Read Online Domain of the Dead by David Moody, Iain McKinnon, Travis Adkins - Free Book Online

repopulate the world in just a couple of hundred years and the eugenicists are saying we’ll be better for it.”
    “What do you mean?” Sarah asked.
    “Well, it’s the survival of the fittest, quite literally,” Patterson replied. “Since the Rising you don’t get any fat American tourists anymore.”
    Sarah smirked. “Darwinism in action.”
    “You have to be fit, smart and lucky these days. All the chaff has been weeded out. Or so the eugenics folks say.” Patterson smiled. “Personally I think it’s mostly down to luck.”
    “Seems like one hell of a big boat for just fifty people,” Nathan commented.
    “Ishtar used to be a cargo ship before it was requisitioned.” Patterson was more than happy to chat about his favourite subject. “Even then it only takes a crew of about twenty to get her to where she’s going. There was a lot of automation fitted back in the late eighties, early nineties. Before all that, a ship like this would have needed three times the crew.”
    “So what’s the cargo?” Nathan asked.
    Patterson let out a wistful sigh. “Oh, no cargo. Those days are long gone. Nothing but supplies in her holds now.” He gave a passing bulkhead a couple of slaps with his palm as if he were patting a faithful dog. “We don’t make port. A supply ship rendezvous with us each month and brings in fresh provisions. They give us cans of sweet corn and we give them hard copies of the research work.”
    Sarah started to tune out of Nathan and Patterson’s conversation. In the confined space of what was obviously a busy ship, the rich and sometimes pungent odours were a welcome pleasure. It took Sarah quite some time to work out why she was so transfixed. It wasn’t the presence of an odour she was enjoying, it was the absence of a particular one: The smell of putrefaction—which had been ever-present since the Rising began—had been whisked away by sea breezes. The smell was nonexistent here.
    Sarah realised the source of her delight had been the unlocking of her past, a time before all the hardship and loss.
    “I’m sure you’ll have a chance to speak to Doctor Robertson about the research conducted onboard.” Patterson raised his voice. “It’s just this door on the right.”
    Sarah was dragged back from her daydreaming. Next to her was a plain grey door with the word INFIRMARY stencilled at eye level.
    “Just inside there if you wouldn’t mind.” Patterson ushered the group into the room.
    “These will be the new arrivals, Mr. Patterson?” the woman standing in the infirmary surmised. She wore a white lab coat with a light blue checked blouse underneath and a dark knee-length pencil skirt. Her hair was a deep brown and worn loose around her shoulders. Sarah guessed she was in her mid thirties but would never voice her guess openly. She knew how the Rising could add years. She tried to imagine how she herself looked, gaunt and drawn from the lack of food and the stress of being imprisoned by masses of rotting flesh.
    How much older than twenty-four must I look? Sarah wondered.
    “I’m Dr. Robertson. The Captain asked that I give you a look over. I hear you’ve been on the mainland all this time. That can’t be true, can it?”
    “It is,” Nathan said.
    “I’ll leave you people to it and I’ll pop back down in say...” Patterson studied his watch as if he were waiting for the second hand to reset so he could synchronise his timing. “Forty minutes?”
    “That would be fine,” Doctor Robertson said. “Well, you look in good shape but there are a few tests I’d like to perform to see—”
    “To see if we’re infected?” Nathan cut in.
    Doctor Robertson frowned. “I was going to say to see if you’ve suffered any effects of malnutrition. But yes I will also be checking you for infection.”
    She went to one of the cupboards on the wall and started laying out the medical equipment she needed. “I’ll be running a full blood work to check for a variety of communicable