Twenty Four Hours
Chapter Four: First Symptoms (Two Hours Post-Contamination)
A/N: My Net went down again just after I'd finished the third chapter, and, as I type this, it still hasn't been posted. Since you're all so wonderful, I'm writing this instead. Annie's yelling at me to make something fun happen, so here goes! (But I don't think this was quite what she had in mind…)
C_A
Joan was pacing. Again.
She had nothing better to do, since Annie and Auggie knew what to look for and were on their way to find it.
Pausing and looking around the DPD, she saw people playing cards and board games, doing stuff on their computers, pretending that it was normal.
Then the dizziness hit her.
Joan almost fell to the floor. Grabbing the side of her desk to steady herself, she slowly sat down in her chair.
Dizziness was the first symptom of a DD infection, she recalled. Once it turned up, you had about twenty-three hours left before you were too far gone for the antidote to save you.
Once the room stopped rotating, Joan slowly stood back up. Another wave hit her as she was halfway to her door, and she steadied herself by leaning against the wall.
Luckily, or not so much, the dizziness subsided when the fungus has a foothold in your respiratory system. Joan remained against the wall until she felt steady again. Nothing had changed, or so it seemed until she took a breath. There was a slight heaviness in her lungs.
It really sunk in for Joan when she felt the fungus settle into her lungs. If Annie and Auggie didn't find the cure, she would die. As would her CIA-family.
And America would be left defenceless.
That scared her more than anything.
C_A
Jai coughed as he felt the lining of his lungs thicken. The dizziness hadn't hit him so hard, since he'd been sitting at his computer, playing Pong. Well, the game hadn't liked being abandoned...
It terrified him, the fact that his own mortality was staring him in the face. He didn't want to die, not here, not now.
He'd always imagined dying by taking a gunshot for someone else, or by running into a blast zone to save a child, or just of plain old age. Not of drowning on dry land, with black fungus-blood filling his lungs. What an ignoble way to go, he thought dryly.
But he wasn't going to die now, he reminded himself. Annie and Auggie were on the search for the cure. They would find it.
They had to.
Jai knew he needed to cling to his hope. It was all he had.
C_A
A/N: See the pretty button just below these words? Want to make me a very happy girl and click it?
