Pestilence
Surviving the Virus, Book 8
Ryan Casey
Contents
Bonus Content
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
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Chapter One
Jaan sat in the back of the helicopter and stared out at the vast, open sea.
It was morning, but it might as well have been night. So grey, so grim. So endless. He stared down into the waves and wished he was back home in Estonia, way before any of this shit happened. The crystal blue beaches of Kuressaare. Sand burning the bottoms of his feet. The sound of music and laughter and happiness.
But that was a long time ago. The life he lived now was a far cry from the one he lived back then. And he couldn’t exactly pretend it was only yesterday. It was almost a decade ago, now. A decade had passed since that fateful day where everything went to shit. First, the initial wave of the virus. Reports of insanity, globally. Internet going down. Towns and cities spiralling out of control.
Then came the survival years. Bunkering down and resisting a rapidly changing infection. Fighting infected like they were monsters. Dehumanising them. Seeing them as something distinctly... other. All for your own sanity.
And then, a few years later, the second blow.
People dropping dead. People who seemed to be fit and healthy. All falling at the click of a finger. The virus, gone. A new world given the chance to restore itself.
That’s when things changed for Jaan.
He’d been picked up by a group in Russia. Told secrets about the virus. About the long-term plans for the new world. About research being done by powerful groups in the shadows—research that could change everything. And about how he was going to be a part of navigating this new world; of ushering it in.
But things had changed from those first days. The plans had transformed, developed. They had evolved.
And now Jaan sat in the front seat of the beginning of those new plans.
Plans that had been researched.
Plans that had been tested for.
Plans that would work.
Only this time... there would be nowhere for the virus to hide.
There would be nowhere for anyone remotely infected to hide.
He sat on the front row of the end of the world as everyone knew it—and the beginning of a new world, a better world—and he couldn’t help feeling nerves creeping through his stomach.
This was the test run. The beginning of something new.
And all evidence suggested it was going to be a great success.
Which was good news for humanity and its future, sure.
But it was also bad news for so, so many.
“You okay, Jaan?”
Jaan looked around. Saw Viktor sitting opposite, dressed all in grey, like him. Rifle on his lap, just in case they came across any resistance. Resistance would come. Of course, it would. Especially when they enacted their plan. Especially when they pulled the metaphorical trigger. Especially when it all began.
Jaan didn’t really like Viktor. He was a bit of a pig. Had some nasty shit to say about women and was a pretty run of the mill racist. And he was a fiery prick, too. Not someone you wanted to get on the wrong side of. Built like a brick shithouse, as he’d heard Brits say in the past.
He smirked. He liked that phrase. Made him laugh.
“You laughing at something?”
Jaan shook his head. “Nothing. Just a memory.”
“Better be just a memory. Ain’t walking into any funny business, and you know it.”
He said it with a knowing lightness to his voice. Like he would find it funny but wasn’t quite willing to go all the way and admit it. Jaan knew for a fact this guy would find it funny. He’d find what they were going to do goddamned hilarious.
He was a brute. A monster. Because they needed compassion towards the people who were going to suffer at their hands. They needed understanding. Because as much as what they were doing was right—as much as it was the only option—that didn’t mean it was something they should enjoy. It didn’t mean it was easy.
Jaan just sat there. Stared back out the window again. Listened to the somewhat therapeutic rattle of the helicopter rotors overhead. He missed home. He missed his family. He missed his ex-wife, Kristie, and his daughters, Suzanna and Khloe. He missed life.
He kept on staring out at the water and wondered what the after would be like. Would he be able to settle down again? Would he be able to move forward? To move on?
And how easy would it be to start again in a new world where the blood of the old world was smeared across your palms?
He stared down into the waves when he heard Viktor speak again.
“Shit. You see that?”
Jaan looked up, out the window to where Viktor was pointing.
He didn’t see anything. Not at first.
Not until he looked closer and saw it.
In the distance, right ahead, he saw land.
The unmistakable boundary of land.
He felt a knot in his stomach. Heard Viktor laugh, excitedly. Inside, he felt totally cold.
“Here we go,” Viktor said, clapping. “Here we fucking go!”
He chanted a few times like a football hooligan.
But all Jaan could do was sit there.
All he could do was stare.
In the distance, on the horizon, he saw the unmistakable landmark—the Eiffel Tower-lite that was Blackpool Tower.
And even though he knew exactly what he had to do—even though he had prepared for so many years for this moment—Jaan felt terrified.
It was time for phase one to begin.
Chapter Two
Noah heard footsteps outside the bus shelter and felt the hairs on the back
