Free Transmission: Voodoo Plague Book 5 by Dirk Patton Page A

wild
hogs she didn’t think they had evolved as top-level predators.  As far as she
knew, they were herbivores, but she wasn’t about to bet her life on that.
    She had witnessed a pair of them attack a group of men and
kill two of them.  But something about the attack hadn’t felt right.  There was
no stalking of their prey.  They had just charged straight in and attacked with
no apparent concern other than killing.  With a start Rachel realized that she
had just described an infected human!
    Her mind went back to medical school classes.  Learning
about contagions and how they are transmitted from person to person.  They
hadn’t delved into inter-species viral transmissions, that was training that
would come after graduation depending upon your specialization, but it had been
discussed.  The media had enjoyed frightening the public for years with
speculative reports of bird and swine flu pandemics.  Those reports contained
enough fact to be scary, but also a lot of what ifs and occasionally outright
bullshit.
    However, it was quite common for a virus to mutate and jump
from one species to another.  Birds, swine, primates and many other mammals
could pass along an infection to humans.  And it worked the other way, too. 
Rachel knew that, and even understood some of the mechanics around how it
happened.  That knowledge didn’t make her feel any better.  In fact, it scared
the hell out of her.  Like infected humans running around wasn’t bad enough?
    Looking around, her eyes fell on the bodies lying in the
middle of the westbound traffic lanes.  Moving quickly, she walked over to the
closest razorback and knelt next to its head.  With a tentative touch, she
lifted one of its eyelids and gasped when she saw the blood red eye.  She
jerked her hand back like she had received an electric shock and stood up to
check on the hogs in the far field. 
    They were moving in her direction at a fast trot, but still
didn’t appear to be aware of her presence.  That didn’t matter.  Their trot was
faster than she could run, and she remembered the speed they’d displayed when
attacking the men.  She never would have guessed they could move that fast, but
they did have fairly long legs for their body size, and were probably capable
of running at least as fast as a dog.
    Rachel turned, checking the area for shelter from the
approaching beasts.  She knew she couldn’t outdistance them, and had to find
someplace to hide from them before they got close enough to see her.  There
were still the abandoned vehicles, but the only one that was still intact was
the Mercedes.  She knew she could get in it, but it was low to the ground and
she didn’t know if the razorbacks would try to break in if they detected her. 
They were certainly big and strong enough to smash out the car’s windows.
    Dismissing the sedan, she looked at the construction
equipment.  There was a big orange grader, but its cab was open to the
elements, and even though the seat was 10 feet off the ground, Rachel didn’t
like her odds of being safe in it.  Behind the grader was an even larger
backhoe.  Its cab was also 10 feet off the ground, but was enclosed.  Calling
Dog, she ran to the machine and after a moment found the obvious way to climb
up and into the operator’s seat.
    Mercifully, the door was either unlocked or lacking a lock,
and she quickly clambered aboard and took a seat.  Dog stood on the ground,
looking up at her and whining.  He wanted to follow, but the ascent that was
easy for a human was impossible for a canine.  Rachel turned and checked on the
razorbacks’ progress.  They were still trotting along, oblivious, and were now
less than 200 yards away.
    Frozen by not knowing what to do, she stared down at Dog. 
His whines were growing louder as the beasts continued to close.  Looking over
her shoulder, Rachel saw the hogs suddenly accelerate to a full run.  They had
been seen.  Damn it!
    Reacting, not thinking, she