“Shit!” he heard someone say beyond the connecting door to the lab. A hissed “shhh” followed.
He crept toward it, trying to hear, but the sound didn’t repeat. “Hello?” he asked softly, his hand on the doorknob. He didn’t want it to fling open. Not until he was ready or knew they wouldn’t attack. He risked a soft knock. “Not crazy. I’m with some people. We need help.”
Something brushed against the other side of the door. “Where’d you go after the conference room? Who’sh with you? Anyone i’fected?”
“How would he know that?” scolded the other voice.
“He came back to the lab, maybe he’sh a—”
“I wasn’t in a conference room,” interrupted Neil, whispering into the crack. The wait was making him nervous. “Just escaped my room when a policeman opened the door. I ran into a lady from the cafe. She needs some bandages. Maybe stitches. Someone who knows more about medicine than I do. The lab was closest so I came to get what we need and to warn whoever I found.”
“Your room?”
“Jesus, Cody, it’s a patient. Open the door, for goodness sake.”
The door inched open slightly. Neil saw an eye appear in the gap. He didn’t let go of the doorknob, ready to slam the door closed again if necessary. “Is that true? You a patient?”
Neil nodded.
“Are there more of you on your floor?” asked the other voice.
“I— I’m not sure. We were locked in. I looked into some of the rooms when I left, but I was in a hurry. People were chasing me. The ones I saw were— they were violent. Checked on my friend a few doors down, but he wasn’t there, just a dead body in the bathroom. Like the one outside. I didn’t stick around.”
The door opened a little wider and the eye became a man’s face. “Shaid you were with people though.”
“Two others. Found them in the stairwell. They’re at the cafe. Look, if you’re the doctors I’m looking for, Shay said you left the conference room before things got bad. You need to know about the sick people, they’re—”
“Irrational and violent. We know. You said your friends are in the cafe, that’s good. Food and water and facilities there,” said the voice behind the man. The man glanced over his shoulder. “Dunno Debbie— we dunno anything about ‘em. Could be trying to get sssomething from us.”
“Like what?” asked Neil. “I came to get some first aid supplies, that’s it. I’d appreciate the help of a doctor, but if I can’t find one who’s willing, we’ll find a way to manage. Going to fix up the people I’m with and then we’re going to look for a way out of here. Or— I’ll look for a way, if they feel safer here. That’s it. I’ll take information if you’ve got that, but otherwise, it’s a big hospital. I can go find supplies at any nursing station—”
“We’re better off together,” came the voice from farther in. “Let him in. We give you supplies, agree to patch up your friends, you take us back to the cafe, right?”
Neil peered past the man’s shoulder to see a woman in a ripped lab coat. The same doctor who’d treated him the first night. She had a bruise on her jaw and was holding a wad of gauze to her arm. He was alarmed and angry to see her. If you’d just released me last night, none of this would be my problem. But it was too late to do anything about it now. And she was just as stuck as he was.
“I’m not a cop or anything,” he warned her. “I can’t protect you. Don’t even have a plan other than to find a door.”
“I’m not asking you to lead or anything. Just help us get back to the cafe. It’s safer if we’re together in case one of those people jump us. Besides, Cody’s in building maintenance. If you’re actually serious about breaking the quarantine and finding a way out, there’s nobody better to help you find a door they overlooked. You need me, too.”
Neil shook his head. “I’m not in charge. I’m happy to take you, but I can’t promise anything. I can’t say for sure what the people at the cafe will say.”
“You’ll need me. You said there were injuries. I’ve been an ER doctor for years. I’ll barter services for protection if you won’t do it for the sake of kindness.”
“Look, I’m not negotiating with you. If you want to come to the cafe, I’m not stopping you. Just telling you I’m not a bodyguard or anything. You want to help me get out, I’m grateful to you. You don’t want to risk it, I get it. Either way, you don’t have to bargain with me. Just— don’t keep me standing out here. There’s at least one person with a gun and who knows how many more just frenzied. Someone was killed right outside the lab. Let me in or shut the door.”
The woman nodded to the man in front of Neil, and he relented, swinging the door wide enough for Neil to enter. Neil slipped in, then sagged against the wall with relief.
“Thanks,” he said.
11
“There’s a body. Out in the waiting room. I thought it’d be better than leaving it in the hall. He was a person before today. Thought you should know, so it didn’t scare you,” said Neil. “I don’t— I’m not meant for this.” He wiped his face, surprised that he was so sweaty.
“I don’t think any of us are. We weren’t ready for anything like this. I’ve seen psych cases before, plenty in the ER over the years, but not all at once and not— nothing even close to what’s happened in the past few days. It isn’t the first body we’ve seen. I mean— outside of my normal work. It was kind of you to move him.” She fell silent again for a moment. “Look— I was just trying to get Cody to help me seal up this bite.” She stared at the soaking gauze pad under her fingers.
The man took a shaky breath. “Not great with blood,” he admitted, “leash, not when iss still inside a person. Sorry, Debbie.”
“Don’t suppose you’d be willing to help, Mr. Newton?”
“You can call me Neil. What about the people at the cafe?”
“It’s a full lab,” said Debbie, “take what you like. But if you help me first, my hand will be free to help your friends.”
“I— I wasn’t saying I wouldn’t help, just that maybe we should get there first.”
“It’s sterile here. Light’s better and there are spare supplies if we need them.”
Neil hesitated. “I just know basic first aid, lady. I work in a kitchen. I know how to get people to the hospital, not how to fix them once they’re here.”
“I’ll walk you through it. Everything’s all set up, look.” She tipped her head toward a nearby counter. A blue napkin was spread near the sink, half a dozen small plastic packets lined up on top of it.
“Yeah. Yeah, okay. You— what’s your name again?” he asked the man. He looked glassy-eyed, distant or dizzy. Neil was afraid he’d pass out. It took him a few seconds to answer.
“Cody,” he said at last.
“You okay, man? You need to sit down?”
“Nah, nah, I’m okay.”
Neil nodded slowly. “Okay then. You think you could gather up some supplies? Bandages, disinfectant, whatever looks— useful? Just need a little bit to get through until we get out of here. But we might find more people who need help.”
Again, that slow pause. It made Neil think of the man in Furbish Park and he shivered. “Sure. Sure thing,” Cody said.
“Good. I’ll help your— friend here. See if you can find something to— I don’t know, push back the crazy people or something. Something to keep them off us if they find us.”
“You’re talking about finding a weapon,” said Debbie flatly.
“A— well, just something to keep them off. Don’t know that—”
“They’re just ill, Mr. Newton.”
“Doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous. The person who muckled on to you, they seem open to a well-reasoned argument?”
Debbie exchanged an uneasy look with Cody. “Ok. A weapon then. If we must. And only if we must.”
“I’m no murderer, lady. I just want to be able to push them back if they try to bite. Until we figure out what’s wrong with them.”
“Yeah, ok
ay,” said Cody and took a few steps farther into the lab. He stumbled and caught himself against a phlebotomy chair before moving on. Neil stared after him.
“He in shock?” he whispered. Debbie shook her head.
“Likely infected. At least, from what I’ve seen of others. There seems to be a common set of symptoms. Clean your uninjured hand and use that bottle of gel. Then pull on the gloves. Going to want to get your bandage changed, too, looks like. That all your blood or not?”
“I— I’m not sure,” he said. “Like I said, I found some bodies. Checked them, I wanted to be sure. If they were alive and I left one of them— I—”
“It’s okay,” she told him.
“It’s not.”
“No, you’re right. It’s not okay. What I meant was that you’re doing well. The blood came from the bodies?”
He looked at the soaked bandage around his hand. “I think so. Or Shay’s— the woman I found. Or mine. I think I ripped a stitch. Sorry,” he said, feeling like he owed her the apology, but not certain why. It was, after all, her who had put the stitches in the first time.
“It’s— don’t worry about it. We’ll check it, but if it was only one stitch, we probably won’t need to do much, it’ll keep healing. In the meantime, leave the bandage, but put a glove over it. The other hand though, wash and gel and then glove.”
Neil gingerly stretched a glove over the bandages on his hand, trying not to snap the latex against his wound. There was a squeak from a door opening farther in and they both froze, waiting for something to come sprinting at them or for a shout. Nothing happened.
“Just Cody,” breathed Debbie.
“What’s he infected with?” he asked, wincing at the loud rush the sink made as he turned the faucet on.
“That’s the question, isn’t it? Whatever is causing people to have these— violent episodes.”
“You sure it’s not a— I don’t know, chemical spill or like one of those secret LSD experiments or something?” Neil clumsily scrubbed at his fingers with the foaming soap that dribbled out of the dispenser. The glove and the bandage made it slow and awkward.
“The CDC seems awfully sure. Scrub all the way up to your elbows,” said Debbie, sinking into one of the large chairs. Paper under her back crackled as it shifted.
“I know. I work with food, remember?”
“Sure. No offense. Just— we don’t need to add sepsis on top of everything else. I’m not sure of anything yet. But if it were a toxin, it would be localized. Don’t know if you’ve been watching the news for the past few days, but this is everywhere. I mean— I guess if someone dropped millions of gallons from an airplane crisscrossing the country then—”
“The country— this is everywhere?” He turned off the faucet, wishing the television in his room had had more than two channels. Or that he’d taken more time with that computer in the kitchen. After his phone died, he’d seen no national news at all.
“More than the country, I think. It’s hard to tell what’s— this and what’s just humans being— human. Aside from what we saw ourselves in the ER, there were reports of massacres from New Delhi and riots in Paris before the cops put us in the conference rooms a few days ago. Cody’s been obsessively checking his phone. He says there’s video from London and Berlin this morning. I stopped looking after I saw footage of a fight in that massive mall in Pennsylvania. The news anchor actually started to make a shitty joke about holiday shoppers and then a lady ripped a chunk out of another shopper’s breast and he shut up pretty quick. Wasn’t long before other people around the original two joined in. That was enough for me to stop watching. I thought the best thing I could do was to try and figure out what’s causing this. Been trying to narrow it down from the ER charts and some blood samples the lab had analyzed before everything shut down. If it’s a disease, it must be something we haven’t seen before. Except for the usual seasonal rash of strep throat and a rhinovirus that’s been going around the neighborhood the past few weeks, there’s nothing unusual in the blood work.” Debbie shook her head. “The symptoms are so consistent. It has to be something we haven’t recognized yet.”
“What the hell is the quarantine for then? If this is already out there, why keep us locked in here with it? And why didn’t you release me when I asked? I could be home— we could all be home now.”
“I didn’t release you because I needed to make sure you didn’t have this, too. If I let you go and you infected your whole neighborhood, how would that be better? The truth is, we don’t know how long this takes to show up. But we are starting to realize what happens when it does. And we know there were several people at that parade who were exhibiting clear symptoms. I’m sorry that the people in charge panicked or weren’t trained or were incompetent. I’m sorry this whole situation wasn’t handled more rationally and safely. And I’m sorry you and I were both unfortunate enough to get caught up in this. But I did my job. I’m doing my best to protect my patients and the outside world. We don’t have to be friends, Neil, but I think we’re going to need to work together if we want to get through this. If I made a bad decision, we can fight about it after we get out of here, okay?”
Neil sighed and nodded, holding up his gloved hands to show her he was ready.
“Face mask,” said Debbie. “As for why they put the quarantine in place when there are all those other reports— they have to try to contain it. Most reported cases have been limited to hospitals, though that may just be where they are letting us see. The mall— I don’t know if the people in charge have made the connection yet. Still too early to really say. I doubt we’re the only hospital to be quarantined.” There was a small crash from farther down the lab, and she jumped. Neil listened for a moment, but only Cody emerged.
“Sorry,” he whispered, dropping a small leather bag into one of the chairs and disappearing again. When nothing came running after a few breaths of silence, the tension began to drain away.
Neil turned back to the tools.
“This isn’t like darning a hole in your socks, okay?” said Debbie. “I’ve already cleaned it, that much I could do one-handed. Find your needle, the package is on your right. Careful not to puncture your glove. Hand me that pack on your left. I can do the lidocaine myself.”
Neil’s breath was humid against his face under the mask. He felt too hot. It’s okay, he told himself, not even the worst thing you saw today. You can do this. Deep breath, think of it like trussing. Same feel. But it wasn’t. It was too warm, too liquid and his hands shook. He tried not to notice Debbie’s sharp inhale when he pulled the torn skin carefully up and pushed the curved needle through. “Does it still hurt?” he asked. “Should I wait?”
“No. More the— anticipation of it hurting. Keep going.”
He squinted at the tangled mess of toothmarks and what looked like deep nail scratches while the blood welled up obscuring things. “Not sure how to fix this. It’s not— like a straight line or anything.”
Debbie glanced down, wiped away the blood with the gauze again.
“Here to here,” she said, pointing. “And down there, in a crescent, see?”
“But the other cuts—”
“Those will close on their own if I keep them bandaged. Just focus on the deepest parts.”
“Okay.”
12
She was silent a few moments, but he could feel her watching every pass of the needle.
“You’re doing well,” she offered awkwardly.
“So are you,” he mumbled. He tried not to feel the thick pressure it took for his fingers to push the needle through or the way everything smelled astringent and dead. “What are the symptoms, then? And why are you still tagging along with Cody if you think he’s infected?” he asked.
“Just— focus on what you’re doing. We’ll talk later.”
“I am focusing. Listening helps me concentrate. That lame piano music would be okay except the announcements keep cutting in and jumping the heck out of me. I need something even.”
“I’m tagging along with Cody— or, he’s tagging along with me, because we’re safer together. He’s showing symptoms, yes, but he hasn’t gone into a rage, the way some of the other patients did. Maybe he has a milder case. Maybe it’s a longer incubation. I don’t know. But even if I did, what am I supposed to do? Those people— the ones who’ve lost it, you were right. They don’t stop. There’s no snapping them out of it. If I hadn’t been with Cody when that security guard went crazy, he would have done worse than this. I can’t leave him alone while they’re wandering the hospital. For either of our sakes.”
“How did he stop the guard?” Neil winced as he pulled the stitches a little tighter, but she seemed not to notice.
“He— hit him in the head. There were more of us, originally. Eight doctors and five security and Cody because he has most of the keys. A majority of them wanted to come here first. But there were other people in the ER that the cops refused to evacuate. People on breathing machines and— just people who couldn’t be moved. We— knew this might be coming. The staff. Got as many patients as we could be certain didn’t show any symptoms moved to another hospital as we could before the quarantine hit. But I didn’t know they’d do— what they did. I thought we’d just keep working, you know?”
“Why’d they force you into the conference rooms?” asked Neil.
“There were so many people left in the hospital, even after what we tried to do. They wanted us where they could see us. For some reason, they thought everyone would be safer. The patients who couldn’t be moved or who, like you, were almost definitely exposed, were abandoned. The people in charge promised to find another place for you. A wing where you could be treated. Probably in the ER, once they secured the rest of the building. It was only supposed to take a few hours. I’m— sorry, Neil. I truly thought we were doing what was best for you. Anyway, after a few hours, when the team securing the building didn’t come back or call in, there was some— discussion. Heated discussion. Some of the security people sided with us. And we were allowed to go back to work. Some of us thought we should come right here and work on identifying the disease. I felt that we had an obligation to care for the patients we’d left. I wasn’t the only one. We argued about it a while and finally decided to split up. Cody, an ER guard named Mark, and I would go back to the ER and treat the patients there, see if any of them could be moved and find a way to keep them safe. Then, we’d meet the others here. That was the plan, anyway. Another group was meant to check on your rooms and move anyone who wasn’t showing symptoms to a closer wing. The last group was meant to come straight here and begin work. Cody and I haven’t seen anyone since we split up. I can only assume the others ran into similar issues and didn’t make it. Mark was symptomatic but not heavily. In the chaos, I thought he was only overtired. He and I had both finished eighteen-hour shifts in the ER just before the quarantine was declared and we were both exhausted. It was— relatively quiet on the way back to the ER. We had to trap one person. Guy had lost it at the vending machine. Raging and shrieking. He tipped it over, the whole thing and just screamed and screamed at it. If he’d noticed us— I don’t think we’d be talking right now. He was the only one. He was enough, though. I think— I think taking care of him tipped Mark over the edge. Or maybe it was what we found in the ER. We made it back to the patient rooms. We went door to door to check people. We shouldn’t have gone back. All the patients were dead. Worse than. They’d been mutilated. We got to the end of the hall and I looked back. Mark was just standing halfway back toward the entrance. He was— heaving. Breathing so hard I thought he might be going into heart failure. The shock maybe. I ran back to help him and that’s when he snapped. All of this,” she tipped her head toward the arm Neil was stitching, “was him. He had me pinned to the floor so fast, that I thought he was pushing me down to protect me. I actually tried to calm him down for a few seconds while he was biting. If Cody hadn’t been there and realized what was going on, I’d be dead now. Cody grabbed an oxygen tank to do it. One blow to the head. I still don’t know if Mark just lost consciousness or…”
Before The Cure (Book 1): Before The Cure Page 8
