A World Reborn: The First Outbreak Read Online Free Page B

the woman had been bitten, and were
convulsing on the floor. Indiscriminately, the woman, the blackjack dealer and
his own two men were grabbing people who ran past them, dragging them down and
biting them.
    “Get the police back on the phone,” Roy
instructed. “We’re going to need help here soon!”
    “I can’t, outside phone lines are down.” A
bewildered Donna replied as she looked at him over her monitor. Roy wheeled
around and went to the phone on her desk, picked it up and hit the external
line, but was met only with silence, not even a ring tone.
    “Damn it!” Roy cursed under his breath.
    “I’ve just lost the signal for camera’s
twenty through thirty!” Kyle declared.
    “What’s happening to the cameras?” Roy
demanded from Donna.
    “I don’t know. There’s some kind of malware
in the security system, it’s overwriting everything and taking control. It’s
shutting down all the security camera feeds, and lowering all the emergency
shutter gates. The only things we haven’t lost are the door controls, the
internal phone system and the elevators.” Donna reeled off. Roy barely
understood what she was saying.
    “We’ve just lost the casino floor cameras.
What are we going to do, Chief?” Jim asked.
    “Get up there and go behind the cashier’s
desk, report what you see via radio.” Roy instructed, clicking the push-to-talk
button on his own radio and raising his arm to his mouth so he could speak into
the microphone on his cuff. “This is Chief of Security Snipes. I want everyone
to report in via radio.” He commanded as Jim quickly left the room and boarded
the elevator. “We’ve lost security cameras and the security gates are putting
us in lockdown.”
    It didn’t take long for the reports to
start coming in. It seemed that whatever was happening was happening faster in the
enclosed spaces of the stores, restaurants and the theatre. The first person in
each of these had managed to bite four people in the time it had taken the one
on the casino floor to get two. Those five had since bitten a lot more of the
fleeing guests and staff. Roy listened carefully, as did Donna and Kyle. Then
Jim cut in.
    “Chief! The casino floor is a mess; people
are getting ripped apart by the looks of things. I can’t see any of our guys
out there. What do you want me to do?”
    Roy hesitated. In all his years as a police
officer, he’d never dealt with a situation quite like this. He quickly
formulated a plan, whether it was right or not was another issue entirely.
    “Okay, I want everyone to try to calm
people down and then get them completely away from the vicinity of the
disruption.” He ordered with a troubled frown. “Get them to the restaurants,
the bars, somewhere you can lock the doors. If you’re not near any of the
affected areas, I want you getting in the elevators and going floor to floor
warning guests to stay in their rooms.” Roy concluded before he clicked off the
push-to-talk. “Kyle, I want you warning people on the guest floors.”
    “Yes, sir.” Kyle responded immediately;
standing and leaving the security room at a brisk run.
    “The elevators basic program is being
overwritten by the malware!” Donna informed Roy.
    “What?”
    “It’s changing the program the elevators
use. It’s stopping the elevators responding to call buttons. Instead it’s
making them move from one floor to the next, all the way up then back down. The
security room elevator seems unaffected, but that’s on a separate part of the
system. Worse still, the malware affecting the system is screwing all our
remote access protocols. What I can’t tell is whether someone is assuming
control of the system from in the building or if it’s being controlled solely
by the malware.” Donna explained leaning in to look at the computer screen more
closely.
    “Guys, ignore the elevators, they’re malfunctioning.
Hit the stairs, repeat hit the stairs.” Roy directed using his microphone. A
flurry of