Free Dawn of a New Day by Nick Mariano

however, no one knew if the vaccine was having any positive effect. Air traffic had come to a standstill. Almost every country had placed Malaysia on the no fly list and even ground transportation was now limited. Bordering countries had set up checkpoints at their borders and all vehicle traffic from Malaysia was being turned around and back to that country.
    A waiter returned to Room 326 at the JW Marriott Hotel to retrieve dishes from a breakfast service he had served earlier in the day. The room was registered to an Alex Pogue from the United States and when he served her breakfast she appeared to be under weather and ill looking. He knocked several times before entering the room and was shocked to find Ms. Pogue passed out in bed and her face appeared to be covered by large black and blue sores. He thought of trying to wake her but had heard of some strange virus spreading throughout the city, so decided to call the front desk and request medical assistance. He waited for the EMS personnel to arrive when all of a sudden Ms. Pogue appeared to stir and start to get out of the bed. The waiter stared in disbelieve as he approached the sick looking woman. She suddenly lunged toward him and bit hard on his back. He tried to shake her off, however, despite her size she seemed to have super strength. She continued to bite him and eventually he passed out from the shock of the event and loss of blood. When the EMS team finally arrived they found Ms. Pogue sitting quietly on the floor and lunching on the now dead waiter.
    The American Embassy had been monitoring the events throughout town and working with authorities in an effort to contain the spread of the virus. A Warden Notice was issued to all registered Americans in the country advising them that travel to the downtown areas was no longer safe and they should stay indoors and await further instructions. Only essential personnel were required to be at the embassy, however, most employees opted to stay there as it might be one of the only safe places in the city. The embassy had high walls and a detachment of U.S. Marines and three Diplomatic Security Special Agents provided an armed response to any threats. Emergency food and water was also on hand and so the Ambassador and his staff could stay in place for a number of weeks if necessary. Meanwhile reports of roaming infectees and attacks came in from throughout the city. The smog conditions also had not improved and people continued to become sick with respiratory illnesses making it difficult to differentiate between just sick people and those who had been infected. With everyone on edge, it was believed that many of the people now being killed by security forces might not actually be infectees from the super virus.
    Meanwhile back at Fort Detrick, at the U.S. Army’s Medical Command, work continued trying to solve the question of how to battle the mutated super virus. Many of the doctors and the scientists had previously worked on battling the Nazi virus during the ISIS attacks in New York State. At the time, doctors and scientists at Fort Detrick and the CDC finally realized that it might be impossible to cure those who had already become infected either by inhaling the virus or after being bitten by an infected zombie. One group of scientists then decided to try to develop a vaccine to prevent people from becoming infected in the first place. Working with various vaccines that were developed during the Cold War to combat possible biological attacks by the Soviets, one group finally made a major breakthrough. A number of lab animals were inoculated with a vaccine labeled X554 and then exposed to the virus by using tissue from infected bodies. After five days the animals showed no signs of the infection and the scientists decided to rapidly move the experiment to the human stage. A volunteer came forward to act as a test subject and the vaccine was administered. The subject was then exposed to some newly infected patients