Noah's Ark: Contagion (24 page)

“Oh I think so, yes.” He smiled knowingly. “Okay, yes, there will be. The base liquid is milk.”

“Milk? As in the stuff that goes in coffee and on cereal?”

“Yes. It’s the lactoperoxidase enzyme in it—the machine uses that to grow the antiviral culture at high speed.”

“But—” Janice was momentarily lost for words. “But vaccines, antivirals, these things take months to manufacture. It’s a huge problem. The pharmaceutical companies have worked for years trying to come up with improved methods. And you’re telling me you can pour milk into this machine of yours, and produce our medication in half an hour? Come on…you’re kidding, right?”

“The pharmaceutical companies have…had, a vested interest in keeping an antiquated and very expensive system running. The Ministry of Defence, less so. These machines aren’t common, but I know this one had been on the base for years when I first used it. I wasn’t privy to the details, but it was my understanding that equipment like this was made in a secret government facility at Porton Down. They based it on a commercial machine, but it was very heavily modified. Like I said, I don’t know the details.”

“This is all fascinating,” Lucya piped up sarcastically, “but can we go and save Jake now?”

Vardy and Janice stopped and looked at her.

“Lucya, our place is here. Our priority is getting as much of this antiviral out there as we can. Talk to Coote. Maybe he can spare Eric and Ewan for another round trip.”

“What? You promised Jake you would help him!” Lucya was incredulous.

“And the best way to do that is to make more of this.” Vardy waved a syringe in the air; it contained a tiny amount of antiviral.

“If you’re not going to help him, then I am!” Lucya grabbed the syringe from his hand and stormed out. Vardy tried to come after her, protesting loudly, but she could hear Janice trying to calm him down. The pathologist’s intervention gave her the time she needed to get away.

She was heading for the
Ambush
, in search of someone to help her. She didn’t need to go far. Coming over the walkway towards her was Submariner Ewan Sledge.
 

“Ewan! I’m going to find Jake. We’ve got a cure, Vardy made it work!” She held up the syringe. “Will you and Eric help me?”

“Eric is with Coote, debriefing him. There’s no way Coote will let us go back over there until he’s finished filling him in on all the details. He’s not keen on anyone going back at all. He thinks the secret level we found is too dangerous.”

“Fine. Well I’m going, and he can’t stop me. He’s not my captain. Where can I get a rubber suit from?”

Ewan hesitated, weighing up whether or not to help Lucya.

“Come on! We’re wasting time. I need to get over there and give him this medication. Do you want to be responsible for him dying there?”

That made up his mind. “Wait there. The suits are back on the submarine. I’ll be two minutes.”

• • •

The two minutes felt like two hours to Lucya. She knew full well that the quickest time the virus had killed anyone was about twenty-four hours, and that Jake therefore was not exactly on the brink of dying. But she had seen the symptoms that led to death. She had seen the effect on the victim’s skin, the pain that accompanied the gradual paralysis. She’d seen the hair loss, the bleeding from the ears. And most of all, she had heard the screams of agony as internal organs failed, as muscle detached itself from bone, as bodies slowly and agonisingly decayed, making death a relief when it finally came. The thought of her beloved Jake suffering like that was almost too much to bear.

When Ewan returned and crossed the walkway, he was clad in black neoprene.

“If you’re going over there, I’m coming with you. Here, put this on.” He handed her a wetsuit. She nodded without saying anything, and began to strip right there. She pulled the suit on as quickly as she could. “You need these too, on your feet.” Ewan handed her the same cut-off sleeves that they had used previously. “It will give you more protection from the ash,” he explained. “There are gloves and gas masks in the raft.”

“So what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

The two of them ran down the metal steps to the platform that had been designed for boarding the ship’s tenders. Those had both been destroyed. Now there were just two inflatable life rafts tied up. One had no bottom; it was still waiting to be repaired. She clambered into the other. Ewan untied it from the platform, pushed it away, and jumped in. He located an oar and used it to push them further away from the ship.

“Ready to start rowing?”

Lucya didn’t need to be asked twice. She grabbed the second oar, and the two of them began to paddle, making for the stumps of the ship lift that marked out the entrance to the base.

• • •

Mandy Chalmers was becoming increasingly concerned. Following the jab, Kiera had initially calmed down. Her convulsions had stopped, and for a time, her temperature had started to come down. But then things had gone downhill, and very quickly.

The first sign that all was not well was the gurgling noise. Mandy hadn’t gone far; she was outside in the corridor talking to one of the other nurses. Yet even out there, with the sounds of groaning patients emanating from almost every room, she had heard that strange gurgling noise.
 

She had rushed back into the cabin, worried that Kiera had vomited and was choking. Something was indeed stuck in the nurse’s throat, and it was blocking her airway, but it wasn’t vomit. Mandy had rolled Kiera onto her side, into the recovery position. She had put two fingers into her mouth, knowing the gag reflex would force out whatever was stuck. Kiera had heaved, just as expected. Something had come out. Something slimy, something rotten. It snaked from of her mouth, but it wasn’t all out. With her latex-clad hand, Mandy had grabbed the part that had evacuated and tugged, hoping to dislodge the rest of whatever it was and clear Kiera’s throat. As she pulled, more and more of the slimy, putrid mess slid from her lips until the tail end flopped free, slopping onto the bed. Mandy stared at it, covering her nose with the back of her hand to try and block the repellent smell, and realised with horror that it was Kiera’s stomach lining. She had thrown up her own gut.

Matters went from bad to worse. Kiera was no longer choking, but she wasn’t breathing either. Mandy rolled her onto her back and with the end of a sheet, wiped the residue of the regurgitated innards from her mouth, then placed her own lips over the patient’s and blew into her lungs. She performed the mouth-to-mouth for a full minute before Kiera coughed and spluttered, sending more blood spraying everywhere. Mandy stepped back, turned around, and threw up on the floor.

At that instant, another nurse came into the room. The blood drained from her face as she saw the state of the bed.

“Call Janice, or Vardy. They need to get up here. Go, now!” Mandy croaked. She found a bottle of water and gulped half of it down, washing away the taste of her own vomit.

Looking back at Kiera she saw with some relief that the girl was still breathing, but only just. She was wheezing and straining, every intake of breath an effort. Mandy didn’t want to leave her on her own, but she needed equipment, and that was in another cabin. In a few seconds she had made up her mind, and sprinted out of the door and down to a room the team had been using for storing what few medical supplies they could get their hands on. It took her almost two minutes to make the round trip and, to her relief, when she got back to Kiera she found she was still alive.

“Stay with me, Kiera,” she said as calmly as she could manage. Hands shaking, she fixed a plastic mask over her patient’s mouth and nose. A thin tube ran back to a small cylinder. Mandy twisted open a valve and oxygen hissed out. Almost immediately, Kiera’s breathing became less laboured.

Mandy sank down into a chair next to the bed, and watched the wretched girl before her. Even with the aid of the oxygen, it was clear that she wasn’t out of the woods yet.

“It’s okay, Kiera, you’re going to be okay. They’ve given you a cure. Your body is fighting the virus, but you can do it, you can pull through.”

To her absolute amazement, Mandy saw Kiera’s eyes open. She even managed to turn her head very slightly to the side, and look Mandy directly in the eye. There was a brief moment of absolute clarity, of complete understanding between the two women. With one look, Kiera conveyed her gratitude to Mandy for the care she had given, and her resignation and acceptance of what was about to happen. Mandy felt her eyes fill with tears.

“No! Kiera, hang in there!” she shouted, leaping to her feet.

Kiera’s head was flung back, as if an unseen hand had been thrust against her chin. Her mouth opened, and through the mask she let out the longest, most blood curdling scream Mandy had heard in her life. It filled the room. It echoed down the corridor outside. It seeped into every other cabin on that section of deck eight. The fear and the pain in that single scream silenced everyone who heard it; those who were well, and those who were themselves suffering and in agony. The scream seemed to carry on forever.

As Mandy looked on, horrified, Kiera’s back lifted up off the bed. She knew what was going to happen next. She had seen Scott’s demise, but she stood rooted to the spot, paralysed by the scream, unable to look away. And then, with a terrible, horrific ripping sound, Kiera’s whole body seemed to split in two. A tear that started in her chest, ran the full length of her torso. At the exact same moment, her insides liquefied, and spilled out onto the bed. The scream stopped abruptly, and what little remained of Kiera Stevens collapsed, slopping into a black, oily puddle of pulp.

Twenty-Four

E
WAN
SET
ABOUT
securing the raft, searching for somewhere to tie it up. Lucya was already out of the craft and scrambling over the concrete boulders, desperate to get inside the base despite his protestations. He hadn’t explained to her exactly where the entrance was, and didn’t want her to risk spending any more time in the ash than was strictly necessary. As she disappeared out of sight over the top of the pile of debris, he realised he was going to lose her. He looked at the rope in his hand. It wasn’t very long, and there was nothing obvious to tie it to at the spot where they had alighted. Instead, he wedged it between two huge lumps of concrete, where it stuck fast, and set off after her.

When he reached the former base he realised he needn’t have worried. Lucya was following the footprints in the ash. They led directly to the door in the base of the ship lift support.

“Lucya! Wait for me,” he called, jogging after her. Every foot fall sent a little puff of ash into the air. Lucya didn’t have her gas mask on, and seemed oblivious to the dangers the ash posed. Ewan’s own mask muffled his voice, but as the wind had dropped, there was no other noise and she heard him calling. She let him catch up to her, impatient to get inside.

“Here,” he said, handing her a torch that he had detached from his belt. “You’ll need this. And put your mask on. If you breathe in this ash, you’re no use to Jake or anyone else.”

“Come on, we’re wasting time.”

The two of them trudged on through the grey powder. It had only been a matter of hours since Ewan and the others had left the base, but he had the impression the ash was deeper than before. Some of the footprints had been partially covered.

“I think this stuff has been drifting in the wind,” he said. “We need to be careful. If the wind gets up again it could drift more and get quite deep.”

“I don’t plan on hanging around that long.”

They crossed the rest of the distance in silence. When they rounded the giant pillar, Ewan let out a gasp.

“I guess I won’t need this after all?” Lucya said, waving her torch in the air. A wide shaft of light spilled out of the doorway, falling across the ash and making it sparkle like snow under moonlight.

“It might be best if you stay behind me,” Ewan said, putting himself between Lucya and the doorway. “If there are people inside, we don’t know what kind of state they will be in—mentally, I mean. They could see us as a threat.”

“I think you’re being a bit dramatic, navy boy. I reckon Jake put the lights on for us.”

“I hope you’re right, but I’m still going first.”

“Whatever. Let’s just get a move on!”

• • •

Janice Hanson stood in the doorway in a state of shock. She had just witnessed the horrific final moments of Nurse Kiera Stevens. She tried to speak, but found her mouth had gone completely dry.
 

Mandy became aware of her presence, and snapped out of her own stupefaction.

“Janice,” she whispered.

The pathologist tore her eyes away from the mess on the bed and looked at Mandy. She spotted the water and pointed to it, wordlessly. Mandy understood at once and handed it to her.

“Did you…see?” Mandy asked.

Janice took a swig from the bottle, and nodded.

“What does it mean? The antiviral doesn’t work?”

“That’s one possibility,” Janice said, finally finding her voice again. “Another is that Kiera’s condition had deteriorated to the point of no return.”

“She died more quickly than Scott. And you said Scott was already sick, that the others would hold out longer?”

“Yes, and the antiviral looked like it was working, to start with. Let’s not jump to conclusions though. Kiera is only one case. We need more test subjects before we can say whether or not there is a problem with the drug. Did you administer the other dose? The second one we left here after injecting Kiera?”

“Yes. A man down the hall. He was admitted this morning. You said you wanted to try it on someone who was in the early stages.”

“Right, that’s good. We need to go and see him now, see how he’s doing.”

Mandy nodded. She led Janice out of the cabin and along the passageway.
 

The cabin they were looking for was not far away, just a few doors down from the one Kiera had been in. Which made the discovery of what was inside even more startling.

“Oh, Jesus!” Mandy said as soon as the door was open. The stench hit her even before she saw the mess on the bed.