Fractured

One

One

            The sharp sting of ice-cold water began to bother Sarah’s skin.  Damn it, Sarah thought to herself, must have snagged my waders on some brush.   Why does Brad give me all of the crap assignments.

            Sarah has been on this god-forsaken assignment for almost three weeks now.   Sarah arrived at the Boise Airport after ten pm, rented a silver Jeep Liberty and drove to Lewiston.  After a five-hour drive she reached her destination, very early in the morning.  Nine patients had been admitted into St. Joseph Regional Medical Center with flu like symptoms.  Fever and diarrhea lead to renal failure and in two cases death.

            The CDC was concerned that this new pathogen could spread and move down stream.  If the pathogen spread, thousands of people could become infected.  Sarah’s job was to determine if the patients were contaminated with this pathogen.   Next, she needed to find the source of contamination, finally determine the possibility and severity of spread.  

            The next two days Sarah talked to the seven remaining patients, doctors, nurses, local law enforcement and the local Fish and Game officers.  Her questions lead her to fifty square miles in the Wallowa National Forest.  The next sixteen days were spent driving to different tributaries of the Snake River in that area.

            Sarah York woke early in her hotel room in Boise Idaho, already in a bad mood.  After double-checking all of her equipment began the four-hour drive north on highway 95, ending on a small dirt road in the Wallowa National Forest.  Next came a two-hour trek to the headwaters of a tributary of the Snake River.  The hike was made long mostly due to the extremely thick underbrush of the forest.

            Sarah now stood thigh deep in ice-cold mud, and worse she now had a hole in her waders.  Her left foot was burning and would soon go numb.  She took another vial from a pouch of her backpack removed the stopper and filled it with water from the muddy stream.  She replaced the stopper and returned it to its spot in the backpack.

            Quickly wading the fifteen yards back to dry land Sarah was anxious to remove the waders and worm her burning foot.  She removed the waders and began to rub her foot and ankle.  At least, she thought to herself, she wasn’t doing this in the dead of winter.  The spring run off was deceptively warmer, or at least she could trick herself into believing it was warmer.

       Thankfully Sarah had removed her boots and socks before putting on the waders.  Unfortunately her pant leg from her mid calf down was soaked.  She knew that her pants would eventually soak into her socks and could become bothersome.  She gathered her backpack and began the long trek back to the car.

            Half an hour later it began to lightly rain and after an hour and a half Sarah’s ankle was burning again.  Her left sock was just damp enough that her blood couldn’t replace the heat fast enough.   Worried that it would go numb she picked up her pace, hoping to increase her circulation.  And that is when she rolled her ankle.  It didn’t happen because of the cold, but because she wasn’t paying attention.  She fell hard against the nearest tree and cursed herself for her mistake.

            Close to an hour latter she finally made it back to the car.  Her ankle had a knot, which had swollen over the cuff of her boot; she didn’t dare take it off.  Driving back to Boise the heater began to worm her body, and her ankle began to hurt.  Damn, thought Sarah, this job was going to kill me.

            Arriving back at her hotel room, Sarah was looking forward to soaking her ankle and helping herself to a beer.  The red light on the hotel phone was blinking; someone had left her a message.  She hobbled over to the miniature refrigerator and pulled out a Budweiser, removed the cap and took a long slow pull.  She managed a third of the beer before coming up for a breath.

            Hobbling over to the bed Sarah took a seat and picked up the phone and requested the message.  It was Brad, her boss, requesting her to call him whenever she got this message.  She hung up the receiver and took another long pull from the bottle.

            After finishing off the beer Sarah picked up the receiver again and called Brads cell.

“Hey, it’s Sarah”

“Uh yeah I know it’s the middle of the night.   You said when I got the message to call.”

“A new assignment?  But what about the pathogens in the Snake?”

“Yeah but…”

“Oh god, how certain are you?”

“Ok, where is the epicenter?”

“Uh, from one hell hole to another.”

        “I’ll leave in the morning.”  Sarah once again hung up the receiver.  Sighing deeply she stood up and hobbled back over to the refrigerator.  She pulled another Bud from the mini fridge. Damn, she thought to herself, this job is going to kill me.  Or if it doesn’t, well then I might kill Brad.