Something inside her snapped. She
turned, intending on dying with her brother and ending it all. Hands reached
out of the darkness and pulled her through into another room. “Who are you and
what are you doing here?” Ragged looking men and women glared at her, weapons
pointed in her direction.
“My name is Ari,” Ari said, her
voice catching. “I was looking for somewhere for us to hide.” Tears flowed
freely down her face. “That was my twin brother that just got shot.”
“Ari Snyder?” A woman dressed in
well-worn nurse’s scrubs came forward. “I don’t know, it’s been a while, but do
you recognize me?”
Ari stared into the woman’s face.
“Ruthie Hansen,” she said finally. “You were my sister Kloiee’s best friend at
nursing school.”
“Wait, this is that bastard
Malkim’s daughter?” a middle aged woman demanded. She pushed Ari back a little.
“We should let the security patrol take her then. She and her plague rat
brother brought the disease here and killed my babies.”
“No we didn’t. The disease was
here before us. My brother was in the advanced stages. Alavedo Syndrome is only
contagious in the early stages,” Ari snapped.
“How do we know that?” the woman
persisted. “I mean, no one’s been able to isolate how it’s even spread.”
“Yes they did. The disease now
known as the Alavedo Syndrome is passed through the air, much like the more
virulent strains of the influenza virus in the twentieth century,” Ari said. “Alavedo
Syndrome is actually a mutated variation on a viral strain that swept through
the United States in the early twenty first century, killing hundreds of
children and elderly, and crippling otherwise healthy adults.”
“How do you know that?” someone
else asked.
“Her father was an
epidemiologist,” Ruthie said. “He taught classes in disease prevention for the
pre-med and nursing students at all of the major universities. He and his wife
were very popular speakers on the lecture circuit when I was still in school.” Ruthie
put a hand on Ari’s shoulder. “Your parents were very remarkable people.”
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