Read The Dead Don't Bleed: Part 1, The Outbreak for Free Online Page A

randomness of the earthquake and resulting discharge from underground. Staging such an event is beyond my area of expertise but I would not think it possible. Also, the symptoms being reported closely resemble the H2N2 Asian Flu, but the rate of infection and speed with which the victims are advancing through the stages of illness are staggering. No known engineered element could possibly reproduce those effects."
    "What are our options for containment?" Asked Dr. Woods.
    Dr. Martin turned to a computerized map that had been projected onto the wall behind him, it showed a blowup of the region in New Jersey already known to be under the growing plume. Using two fingers he expanded the map to show a wider area of the state and surrounding region, then he drew a rough circle on the map.
    "This represents roughly a perimeter out to twenty five miles from ground zero. Meteorological estimates will need to also be taken into consideration, but in my opinion this is the distance we need to start looking at immediately for containment. Ground all flights, stop all ground transportation in and out of this perimeter. You will note that on the fringes of the perimeter I have drawn are two major cities, Philadelphia and Trenton, New Jersey. The biggest problem area is New York City, the outskirts of which are only fifty miles from the mine. Gentlemen, the incident may have started in a rural area but you can see from this map how we could quickly lose control of this thing if we don't act immediately."
    Dr. Woods studied the map for a moment and made some notations in his notebook.
    "There were three hospitals which reported receiving patients, what have you heard from the other one?" he asked Dr. Martin after noting that he had told them he only talked to two of those hospitals before arriving with his report.
    "The medical center in the town of.." He referred to his notes for a second, "Whiting, New Jersey has gone off the air. The last reported contact with them was over three hours ago when they contacted our office stating that several of their own staff were exhibiting symptoms of the virus. Since then we have been unable to reestablish communication with them." Dr. Martin circled the city on the map. "As you can see, that town is just under nine miles from ground zero, it has the largest population center within ten miles."
    A general discussion followed on recommendations for implementing an immediate quarantine of the area until a more definitive answer about what they were dealing with was discovered. It was at this point that Dr. Woods remembered he still had the Geological intern waiting on hold. He mentioned this to Dr. Martin who suggested having the young man return to the town of Browns Mills and seek medical treatment at a doctor’s office there. Based on the data they had received so far, the intern was more than likely already past the point of no return. The last thing they needed to do was tell him anything more than he already knew and risk him panicking and trying to leave the area.
    Dr. Woods picked up the phone and stabbed at the blinking hold button.
    #
    Carl had been waiting for close to twenty minutes on hold at this point and was getting a little pissed off. During his time on hold he had been hit by three more rounds of dry heaves and was sure that his fever was growing worse. Despite having nothing left in his stomach to vomit up he was now starting to feel the urge to hit a bathroom for a case of what he was sure would be some rather unpleasant diarrhea. In the last several minutes that he had been watching the explosion of material from the mine in the distance he was sure that there had been a noticeable decrease in activity, it looked to him like whatever was being shot into the sky was starting to run dry. At least he would have something more interesting to report when the FEMA doctor came back on the line then just his increasing need to find a high capacity toilet in the very near future.
    He was