Book 1: At the Edge of Misery
Cristine Daya Gerrard, a young residency doctor in the apocalypse must mend the pieces with her broken and estranged family, while fighting for her place in a community that doesn't accept her. One man in particular doe...
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Troy's writing had become unreadable from the many formulas he tried to concoct. A lot had changed in the first 72 hours. He read the 'borrowed' journals from start to end and back. The data set in his grasp, ranged from formulas, the process of how it spread; similar to meningitis. The symptoms of the turned that spread from person to person similar to rabies.
Troy underlined the copied paragraph from Cristine's a few times, her own theory of what might have happened and why it spread the way it did.
This could have been a dormant virus that was acquired through a vaccine from patient zero. The virus was then activated by an airborne trigger. That is one explanation why some people survived the initial outbreak; we never got the vaccine, but we carry the inactive virus from when the secondary contamination occurred.
Cristine's theory was that the virus was man made, through a vaccine, which was plausible. Diseases were known to be weaponized by countries since historical times. And while he didn't have any hard proof, Troy also believed that this was part of an evolutionary revolt done by mother nature.
A big screw you to them all.
Troy flipped the page over and browsed at his half finished and awry formula.
(BMI)*(Age/Health) = time of revival
From everything he gathered, Troy made the connection that the reanimation time, with the time of death as a starting point, depended on one’s body mass index, age, and health.
He didn't have an exact measure other than this wonky formula, but Troy theorized that the healthier someone was, the faster they turned. The virus was dormant in their brains, so how developed one's brain structure definitely played part in the turning process too.
But how to deal with the sick people? The ones like Cameron, who suffered from a disorder that attacked his weak auto immune system or people with addictions like alcohol or drugs? What about people with stress or trauma's.. did that affect the brain as well? What health factor should people like that be given?
How long would it take for him to turn?
Troy filled in the formula with his information and the number that formed from the equation burned in his retina.
87 minutes.
Tapping the end of his pen on the paper, Troy rubbed the bridge of his scrunched up nose. He didn't know how long he was up, but the lights in his room stung his eyes.
His equation was too much of a black box to be sure of calculating anything at this stage correctly. There were a handful of cases in Cristine's journal that did mention the time it took people to revive, but that was explicitly when one was bitten. A bite had to have different variables too. Unfortunately, Cristine hadn't written out a formula for the process of a bite or how long it could take for the fever to spread. There were a few scribbles of fever temperatures and how to alleviate the pains and such to slow down the process.
If she believed some man made vaccine was the cause, he expected her to at least expand about it in her notes. Troy wished he could be at the military base again. That would help with the organization of the research. Last time, they only did tests on the dead, not actual subjects that weren't turned.
The same could be said about her lack of data of the time it took for someone to turn. He wasn't talking about a bite. He thought of the average Joe, old and young, male and female, boy or girl, the healthy and unhealthy, the age range, specific races and even those with the exceptions to the rule.
Signing, Troy dropped his writing utensil on his journal, leaned into the back of his chair and let the outline of it dig into his shoulder blades. It was a massage to the stiffness of having to stay in the exact position for a duration the time.
He needed more data and clarifications why something was the way it was. That way he could formulate his calculation with more certainty. It would take a while before thd next fuel run would be possible, so Troy had to be creative in the meantime.
More regular patrols outside to see what potential subjects they could find.
Troy was more than determined to figure out why they spoiled. Wanting to learn how long it took for the virus to become active, infecting their brain, and turning them into a literal shell of their former selves.
He just needed to know.
What did you guys think? I could keep going on and on about this subject, but I don't want to make it too long. Hopefully Troy's portrayal with his favorite obsession is on the right track.
