Chapter 5
AVA
A va forced her expression into one of neutrality as Dr. Watson left the office with the plan to return the following morning. She was struggling with the pressure, with the news of Sandra’s death, with everything. Elizabeth put a hand over on Ava’s knee and asked, “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” Ava said, blowing out a breath. “We need to get back to the lab.”
“Go,” Doctor Mars said firmly. “Bring me some good news.”
Ava nodded and they both stood. Elizabeth pressed her lips together and they strode out the door to the elevator once again. As the doors closed in front of them, Elizab eth turned to Ava. “I’m sorry about your friend,” she said gently.
“Me too,” Ava said and blinked away tears. “We have to get to the bottom of this, soon. I don’t want to lose anyone else.”
Lindsey met them as they stepped off the elevator on the third floor. “That’s it, that’s where the virus was from, whatever the ‘dust’ was on the tents, it’s full of it, though they seem almost dormant.”
“Dormant?” Elizabeth asked as they walked into the lab.
“Yes, nothing was moving when I looked at it, but I thought I recognized the shape of the cells.” Lindsey gestured to the microscope and Elizabeth looked into the lenses. “So I added it to a nutrient agar and it started moving.”
“Really?” Ava asked, but Elizabeth was watching the cells wiggle around on the screen.
“They aren’t moving very fast,” Elizabeth said.
“I’m guessing that’s because it’s not the host the virus is looking for, the agar just activated it to look around,” Lindsey said .
Elizabeth nodded in agreement. “We need to go to the storage facility.”
“We do,” Ava agreed. “Great work, Lindsey.” Ava smiled at the technician.
“Thank you,” Lindsey said with a beaming smile. “Um… could I write a paper on this?”
“Of course,” Ava said with a smile, but Elizabeth’s jaw almost hit the floor.
“I’ll need your help,” Lindsey said quickly to Elizabeth. “You can cowrite it, or if you want it, then I just want to help, I’m not trying to take it from you.”
Ava’s brows furrowed until she saw the expression on Elizabeth’s face. “I’m sorry, Elizabeth,” Ava said. “I wasn’t thinking, Lindsey is working on her doctorate in microbiology, even if she just assists this will be huge for her.”
“Of course, sure,” Elizabeth sputtered. “Let’s figure it out first, then we can talk about publication.”
Lindsey nodded, her face turning red with embarrassment.
“Prep the same team we had before; we are going to Sandra’s business center. We need t o look at where the tents were stored,” Ava said.
Lindsey straightened her shoulders and nodded. She quickly turned back into the lab as Elizabeth and Ava went back to find Dr. Mars.
Within the hour, the team was on its way to Sandra’s office.
The place was not much more than an office cubicle with a storage area in the back.
Equipped again with protective suits, masks and gloves, the team headed into the space, though with a bit more trepidation.
The neighboring business owners nervously watched the crew.
Ava was sure that the news of Sandra’s passing had spread like wildfire in the city, and she felt sympathy for them, but until they knew what they were up against, there was not much else she could focus on.
The storage room was neat and well-organized.
It was clear that Sandra loved and cared for her business.
Several sorted and packaged sets were laid out, ready to be picked up and used at a moment’s notice.
Along the walls were several more tents and equipment meant for any type of weather or situat ion.
The far corner was empty, and Ava knew in her gut that that was the place where they would find what they were looking for.
Elizabeth seemed to have the same inclination as she followed toward the empty space.
“Be careful,” Elizabeth warned as Ava ran her hand along what looked like a section of wall that was bowed. Ava pulled back on the paneling and when she did the whole section of wall came loose, spreading a fine dust-like powder across everything.
“Everyone out!” Elizabeth shouted to the techs behind her. She rushed to Ava’s side as she stumbled backward in the cloud of dust.
“I think we’ve found it,” Ava gasped from behind her mask.
“Come on, we need to get this off of you,” Elizabeth said.
She took Ava back out to the van as the techs called local police.
They were already at work quarantining off the area.
Elizabeth put Ava into the emergency wash station still in her suit and took her mask and gloves, placing them in a biohazard bag.
She quickly sprayed down the entire van, and Ava, with a disinfectant.
She just hoped it was strong enough to kill it.
Ava stayed in the van as Elizabeth and the te chs finished at the scene.
They made sure to quarantine off the area and addressed the local businesses to avoid it until they could decontaminate the scene.
They had not yet tested the substance, but Ava had little doubt what they would find.
When Elizabeth had gone back to collect a sample, she had found a lot of small bones, and she guessed that the dust was actually the remains of probably a dozen small rodents.
The thought made her shudder, but it gave them something to work with.
Now they knew that the virus was animal borne, and she could figure out how to keep it quarantined, and hopefully how to treat it before they lost anyone else.
When they got back to the hospital, it was later in the afternoon, and the first thing they did was make sure that Ava was in the showers and completely decontaminated.
She had been wearing PPE, but they worried it wasn’t enough.
Up until now they had worked on the assumption that the virus was not airborne, and while that remained true, the dust particulates were easily swept up and carried by the air.
Ava tried to keep her composure, but she notice d Elizabeth carefully watching for any sign of contamination, and that only made her more uneasy. When the doors opened and Dr. Mars hustled inside, Ava almost smiled.
“Tell me we have good news,” Doctor Mars said.
“We do,” Ava said, her eyes sparkling. “We’ve identified the virus and where it originated. We are working on different antiviral cocktails to figure out how best to fight it.”
“How close are we?” Doctor Mars asked.
“I can’t give an estimate, but we will find it, Doctor Mars,” Elizabeth said.
“We will keep running trials until we get it, the tricky part is the dormancy, some of the antivirals don’t kill it, they just put it to sleep and then it wakes up once the threat is gone.
We want to make sure that whatever we use will stop it completely. ”
“That’s why the incubation times were so random,” Doctor Mars mused. “They were slowing it down, but not stopping it.”
“Exactly,” Lindsey piped up. “The cilia almost act like armor when the virus goes dormant, so we have to find a solution that will kill it before it falls asleep. ”
“Good,” Doctor Mars said. “I’ll update the CDC, hopefully this won’t turn into a pandemic.”
As though on cue, Dr. Mars’ phone pinged. Her brows furrowed as she looked at the notification. She tapped a few keys and put the phone back in her pocket before looking at them all with pressed lips.
“Double time, Doctors, we just received two more patients.” She turned on her heel and walked out the door.
The arrival of new patients added a certain weight to the room, but the air was still celebratory. They were finally getting somewhere.
Within a few hours, they had found something that they believed could work.
It was a long treatment, that involved multiple rounds of the antiviral with a few hours of wait time in between, but they had started the treatment on the patients, and so far, they were responding well.
They wouldn’t know for certain for a few days, however, as waiting for the virus cells that fell dormant to wake again was a tedious task at best.
Ava found herself later sitting in the staff lounge , eying the vending machine for some sustenance, when Elizabeth walked in.
“Are you hungry?” Elizabeth asked, and suddenly Ava’s heart quickened its beat.
“Very,” she answered with a shrug that was not nearly as casual as she hoped.
“Are there any good places to eat here?” Elizabeth asked, Ava couldn’t be sure, but it seemed like Elizabeth was almost nervous.
“There’s a sort of pub across the street, it’s mostly fried comfort food, but it’s good,” Ava answered.
“Want to join me then?” Elizabeth asked, and Ava’s heart skipped a beat.
“I’d love to,” she said with a smile and stood up. She caught Elizabeth’s grin as she turned toward the door.
They crossed the street, and Ava kicked herself as she stole glances at Elizabeth while they walked.
Again, she felt as though she was acting like a silly teenager, but Elizabeth was beautiful.
Awe-inspiringly beautiful—the way she walked, the way she smiled.
Everything about her was impressive in so many ways, and Ava had no idea how to say that to her, and instead took to stolen glances and stifled giggles .
They found a table at the small pub. The music was loud and the room a little crowded, but the atmosphere was so much more relaxed than it was in the hospital. Ava nodded at a couple of the patrons she knew from around town, and they sat down to eat.
They ordered drinks and a couple of burgers, and while they waited for their order, Ava toyed with the coasters on the table. When she finally looked up, she found Elizabeth’s light-colored eyes watching her.
“What’s something that makes you happy?” Ava blurted out, trying to quell the awkward silence with an equally awkward question.
Elizabeth blinked in surprise. “I’m not sure how to answer that,” she said with a chuckle.