Virtual Shadows by ROY ROBSON

Author:ROY ROBSON [ROBSON, ROY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Roy Robson Publishing
Published: 2024-03-27T00:00:00+00:00

Wonderland

It would be seventy years before they could return. Even with advances in science that allowed for lifespans regularly exceeding one hundred and twenty years, many of them were of a vintage that meant they would not be around to see the restoration, the promised rebirth.

No pestilence had ever been so fatal. There were pulsating kidney pains, an inability to breathe, followed by death from whichever major organ failed first – usually the heart, lungs, or kidneys. Death often occurred before the virus had reached the brain. The progression from infection to fatality spanned ten minutes, fifteen if you were a large lad with lots of muscle mass. Not that bodybuilders were thankful for the extra five, writhing on the floor in agony. The wide pores that opened on the face as blood forced its way to the surface, and began to clot immediately, were terrifying to behold. If they had witnessed the demise of a friend or lover and knew what was coming, people with guns would blow their own brains out.

After death, the blood turned a mucus green and seeped out of every pore of the cadaver with unnatural force, before encasing and consuming the rest of the body in a green cocoon. The speed of infectious transmission was startling.

The Doyen of Quantum Planet Inc. – both the architect of the world's most advanced quantum computers and CEO of the world's most cutting-edge synthetic medicines company – was quick and sagacious in his response. Because he had created it, he understood the scale of the impending disaster the moment he grasped that the virus had done what viruses are good at doing. He would never know how his failsafe mechanisms failed, never understand how it escaped the lab. Once the emergency was declared, there wasn’t time to spare. His contingency plan for the survival of the human race was activated and accelerated at the blistering speed he had designed it for.

Selected employees of QP from all over Earth – who understood the risks better than anyone – were assembled and taken by helicopter to the prearranged holding pens. They knew the game was up the second the words "Operation Year Zero" flashed up on their smartphones.

Despite the speed of their Doyen, people were infected in half the safe-pens, and everyone at those locations became victims of their leader’s ambitions. The other half survived and, after a week in isolation, were moved to the deep seclusion of an island in the Pacific Ocean. It was a magnificent place, the creation of their Doyen’s unconventional yet majestic taste.

A soaring iron wall girdled them all safely inside. The tradesmen tasked with building it had been the most accomplished in their field, and for many months the island had resembled an industrial site as furnaces forged their steel and welders welded the nuts and bolts. The wall dug deep into the land, and not a single exit or entrance was contained around its perimeter. Any unexpected, uninvited survivors from stray ships would not be welcome.

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