make things as realistic as possible, so I always try to ground fiction in reality.
Sometimes it’s terrifying; other times, it’s incredibly cool.
Recently, I stumbled upon some information about IBM’s supercomputer Watson, which can digest and analyze an enormous amount of medical information, new research, and even human genome data. Watson is so good that hospitals are using it to diagnose cancer: It successfully diagnoses lung cancer 90 percent of the time, while regular human doctors are only correct 50 percent of the time.
This discovery further reinforced my belief that genetic data is going to play a big role in the future. Watson is great news for the fight against cancer, but I’m still a little wary about other potential applications of this technology.
IBM just acquired two startups to bolster its data analytics, which means the company gained access to one of the largest clinical data sets in the world (data from 50 million people!).
Now, maybe I’m just paranoid, but if a supercomputer has access to your health data and millions of others’ data, I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to think that one day our genetic data could be evaluated when we apply for health insurance, jobs, loans, etc.
Sequencing a person’s genome has already gotten significantly cheaper and faster. For $1,000, you can get your genome sequenced within 24 hours, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies is testing a super-cheap gene sequencer about the size of a flash drive.
The company hopes to one day bring the technology to consumers for mobile self-monitoring. (I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t help but picture people going on a date in the future and whipping out their phones to test their genetic compatibility.)
Another aspect of the book that’s actually very close to reality is the idea that genetic mutation could lead to radiation resistance. Scientists have bred a strain of E. coli that can repair its own DNA after being bombarded with radiation. They think that human cells could eventually repair radiation damage the same way, and there is already a system that allows scientists to edit a genome.
And speaking of bleeding-edge medicine, how about bringing a patient back from the dead? The life-saving procedure the doctors performed on Lenny when she was rushed to the medical ward is a real thing.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center are currently experimenting with a suspended animation procedure that literally brings people back from the dead. Surgeons drain the patient’s blood and replace it with cold salt water to induce hypothermia, which slows cell death. This buys them a few hours to repair the patient’s injuries and repopulate the body with blood.
If the procedure works, the heart starts beating again, and the patient regains consciousness within a few hours or days.
Okay — enough with the good news. Let’s talk about the scary shit.
How is it that the Desperados got their hands on a deadly virus that absolutely no one can control? Even if the federal government relocated some virus samples to a compound before Death Storm for safekeeping, doesn’t that seem like the sort of thing they would keep on heavy lockdown?
Unfortunately, biosafety level 3 and 4 labs make horrendous mistakes all the time.
Specimens go missing; infected research animals escape. What’s even more terrifying is that the federal government doesn’t even know where all these high-containment labs are. (Reporters have identified more than 200.) It should come as no surprise, then, that oversight of these labs totally sucks.
In 2014, officials unearthed some old boxes of smallpox samples in storage at the National Institutes of Health that everyone had forgotten about. Horrified by the NIH’s poor housekeeping skills, the feds investigated some 4,000 labs and found poorly stored specimen that cause plague, botulism, and bird flu. Just recently, a Defense Department lab in Utah accidentally sent live anthrax to nine labs and a U.S. military base in South Korea. (Whoops.)
After gathering enough material to give myself nightmares for years, I concluded that it’s very plausible for the drifters to get their hands on a fictitious virus that could devastate the compounds. I’m eager to explore how compound 112 will react to a potential outbreak in book four.
I’m also very excited to follow Celdon into the inner folds of Constance, see the viral outbreak from Sawyer’s position in the medical ward, and maybe even get inside Owen’s head to understand where his true loyalties lie.
As I was writing this book, it occurred to me that Harper and Eli could either be the best thing for each other or the worst. They push each other and comfort each other, but their strong personalities frequently lead to clashes that border on unhealthy. Harper is finally beginning to understand Eli, but they both still have a lot of hang-ups.
I’ll be interested to see how they cope with separation in book four and if they can finally reach a point of trust and understanding that will make their relationship sustainable. Of course, I’m a sucker for couples that have true chemistry, so I’m rooting for them.
After reaching the end of book three where Harper and Eli are arrested, one of my beta readers pointed out that things look pretty hopeless for those two. I don’t disagree, but I’ll leave you with this: No matter how bleak things seem, there is always hope for resourceful, resilient people like Harper and Eli.
In my opinion, the best
defense against a world that’s barreling toward destruction is mental toughness and relentless curiosity. Don’t assume that everything is fine. Don’t assume that somebody has things under control. And always, always, always ask questions.
I hope you enjoyed Outbreak and that you’ll help me spread the word by leaving reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Reviews are the best marketing in the world because they help readers like you discover books by independent authors. You can also get in touch to tell me what you thought of the books. I love getting emails from readers.
And don’t worry…I’m hard at work on book four of The Fringe right now. In the meantime, check out my other series, The Defectors Trilogy. You can get books one and two for FREE when you sign up for my mailing list.
Table of Contents
Contents
Other Works
Beginning
Copyright
Get Exclusive Reader Perks
Dedication
one - Harper
two - Celdon
three - Eli
four - Harper
five - Eli
six - Harper
seven - Eli
eight - Harper
nine - Eli
ten - Sawyer
eleven - Sawyer
twelve - Eli
thirteen - Harper
fourteen - Eli
fifteen - Celdon
sixteen - Harper
seventeen - Harper
eighteen - Eli
nineteen - Celdon
twenty - Eli
twenty-one - Harper
twenty-two - Eli
twenty-three - Harper
twenty-four - Eli
twenty-five - Harper
twenty-six - Harper
twenty-seven - Celdon
twenty-eight - Harper
twenty-nine - Harper
Author's Note
