The Scream of A Thousand Libraries Chapter 58: Prologue: Infection Test.

Read chapter 58 of The Scream of A Thousand Libraries by Susangja on NovelPedia.

It was a cold morning in the Brooklyn neighborhood. The snow decided to take a break that day, making way for a more open, less overcast sky. Perfect for a quick morning walk... And of course... a good coffee. At their usual brisk pace, people were starting to head to work. Some faced the long New York traffic, while others tried their luck on the overcrowded subways of Grand Central Terminal – subways that made even São Paulo's look like child's play when it came to crowds. In normal conditions, it would be like this... Unfortunately, we hadn't been in favorable conditions, at least not for the past few years. The city I was in, the popular and bustling New York, was experiencing a moment of calm and little activity, which was unusual for the beloved city that never sleeps. And there I went, through the deserted streets, seeing closed establishments, mostly empty tourist spots, and few cars parked here and there. Even with the snow from previous days, this lack of movement was unsettling, strange, and made it clear that something was wrong. Even the bustling subways... Once synonymous with slowness, now they were just references to places to avoid. Moreover, they had become no man's lands. Arriving at one of the city's most popular spots, usually the corner with the heaviest traffic at these hours, the situation was evidently strange. After all, even Times Square itself, a landmark for large gatherings of people, was like all of us had been these past few years: Isolated. We were trapped by the invisible chains of a global pandemic that had recently entered its fifth year of declared emergency. The marks of these chains were evident on the city's crumbling walls, as well as the graffiti on the ground and buildings. Looking to my right, the long avenue stretching out before me had several burned vehicles, destroyed furniture, and a lot of glass on the ground. Looking up, it was easy to discover the origin of so much glass: two buildings with their facades entirely destroyed. The world felt trapped and in a fragile state. This destruction was a sign that the chains were about to break, even with governments constantly trying to find measures to control the outbreaks of that drug's contamination. At the same time, they fought not to break the already fragile economy, weakened by the small wars occurring under the surface, or rather... under the chains. Entering an alleyway next to the building I was heading to, one of the graffiti markings on the walls, in characteristic purple, the color of the drug's infection, caught my attention. It said: "Death to the traitors in blue! All hail the new ERA! HAIL TT!" That was the characteristic motto of one of the insurgent groups... they called themselves the Neo-Illuminati. Several small militias like this had emerged in recent months, financed by groups supporting the legalization of the TT drug, the cause of the pandemic. 'Many decided to take up arms, or rather... books, to attack the government's infrastructure' They wanted to hinder the development of a vaccine as much as possible. To their misfortune, it wasn't in my interest for them to do that. After all, it was kind of my job to prevent those governmental buildings from falling. At the same time, I had to keep an eye out for any traces of drug smuggling. That's exactly why I was walking through the devastated alleys and backstreets from yesterday's attacks. Various groups had teamed up and tried to attack the main NYC Health building, wanting to steal the drug samples used for vaccine testing. 'This kind of coordination... coming from these guys is suspicious; they were rivals until recently...' Speaking of the drug... I noticed that next to that sequence of purple graffiti, there were some destroyed boxes from yesterday's mess. They were black boxes with reinforced lids, supposedly for military supplies. But they were wide open, a sign that some doses had been stolen. Approaching the box, I saw a small vial with a tiny umbrella