Medora: A Zombie Novel by Wick Welker Read Free Book Online Page B

here without help. I'll call you in an hour. You should call the school and make sure everything's okay with Jayne. Call me if anything happens.”
    “Okay, I will. Love you.”
    Kei th made his way back to the conference room and couldn't see Janice in the darkness of her confines. Dave saw him walking over to him.
    “Hey, we got to go, man. We should get out of here. Things are not looking good in the city. Jared left with some people already. We should go.”
    “What do you think we are going to do about Janice? We can't just leave her locked up in that room. We have to wait for an ambulance. Just stop panicking. We’re going to be fine.”
    “People don't get sick like this. This is major. This is a big deal. Hospitals don't overflow like that. Have you ever seen it like this? You know you haven't. I don't want to get caught in a damn quarantine. We need to get out of Manhattan.” Dave was purposely speaking in a soft yell.
    “ Fine, then go, I'll take to train, but I'm not leaving yet.”
    Dave hated his quick response. He knew he couldn't leave knowing the Keith was staying behind when he himself was taking off like seamen jumping overboard. The boldness of his opposition made Dave forget about the people rushing out of the office to catch the subway, or going to hospitals to see how a loved one was doing. Keith's simple defiance had created boldness within him and he knew he couldn't leave now.
    He breathed heavily and sank into a chair. “Okay, we'll wait.”

Chapter six
     
    Dr. Stark's leg hurt. He had sat crumpled up in the last seat on a coach plane bound for D.C. For four hours, his right leg was jammed between the chair in front of him and the wall of the hull. Even now, while sitting in a plush leather chair, he could feel the tenseness of the muscles and the shooting rhythmic spasms down his hamstring. He gently massaged it and looked over the vast conference table where thirty people were seated. He heard a few of them introduce themselves when he walked in, but didn’t’ remember any of them. There were various researchers and other physicians present.
    The room was filled with noises of paper shuffling and muffled conversations interjected by more audible sentences that caught Stark's ear, like, “No, no those details were not released to the media,” and “...the radius of reoccurrence would be slower, much slower than an initial site...”, “... Newark, Annapolis, and Boston are already sending supplies with more health care providers...” Amidst the conversation, a small man in a suit stood up with a glass of water and cleared his throat. His subtle gesture to silence the room had little effect.
    “Ladies and gentleman, we are going to get started with a briefing from Dr. Lou Beckfield about the current volume overflow happening in the New York area.” After the room quietened down, he turned to a tall man with small shoulders and a stern jaw who stood up from his slouched position in his chair.
    “I don't know how many of you have been informed of the details of the current situation in the New York area, so that's why I'm here, to get you caught up. What you're seeing on the news has only come from media sources and not from any official report issued by this or any other department of the government. As it stands, every hospital in Manhattan and most of the boroughs are operating way beyond their maximum capacity in terms of patient volume, staff and medical supplies. The streets of the Bronx and Brooklyn are becoming chaotic. Riot police have already been set up all over the city, especially in those areas with the highest volumes of patients. The Mayor, along with some of us here in D.C. has already coordinated with eight cities in the surrounding area for supplies, physicians, Life Flights, etcetera. All of that has arrived or is en route.” He stopped to rub his fingers over his eyes.
    “It appears from throat swabs taken six days ago in the New York area that a variation of