Pestilence: The Infection Begins by Craig A. McDonough Read Free Book Online Page A

offenders, those suffering the ill effects of drugs, or patients who exhibited infectious and communicable diseases. It had two doors and a long glass observation area between; and it could be locked from the outside.
    Tilford moved quickly; he had to, Ms. Enticing Tits moved as fast.
    “Open the door to the other room,” he yelled to the nurse. “Do it, do it now!”
    As soon as the nurse opened the door, Tilford followed her. He waved his arm about as he beckoned the woman whose only crime had been that she was chosen for a free vaccination against the Baltic flu.
    “What are you doing, Doctor, what…”
    “Go to the other door. When I tell you, you open it then run around and lock this door from the outside okay?” He stood in the doorway, his voice edgy as he kept his eyes glued on Ms. Enticing Tits.
    “Come on, bitch, you want to take a bite out of me?” He wasn’t sure that’s what she wanted, but that was the impression she gave.

    * * *
    D elaney had no idea Tilford was engaged at this moment with a half-naked woman in one of the consultation rooms. She was unaware the danger in the hospital had turned into an immediate life or death situation.
    From her office, which was positioned behind the nurses’ station on the first floor, Delaney heard several screams but didn’t investigate. It was a hospital after all, and tragic events happen, even without the possibility of a highly contagious flu breaking out. But this time the screams grew were louder and closer than usual, and when every telephone in the building rang at once—or certainly seemed that way—she knew it was more than a tragic event at a hospital.
    The moment she left her office, the beleaguered looks of the nurses on the phones at the station were confirmation of the worsening crisis. “Slow down, you’re not making sense,” she heard one nurse on the phone say.
    Doctors, Nurses and other staff members ran toward outpatients’ clinic, one doctor shouted. “They’re bleeding from their eyes, their noses, everywhere. It’s, it’s a fucking mess!” More confirmation the vaccine was unsafe.
    Why didn’t they test, why?
    She stopped at the nurses’ station for a quick report, and the youngest nurse, Beth Sanders, informed her that the patients who had received the vaccine this morning had attacked staff and even tried to “drink their blood.” Before Delaney could investigate these claims, her attention was directed to the foyer where an orderly reported that there were men in uniform surrounding the hospital.
    It was all going too fast, too damn fast, but Calgleef was behind this latest action. The sight of police and the National Guard told Delaney confronting them would not be wise. She needed to call Calgleef.
    That asshole!
    She marched back to the nurses’ station and demanded a phone. She heard several beeps on the line as the call was connected, but paid no attention.
    “This is Delaney, I need to speak to Director Calgleef immediately, do you hear, immediately!” She picked up a ballpoint pen from the counter and anxiously depressed and released the button on the top.
    “What’s going on, Calgleef, why are you sealing off the building?” she appealed to her director. “And how did you know the outbreak had worsened—do you have someone working for you inside?”
    Calgleef chuckled before he answered. “Of course we do, Miss Delaney. You! And as you know I’m bound by CDC rules to seal off any building where an outbreak of a contagious disease occurs. Unfortunately this means you and your team will have to remain inside until the all-clear is given.” Calgleef sounded calm, too calm for the director of the CDC facing an outbreak of a major contagion.
    “Do you intend to inform the public of the possibility of the Baltic flu right here in downtown Des Moines?”
    “Have you gone mad, do know the panic that would ensue?”
    “That’s not what I meant and you—”
    “Dr. Delaney, quick come. There is something