by J. L. Wood
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Part I
– 1 –
– 2 –
– 3 –
– 4 –
– 5 –
– 6 –
– 7 –
– 8 –
– 9 –
– 10 –
– 11 –
– 12 –
– 13 –
– 14 –
– 15 –
– 16 –
– 17 –
– 18 –
– 19 –
Part II
– 20 –
– 21 –
– 22 –
– 23 –
– 24 –
– 25 –
– 26 –
– 27 –
– 28 –
– 29 –
– 30 –
– 31 –
– 32 –
– 33 –
– 34 –
– 35 –
– 36 –
– 37 –
– 38 –
About the Author
THE FALL
by J.L. Wood
THE FALL
Copyright © 2021 J.L. Wood
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of brief quotations in a book. Requests for permission should be addressed to the publisher.
The Fall is a work of fiction. Names, organizations, places and incidents portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual, events, locales, or persons is purely coincidental.
First Edition 2021
https://jlwood.net
To Skiddy,
My furry little one,
who slept on my lap throughout
every word, thought, and revision.
PART I
– 1 –
Sugar
March 5, 2037 (Seven days ago)
Kinsley Hospital
Houston, Texas
Chris Link shyly greeted a few of his coworkers as he entered the seventh-floor break room of Kinsley Hospital. He scanned the room for his friend, Dr. Katz, but he was nowhere to be found. Dr. Katz’s chocolate cake sat untouched and abandoned on one of the snack tables. Chris didn’t think twice about grabbing a slice for himself. He knew never to wait on Dr. Katz—he hated social gatherings. While reaching for the cake knife, he was forcefully pulled away from the table by the back of his blue plaid shirt.
“Hey, hon. Something’s up with Dr. Katz,” Nancy whispered. “Any idea what his deal is?”
Chris lifted his shoulder in a half shrug then went for the cake again, but Nancy intercepted him. She crossed her arms and tilted her head. When she raised her left brow, Chris knew he was about to be tasked with finding out. “Nancy, I haven’t seen him. He always gets a little mopey on his birthday, then he goes and buys something shiny. And you know he hates these things. He—”
Nancy held up a hand. “No, he says he hates ’em, but he really doesn’t. People who are okay don’t just blow off their own party.”
Chris sighed and looked back at the cake while Nancy continued, “Something’s up, I can feel it. I need you to check on him. He shooed me away, but he’ll let you in.”
The thought of bothering Dr. Katz made Chris uneasy. Over the years, he had learned to give him space when he requested it. He could be temperamental at times, and Chris did not want to walk into that firestorm.
“Have you considered that maybe he’s just really busy? Maybe he wants to hurry up and finish whatever he has left to do so he can come to the party. He’s barely an hour late. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
Nancy crossed her arms tighter, and Chris sighed, defeated. “Fine,” he said. “But can I—”
Before he could finish, Nancy was already cutting him a piece of cake. She carefully placed it on a plate, stabbed a plastic fork in its center, then pushed it toward him. Once Chris had a hold of the plate, she pulled on the sleeve of his free hand. “Let’s go.”
“Damn,” Chris said as he followed close behind her. “You’re really bossy today.” His comment was met with silence, making the trip to Dr. Katz’s office all the more uncomfortable. When he reached the end of the hall, he spotted the doctor power-walking with a collection of files firmly tucked under his arm. The doctor’s heavy clogs slapped the floor with each step, and his body swung almost comically as his arms stayed tight against his torso. Chris grinned at the sight and called out for him.
Dr. Katz abruptly stopped and adjusted his glasses. He peered down the hall at Chris then jogged in his direction. Chris met him halfway and tilted his head, concerned about the doctor’s appearance. He looked tired, not himself. The clothes under his lab coat were wrinkled and disheveled, his Siberian Husky-patterned tie loosened and pulled down to allow him to breathe. White hair poked out of the sides of a dog-bone-patterned skullcap. He never wore patterns. He was a solid-color man, to the point, no fluff.
“Everything okay, old man?” Chris asked. “You’re looking like a three-fourths-life crisis.”
Dr. Katz straightened his tie and attempted to push his thinning hair under his cap. “This is what sixty-seven looks like. It’s your future,” he replied with a smile. Before he could say anything else, his eyes widened as he saw Nancy, who was standing with her arms crossed, scowling. “Shit.”
“Shit’s right, hon. You’ve got some explaining to do.”
Dr. Katz checked his phone for the time. “I completely forgot. I’m swamped right now. Had a last-minute request for a second opinion. I’m actually in a hurry. Walk and talk?”
“You shooed me away,” Nancy continued while following close behind him, Chris at his side.
“I was kidding.”
“It wasn’t funny.”
“The cake was good,” Chris chimed in, attempting to break the tension. He took the last bite from his plate. “It was doctor themed.”
Dr. Katz stared at the empty plate. “If I apologize, would you accept it?” he asked Nancy.
“Maybe,” she said, rolling her eyes.
Dr. Katz readjusted his glasses. “I’m sorry. I was kidding. I was going to come out, then got tied up. In fact, I need your help. I have a patient being sent down from Pediatrics. Dr. Busby wants a second opinion on a young boy and also some scans.”
Nancy hesitated. “I forgive you, hon. I know you have a tough outer layer, but you’re nothing but mush inside. But before I help, I need to know what’s up with the dog theme.”
“He got a dog,” Chris said, sure of himself.
“I got a dog.”
Nancy slapped Dr. Katz’s shoulder. “No way!” she whispered excitedly. “See, I told you you were mush inside!”
Dr. Katz smiled. “It’s a rescue. Male, four years old, Husky mix. I pick him up after my shift. So let’s get this done.” He pulled out one of the patient files from the stack and opened it. “Dr. Busby has three patients. Similar symptoms. Low blood sugar that won’t regulate. Headaches. Fussiness. Dizziness. The one we are looking at is a boy, age seven. Slipped into a coma two hours ago.”
“I understand the urgency, then,” Nancy said while reaching for the file. “Dr. Busby is worried the other two’ll have a similar outcome?”
“Correct,” the doctor replied. “Let’s check him out. Chris, hang back. I want to share something with you later. Don’t go yet.”
Chris nodded and hung back by the doorway. He had thought about going into the medical field for years but was not in a place in his life where he could go back to
school. He enjoyed living vicariously through Nancy, a nurse of thirty years, and Dr. Katz, the chief of Neurosurgery, whose career began even before Chris was born. He had gotten to know them through his position as one of the techies, as the staff liked to call him. “Next year,” he would always say when Nancy inquired, but three years later, in 2037, he knew it would never happen. And for some reason, unbeknownst to him, he was okay with that. He was content. He was figuring his life out. That was all that mattered.
He watched as Nancy and Dr. Katz approached the boy, who lay still in a bed. The boy’s face was flushed and sweaty. His short brown hair clung to his forehead. Dr. Katz placed his stethoscope to the boy’s chest, then looked at Nancy. He leaned over in her direction and whispered something inaudible. Nancy’s brow furrowed as she nodded. The duo left the boy’s bedside and returned to Chris.
“You said he was given glucagon to regulate his blood sugar?” Nancy asked. “Want me to administer more?”
“No, no. The notes say it only worked the first few times administered.” Dr. Katz paused for a moment, then raised his index finger. “Go check with Dr. Busby. We might be able to get him into a clinical trial for Insidia. I’ll grab someone to help with the scans.”
Dr. Katz grasped Chris’s shoulder. “Sorry, we’ll be right back. Shouldn’t be too much longer.”
Chris nodded, then looked at his phone. Hopefully they would finish soon. It had been a long day for him, running around the hospital fixing technical issues that were primarily user error. He was ready to relax. He looked back at the boy, whose small arms began to twitch. The boy began to squirm, his chest rising and falling as he sucked in large, deep breaths. Chris froze, unsure if he should wait for Dr. Katz to return or to fetch him now. After a few moments, the boy began to shake violently, causing the bed to rattle and squeak. Chris ran to the bed and pulled up the safety bar so that the boy would not fall off. In a panic, he yelled for Dr. Katz.
Dr. Katz ran into the room and checked the health monitor. The boy’s heart rate dropped, sending the monitor into a flurry of loud, obnoxious alerts. “Grab Nancy!” he commanded.
Chris darted out of the room, stricken with fear. The world around him seemed to move in slow motion. The sound was diluted except for the steady beeping of the monitor. He couldn’t even hear himself as he yelled for Nancy and then for any other nurse. Anyone who could help. Anyone who could bring a crash cart just in case.
“Code blue!” a voice yelled down the hall. The yell was quickly succeeded by footsteps and scrambling.
A nurse pushed right past Chris with a crash cart. He followed her into the room and found Dr. Katz leaning over the boy, performing chest compressions. With one strong snatch, the nurse unsnapped the top half of the boy’s hospital gown and pressed defibrillator pads onto his chest.
Dr. Katz plugged a line from the defibrillator into the health monitor, stepped back, then motioned for everyone to follow suit. “Clear!” he yelled.
Chris receded to his original spot and watched as the boy’s body jumped from the electrical current. He still wasn’t breathing. The defibrillator sent another shock. And then another, until the monitor buzzed, alerting the room that the patient was deceased, announcing time of death in a monotone voice: 6:02 p.m.
“What the shit!” Dr. Katz shouted as he slapped the monitor.
The nurse gently closed the door, then returned to the boy. She began to pull the sheet over his lifeless face, but Dr. Katz grabbed her hand.
“Get out!” he yelled at her. He then fumbled for the patient chart and flipped it open. He placed the tip of his pen on the paper, then stopped himself. “No, wait, Katie. First, you tell me what took you so long. Why was no one at the nurse’s station?”
Katie looked at Chris, wide-eyed, and then to Dr. Katz. “I…I, um, Doctor, I don’t know. My shift hasn’t even started yet. The, um, I was looking—”
Dr. Katz closed the boy’s gown. “Just go. Get out there and find out where everyone is and tell them I said they need to be at their stations.”
Chris felt sick to his stomach at the death of the boy, and the anger emanating from Dr. Katz made it worse. He watched Katie leave, then spoke up, the beeping of the monitor still faintly ringing in his head. “That was uncalled for.”
“Chris, I’m sorry,” Dr. Katz said, his voice low. “I studied the charts. I wasn’t…I wasn’t expecting that. And I’m thinking about the other patients.” He wrote a note on the patient chart, then rubbed his tired eyes with the back of his hand. “I need to go speak with Dr. Busby. You should get out of here. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“Dr. Katz,” Nancy called from the doorway, “Dr. Busby said she just had five more intakes, and one of the previously admitted just passed.”
“The one she sent down just passed as well,” Chris said, frowning. “What is this? Were they all exposed to something?”
Nancy shrugged. She continued, her voice now shaky. “I don’t know what it is, hon. Dr. Busby called Garnett Hospital. Said they’re getting kids with the same symptoms. There’s talk of a possible epidemic.”
Dr. Katz stared blankly at the boy. “Where’re my nurses?”
“They’ve been pulled to prepare for more intakes,” Nancy replied. “The chief of staff took ’em. Also said he wants a word.” Nancy fidgeted in her pockets and pulled out a small piece of paper. “Says he wants you to contact Amy Boughan at the CDC, then speak with him. Wants to pull in all on-call staffers.”
Dr. Katz tossed the patient file to Chris. “I’m understaffed and need to prepare in case we get more patients. Can you stay and help?”
Chis nodded, even though he was uneasy with his agreement. “What about your dog?”
Dr. Katz sighed heavily and threw his hands in the air. “Fuck! I forgot already. Call my sister, have her get him. Also, I need you to take this boy to the morgue. We might need the space. Then take another patient from Pediatrics and get them scanned.” He looked at Nancy. “I need you to call around to other hospitals in Houston and see what you can find. Any treatment info, timelines, trends, anything. See what the reach of this thing is. And tell Dr. Busby you’re working that so she can focus on the new patients.”
Chris picked at the hem of his shirt. He had never worked with patients before, and in his role in the technology department, he was instructed to keep his distance from them. “Wait,” he said. “I don’t think I’m allowed to do that. Can’t someone else help?”
Dr. Katz rushed past Chris. “Look around. There isn’t anyone else. I’m the chief. You can do whatever I ask you to do.”
Chris accepted that directive and placed the patient file on the side of the bed. He gently pulled up the sheet so that it covered the boy’s face. He couldn’t look at him. The sight twisted his guts and made him feel light-headed. Even the proximity of the dead body was surreal. And the dead body of a child made it worse.
His eyes began to tear up. He didn’t even see himself unlocking the wheels of the bed and pushing it into the hall. All he could see was the dead face of the boy behind the barrier. The gentle curvature of the sheet as it hugged the bridge of his nose. The faces of optimism from his friends before it began, and the horrified expressions thereafter.
– 2 –
Caprice
Day 1
Cadence Science
Houston, Texas
Jessica Koland flipped through the set of reports again and settled on the last page of an upward-trending line graph. After thoroughly focusing on the projection of Day Five, she buried her right hand under her chin in disbelief, her shoulders hunching into their new natural resting position and her mouth distorting into a cross between a smile and a frown until she was confident that she understood the data presented to her. She sat up straight in her chair and pulled her shoulders back to regain her composure. Although astonished by the report, she needed to remain calm and collected. Fighting back the tremble in her voice, she glanced at her visitor through the corners of her eyes. “Are you sure
this is correct?”
“Yes, ma’am. I had the team of analysts check it four times and then reviewed it myself. We cross-checked this current data with data from this segment going back ten years and confirmed that this is one hundred percent accurate. I also have all the raw data and calculations here.” Bryan Kenson handed Dr. Koland a three-inch binder filled to the brim with freshly printed paper, still warm to the touch. He shifted his weight uncomfortably onto his left leg. “I can review it with you if you like.”
Jessica brushed the stray strands of long black hair that had fallen out of her loose bun away from her face. “That won’t be necessary. I’ve been closely following this endeavor, and I have to say, I’m very pleased with the progress that you all have made. Even with the loss of manpower from the sugar flu, or whatever the media is calling it today.”
She reviewed the last chart again, her index finger resting on the last marker. “This five-day projection is good, but have the team also put together a projection of the last twenty-four hours. As the broadcast from Messier 83 reaches our magnetosphere, I want to track it by the hour. Let’s get this information out by two…” Attempting to hide her anxiety, she exhaled a long, slow breath and continued, “…so that we can request the use of the Caprice. It’s the only spaceship we have that can make that journey, and from what you’ve shown me, this is too important to just view from a telescope. One hour, Bryan.”
Bryan nodded, and Jessica could feel his excitement as he tried to hold back a smile. She knew the report would shine a spotlight on him and his team. This could mean job security, raises, and more importantly, recognition. They were known as a team of leeches to Cadence leadership, just draining money out of the company year after year, always taking but never giving. Bryan was identified as the head leech, instructing his team to keep devouring their host until they were tragically plucked away and sent to unemployment. Jessica never felt that way about him. She knew his team would eventually find something in the midst of the everything and nothing that was the universe. The beyond was too big and too frightening for Earth to be so unique and alone. Then here he was today, on the brink of something new and exciting…and all on his own.
