Chapter 1 #2
Doctor Mars stood from her desk and walked around to stand in front of Ava. Josephine was petite in stature even in heels, but it didn’t dim her powerful aura in any way. “What do you think this is?” she asked Ava, her face lined with worry.
“I wish I could say,” Ava answered. “It’s obviously neurological, and based on the symptoms alone I would agree with the EMTs that it’s rabies, but it doesn’t add up.
” Ava took a breath. “I know it’s a personal aside, but I don’t think Sandra would ever put one of her groups in that kind of danger; she would recognize a rabid animal from a mile away and get the group to safety. ”
“Should we start prophylactic rabies treatment to be safe?” Dr. Mars asked and grabbed her lab coat.
Ava ran her fingers through her shoulder-length dark hair.
The helicopter had mussed it quite a bit, but it was still manageable.
“I think we should wait until the labs come back,” Ava said, hoping it was the right answer.
Early and fast treatment was the only hope if it was rabies, and every minute they w aited to start treatment could mean the difference between life and death for the patients, but if they were wrong who knows what problems they would run in to.
“What about broad-spectrum antibiotics?” Doctor Mars asked.
“Again, I think it would be best to wait until we know more,” Ava said.
Doctor Mars’ jaw tightened. “The Baclofen seems to be working to loosen their muscles, and the labs are rushing the bloodwork, so if we don’t know anything else in thirty minutes, then we will start them on antibiotics, and we should probably order CT scans to see if they’re encephalopathic. ”
Doctor Mars nodded, though she did not seem particularly pleased with the answer. She shrugged into her lab coat and they both turned toward the door.
“What did you learn from Doctor Grant?” Ava asked. She knew of Elizabeth Grant by reputation.
“She’s on her way,” Doctor Mars answered as they walked toward the elevator.
“She’s one of the best infectious disease specialists in the nation and we need her.
She’ll be flying in from New York; she said she’d let me kno w the times as soon as she has them.
” As if on cue, Dr. Mars’ phone pinged. “Ah, there she is, she will be taking off in an hour, and will land at Phoenix Ridge after midnight.”
Ava nodded slowly. It looked like she would be spending the night at the hospital, though certainly not for the first time. “Well, let’s see what we can learn before she gets here then.”
Doctor Mars nodded and they stepped onto the elevator. Ava pushed the button for the second floor. When the doors opened, they were bombarded with shouts and machines screaming.
“Sandra’s coding!” Kellie shouted over the ruckus when she spotted them coming off the elevator.
Both doctors sprinted toward Sandra’s bed where the nurses and another doctor were performing CPR.
Ava grabbed the defibrillator from the crash cart and ordered the charge.
Sandra’s body lifted from the bed as the shock coursed through her, but her heartbeat stabilized, and the atmosphere in the room visibly relaxed.
The nurses worked to reset Sandra’s room, and Ava looked over at Dr. Mars with wide eyes.
“Has the lab returned any results yet?” Doctor Mars asked the room, but no one answered.
She nodded at Ava and turned on her heel heading again to the elevator.
Ava was right behind her as the doors closed and Dr. Mars pushed the button for the third floor.
Neither of them spoke on the ride up, nor the walk to the hospital’s lab.
Doctor Mars pushed through the doors without preamble and met the worried face of the lab technician, who was looking at a blood smear beneath the microscope.
“What have you got, Williams?” Doctor Mars asked.
Lindsey Williams was young; she’d only been a lab tech for about eight months and Dr. Mars had hired her almost immediately after she completed her schooling.
She was smart and driven, though at the moment she looked terrified.
Her blond hair was pulled into a messy ponytail and her glasses were slightly crooked on her face.
“I, um…” she started and moved back from the microscope.
She gestured for Dr. Mars to look at the specimen.
“It’s definitely not rabi es.” Doctor Mars looked through the microscope, and then moved aside so that Ava could glance through it.
“But it’s kind of like rabies?” Lindsey ended the statement more like a question.
Ava looked at the small cells wiggling around under the microscope. They certainly had a similar shape to rabies, but the cilia was much longer and reaching around as though it was searching for something. It seemed to avoid the blood cells.
“What are we looking at Williams?” Doctor Mars asked.
“I don’t know,” Lindsey answered, her voice shaking. “I’ve been checking all the books; I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“We should start them on an antiviral,” Ava said while still looking into the microscope. “It could be some sort of mutation.”
Doctor Mars was already on the phone with the staff on the floor below ordering the medication. “Is it contagious?” Doctor Mars asked Ava.
“Yes, I think we need to assume it is,” Ava answered, “Likely just through direct contact though, like rabies. ”
“I need you to do more than think, Doctor Jackson,” Doctor Mars snapped.
“Order the preventative practices and isolate the patients,” Ava said. She really hoped that she was being overly cautious. “When the others get here, quarantine them as well, and get blood cultures.”
Doctor Mars relayed the message to the second floor, and poor Lindsey audibly gulped.
“Were you exposed?” Ava asked Lindsey gently, low enough that Dr. Mars couldn’t hear.
Lindsey shook her head and Ava sighed in relief. Lindsey was a better technician than that; she would not expect her to make that kind of mistake, but the fear that she saw in Lindsey’s face made her worry.
“Keep looking,” Ava said to her. “Send what you have down and we will start with the antivirals.”
Lindsey nodded again and her face morphed into an expression of determination. Ava walked back to Dr. Mars, who had just slipped her phone back into her pocket.
“If this is unprecedented, we may need to involve the CDC,” Ava said quietly. She could see Lindsey straining to hear their conversation.
“I agree,” Doctor Mars said. “As soon as the others get here we will make a determination. We will make sure to test all of them for the virus.”
Ava nodded and they went back to the elevator. They went back to the second floor, and the air was tense. The nurses and techs were working to create the quarantine section for the patients, but there was an undercurrent of worry.
“What is going on, Doctor Mars?” Kellie came up and asked them. Of all the people in the hospital, Kellie did not care that Dr. Mars was the chief of medicine; her first and only concern was the safety of her team. Ava had to suppress a smile at her tenacity.
“We are being cautious,” Ava explained. “This is something we haven’t seen before, and I have no reason to believe that all this is completely necessary, but I would rather keep everyone safe, just in case.”
Kellie’s eyes tightened, but she nodded. “So you don’t think we’ve been exposed to something?”
“I do not,” Ava said. “But I can’t be sure, so kee p your diligence, make sure you’re following all protocols and inform someone if you feel like something is wrong. We will know more once Dr. Grant arrives tonight from New York. Infectious diseases are her speciality.”
A machine started screaming across the room. Kellie turned and sprinted as Ava heard someone shouting for a crash cart. Ava’s chest tightened in concern and she turned to Dr. Mars. “You should probably call the CDC.”
Doctor Mars’ jaw was set, but she nodded curtly and went back to the elevator.
Ava set off to the chaos-filled room. The floor doctor had it under control.
The patient was Jesse, the one who had first mentioned feeling symptoms, and it didn’t look good.
Ava stood and watched as the life fell away from the patient.
She clenched her jaw; if she’d ordered the rabies treatment maybe it would have slowed down the progression.
She shook her head; she couldn’t start blaming herself.
This was something they’d never dealt with before, and she was doing everything the way she knew how.
For all she knew, the rabies treatment wouldn’t have done a nything, or even made the virus progress further.
Still, she felt like she was handling this all wrong.
Jesse fought as long as she could, but after several shocks and every person fighting as hard as they could, her body couldn’t take any more.
The doctor pronounced her dead, and a weight settled over everyone.
Worried glances were exchanged and directed at Ava, who struggled against tears.
She didn’t know this woman, but she looked young. She didn’t deserve this.
“Doctor Jackson,” Kellie’s voice was soft as it interrupted her.
Ava wiped quickly at her eyes. She shouldn’t be crying over a stranger. She looked down at Kellie and lifted her brows, afraid to speak.
“The others have arrived. They’re bringing them up now,” Kellie said gently. The lines on Kellie’s face were deeper; this situation was bothering her, too. Now that they’d lost one of the patients, it made everything so much heavier.
“Thank you,” Ava said and pulled in a deep breath. “Thank you, Kellie.”
Kellie nodded and walked off, her shoulders slight ly sagged.
Ava turned to the room and helped the staff as they set up quarantine rooms for the new arrivals.
The nurses and aides were all wearing masks and gowns as the other three from the survival group exited the elevator, and their worry was etched on their faces.
Ava did not recognize any of them, but that was not surprising as most of Sandra’s clientele travelled from all over the country to join her groups.
She was certainly a well known expert in her field.
They moved them into quarantined spaces, and Ava could feel their tension rising with each question, each movement, each act of caution taken by the medical staff.
Ava put on a mask before approaching the newcomers, mostly to assure the staff that they were doing the right thing, and she went in to talk to the others.
“We’ve answered all these questions a hundred times already,” one woman was almost shouting. “There weren’t any animals that could have bitten us, and if you want me to notice something unusual, you’re asking the wrong person. I’m from Denver . That’s why we wanted to go on this stupid trip.”
“I understand, but anything you can rememb er will help,” Kellie assured the woman.
“I feel like we are under interrogation or something,” the woman said. “I said I feel fine!” she shouted at the tech who came in to draw blood.
“We just want to be sure,” Kellie said, her voice was tight, trying to keep her calm.
“What’s your name,” Ava said as she walked into the room.
“Heather,” the woman snapped. She was wearing leggings and a loose shirt that looked brand new, though a little dirty from this morning.
“You’re the one that called for help,” Ava said and stepped a little closer.
“Yes, I did. I had to,” Heather said. Her pale face was pinched. “Even the guide started going into spasms, I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You did the right thing,” Ava assured her. “This is not something that has ever happened before. I’ve known Sandra for a very long time, and her expeditions are some of the best for miles around, she is an expert.”
“That’s why…” Heather started to choke up, the ordeal had obviously been more traumatic for her than she was trying to let on. “That’s why we chose her.”
“We?” Ava asked.
“My sister, Lacey. She’s here too, she’s only seventeen,” Heather said, her voice shaking.
“Have you contacted your parents?” Ava asked and took a seat on the stool next to the bed where Heather was perched.
“No,” Heather said, tears slipping from her eyes. “They didn’t want us to go.” She tried to blink her tears away and looked up at the ceiling. “What have I gotten us into?”
“This is not your fault,” Ava said and placed a gloved hand on Ava’s arm. “But we want to make sure that everyone is alright before sending you home, you and your sister.”
“Okay,” Heather said and slid up onto the bed. She slung out her arm for the tech to draw blood.
Ava nodded at the tech, and she moved over to Heather’s side with the cart. She started prepping Heather for the needle.
“Lacey hates needles,” Heather huffed at the ce iling. “Could we at least be in the same room?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Ava said with a nod. “I know you’ve answered all these questions already, but do you mind if I ask you a few more? The faster we get this figured out, the sooner everyone goes home.” Ava felt like that was a lie, but she didn’t tell Heather about Jesse.
Heather nodded.
“Did Sandra say anything, or do anything that would lead you to believe that something was wrong?”
“No? I don’t think so, but I don’t really know. I don’t know what normal would look like,” Heather said, her voice catching in her throat.
“That’s okay,” Ava said gently. “Sandra was very direct, if she thought something was wrong, she would have said so.”
Heather nodded, and Ava noticed a slight grimace on her face. She started moving her leg back and forth.
“What is it?” She pressed her hand on Heather’s arm.
“I don’t know,” Heather said. “It feels like a cramp, I’m probably dehydrated. ”
Ava’s eyes went to Kellie, and she gave a quick nod and left the room.
“What?” Heather asked, catching the quick signal between the two.
“You’re probably right, but we want to be sure,” Ava said.
Heather narrowed her eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?” she demanded. Ava was tempted to spill everything, but she didn’t.
“Let us do our jobs, and we will take care of you,” Ava said. Heather pulled her arm back from Ava.
The tech finished drawing blood from Heather’s other arm and gave her a square of gauze. Ava pressed it to the needle mark and had Heather fold her arm.
“Tell the lab to rush the bloodwork,” Ava said gently. She turned back to Heather. “We want to get you out of here as soon as possible.” That was definitely a lie.