H10N1 by M. R. Cornelius, Marsha Cornelius Read Free Book Online

apart and handed then out. Rick didn’t wait to see if they took the pills. He gunned the engine and sped away.
    “Bravo, Doc.” He glanced her way. “You must be the pride of the medical profession. ‘Sorry, there are no vaccines, but we’ve got plenty of suicide pills.’”
    She refused to get into a debate on the drug, or the logic behind distributing the Nexinol. But she couldn’t resist educating this cretin.
    “You don’t understand how vaccines work. They’re a preventive measure, not a cure.” When he didn’t immediately attack back, Taeya continued.
    “Every year, vaccines are developed, based on what we think the strain of virus will be. But with this biologically-engineered virus, we had no idea. At least not in time. Once we isolated the strain, identified it, and started manufacturing, it was way too late. You have to get the vaccine before any symptoms appear. It needs to be in your system for at least two weeks to be effective.”
    “You know what I think?” Rick said. “You hotshots got caught with your thumbs up your asses and now you’re eliminating as many witnesses as you can.”
    Taeya choked out a laugh. “Oh, no. I’m stuck in the van with a conspiracy freak.” She leaned on her armrest. “And I suppose you believe that people are getting rich off this catastrophe, too. Who? The company that developed Nexinol? Oh, I know.” She snapped her fingers. “The incinerating companies that are disposing of your witnesses. They must be making really big bucks on that government contact.”
    Rick tried to respond, but she cut him off. “No, wait! It’s a government conspiracy. What better way to wipe out the national debt? I’ll bet the oil companies are in on this, too. And health care providers.”
    “Are you done now?” Rick snipped.
    “I don’t know.” Taeya shook her hair away from her face. “But if I think of any more conspirators, I’ll be sure and let you know.”
    Then she tilted her seat back. Right, like she would be able to go to sleep with this fool at the wheel. What was his problem? Did he think she enjoyed watching people die? With his attitude, Taeya wondered how he’d ever gotten the job with the Center. This pandemic affected nearly every human being on the planet, but Rick was taking it much too personally, like the government, or the CDC, was out to destroy him.
    She wondered if he’d ever taken Risperidone or some other antipsychotic medication.
     
    * * *
     
    Taeya woke with a start. One minute, she’d been checking mileage signs to Philadelphia, and the next thing she knew, the sky was dawning and Rick was dodging abandoned cars on the D.C. beltway. She raised her seat back upright, and blinked at the sun glinting on the horizon in the distance.
    Destruction of the nation’s capital looked identical to Manhattan. A gray haze hovered over burned buildings and the streets were clogged with automobiles. She noticed a pattern she hadn’t seen at night. Half of the cars causing the gridlock on the local streets were in long lines at gas stations.
    The van slowed and Rick took an exit for Silver Springs. A gas station up ahead on the right had cars still sitting at some of the pumps, with lines snaking through the parking lot and out onto the street in both directions. A few of the cars Rick passed still had people inside.
    “My God,” she groaned, “they died waiting for gas.”
    Rick swung his head over for a quick look, although she was sure he’d seen plenty. “Another CDC blunder,” he said. “Some asshole goes on national television talking about a quarantine and we have an instant stampede.”
    Her face flushed. That truly had been a monumental disaster, but she wasn’t going to let Rick blame that on the CDC.
    “Oh, no you don’t,” she snapped. “We never considered quarantine. That guy was just some flunky who worked as an office clerk. You can blame the media for that debacle. They were the ones shoving their microphones in