The Pursuit of Truth by Aaron Hodges

Author:Aaron Hodges [Hodges, Aaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780995120228
Publisher: The National Library of New Zealand
Published: 2019-03-30T22:00:00+00:00

33

Susan Faulks shivered as a gust from the air conditioner blew across her neck. Picking up the pace, she strode down the starch-white corridors of the facility, eager to reach the laboratory. She was scheduled for the night shift, and while they were still short on personnel, operations had only grown busier over the past few weeks. The facility was now in full production mode, working to prepare commercial quantities of the PERV-A viral strain. With the mounting Chead attacks, the government was advancing its production cycle—imperfections or no.

The remaining geneticists were using blood samples from the failed candidates to refine the virus between reproduction cycles. They hoped to reduce the immunoresponse in hosts by identifying and removing DNA strands in the virus that the human immune system identified as foreign. Susan and the other doctors hoped it would reduce the need for immunosuppressants with future hosts, though they had yet to trial the changes on fresh candidates.

She guessed the government remained hesitant to waste valuable resources on a product with such a low success rate. They certainly would not be risking the lives of WAS soldiers when mortality was so likely. Their only hope was that the next batch of candidates would arrive shortly.

Susan shivered at the thought. She’d arrived at the facility during their last round of testing, and had struggled with the ethics behind the framework. She knew the candidates were already sentenced to death, but she couldn’t help but empathize with them. When the viral administration had finally come, it had almost been too much. For weeks, the corridors had stunk of death, as the doctors tried and failed to keep the hosts alive.

Yet in the end, the sacrifice had proven a success. Susan had watched in awe with the other doctors as the two hosts faced off against the Chead, and matched the monster blow for blow. Caught up in the excitement, Susan had been honored to administer the final injection to the survivors after their fight. She’d experienced a moment of guilt, when the boy had looked at her with eyes that told her he knew she’d lied, but the results…

She smiled, remembering the sight of wings sprouting from human backs. It was a miracle—a breakthrough beyond anything that had been achieved before. When the virus was perfected, the Chead would be resigned to the pages of history.

At the thought of the creatures, Susan shivered. Memories of Fallow’s betrayal twisted in her stomach. She still had nightmares about that day, about what the woman she’d thought of as a friend had done to them. Releasing the candidates was one thing—but the Chead?

Susan had already retired to her room when the alarms sounded. It was probably the only thing that had saved her. Safe behind the bolted steel door, she had listened to the shriek of the alarm, wondering what disaster it signaled. For a while, she’d thought about going outside, in case a fire was creeping slowly towards her. But the facility protocols were

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