The rise of the walking plague
 |
| Image: All Rights Reserved |
| New York : Crown |
| 2006 |
I found “Patient Zero” behind the locked door of an abandoned house across town. He was twelve years old. His wrists and feet were bound with plastic packing twine. Although he’d rubbed off the skin around his bonds, there was no blood. There was also no blood on his other wounds, not on the gouges on his legs or arms, or from the large dry gap where his big toe had been. He was writhing like an animal; a gag muffled his growls.
At first the villagers tried to hold me back. They warned me not to touch him, that he was “cursed.” I shrugged them off and reached for my mask and gloves. The boy’s skin was as cold and gray as the cement on which he lay. I could find neither his heartbeat nor pulse. His eyes were wild, wide and sunken back in their sockets. They remained locked on me like a predatory beast. Throughout the examination he was inexplicably hostile, reaching for me with his bound hands and snapping at me through his gag.
His movements were so violent I had to call for two of the largest villagers to help me hold him down. Initially they wouldn’t budge, cowering in the doorway like baby rabbits. I explained that there was no risk of infection if they used gloves and masks. When they shook their heads, I made it an order, even though I had no lawful authority to do so.
That was all it took. The two oxen knelt beside me. One held the boy’s feet while the other grasped his hands. I tried to take a blood sample and instead extracted only brown, viscous matter. As I was withdrawing the needle, the boy began another bout of violent struggling.
One of my “orderlies,” the one responsible for his arms, gave up trying to hold them and thought it might safer if he just braced them against the floor with his knees. But the boy jerked again and I heard his left arm snap. Jagged ends of both radius and ulna bones stabbed through his gray flesh. Although the boy didn’t cry out, didn’t even seem to notice, it was enough for both assistants to leap back and run from the room.
I instinctively retreated several paces myself. I am embarrassed to admit this; I have been a doctor for most of my adult life. I was trained and … you could even say “raised” by the People’s Liberation Army. I’ve treated more than my share of combat injuries, faced my own death on more than one occasion, and now I was scared, truly scared, of this frail child.
Extract from the book World War Z
by Max Brooks
All Rights Reserved.
New York: Crown, c2006.
Call Number: English BRO
Extract contributed by January Yeo
Recommended Reads (apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic fiction)
Available at NLB
Title: I Am Legend
By Richard Matheson
Call Number: MAT -[MO]
Title: The Stand
By Stephen King
Call Number: KIN -[HO]
Title: Extinction
By Ray Hammond
Call Number: HAM -[SF]
If there were a deadly pandemic, what would you do to protect yourself and your family? What if someone you cared about was one of the infected?
July 13th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
I would immediately tell my relatives and friends and warn them about the deadly pandemic. I would also tell them to run away or the deadly pandemic may contact to your body and get the deadly pandemic too. After I tell them i would immediately run back as fast as my legs could carry and tell my family to hurry take a few things that are really important and valuable like, money, passport and phone to contact the ambulance or police if we need to. I will then try to make sure that all my family member including my pet dog, Topper. i immediately leashed the Topper and quickly run as fast as we could to reach the car so that we can drive to a place where it is safe and do not have the deadly pandemic.