Virulent

By Griffin Carmichael

 A small, nondescript lab somewhere in America is working on cures for illnesses that plague the animal kingdom.

 

But they have a secret, and one day an animal rights group breaks in and sets the worse disease known to man or beast free.

 

Dr. Amanda Worthy tries to prevent it, but she becomes infected. Now her only hope is to find a cure, and get it out into the world before humanity becomes extinct. It's going to take all she has to give to deliver some kind of hope.

 

An 8000 word short story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Griffin Carmichael
• Release date: Oct 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223854982

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Copyright

Copyright 2023 by Griffin Carmichael.

All rights reserved.

NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author’s [and publisher’s] exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.

I assert my moral right to be identified as the author of this work, under the applicable laws of each country in which it may appear. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written permission of the author, except for brief passages used in reviews.

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any reference to any person, living or dead, or any place, product or cultural reference is either a product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.

Cover copyright 2023 by Sheila Guthrie

All images used by permission.

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VIRULENT

1

The lab door opened with a click, a slight sound that didn’t garner any attention.

The sight of masked intruders pushing the night security guards through made all the techs stop what they were doing and turn to stare.

Everybody stays calm, nobody has to get hurt, the first masked intruder shouted. He shook the guard he was holding by the collar for emphasis.

The man and his shield advanced into the room, followed by five others. Two of them held the other security guards by her arms. Both guards were bleeding, showing bruises.

Dr. Amanda Worthy stepped up to confront the masked people.

What do you want? We don’t have anything valuable here, but you’re welcome to our personal possessions, if that’s what you’re after.

We don’t want your stuff, lady.

She could hear the sneer in his voice. Worthy held out her arms, palms out.

Then what? We only have lab animals here, they’re not worth anything. They aren’t part of any lucrative studies. And the equipment, as you can see, is minimal, and rather out of date.

And it was true. The lab was due for updates, but a special project had put that on hold. At the rate they were making progress, if these thieves had waited a month, they’d have gotten some pricey stuff for their troubles.

"I said, we don’t want your stuff. We’re here to free