“Cody’s caught it?” asked Shay.
“I’m not even sure what ‘it’ is yet, so I can’t say.” She turned back to Neil. “The bite on your neck is shallow. That’s a good thing. I think it might have been worse if Shay had been a few seconds later. Are you having trouble breathing?” She pressed her gloved fingers to his throat, probing.
“No, not now.”
“If he’s got whatever this is,” said Shay, “don’t you think we ought to take precautions? Maisy and I weren’t expecting Dan to snap the way he did. If it’d been an hour earlier, he would have caught one of us asleep. We wouldn’t be standing here now.”
Debbie leaned over him, placing a series of small adhesive strips in a vague crescent over his neck. “We’ll keep an eye on him,” she told Shay. “What happened to this Dan guy?”
“Locked in the gift shop. For now. Maybe we should put Cody in there too. Or in the bathroom—”
“So that he can be attacked?”
“No, just— he’s not safe.”
“We don’t know that. He’s having— coordination issues, I agree. But he’s not violent—”
“What about Mark?” asked Neil, trying not to flinch as Debbie pulled his skin closed. His throat was developing a deep ache, as if he’d been throttled instead of bitten.
“That was self-defense.”
“Maybe that’s what the other sick people think, too. Maybe it’s like rabies or something,” said Shay. “You said you didn’t know what it was, you don’t know how it works.”
“No,” snapped Debbie whirling around to face Shay, “and neither do you. Even if that’s the way it works, that doesn’t make putting Cody— or anyone else— in there with one of them any better. They’ll kill each other.”
“We’ll put him somewhere else then. A patient room or maybe the dry goods pantry or—”
“Oh yeah? Are you going to go feed them every day? We already have two people in separate rooms. Probably more—”
“Definitely more,” interrupted Neil. “There are people trapped upstairs in locked rooms. I was. Nobody came to give us food or check wounds or anything else.”
“They were supposed to,” said Debbie. “A group went out last night before everything went haywire. They were supposed to make night rounds and then bring food to people this morning. They had a police escort.”
“Yeah, well, they didn’t make it. At least not to my floor. Might be that I saw the very last of them when he stumbled into my room and I got free.”
“All the more reason not to lock people into separate rooms.” Debbie helped him sit up, apparently done with his neck. She started unwrapping the bandage on his wounded hand. He didn’t expect he’d be as lucky there.
“We can’t just leave him loose!” cried Shay.
“You’re afraid he’s dangerous, but you have to think. We already have people in desperate need of care right now. It’s going to be hard enough to get to them without adding Cody to the mix. At the moment, he’s more help than harm. If it changes, we can talk about it again. Same with any of us. For all I know, we’ve all got whatever this is. So until I figure it out, we need to assume that’s the case. After I’ve treated all of our wounds, we’ll come up with a plan to get food and water to the people who are stuck in rooms and clear the corridors if we can. Once we’re able to clear the ER again, I can get the sedatives we need without setting off alarms and we can deal with medical needs as wel—”
“No. No freaking way. That’s not what we agreed at all. Cody’s going to help us get out of here—” said Neil.
“We can’t just leave people here to starve or die.”
“You said the patients that could be moved already were. Anyone who’s still here—”
“Is still here because of a medical need. We aren’t just going to let them suffer.”
His palm looked like a hunk of raw steak a dog had got a hold of. Debbie laid a blue crinkling paper over his lap and placed his hand gently on top of it, turning to find more supplies in the bag. He watched the weak pulsing trickle of blood well up in the deep divots.
“You want these people to be cared for, we’re not the people to do it,” he said. “You’re the only doctor here. Not to mention that an entire police squad has apparently disappeared or become sick themselves. We can’t do this. We need help. Getting out isn’t leaving them to starve or die, it’s doing what’s right. The people out there can’t possibly understand how bad it is in here. They might not know it’s a problem at all. They may have no idea people are dying in here. And like you said, there were lots of cases. What are the chances that they’re all contained in this hospital? That some of those patients didn’t infect their families or the people that were evacuated before the official quarantine weren’t carrying it with them? The people we love are out there. What if they’re sick, too? What if they come in contact with people who are? They aren’t going to know what to do. Hell, I don’t know what to do and I’ve got a few hours head start on them. You— we might be the only people who have some idea of what is really happening. You said that news anchor just chalked up the violence to holiday rage. And others will be written off as political violence or anger from some other cause. They won’t know until it’s too late that people don’t just— calm down afterward. If we just wait out the quarantine and don’t try to contact anyone—”
“I have tried to contact people. I told you. Can’t reach anyone.”
“All the more reason to make it out of here. They must have— I don’t know, blocked the number or shut it off or something. Trying to keep it quiet so the public doesn’t panic but it should,” interrupted Shay. “We have to tell someone. The people in the parking lot if we have to. We can’t stay here. We’ll die. And then all the people locked in their rooms will die. They’ll starve or whatever this disease is will kill them. And if we are infected you think we’re going to keep making rounds to feed them or do whatever the hell you intend to do? We’ll be just like Dan. We need to separate Cody so he doesn’t slaughter us in our sleep and then go get help. Neil’s right.”
Neil hissed at a sudden jab in his hand.
“Sorry,” muttered Debbie swiping at it with something that began numbing his skin.
“Don’t,” he said. “I can take the pain.”
“This is not a time for being macho.”
“Nope. It’s time to be practical. If I can’t feel my hand, then I can’t use it. If one of those people gets in here or one of us— loses it, I don’t want to be useless.”
“Your hand’s pretty damaged. Don’t know how much use you’ll get out of it before it heals.”
“Just let me decide.”
She sighed, then shrugged. “Suit yourself. It’s not going to be fun.”
He sucked in his breath and held it while she worked, trying not to flinch. Shay looked on, concerned. “Don’t mean you should skip the painkillers,” he said to her quietly. “You have lots more bites than me. The rest of us can handle the heavy lifting—”
“No offense, and I appreciate what you did, going to the lab for us,” said Shay, “but I still don’t know you. And you don’t know me. We know we’ve got at least one sick person with us, maybe more. I’ll take care of myself and you should take care of you. I’ll help you when I can, but don’t rely on me to save you. I’d expect the same of you. And anyone else here.”
Neil tried not to blame her for the sudden coldness. She was right. Won’t be around long enough to worry about it, he thought. Don’t need everyone to like you all the time, Neil. He just nodded.
15
Neil felt surprisingly better after a hastily prepped dish of cafeteria eggs and a cup of coffee that had no right to taste as burnt as it did. He’d done it mostly to distract himself while they waited for Debbie to finish treating Shay’s wounds. Something to keep him from snapping at them to go faster, to start checking doors. But it turned out he wasn’t the only one who hadn’t eaten. He hoped Shay would forgive him for invading her kitc
hen. I already bled on her dish station, guess scrambling some eggs won’t make it that much worse. He cleaned obsessively afterward while the others ate, anxious to be doing, not just waiting. They’re safe. Relax. They’re home. Or shopping. Mom wouldn’t let anything happen to her. But when he’d tried calling them again from the kitchen phone, there’d still been no answer. Joan and Harry hadn’t answered their cell phones either. He frowned into the now-empty coffee pot, trying to scrub baking soda into the ancient stains on its sides without hurting his injured hand. Stop taking what this Debbie woman says as gospel. All you know for sure is that there’s a quarantine. Police coming through the hospital and the boards over the doors is enough to tell you that. There’s no way she knows it got out. Besides, even if it did, the government’s looking for sick people now, right? If they made a quarantine, they know it’s a problem. They’re okay. No contact with anyone who had this. Not even you, you got bit and then brought here. No chance to see Randi or Joan between. And they were still a block away from… He could see the homeless man in his mind’s eye, that glove still dangling from his fingers as he stared into space. He was too close to Randi. Breathed on her. Is that how it spreads? Or when I touched him? Or through his saliva when he bit? Is Randi already sick? Am I? Maybe she didn’t get infected yet, but if I touch her, if I hug her or kiss her, if I’m infected then— He cut the thought down. He wasn’t sick. He wasn’t clumsy or slurring. He wasn’t angry, not even at the man in the hallway who’d attacked them. But if he stayed in the hospital with people who were, he could get infected with it. Especially around Cody. He’d have to avoid Cody. At least until they knew how it spread. Just get out of here. He glanced at the stack of clean plates at the end of the line. There are an awful lot of hungry people locked in rooms upstairs. Sick and injured, too. Not just with whatever this is. And kids. New babies— no, Shay said they evacuated those types of people. Just the ones showing symptoms and the people from the parade left. And a few workers. Still, they’re hungry. Debbie has a point. Shitty, stupid plan, but a good point. We’ve got to get moving so those people can get relief. He put down the coffee pot and walked toward the long prep table where the others were eating. He stopped well short of it, uneasy about getting closer to Cody.
“We should start looking for an open door. The longer we wait, the worse things get in here. Not just for the people who are loose, but the ones trapped in their rooms, too.”
Debbie stabbed half-heartedly at a leftover egg curd. “Have you thought about what happens after you find a door or a window or some bay they’ve left open? There are police stationed in the lot. They aren’t just going to let you wander out.”
“That’s fine, like I said, if they want to put me in some cell somewhere until this is over, I’ll cooperate. But they can’t leave us in here to kill each other.”
“We’re safe here. And they’ll send in more people to help us. They’ve got to,” said Maisy.
Neil shook his head. Shay and Cody both appeared dazed, disconnected. “You want to wait this out, you’re welcome to. Heck, you don’t even have to come with me, though I’d get us help a lot faster with someone who knew where everything was. Probably with fewer bites, too. But every hour it takes me to find someone or for the police to send more help, patients are suffering. Maybe dying. Colleagues too, whichever ones had the shit luck to be on shift when this all happened. Don’t you wonder where the rest are? You don’t think they’re letting other doctors and nurses who could have been exposed just wander around in public, do you? No, they’re likely home, waiting out this quarantine under house arrest, but comfortable. Wouldn’t it be nice for that to be you?”
“No,” snapped Debbie. “I’ve got a husband living in that house. And you have a daughter living in yours. Cody’s got three kids and Shay and Maisy have loved ones in their homes too. If we were there, we could be infecting them. The people we care about most.”
“Or attacking them,” added Shay, smoothing the edge of one of her bandages. She’d gotten rid of the bloody apron and tattered gloves but it didn’t diminish the appearance of her wounds. The bright, clean squares of gauze almost glowed in the half-light of the prep area.
“You think I haven’t thought of that?” asked Neil. “I’m not as selfish as you think. I don’t want to get anyone else sick. I just want to warn my mom, my kid, the police or the CDC or whoever the hell is supposed to be in charge. There’s no way they caught all the cases. This is spreading out there. And if people don’t know what eventually happens— you think we were shocked by it— if there’d been more of them in that crowd at the parade it would have been so much worse. If someone’s sick at a crowded airport or in a school or at a church service— what do you think is going to happen? There are no obvious signs that someone’s going to snap. They’ll be completely off-guard. And if it works as you say, Debbie, if anxiety or anger or panic sets it off in the end, then one attack might become five or ten or more, like dominoes. Just takes a few infected people. An infected family, say.”
“Le’ss do it from ‘ere,” mumbled Cody. “Don’ hafta go ousside.” He fumbled in his pocket and after several seconds pulled out a scratched cell phone.
“We haven’t been able to reach anyone,” protested Neil. “Maybe we’ve been cut off.”
Cody shook his head and punched slowly at the phone’s screen with his thumb. “Nah. Can’t cut us off. Maybe the wall phones. Not ours. Don’ even know who’sh in ‘ere. Not gonna call anyway. Wanna tell ‘em whass happening, we pos’ it. Take a video, let em see. World’ll do the res’.”
Neil didn’t like the idea. He wanted to make sure Randi was safe. Wanted to see it with his own eyes. Or at least hear it from her own voice over the phone. “No, we need to get help. They aren’t going to send people in here just because we post some— snuff film to the internet.”
“Why not? It’s a hell of a lot more effective to have a hundred people shouting at the police to help us than five people begging,” said Shay. “You’ve seen the videos of the people outside. If more people were standing there, the soldiers might not be as willing to keep them out. Or at least call their supervisors. Make some kind of statement to the public. Then the people out there would know what was happening. And what to watch for.”
“Thought you were with me on the plan to get out of here,” said Neil.
“I am. We can do both. We’re going to have to find a door we can get out of, right? It’s not just going to miraculously appear in here. Trust me, I checked them all before you got back. Even the linen chute was boarded over sometime last night. So, when we go out there, we film it, just like Cody said. Put it up for as long as we have some kind of signal. I’m not as sure as you are that they can’t shut it off,” she turned to Cody, “but we’ve got signal now. When we finally find a way out of here or a way to break through some of that paneling, we’re going to be walking out into a parking lot filled with guns. If we just went out there, the five of us, they’ll use those guns. If we get other people’s attention first, there’s no way they’re going to shoot us in front of a hundred people. Well— no way they’ll shoot us if we aren’t trying to rush the barriers, anyhow. The more leverage we’ve got, the more likely they are to listen to us. And even if they don’t, at least people will know what’s coming. They’ll be better prepared than we are. That’s what you want, isn’t it? If we don’t make it out, at least we’ll have left some idea for the people we care about.”
“This is insane,” hissed Maisy. “Guns and crazy people and who knows what else— we can’t go wandering around the hospital looking for an exit. What are you thinking? Three days, that’s what the policemen said. We just have to wait for three—”
“Bullshit. They said three days because they have no idea what this is,” said Debbie. “Could be three days, but it won’t be. I’ve already seen patients in the ER in the end stages for longer than three days. The incubation could be forty-eight hours or it could be twenty-one days or it could be like tuberc
ulosis and we could be trapped in here for three months. We don’t know what it is, and they don’t seem too worried about checking on how we’re doing. They haven’t even sent anyone in to study it. No, Maisy, I’m with you on waiting for more security but something’s definitely gone wrong on the science end of this. It’s not going to be three days. Either they’re fighting over some jurisdictional nonsense or the government’s panicked or— I don’t know. But this isn’t how a quarantine’s supposed to work. There should be orders for a battery of tests and supplementary medical staff and contingency plans for feeding and treating people— this is— none of this is right. We can’t just sit here while people locked in rooms upstairs suffer—”
“So we let them out. They can come here. We’ve got food. We’ve got water. The government will show up eventually and they can sort out what happens next. We just have to wait here until someone shows up or calls or— I don’t know. Someone will come. We’re safe in here,” said Maisy.
“There are people infected with whatever this is mixed in with the other patients. And more still loose in the hallways. Nurses like the ones who came into Neil’s room. Security guards who were supposed to be guarding us. We have to get through them to let the other patients out.”
“N-not necessarily,” mumbled Neil.
Debbie turned to him.
“A nurse told me if there were a fire or something, some emergency system would override the locks on the doors. We could trigger it. But it would more likely just leave the people who don’t have— whatever this is, vulnerable. Don’t think I could have fought off one of those attacks with a broken leg or after chemo or when I was recovering from heart surgery or something. I know you evacuated the people you could, but the ones who are left can’t all have minor injuries like I did. The best thing for everyone is if we make it to the parking lot, if we can at least see the police or the national guard or whoever is out there face to face. Let them know what’s happening. And find out why they aren’t doing this properly.”
Before The Cure (Book 1): Before The Cure Page 11
