The attendants pushed the gurney through the doors of the Exigency department. Brita strode along holding on to her mother's hand. She lay immobile, still strapped to the gurney, a blanket covering her prone form.
Another attendant stepped in. "Exam room 3," she indicated the double doors ahead. "Miss?" She touched Brita's elbow, drawing her away. "You'll have to wait in the waiting room."
"I know where it is," Brita flinched away from her touch. "I brought my sister here earlier."
The attendant nodded, giving a sympathetic smile. "Most families in town have several members here." She glanced back to the waiting room. She looked about to add something, then changed her mind. "Your family is in the best hands available. Try not to worry."
"Code Blue," a voice crackled over the attendant's Halo hanging from her lapel. "Code Blue. Exam Room 3."
Brita gasped, her eyes widening. "Mom?" she squeaked.
"Stay here," the attendant said, then dashed down the hall.
"But," she whispered, "she needs me."
She stood frozen, staring till long after the attendant disappeared.
"Bobbi," She started, turned and ran back to the waiting room. "Bobbi?" She called out. She wasn't there. None of the other waiting people looked familiar from the last time she was there. Her heart beating faster with each passing moment; each unfamiliar face.
"Miss?" she asked the attendant at the admittance desk. "Can you tell me where my sister is?"
"Name?"
"Barbara Holt."
She entered the name into her system. "The first," she gasped. "Um, Doctor Bandon is running some tests. You'll have to wait."
The Exigency doors slid open and the peace officer that tackled the young man escorted his prisoner, hands bound behind his back, up to the admittance desk. The young man's face looked horrible. His eyes were puffy and turning the most extraordinary color of purple. Stray bits of grass hung from his collar, and stained his shoulders and elbows.
"Officer Johnson," the attendant scrunched up her face. "What have we here?"
"This slack resisted arrest. He fell into my transport on the way in," he sighed. "My Captain insisted I bring him in to get checked out." He shrugged. "Don't really see the point."
Brita watched the attendant and officer take him back to an exam room. A moment later they returned. "As I said," the attendant said, "It'll be at least an hour. More like two." She wheezed suppressing a cough. "We're kind of full up at the moment." She smirked. "Go get some lunch. He'll still be here."
Officer Johnson nodded and left.
"Are you still here?" she asked Brita.
Brita shook her head and went to sit down.
What is going on?
Brita leaned against a wall in the waiting room, folding her arms across her chest. Everyone is getting sick. Mom, Bobbi, She looked around the waiting room, everyone in here. She didn't feel any different. She took a deep breath. No cough. Why is everyone else sick and not me?
She tapped her foot. First Bobbi, She started pacing. Then Mom and the rest of town.
She stopped in the middle of the floor. And the man, she turned towards the exam rooms, from the park got arrested? And beaten.
She spotted an attendant step out of exam room 3 and shut the door.
"Sir?" she said, stopping the attendant. "Can you tell me how my mom is doing?"
YOU ARE READING
Hard Reboot Episode 01
Science FictionA strange illness is running through Brita Holt's home town. Her sister is sick; and her mother is missing. She needs to pull herself together to find her mother and keep her family together. When a strange young man is brutalized by local law enfor...
