The Dead Don't Bleed: Part 1, The Outbreak Read Online Free PDF Page A

with a map reference of your position based on the GPS transponder in the phone you are using. From what I am seeing it looks like you are just a little over thirteen miles from the epicenter of the event, is that correct?"
    "Yes sir, just about that far right now," Carl replied.
    "Carl, I want you listen to me very carefully. I need you to stop your vehicle right now and pull off the road." Carl detected the sense of urgency in the man's voice.
    "Actually sir, I have already stopped. I was just about to call in for instructions, there is something strange happening around the area of the earthquake that I was not sure how to deal with."
    Carl heard a muffled conversation going on as if Dr. Woods was covering the phone partially with his hand while talking to someone nearby.
    "I am going to set this phone down and put you on speaker Carl, there are several department administrators here with me, I want you to describe in detail what it is you are seeing right now." He heard the click as the phone was switched over to speaker mode and then several muted voices talking silently in the background.
    "I am not really sure how to describe it, but as I look towards the area where the mine is located, I can see a plume of light colored ash rising into the sky. I am not really sure it is actually ash, but that’s the closest thing I can compare it with. Some of it has already rained down on the windshield of my truck, it must have moisture in it because as soon as it hits the surface it kind of splashes and then evaporates. This entire area already has a low hanging cloud cover that must have come from tons of this stuff being ejected into the sky. Since I stopped and started observing the plume a few minutes ago it now looks like it is losing its intensity some, the impression I have is that whatever it being ejected is running low." Carl was proud of this report, he thought it was comprehensive and accurate. He wasn't exactly sure what they were looking for but at least he didn't come across like some babbling idiot, these were the type of people who could end his career before it ever started.
    With his own phone still on speaker he waited patiently for a reply, there was a great deal of discussion occurring following his brief report. Another wave of uncontrolled coughing hit him out of the blue and he tried to hit the mute button on the phone but missed and instead just pressed two or three random number keys sending a series of beeps through the speakers on the other end. When the coughing fit finally subsided Carl put the phone back to his ear.
    "Sorry about that sir, I have picked up a little touch of a bug all of a sudden and that nasty cough came along with it."
    "Carl I need to know a little bit more about your symptoms right now. When you are coughing, are you expelling any matter along with the cough?" Carl was starting to get a little scared now, it dawned on him that the people he was talking to might actually know something they weren't telling him. Why in the world would a doctor from FEMA sitting in an office in Washington, DC be at all concerned about his cough?
    "No sir, nothing like that but I did throw up not long ago. There is an unbelievable odor here, I first noticed it when I stopped for gas back in Browns Mills. The only thing I can compare it to is decomposition. It has really intensified as I have gotten closer to the mine and it hit me to the point of forcing me to vomit. But other than that I have not spit up anything from my cough. For my other symptoms, I am pretty sure I'm running a fever all of a sudden, I have a pretty bad headache, my stomach hurts and I guess I feel generally weak all over at the moment."
    There was another period of muted discussion before the doctor resumed his questioning, "Carl, you said you made a stop in Browns Mills. Looking at our maps here that would be about eighteen miles from your current location and just around thirty one miles from the sand mine, is that