𝗧𝗼𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄'𝘀 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵 | an apocalyptic novel ©

Chapter 17

Seven Minutes

1995

Ryle

Since I'm a military personnel, I can't stay on bedrest for longer than a day, depending on the injury.

The burning sensation in my lungs has gradually lessened and I am left occasionally being shaken by dry coughs. Coughing blood isn't on the list anymore, even after only a day.

Maybe the nurses are right, it'll heal.

A part of me hopes Maxine feels better, too.

I continue where I left off with the cassette tape recordings. Although I still didn't get proper feedback from Samuel about the announcement I stormed into his office with, it doesn't stop me from discovering more about the sick-minded scholar Carl Willbrand himself.

Flopping down on my chair, my eyes briefly skim the notes I took from the last recording.

Tests on humans, contagious – these are the keywords I'm looking out for.

Contagious.

Contagious.

Contagious.

If that is true, untreated, it would mean I transferred it from Maxine. I caught whatever she had. We've been in the tunnel, for less than fifteen minutes, and we have been treated instantly. I'm feeling fine, she seems to be too. Is it...

I didn't need to kiss her, I realized that when I thought about it.

But my mind sometimes acts out of emotions, not logic.

A flaw.

If the contagion is true, we'd have to treat affected people in quarantine.

Untreated, it displays a hazard.

But if we start administering medicine, as a preventative matter...

Who am I kidding, I'm not a doctor.

But more or less, we have to make this public, and official. I still don't know what happened to the scholar, but this is something involving everyone on the same fucking planet.

When I grab the next cassette, I start to wonder internally who I'm even doing this for.

The world doesn't change because of one thing the scholar said, more or less. It doesn't change, because we are all equally as fucked when another anomaly hits us. It doesn't matter if it is in the camp, or a skyscraper, or even Willbrand's lab – no one is safe.

The world is still the same, regardless if I took on this task or someone else did.

Earth would still rotate, no matter if we know that weather anomalies are contagious or not.

Regardless, my fingers press the play button.

I almost forgot how infuriatingly calm his voice is.

"This is a few days after we did the tests on the subject with air pollution. I forgot the term of dates, but as Einstein said, time is relative. So I'm using his laws of physics to excuse that."

My fingers twitch near the pencil, awfully close to writing down Badly quoting Einstein, just for another reason to hate this scientist.

"There isn't more to discover, one could say, but I say there is too much to discover in this little time I have left to live. Who knows if I even make it to old age?"