Hard Reboot Episode 01

Chapter 3

Brita supported Bobbi through the Exigency doors of the hospital twenty minutes later. The packed waiting room bustled with activity, Doctors and attendants dashed around the Exigency area. Patients waiting to be seen crowded the room; every seat occupied, every space on the walls filled. Everyone in the room mimicked Bobbi's hacking cough; in varying intensity and frequency.

Bobbi began coughing again drawing stares from everyone. A young gentleman on one of the wall seats got up, nodding to Brita, and sat on the floor in front of an older woman. Probably his mother, Brita thought, nodding thanks to him.

Brita limped to the service desk, grabbed a face mask for Bobbi.

The boy on the floor gave her a questioning look, glancing at her limp.

"It's nothing," she said, handing the mask to Bobbi. Bobbi put the mask on. Another set of racking coughs overtook her.

He raised an eyebrow.

Brita blushed, sighed. "I stepped on a broken dish. But I took care of it."

He smirked, and turned his attention back to his mother.

"I'm going to check you in," she told her sister. Bobbi nodded.

Brita limped to the desk as an attendant noticed her. A face mask wrapped around her black hair serving double-duty.

"Are you OK, honey?"

"I'm fine, but my sister is -"

The attendant began coughing like the rest of the patients. "I'm sorry," she said when the coughing subsided. "Your sister?"

"What is going on? I thought it was just Bobbi: my sister. Is everyone sick?"

"Another one." She sighed, and began typing. "Name?"

Brita told her.

"When did the symptoms first start?"

"Two days ago."

The attendant looked up. "What did you say?"

Brita repeated the answer.

She glanced around and called a doctor over. "Doctor Bandon, this young woman says her sister started showing symptoms two days ago."

The doctor looked shocked. "Is this true, miss?" his voice muffled by his own face mask.

Brita nodded; worried. "My mom said it was just a bad cold."

"Patient Zero?" Doctor Bandon and the attendant murmured together.

"What?"

"Everyone here," his arm swept including everyone in the room, "came down with the same symptoms in the last six to twelve hours. The severity varies among those affected, but most find it debilitating." He looked her over. "Why aren't you sick?" he asked almost accusingly.

Brita shrugged, taking a limping step back.

Doctor Bandon grabbed her arm. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing. I cut my foot this morning."

The doctor looked around, noticing a passing attendant. "Get me a wheelchair."

The new attendant nodded and dashed off. Returning a moment later with a wheelchair, he helped Brita to sit before heading off again.

"Let me look at your foot."

"What about all these people? My foot surely can wait," Brita complained.

"Everything that can be done, is being done." He crouched by the chair indicating she should give him her foot. "This is something I can take care of now."

Brita thought of her mother on the beach. Probably alone. She needed to get to her.

Doctor Bandon nodded at her foot. Brita relented, putting her left foot in his hand.

He took her shoe and sock off, and chuckled. "That is incredible. Did you think of this?"

Brita blushed, nodding.

"Brilliant." His eyes smiled approvingly.

"Clean," he said. "Efficient." He turned her foot one way, then another. "Wait here."

Brita clenched the tissue in her hand while waiting. The tenderness returning with each movement.

Doctor Bandon knelt, set a blue plastic caddy at his side, and grabbed her foot again. He swabbed a liquid around and on the wound before wrapping it in a padded bandage. "I disinfected the area, and this should work just as well as the pad you used." He chuckled again, shaking his head. "Genius."

He noticed Brita clenching the tissue. "Your hand too?"

Brita nodded as he released her grip to inspect that wound as well.

"Bleeding has stopped. Minor cut." He swabbed it, but left it open. "Just needs to breathe. Well," he said, getting up. "I've got to get back to work on this..." He looked up at Bobbi who was coughing again. "Wait with your sister. We'll get to her as soon as we can."

He strode off.

The attendant finished her questions.

Brita finished her answers then went back to her sister.

"What now?" Bobbi asked.

Brita shrugged, "Now we wait."

"What about Mommy?"

Brita sighed. "I don't know. I was going to leave you here with the hospital staff to take care of you. But, I'm worried."

Bobbi looked around at the other coughing patients and staff. Several people shivered where they sit or stood. "They're way worse than I feel." Another deep cough shook her frame.

Brita looked skeptical.

"Really," Bobbi patted her shoulder. "I'll live. Go find Mommy."

Brita struggled. Sister. Mom. Sister. Mom.

"Seriously. Go."

She looked at the staff and decided. Bobbi was in capable hands, sort of. Mom wasn't.

She stepped away from the chair, embraced her sister, and stood.

"You have your Halo?" Brita asked.

"Right here," she said, patting her pocket. "Go. Call me when you find her."

Brita nodded and headed for the doors, making sure no one stopped her.

She haloed an auto-car. It arrived within a few minutes.

"Coquille Point," she told the navigation system. "Fastest possible route."

The drive won't take long, Mom. I'm coming.