Black Patches

The Effect

I awoke to a white-tiled ceiling and plastic feeding tubes. I sat up, and a white blanket fell from my chest. A thin machine was hooked up to the right of my bed, sending a constant a fluid through the tubes and up my arm.

The room I was kept in was small, slightly larger than a closet, and had a window for viewing in front. On the other side of the window was Glim, who had her hands cupped to the glass to peer inside. I hopped out of bed and ran to the window, dragging the machine and tubes with me.

"Dex!" Glim exclaimed, pressing her hands against the window. "You blacked out in the past, so I dragged you back. You caught the bug and were rushed to the emergency room, where they put you under quarantine and treated you with strong antibiotics for a few days."

"A few days?" My jaw dropped. "How long was I asleep? Did you finish helping the medieval sick in the meantime?"

"Well, you've been here about eight days, and I was kept here too for one of them. Since I was exposed to you, they had to make sure I didn't catch the bug, too." She lowered her head. "I couldn't go back, though. I was already treated, and going back without someone to take me back if I got infected seemed too risky. Plus, we already did all we could."

"But we didn't stop the plague," I concluded, my voice glum to match the tone of hers.

"No, but we definitely made a difference." She held her phone to the glass, and on the screen was a map of Europe covered in black. The title read "The Black Death in Europe, 1348." Glim pointed to a small white circle near Italy, the only area not covered in black. "We saved them."

I thought of the middle-aged woman who died at my feet. "Thank you," she had tried to say to me. I smiled. You're welcome, I thought. It was worth it.