Blue Plague Survival

by Watson, Thomas A

  “Why didn’t you tell me? So I could have tried to explain it a different way?” Stephanie asked.

  “Because you would’ve tried to teach someone who has never admitted until today that he didn’t understand the details of the topic. Don’t get me wrong he understands a lot more now about the molecular world since you came along. Like my mama said, ‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink,” Debbie told Stephanie.

  “So now I’m a dumbass horse,” Bruce said dryly.

  Mike jumped out of his chair and turned toward Bruce. “If you refer to yourself as a dumbass one more time, we are fixing to fight. Not spar or wrestle, but a knock down drag out right here,” Mike yelled at him balling up his fist. Everyone close by cleared the area seeing the anger on Mike’s face. “You are a Ranger, trained sniper and a registered nurse. Then you taught yourself to be a gunsmith, mechanic, carpenter, machinist, landscaper, the list goes on and on. You read one fucking book on how to make bio-diesel, then go to the barn and in one day made a machine to do it. Everyone in this family looks at you like the greatest thing since mayonnaise, including me. I have never met or heard of anyone as smart as you until Stephanie came along. For you to say we would hold a dumbass in such high regard pisses me the fuck off!” Mike yelled looking at Bruce.

  Looking at Mike, Bruce thought he was fixing to tote a gold medal ass whooping. He never knew they looked at him like that, he was just Bruce. He always considered himself the least intelligent one of the group. Bruce realized that Mike was mad because Bruce had degraded himself, not because he didn’t understand something. “I’m sorry I made you mad Mike,” Bruce said looking down at his lap hoping Mike wouldn’t start the beat down.

  Mike let out a puff of air thankful he was not going to have to fight Bruce and get his ass kicked. “Bruce, you are only human brother and you were the only one who did not know it. Bruce Wayne Williams you are a hero to this family and to this clan. People do not take kindly to their heroes being put down, even by the hero himself. I would kill to be like you brother and I do try, but the mold was destroyed after you were made,” Mike said looking down at Bruce.

  Bruce stood up and embraced Mike in a bear hug which Mike returned. “I love you Brother,” Bruce told him. “I love you too brother,” Mike said. Bruce let Mike go and walked over to Stephanie who was still being held by Debbie and Nancy. They let Stephanie go as Bruce came over wrapped his arms around her pulling her to his chest.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” Bruce told her.

  “I would never intentionally make you feel stupid Bruce, I promise. I would die first,” Stephanie told him looking up at him.

  Bruce looked at her tear streaked face explaining, “It’s a guy thing called ‘pride’. Us, guys like to think we can at least learn everything. We don’t like to admit we can’t.”

  “Well, you should start wearing a bra and drop some testosterone. If I would have known how it made you feel, I would’ve never spoken about my work. You do believe me don’t you?” Stephanie asked.

  “Yes, I know you would never hurt anyone’s feelings in this family. As for wearing a bra, I’m gonna decline. I swallowed my pride today for the first time admitting I couldn’t do something in front of others. Now, I want you to start this briefing ok,” Bruce told her kissing her on the forehead.

  “OK,” Stephanie said as Bruce let her go. Debbie hugged him as he turned around and Nancy hugged him from the back.

  “We are so proud of you baby,” Debbie told him.

  “I almost choked to death swallowing that much pride,” Bruce told her.

  “That’s ok we could’ve saved you,” Nancy said.

  Bruce kissed Debbie then turned to Nancy kissing her on the head. Then he walked back toward his chair when he reached it he stepped over to Mike who had sat back down. Reaching down fast Bruce grabbed both sides of Mike’s face kissing him on the lips. Mike struggled to push him back, finally breaking the embrace he started to spit in the air.

  “You used tongue dude,” Mike hollered out as everyone started laughing.

  After the laughter died down Bruce said, “I just wanted you to really know I love you too.”

  “You can’t kiss me like that in front of the wives, only when we’re alone. In front of them, just pass me a love letter,” Mike said sending everyone into another round of laughter.

  Bruce sat back down in his chair looking around at everyone. When he got to Angela she was just staring at him. “What?” he asked her.

  “Bruce, it’s not just here. Everyone at the hospital knows and respects you. If someone wants to know something or wants something done then the answer is usually: find Bruce. I always knew you and Mike were great, but on the trip here if you had walked on water I wouldn’t have been surprised. It’s refreshing to know you’re human after all,” Angela told him.

  “Well now you know,” Bruce told her smiling.

  “I think I can speak for everyone here when I say we don’t want to be led by someone who is perfect. That would set the standard way to high, not that we can reach it now but at least we can see it,” Angela pointed out.

  “Thank you, I think little foot,” Bruce told her.

  “Bruce I love you and so does everyone else here. If you pointed at someone here and told them to go beat their head against a tree they would do it. Everyone here for the most part would be beating their head against a tree before the thought even crossed their mind to ask ‘why’. Have you not noticed everyone that you brought here eats with their non-dominate hand, me included. The ones from the convenience store were told you said to do it and Mike said it was to train your weak side. Train it to do what, we don’t know, but we were told by the duo, so we do it,” Angela told him as Bruce just stared at her in gratitude. Angela returned his stare and said, “Just to show you how much I love you, tonight you can sleep with my husband.”

  “What,” Alex cried out as everyone started laughing again.

  “Thank you little foot, but Mike would get jealous if I slept with another man,” Bruce said then turned to Stephanie. “Start it up girlfriend,” he told her.

  Stephanie stood in front the group again and started, “First the virus is a single strand DNA virus. Now, before you say DNA is two strands and RNA is one strand let me finish.”

  “I knew that,” Bruce whispered to Mike. “Good boy,” Mike whispered back.

  Stephanie looked at the two as she continued, “DNA viruses attack the cell nucleus infecting the host DNA. Unlike any virus we have ever seen this virus targets and invades every cell in the human body. If you want my hypothesis on how it does this, see me later. Right now I’m only going into general terms,” Stephanie said holding up a ream of typed pages then put it back on the table.

  Holy shit, Bruce thought, she would have read that to them if he had not spoken up. Understand hell, he would have had trouble staying awake. There was an easy three hundred pages in that stack. As if Mike was reading his mind Mike whispered, “I owe you one.” Bruce whispered back, “We’re even.”

  With a smirk on her face, Stephanie just looked at the two of them, shaking her head and continued, “The virus incorporates into the host DNA and changes the genetic makeup of the cell. Normally the body would kill the cell but it still recognizes the cell as normal. The actual cell structure and genetic makeup is changed after infection. The infected running around out there may look human but we actually have more in common with chimps than with the infected. They are a new order of species. The rate of infection through the body is extraordinary and unlike any DNA virus known. There are fifty trillion cells in the average human body and it takes at most three days for the virus to infect every cell. Now, as for the reason we have walkers, joggers and runners. Walkers are infected people that turned fast, in some cases less than an hour. Let’s get something clear first, those infected are alive. I know there were reports of the dead rising, but that’s bullshit. The virus slows the body’s metabolism, vit
al signs, increases muscle density, chemical makeup and actually reverses the aging process which I will come back to later.

  “The virus attacks parts of the brain first, but only the lower function areas, none of the higher function areas. Then it goes down the line from respiratory, vascular and so on. Now, don’t think that the virus is smart when I say this, all the systems are under assault at the same time but the lower functions of the brain turns first. By lower functions, I mean the lower portions of the brain that maintain homeostasis, our normal body metabolism. It alters the pituitary and lower portions of the brain to keep running as the body turns. Now in a walker’s case, the person turned before the virus was finished turning the whole body. Now the virus will continue to infect the uninfected cells but they are dying off with the decreased oxygen and the chemical change of the body. For example a human’s pH is 7.4 an infected runs at 6.2, a human will usually die at 7.0. All the chemicals in the body of the infected are off the charts and are incompatible with human life,” Stephanie said looking around.

  “Now back to the walker. As the normal uninfected cells are dying off with the changes going on, the infected cells are reproducing making new infected cells. If enough of the cells are left for a frame the walker will survive through the infection. It all depends how many cells the virus infects to have a foundation to work with.” She pushed a button on her laptop and the projector came on putting a picture of a dead blue on the screen.

  “Look closely, there are no injuries on it. This was a walker that not enough cells were turned and it died because like us, it takes a lot of cells to make us work. Unlike us though, they are very hard to kill once infected, at one of the labs in the CDC there was a severed infected head on the table. The head was alive and it even ate a rat. It would even follow you with its eyes. Sandy told me it took seven days for it to die. When the virus takes over a cell there are several new structures we have never seen before. We found out one stores ATP, and a lot of it. ATP or Adenosine triphosphate is what life uses for energy. It is referred to as the currency of life and we don’t know how it does this since ATP is inherently unstable. In a normal human body, at any given time, there is roughly eight ounces of ATP. In an infected body, ATP averages over ten pounds or a hundred and sixty ounces. Humans store fat to make ATP later, infected just skip the process and store ATP. Now remember infected run at a lower temperature, around eighty degrees, so they need less energy at rest. If you shoot an infected in the heart it will die, if enough of the heart is destroyed, in about a week. The rest of the cells in the body have that much ATP, energy stored, to run that long without getting blood supply to make more ATP. Now, if only a small portion of heart is damaged, it will repair itself. The infected rates of healing are off the charts,” Stephanie paused letting that sink in then continued. “I have the report right here where two runners were shot in the heart. One was shot with a shotgun the other with a 9mm. The one shot by the shotgun died in six days the other one actually healed. It just sat down like it went to sleep then woke up two days later healed.”

  “That gives them quite an advantage,” Mike admitted, with a frown.

  “Oh, I haven’t even got to the best part yet,” Stephanie said then continued. “Back to the walker on the screen, it died because there were not enough cells infected at the turning or reproducing to keep the system running. Does everyone understand so far?” She asked and seen nodding heads everywhere.

  “As we understand the virus now twenty-five percent of walkers will die eventually, it may take up to six months but they will die, forty percent will live and slowly develop into joggers if they can feed they will live. The remaining thirty-five percent will stay walkers. Now several scientists think they will die off not being able to feed and I disagree with this. With the slow metabolic rate, they can go a long time between meals, I mean weeks not days, and they have been observed eating bugs. So I think most will live,” Stephanie said then continued.

  “Now with our current understanding of the virus, the walkers that move to a jogger cannot progress into a runner. Too much damage at the cellular level has occurred. Too many holes in the frame work to be filled. An infected jogger means most of their system was turned and up to ninety-five percent will progress into runners. Studies predict anyone taking at least ten hours to turn would develop into a jogger. What the CDC called, midlevel infected, which estimates put seventy-five percent of those who were infected,” Stephanie told them.

  “Now runners, first this is what the virus is trying to reach. They are carnivores make no doubt it. Studies have already confirmed that their teeth are harder than ours and the finger nails are thicker and harder than ours. Their speed is actually increasing and pound for pound they are three times as strong as humans. Now I’m going to go over some of the examinations that have been run on the infected.”

  “Intelligence is at the animal level, no complex thought, but they do learn. They have been observed to set ambushes like lions and use stealth to kill prey. They have been observed using rocks and sticks to beat prey with, like chimps but nothing more. They will even cover themselves with something when they are cold like leaves and boxes. They will not put on a coat and once the clothes they have on are off, they stay nude. Several have been observed chewing their shoes off, not being able to untie them.

  “Now about cold, they don’t like it. At fifty degree’s they will group together, usually in a structure, until it warms back up. This has been tested and confirmed in a lab. They threw several infected in a large sealed room with a small building placed inside the large room. Then the researchers dropped the temperature and the infected broke a window out of the small building, crawled in and huddled in a corner together. They never used the door, even after seeing someone else use it. They always went in and out the window unless of course the door was opened. Interestingly when the door was opened they never closed it either.

  “Another part of this experiment they froze an infected dropping the temperature to minus twenty degrees. All signs of life were gone, no brain activity, heart, lung, nothing. Thinking they had killed it they warmed it up and one of the scientists was infected when she was bitten when it woke up. Only frogs and some lizards are known to do this. Frogs will flood their system with glucose before they freeze so the ice crystals do not rupture the cells. Infected glucose levels average 2,500 while humans average 80.

  “Infected try to infect others to spread the disease, this is their goal. They have been videoed running up to someone biting them and then leaving. In China we have started getting bad reports. The infected are purposely killing humans and no longer trying to infect. The hypothesis is they no longer see us as potential members, but as competition. The same way a lion will kill a hyena and not eat it just to get rid of the competition. Now any questions so far?” Stephanie asked.

  Several hands shot up and Stephanie pointed at Mindy, the oldest teen from the convenience store. “Do they remember anything from before they turned?” Mindy asked in a small voice.

  “No, the higher cognitive areas of the brain are dead. After they turn, it’s like they were just born. Nothing of the previous person remains,” Stephanie said then asked for the next question, and no one asked one.

  Stephanie continued, “Now infected are more active at night, like most predators, but will hunt during the day. Runner’s night vision is a lot better than ours. We do not know how but they seem to be able to detect heat in the visual field. Scientist took a runner, burnt its nasal passage and ruptured both ear drums then put it in a dark room with a dog. If the dog stayed still the infected could find it but when the dog moved the infected could not see it until it stopped. They repeated the process to determine that a runner’s since of smell is the same as ours but their hearing is better than ours. They are visual predators. They hear something; go to it until they see it, then attack it.”

  “Bruce and Mike have an interesting hypothesis. They think infected stay near roads because they associate roads
with food and more people to infect. I believe that they use roads for the same reason we do. It’s the fastest way to travel. Now if you look at this slide,” Stephanie pushed a button and on the screen was a thermal picture. “You will see a group of thirty-four moving through the woods at night to the east of us. There is no prey around them and they are not moving fast. The little spy plane watched them for twelve minutes and they were just moving through an area. Now they do not like moving through heavy brush and seem to have a mortal fear of water.”

  Stephanie changed slides again, this one listed countries on the left then had three columns with numbers in each column across from the country. At the top of each column was: Infected, Dead and Survivors. Then she continued, “This slide is the three month prediction from the infection rates. In America they were using the population projection of three hundred and twenty million. In America two hundred million infected, eighty million dead, forty million survivors. It is worse everywhere else in the world as you can see. In Britain they will only have a million survivors in three months. Current predictions are that in one year there will be less than twenty million humans in America. The only reason we are lasting longer, with better survival rates, guns and food are everywhere in America. But most people don’t stock the amounts of ammunition and food that is needed to survive this and will run out. In most countries, the population can only hide and wait. In the war torn third world countries they might have guns but not the food stores. This means over seventy percent of the world’s population, almost five billion, will become a new species.”

  “How many do you think will be runners in a year, here in the states?” Debbie asked.

  “About a hundred and fifty to a hundred and eighty million,” Stephanie told her. Hearing that number Debbie just slumped down in her seat.

  Bruce interrupted and asked, “Stephanie, I know they age slower than us and heal faster than us but what is their shelf life. When are they gonna die?”