Chapter 6
6
TAYLER
We stepped through the camp gates and entered chaos. Carolyn, the camp’s only nurse, ran up to me, breathing hard and wringing her hands.
“Dr. D, Allen’s back, and he’s looking for you.”
I handed my things off to Omar, prepping for a fight, but my energy switched focus with Carolyn’s next sentence.
“They found a woman. She’s in bad shape. She’s in the exam room.”
I ran beside her and burst into the building that had once housed classrooms for the small county’s school of agriculture. Now, it was our “hospital,” which I’d used to treat everything from respiratory illnesses to wounds to breaks and sprains over the last several months. It was also where we quarantined those suspected of having been infected. Then, there was another room where Memphis and Dallas took those whose infections were confirmed.
“Explain bad shape,” I said.
“Crackling in her lungs. Blood and pus in her sputum. High fever. Delirium. Allen and the group were driving by and spotted a camper in the woods. They decided to stop and check it for supplies. They found her inside.”
“Fever? Was she bitten?”
“No, and we checked her four times.”
“Anything else I need to know?”
“They found infant formula in the camper.”
Inside the classroom-turned-patient room, a brown-skinned woman lay on a hospital bed, her skin freckled with sweat. She lay so motionless, she looked comatose, but I could hear each time she inhaled. At least, each time she tried to.
From what I’d witnessed at the CDC and after the outbreak, NPmS-14 didn’t affect the lungs; none of the patients we saw at the CDC ever developed a cough, shortness of breath, or anything respiratory-related. It was what had led us to believe that a rare pathogen could be the culprit. Something either brand new or older than tuberculosis. The genius tech guy on the team, whose name I could no longer remember, had even suggested an infectious agent initially kept out of circulation by permafrost.
Then, it melted.
Carolyn handed me a stethoscope. I slipped on a mask and walked over to listen to the woman’s lungs for myself.
“Has she said anything?” I asked.
“Nothing that makes sense. She keeps talking about some kind of ‘gauge.’”
“Where’s Allen?”
“I’m right behind you, babe.”
I glanced at the man standing in the entryway. The look on his face told me that he wanted to discuss why I’d left the gates, but I didn’t have time for that. While there was no way this woman was who I’d run into at the clinic, something told me that this woman and that person were connected via that baby.
“Those sound like pneumonia lungs, and with the pus in her sputum and how far it’s progressed…” I removed the earpieces and looped them around my neck. “Allen, do we have the juice for an X-ray?”
It was a small private college, but it was well-stocked. The goal had been to set it up as a military medical camp, but things went south faster than the state anticipated. Those who’d heard about the camp still set out, hoping to find shelter and supplies. Allen was one of the first to arrive. He’d been a hospital administrator, so he used his leadership and delegative skills to rise to the position of pseudo-president.
Allen nodded. “Yes. Do whatever you have to.”
“Carolyn, get the X-ray machine ready,” I instructed. “I’d like to take a look at her lungs. And have someone drop off a vial of azithromycin.”
Carolyn hurried from the room.
I dosed out the amoxicillin we had on hand, and Memphis dropped off azithromycin from the stash we accumulated from the rural clinic. The entire time I worked, Allen watched me until I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Are you going to stand around or help?”
“Stand around,” he said. “Not sure I could be of any help.”
“Get another IV bag ready. We found a haul today.”
I added the medication to the drip already going into a vein in the back of the unnamed woman’s hand.
“We need to talk about that haul.”
“Get another bag ready, Allen.”
When he realized I wouldn’t be budging anytime soon, he grabbed a second bag filled with clear, untainted saline solution.
“Carolyn said you found her in a camper?” I asked. “Did she look like she might have been alone?”
“Considering the state she was in, there was no way she was surviving on her own.” He sent a bent wire hanger through the slot at the top of the bag. “And it looked like she recently hunkered down there.”
“I want to go to that camper.”
“It’s raining.”
“It’s rain, not acid.”
“Tayler—”
“There’s a baby. Omar and the rest don’t know, but the clinic we found? Someone else was there. They didn’t speak, but I saw them, and I heard the baby. I left them with formula and medication.”
“So, they should be fine.”
“Or they’re in a similar condition.”
I dabbed sweat from the woman’s forehead and leaned closer, inspecting her roots. Despite her complexion being similar to mine, her hair color went all the way to the scalp. The man at the clinic also had blond hair, but I didn’t see the baby to determine whether this woman might be its mother.
“You think the person you ran into with the baby is related to her somehow?” Allen asked.
I nodded. “Yes, I do.”
“Then we’ll send the twins.”
“Once I have her stabilized, I’m going with them.”
“Tayler,” he walked up behind me and set his hands on my waist, “you’re too precious to me and to this camp for you to keep willingly putting your life in danger.”
“It’s a baby, Allen. One who might not even be old enough to crawl. When this all started, do you know how many babies we lost? The infection wiped out their immune system in days. Days. Do you have any idea how many babies I watched die?” I turned around and looked him dead in the eyes. “I’m going. If the baby’s in distress, I need to be on scene.”
He peered over my shoulder. “Is there any way to tell if she had a baby recently?”
“In a normal environment, yes. In this environment? Let’s just say I have to turn some medical concepts on their heads. I learned to practice medicine in a well-stocked facility, not on a battlefield. Yes, I could do a pelvic exam, but I’ll wait until she starts to show signs of improvement.”
“And if the baby’s not hers?”
“It’s still a baby.”
“A baby who’s not alone.”
“I wasn’t asking permission.”
He dragged a palm over his low-cropped, dark brown hair. Outside of physical restraint, there was no stopping me, and he knew that. For us to be discussing a human life was one thing. For it to be a child was another.
Thirteen babies died, all of whom were airlifted to the trauma center set up at the CDC complex after being infected by parents, siblings, and daycare center teachers. There, all of us, with our prestigious degrees and impressive backgrounds, were forced to face our own futility as the babies all passed away one after the other, too young to turn into what approximately half the population had turned into.
“There’s a storm coming in,” Allen said. “That means I’m coming with you. I’ll still bring Dallas and Memphis. Omar will have a problem with it, but he can stay with Carolyn and watch over the woman.”
I turned away from him and faced the woman again, wishing I at least knew her name. If she didn’t make it through the night, we wouldn’t even know who we’d be burying.
“Tayler, if we get to the camper and there’s no baby, that’s it. We’re not looking for this person or this mysterious baby. You’ve only been out there once in the past...I don’t know how long, so you don’t know what it’s like. How cutthroat it’s become. Everyone thinks they’re a sheriff from a small town in Georgia. Once resources truly become scarce, it’ll be too late for benevolence.”
I had no comeback for that.
While I understood that I was more valuable behind the walls, I didn’t want to develop complacency. I never wanted to be the one who risked others’ lives because of my bullheaded stupidity. Because of my father, I could shoot an earring out of an earlobe from yards away. Still, in our current environment, my ability to use a firearm and to treat mild to severe illnesses didn’t come close to weighing the same unless those walls fell one day.
“When do we leave?” I asked.
“Let’s meet out front when you’re done here.” He cupped my shoulders and gently squeezed. “We’ll try the EV. Hopefully, it can get us there and back safely on a solar charge.”