AM13 Outbreak Shorts

Quarantine - Four

I feel sick. Not just nauseous, but like vomit could spill past my lips at any given moment. Everything I do, all that I see, it just makes me feel worse. It's like...I know exactly what I'm looking at, but I don't have a clue at the same time.

I have my medical knowledge, possibly even more than others that studied alongside me because my mother's pushing worked a little bit too well, but this is beyond me. There's no way around it, I can't find the answer I'm so desperately looking for.

I don't like to admit it, but I'm not sure that I can do it alone. If I was going to ask anyone for help, it would be the people that I work with, but this is probably beyond them too. I need a scientist, an expert of some kind. I wish I knew where to find one...

I've tried looking, actually. About an hour after I got in from work I felt so overwhelmed that I got online to search for one, but I had no luck. I don't really know where to start.

No, it doesn't matter. I can do this alone!

I bang my fist down on the table as an unexpected burst of determination floods me. I've allowed myself to get weary because it isn't simple, but of course, it isn't easy. If it was, someone would've done it already. We wouldn't be in the mess that we are. I'm the one that's supposed to fix this, and if that's the case then I need to work out how to do that my way, not the way I assume it should be done.

I jump up and make my way into the kitchen where I flick the kettle on for a caffeine fix. This really is a bad habit of mine that's growing. I know it isn't good for me, I need to stop at some point. Maybe when all of this is over...

Right, what do I know? Maybe if I organize my thoughts I'll see something I didn't notice before. It starts off like the flu, nothing uncommon there. Then the white blood cells stop functioning and the organs just...die off. One-by-one.

Urgh, that's the really weird part. It doesn't seem to come from anywhere, and it certainly doesn't follow the rules of anything else that I'm aware of. From the bloods I have, I can tell how far into the virus they are by the blood cell count which helps me because I didn't have time to label each sample, but doesn't help me because I can't see any way around it.

Once the virus enters the system, there's no way of stopping it. It slowly kills off the 'human' part of the person and leaves only a shell behind. One that doesn't seem to feel anything but the need to bite or eat flesh. I already knew that, but it's been confirmed. It progresses at different rates through people, but it's always the same. It always takes over and the person loses who they once were.

There has to be some way to reverse that. I know it damages the human bodies quite badly, but I can't give up hope. I need to cling onto the fact that there's a way to change it. Or at least stop it. I wouldn't want to give up on the people already too far gone, but even something to stop the virus from spreading in new victims would be better than nothing.

But how the hell am I going to do that?

Without the help of anyone else, the blood isn't going to be enough. I need scans. I need to see inside the victim's bodies and their brains. I'm not keen on dissecting them and I don't think I'll be able to pull that off, but scans I might be able to do.

I just need to figure out the right excuse to pull that off, especially if Dave is sniffing around. I take a large sip of my coffee and narrow my eyes while I think.

It's okay if anyone can do this it's me.