Page 49 of Viral Justice

Max nodded his assent and Cornett left.

No one spoke as the Sandwich did its thing. The house was quiet, the only noise was the sound of weak coughing from a variety of throats. Too few.

Tom came back in with some swabs and gave them to Max. “Half the people I checked are dead.”

Max stared at him like Tom had spoken a language he didn’t understand. “How many?”

“Fifteen.”

The machine beeped.

Everyone either took a step toward it or leaned forward to see what the results were.

“Both samples are positive for influenza,” Max reported. “No other infections.”

“If this is the flu, why are people dying so fast of pneumonia? Is this some kind of bird flu?” Tom asked.

“It’s possible. I have a piece of equipment here that will differentiate between specific flu variants, but it takes longer.” He glanced around. “And even if I know which variant it is, people aren’t dying of the flu specifically. They’re dying of the body’s response to the flu. It’s called a cytokine storm, an overreaction by the body’s immune system. We’re seeing one of the ways the immune system reacts. Your lungs fill up with fluid and you drown.”

“Can you stop it?”

“That is a matter of debate. Some physicians think you can prevent it if you know it’s coming, but most of the time you get no advance warning. You get no warning at all. Once it’s started, it’s almost impossible to reverse. The body has to survive the storm and hang on until the storm has played itself out. Most people don’t survive that long.”

“Is it like the SARS outbreak a few years ago?”

“Yes. Very much like that. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome can kill anyone, no matter how healthy they are before they get sick. In fact, the healthier you are, the stronger the immune response is. So, the strongest often die faster than someone whose immune system isn’t as healthy.”

Holy shit, this stuff was worse than she’d imagined. “So, there’s no way to help these people? No treatment?”

“If we had a vaccine for the specific flu strain, that would help prevent people from getting sick, but until we determine the exact variant, it’s unlikely that any vaccine we try would work. It would be like shooting at a target in the dark.”

“What’s our next move?”

“We start the other test. In the meantime, Bull, you contact the base and arrange to have food and medical supplies dropped.”

“Dropped?” Ali asked. “Why not trucked in? We could evacuate some of the sick to hospitals.”

“Until I know which flu we have here, I don’t want a bunch more new people coming or leaving the community. If this is something new, which is likely because the flu mutates so rapidly it’s almost always different than the last time you’ve seen it, I may be recommending a quarantine of the area.”

“I’m on it,” Bull said, stepping out of the room and pulling out his satellite-connected radio.

No escape route meant keeping Max safe just got a lot harder.

Max began pulling out items from one duffel bag, quickly putting them together onto a narrow work table. On it, he set other items that looked like some of the stuff she’d seen through the glass when he showed her his level-four lab.

“Tom,” Max said. “Are you finished putting IVs in?”

“No, I’ve got two people left.”

“Go ahead and get those started, then check on the first ones to see if their condition has improved any.”

“Okay. Can I have a few more pairs of gloves? These are my last ones.”

“In the duffel closest to the door.”

Tom stripped off his current pair, put a new pair on and took several more for his pockets.

“Son,” Max said in Arabic, looking right at Ali, “could you bring some water from the well?” He glanced at the Sandwich and she knew what he wanted to do.

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