“Hannah has died in her sleep.”
Judith opened the door wider and invited her to enter. “It’s no surprise. You should have seen what she coughed up earlier.”
Susan stepped into the room, stood a moment breathing deeply, then burst into tears.
Judith felt uncomfortable. She was not very tactile and was reluctant to give the young woman a hug. Instead, she handed her a tissue and stroked her on the back.
“I’m scared,” Susan bawled. She crossed to the bed and sat down.
Judith followed and continued comforting her. “We’ll go to Kent and, if they were close to a cure, hopefully I can crack it before anyone else becomes ill.”
Susan leaned forward, dropping her head into her hands, “It’s too late,” she sobbed.
Judith looked frightened. “Why? What’s happened?”
“Oh...” She lifted her face, but kept looking down, “It’s happened again,” she said, holding out the tissue for Judith to see.
A large drop of blood, crimson in the centre but thinning to a rosy pink at the edges, was merging with the tear-soaked sections on the handkerchief.
Susan dabbed at her nose, then examined the tissue for more colour.
“When did it start?”
She looked up, the edge of her nostrils smeared in red dried matter. “When I came in from playing with the dog.”
“It could be high blood pressure. We’re all incredibly stressed.”
“I’ve also started to feel sick, just like Hannah did,” Susan blurted out.
Judith tried to calm her. “That could also be stress. It’ll be too easy to jump to conclusions. Try not to panic and read something into nothing.”
Susan nodded. She stood, “Thanks Judith.”
“You’re welcome. Where are Joseph and Max?”
“I left them with Hannah.”
“You stay here. Try to get some rest.” She headed for the door, “I’ll be back in a short while.”
Neither of the men were in the bedroom upstairs, only the carefully covered corpse. A quick search of the hotel led her to the grounds, where she found them discussing a burial site for Hannah.
Joseph pointed to a cluster of willows. “She loved trees. Under the shade of those ones there would be nice. As time goes, on it will be wonderful to know she’s helping with the continuation of life.”
“Sounds good to me.” Max headed off. “I’ll try to find a shovel.”
“We need to leave tonight,” Judith urged when Max was gone. “Susan seems to be showing symptoms.”
“Alright. You start to pack, Max and I will bury Hannah, we’ll have something to eat then we can head off immediately after and just drive straight through.”
****
Joseph could hear the car boot closing behind him. “I have to go now my love,” he said to the freshly-dug mound at his feet. “Don’t worry, I’ll probably see you soon. Give the girls a hug from me.” Tearing himself away, he turned and headed to the car.
“William sends his condolences,” Max said softly when Joseph stepped into the vehicle.
“You’ve brought him up to date?”
“Yes.”
“Are we going to even try the motorway?” Joseph asked as they pulled out of the drive and saw a sign for the A1(M).
Max stopped the car at the curb. “We could give it a shot.”
Judith leaned forward. “It’s not worth it, we could get stuck and then have to go miles back on ourselves.”
Max raised his brows. “True, but it’ll take longer. Who wants to go around?”
When the hand vote was unanimous he went to continue the drive, before stopping again and turning to talk to the girls in the back. “How about London? Don’t you think we should check out London?”
Susan exploded. “Can we just get to the Disease Control Centre as quickly as possible?”
A stunned silence descended upon the car.
Moments later she shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’m just so stressed.”
Max returned to face the front. “Straight there it is then.”
“Could you do that a bit more gently?” Susan begged as he pulled away. “Any sharp movements make me feel sick.”
Chapter Thirty-One
The Disease Control Centre, Chantry Wood, Kent
“So far no-one has shot at us,” Max said, as he pulled up outside the large, modern looking building. “Not yet at least.”
Metal frames encased the predominantly glass walls, smokey even in the glare of the headlights, to prevent prying eyes looking in on the two storey laboratory. It seemed out of place in an area where planning restrictions would ordinarily demand that the style of construction would have to fit in with the architecture of the region. It proved the power of the World Health Organisation, which had scientists working on cures for the planet’s most deadly diseases. The location was perfect in that respect, as no one would necessarily know at a glance that the clean, sterile looking building in the calm woodland setting actually contained a number of deadly pathogens.
The journey had taken longer than anticipated, even with the delay they had expected from avoiding the motorway, because of the regular stops required for Susan to throw up. By the time they had travelled about half of the distance to Kent, the vomit’s substance, which now only consisted of liquids because of Judith’s attempts to keep her fluids up, could not be seen in the dark. When Judith caught sight of her own sleeve after it was caught in the splashback as she held Susan’s hair off her face while she was sick, she realised that the young woman’s vomit was now heavily spotted with blood. Quickly, she rolled back the cuff to conceal the stain and help keep her patient calm.
“I’ll wait here with Susan,” Joseph volunteered, “whilst you two go and check out the building.”
Susan was leaning against the edge of the door, her eyes heavy, her face flushed and her coat now buried beneath a blanket that was pulled tight to ward off the cold.
“We’ll get inside and come back for you once we’re sorted,” Judith said.
Susan gave a gentle nod before resting her head back. She just wanted to sleep and, at this moment, even the thought of getting up was exhausting.
Max and Judith got out of the car and strode up the short path to the main doors.
“Shall we try it, or just go straight for the break-in?” Max joked. He pulled on the handle. “Wow!” he exclaimed when the door opened. “Maybe our luck’s changing.”
Inside, Judith led the way. “We might have a problem getting into the labs,” she guided Max towards the stairs, “but if they haven’t altered any of the codes then our luck is definitely improving.”
Lights flickered on as they triggered sensors in the corridor, then beyond in the stairwell and onto the next floor, which was lined with labs and offices. Judith hurried ahead, leaving Max, nearly a foot taller, struggling to keep up, until she neared the end of the passage where suddenly she turned and went into one of the rooms.
Max followed behind, reading the name on the plate as he entered the office, then stopped dead just inside the doorway.
Across the room, in front of the window, was a large desk and slumped behind sat the decomposing body of an elderly man.
“Professor Ramsey, I presume?” Max said, grimly.
Judith nodded, stony faced. “It doesn’t look promising does it?”
She pulled the chair from behind the desk. “He was a good man with a brilliant mind and, as you can see, seriously dedicated to his work.”
Max took over and wheeled the body into an office opposite before closing the door to hide it from sight.
“The computer’s still logged on,” Judith said when he returned. “I was hoping they hadn’t deleted my account but this is even better. We’ll have full access on all levels and I should be able to pick up where they left off.”
“I’ll go and get Joseph and Susan into the building,” Max informed. “Then I’ll contact William and tell him about the current situation.�
�
Judith, focused on the screen, never looked up. “Yeah. Sure.”
As Max made his way along the corridor he checked the doors on both sides of the passage. Most of the name plates indicated they were laboratories, which he thought best not to enter without Judith’s guidance, but where there were offices he tried the handle to see if they were open. All except two were locked, but these were good finds.
One was the staff canteen containing a small kitchen area with a cooker, fridge, microwave and kettle. Max checked out the cupboards. A few tins of beans and soup rattled around on the otherwise empty shelves. There was a packet of biscuits on the bench, but apart from that there was no other food in the room.
The other door led to a staff rest area, which Max was delighted to find had doubled as sleeping quarters and contained enough cots for the four of them.
Quickly, he returned downstairs and made his way outside to find Joseph talking on the radio to William.
He pointed at Susan and indicated he would get her inside.
Joseph nodded before continuing his update.
As he entered the car he thought Susan was asleep but, as he leaned forward to release her belt, she opened her eyes and smiled.
Max struggled to stop himself recoiling in horror when she revealed teeth stained deep red. Cracks and ulcers dotted her lower lip and a steady stream of blood, regularly replenished, leaked from her nose.
She looks like a vampire he thought, his childhood horrors returning to haunt him again. He suppressed his imagination with difficulty. “Good news!” He tried to sound upbeat, but it was getting harder by the hour. “We’ve gained access to the computer systems and Judith’s busy checking out how far they got with the research.”
“Excellent,” Susan whispered.
Max unbuckled her belt. “Let’s get you inside.” He took her in his arms and lifted her out of the car before nudging his head at the dog, who was now sitting in the driver’s seat. “Come on, Seb,” then to Susan, “Can you get the doors?”
Susan pushed and held them, whilst Max carried her into the building and up the stairs, with the dog close behind.
“Do you want to try something to eat?” he asked, as he lay her on a cot.
“Urgh.” She turned her head away, protruding her tongue. “The thought of food just makes me feel sick.”
Max crossed to a couch where some pillows and blankets were piled up on a seat. He returned to Susan and helped her up so he could make the bed. Once done, he helped her out of her shoes and off with her coat, before she climbed back onto the cot and under the blankets to try to get some sleep.
“Judith’s down the corridor if you need any help; I’ll tell her where we are, then go and get Joseph.”
Susan grunted and closed her eyes.
“Stay,” Max said to the dog when he tried to follow, but Seb continued forward until his body was touching Max’s leg. “Poor baby.” He ruffled the pooch’s ears. “It’s all been very unsettling for you, hasn’t it? Come on,” he opened the door and let the dog through, “there’s no reason why you shouldn’t come as well.”
“How are you doing?” Max asked as he entered the Professor’s office. “Any joy?”
Judith looked up, grim. “Not much.” She leaned her head back against the chair and sighed. “I do at least know what we’re dealing with now and it’s definitely Ebola. It’s been super-accelerated to be used as a weapon. That’s bad enough, but what they didn’t anticipate was that it would mutate. It’s changed twice – that they know of – from its original form. Even if they found a vaccine for the first type, by the time they initiated a mass inoculation program it may well have changed again and the injection would be useless. This is a rapidly morphing virus and it might well be impossible to catch up.”
“So would all the strains be airborne at the same time?”
“Yes.”
“Would it be worth just focusing on one? It might offer some protection.”
“It might if you could guarantee only one strain was a contaminant in this region. If you could – and I found a vaccine – we would be restricted as to where we could go or we would cross into areas polluted by the other strains. Either way, eventually the winds will bring them to our doorstep, whether we like it or not. My only hope is to continue the work being done here; to start again would be mad. I’ll see if they were concentrating on one particular variety. Maybe the other ones were weaker.”
She stood. “I can now at least do a blood test to see if any of us have it. Is Susan still outside?”
“No, she’s in the staff rest room, five doors down on the left.” Max started from the room. “I’m off to tell Joseph where we are.”
She grabbed a hand full of syringes. “Okay. I might as well get on with those tests.”
****
Judith squinted into the microscope as Joseph paced the floor nearby.
Too stressed to sit he waited, as patiently as he could, for the results of his blood test.
He had settled by the window and was looking at the stars, clear in the pitch-black woodland sky, when Judith called him over.
As he approached, she turned the screen on the computer attached to the scope and showed him the image on the display.
A number of worm-like creatures, with tails twisted back on themselves, could be seen dwarfed by the white blood cell they surrounded. Crawling all over the shell, like fleas on a rat, they tried to enter the nucleus and inject their DNA to transform it into an Ebola-making factory.
Judith looked up. “I’m sorry Joseph, you have it as well.”
He nodded and turned away. “I thought I might.”
“Have you had any symptoms?”
He pulled up his sleeve and showed her a rash, spreading from the crook of his arm. “Just this. It only came up a couple of hours ago. I hoped it might be a heat rash from sitting in the car too long, but since then it’s got rapidly worse.”
Judith stood and stepped away from the computer, rubbing her eyes. “We’re all under a great deal of pressure and the early stages can easily be mistaken for stress. Diarrhoea, depression, headaches, vomiting and your rash, can all be signs of severe emotional and physical trauma.”
“So that’s me and Susan who have the disease. So far you and Max are clear.”
Judith nodded. “But if they were anywhere near to a cure, there might be time to turn things around,” she added, trying to inject some comfort into the news.
“Max has put Susan onto a drip,” Joseph informed her softly. “He was worried about her fluid levels. If we can settle them down, then maybe she’ll eat. We need to keep her strength up. Until I become too poorly, I’ll look after her to free you and Max up for other things.”
“Okay. Come on,” Judith headed for the door, “we’ll not get anything more done tonight, it’s already gone eleven and I’m absolutely exhausted. We’ll start in earnest tomorrow.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
The Disease Control Centre, Chantry Wood, Kent
The following day, Max found Judith at the computer in Professor Ramsey’s office. He looked at his watch. “What time did you start?”
“Five-something.”
“Have you had anything to eat?”
“No.”
“Well, you have a choice of beans or soup but, as neither sound appealing for breakfast, I thought I might go shopping. Anything in particular you fancy?”
This brought Judith to a halt and for the first time she gave Max her full attention. “I’ve got such a craving for grapes, but unless they’re refrigerated, they’ll probably all be rotten by now.”
“Maybe. I’ll have to see what I can do.”
Judith returned to work. “Are you taking Joseph with you?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Susan is worse this morning and I’ve left Joseph with her just in case she chokes.”
“Okay. Please get back as soon as possible, otherwise I’ll worry.”
“Will do.”
<
br /> Judith was searching through the files on the computer system, checking each one for relevance and placing them into a folder for more detailed scrutiny later, when she came across a file named, ‘Strictly Confidential’, hidden inside Professor Ramsey’s personal directory.
She opened it and immediately saw it was a report prepared for the World Health Organisation. The content outlined the research being carried out at the time and the calculated global spread of the disease.
A table showed the predicted figures for those infected, not by country, but by numbers in relation to population. It was envisaged that the disease would spread faster through a country or region containing a denser population than it would when it was spread over a less inhabited area. The tables following proved his prediction true when the number of infected climbed dramatically in major cities over the next few weeks, yet showed a slower advance in more rural regions. A recommendation stated research scientists should consider moving out to a remote island, with little or no population.
As Judith drew near to the end of the report, an icy chill enveloped her skin.
The final table showed the global death rate. At that point more than 70% of the human race had succumbed to the disease and it was predicted that, unless a cure could be found, the remaining numbers, although now more wide spread, would be dead within the next couple of months. Only those living in uncharted regions, such as parts of the Amazonian Rain Forest, the Australian Outback, and some nomadic tribes in Africa and Outer Mongolia, were expected to possibly survive.
Judith had seen and been a part of epidemics before but it was only when she read the conclusion that she appreciated the frenzied fight for survival that had gripped the planet in the final days.
“As laboratory testing is too slow and the use of animals too unpredictable, when it comes to transferring the findings to humans it is proposed that terminally ill volunteers could be used to bring the development of a vaccine forward by weeks, if not days.”
Judith closed the report and printed a copy for reference before making her way out of the office and across to the labs opposite.
Islands - The Epidemic: An Airborne Ebola Disaster Page 16