by Marie Lanza
Melody looked as Jason, concerned about his well-being, but Jason didn’t have any worry on his face, he never did. Melody knew she had to trust his instincts, and trust he was making the right decision for them.
“It’s no problem,” Jason said.
“Great.” Smith shook his head, obviously relieved. “Great.” He turned around, and continued leading them to the medical ward.
Smith entered a door stenciled with MEDICAL DEPARTMENT in red paint. He held the door open as Beck entered, followed by Melody and Aubrey, then Jason. Large red crosses marked the floor, one after the other, as they traveled down the hall. They passed by what was once the regular waiting area, several rooms with closed doors, the blinds shut, which Melody assumed were exam rooms or offices, before turning down another short passageway and through large, swinging doors, leading to a large clean room, with tub-style sinks, boxes of latex gloves, paper towels and soap lining the walls above them. On another wall, protective gear was hanging on the walls.
“Melody, the office is there.” Smith pointed at a door to his right. “There’s a desk, some chairs, and cot in there. A restroom too. You can make yourself, uhh… make yourself as comfortable as you can in there. Jason, I’d like to introduce you to our facilities before we get you and your family settled.” There was always something uneasy in Smith’s tone as he spoke.
Melody looked at Jason then at the office. She nodded in approval and took Aubrey inside. The door had a window allowing her to see into the clean room; inside the office, there was a larger window that gave her a view into the medical ward.
Smith washed his hands. Jason and Beck washed up as well. Jason grabbed extra gloves and put them away in his pockets. Beck gave him a second look, questioning the reason, but did the same. They followed Smith to the wall with the protective gear and began to suit up.
The exam room was large with three rows of beds holding about fifteen beds each. The tension in the medical ward was fear-filled but otherwise, an organized mess, with an odor of disinfectant, sweat and blood. Nurses, also wearing protective gear, scattered around the room attending to patients in their beds. There were no privacy curtains separating the patients, which Jason assumed was for safety reasons. People were scared and confused, as they were asked routine questions and their bodies were inspected.
“The nurses will do the initial exams, we’ll follow behind, review reports, answer questions.” Smith walked down the aisle to the other side of the ward and opened another door labeled, ISOLATION. He entered with Jason and Beck following.
Inside the isolation unit, there were about half the beds and fortunately fewer patients compared with the exam room. A movie played on a big screen TV mounted on the far wall, but when the men entered, the patients’ attention turned to them. There were two nurses in the room seated at a desk piled with reports, attempting to complete them from behind their protective suits. They also looked up on their entrance. Jason immediately noticed that every patient was strapped down to their beds.
Smith didn’t speak for a few moments. He gave a nod to the nurses and turned to Jason and Beck, “This is where we hold the patients who may be infected. They’ve been wounded in some way, they’re sick, things of that nature. We wash them, change their clothes, and they stay in here. We allow one family member to join if they have any.”
“Why are they strapped down?” Beck asked.
“It’s for our protection and the protection of the other patients. If they’re infected and turn, they aren’t able to hurt anyone and we can safely get them into quarantine without taking them out of their bed.”
“Wait.” Jason turned to the two officers and sternly asked, “If I’m going to be of any assistance here, I need a better understanding of what exactly we are dealing with. I’ve seen a lot in my medical career and I’m at a loss. What exactly is happening to these people as the infection takes over? They act as if they’re rabid – but I can’t see any intentional motor control beyond attack. And their pallor… they look… dead.”
Smith sighed nervously. “From everything we can tell, you’re right. They are dead.”
“But… how?” Jason started, shocked by the words he was hearing.
“Honestly, we just don’t know,” the doctor replied. “After the infection, there are flu-like symptoms that ultimately kill the infected. That we know. But what happens next I can’t explain. They… for lack of a better word… come back to life, but they aren’t alive. There is no mental activity that we can determine, no heartbeat, no breathing. But they keep moving… and they are violent. The infected know one thing and that is to attack – and to kill.”
Jason took a deep breath and looked back to Beck. “Then how do we stop this?”
“One by one, I’m afraid,” Beck replied. “We’ve only found one weakness in these creatures. Destroy the brain.”
“Do we know exactly how the sickness is transferred?” Jason asked.
“We’re confident it’s a virus that’s spread by bodily fluids. That’s all we know so far,” Smith said.
Jason felt like he had received all the information he was going to get, so he turned back to the isolation room. “How long are they in here?”
“Isolation is for 72 hours. That’s how long reports have said it could take for the change to occur. If they don’t change, then we release them back to regular population.”
“What happens if it takes longer?” Beck asked.
“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.” Smith made his way down the isle of beds to the other side of the room to the door labeled, QUARANTINE; he entered.
“Shit!” Beck shouted, instinctively reaching for his 9mm Beretta, only to make the unfortunate realization it was under the hazmat suit.
”It’s OK, it’s OK!” Smith waved his hands up to grab their attention.
Smith could wave his hands in the air all day, Jason and Beck weren’t going to take their eyes off the sight before them.
The ward was as large as the exam room, only it was a room of cells, packed with infected. The smell was overwhelming, but the sight was much worse. The infected piled against the cell doors, pressing against the bars, almost appearing as though their decaying bodies could squeeze through the bars like a steak through a meat grinder. The infected were at various stages of decay; from human features to being completely unrecognizable of anything once a living person.
”What the hell are you thinking keeping them here?” Beck asked.
“To learn anything we can. Maybe we can stop the infection,” Smith said.
“Stop it? Look at them, man! They’re rotting! If they press anymore on those bars…” Beck stopped suddenly, watching as one of the infected’s heads collapsed from the force of being pushed through the cell bars. Dark blood dripped from the sides of the infected’s skull and small parts of bone were visible where the skin had torn away from the skull. “My point exactly.”
“For all intents and purposes, they are dead. And dead tissue rots. If we can’t stop people from becoming infected, we should be able to wait them out. We need to ensure that’s the case.”
”I thought you said you kept them tied to their beds?” Jason asked.
“Well… there have been some incidents….”
Jason didn’t need an explanation, his eyes told him everything. Most of the infected probably were at one point tied to their beds; now, they had torn through the ties or their hands had been cut by their efforts to escape the binds.
“I’ve seen enough. Let’s get the hell out of here.” Jason didn’t wait for either of the officers to answer or follow. He left the room, walked through the isolation room, and made his way back to the exam room. As Jason walked down the aisles of beds in the medical ward, every scared face he passed by made him question the safety of his family. He thought about whether or not he made the right decision to help or whether he should walk away, go into general population of the ship, and just be a regular civilian.
Entering the clean room, J
ason shed his protective suit, and made his way back to the office where Melody and the baby were waiting, but not before he took in a few breaths to calm his nerves.
Melody nervously waited as Aubrey played on the floor. She caught sight of Jason in deep thought outside the door, almost as if he were hesitating to enter. She knew immediately something was wrong. He couldn’t hide anything from her, even if he wanted too.
Jason looked up towards the office and made eye contact with Melody. There was never going to be a good time to tell her what he just witnessed, so he figured this was just as good as any. Jason made his way into the clean room, and to the office.
“What’s wrong?” Melody asked before Jason even stepped foot into the office.
“I don’t want you to panic,” Jason said. He thought to himself that his concerns must be written all over his face, and he underestimated how transparent he was to his wife.
“Then why would you say don’t panic? Now I’m panicking!” Melody turned around and looked for Aubrey. She made her way over to the baby and picked her up.
Jason closed the door behind him. “Honey, there’s nothing to be alarmed about. But, you need to know, they’re not just keeping possible cases on the ship…there’s an entire room full of infected.”
“Oh my God, Jason! Infected on the ship?”
“They’re all locked away…”
“Still, what’s the point of getting processed? I thought they were removing those who were sick.”
“They aren’t removing them from the boats. They’re locking them up in quarantine.” Jason approached Melody and brushed Aubrey’s hair away from her face. “I’m leaving this up to you. We can go be regular civilians or stay here and I can do what I can to help.”
“Without getting near those infected?”
“Yes. I’ll make that clear.”
Melody took a moment to think about his words. Staying would mean Jason would be exposed to people that were possibly infected. But, if sick people were missed during processing, being among the general population brought just as much, maybe more risk.
Melody took in a deep breath and wrapped her free arm around Jason. “We stay here and you do what you can to help,” she said reluctantly.
“OK.”
The door opened. Jason and Melody turned around to find Smith and Beck standing in the doorway.
“Everything’s fine. Why don’t we get started and you can get me up to speed?” Jason released Melody.
“I can take you and the little one to get some food if you’d like. I need to attend a briefing, then I can bring you back here,” Beck offered. “Smith, do you have someone that you could spare to escort us?”
Smith nodded in affirmation and turned to talk to one of the young corpsmen.
Melody looked to Jason who shrugged his shoulders. “Sounds like a good idea. You can bring me something back.”
“It would be great to get out of this room for a while too. Thanks.” Melody followed Beck out of the office.
Aubrey mumbled, “Bye bye?” and waved to her daddy.
Jason smiled and kissed her forehead, “Not for long though. Daddy will see you soon.”
Melody hadn’t thought too hard about leaving Jason in the medical ward while she and Aubrey went to get something to eat. As Melody and the major followed the corpsman up several staircases and through the maze of steel halls on the ship, she realized that she would never make it back to the ward on her own. She felt a sudden twist in her stomach, that without help, she was lost on a ship with thousands of military and civilians… and infected.
Melody followed just a few paces behind Beck, watching him greet every sailor and soldier they passed. She searched every civilian face hoping to lay her eyes on Harmony or Dan, but only met more strangers.
They made it to the Mess Hall where a line had formed and snaked around the walls, almost out the door.
“I’ll leave you here so you and the little one can get something to eat. By the time you’re done, I’m sure I’ll be finished with my briefs and come back to get you,” Beck said.
“What if you don’t come back? I mean, what if you get caught up in work? How should I begin to get back to the medical ward?” Melody tried to hide the frightened little girl in her voice.
“I’ll be back. Don’t worry, I hate these things. I’d rather be fighting those things out there than dealing with the politics. We’ll find our way back together.” Beck winked and continued down the hall without another word.
Melody took in a deep breath, looked at her sweet baby girl, and filed into the food line. Aubrey snuggled in her neck.
Aubrey pointed her little fingers to the food counter and patted Melody on her chest.
“Yeah, baby, we’re gonna get some food. Mommy’s hungry too.”
For the size of the crowd, it was strangely quiet. Melody scanned the room for familiar faces, and again, she only saw strangers. Tired, defeated faces stared in silence, eating minimal bites of the food sitting on their plates in front of them. She wasn’t quite sure how she was going to hold anything down but she figured it was a good idea to try.
The line moved at a steady slow pace. At the front, Melody picked up a tray and placed a plate, to-go box down and put utensils on it. It was a bit of a struggle, but she had no intention of letting Aubrey walk, even if just by her side. As they moved down the line passing various food options, Melody picked a few vegetables and what looked like some sort of sloppy joe meat sandwich.
Balancing the tray in one hand and holding Aubrey in her other arm, Melody sat down at the first available spot she found.
As Aubrey ate her food, Melody continued to search the room. Face after face. Most shuffled their food around their plates rather than eating it, others talked about missing family members. There were also the loud ones, the conspiracy theorists conversed among each other, loud enough for the rest to hear. The discussions were heated, bringing passionate opinions about the civilians being lied to about the infection. Melody tried to ignore them and concentrate on Aubrey, but the words, ‘experiments gone wrong,’ ‘government cover-up,’ and ‘planet-wide termination’ stuck out.
“Ya know, the squids make pretty good food. You should try to eat something.” Melody looked behind her and Beck was making his way around the table.
As he made himself comfortable across the table from Melody, she looked at her food, smiled and looked back up to him.
“Back so soon?”
“Yeah, like I said, I hate those things. Nothing but political bull.”
Melody had grown to like Beck’s no-nonsense personality.
“Anything new?” Melody asked.
”Not really. We’ll stay docked out here for a few days. The brass will call more meetings, same drill of back and forth, and we’ll go from there.”
Melody smiled. The conversation was a nice relief from their circumstances.
Voices rose from the table behind Beck. There were two older men sitting, one so skinny with his skin dry and scabby, he may have been a drug addict, and the other a little heavier but had the same look. It was only a second after their argument grew loud, they were standing up, having a shouting match over who knew more about why people were getting sick. The skinny man then screamed out that everyone was doomed to die. Within seconds, the skinny man jumped over the table attacking the other, sending everyone around them to their feet in an attempt to get away from the scuffle.
The mess hall was so overly crowded that the military guards were having trouble fighting through the crowd that gathered around the two men.
Beck looked annoyed that he was going to have to trouble himself with breaking up a fight. He waded through several bystanders and picked the skinny man on top up off the floor, separating him from the other.
“Calm down, calm down!” Beck pulled the man into him, holding his arms behind his back. “You’re scaring people. Relax!” he said with a lowered voice.
“Fuck you!” the man shouted. “You’re
part of this! You’re all part of this!”
Security finally arrived and tackled the heavier man who was getting back to his feet. The two men fought to get at each other, still screaming profanities. It wasn’t long until they turned their aggression on Beck and the security. The two security officers holding the heavier man lost control, and within seconds, he was on top of the skinny man Beck was holding, sending all three tumbling to the ground.
Melody grabbed Aubrey and moved away from the scuffle.
Beck roared in pain, and with his anger, lifted himself away from the troublemakers. The security were able to regain control of the two men, giving Beck the opportunity he wanted – slugging both, knocking the men out cold.
“Sir, you’re bleeding!” one of the officers said concerned.
Beck looked down at this forearm then back to the men. “It’s nothing. Get these two losers to the medical ward to get checked out, then take them both to the brig.”
“Are you alright?”
Beck turned around to find Melody cradling Aubrey. “Nothing to worry about. Let’s get you back to the medical ward.”
* * *
Jason went from bed to bed, reading reports, looking over patients, and encouraging smiles from the scared individuals. He was thankful to only be tending to scrapes and bruises instead of dealing with what lay inside the next two rooms. Smith handled those areas with the help of two nurses. Jason tried to stay focused on the patients, but he found himself distracted by the doors that lead to the isolation ward and beyond that, quarantine.
Jason couldn’t shake the vision of what he had seen in quarantine. A part of him still couldn’t understand why they were keeping the infected instead of just killing them. The other part of him knew exactly why they were being held. Jason was certain they were studying them, hoping to figure out what this infection was and finding a cure.
As Jason circled the room, he was relieved to see Melody and Aubrey walk into the clean room with Beck. As Melody and Aubrey entered the office, she paused in the window and waved to Jason. Aubrey copied her mother, giving a tiny wave.
