The Hours by Robert Barnard

Author:Robert Barnard [Barnard, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: zombies
Published: 2018-06-05T04:00:00+00:00

***

The doctor was exhausted from his trip back to New York. It was a lengthy flight from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh. Despite domestic flights resuming several months earlier, New York was still a no-fly zone. And, it wasn’t as if he could take a train or a taxi for the extensive drive from Pittsburgh to Riverside, New York. A military escort waited for him at the airport, shuffled him into the backseat of a camouflaged Humvee, and escorted him back home.

Miles and miles of destroyed towns and abandoned communities passed outside his window before Dr. Merrill saw the outline of Riverside Mall on the horizon. In the weeks after the epidemic, when the death and destruction had finally been brought to a simmer, the abandoned mall was utilized as a makeshift laboratory for Dr. Merrill, a specialized team of epidemiologists from WHO, and agents of the CDC. One half of the building had been converted into a hospital of sorts, used for experimentation and research, while the other half was transformed into crude living quarters for the staff. Dr. Merrill’s current home address was the south east corner of a former JC Penny.

Outside of the hospital, Agent Litchfield was smoking a cigarette. When the Humvee came to a stop, he reached for the back door handle of the vehicle and opened it.

“Hey, Hollywood,” Litchfield said with a cackle as the doctor stepped out.

Dr. Merrill wasn’t amused. “You know it wasn’t my choice, yes?”

“I know, but don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy it at least a little bit. Hey, how hot was that broad Vivian up close?”

“She was just lovely,” Dr. Merrill said. “As fine of a journalist as I would expect to find in Los Angeles.”

“At least the weather must have been nice. Damn, practically summer and I’m shivering. The sun hasn’t even set yet.”

“Too bad our virus couldn’t have swept through Florida?” Dr. Merrill said, chuckling for the first time since arriving home. “We could be running lab tests with pink flamingos, sipping fruity drinks with tiny umbrellas.” Dr. Merrill groaned. “That’s New York for you. Don’t worry, it will warm up soon enough, and the perpetual chill in the air will be a distant memory.”

Litchfield finished his cigarette, flicked it on the pavement, and stamped it out with his foot.

“Come, old friend. Walk me in, tell me what I’ve missed,” Dr. Merrill said, holding what was once the door to the mall food court open for Agent Litchfield.

“We started testing the vaccination.”

Dr. Merrill looked surprised. “Human trials?”

“Some of the guys were lining up to volunteer the moment your girl Stephanie dropped them off.”

“You should have waited for me.”

“There was no stopping it, doc. The excitement here was at a fever pitch.”

“You still should have waited for me.”

“Forgive me your highness,” Litchfield said. “You missed baby’s first steps, sure. But aren’t you curious as to how he’s walking?”

“Tell me.”

“No reported side effects yet. So far, human trials are running at a best case scenario projection. No sickness. No one has turned, either, if that’s what you’re worried about.

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