Read Online Scavengers by Christopher Fulbright, Angeline Hawkes - Free Book Online
Authors: Christopher Fulbright, Angeline Hawkes
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deplorable image in the mirror, and then padded into the kitchen to make a fresh pot of coffee.
By the time the coffee pot was full, Robbins was seated at the table eating a warmed up sweet roll. The doorbell rang. It was Grant.
He opened the door and bear-hugged his old friend.
Grant held him at arm’s length to get a look at him. “You look like shit.”
“Yeah, well I feel even worse.”
“You aren’t sick, are you?” Grant’s voice edged up a notch.
“No, not yet anyway. We’ve been sucking down blasts of Relenza at the end of every day, hoping that’s enough to keep the staff on its feet. But at the rate we’ve been going, it may not be the virus that gets us.” Robbins walked into the kitchen with Grant close behind. “Coffee?”
“Please.”
Taking two mugs from the cupboard, Robbins watched Grant’s movements for any signs that he knew something. He poured coffee into the mugs. “Still take it black?”
“Of course.”
“Okay, sit down. I need to tell this to someone who won’t think I’ve gone nuts, and since you obviously know more than you’re saying, at this point you’re that lucky someone.”
“Because I already know you’re nuts?”
Robbins laughed and took a drink of coffee. “Well, if I wasn’t before, after this fiasco is all said and done, I sure the hell will be.”
Grant frowned. “That bad?”
“This isn’t bad, it’s downright evil, Grant.” Robbins took a sip of the piping hot coffee then looked soberly across the table at his old friend. “One of our blood techs got sick. We had to strap him to the bed after he woke up from a six-hour coma-state. One of the nurses was bending over to adjust his pillow and he lunged forward and bit a chunk out of her fucking neck the size of an apple. Didn’t think she’d make it, but we managed to save her.”
“So what do you know about the illness so far?” Grant said.
“Friday night Greenville Christian Academy played a football game against Millward Christian High School. Now ordinarily, the private and church schools around these parts don’t get much publicity. What makes this team special?”
“I don’t know, but I think you’re going to tell me,” Grant said.
“As the Millward team was leaving Hunt County, General Langford’s plane was bombed only about a mile from where their bus must have been. The military swarmed this place like ants on a picnic chicken leg — but, what they didn’t know was that those Millward boys were already halfway through Rockwall County by the time Hunt County was locked down.”
“Taking the biological infection with them—”
Robbins nodded, letting his friend’s comment sink in. Confirmation. “That’s right. Through Rockwall County and into Dallas County. Now, right now, Hunt and Rockwall are quarantined. Are you going to quarantine Dallas County, too?” A hint of anger crept into Robbins’s voice. “Those terrorists finally hit us with a doozy of an airborne virus. That’s what it has to be. It’s the only explanation for what’s happening.”
“It wasn’t the terrorists,” Grant said.
“Come again?”
“Naturally, you can’t repeat a goddamn word of what I’m about to say to you.”
“Naturally.”
“I’m only telling you so maybe it can help you…help the people you’re treating.”
“Okay. So it wasn’t terrorists.”
Grant cleared his throat. “It was us. Sort of.”
“Oh, Jesus.”
“I was here, up at H-Systems, waiting to receive a sample of virus Toxin RE68. The shit was aboard Langford’s plane. Military scientists have been working on a classified experimental program to develop virally encoded toxins to be used as weapons of mass destruction. I was scheduled to deliver RE68 to Fort Hood.”
Robbins sat his coffee mug on the table, a look of shock registering on his face.
“The terrorists didn’t have any idea that Toxin RE68 was on Langford’s plane. They just wanted to kill Langford. Unfortunately,
By the time the coffee pot was full, Robbins was seated at the table eating a warmed up sweet roll. The doorbell rang. It was Grant.
He opened the door and bear-hugged his old friend.
Grant held him at arm’s length to get a look at him. “You look like shit.”
“Yeah, well I feel even worse.”
“You aren’t sick, are you?” Grant’s voice edged up a notch.
“No, not yet anyway. We’ve been sucking down blasts of Relenza at the end of every day, hoping that’s enough to keep the staff on its feet. But at the rate we’ve been going, it may not be the virus that gets us.” Robbins walked into the kitchen with Grant close behind. “Coffee?”
“Please.”
Taking two mugs from the cupboard, Robbins watched Grant’s movements for any signs that he knew something. He poured coffee into the mugs. “Still take it black?”
“Of course.”
“Okay, sit down. I need to tell this to someone who won’t think I’ve gone nuts, and since you obviously know more than you’re saying, at this point you’re that lucky someone.”
“Because I already know you’re nuts?”
Robbins laughed and took a drink of coffee. “Well, if I wasn’t before, after this fiasco is all said and done, I sure the hell will be.”
Grant frowned. “That bad?”
“This isn’t bad, it’s downright evil, Grant.” Robbins took a sip of the piping hot coffee then looked soberly across the table at his old friend. “One of our blood techs got sick. We had to strap him to the bed after he woke up from a six-hour coma-state. One of the nurses was bending over to adjust his pillow and he lunged forward and bit a chunk out of her fucking neck the size of an apple. Didn’t think she’d make it, but we managed to save her.”
“So what do you know about the illness so far?” Grant said.
“Friday night Greenville Christian Academy played a football game against Millward Christian High School. Now ordinarily, the private and church schools around these parts don’t get much publicity. What makes this team special?”
“I don’t know, but I think you’re going to tell me,” Grant said.
“As the Millward team was leaving Hunt County, General Langford’s plane was bombed only about a mile from where their bus must have been. The military swarmed this place like ants on a picnic chicken leg — but, what they didn’t know was that those Millward boys were already halfway through Rockwall County by the time Hunt County was locked down.”
“Taking the biological infection with them—”
Robbins nodded, letting his friend’s comment sink in. Confirmation. “That’s right. Through Rockwall County and into Dallas County. Now, right now, Hunt and Rockwall are quarantined. Are you going to quarantine Dallas County, too?” A hint of anger crept into Robbins’s voice. “Those terrorists finally hit us with a doozy of an airborne virus. That’s what it has to be. It’s the only explanation for what’s happening.”
“It wasn’t the terrorists,” Grant said.
“Come again?”
“Naturally, you can’t repeat a goddamn word of what I’m about to say to you.”
“Naturally.”
“I’m only telling you so maybe it can help you…help the people you’re treating.”
“Okay. So it wasn’t terrorists.”
Grant cleared his throat. “It was us. Sort of.”
“Oh, Jesus.”
“I was here, up at H-Systems, waiting to receive a sample of virus Toxin RE68. The shit was aboard Langford’s plane. Military scientists have been working on a classified experimental program to develop virally encoded toxins to be used as weapons of mass destruction. I was scheduled to deliver RE68 to Fort Hood.”
Robbins sat his coffee mug on the table, a look of shock registering on his face.
“The terrorists didn’t have any idea that Toxin RE68 was on Langford’s plane. They just wanted to kill Langford. Unfortunately,
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