Mutation (Twenty-Five Percent Book 1) Read Free Page B

prevailing regard for human life in any given nation, ranging from hospitalisation and humane dispatch, to roaming gangs of military, police or vigilantes putting a bullet in the head of anyone even suspected of being infected. 
    Anything that would kill an uninfected human would kill someone with Meir’s, but a penetrating wound to the head was the quickest solution.  The infected, once they had turned to flesh eating monsters, were strong and tough and either didn’t feel pain or didn’t notice it.  Very little other than death would stop them.
    For four years infection meant certain death. 
    Until a cure was developed.
    For it to work, treatment had to begin as soon after infection as possible.  Once an infected person began to display symptoms, it was too late.  Injections of a cocktail of antivirals and virucides were given every few hours continuously throughout the treatment period.  The infected person would still become symptomatic, lose their ability to think, become a ravenous, flesh eating, super-strong nightmare from a horror story.  But the treatment gave the body a chance.  The human immune system could fight back.  And for the lucky ones, a month after infection, recovery would begin.  Higher brain function would return, they would become the person they were before once again, with some physical changes.  The irises remained off-white, strength levels stayed high and rate of metabolism was slightly elevated.  They also had good night vision and a sense of smell that, while not exactly like that of a bloodhound, was several times better than that of any normal person. And Meir’s Survivors could not be re-infected.
    Unfortunately, the treatment didn’t work for the majority of those infected.  Why some recovered and some didn’t remained a mystery, although the current theory was some kind of genetic peculiarity in the Survivors.  Whatever it was, the majority didn’t have it.  The survival rate was low; just twenty-five percent of those treated recovered.
    But recovering from the virus marked the beginning of a new life of hardship for the Survivors.  A new word entered the English language, ‘white-eye’, an offensive, malicious term for Survivors.  They were mistrusted and feared.  Many people believed they still carried the urge to feed on their fellow humans.  Some believed they were no longer even human.  All kinds of lies and myths sprang up about them. 
    It wasn’t helped by the specifics of the treatment being publicised.  During the period of the illness when the infected were turned, the only way to keep them alive and healthy enough to fight the virus was to feed them human flesh.  Even though they did not eat live victims and everything they consumed came from those who had donated their bodies after death to be used to help those suffering from Meir’s, it still carried a huge stigma.  They had eaten the flesh of other human beings, however unknowingly, and that made them monsters in the eyes of many. 
    Survivors lost homes, jobs, friends, even partners and children. Discrimination, although illegal, was common.  There was widespread persecution, verbal abuse, and sometimes even physical attacks.  Survivors banded together for protection for themselves and their families.
    For many, becoming one of the twenty-five percent, one of the Survivors, was just the beginning of the struggle. 
     
     
     
     
     
     

3
     
     
     
     
    Alex was eager to interrogate the blond man from the night before when he reached work the next morning.  
    It had been on his mind from the moment he woke up.  There was something off about the man, the way he behaved, his complete lack of fear, his fighting skills.  If he was unafraid of the Meir’s survivors, why was he leading a hundred riled up men into the middle of East Town to try to get them out?
    His detective’s instincts were buzzing.
    The first stop when he got into the Porter Street police station was the armoury,