Apocalyptic Moon (After the Bane) Read Free Page B

them. They fired and she collapsed. Pandemonium set in as patients, even ones with broken limbs, and many medical staff dashed out of the building.
    Dizzied, she held her bleeding arm as five people in biohazard suits rushed in. One lifted her from the floor. She held her arm, afraid to look at the damage.
    “Dora!” Dr. Grover tried to rush to her side, but an armed quarantine guard grabbed him. “Let me go. She needs medical attention.”
    The man in the biohazard suit raised a palm. “We’re taking her and the other patient to the decontamination room. They’ll be given morphine and kept comfortable.”
    Another biohazard-suited man reasoned with Dr. Grover, but he was having none of it. “She’s bleeding!”
    Pressing her lips together so as not to hiss, Dora forced a small smile. “Don’t worry, it’s not so bad.”
    The man in the biohazard suit set her on a wheelchair and pushed her to the red painted biohazard elevator. Mr. Harrison attempted to run but a guard injected him with a knockout drug and dumped him on a gurney. Two men in biohazard suits black-bagged the hefty dead woman and dragged the bag into the elevator. Two others gathered the zombie’s splattered brain tissue and cleaned up the blood.
    The biohazard-suited man behind her pushed the button to level Q and the elevator dropped taking her stomach with it. “I need to call my brother.” And say goodbye .
    “Your next of kin will be notified in a few days.”
    I am just as good as dead. So much for beating the 27 Club.
    The elevator finally stopped at the underground quarantine. Two women in biohazard suits escorted her to the decontamination shower. One apologized, her voice muffled behind the mask, “I’m sorry, Dr. Adler.”
    She swallowed. “So what’s next?”
    “You’ll need to undress and stay in the shower until the light flashes red. Then we’ll escort you to the infirmary and dress your wound.”
    “What’s the point? There’s no chance the infection can be washed away.”
    “Protocol. I promise as soon as you’re done, I’ll bandage your bite. We’ll give you as much pain medication as you want.”
    She stepped in, stripped, and then entered the shower. The doors sealed shut and powerful ceiling sprinklers turned on. She bit her knuckle as the disinfectants burned her gash and blood dribbled down her arm and down the drain. The stinging pain on her wound overwhelmed her and she pounded on the wall. “Get me out!” She looked up as the hot water splashed her face and dizzied from the pain, her vision swam, then blackness.
    ****
    Dora lay on a small bed in a glass-sealed room. One tiny sink and one toilet. Except for a small table that held a bottle of water and snacks, no other furniture or wall décor adorned her cell. Her long brown hair had dried from the chemical decontamination shower and she wore a hospital gown. She touched her neatly bandaged wound. How long had she been unconscious? Before she woke up, she had the sensation of floating against the low ceiling. She would have blamed it on Z-phage, except she’d had the same dream the previous night, before being bitten.
    A moan from the other side of the glass made her shiver. She stood. “Mr. Harrison, how are you doing?”
    He too had a clean bandage over his head cut and one on his ankle. “Hey, no formalities, it’s Steve and you are…?”
    “Dora.”
    He smiled; his eyes blood red. “I feel feverish but other than that I’m feeling pretty decent. Must be the antiviral drug they shot us with.”
    Poor man. Little did he know it was Valium to keep him calm until death. “Yeah, it should slow the infection until they find a cure.”
    “What the hell started this virus?”
    “No one knows. I’ve heard every theory, from terrorist bio-weapon to extraterrestrials. Unlike the flu, it didn’t have a place of origin. It appeared everywhere at once. At least in the big cities. My brother thinks it’s Mother Nature finally trying to stop us from