The Dust: Book Three - Sanctum by David H Sharp Read Free Book Online

watched as the vehicle disappeared up the hill. He couldn’t work it out. Had some of the survivors had enough of the marauding crazies and decided to hit back?
    All he knew was he liked what he had seen. It was about time some people had decided to try and bring some law and order back to the streets.
    Maybe when he found his way down to Bickington and Old Mill cottage, and Angel was by his side, he could sign up to one of these squads and help out. He knew Yanto would approve.
    ***
    Doctor Robert opened the large, white double doors that led into the sick bay. The room, which usually held twenty patients, was rammed. White sheets were hanging in between the hospital beds forming makeshift cubicles to house another fifteen or so wounded.
    ‘Here we have the injured that have come from the trauma unit. Most of these will survive; it’s just a matter of recuperation and rest.’
    Sharon Gough held her hand up to her nose. The smell of unwashed bodies, and poor sanitary conditions, did not invite itself nicely to the nostrils. ‘You mean there are more?’ She could also see there was one nurse, or what looked like a nurse, to tend to the many sick.
    ‘God, yes.’ Doctor Robert ushered the small party through the ward and out the other side. ‘They are now arriving daily.’
    ‘You need many hands to assist you, Doc.’ Jeremiah Rosser could see what a hopeless state the place was in.
    ‘We need all the help we can get,sir. If only more medical staff could be found, and less people were being killed.’ Doctor Robert held the single door open for all to enter the trauma unit.
    ‘We are doing all we can. The priority is to clean the country up of this disease.’ Emma Davis was growing tired of the doctor’s attitude.
    ‘But there won’t be anyone to put back into the country at this rate. Take a look around, if the infected don’t get us then a deadly new born virus will.’ The doc knew Leila K hated him, but he’d gone past caring. He was the senior medical advisor, and at the moment the ‘movement’ needed him more than her.
    ‘Oh my!’ Sharon Gough was taken aback as she entered the high dependency ward.
    Jeremiah put his hand in her shoulder to steady her. ‘You okay?’ He whispered.
    She nodded and composed herself. Always knowing she was easily upset, Sharon had tried hard to control her nerves to make it easier for herself, but what confronted her eyes shocked her to the very core.
    ‘These are mainly victims who have lost limbs.’ The doctor stopped, as the visual impact said a lot more than he ever could.
    ‘How have these survived?’’ Sharon shook her head. ‘The blood loss, how did you cope?’
    ‘Blood is something we have in high quantity.’ Doctor Robert turned his disapproving glare to Emma Davis. ‘Isn’t it?’
    She knew what the doctor was getting at her, but she wasn’t going to avoid the subject. She was the one holding the gun, she was in charge. ‘Any survivor who won’t co-operate with us, well their donation of disease free blood is for the greater good.’
    ‘You mean you kill them and drain the body of their blood?’ Jeremiah said, looking shocked.
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘You kill anyone who doesn’t want to join you?’ Sharon Gough couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing.
    ‘No.’ Emma Davis fidgeted. ‘Anyone who is deemed to be breaking the law or generally going out of their way to cause trouble is executed.’
    Sharon Gough’s mouth dropped open.
    ‘You shoot them?’ Jeremiah asked.
    ‘Yes.’
    Doctor Robert kept quiet at this point. He knew that statement was only partly true; he had yet to hear about anyone being left alone to go on their own way without being, well, exterminated.
    ‘Anyway, why have these people been saved?’ Emma Davis continued trying to change the subject. ‘The remit was to save those who can work on the land, or can serve as a white guard.’
    White guard?’ Jeremiah assumed she was taking about the white overalls.
    Doctor