Day 35
The report was sent. All they had to do now was wait.
What Warner wanted to do was to sit by his phone and wait for someone to call about the report. Since there was bound to be someone asking him what on earth he thought he was running in sector 45. But he had other things to do.
"Doctor Veens", he called out as he approached the white coated man further down the corridor. He had already been to the head of medic's office finding it empty, so he had had to take a small walk around the medical corridor to actually find him.
Said Doctor turned around at the sound of his name. He was somewhere between thirty and forty in age. Rat blond hair, brown eyes. The man in charge of the medical wing.
"Ah, Chief commander", he said. Giving him a nod. He had the same look of constant fatigue all doctors wore.
"What owes me the pleasure?"
"How are things going?", Warner asked as he came up to him. These days things consisted of everything between Alice's wellbeing, to the progress of the mass scan, to the health of the sector overall.
"The scan is promising", was all Veens said. He handed a clipboard to Warner where medical reports were shown. All within the last day.
"No one is showing any signs whatsoever. We have a few more to conclude, but it's almost certain that the immunity is full towards both the lung plague and this one."
"And the analysis of the mutation?", Warner asked as his eyes scrolled over the results.
Negative negative negative
Veens clicked his tongue.
"We're tracking the mutation right now. Since the treatment for the original virus isn't working it must have changed its target. We need to know the target to create a treatment", he explained.
"But we're getting there", he assured when he saw Warner's sceptic look.
"How is she?", Warner wondered, handing back the clipboard.
"Bored", Veens replied.
Warner had to take a double take on that answer.
"Bored?", he repeated.
"Yup, bored", Veens assured.
"Who can blame her? She has nothing to do in there", Veens continued.
Seeing that Warner's frown wasn't easing up he shrugged.
"Even sick children get bored, sir. I actually gave her a pad of papers and a few pens to entertain herself with. But I think she's still a bit too tired to put that much energy into it."
Warner tried imagining that. A child too tired to draw. How was he supposed to picture Alice like that?
To try and please this new need he bid Doctor Veens adieu and headed for Alice's room.
She was asleep again.
Her chest lifting in small puffs of air. One arm was slung above her head on the pillow.
Warner cocked his head at the odd bend of it. Still it was comfortable at the same time. The other was hidden underneath the cover, but you could see the fingers below her cheek. Gently supporting the weight of her head.
She did look tired. But her rest look so completely at peace and in comfort that he almost couldn't tell that she was still sick.
The mask ruined that image. The transparent plastic turned foggy with every small breath.
He turned to leave, he didn't have any further business there. But he barely took two steps before he was interrupted by an urgent knock on the glass window.
He spun around, bewildered and surprised, and saw a nurse standing by the window. Her hand still raised from her knocking. Her gloved hand in a fist.
Their eyes met. The nurse was lost for a few seconds. Since they couldn't speak with each other through the glass he just raised his eyebrows in a demand to know what she wanted.
She snapped out of whatever daze she was in and quickly went to the side table by the bed.
Warner followed her, quite confused about what was going on. He leaned forwards and peered into the room, seeing the nurse shuffle around a few papers laying on top. When she didn't find what she was looking for she gently opened the drawer. She quickly fished out an A4 and returned to the window, the paper in her hand.
He had to back away a little when she brought her hand up to hold something against the glass.
It was a slip of paper, torn on one side.
It took too long for him to realize there was something written on it. In thin pencil. The handwriting was round and neat, but he had to move closer and felt his eyes squint. What he read made them widen again.
It read: Alice Sjögren.
He almost tripped when he ran to the archives. Leaving the nurse behind with not as much as a thank you.
"O'lander!", he snapped when he entered, knowing the soldier was still on archive duty. Once again causing a chair to scramble about in the back.
"Commander Warner?"
He strode past the cupboards without waiting for a salute.
"I have a new task for you", he announced. He realized his excitement must have been showing, because O'lander was staring at him with a quite perplexed look in his eyes.
The way he held the back of the chair. His light pant. His eyes being a little too wide.
For God sake he was almost smiling!
He ignored it.
"You're going to research every female citizen named..." He trailed some after that. He grabbed a pen and a notebook lying open on the desk and wrote Alice Sjögren with capital letters.
"This name", he said and tapped it. Straightening from the desk.
The soldier leaned forward and read it.
"What's that letter sir?", he asked, frowning. Referring to the o with two dots above it.
"Does it matter soldier?", Warner wondered.
"Not really, sir…"
"Get to work then", he ordered. By then he had calmed down enough to return to his commander self.
"This is essential for the work of the Re establishment", he added.
He turned to leave, having another report to start on, when O'lander called out.
"Sir. when you say every female named Alice, um, Showgreen, do you mean-"
"Every female in the archives? Yes, yes that's what I mean", Warner finished for him without looking back. He didn't tell him to start with the ages between ten and twelve. If O'lander couldn't figure that out himself Warner didn't understand why he was working in the archive to begin with.
He left, certain that his days of frustration were starting to come to an end.
Thank you for reading!
Once again, I'm sorry that there's so much dialogue. Or is anyone even bothered about that? (I know I am...) Am I worrying over nothing? Tell me if you have an opinion :P