Blood Moon: The Hunters and The Hunted by Steve Morris

Author:Steve Morris [Morris, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: werewolves
Publisher: Landmark Media
Published: 2020-04-30T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Forty-One

Gatwick Airport, West Sussex

‘So how are you enjoying being a doctor?’ Doctor Pope asked Vijay, a half-smile on his lips. ‘Hard work?’

Vijay nodded enthusiastically. The work was certainly hard, but it was fulfilling. Even when everything seemed hopeless and people were dying, there was always something he could do to make a difference. He couldn’t hope to save people like a real doctor, but he could help to make their last days and hours a little more comfortable. Working for Doctor Pope was quite simply the best thing Vijay had ever done.

There were only a small number of doctors and nurses in the entire camp, and Doctor Pope had been given responsibility for everyone living in the hotel. With hundreds of rooms, and every room overflowing way beyond capacity, that meant a single doctor for thousands of people. The task was impossible and Doctor Pope was rushed off his feet, working from morning to night, and sometimes being woken in the middle of the night to tend to an emergency. It was no wonder he had asked Vijay to help him.

Any serious cases were handed over to the medical team in the military hospital on the other side of the airport, so the illnesses he had to contend with were mostly minor infections and chronic conditions. There were no medicines available other than a small number of the most common pills, so for the worst illnesses nothing could be done. People died from everyday conditions that could no longer be treated, and the soldiers carried out mass cremations near the airport’s control tower. Vijay watched the grey smoke clouds billowing across the runways, trying to imagine how it must feel for someone you love to turn into dust and blow away. Rose’s face came vividly to life before him, but it was impossible to believe that a girl as bright as Rose could ever turn into dust.

Many of the patients were elderly, and Vijay liked working with them best of all. The old ladies reminded him of his own grandmother, and the old men made him wonder about the two grandfathers he had never known. He brought them food, helped wash them and change their beds, and sometimes simply sat with them, listening to their stories. They had all lived such long and interesting lives.

The cremations continued every day, but he grew used to them and sometimes didn’t even notice the dark smoke plumes rising into the sky.

It was harder to deal with the young people who had fallen ill. As conditions in the camp worsened and food rationing became stricter, the number of previously healthy people needing care mushroomed. Everyone in the camp was becoming very thin, almost like skeletons. His own arms, never very muscular, were like sticks now, and there was a hollow indent where his belly had once been. If he looked in the mirror he saw a new person. Tougher. More resilient. Confident. He liked what he saw.

Tuberculosis had broken out in the South Terminal, and norovirus in the North.

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