Pandemic Ch 01

Ch 1: Outbreak

This is chapter one of a much longer story, and it contains no sex whatsoever, the build up is much slower than that. If you're looking for a quick fix, this isn't the novel for you.

As always, I appreciate the feedback and comments you send me. Please let me know what I did right, or wrong. ~A

*

Anna had regretted taking the late-night lab shift as soon as she arrived, and she was bored stiff well before midnight. The campus library had a state-of-the-art computer lab on its basement level, but right now all she was thinking about was its lack of a place to lie her head. Her work lay in front of her, a stack of ungraded tests looming on the desk. If the computer science department had not been giving her a full scholarship for her graduate studies, she never would have taken on the freshmen undergrads. It wasn't the class of computer science majors-to-be, it was the class of freshmen studying liberal arts, who saw it as a way to get rid of a required math and lab science course, and it fell to their TA to get the material through their heads.

Avoiding the leer of the stack of tests, she surveyed the long room of computer stations, the computer students notably clustered together at her end of the lab, most poring over Java textbooks. Only a raised eyebrow was required to break apart a young couple kissing instead of doing their work. They would likely go hide behind the end of the reference section, but that wasn't her problem. She almost wished she had someone to distract her with kisses, but she hadn't had time for a social life in what felt like years.

Freshmen were the bane of her existence, and she had two and a half hours to sit there still. If the lab were empty, it would not have been the first time she had cleared out early, but with midterms coming up, the place was packed with undergrads and grad students alike, most of whom looked about as aimless as she felt. Catching the eye of an athletic young man in a sports jersey ignoring an equally large pile of papers on his desk, she traded tired smiles with him, poorly stifling her yawn.

He gave his papers a comic frown, then rose to approach the oversized information desk she sat behind. "I thought you'd given up on the graveyard shift?" he asked quietly, leaning against the desk.

"Huh?" She was far too tired for polite small talk.

"I haven't seen you around this late at night since the first week of school," he explained. "I'm Kevin. This is when I get most of my work done." His smile was sleepy, but somehow it still made him look sexy, like the smile belonged more on someone lying next to her in bed. Anna shut down that line of thinking hard, knowing she was just lonely and bored.

"I managed to get out of most of the late shifts until one of the other TAs called me on it last week." She might not have been crazy about small talk, but it beat grading freshmen tests any day. Besides, if he looked this good at midnight on a work night, he would probably look even better when he put some effort into it.

"So that really was a yawn a moment ago." He sighed, though she couldn't decide if it were melodramatic or actually disappointed. "Poor me, I'd hoped it was a greeting."

His smile might have charmed her on a better day, but tonight it just seemed too pathetic for words. "Sorry, Kevin, I'm just trying to get work done before I pass out." She knew it was less than polite, but it was the truth.

He knew a dismissal when he heard one, and he took it well, the tired half of her brain decided. "Good luck with those," he offered, nodding at the tests of doom stacked in front of her.

"Thanks, you too," she replied readily enough, though she saw his quickly hidden dejection and felt bad for her hasty dismissal. Not that she was planning to call him back, but she did follow his progress with her eyes, wondering what might have transpired if she had encouraged him instead.

As he passed the side door, a hunched-over figure shuffled inside and ran at him, leaping to knock him down like a wild animal. His shout of surprise alerted those nearest him from their stupor, and unfroze Anna from wide-eyed shock. "Grab him!" she shrilled, one arm raised to indicate the figure she belatedly realized was female. She snatched the cordless phone from her desk and dialed '999', the on-campus version of 9-1-1.

It took three fairly large young men to pull the woman off Kevin, and the shriek of a younger woman jarred her ears as she watched him hit the floor, blood staining his tan sweater. Had the insane woman ripped his throat out?

"Department of Public Safety."

"Hansen Library, at the side door. Someone just jumped a grad student. He's all bloody, I can't tell if he's still breathing." It was hard for her to stay calm.

"We're on our way. Please remain on the line."

*

It was well past the library's two a.m. closing time when the campus police and the city police had finally questioned everyone still in the lab; the only surprise came when the paramedics declared Kevin dead--thirty seconds before he woke up, just as insane as the woman who had been carted off by the police. Anna had repeated her story twice, once to the campus police and once to the city cops, receiving odd looks for it each time. But it was hard to blame them, if she had not witnessed it, she would probably think she was crazy, too.

It was only then that she realized the police had not let anyone leave. A shiver ran up her spine as she watched a medic clean the deep scratches the deranged woman had inflicted on those who had tried to restrain her. Instead of throwing all the waste into a biohazard bag, the medics quietly placed the gauze from each patient into individual bags, which they then labeled.

That was too much. Striding over to the city cop who seemed to be in charge, Anna folded her arms over her chest. "How much longer are you planning to keep us here? I have a class to teach in six hours."

"No, you don't." Whatever response she might have expected, that was not it.

"Excuse me?" she breathed, trying to gather the scattered pieces of her mind back together.

"This library is currently under quarantine," the officer replied. "As soon as we have a better location, you all will be bussed off campus." Anna stared at him, but obediently took a few steps away when a DPS officer hurried up.

"Sir, it looks like we're going to have to use the math building," he informed the city officer. "There were two encounters there, and the hospital can't take us all."

Us? Anna wondered, until she realized that the first responders were in the same boat as everyone else. No wonder the sergeant looked so sour.

The officer in charge could apparently tell she was still listening, however. "Keep an eye on her," he ordered before stepping into the nearest private study room. Through the window she could see him having an animated argument with his radio.

"What's going on?" she asked her babysitter.

"I'm not sure." He shrugged, more interested in the inaudible radio conversation.

"Don't give me that, I've heard plenty already. He's already going to try and keep me away from everyone." The two hours since the attack had not sweetened her mood.

The officer glared at her, but she glared right back. "We've hardly been given specifics," he said at last. "Just that there have been a bunch of attacks."

Anna wanted to scream. That much she knew already. Forcing herself not to take it out on the tired DPS officer, she looked anywhere else, finally resting her eyes on the paramedics, deep in conversation with a man she hadn't seen until now. From the look of him, six-foot-four and well muscled, he was a serious athlete, but that clashed with the expression on the faces of the paramedics; they were deferring to him like an equal, if not a superior. On the floor at his feet was a plastic fishing tackle box, if she weren't mistaken, which made no sense whatsoever.

A few more words and the newcomer split off to step into the private study room the officer in charge was in, the two paramedics moving amongst the crowd and, to Anna's delight, dismissing people one by one.

They never reached her, however. The most recent party crasher came over to offer her a smile. "You were in contact with Kevin Harding?"

She had to remember who that was. "Yes."

"Why don't you start taking a group over to the math lab?" he suggested to the campus officer. "Is this an undergrad campus?" he asked then, and Anna took that as an opportunity.

"No, it's mixed. The math building can't have more than a couple TAs who're grad students, but this library attracts pretty much everyone. The comp-sci grad students just get to keep an eye on it by default."

"What about med students?" he asked before she could martial an argument for her release.

Anna frowned. "Only by chance. Most of them spend their time at the campus downtown." Medical students? What could he possibly want med students for? Perhaps damage control, she decided, seeing how all the students were talking.

"Too bad. We'll clear you once I get set up in the math building. It may take some time," he added, seeing her cover a yawn. "You may as well rest until we're ready to go."

"Are you sure you need me?" she blurted out as he started to turn away.

He turned back, and she thought she saw sadness in his eyes. "Dispatch didn't know better when they asked you to check the victim's pulse. They do now. I'm sorry, but I will have to check for the contagion before I let you go."

Anna nodded, mute. That was as good as telling her that whatever disease the woman had brought in was passed through contact, and she had learned enough medicine from her mother to be concerned for herself.

*

Now wearing a lab coat, the latecomer who had apologized for keeping her in quarantine addressed the small group huddled in a stripped classroom, only a table too large to be easily fit through the door remaining. All the fire doors between the rooms were standing open, revealing similarly empty rooms all the way down the hall. "As soon as I can check each of you, you'll be sent home. Until then, please remain here. Your DPS is patrolling to keep this virus from spreading to anyone new, and you can help them most by waiting to be cleared. Get some rest if you can, it may be a long night." Anna's eyes were closing of their own accord when he continued. "Does anyone here have medical training? Nurse, first responder, anything? No?" He sounded disappointed.

Anna sighed as she stuck her hand in the air. She had a feeling her night was just beginning. "Not much, but I do."

Was that relief in his eyes as he beckoned to her? "What kind?" he asked, leading her into the first room on the hall, which still had a computer and desk chair remaining at the long worktable. "You look awfully young to be in grad school, too."

Anna was a little taken aback. "I'll be twenty-six in a couple months," she said as she stepped into the room. "I actually took time off before grad school."

"Is that when you got your medical training?" He set his tackle box on the table and started pulling test tubes, needles, and some gauze out of it. He only glanced up briefly. "Sorry, I don't mean to pry, I just want to make sure you're up to this."

That didn't exactly make up for it, but at least he acknowledged his impropriety. "I was working as a medical assistant at sixteen," she informed him, trying not to feel superior for the early experience. "When your mother is a family doctor running her own private office, you get roped into all sorts of things. She trained me on the job... I've never taken a certification course."

He shrugged. "Can you take blood? All ages? What about lab experience?" He pointed her at the rolling office chair, tube in hand.

She sat and offered her left arm on the arm rest, making a fist so he could find the easiest vein. "Yep. I don't think there's a fridge anywhere in the building though... and if there's a centrifuge anywhere on this campus I will be very surprised."

While she spoke he quickly drew a single tube of blood, then handed her a gauze pad to press against the puncture as he withdrew the needle. "I have equipment coming, both mine and from the medical campus. We don't have the luxury of waiting for a lab off-site."

"Why not?" Anna finally realized that the man in front of her had answers the police did not. "What's the big deal?"

He looked up from labeling the tube in surprise. "They really kept you in the dark, didn't they?" It didn't matter who 'they' were, she just waited for an answer. "You saw a woman attack a student. Did you see what happened to him?"

She shrugged. "He died, or I thought he did. His pulse was weak when I checked it, and the paramedics pronounced him dead not long after. But he started raging like the woman a moment later."

"Remind you of anything?" He was obviously multitasking, because his next question was unrelated. "Name?"

She blinked, refocusing. "Anna Mayfield. Six, twenty, eighty-seven, if you care that much." Then she backpedaled to his previous question. "I don't know, I wondered if she had rabies or something."

"I'd think in this day and age, vampirism would come to mind."

Was he teasing? "Vampires?" With his back to her, she had a hard time deciding if he were serious or not. "You've gotta be kidding me."

He offered her a strained smile as he pulled a microscope out of a box. "It wouldn't be the first time people called a disease by that name. They're hardly the creatures of the night, but victims are crazy enough to bleed others, sometimes dry."

"You really mean that, don't you?" she asked slowly, deflating. "You've actually seen someone bled dry by these crazies?"

His smile faltered, and that, more so than his reply, convinced her how serious he was. "I have. This is not pretty, and I'm sorry that you are going to see more than your share, Anna."

If he was joking, he was a professional con artist. "Life is what it is," she told him quietly. "We don't get to choose."

He sighed, and she wondered at the suggested history behind it. "By the time you've collected a few samples, the centrifuge should be here," he said instead of commenting further. "Start with the three that got scratched by the woman."

"Sure," she replied, not as energetic as she had been before. "I... I don't know your name."

"David. David Herrell."

"No doctor? Dr. Herrell?"

This time the smile had optimistic undertones. "Just David is fine."

Anna returned his smile, trying not to imagine what David might look like without the worry he carried right now. How old was he? He looked in his mid-thirties, but if she looked young to him, he must be twice her age. Flirting with older men was not on her agenda right now. Glancing away in haste, her eyes fell on the tube of her blood lying next to the computer. "How do you want me documenting all this? We'll have to ask for paper..."

"It's a shame we can't just use your medical center, but they make the rules, not I." David returned to his fishing tackle box, pulling a handful of purple-topped evacuated test tubes from it.

She smirked, moving to the keyboard. "Maybe we can. Remotely."

"Oh?" He looked up from stacking the tubes for easy access.

"I'm a computer nerd," she informed him, amused. "And an accomplished hacker, though since I've done server maintenance for the school, it's hardly necessary for this."

"I would've thought someone with your medical training would be in biology, or the sciences," he commented idly, watching her.

A loading page with a familiar vector logo appeared, and Anna clapped her hands. "How do you think medical offices run? I started a similar software package on an office network when I was in high school."

"High school," he muttered under his breath, though she could not quite decide what he meant by it. "Can you get us into the system? Histories and prior conditions we can definitely use." His voice sounded carefully neutral, possibly in her favor, but she couldn't tell.

"If their administrator hasn't changed some of the defaults..." The screen paused, her cursor becoming an hourglass, then all of a sudden the screen displayed the software's user interface. "Yes! Give me a moment to set us up, then we should be good."

"Small favors," he responded with a smile. "You bring luck, Anna, something I tend to be short on. I thank you."

He made it sound like she had given him a birthday gift. "Uh, you're welcome." She hastily created a new administrator account with full settings to allow them unimpeded access and logged out and back in; she then stepped aside, waving at the screen. "It's pretty self-explanatory, but let me know if you don't recognize anything, I can show you easily enough." She picked up a few tubes, then sorted through the assorted pre-packaged bits he had unloaded to find needles and necessities to draw the blood he'd requested. "Contact, yes? Any other concerns?" Luckily a box of powdered non-latex gloves was part of his collection. She tucked it under her arm.

"Problems, and immuno-compromised people are always high risk. I can't tell you how much less contact will truly cause transmission to high risk patients, but the usual viral safety precautions should be taken."

"I'll remind them. The bathrooms are down the hall, should you want to wash up." Anna moved into the doorway, throwing a glance back. "Let me know what your plan is once you have one, hmm?"

*

Their improvised quarantine facility began getting a few local victims the following morning, and by day two the entire hall of classrooms had nearly been filled with folding cots and people, those affected worst closed off from the recently-exposed. Anna was in the middle of getting the newest suburban victims settled when the last of David's equipment arrived. "Just set it on the table there," she called from halfway across the room to the women carrying the boxes, waving briefly at the table by the door. "I'll get to it in a moment."

The blonde woman gave Anna such a glare in response, the words were just extra. "And you are?"

"In charge at the moment," Anna snapped, not in the mood to be condescended to by a courier. "Put the stuff on the table, please."

"I'd prefer to wait until Dr. Herrell can approve these, they're--"

"In the way at the moment, as our lab has been fully functional for a day now." Anna returned to her patient until all of a sudden she felt a hand on her shoulder and spun to find the blonde. "What now?"

"You're going to go get Dr. Herrell right now so he can approve--"

"I'm right here, Chloe, leave her be. In fact," David had appeared in the door that led to the first room on the row, which they were using as both lab and office, complete with folding cot, though neither had had a chance to use it. "Why don't you take Anna's place, Chloe? You've been working since I got here, Anna, you need a break. Take a nap. I'll get these two used to the setup. Oh, just leave the stuff on the table, Sam, that's fine. We're a little overcrowded. We're probably going to need more purple-top tubes before anything else."

Anna tucked her hair out of her face. "Would you like me to go to the health center? I could see what supplies they have, or send to the hospital for more."

"Anna." David turned back to her with a handsome smile.

"Yes?"

"Go to bed!"

She laughed once, saluted him, and headed for the first room and the cot it held hidden behind a curtain.

*

Anna woke to the sound of quiet voices through the curtain that served as room divider. Throwing aside the thin blanket and sheet, she grabbed her discarded jeans and slipped them on. She had lip gloss in her pocket, but she wished she had a hair brush. She pulled the elastic tie from her ponytail with an unceremonious yank, gathering her hair anew in at least a pretense of being put together.