The Remaining: Refugees (9 page)

"The samples..." Lee said.

"Infected subjects." Jacob stated flatly. "We were able to capture several of them
in the beginning and observe them
for an extended period of time. Studied their blood, and their biochemistry. Very
…intriguing
."

"What have you learned?"

Jacob considered this
with faraway eyes that reflected thoughts in the shape of spectrograph
analysis and microscope
slides and vials filled with tainted blood
.
"
Let’s see…t
he FURY
bacterium
is a very interesting little
life form
. It adapts an
d mutates incredibly quickly. In fact, it
underwent some very extreme changes, even just in the time we were able to observe it at Fort Detrick.

"During its first stages of existence, the
bacterium was
much smaller
, which accounted
for the extremely high infection rates. You see, the sma
ller and lighter the bacteria are
, the more likely it is to be aerosolized, which means it can attach to globules of mucous or spit coming fro
m a person sneezing or coughing…
even laughing
, or talking
. So it acts almost like an airborne virus, at least in close proximity. In addition to its aerosolized mode of infection during most of the first thirty da
ys of the outbreak, the bacterium
could remain alive on a dry surface for upwards of 24 hours.

"Of course, without the proper investigations we'll never know, but I think this explains the huge spike we saw in infectivity. I'm sure you can imagine the havoc that could be created by a single host indiv
idual, contagious in an airport
, sneezing, coughing, and wiping their nose and leaving a trail of bacteria behind them for others to touch that would remain
infectious
for a whole day."

Lee
narrowed his eyes
. "We come into contact with infected subjects all the time
. Very close contact, sometimes.
W
e've touched them,
even
got fluids on ourselves, but we've never been infected."

Jacob wiped the corners of his mouth.
"That goes back to the mutations that the bacteria went through.
D
uring the first month of the initial outbreak, the onset of symptoms was a little slower. It took almost a week for the infection to advance into its final stages
—lack of reasoning, loss of language skills
, hyper-aggression, etcetera
, etcetera
…
What we see now from an infected host is nearly
complete
infection in the course of a few days." He faltered. "Captain Mitchell took just about 72 hours. I believe this is due to the size of the bacteria. Over the course of the first month
, June going into July, it mutated, and grew much larger
.

"From the last study I co
nducted, I observed the bacterium
mutate into its larger form as it reached the end stages of infection, and then it continued to multiply until it inundated the host's entire body." For a moment, Jacob's eyes looked feverish. "It does some very strange
things to people at that point…
but going back to your question abo
ut infection, after the bacterium
mutates to its larger form, not only is it too cumbersome to be aerosolized, but it becomes hydrophilic, which means it cannot stay alive on a dry surface for more than a few mo
ments. About a minute, actually
.

"So the reason you've gotten the infected fluids on you and you haven't been infected is partially becaus
e the bacterium is
too large to absorb through your dermis, but also that the active bacteri
a
in that infected fluid die within a minute of landing on you. At the current stage, or what I guess is the current stage
,
unless it has mutated again, there are only four different methods of infection that I'm aware of. Blood to blood, blood to mucous, mucous to blood, and mucous to mucous. Generally speaking, mucous to mucous is the least likely mode of infection, requiring a gross exposure to infected materials. But anytime it involves blood, the chances skyrocket. It seems the FURY
bacterium
has grown to prefer that as a method of transference."

"Which is why the bites infect s
o fast." Lee said, thoughtfully.

Jacob nodded. "Now, it stands to reason that if the infected host bites you in a place where your flesh does not have as many capillaries, such as in the hand or foot, and the bit is quick, there's a chance the infection might not take hold
. I personally haven’t seen an
instance of a bite
not
turning into an infection
, but it is possible
."

"So what about the rest?" Lee asked, cautiously. "What did you mean when you said there's nothing left north of here?"

Jacob looked down. "An unfortunate side effect of the infection. The infected hosts operate with very high core temperatures, and it affects their metabolism in a way I don't quite understand. I'm no nutritionist, but I would venture to say that the infected hosts are burning through 4,000 to 5,000 calories in a day, if you combine the physiological stress that the infection places on their bodies, and their increased activity levels. Other
s hypothesized that the bacteria were
eating through the parts of the brain responsible for hunger and thirst signals, but if that were the case I believe the infected subjects would be eating themselves to death. Instead, you see them able to eat almost non-stop, and yet suffer no physical consequences, which can only mean that the body is using every bit of what they eat.
”

Jacob leaned forward close to Lee and looked disgusted. "I kept one of our captured subjects on a 3,000 calorie diet for two weeks. At the end of those two weeks he'd lost thirteen pounds of body weight."
Jacob shook his head. "It's
incredible
,
really. But it's also causing our biggest problem. The insatiable hunger combined with hyper-aggression and lack of reason
ing skills
are why we're seeing the subjects turn cannibalistic. Furthermore, their digestive tracts are still the same as ours, and we are not made for digesting raw meats. This means that the infected host can eat pounds and pounds of raw meat in a day, and still not be satisfied because his body cannot process it and get the right nutrition out of it.

"The problem with all of this..." Jacob began to pick nervously at his fingernails. "Is the population density of the northeastern states. You see, with cities like DC, Baltimore, Boston, Philly, New York...
back when people lived there…
there
were
millions and millions of mouths to feed on a daily basis. But the food doesn't come from those cities, it comes
from the surrounding countryside
. They ship it in. So what happened when everything collapsed? Everyone went out and looted the supermarkets and the grocers. In addition to that, the infection hit these places the hardest. Everyo
ne all jam packed in like that…
it was just a waiting game. So now
,
that high population density has become a high population of infected subjects. And there's no food for them to find, because by the time the infection even got its momentum up, every bag of potato chips had been looted. And there's no food for them to kill, because there's very little wildlife, and all the normal people like you and me have either been infected, or they've fled, or died. So what do these hordes of infected subjects do?"

"The
y push out into the countryside?
" Lee asked
dazedly.

Jacob nodded. "Yes. But there are millions of them, Captain. They roll through like locusts, and they consume everything that can be consumed, plant and animal alike. They don't leave anything behind. They just keep driving forward, stuck in an endless hunger loop."

Finally, someone besides Lee spoke up.

Harper raised his hand like a kid in class and spoke hesitantly. "Why don't we just wait for them to starve themselves out?"

Jacob smiled, but it was defeated. "Do locusts simply starve to death after they ravage a farmer's field?"

"No."

"No." Jacob shook his head. "Because
they move onto the next field.
"

"What if they move west?" Harper asked.

"They won't move west," Jacob said firmly. "The Appalachian mountains are a barrier for them. They'll follow the path of least resistance, which is south."

"Can we back up a second?" Lee sounded irritable. "How do you know the other captains are dead?"

Jacob met Lee's gaze. "Captain Mitchell was in co
ntact with them from his bunker
.
He
spoke with Captain Connors several times. Connors was on the run from Maryland. Baltimore had pretty much made the entire state a danger zone. So he headed south and managed
to link up with us. I actually…
saw him die." Jacob took a deep breath.
"Captain Roberts from Delaware—
we never made contact with
him.
B
ut Captain Connors had brief contact with him before he got out of Maryland, and he was firmly set in his opinion that Captain Roberts didn't make it."

"
So why did he send you
?" Lee grated, feeling queasy now.

“When things went bad in Virginia, Captain Mitchell put everything he had into protecting me…because of what I knew.” Jacob’s eyelids fluttered. “When he realized he wasn’t going to make it out, he left it up to me.
He believed that if you had enough forewarning, you might be able to hold the line here at North Carolina and prevent a mass migration
into the other southeastern states
."

Lee nodded, slowly.

"So...what do we do now?" Bus began, but stopped when Lee planted both of his hands on the map of North Carolina and hung his head.

"Jesus Christ," Lee breathed. "This is a clusterfuck."

"No shit," LaRouche murmured and leaned up against the wall, hands in his pockets.

Lee raised his head and looked at the map, inches from his face. Roads with funny names, spiderwebbing their way across the thin paper to small blobs of urban areas scattered about the state. Blots and splotches of blue for lakes, thin lines for rivers. The state was full of rivers and lakes
..
.

Jacob
began
to look physically uncomfortable,
and
leaned back in his chair
,
holding
a hand to his stomach. A greasy looking sweat broke out over his face. When he realized the others were looking at him, he smiled wanly. "Still dealing with this...
stomach bug…
think I drank some bad water."

Lee spoke into the map, his own breath hot as it swam back at him. "
What you did was incredible, Jacob. You put yourself in harm’s way to come down here
. But you shouldn't be stressing your body
right now. There will be plenty of work in the coming days, but now y
ou need
to
rest."