Free The Swamp by R Yates Page A

scientists looking into those very questions. I talked to an epidemiologist from some government agency at dinner one night. He was very full of himself talking about how I shouldn’t worry because they almost had this thing beat. He went on and on about some vaccine they were days away from that never happened. He says they whatever they have, virus or whatever, slowed down the bacteria that caused rot, but didn’t stop it. He said they decay, but it will take them a lot longer, maybe a couple of years, which is forever in this heat. He talked about how they hadn’t figured out why they eat, because they would keep going even after they had eaten so much they popped. He used a lot of two dollar words and was very proud of himself, but he seemed to know what he was talking about.” Paul recalled “Of course it was his damn test subjects that got loose and took the whole place down. Sad as hell, we had good walls, lots of food and everything we needed for a very long time.”
                  “That sucks,” Sam remarked, “Many of you get out?”
                  “Well lets see,” Paul thought back, “There were about three thousand of us one day, and the next… well, I know of about ten that got out, There may have been more, but I doubt it. We all traveled together until we hit I-10, and then they went east towards Jacksonville and I went west towards Ken.” Paul paused for a moment and then seemed shaken. “I guess they are all dead now if Jacksonville is as bad as you say, we would be too had you not found us in the church yard and stopped us.”
                  “You never know, maybe they also had someone warn them.” Sam said to comfort Paul, but deep down he knew it was true. It was funny the way fate saved some and screwed others.
                  They drove until they started seeing signs for a larger town, which they decided to skirt. Mom had taken a county map they had found, and added noted showing the location of the farm as well as notes about the surrounding area. The town they had decided to skirt was the one the ill-fated raiding party had gone to. They selected a small road several miles away and pulled into the lot of an abandoned dairy plant they judged to be only a few miles from the farm. They would be able to hike cross country and come up beside the farm.
                  By late afternoon, they were in the tree line watching the compound. It was exactly as Mom had described it. They could see the towers in the corners, but they appeared to be unmanned.  In the south fields, they could see groups of men guarded by two other figures dressed in dirty fatigues. The thirteen prisoners had definitely seen better days. They showed signs of weakness and appeared thin even at these distances. One of the workers was very unsteady on his feet, the heat and heavy labor obviously getting the better of him. Twice he fell to his knees before other nearby men rushed over to help him up. The third time he went down, one of the soldiers came over and pointed at the fallen man. At five hundred yards, they could not hear what was being said, but they watched as two of the other men walked over and carried the now unconscious man and put him into onto the flatbed trailer connected to the tractor that sat nearby. The other soldier climbed into the cab and drove the man off towards a stand of trees at the far end of the farm and was quickly lost from view, but returned with an empty trailer a few minutes later.
                  Sam watched this with interested. “He didn’t look dead to me. I am going to go check this out.
                  “Be careful, do you want me to go with you?” Paul asked, as he continued to watch the activity throw the binoculars.
                  “Nah, you stay here and keep an eye on things, I should be back in less than an hour. I just have a feeling that if I don’t go check that