Fall of the Seven Cities Saga (Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

help you with, Officer?” she asked, not taking her eyes from the gun in Taylor’s hand. Matt recognized her voice from the intercom.
    Taylor saw Jenna’s look of fear and immediately holstered his weapon.
    “Listen to me,” Taylor said. His voice was calm, like he was instructing a young child. “There’s something terrible happening out there. I think it’s some sort of infection. People are getting bitten and then they’re going crazy and attacking anyone who’s not infected. I saw it happen downstairs with the other officers on my squad. You can’t let anyone inside the maternity unit, do you understand? I don’t care who they are. This place needs to stay sealed off.”
    Jenna looked at Taylor with big eyes, as if she couldn’t quite believe what he was saying.
    Taylor read the look of disbelief on her face. “Listen to what’s happening on my radio if you don’t believe me,” Taylor said.
    Taylor was wearing a plastic ear piece, the kind that the Secret Service wore in action movies. Matt had never realized police officers used the same thing. Methodically, as if he’d done it a million times, Taylor unscrewed the ear piece from his radio. The sounds of the Virginia Beach Police dispatch blared into the maternity ward.
    The radio was busy with radio traffic detailing similar problems throughout the city.
    “I scanned Norfolk’s radio frequency,” Taylor said. “The same thing is happening there.”
    “What should we do?” Jenna’s voice quivered when she spoke.
    Matt couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Taylor had already explained what needed to be done. Did she need to be told a second time?
    “Keep this place locked down,” Taylor said again. “Don’t let anybody inside. People that are infected move fast and they’re in this building. Even if you open the doors for a person who’s not infected, you run the risk of letting the infected in right behind them.”
    Jenna took a breath. “Okay. Let me page the other staff.”
    Once everyone had gathered, Officer Taylor repeated his instructions, including a brief description of what was happening downstairs.
    “We need to change the pass code to get into the maternity ward,” he said when he was finished.
    An overweight woman with an ID card identifying her as Cheryl spoke up. “I can change the code. I do it every month.”
    “The most important thing is that the door can’t be opened for anybody. Not me, not another officer, and not any other doctor in the hospital. I don’t care if you know them. I don’t care if they look healthy as a horse. If they’ve been infected they will change within the hour. It happened to a few of the officers I came here with. Matt will tell you that I treated them just the same as if a complete stranger had become infected. I shot them, and if you want to survive you’ll act the same.”
    Some of the women gasped but most nodded silently, their faces masks of shock.
    “You can decide whether or not to tell your patients—the mothers and their families—but I want someone posted at every exit to make sure nobody is let in.””
    The nurses agreed and began to divide themselves into groups to make sure somebody was watching each exit just as Taylor had instructed.
    Taylor and Matt walked to the waiting area of the maternity ward, each slumping into a chair. Matt didn’t know what needed to be done—and he wasn’t sure Taylor did either, beyond posting nurses at the entrances to the maternity ward—but this seemed like the safest place they’d be able to find for the time being.
    Voices were still coming out of Taylor’s radio but they were nearly unintelligible to Matt.
    “Can you actually understand any of that?” Matt asked.
    “I can now, but when I first started it sounded like a different language.”
    “So…from what you said to the nurses, it sounds like you think this is a virus?”
    “That’s what I figure. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Those officers who came after us