Bacteria Zombies by Jim Kroswell Page A

that any moment it would snap. The bacteria were everywhere, they had invaded his life and his dreams. Not only were they robbing the world, they were robbing his reality. They were taking everything and they were poised to take his young son. His wife Sharon lay with the boy and his hands shook as he thought of it. If there were any scientific breakthroughs he would be the first to rush to his son's side but there was nothing in the offing. All bets were off and no one had any clues about where this scourge would end up. It could possibly be the case that this was the end of the world. All of the strange things in the bible of mass extinctions no longer felt implausible. Maybe one day people would be writing about the deadly bugs, the bugs that killed the people. What were these things! He knew, he had heard of secret meetings of scientists working on bacteria that could be controlled, that could be tethered to human needs and desires to control other human beings. It was all a living nightmare. They had let it get out of their control. They had let it all go. There was nothing more to be done. Drips of sweat started to drop from his brow. It seems the drips grew more and more steady, like a drum beat of rain falling on a house roof. His endocrine system was going crazy, loss of life was all around him and it was driving him insane. And the most important life of all, the most innocent creature on earth, was at his mercy and he could do nothing. He had always known everything, he was the all powerful doctor. He was the doctor everyone went to when no one knew what else to do. He was the one they clamored towards with the unending questions, with the insatiable appetites for him to solve their problems, and he always could. He always let down his hand and pulled them up into the light, except now. Now he was also in the hole and he knew not what hand would come down for them. They were stuck. He had a team of scientists/doctors at his disposal and no one knew where they should even start. The bacteria were spreading so rapidly. They were invading town after town. It seemed that every second they were getting in a new report that another town was infected and within minutes hospitals were filled with patients, patients who were doomed to die. That was what was scariest about this, there was no cure. There was absolutely nothing. In other situations, at least there were some individuals who would survive illnesses that there were no treatments for. In this situation, that number was zero. There were simply no survivors. The bacteria were ravaging and they didn't care who it was, they were all up to be eaten, eaten alive.
    Dr. Samuels slammed his palm against his head and let out a howl. There had to be something, something that he was missing. The answer was there. The answer came to him. He had to find those who did this. He had to switch hats and become a detective. The menacing ones who did this would maybe have a clue as to how to stem it. They had done something to the fabric of life and he needed to know what scissors they yielded to shred it so. He wasn't exactly sure where to begin, but he thought about the hospital gossip and of those there were always several. They would know something, at least where to start looking. Herbert was the loudest mouth at the hospital, he would have his secretary call him in.
    ***
    Samantha lay in the hospital bed. She knew that her time was coming soon. Her boyfriend had said that he wanted to come see her but she begged him to stay away. He actually hadn't exhibited any signs of the outbreak just yet and it would have ripped her apart if she knew that she would be the cause of his demise. She had sores all over her body and all of her internal organs, she was told, were failing her fast. Goo dripped from sores that lined her face and hands and were actually another major reason she didn't want Renaldo to see her. He would never be able to rip these horrific images from his memory and she