AM13 Outbreak Shorts

Quarantine - One

"Are you serious, Hannah," I gasp in dismay as she gives me that very serious look of hers. She narrows her eyes and stares down her nose at me, with her lips turned downwards. "That can't be right, surely?"

"That's what Dave heard them say. Once the quarantine is made official we'll have to start killing everyone that's brought in here."

"But that's not why these specialist medical facilities were set up." I run my fingers through my matted hair, before tossing it up into a ponytail just to keep it off my face. "I thought we were supposed to be helping people, curing this damn virus even."

"I know." Hannah shrugs, looking far too blasé for my liking. How can she not see how messed up this is? "But what can we do? It's not like we have any control over what happens here." She takes a large, crunching bite out of her apple. "Maybe there is no cure, and that's why we have to do this."

I chew on the inside of my mouth as I think. "I just think that's barbaric, don't you? People are coming here for help, or because the cops have sent them. They have no idea they're being sentenced to death."

"Well, they wouldn't come if they knew, would they?"

"Are you happy to do some of the killing? Because you do realize they'll probably be expecting us to do it, don't you? The people who bark orders at us sit up there doing none of the dirty work themselves. I don't know about you, but I did not sign up for this. I can barely stand to look at them all strapped down in their beds like freaking animals, never mind anything else. I only tolerate that because it's keeping us safe."

"What do you intend to do, Katie? Cure this whole thing yourself? Maybe if you do that they won't need to kill everyone but judging, by the way, it's getting way out of control this might be the only way. We need to stub this virus out before it kills everyone. That idea's scarier, isn't it?"

I stand up from my comfy chair in the canteen and pad over to the coffee machine, needing a serious caffeine boost before I can even think about that. I understand exactly where she's coming from, and maybe she is right, but I just cannot think of human life in such a callous way no matter what. We went to medical school to help keep people alive, not to murder them. I'm just not the sort to be able to toss all my morals out the window.

Maybe a time will come where that's necessary, but for now, I'm sticking firm.

"Yeah, maybe I will find an answer," I finally reply with an air of indifference about me. "Someone has to do it, don't they? Why not me?"

Hannah laughs a little too loudly for my liking. "Oh sure, Katie. The whole world goes to hell and you're the one who saves the day. I can really see that happening."

Why shouldn't it be me?

I don't ask Hannah that because my blood's boiling now. How dare she assume that I couldn't do this. Yes, there might be people with more medical experience than me, maybe I'm not the one you'd assume could do it, but that doesn't mean I definitely can't.

Determination circles my system like a hot coil in my belly. I feel like I want to at least try when a national disaster like this occurs everyone has to give it a go, don't they?

Yes, I think I so. I think that it might be me.