Safe Haven (Book 1): Rise of the Rams

by Christopher Artinian

  “Samantha and I are here to give you a little check-up to make sure you’re all okay. You’ve probably heard that some people are getting quite ill at the moment and we want to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.” She looked towards Emma. “Where’s the best place for us to do this? Ideally somewhere with a little privacy.”

  Emma suggested the dining room. Lucy picked up her bags and asked for a moment to prepare before they began the exams. Lucy closed the door behind her and leant against it, closing her eyes tightly. “Oh God,” she whispered and reached into her pocket for a small plastic bottle. She placed one of the small pills on her tongue and cocked her head back to swallow. She winced a little as the bitter oxycodone tablet caught and dissolved on the back of her tongue on the way down. Okay, now she was ready. She set up the laptop and her equipment and headed back to the door. “Okay, Emma, would you like to come in?” she said, smiling. Just another day at the surgery.

  “Okay, this will only take a few minutes. I’m going to do a full examination and then I’m going to take a little bit of blood for testing. So if you could remove your clothes, please, we’ll take a look at you and then get your brothers and sister done.”

  Emma was taken aback at first but then logic told her it made perfect sense that a physical needed to be done. She stripped down to her underwear and raised her eyebrows as if to say this too? Lucy nodded and Emma stood there while some data was entered onto the laptop. Subconsciously she clasped her hands together in front of her groin. Lucy finished and stood up, hiding a small smile as she noticed her patient nervously covering her private parts. Virtually everyone she had ever examined did the same thing, but it always made her chuckle inside.

  What contact did you have with your father in the last ten days, Emma?” she asked as she began the examination.

  “Well, Mike and I had been sitting with him in shifts, until the last couple of days when we both stayed with him through the night.”

  “Sorry, I meant what physical contact have you had?”

  “Well, both Mike and I have given him bed baths and... you know... changed him.” Emma looked at Lucy, hoping she wouldn’t make her go into the details about having to change her stepfather’s adult nappies. “Obviously whenever we did anything like that, we wore the protective gloves and masks provided.” Then Emma took a deep intake of breath and remembered that very morning when she held Alex’s hand and kissed him on the forehead. The colour drained away from her face.

  “What’s wrong, Emma?”

  “This... this morning, I held his hand and kissed him on the forehead. Could I have caught anything by doing that, doctor?”

  The doctor gave her a warm smile and shook her head. “There are only three ways for this virus to be passed from one person to another: bites, scratches and other exchanges of bodily fluids. Don’t worry, you’re fine.”

  Emma breathed a big sigh, but chastised herself for being so careless.

  *

  Mike closed the door behind the two hazmat men and walked back into the lounge. The young nurse had both Jake and Sammy working on their colouring books. His sister looked up at him and then turned away, still not ready to talk. Jake carried on, completely oblivious.

  Mike smiled. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

  Samantha smiled back, clearly pleased to have been recognised. “I’m amazed you remember. I’m Claire White’s sister.”

  Mike had gone out with Claire White for about three months before he had been arrested. Her parents had barred her from having anything to do with him again, but with the help of her sister, Claire had managed one visit to the institute before her parents found out. Shortly after, the family moved away from the area.

  “Good grief. It’s Samantha, isn’t it?”

  “You know Samantha?” Sammy said, surprised.

  “Yeah... from quite a long time ago.”

  “I like her. She’s nice,” said Sammy, before going back to her colouring.

  Samantha and Mike smiled at each other, then Mike continued. “So, you’re in the army now?”

  “Good grief, no. Well, sort of,” she said, not quite sure herself.

  “Erm... okay.”

  “Well, normally I work at St James, but there are very few people in the hospitals now. A lot of medical staff have been... well... almost conscripted. Lucy – Dr Blair – and I work out of an army base just outside of the quarantine zone. We come in to deal with this kind of thing.”

  The news was state run these days. The information that filtered through was very limited, so Mike wanted to take advantage of having somebody from the outside to talk to. “So what’s happened to all the sick people? Y’know, the ones who have broken bones, inflamed appendix, that kind of thing?”

  She looked down for a moment, wondering how much she could or should tell, then looked back up at him, remembering how her sister had been completely smitten, and the reason why he had ended up in the young offenders’ institute. She would have done exactly the same thing in that situation, if she’d had his courage.

  “Wherever possible, people are treated in their homes by an MMU and then their families are given a care kit, similar to the type of thing you would have had, but with items in it appropriate to that specific problem.”

  “What’s an MMU?”

  “Oh, sorry. Mobile Medical Unit.”

  “And what happens if it’s something that can’t be dealt with by an MMU?”

  “Well, there are very few emergencies that can’t be dealt with, but in extreme cases they’ll be taken to a field hospital that’s been set up just outside the quarantine zone. Unless... y’know... they’re...” She mouthed the last word, infected.

  Mike nodded.

  “To be honest, though,” she continued, “since they closed all the pubs and brought in the curfew, there has been a massive drop in emergency calls.”

  The door opened and Lucy and Emma came back into the lounge.

  “Okay, you two, come in here for a minute and then I’ll make you a nice hot chocolate,” said Emma, trying to capitalise on the fact that the children had stopped crying for the time being.

  The pair dropped their pencils and walked into the dining room with an air of curiosity. The door closed again.

  “What about you? How are you holding up?”

  “Well, let’s see. For the past two weeks I’ve seen my stepfather and best friend slowly wither away to nothing. This morning I watched him take his final breath as the man I knew, and then he woke up again as some kind of blood-crazed monster, if the news reports are to be believed. So, I stuck a five-inch piece of plastic into his eye socket and extinguished all life from him, forever. Then, if that wasn’t enough, Sammy got to see the aftermath of it all. Can’t say things are going well at the moment.” He hung his head. Putting words to the morning’s events gave them a grim finality.

  “I’m sorry. It was stupid of me to ask.” She got up from her chair, moved across to the sofa and placed her hand over Mike’s. “Sammy told me about what she’d seen before you came back down. I tried to explain what had happened and how you had acted to protect everyone. She’s a bright girl, you can see her mind whirring away, processing everything.”

  Mike looked at Samantha, grateful for the comfort. “It doesn’t feel like I’m doing a very good job at the moment.”

  She took a tighter hold of his hand and felt an impulse to help him, to help his family. Things were coming to a head out on the streets and she felt people should be warned, despite the gagging order that was in place. “Your sisters and your brother are all alive thanks to you, so as far as I’m concerned you’re doing a great job. Listen to me, Mike, and please don’t let a word of this slip to anyone because I could get into real trouble. We don’t get many calls that end like this any more. Usually when someone has a member of the family who is infected, it’s not a medical unit that goes round to finish things off.” She paused, wondering whether to continue, then carried on regardless of the consequences. “
We’re losing this battle, Mike. According to the news there are only two quarantined zones, but there have been smaller outbreaks all over the country. They’re going to announce over the next couple of days that the electricity is going to be rationed further. Rather than 8am to 8pm, it’s going to be 10am to 4pm. The food rations will be brought round door to door rather than having collection points, and they’re talking about bringing in new measures for scratch victims.” She wanted to continue but realised she had already said too much.

  “What do you mean? What new measures?”

  “Well, the rumour is, they’ll be treated the same as bite victims.”

  Silence hung between them, both knowing bite victims were immediately put down to avoid the risk of the infection spreading.

  “And this is just a rumour too, but there’s talk that they’re going to bring in a national curfew rather than just the quarantine zones.”

  “So, if there have been other outbreaks, how come more quarantine zones haven’t been set up?”

  Samantha let out a sigh. “There are a lot of stories going around about the reasons. There aren’t official quarantines in place, but there is certainly a bigger military presence in those areas. Here and Portsmouth are the two areas that are being featured on the news, and massive resources have been spent to contain the outbreaks. The fact is though, that the government put all their eggs in... well... two baskets. They were hoping they’d be able to minimise the advance of the infection by cordoning off these two areas. They thought that might give them time to develop a vaccine, but the other outbreaks are just spreading them too thin. I mean, you’ve seen the emergency kits with the flares, protective masks, goggles and the rest of it. That stuff costs a lot and takes time to produce. To do what they did was nothing short of a miracle, but things are starting to...” She trailed off, not knowing how or whether to continue.

  “So how do you know all this? Where’s all this news coming from?”

  “Well, like I said, a lot of it is rumour. But most of the rumours I hear at the base end up being true. Plus, I know that a lot of medical staff have been seconded to other areas, to help set up units similar to ours.” She looked down and realised she was still holding Mike’s hand. She was happy for the comfort it gave her, but realised it would look inappropriate if the doctor came back, so she let go.

  “Samantha, are you telling me that it’s all over?”

  For a moment, their eyes were fixed on each other and then she looked away, unable to answer.

  “Samantha?” Mike tried to continue the questioning, but the dining room door opened again.

  Jake and Emma came out hand in hand, while Sammy was behind still struggling to slip her sweatshirt on. Lucy stood in the doorway, beckoning Mike into the room.

  He entered and sat across from her, unaware of the drill. She typed some information into the laptop, broke off for a second to smile and apologise for the brief delay and then quickly finished off her typing.

  “Emma’s been telling me you’ve had quite a time,” she announced, then tilted her head sideways as if weighing up her patient.

  “You could say that.”

  “Well, this is going to be very brief, you’ll be glad to hear. I’m going to take a little blood from you and then give you a physical examination. The whole thing will probably take less than five minutes.” She noticed dark circles under Mike’s eyes. “When was the last time you slept?”

  Mike exhaled deeply and screwed up his face in an attempt to jog his memory. “Two days ago. I think.”

  “Whoa, you’re going to have to get some proper sleep! Do you want me to give you a mild sedative before I leave?”

  “No thanks, doctor. As soon as I hit the pillow I’ll be out like a light. Plus, I’m not a big fan of taking drugs if I can avoid it.”

  For a second, Lucy shivered with paranoia. “What do you mean?” she asked, with the start of a frown on her face.

  “I just don’t like taking drugs. I prefer to let my body sort itself out if it can.”

  “Shall we ask the black circles under your eyes how they feel about that?” she said sarcastically.

  A look of surprised confusion came over Mike’s face and Lucy realised that her insecurity was unfounded, that he had just made an innocent off-the-cuff remark. She smiled disarmingly and stood up, placing her stethoscope in her ears and onto Mike’s chest in one fluid action. She then checked his ears and his pupillary response and took a swab from the inside of his mouth. Mike offered his arm instinctively and she doused a little alcohol onto a small patch of skin.

  “Okay, you’re going to feel a little nip.”

  Mike grimaced as the needle went into his arm. He looked away, hearing the hiss of the syringe as it slowly filled with his blood. His eye twitched a little as he thought back to the blood he had seen earlier that morning.

  “Okay, all done. I’m out of lollipops, though, I’m afraid.” She smiled as she put a small plaster over the needle mark. “All righty then. If you could strip down for me while I get this labelled.”

  Mike was clearly embarrassed but did as requested. Lucy placed the phial of blood in her case next to three others and wrote out a little label which she carefully attached. She entered some more notes into her laptop and by the time she looked up again, Mike had stripped down and was standing with his hands carefully clasped in front of him.

  “Head down, please,” she said as she flicked through his hair like she was looking for lice. She checked behind his ears, gently upturned his chin, moved one hand to the back of his head and kept one hand at the front to angle him towards the light. She extended his arms and checked both sides.

  Mike was impressed by how thorough she was, and the embarrassment of being naked dissipated with the realisation that she probably did this dozens of times a day. The doctor completed her examination of the front of his body and gently turned him round. He felt her light hands touch his shoulders and he could sense the movement behind him as she carried out the physical. Then she stopped. Mike heard her take a step back and felt the cold air against him when just seconds before it had been warmed by her breath. He heard footsteps move across to the door and the handle turn.

  “Samantha, can you come in here a minute, please?” Lucy asked, sounding so casual that for a split second even Mike didn’t think anything was wrong.

  The nurse walked through the door, closing it behind her. Silence.

  Mike angled his head round, conscious of the fact that he was naked. He looked at the two faces behind him. Their eyes were focussed on his lower back and he noticed that Lucy had unclipped a walkie-talkie from her belt. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  Samantha slowly looked up. Her eyes met his and where there had been compassion and warmth just a few minutes earlier, now there was sorrow. Her mouth opened slightly but nothing came out.

  “Before using the RPA this morning, was there any contact between yourself and Mr Munro?” Lucy asked clinically.

  “No. Why?”

  She raised the walkie-talkie towards her mouth, but Samantha gently grabbed her arm. “Mike, you’ve got a scratch just above your left buttock.”

  A look of realisation swept over his face and he let out a premature sigh of relief. “Bloody hell, you got me worried then.”

  The walkie-talkie was inches away from Lucy’s mouth. “If you’ve got an explanation, I want to hear it quickly. Otherwise, I’m going to have to get the guards in here.”

  “Look, this morning, after... well... I had to get Alex in the body bag by myself. Em was downstairs with the kids and I just wanted the job done. I did the best I could, but I was rushing, and after I got his legs into the bag, I stood up quickly and caught myself on the corner of the chest of drawers. It was just a scrape, honestly.”

  Lucy lowered the walkie-talkie. “Show us. Show us exactly what happened.”

  “Do you mind if I put some clothes on first?”

  “Hurry up.” The two women gave each other a look that Mike c
ouldn’t read.

  A minute later they entered the bedroom. Lucy noticed the wet patch next to the bed. “What’s that?” No compassion. This was still serious. Mike hadn’t convinced her.

  “That’s where I threw my guts up after killing my stepfather.” Mike was getting annoyed with the doctor’s accusatory tone. “Look, I can’t even imagine the horrors you must have seen in the last few months, but this morning I... I did the most horrible, sickening thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. I wanted to be strong for my family, because they need someone to be strong for them. But that sight, that realisation was too much for me and I was sick. I vomited and retched until there was nothing left. I know that’s not manly or brave or heroic, but that’s what I did.” Mike’s voice shook as he relived the memory.

  The stern look on the two women’s faces eased a little. “Mike, can you show us how you got scratched?” Samantha asked.

  Mike went across to the chest of drawers and demonstrated. Lucy walked over and got him to do it again, pausing him at the point of impact and pulling his jogging pants down a little to see if she could marry the wound with the corner of the piece of furniture.

  She reclipped the walkie-talkie to her belt and stood there, studying Mike in silence. The seconds dragged into a minute and she walked across to the chair Mike had been sitting in the previous night. She flopped into it and let out a deep breath.

  “Well? Don’t leave me hanging, Doc,” Mike pleaded. “Do you believe me?”

  She leaned forward and brushed her hands over her tired eyes. “We got a directive through this morning. I haven’t even had chance to share it with you yet, Samantha.” She looked at the young nurse and continued. “There have been mutterings about it for a couple of weeks now, but as of zero six hundred hours it became official. Scratch victims are to be dealt with the same as bite victims. No tolerance, no leeway. If a member of an infected household has injuries that are consistent with scratch marks, they’re meant to be treated as if they were infected.” Lucy looked down to the ground, defeated. “I do believe you, Mike, but that doesn’t matter according to the new rules.”