“Thank you but it was Doctor Lang who alerted us and told us what he thought we might be up against.”
“Good man. Sharp doctor,” Conroy said and hurried off to start calling in the full containment team.
Three men and two women in full biological suits were crammed into the room with Paul, the center of their attention.
“You probably wonder why I called you all here today,” he joked and immediately went into coughing spasms.
“Easy Mr. Miller. You need to take it easy. My colleagues and I have finished our tests and I’m afraid I have some disturbing news. There is no easy way to say this so I’ll just come right out and say it. It is our conclusion that you have Ebola.”
Paul looked at him, puzzled. What are they talking about? Ebola? You get that in some third world nation.
“How is that possible?” he finally asked.
“That is what we would like to know. This is highly contagious and can spread very quickly. You say you have never been out of the country but have you been in contact with anyone that has?”
“Not to my knowledge. I mean, I pretty much go to work and back home. I really haven’t been anyplace… I was just up in Michigan. I came back after the accident at the mine.”
“What accident? This is the first we have heard of an accident,” Doctor Conroy said.
“Not an accident, accident. Our BARD went out of control and fell into a hole. A very deep hole.”
“I’m sorry Mr. Miller but I’m not following you. What is a BART?”
“BARD. It’s a piece of mining equipment that we operate with remote control.”
“And there was an accident?”
“Unfortunately the bugs were not worked out of it yet. It went off course and dug into the side of the coal vein. It dug right into an opening and disappeared down a five mile shaft.”
“Five mile? You mean the shaft goes down five miles?”
“Yeah. Talk about a shock.”
“And what happened after that?”
“Nothing much. We went to investigate and it was gone.”
“Nothing else.”
“Not really. I mean there was some kind of fog but nothing else.”
“When you say fog, what do you mean exactly?”
“Dense. You could hardly see your hand in front of your face. We pumped it out of the mine the next day so we could assess the damage.”
“How did you pump it out?”
“Ventilator fans. Big ones.”
“Where did it vent to?”
“I’m not sure what you mean. To the outlet of the mine.”
“Into the air?”
“Well yeah. Where else would we put it?”
The five people went into a brief huddle. Paul wondered what they were discussing.
“Mr. Miller. Do you have any objection to us sending a team out to the mine and having someone show us where the shaft is?”
“Not if it will help. Look, I hate to change the subject but I’m a little more concerned about what happens to me,” Paul said.
“Honestly Mr. Miller, the truth is you only have about a ten to fifteen percent chance of survival. I wish I could tell you something more positive but, well, there it is.”
“You can’t be for real. You mean I’m going to die from something and I have no way of knowing how I caught it?”
“It’s not a certainty. We have caught it in its very early stages. That certainly improves your survival chances,” Conroy told him.
He sat there stunned. This couldn’t be happening. How? Why? This didn’t make any sense to him.
“What is the treatment?” he finally asked.
“Truthfully, there is no real treatment. We will keep you as comfortable as we can, watch your progress, and may have to give you transfusions. The virus comes from the Filovridae family. We know of five different types of Ebola. All can be fatal to humans.”
“Which one do I have?”
“Well, actually we don’t know. It appears to be a new strain at this point but we are still doing tests.”
“So maybe mine isn’t as deadly.”
“There is always that chance.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The alarms started going off in the nurse's station. The head nurse immediately notified the contamination team. They quickly suited up and rushed into the room. They knew almost immediately upon entering the room that the patient was not going to make it. He looked at them wide eyed, convulsed once and fell back, unmoving.
There was nothing they could do. One of the doctors silenced the machines, closed the man’s eyes and pronounced him dead. Daren McDillon was just the first.
“We need more resources and we need them now. It is getting out of hand. We already have twenty-one confirmed cases and it is growing exponentially.”
“They are on their way. What are your recommendations?”
“Sir, I don’t know what to think. Because of the incubation time too many may have already been exposed. How many have left the city or were just passing through, who knows.”
“Are you saying we need to shut off ingress and egress to the town?”
“Well it couldn’t hurt but the real problem is knowing how many have already made outside contact with others. There is only a regional airport and that helps some but where did they go after that?”
“I need to let the President know about this. You are certain that it is not one of the five known Ebola strains?”
“I'm certain. Worse yet, it has started to mutate since we first discovered it.”
“What? What are you saying? The Ebola is mutating into something else.”
“I’m afraid so.”
“What?”
“We don’t know yet. We are leaning toward Marburg.”
“Are you sure? Marburg?”
“No sir, we are not sure. As you know they are closely related and both are from the hemorrhagic filo virus. Our first victim literally bled out and his organs turned to mush.”
“I’ve got to get to the President with this immediately. Hang in there. Everyone is on their way. I’ll be there as quickly as I can,” the Director of the CDC, Doctor Mark Riser said.
“It won’t be soon enough,” Conroy said as he hung up.
“Slow down Doctor Riser. I know you are in a hurry to tell me all about what is happening but I won’t be able to follow you at the rate you are talking.”
“Mr. President, sir. I have been trying to get an appointment to see you for two days. So much is happening you must take the time to hear me out.”
“Well, here I am and here you are. So, tell me what’s on your mind.”
“Mr. President, we have an outbreak of Ebola virus.”
The words just hung there for several seconds while the President processed what the doctor had just said.
“Ebola? Here in the United States?”
“Yes sir. We are approaching critical mass and it’s spread is happening rapidly.”
“You’re telling me that we have a life threatening outbreak unchecked in America. Am I hearing you right?”
“Sir. We have been on site since the first case was diagnosed. The problem is that Ebola has a six to seven day incubation period. By the time we learned of it, nine days had passed. By the time we confirmed it, another day had gone by. Each day meant others were coming into contact with infected carriers.”
The President sat with his mouth open.
“Did terrorists do this?” he finally asked.
“We don’t know and that isn’t really the CDC area. What we are concerned about is its spread. As of two hours ago we have ninety-seven cases confirmed. So far, seventeen people have succumbed. The others will too. As bad as it sounds, that is nothing unless we get this under control and I mean now.”