Sundew

Chapter 7

Sunny awoke to a scream, the fluorescents—the power—having returned to the building.

"GET IT OUT OF ME!!! OH JESUS CHRIST GET OUT OF ME!!! PLEASE SOMEONE HELP!!!" What the fuck was going on? He pulled himself out of bed. Immediately, Sunny was gripped with that terrible familiarity—like your first time walking through the historical site of an empty battlefield from millennia ago, and feeling like you'd been there before. His first thought was not, "What's wrong?" or "Whoever made that noise, are they okay?" Instead, his first thought was, "Where have I heard that before?"

Sunny stood outside the operating theater, wondering just what the hell was happening, or why this dude was screaming his head off like a child throwing a tantrum. At last, silence. Then, a while later, Olivia came out, a defeated look on her face and a newfound slouch in her walk. A wet sucking sound coming from inside the operating theater, then a loud psssssh. A noise like that of gas escaping a rusty valve. Olivia turned back, took one look inside the theater, and backed away. Then, Right before the door clicked shut, Sunny heard something just on the edge of his audition, the same guy who was screaming his head off, saying, "Come home."

"Olivia, what the hell was that?!" Sunny asked, exasperated.

"I don't know, but Dr. Palmer put the building's under lockdown. The theater has a keypad built in for when patients like that guy try to escape. The theater's locked down, as is the rest of the building. No one can get in or out.

Sunny went down to the front desk of the hospital a while later, and found that Olivia was right, but he also saw there wasn't anyone coming to save them. Row after row of barricades and pigs dressed in S.W.A.T. uniforms toting automatic rifles stood guard as people tried to get past them. There was a single man among them, one in a white dress shirt, black-as-midnight tie, black Calvin Klein Pants and platform shoes. The man in the white shirt had broken away from the other Bureaucrats. He had what looked to be a satellite phone, but it was of a kind that Sunny had never seen before. The man in the shirt came up to the front doors of the hospital, put the phone to his ear, then BRERERERE! BRERERERE! Sunny turned around to look behind him, and saw the phone desk beeping away as if commanding him to pick it up. Sunny looked back at the man in the shirt, who pointed to the phone that was now ringing from the desk. Sunny walked over obediently. KLIK!

"Good evening, sir. My name is Agent Rowe. We apologize for the inconvenience of the lockdown, but given what we're dealing with, I think you would agree that such measures are necessary."

"Hi, Agent Rowe. Tell me: what do you mean by 'what we're dealing with?'"

"Do you recall a man coming in earlier this morning: caucasian, gray hair, 5'2?"

"I didn't see what the guy looked like, but the staff did take in a guy earlier who was screaming his head off. Why? Do you know something we don't?"

"Somewhat. You are dealing with a threat that is biological in nature. That man who came in earlier this morning was carrying a parasitic infection that we, while having kept a close eye on it, know little about. All we know is that it has a 100% Lethality rate. Did you happen to inhale any gasses or anything from the man?"

"No, Agent."

Have you made physical contact with or come in close proximity to anyone who may have been near him?"

"I didn't make contact with her, but one of the nurses was operating on the guy, and I got close to her. Oh god, could I be infected?"

"That I'm not sure of, but we do know it can be caught via inhalation of its spores, whose smell is pretty distinct, and through physical contact with an infected. There's still a chance you'll make it, but for now you must operate under the assumption that you're as good as dead. I can see you making to walk away from the phone, but I know of something you can do to not risk yourself or others."