Affliction

by Daniels, Dottie

  I don’t think your parents are here. We’ve looked everywhere for them as much as we could. There is a reason you’ve survived. Chavan knows why. Your room may be bugged now because they want to watch you. Don’t freak out. Finish the magazine.

  Of course she should’ve known I couldn’t possibly follow those directions. I imagine if there was an actual camera in the room; depending on its angle, it would’ve caught me in a blank stare for almost a full minute. I was no longer casually paging through the magazine or skimming through the titles and short stories nor squinting to view the prices of the glitzy and beautiful clothing located in captions off to the sides. In fact, it was one particular caption off to the side, the one hand-written by Mia that just put me on notice about several very important findings. I sat for a moment choosing to look over at the window, which presented cloudier and grayer skies now. I thought it would buy me time to try and compose myself as those few sentences suggested a great number of faults within the organization, headed by my uncle that with good proof and reasoning, I thought was secure.

  Chapter Nine

  The door couldn’t have opened at a worse time. The swipe of the badge gave me about a half a second’s notice, which snapped me out of my contemplative daze. I jumped slightly; I was just short of shedding a few tears anyways. The thought of my parents not being here safe put me right back at the state I was in before I left my apartment. With Graham nearby but still out of reach, it was almost the same scenario as before––minus Ronny who would surely keep a cool head for the both of us. I closed the magazine quickly, perked up, straightened my sad face and readied myself for whomever it was entering. It was another woman, a nurse I assumed, who carried a few syringes in her hand. She stayed by the door to hold it open as Dr. Strauss followed behind her.

  “Seanna, my name is Louise, I’m here to help Dr. Strauss with your blood draw and medications,” the middle-aged woman spoke.

  “Where’s Mia?” I asked. I couldn’t sound more concerned. I rose out of the bed quickly.

  “You should be in bed,” Louise advised as she walked over to the CD player and turned down the volume so it was barely audible.

  “Mia is taking a break. Apparently she’s not feeling well. I imagine she’ll come back when she’s better,” Louise added as she ushered me back to the bed.

  Dr. Strauss put on some exam gloves from the cart outside and grabbed a few more tubes as both she and Louise laid out all of their supplies on the bed next to my legs. Louise tied a rubber band-like string around my upper arm as she readied my arm for the draw. Noting its paleness, she questioned the doc about the ease of getting a vein. Dr. Strauss must’ve been irritated as she shooed Louise away, saying she’d do it herself. Neither of them said a word to me but Louise stood close by with her gloves on, ready to assist the doctor, if needed. The silence was killing me as she quickly worked to find the vein and get the tubes filled. I noticed there were three syringes filled with fluids.

  “So what are you going to give me now?” I asked her nervously.

  “These are the same as before when you were downstairs. There are some medications to manage the pain; others are to hopefully stop any further cell damage. We will run these new samples in the lab to see if we need to modify the drugs. They worked before; hopefully we’ll have the same if not better outcome.”

  “These are experimental?” I asked.

  “A few of them, yes. They have just been created by our group here, they don’t even have a name. Remember what we talked about,” she said, reminding me about the whole situation. There would be no clinical trials or FDA approval in an effort to be ethically sound about introducing new medications. I was all there was for a test population as the FDA was probably history anyway. Dr. Strauss finished up with the collection. I automatically knew to hold the gauze over the puncture mark until the bleeding subsided. It didn’t take long to clot. I was thinking the dead don’t usually heal enough and the blood might’ve kept coming out if the skin didn’t close itself, but then again I was not used to forensic side of patient care. There was no telling what this disease might have me or my body doing.

  Dr. Strauss started the usual injections, trying her best to get a vein for each of the three needles. I wondered if she was in on the lie that my parents were here as well. With her straight forward and often virus-only discussion, she seemed to be the type who couldn’t care less about my personal situation. She was fiercely loyal to her job duties. Maybe that’s why she chose to work in a lab versus with actual patients, who knows? All I knew for certain was that her bedside manner stunk and it seemed like technology probably was her best and only friend. She had no rings on her finger and the only bit of jewelry she wore was a pair of simple, small silver earrings.

  Dr. Strauss hurried off with her metaphorical gold mine: those blood filled tubes. There was no telling what they’d find under the microscope once they took a look at it this time. Louise hung around for a few moments, noting things on the clipboard. She asked me how I was feeling, to which I responded I was about the same as before. I told her that my vision was now clearer than before the injections so something had to be working right. Truthfully, I was feeling so many things right now. Confusion, anger about everything, worry, and feeling a little pain would’ve been a little more honest of a response. The door opened again as Mia appeared with a food tray. I was surprised to see her as she came over to the bed and sat the tray on the nightstand. She acknowledged Louise and told her it was okay to leave, that she could manage from now on. Louise became a little resistant.

  “I was told before we came up here that I was to stay with Seanna after her meds were administered in case she has another reaction,” Louise said sternly.

  “I think I am competent enough to handle that. Besides, they only called you to fill in because I wasn’t feeling well earlier. I am fine now so you can go take it up with Tom, Dr. Strauss or whoever,” Mia said as she waved her hand with a little flare. It was just enough to send Louise on her way as she mumbled something under her breath. After the door shut, I waited for Mia on her cue for our discussion. I was never good at talking in code so it wasn’t a good idea for me to initiate anything. I admit though, after a few short seconds I was ready to burst because I wanted to hear the words from her mouth that my mom and dad were nowhere to be found and that my uncle was indeed lying when he said he was going to reassure them that I was here.

  Mia looked at me and gave me a smile meant for the pitiful.

  “You look tired,” she said.

  “I’m not. I am worried,” I responded.

  “There is your toast, ginger ale and apple juice. I will keep some water nearby because you need plenty of fluids…” Mia began to inform me before I cut her off.

  “I saw those dresses you were talking about. Are you sure they’re your favorites? There may be some other ones in another catalog or magazine,” I told her. I was hoping she understood me. That was the best I could do as far as talking in code.

  “No, I’m positive. I haven’t seen anything better, anywhere else. I checked several other magazines and nothing came close. All of the stuff I saw was just ugly; they looked like they wouldn’t fit right or be very comfortable. I know for sure when something looks decent. You can call me a fashionista. Here, let me help you get comfortable,” Mia said as I took a few sips and bit the toast. It was cold and dry by now but I needed the nourishment. She fluffed a few pillows and pulled the covers up and walked around the bed to get my chart. She must’ve noticed my pulse hadn’t been taken in a while so she went about taking a reading. From our ambiguous conversation I gathered that she was sure that my parents were not listed anywhere as far as residing in the facilities and she had not seen them anywhere either. I was so disappointed to find this out from her even though she told me earlier by writing it down. Telling me in code and hearing it from her mouth made it worse. Why would my uncle tell a lie like that?

  “Are you sure?” I whispered as she rested her first t
wo fingers on my wrist to get a pulse. She nodded her head slightly. There was complete silence as she wrote the numbers down on the chart and stood up.

  “Try and get some rest. I’ll bring you some more stuff to read, in a little while,” Mia said as she glanced at the clock on the wall.

  “By the way, try not to get too rattled but someone will be in here to check on you at least twice an hour. Most of the time it will be me,” she added.

  “I can’t promise anything, anymore,” I responded, both sounding and feeling lower than ever.

  Mia left and I found myself drifting off. I managed to take my own pulse several times because I couldn’t believe the results I was getting. Mind you, I didn’t have a stopwatch but nevertheless I was quite used to taking a person’s pulse. According to that same experience, I was now getting a pulse reading of about ten beats per minute. I felt like I almost died right then as I lay there and did the calculations in my head along with the blur of sleep that overtook me. I had to tell myself not to panic, that I hadn’t died yet or at least remained dead according to what my uncle told me. This was the best place for me to be despite my unanswered questions and the elusive whereabouts of my family. For a short while I was probably okay; that was until I woke up to hell without the heat.

  Someone was definitely going to have to fill me in because my next moment of awareness I found myself on the floor away from the bed, being physically restrained. Dr. Chavan was there with Mia, Louise and two other young men who were obviously petrified. Mia appeared to barely contain her fear as well. I looked at her and Louise to see that they were now wearing what looked to be protective clothing in the form of jumpsuits. In short, it looked like they were made from the same material as the bulletproof vests law enforcement wore; however, theirs were complete with sleeves and they also wore gloves made out of the same material.

  “Seanna, can you hear me?” Mia stuttered but spoke quickly. Both she and Louise were stronger than they looked because I was completely pinned down while the two petrified men had most of their weight on each of my legs, restricting any movement as well. Dr. Chavan was the only one standing up. He had two used needles in one hand and the other hand was outstretched signaling two armed men to stay where they were.

  “I can hear you. What’s going on? Why am I pinned to the floor like I just tried to…?” I said as I started answering my own questions. The sad thing was, no one moved from over my arms and legs. Instead, there were just an odd few seconds of silence before Dr. Chavan said, “I think she’s alright now.” It was Mia who released one of my arms first as I slowly moved it to encourage what little blood flow I had. I had to tell everyone else I was okay before anyone else moved. After a few seconds and a few more skeptical looks I was once again free. Louise was kind enough to help me stand up on my feet before she nearly ran out of the room. I heard Dr. Chavan quietly tell Mia, “You shouldn’t put yourself in danger like that, next time wait for me,” before he saw that I was listening and stopped speaking.

  Apparently I just gave a new explanation to the term nightmare.

  “What just happened? What do you mean she has to wait for you next time?” I asked them again as I stood next to Mia and the doctor. The two armed men stood attentively waiting by the door, alert to my movements.

  “Tell her,” Mia said to the doctor.

  “They came back to check on you and you were… not yourself. It was a repeat incident of what happened downstairs earlier,” he spoke quietly.

  He turned around and instructed the armed guards back to their original duties but had to reassure them that he would report the incident to Davenport himself right away once he was finished here because everything was normal now. He also took the opportunity to escort me to the couch where he performed a quick check of my vitals. Mia picked up on the routine and stepped out of the room, only to return seconds later without the jumpsuit, instead with gloves and more blood collection supplies. I sat there bewildered and admittedly dumbfounded at the calm and professional demeanor of the two working together, Mia patiently being attentive to the doctor as he filled the tubes and bandaged my now slightly bruised arm at the site where the blood collection had become common.

  “We should put another line in, you think?” Mia said assessing my arm as she put a small piece of gauze and a strip of tape over the needle mark. Looking at my pale arm did not make things better for me and definitely made me want to consider long sleeve shirts and pants from here on out. There was a whole lot that could’ve been said right now but at this point it was unnecessary. They were probably thinking that I was putting two and two together in my own head, about which they would be correct. The conclusion I’d drawn about what happened to me a few minutes ago, although truthful and right on the money, was not a pretty one.

  In short I started with, “I was turning again, wasn’t I?” Dr. Chavan stood still but eventually nodded his head as Mia looked away, seemingly almost ashamed of what happened. She spoke up and recounted the moments after which she came into the room to check on me and found me in the bathroom. The light was on and the door was open but when she came into the tiny space to check on me, I was standing there but unresponsive. Mia’s voice got scratchy as she described my listless gaze and when after she called my name I walked toward her as she continued to step back. I said absolutely nothing during the whole incident. Mia reaffirmed several times that it seemed like I was not trying to attack her but that my behavior was more of a curiosity I may have had because I didn’t recognize her. She said she then yelled for help, ran to the door and called the doctor on one of the nearby phones.

  What happened next must’ve been what I overheard Dr. Chavan referring to, warning Mia about staying out of harm’s way. From his obvious disapproval, Mia ran to tell Louise who was at a desk close by about what was happening and though Louise was reluctant, they both put on the protective jumpsuits and returned to my room before most of the people I remember seeing could get here. It was a few minutes before the doctor along with two guys from the lab arrived with security and they were able to pin me down while the doctor gave me the injections.

  Listening to Mia talk, I didn’t know exactly how I felt because it seemed like she was describing another person’s actions, someone who was definitely not me. This person was almost like a dead one, one of the same kinds of things that tried to attack me and on the second occasion was successful in infecting me. The whole lack of cognition and lethargic behavior was something I had witnessed myself when the dead ones had no target to attack. It was when there was a potential victim that were able spring into action and though Mia tried to smooth it over by repeating how unaggressive I was; it was clear that the virus had begun to take over. I couldn’t remember anything she was describing. I tried to recall any little thing she was describing but my last memory before waking up on the floor was when I was falling asleep. There were a few seconds of silence and Dr. Chavan was about to say something before I interrupted him.

  “I know this means nothing next to the fear that you experienced but I am sorry you went through that. I––I would never mean to harm you or anyone. I don’t remember anything you’re talking about right now,” I tried to explain to them.

  “It’s not up to the person what they choose to do after they come into contact with the virus,” Dr. Chavan said reassuringly. “I’m afraid my colleagues are not going to take any more risks now that this incident has occurred. I will have to run this latest sample against the others and see what changes we can make––maybe we can increase the potency. It was less than two hours since the previous dose,” he said. I could almost see his mind working at a feverish pace to come up with a solution. My shoulders slumped while I tried not to get too emotional. To add insult to injury I found that I didn’t have any tears to cry. It seemed I physiologically could not come up with the fluids necessary to create tears.

  “Maybe I wasn’t meant to survive this. You all know, I can’t put all these people here at risk like this anymore
. The mentality of saving every infected person is probably why it’s out of control now; people are too busy trying to save the helpless. I mean, do we know where this virus came from?” I asked as I looked to them both for an answer. I was finally coming to terms with the fact that I would be another lost cause. The valuable tool I was told I could be was turning out to be nothing more than an anomaly that would meet the same end like everyone else who crossed paths with it––whatever it was. I was beginning to accept my fate and though I didn’t like it one bit I was convinced there was a bullet somewhere nearby with my name etched on it, waiting to be chambered. It would probably be Davenport’s side arm. He seemed more than willing to do the task the last few times we’ve met. Maybe the guy was a psychic before all of this happened and he was just acting on intuition. I was the one who needed to accept the reality.

  “Where will they take me?” I asked the doctor.

  “They may or may not put you with the others,” he said. I gave him a terrified look before he corrected himself.

  “You’ll be in the same area, perhaps. They won’t put you in the same room of course,” he said looking at Mia.

  “Her uncle won’t let them do that, there’s no way,” Mia said in protest.

  “I’d rather let them shoot me before I become a zombie guinea pig. There’s no way I’m going that route,” I told them. I meant that too.