“They are all dead?”
“Yes sir. The last two died three days ago.”
“What a shame. This virus needs to be killed before it does any more damage,” he said.
“And that is why we want to take a look at where we suspect this all came from. We are getting some unusual test results and it would help a great deal if we had actual clear data.”
“And you think that the answer is at the bottom of that pit?” he ask.
“We can’t be sure but we can’t rule it out either. The possibility exists that it holds some of the answers,” Mark told him.
“Then we should get to work. Here is how I would like to go about it. First, I need to visit the site. Then do a little site sampling to know what I’m up against. Then we can design a way to get someone down to the bottom of the shaft and back up again. Getting them back up is going to be just as hard as getting them down there. Five miles is a lot of cable. Fortunately it already exists.”
“Then we can lower someone,” Mark said.
“Except for one small detail,” Buck replied.
“And that is?” Randy asked.
“Getting the cable here. It sure isn’t here in Kentucky. Honestly I don’t know where it is but someone does and we will have to track that person down. Then we have to find a way to get it here and with the restrictions, that won’t be an easy job,” Buck told them.
“I’ll take care of that. You just figure out what we need to build it,” Randy said.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The entrance to the Bedford Delta Mine had been sealed. They had used dynamite to collapse the entrance in an effort to stop any further spreading of the Ebola virus. They spent days digging out the entrance big enough to drive a truck through it.
Buck had fought wearing a full biochemical suit until they showed him what the results of the infection caused. After that he readily agreed to wear one at all times.
“That must have been some machine,” he noted as they drove along the tunnel.
“They say it was the first of its kind. A remote controlled drilling machine. A prototype actually. It appeared to work but something caused it to go crazy and it would no longer respond.”
“Do they know why?”
“No one has really looked into it. It’s one of those things that sort of got lost with the outbreak of Ebola. I suppose someday someone may look into it. That is if anyone is still alive.”
“Boy, aren’t you just a ray of sunshine,” Buck said.
Randy stopped the truck at the side of the breach. They got out and walked over to the opening.
“The thing cuts a pretty clean swath doesn’t it,” Buck said admiringly.
“Yeah, and from what I’ve been told, it does all of this with only an operator and four guys outside the mine to hook up the conveyor belt sections.”
“Pretty impressive,” he said while studying the opening.
Buck was shining his light all around in the opening as leaning way too far in for Randal’s liking.
“Dammit Buck, don’t go and fall in there. It’s a long way to the bottom.”
“Pretty sudden stop too.”
When he had finished looking around he got back in the truck and headed out of the mine. Buck was unusually quiet.
“Something bothering you Buck?” Randal asked.
“You might say that,” he replied.
“Spit it out why don’t you.”
“Okay. You know that the shaft isn’t natural. It’s man made.”
It was Randal’s turn to keep quiet for quite a while.
“You suspected that didn’t you?” Buck finally said.
“Let’s just say it doesn’t surprise me much. Both Mark and I sort of came to the same conclusion.”
“You think you’re going to find some answers down there don’t you?” Buck said.
“Honestly? I don’t know what we are going to find,” Randal replied.
“Is there any chance of stopping this thing? I mean before it’s too late. Or is it already too late?” Buck asked as they got near the entrance.
“It may be possible if we can determine the exact nature of the virus.”
“I thought you couldn’t cure Ebola.”
“We probably won’t be able to control it but we may be able to find a way to stop it from spreading.”
“A vaccine isn’t possible is it? Everything I read indicates that it can’t be stopped. It just has to run out of steam.”
“That’s not entirely accurate. First you have to realize that not a lot of effort has been put into a vaccine. It’s not a high priority like HIV and cancer. This happens in third and fourth world countries. A few million of them die and it’s sad but it doesn’t change much. The rationale is that most of them were going to die of one thing or another, starvation, military actions, and what-not.”
“So you think it is possible?”
“Possible? Probably. The question is can we do it in time? This particular Ebola virus has been mutating. It has been absorbing other viruses. It is no longer just the Ebola virus.”
“How is that possible? I mean how could it do that on its own?”
“That is the real question we hope to answer when we find out what is in the bottom of that pit as you call it,” Randal said as they broke into the sunlight.”
“Then I guess I had better get on this right away. It’s a little more than just a challenge. You need answers and you need them fast,” Buck said.
Bud realized on the second day back from delivering Ed across the Mississippi River that he had become contaminated. His throat was sore, his muscles were painful and he had a fever. He had two other symptoms that only a few had reported or had been discovered so far.
He could hardly swallow and his vision was blurred. No matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t see well. His irritability seemed to be going through the roof.
He considered going into town to see a doctor for the first time in thirty years. He had never felt quite this bad. His breathing was becoming more difficult.
By the next day paralysis was beginning to set in. He could hardly get out of bed and when he did his vision blurred to such an extent that he bumped into things that he could normally navigate around in the darkest of nights.
Nothing he ate, which was very little, would stay down. Almost immediately he would regurgitate. At this point he knew he couldn’t get into town even if he wanted to. Never having a phone, there was no one to call.
Inside his body, Clostridium Botulinum, often referred to as C. Botulinum, were inhibiting his lungs from receiving a signal from the brain to breath. The nerves were dying and he was suffering from oxygen deprivation.
Bud thought about the choices he had made in his life. Like most people, some had been good and many bad. Nothing he could do or say would change either his past or his future.
His eyes were red and bloodshot and his breathing became even more ragged. Slowly he crawled to the front door of his cabin and tried to look out on the lush hills and trees on his property. It was no use. He could no longer see. He took one last breath and died lying on the front porch.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CTV NEWS — Last evening large groups went on a rampage in St. Louis, Missouri and in Cleveland, Ohio as the first cases of Ebola were reported there. The news that several hundred people had contacted the disease had been kept from the general public.
Police battled large numbers of citizens armed with everything from baseball bats and clubs to guns. Eight police officers were killed and forty-one injured during the night long rampage through the streets in St. Louis. Sixteen rioters were killed and over a hundred were injured. Police arrested eighty-six of the demonstrators.