Chapter 2: Sickness and Stagnation
"Alright, I'm going to put a drip into you now. Please stay still, Mrs Faida…."
This took place in a white room isolated from the main part of the research facility. There were only two people in the room now. One was a female medical practitioner by the name of Lailah, the other was a middle-aged woman whom she addressed as Mrs Faida. Lailah was wearing a hazmat suit with head gear that encompassed her entire head and neck. The transparent face shield made it possible for her to see what she was doing. She was also wearing slightly thick gloves that should have made it difficult for her to handle the needle, but she was used to it already.
The middle-aged lady was lying in a cradle like pod, propped up slightly with a pillow. If this was a few thousand years ago, she would have been hooked up to multiple devices to monitor her vital signs but fortunately for her, that pod could do all of this without much invasion.
"I'm staying still, dear." Mrs Faida said with a weak voice. This woman and many others residing in such a place and lying in a pod in a weakened state were all patients. To be more accurate, they were test subjects who have been infected with a deadly disease that had caused an epidemic in their home planet. Depending on which organs were affected, the symptoms varied. If it affected the nervous system, the person slowly becomes paralysed, if it attacked the muscles, the muscles broke down, if it attacked the circulatory system, the person either starts clotting on the insides or bleeding out. The virus was highly contagious as it was transmitted through the air. What was worse was that not all infected people show symptoms, so perfectly healthy looking people could go about their daily lives spreading the virus. The only way to confirm that a person caught the virus was by either showing the symptoms or through a blood test.
In this so-called sick ward, the patients were kept alive for as long as possible with a cocktail of anti-infectives like anti-virals and with some magic to keep their energy up. The only thing the medical practitioners could do for now was to give the patients these medications and inject nutrients into them.
After swabbing Mrs Faida's arm with some alcohol, Lailah quickly inserted the needle. She then turned the tap for the drip on after ensuring that the needle was securely in place.
"Dear…"
"Yes?"
"How is the research going?"
Lailah seemed to freeze for a short moment when she heard that question, but she quickly regained her composure and replied as gently as she can.
"The Scientists are working as hard as they can, so just hang on until then alright?"
"Alright…" With that, Mrs Faida did not say anymore. Lailah quickly walked out of the room before any more questions could be asked. After closing the door, Lailah stood outside the room and just stared at the hustle and bustle of other Nurses, Doctors and Pharmacists who were just rushing around, delivering medicines, getting calls and so on.
She knew that the research team's work had slowed down a lot. They were not making any progress and different organisations and governments from their home planet were piling stress on them.
Just how long more are we stuck here…..?
Even the medical personnel were feeling the strain already. Every single day, at least one patient will die and at least five others would ask how long more they had to stay here. Once, their patients managed to catch sight of the negative news that their home planet was facing an apocalypse and there was no hope left. Several of the patients lost it, two of them killed themselves with the needle that was embedded in their arm while another three turned violent. One of the violent ones even tried to harm the poor medical personnel who happened to be in his room and security had to be called in.
Just as she was lost in her thoughts…
[Code red, code red. Any medical personnel on cleanup duty today please head to room number 103. I repeat…]
The announcement repeated the same statement about two more times before cutting off.
"Hey, you're on cleanup too right?"
A tired male voice came from behind Lailah. She turned to see a pale and exhausted looking man who she had never seen before. The man was pushing a large trolley that had a covered metal tub that was large enough to fit a person. Below the metal tub were a few cabinets containing other chemicals.
Lailah gave an awkward smile as she pointed on the red armband around her upper arm. It formed a stark contrast against their green hazmat suit.
"Alright. Me too...again. Let's go." The man replied, then he pushed the trolley past Lailah.
The "cleanup" actually referred to the disposal of a dead patient who had been infected by the virus. The medical personnel took turns doing the cleanup in pairs just so that do not have to face the tragic scene too often. But given that there was at least one dead patient everyday, it didn't make a difference.
Inside room 103, there was a corpse that used to be a patient lying on the pod. It looked like it been dipped in oil and set on fire. Sloughed skin piled up beside the body and there was blood pooled in certain areas such as the upper arms and the sides. Looking at all the flat lines of the screens displaying the patient's vital signs confirmed that the patient was very much dead.
There were two other medical staff in the room. One was a nurse who looked like he was about to faint, the other a doctor whom Lailah worked a few times with. As he did not come from the same nation that Lailah was from, she did not know him very well.
"Time of death was ten minutes ago. Extreme symptoms started this morning and it developed to a combination of toxic epidermal necrosis plus hemorrhaging. This poor soul didn't even stand a chance." The doctor said with a thick accent.
"Uu-" Lailah let out a small groan as she looked at the corpse. The man she was with looked at the white band containing the details of the patient and scanned it.
"Mara Hidael, thirty six years old. I remember that he was part of security team B." The man muttered.
"He was the one who took down one of the violent patients two weeks back. That patient….managed to tear his head protection off and he was diagnosed to be positive with the virus a day later." Lailah continued saying with the details of the incident.
The security personnel then volunteered to become a test subject for the project. In truth, it was supposed to be difficult to take the hazmat suit apart, but Mara was in such a hurry to get rid of the security threat such that he did not ensure that the suit was on properly.
"Wasn't there another security personnel who came in a week later? Another mad patient."
"Ah…. he wasn't shown any signs of infection as of yet… but we placed him in quarantine just in case."
Lailah answered her partner while looking uneasily at the doctor and the nurse who seemed to be wondering why they were still standing around and talking about unimportant things.
"We'll start the cleanup now. Can you two please leave?" Lailah's partner said. The doctor and the nurse nodded slightly and hastily made their way out of the room.
"Lailah, help me lift the body into the tank…I'll settle the rest later, you can sanitise the place."
"Ok…"
Lailah walked to the end of the pod and wrapped her arms around the corpse's knees while her partner slipped his arms under the corpse's underarms. As they lifted the body from the pod, pieces of skin fell from under the body's clothes onto the pod.
"Ugh…"
"Just haul him into the tank… we'll pick up the rest later…"
"Sure…" Lailah muttered under her breath.
Once the body of the former security personnel was safely in the tank, the two started picking up whatever bits they could and putting them in the tank. Once they were done, Lailah's partner closed the tank and did a simple check for leaks. At the same time, Lailah started pulling out various cleaning agents from the cabinets attached to the lower part of the trolley.
"... you seem tired, how about I clean the mess and you push him to his final rites?"
Lailah glanced at the man who was really asking out of genuine concern.
"It's fine. I don't like disposing of the bodies even more."
"Sure. If you're done before I'm back, just leave the stuff outside the room, I'll pick them up later." With that, the man quickly pushed the trolley out of the room.
The man was heading for the place which the other medical personnel termed as "Final Rites". However, rather than being a place where the dead person was laid to rest with prayers, it was really a place where they disposed of the corpse in a sanitary manner.
After the patients died, they were to be sent back to the home planet. However, as it was impractical to send multiple bodies back through space due to the amount of space they took up and cremation was difficult in such a closed environment, the bodies were placed in a tank of highly caustic liquid developed from the enzymes of a certain arachnid's saliva where every bit of them would be dissolved. Then the liquid would be drained into a tightly sealed urn which would not even break when thrown from a height. The urns were then sent back to their home planet labelled with the corpse's name and whatever belongings the corpse had when it was alive.
How unpleasant.
Lailah thought to herself as she started cleaning the place.
After the entire room was wiped down, Lailah left the cleaning supplies outside the door as instructed and she went to do her second last duty for the day.
She changed out of the hazmat suit she used in the sick room and replaced it with a clean one for the quarantine area.
Then she took a tray of medical tools and headed for the quarantine room she was assigned to. After reaching the room, she knocked on the door.
"I'm coming in."
"Sure-" Came the bored voice of a man from the other side of the door.
Lailah walked in and sitting there was the "other security personnel who was sent to the quarantine room because of the violent attack last week."
The other party was a large muscular man. He was sitting on the edge of a normal looking bed and looking as though he had been forced to watch paint dry on the wall.
"Oh, it's you again, Lailah."
"Hi, Gabriel."
The two had known each other prior to the whole epidemic outbreak. They had studied in the same high school and then went on to the same college before coincidentally being sent on the same mission. Therefore, they were on first name basis.
"... so how long more am I stuck here?" Gabriel asked as Lailah started wrapping a tourniquet around his upper left arm.
"You'll probably be out tomorrow if nothing goes wrong. Do you feel unwell in any way?"
"Aside from utter boredom, I feel perfectly fine. If I had to say, this is the best rest I had in a week. Though I would enjoy it better if it wasn't for the bland food."
"Count yourself lucky Gabriel. I'm going to put the needle in." Lailah commented bluntly as she quickly injected some local anaesthetic into the other party's lower arm before sticking a larger needle in. The needle for connected to a tuble.
"Clench your fists a few times." Lailah instructed. Gabriel did so and blood started flowing slowly into the glass tube.
"Did something happen?" Gabriel asked.
"It's written all over your face." As Gabriel said that, he raised his right finger and drew circles in the air in front of Lailah's hazmat mask.
"Who died?"
"...Mara Hidael."
"...Oh. I didn't know him that well but he seems to be the second in command for Team B. We all got a long lecture after what happened to him…"
At this point of time, the blood collection was done. Lailah removed the glass tube and needle. She labelled the glass tube and put it in a clear bag that had the words "BIOHAZARD" printed on it.
"...which is why I said you got lucky. If he knew how to do that binding spell that you did, maybe he would be alive today."
When Gabriel went to handle a violent patient the previous week, he did not even come into contact with the patient because just as the patient lunged at him, he used a spell that immobilised the patient, ensuring that no harm came to both parties.
"Speaking of which, I was surprised you were able to do that. It takes quite a bit of skill to stop a moving target and then keep them paralysed that quickly." Lailah suddenly said, her voice in disbelief.
"Are you looking down on me….?"
"I thought you weren't that good with spells. Especially not such a spell that is hard to master."
"A certain idiot taught me a short cut. Let's just keep it at that."
Lailah wanted to ask who exactly was the "idiot" and why an "idiot" would be able to teach a musclehead like Gabriel an advanced spell but she decided to leave that topic alone for now.
"Alright...then I'll be going now. I'll be sending your blood to the research department. If they say it's negative, you can leave." Lailah said as she pushed the trolley out.
"I'll be waiting~~~" Came the lazy drawl.
Finally I can get out of this thing.
After wearing the hazmat suit for several hours, Lailah felt that her body became very light after removing it. She put the blood sample into a metal box, ran it under UV light and then placed it in a trolley with other medicines that the research team needed to use. And finally, she could leave the sick ward.
On the way to the main lab of the research facility, she met up with a familiar face. The other person greeted her cheerfully.
"Good evening Lailah, thanks for the hard work!" The man who greeted her had a few files clamped under his arm and was reading another one which was in his hand.
Lailah could feel a slight blush rising up her face when the man spoke to her but she maintained her composure.
"Good evening Professor Noi. Busy as always huh?"
"Still as formal as usual…Two new faces are coming in tomorrow so I'm just reviewing the previous work." The man waved the file he was holding as he said that.
"Oh I see."
"I sure hope those newbies would break the stagnation."
"I hope so too."
"Anyway, I'm going to go get a snack. See you around." With another wave, the man headed in the opposite direction Lailah was headed to. Lailah waved weakly before proceeding to the labs.
In the next few days, many things happened at the same time. Gabriel managed to go back to work, the two new young interns arrived, the researched progressed and finally….
A cure was found.
Moko-chan: Ok. Another chapter done. I feel sad when I write all these spoilery fics….people who only watch the anime won't read them.
pika318: True, those who have not caught up to the latest volume won't read this either. But the small number who do want to read this, thank you for reading and hope you can leave a nice review.
