As we followed them down a long narrow hallway, everything unnervingly white, I began to picture my life without my two best friends and my boyfriend and almost started to cry again.
They pushed Missy into an opening elevator, one guy and one woman. When I went to step in next, the other person in a cloth suit beside me told me to wait. I paused, unsure. She insisted we go in the next elevator, that my friend needed immediate assistance, and I was going to go to a different room anyway.
My heart skipped a beat, panic rising.
“It’s going to be okay,” the woman urged. “She’s going to get help.”
The elevator door started to shut. Missy’s half-turned head, pale face and scared blue eyes staring at me was the last image I’d have of her, should something bad happen.
I’m not sure why I listened to this lady next to me. My best friend needed me. What kind of best friend was I to just watch her go?
That’s what I did though. I just stood there, staring, until the doors completely closed in front of me.
After about thirty seconds, the woman reached out, hitting the elevator button. It was the opposite button they hit for Missy.
“Hey, wait? Aren’t we supposed to be going up?” Lewis blurted. “She just went up.”
The woman nodded. “Yeah, but we are a bit overcrowded on that floor right now. So I’m taking you to a different floor. We’ll run a few quick tests, and we’ll figure out what to do after. We might have to transfer you to a different hospital.”
“What?” I snapped. “Why? I’m not leaving my friend.”
“I’m sorry you might not have a choice.”
“Why did you even bring us here then? Why didn’t you just take us to the other hospital to begin with?” Those tears were dangerously close to surfacing now.
“Your friend needs immediate medical attention. This was the closest hospital.”
Lewis touched my arm, an effort to stop my outbursts from getting hysterical I assume, and to say something.
“You said the floor is overcrowded, does that mean a lot of people have contacted this contagious virus again that we were told was cured?”
“I’m not at liberty to say.” The elevator dinged, and the doors started sliding open. She gestured for us to proceed inside.
Lewis crossed his arms, stepping in front of me. “We know people are contacting the virus. We know that’s why our friend was just taken to that floor. We know that’s why we have to get tests run to verify if we have the virus too. If there are so many people getting sick that the floor is overcrowded, why the hell hasn’t anyone informed the public about another outbreak happening? This is people’s lives you are messing with.”
The woman shifted her feet uncomfortably, glancing up and down the hall, avoiding our faces.
“We have rights you know. We could refuse medical assistance. We could run off right now and go straight to the media? Create mass hysteria in a matter of minutes.”
She sighed, her cloth mask sucking inward then expanding out with her inhaled and exhaled breaths. “If you go into the elevator, I’ll tell you some things.” She kept her voice extremely low, as if trying not to be caught even saying that. “Okay?”
Lewis didn’t respond immediately.
“Okay?” She repeated, her green eyes almost pleading with us to just load into the elevator.
The doors had already shut, so she had to hit the button to open them again.
“Fine. You better not be lying to us,” Lewis said, a muscle popping in his jaw, and just as the doors started to shut a second time, he uncrossed his arms, took a step forward and stopped them from closing with his hand. The doors slid slowly open. “Dee, get in.”
I walked past him, crowding into the corner of the small space. The woman in the white suit glanced at me then stepped in, turning toward the buttons. Lewis strolled in last, bracing back against the elevator wall beside me, all serious.
I wouldn’t admit it then, but I was so thankful Lewis was with me. I don’t care if that made me seem needy, or dependent, but I was scared. Plus, when the guy got mad, he had an intimidating presence about him and no doubt, it was what made the petite woman cave about speaking to us.
“Waiting…” he grumbled.
She sighed again. “I can’t tell you much because I really don’t know everything yet. My shift just started a couple hours ago. All I know is that in the past twenty-four hours they’ve been swamped with patients.”
“Patients with the virus.” It wasn’t a question.
She nodded slowly.
“Okay, so again, why haven’t they notified the public of another outbreak?”
“Because from what I know, they didn’t think it was an outbreak, until recently.”
When Lewis furrowed his brow, she continued, her brown eyes still staring up at him. She was a tiny thing, shorter than me, but older than the both of us. Probably mid-thirties. She had sandy blonde eyebrows, which most likely meant she was a blonde. I wouldn’t know because her hair was actually pulled back in a paper cap too.
“From what I’ve been told, a patient arrived at our hospital yesterday afternoon, falling ill. He had driven all the way from Georgia to get here, complaining that he was experiencing similar symptoms of the virus. They managed to get one tube of blood before he, well, let’s just say they had to contain him. The blood work came back positive for the virus, but nothing was said because he was a previous patient. They just thought something went wrong.”
“Is he dead?” I blundered, my mind going back to that car from Georgia I passed on the highway. I wondered if that was the same guy. And though I couldn’t be certain, my gut told me it was just by the way he was driving, and hunching over in his driver’s seat.
“No,” she replied. “He is contained, but the nurse involved has been critically injured.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Lewis rubbed at his neck, harshly. “So then what happened? That was only one patient.”
“A patient we have here at the hospital, an injured officer, told a nurse he received a phone call. That a patient we treated was experiencing a side effect to the medication, and that they were bringing him in. The staff prepared a room for him, but he didn’t come. We figured he didn’t make it. Because not even two hours later, another patient arrived, but she didn’t make it out of the ambulance before relapsing. We lost an EMT as well.” She leaned over and hit the elevator button, a distant expression in her dark eyes, and the small box we were in started to squeak and move.
“By that time, we knew there could be a serious situation happening. From what I heard they pulled records of all the patients they treated for the virus and called local authorities and the nearby hospital to make them aware. Local authorities agreed to contact the previous patients and escort them for further testing. They kept it discreet, to avoid alarming the public before test results came back. You know, why create mass hysteria if not necessary? By late yesterday evening they were certain they knew what was going on.”
“They were. That’s past tense,” Lewis pointed out, following her word for word.
“Well, that’s when the officer contacted our floor again. Said he received another phone call that the patient he told us about was lost in the woods, and his fellow officers were out looking for him. But, that they’ve come across others previously infected with the virus, and the guy calling was claiming he too just caught the virus.”
The elevator started grinding to a squealing stop, rocking back and forth slowly. “That’s when everything they thought they figured out, they realized would be wrong. If that person contacted the virus, then it was spreading again.”
Jason. I knew she was talking about Jason. And that officer was Trooper Wesson.
The elevator doors dinged, sliding open. “And that’s all I can tell you.” She motioned for us to exit.
I could tell Lewis wanted to argue, but instead tapped my arm and insisted I go ahead. He pushed off the wall, following. When he was almost
completely out of the elevator, he paused, glancing back and forth down the dim hall quickly. “Can you at least tell us what they thought was happening?”
She scooted past him, hesitating, ten feet away. “I’ve told you enough.”
“Please,” he said, his anger subsiding, and pain filling his eyes. “I’ve lost some friends today. I just want to know what is happening.”
In that moment I knew she was caving. Lewis was intimidating when he was angry, but that injured expression was even harder to ignore. It down right hurt your heart.
She glanced around her quickly to make sure the hall was still clear then leaned in closer, lowering her voice. “Of all the tests they ran, it seems the only patients testing positive for the virus again had the same blood type. O negative. Seems their body is rejecting the treatment. They are working on fixing the issue.”
She started to pull away, only to pause again. Her voice remaining low. “I’m sorry you lost some friends. I did too. If the tests come back positive on your friend they just brought in, and on the other guy they brought in a couple hours ago, then I promise we have every intention of notifying the public. Even still, I think they’ve already begun to close down the roads into town.”
She cleared her throat, stepping back. “Now, may we proceed so I can get back to work?”
“Thank you,” Lewis nodded.
“Mmmhm.” She looked away from him, and started walking.
My brain was filling with more questions, but I was grateful I finally had some answers. Missy was more accurate than she realized about what could possibly be happening, or at least if that had been the case. What if it was true though? What if Jason and Missy both had the virus?
I remembered what this nurse said about the one patient being contained…did that mean they were working on resolving the issue? Had they figured out how to reverse it again? And what about the girl in the ambulance, did that mean they killed her when she flipped the switch and became zombified again? Did they take my advice to apprehend Buck by shooting his knee caps out, or did they just shoot to kill?
Would this virus ever actually be controlled? Or was an outbreak truly spreading again, starting with taking all my friends from me?
“This way,” the nurse instructed, having us turn left down another hallway. We quickly came up to a set of heavy, secured doors with caution signs painted boldly across them. There was a large, red button to the right on the wall beside us, and she reached out, hitting it.
The doors swung slowly forward, inviting us into a small room with maybe three average doors. All had the same warning sign.
She directed us past the first door and stopped at the second. “Ma’am you can enter this room. Sir, you can proceed to the third door.”
“Wait? We won’t be together?” My heart started to race.
“You’ll be right next to each other. For privacy reasons, safety precautions, and hospital protocol you cannot share the same room. I promise, as long as your blood work comes back negative, you’ll be free to leave.”
Lewis caught my eye, assuring me it was alright. Gulping, I willed my heart to calm down, and made my way into the room alone.
At the time, I didn’t realize I’d be in that claustrophobic room by myself for so many hours.
34
“Your tests came back negative,” A male nurse said, walking into the room.
I quickly swung myself upright, tossing my legs over the side of the cot to face him. He had been the one that drew my blood over eight hours and forty-six seconds ago. I know, because all I’ve been doing is staring anxiously at the ticking clock on the wall, about ready to lose my mind completely.
“Does that mean I can go?” I blurted, eager to jump fully from the mattress.
He scribbled something onto a clipboard, then proceeded forward, starting to check the IV’s in my good arm. “Well, it means you don’t need to be transported to another hospital for treatment. However, you will still need to stay quarantined for at least sixteen hours before the doctor will release you. Plus, your test results show your sugar levels are off and you’re dehydrated. We’d like to keep you on an intravenous for the meantime, bring up those sugar levels and take a few x-rays on that hand of yours before we give the okay.”
“Oh,” I sighed, letting that sink in. I was stuck in this god-awful, annoyingly white room, with nothing to do and no news on my friends to calm my nerves.
He looked sympathetic. “I know that’s not what you wanted to hear, but look at the bright side. It could have been worse news.”
Nothing was worse than not knowing what was going on with Missy, Jason and Spencer. Even with Buck.
I groaned, peering down at my feet.
“Hey, it won’t be so bad, you’ll have me and Nurse Sharon to keep you company tonight.” Nurse Sharon was the woman from the elevator. Nurse Coney was the guy patting my shoulder right now. “In fact maybe I can make you more comfortable. Would you like another pillow? A warm blanket? What about something to eat?”
“What about a phone call,” I grumbled, dropping my shoulder so he wasn’t touching it anymore.
“Did you just say a phone call?” He took the subtle cue from me and backed away from me, dropping his arm back to his side, his other hand still clasping the clipboard.
“Well, yeah,” I retorted, more frustrated then I meant to. “Three of my friends are in this hospital, and I don’t know how any of them are holding up. I am worrying sick about them. And furthermore, my parents haven’t a clue I’m here. I need to call them and tell them. They probably should know!”
“Okay, okay,” he said, shaking his head when a machine I was attached to started beeping. “Take a deep breath, and exhale. You’re giving yourself heart palpitations.”
“But—” I started to argue.
“Just breathe for a moment, like this.” He took slow, steady breaths instructing me to follow. “Practice that, and I’ll go see what I can do about your request. I’ll be right back, okay?”
I nodded, and mimicked his breathing, though I don’t think it did jack shit.
I was still way too anxious.
Nurse Coney came back in the room five minutes later with a different clipboard, and he didn’t seem too happy with my heart rate either. “Okay,” he sighed, pulling his eyes away from the machine to briefly look at me. “So here’s the scoop. I can’t get you a phone, I’m sorry. But,” He quickly continued before I had a chance to interject. “If you give me your parents’ phone number I will personally contact them for you and fill them in with your status. And, if you give me the names of your friends admitted here, I’ll see if I can find anything out for you. Will that help you feel better?”
I may have pouted.
“Hey, I’m sorry, but I’m trying here.” He sounded like he actually felt bad. I appreciated his kindness, but I just really wanted to make the phone calls myself. I really wanted to find out about Spencer. And I really just wanted to see Missy and Jason. God, I really wanted to see Jason.
That wasn’t going to happen though. I had to accept this was the best I was going to get for the time being. It was better than nothing. Though, I was terrified of hearing the verdicts.
“Thank you. I’d appreciate that immensely.”
I couldn’t tell if he smiled then, due to the mask he wore, but the way the corners of his eyes suddenly crinkled gave me the impression he may have.
So for the next minute I gave him all the information he needed, and once he left the room, I sank back onto the cot and waited, reminiscing about how normal my life once was.
That didn’t calm me down either.
I was drumming my fingers against my thigh when there was a knock and the door opened again. It wasn’t Nurse Coney though. It was Nurse Sharon. She didn’t come inside, just peeked her head in. “Nurse Coney told me to tell you he didn’t forget about you, he’s waiting for updates from the other floors and will let you know as soon as he knows something. I’ll be back in about twenty min
utes to bring you for x-rays on that hand of yours.”
She slipped out of the doorway, just as fast as she popped in. The door clicked shut, leaving me to my madness.
A television…for crying out loud, why couldn’t there at least be a television? That would at least past the time.
I was in and out of x-rays before I saw Nurse Coney again. My hand, as predicted, was broken. My cast was actually being put on when he finally reappeared in my hospital room.
“Heard about that hand of yours,” he said, entering the room. “Pretty bad break. You are going to need to follow up with an orthopedic. Hopefully you won’t need surgery.”
“I already told her all that,” Nurse Sharon informed him. She was sitting in front of me on a wheeled stool, looking dubious.
“Well never hurts to say it again,” he crossed the room to stand on the opposite side of my cot. “I have some updates for you. Sorry it took so long, but the floors are swamped up there.”
I pulled my attention away from my cast, and glanced over at him. He wasn’t very tall, so I wasn’t straining my neck at all.
“Okay so first— Lewis Hedges is doing just fine. He is still in the room next to you. His tests have come back negative. He is waiting for his twenty-four hours to be up then he can be released, much like you.”
He crossed something off on the clipboard and continued. “Your friend Melissa Frink is currently being treated for severe dehydration. They believe her fainting spell was a mixture of that and shock. Her test results are still pending.”
“Still pending?” I asked, not liking the sound of that.
“Just means they haven’t gotten her results back yet. No need to worry. Now—Jason Ollie,” he added, cautiously. “I’m afraid his condition is a bit more serious.”
The machine that recorded my heart rate instantly started beating again. “Serious? How serious? What’s wrong? What happened to him? Is it the virus?” The words flew from my mouth as quick and erratic as the immediate spike of my heart.
“Okay, okay, breathe…” As soon as I started taking calmer breaths he answered. “No, it’s not the virus. Surprisingly. They ran extra tests to be certain, but they all came back negative.”
Dead Friends Series (Book 2): Dead Friends Running Page 25