Bloody Mary - An Epidemic (Book 1 of the "Bloody Mary" Series) #Wattys2014

Chapter 13

July 10th 2030

[Angela's POV]

It's been a few days since we've talked with Carol about our supposed immunity. Although, I don't think that it's supposed immunity, I think it is actual immunity. Hopefully this immunity will help with the cure. It needs to, we can't have this disease go on any longer. Even though it's only been about one-and-a-half weeks.

Dustin is still crazy, but he hasn't died yet, as well as everyone else infected. It's a great thing that he isn't dead, or anyone else. Hopefully the disease won't kill anyone, we just need to create a cure before it does kill someone; before it kills Dustin.

We drove back to the National Guard Post, which was right outside of Morgansville, North Carolina. We were allowed in as long as we wore the protective suit, and all the trinkets that went along with it.

Once we were suited up we got in our car, and Connor drove through the streets. It was getting worse, there was blood on the street, and windows of shops and stores were either shattered or boarded up with wood. Enraged screams sounded throughout the streets, and there was a fire burning in one of the alleyways. We quickly drove past that, and parked in the Hospital parking lot. The blood that had first been there when we came, was now nonexistent due to a rain shower that we had yesterday, that means that the blood that was by the alleyway was fresh. That's disgusting.

We walked into the very busy hospital and saw that Carol was on her break. We walked up to her. "Hey Carol, so did you figure out if we're immune to the disease?" I asked.

"Um, follow me, we'll talk privately in the Testing Room." Carol gestured. We walked down the hall and into the Testing Room, and Connor closed the door. "Okay, so the reason I brought you two in here was because you are immune, and we don't want to tell anyone besides you two because if we did, then people would be pissed about it, and stuff would get real, and also I wanted you two to see the disease. It's pretty interesting, and there is a reason for the immunity."

"Alright." I smiled.

She put the slide under the microscope, adjusted the parameters and backed away, and said, "Have a look. It's the red item around all the blue. We had to color it to make it stand out. It looks almost like other pieces of DNA."

I looked into the microscope, and sure enough saw the disease. It wasn't very large, I guess that was why it was hard for the Research Center to find it, and diagnose it has NV-DUS-1, or as we all call it Bloody Mary. I backed away and let Connor see it. He looked, and then he backed away.

Why doesn't he talk much? Maybe something is wrong. "Hey Connor, are you alright?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm fine." He mumbled.

"Are you sure?" I questioned.

"Yes."

"Alright." I responded. I turned to Carol. "So Carol, what is the reason that we are immune from this insane disease?"

"Well, it turns out that disease uses the nuclei found in peoples' cells, and your nuclei don't allow it to change the genetic make-up. So you two are safe from the disease. It's actually complicated to explain, but all in all, the disease can't attack your system, so you're safe, unless somehow it does change your nuclei's DNA."

"That's good. So the reason that it infected Dustin was because it changed the genetic makeup of his cells?" I responded.

"Yes, that is correct."

With that we finished the conversation and got out of the Testing Room. "Carol, is Dustin still in the room we saw him last?"

"Yes, Angela he is. He's trying to get better, but he still looks ill, and he gets angry quickly." She answered.

"Okay thank you so much." I smiled. Connor and I walked to the elevator and went to the floor that Dustin's room was on. Shortly after we walked into his hospital room.

What we saw put us into a blind panic.