BLOODLINE The Last Sanctuary | A Novel | By @WendyyWolfe

[2] Three For A Dollar

By 12:00 noon, Salt Lake City Regional Hospital, three hundred miles away, was on emergency lock down. Death toll, over 66 and undead, rising fast.

Foreign correspondent Markus Devaney made it to his hotel looking forward to a nap under the cool of the air conditioner. He just wanted to rest for a while before heading out to the Democratic Mid-Term Convention, his other reason for being in Salt Lake City. He was exhausted and feeling like hell.

A cold sweat broke out across his brow.

The rush of nausea bile flooded his throat and he ran toward the lavatory but didn't make it before spewing blood tinged vomit across the carpet and into the tiled floor of the bathroom doorway. He grabbed the sink and held on as violent heaves racked his body in relentless waves.

It must have been the sushi I ate yesterday, he surmised vaguely even as he realized he was puking blood.

He shrank to the cold floor gasping for air before he passed out. Markus Devaney never woke up, alive.

〰️

Head Triage nurse at Salt Lake City Regional, Billie Jo Taylor had lost all track of time since the onslaught of emergencies. So many they had to start turning people away.

The hospital had been on lock down for 24 hours now, with no sign of reopening any time soon.

Billie Jo had never seen anything like it.

The emergency rooms were filled with patients presenting with flu like symptoms, severe bloody emesis and high fever which was quickly morphing into a swelling on the brain resulting in death.

They were trying like hell to get a handle on it. The CDC had dispatched field agents within twenty-four hours, with teams of specialists on the way, but they would never make it.

So far, no one could understand the brain swelling or where it factored in to the illness.

The dead were piling up and Billie Jo had seen reports on her phone of people dropping dead in the streets only to rise up and attack others in fits of rage.

The evidence was conflicted and to make things worse, she couldn't get in touch with her son.

An unknown number rang her phone.

She answered, and her shoulders sank with relief as she finally heard her sons voice.

"Mom! What the hell is going on!"

"Seth! Seth," she interrupted breathlessly. "There's no time to explain everything Son, I'm just thankful you got through! God I was worried sick. Listen. This is what I need you to do right now. Get home and stay put. We're dealing with some kind of medical crisis and I don't know if it's viral or air-borne. The CDC is about to impose a city-wide quarantine, so I just need you to get home," Billie Jo said with lethal finality.

"Mom! Okay but I'm freaking out! Dammit, Hollis just told me people are dying. People are dying everywhere---and they aren't staying dead," his voice was frantic with fear. "He said we need to get you out of there."

"Seth, I know son," she said ominously. "Are you at the diner?" Billie Jo bit out from between clenched teeth. Her nerves were frayed with tension.

"Yes, I stopped in to see Haven," his voice trailed off as the owner of the diner, Hollis Ahote broke into an argument with several people trying to get inside.

"Okay son. Now I need you to listen to me and do exactly what I say. What I tell you will make the difference between survival or death. Are you listening Seth?" she shouted into the phone.