The Curse of Bliss

Chapter Two

Walking into work the next morning is a madhouse. Amery's eyes are wide as he takes in the scene around him. All doctors and nurses are walking around with masks on their faces and eye shields as well.

"Amery, good to see that you're back," a familiar voice calls to him.

He turns and sees the head nurse, Blaise, at the nursing desk. The other man is tall and thin, but an alpha nonetheless. He motions Amery over to the nursing desk.

"What's going on around here?" Amery asks.

His boss looks up at him. "I guess you wouldn't really know about what's going on would you?"

He sighs, reaching over to pull a mask out of a box and handing it to me. "Put this on and follow me."

Amery does as he says, putting the mask on his face as he follows his boss into the nurses' lounge. He looks around in shock, seeing that the place has been completely transformed. On the wall to the right is a map with little red pins on it. To the left are stacks upon stacks of bottled water and canned food. A few other nurses are sitting on the single couch in the room, giving the two of them a small nod before turning back to their own business.

Blaise stops in front of the map and points at the first red dot. "This is where the outbreak started. Only five hundred miles south of us. And it has been spreading steadily ever since." He points at another red dot, the one the furthest to the north. "Yesterday morning, we got news that it had spread as far north as Elbira. The hospitals there were overrun with people. They had to start turning patients away. The army went in as well to try and control the situation, but it isn't looking good."

"Why would the army be needed? Are people rioting or refusing to go into quarantine?"

"Something like that."

His boss walks over to a screen that is mounted on the wall, and he pushes a few buttons to have it come to life. Soon enough, a few pictures come up on the screen.

"This is a woman who came into the ER down in Notark. This is her on the first day."

She looks normal enough, face red and sweaty from the fever. But nothing too significant.

"This the same woman on day five."

The next picture is shocking. Her eyes are completely bloodshot, claw marks reaching all the way from her brows to her mouth.

"And this is her on day ten."

The picture is taken from behind a viewing window, the woman pressed against the glass. The claw parks haven't healed at all, and bite marks litter her arms. Her skin is so pale it appears almost transparent, her blood vessels standing in stark contrast to her white skin.

"Nothing helped her?"

His boss shakes his head, pushing another button, turning the screen off. "Nothing has been able to help them. Only one person who has gotten sick has managed to turn into what that other woman was. But she is in constant pain, barely able to move. That's why we think they claw and bite themselves. They are hurting so bad and they are trying to make them stop. But once they get to the third stage and unresponsive, they become violent. They attack doctors and nurses, and it is no longer possible to be in the same room as them.

"That's why we have transformed the entire West Wing into a quarantine center. It is the most isolated part of the hospital." Blaise sighs then. "But to be honest, Amery, we aren't equipped to handle an epidemic like this. Most of the staff here wanted to just shut down and reroute people to the hospital up in Lydick, but the board refused to shut down. A good number of workers here haven't even shown up for work today, and honestly? I don't blame them."