Free Scourge - A Medical Thriller (The Plague Trilogy Book 3) by Victor Methos Page A

letting us know where we were going or how long the flight would be. The engines just started, and we pulled onto the landing strip and took off. The fires were more visible now, dotting the darkness below. I glanced around at the passengers. They weren’t just some random cross-section of society. These were blue bloods; the wealthy. I could tell from the shoes, the purses, the watches, and the suits. I had no doubt that people had been bribed to allow them on. I could hardly complain, as I’d used influence to secure my place as well, but it didn’t seem right that money could save your life. Maybe it always had, and maybe it was a naïve view to think money wouldn’t be the determining factor. I don’t know.
    “ ‘Any idea where we’re going?’ Luther asked one of the passengers in front of us.
    “The man, without turning around, said, ‘JFK. And then the fuck outta the country.’ I looked at Jessica, her face coated in sweat, her hair messy with bits of dirt and soot. She looked like the survivor of some natural disaster you see afterward on television, interviewed by the media and asked ridiculous questions like, ‘How do you feel?’ I placed my arm around her and leaned my cheek against her head. For some reason, the man’s statement that he was getting out of the country seemed to make sense right then. I didn’t even consider that the rest of the world was even worse off than we were.”

7
     
     
     
     
     
    A glass of water sounded divine right about now, but Mitchell didn’t want to run downstairs to fetch it. The Miami heat in the summer was something else, particularly for someone who was born in Alaska. Mitchell glanced down at Sam’s drink. It would take a gun to his head to make him take a sip of that, considering Sam’s infection. Just this, sitting across from her, was something he could only do because he didn’t have a choice.
    “I’m really interested in what happened in Siberia. How did you find the people that developed the virus?” he said.
    “ It wasn’t in Siberia. After landing in JFK, we had the option of taking a flight out of the United States. New York was disintegrating, but much slower than Atlanta. New York had already been through a major tragedy and had emergency response teams, logistics panels, and communication hubs set up. Emergency hospitals and quick-response crews were seemingly always on call. When the word came that the virus had spread to the East Coast, they were ready. But no amount of preparation could get them truly ready for what they were going to face. There was nowhere in North America with more people per square foot, crammed into a tighter space, than New York City. When the dormant virus finished its incubation period, millions were affected, millions that took to the streets.
    “The military did the best it could. It choked off major streets and used snipers and helicopters for the majority of the fighting. In fact , the military was so successful at first that the civilian government thought cutting resources to the military and increasing resources for civilian protection centers wasn’t entirely inappropriate. Of course, the powerful, those with influence, filled the protection centers, cutting everyone else off. The military couldn’t even fully equip the teams it had. It seemed martial law didn’t mean martial law. The military still had commanders beholden to people in the civilian government and did what they were told.
    “They just didn’t see what was coming. They didn’t think. The dormant virus had infected the military, too. When its dormancy ended, an already-depleted military lost more than half of its force to the virus. Squadrons fighting in the streets would suddenly have to defend themselves from those in their own ranks. They would be fighting the infected and have to turn around and fire at their comrades. On top of that, no one knew who was in charge. The military said it was, the civilian government at the state