Contagion: The Rising Read Online Free PDF Page B

the blood. It was horrible. It finally stopped until about
a year later when I was pregnant with Dani. The dreams came back. That’s why we
had to make sure she was normal.”
    Emma
closed her eyes and realized she had been daydreaming a lot more. She hadn’t
had a real dream in the past few days after waking up the first time in the
room.
    “The
daydreams are getting a little too real for you, huh?” Emma nodded as Kayla
smiled, “that’s good at least. Maybe you’re getting enough rest at night now.”
    “When
can I go home?”
    “Whenever
you feel that you’re ready. Your wound is still healing, but I think you should
be fine. Jeremiah will do some tests on your blood and we can see what
happened.”
    Emma
looked down, “thank you.”
    Kayla
put her hand on Emma’s uninjured shoulder, “no thanks necessary.”
    Dani
walked in as Kayla stood near the door, “Dani, help Emma with whatever she
needs, okay?”
    “Okay,
mom,” Dani answered as she walked out of the room.
    “Nearly
16 years later, I’ll never get over being called ‘Mom.’ Before I enlisted in
the Army, they told me having kids was next to impossible. I can say that
something good did come out of this.” Kayla left as Emma sat thinking of how
she was going back without stirring up too much. Dani walked in with Emma’s
clothes, a backpack full of supplies and a machete. Emma suddenly remembered Sarah’s
face as she watched the Riser bite her. She remembered the blood spraying out
of her shoulder and neck. The horror of looking into Sarah’s green eyes when
that happened caused her to shudder at the thought.
    “Are
you okay?” Dani looked at her with concern.
    Emma
rubbed her eyes, “How far away are we?”
    “Used
to be about two hours. You can make it in under two hours though, since we’ve
cleared out that whole area.” Dani stood close to her, “Let me know if you need
anything else.”
    Emma
shook her head, “Thanks. I don’t think I could ever…”
    “Don’t.
There are still people out there that are still among the living. Not all of us
are dead heads. At least, not completely.”
    Jeremiah
walked in, “Well, I may have an idea as to why you didn’t turn. I ran an old
school panel and found that your glucose levels are low. Lower than normal. How
long has it been since you’ve been diagnosed?”
    “Wouldn’t
it be high? Why would it be low?” Emma thought back and remembered the beeping
of the insulin pump. The look of disappointment her father gave her when the
Army doctor at the VA diagnosed her with Type 1 diabetes. “I was about 12. I
was on a pump for a short time until the stock ran dry. I’d use regular
syringes sometimes but we ran out of those. I started to eat conservatively and
suffered through the highs and lows. Mostly the highs. I’m just really surprised
that it’s low right now.”
    “Your
blood may be too abnormal for the virus to attack your body. You see, the virus
is activated when your antibodies and immune system attack it. Since your body
is too busy attacking itself, the virus stayed dormant in your body. I think
that the irregularity in your blood, meaning there’s too little or too much of
something in there, saved your life. I just wish I had a better explanation as
to what will happen afterward.” He grimaced and looked away.
    “Is
that why you’re giving me that look?”
    “I’m
guessing that the virus isn’t active but I think it might be trying to
hibernate in certain parts of your body, like your brain. At least, that’s what
I’m thinking. I’ve taken blood swabs and tested them for the spikey cells of the
virus. Fortunately, I didn’t find any of those spikey cells in any of the
samples I took from you. I don’t think it should affect you since your body is
constantly fighting itself. Even if you got normal insulin treatments, it
should still stay dormant if not die.”
    Dani
looked confused and tapped Jeremiah’s arm, “So she should be okay,