Disclaimer: I do not own Trigun or any of its characters.

Doctor Stryfe was flustered. She had already stitched up her fair share of bite wounds and there were more waiting. Many of them had already began to fester. She had ordered that all victims be given a round of Rabies shots and broad spectrum antibiotics. Where were they all coming from? She thought to herself as she signed yet another chart.

She took a quick glance at the news to see people rioting in a city far away. Not my problem. She turned back to her charts only to hear screaming and yelling a few rooms down. Putting down her pen, she went to investigate.

When she got there the room was in complete chaos. The patient had ripped his restraints off the bed rails and was now bulling the doctors and nurses in the room. Acting quickly, Dr. Stryfe grabbed a syringe from a seemingly frozen intern's hands. She unceremoniously jabbed the needle into the patient's hip. The man went out like a light.

"Next time," she growled at the intern," don't just stand there."

She turned back to the patient in question and her brows knit together in confusion. He was one who had been bit.

Vash followed Wolfwood on their way to the scene. When they got there they could see a little old lady standing outside the house. She was huddled into her robe hoping for some protection from the chill night air.

Wolfwood spoke up first, "So what's going on here ma'am?"

"I'm so sorry for calling you boys over but I heard some strange noises and I'm not used to living on my own"

"It's okay ma'am. That's what we are here for." Wolfwood looked at Vash and gestured with his head towards the house. It was clear by his expression that he didn't feel there was any real danger.

"Why don't you stay here and we'll sweep the house."

Vash had all ready started up the walkway when Wolfwood joined him.

"So what do you think?" Vash asked, eyebrows raised.

"I've been here before. Her husband died recently and she's been seeing shadows ever since."

Vash simply nodded his assent and the two went through the front door. Drawing their side arms and flashlights both officers proceeded to sweep the house. When they didn't find anything besides a few creaky boards neither was too surprised. They exited the house and Wolfwood went back to talk to the woman in her bathrobe. Vash saw her not before Wolfwood made his way back to their parked cars.

"How many times have you been here?" Vash wanted to know

"Enough to know there's never anything going on."

"Huh…." That was when Vash received a call on his cell phone. After hanging up he explained things to Wolfwood.

"Cameron has been taken to the local emergency room. Wanna swing by and check it out? It is on the way."

"I suppose. Not much else to do around here anyway." Both officers got into their cruisers and left for the hospital.

It was getting worse. All the previous bite victims had to be sedated since they had all proceeded to go crazy. One even bit a male nurse.

Meryl sighed.. This was getting to be too much for their ER to handle. What if more victims came in? Pretty much every room was taken up by these bite victims. All of them had been sedated after what happened to Jeremy.

It wasn't long before to BPD officers came striding through the door. The blond one is cute, she thought before she could stop herself. Shaking her head to get rid of the thought She stood up to meet the two officers.

"Can I help you two?" she asked sounding a little more exasperated than indented

"Yes, we had a friend brought here. He was bitten." Vash explained

"I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific. There are many here with bite wounds."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously." She was beginning to get annoyed

"Umm… he's a prison guard his name is Cameron."

"Oh, well he's my patient so I'll take you in. I must warn you though, he's been heavily sedated."

"Sedated? Why?"

Meryl didn't know if she should tell him this or not. She decided on the former. "Because all the bite victims have showed an increase in aggression and strength. One of my own is among them.

Once the trio had reached Cameron's room the officers could see that he had several IVs going.

"Is this all really necessary?" Wolfwood asked, concern evident in his voice

"He is receiving multiple antibiotics plus the sedation meds."

"Antibiotics?"

"Yes, it would seem there is an aggressive infection moving through his blood stream"

"I told him to get it checked out right away." Vash chimed in

"It doesn't seem that that would have helped. Any and all victims are showing the same symptoms."

"Such as?"

"Increased aggression for one, and an increase in all vitals."

"Strange…." Wolfwood trailed off "Some kind of new designer drug do you think?"

"That's what we thought at first but all tox screens have come back negative." At that moment a nurse ran up to her and asked for her assistance. "Please excuse me gentlemen" Both men nodded their heads in acknowledgement.

"What is it Amanda?" Dr. Stryfe asked as soon as they were out of ear shot.

"One of the patients….my patient. His bite has become necrotic."

"What?" Meryl's eyebrows knit together in confusion once more. This just was not her day. "Call for a surgical consult." She finally ordered

Sitting back down behind the nurses station Meryl racked her brain to try and figure this thing out. There was nothing in her history as an ER physician that could help. Bite wounds could become infected but certainly not necrotic. She rested her head on the desk. Just what was going on here?

"Umm…excuse me" Meryl looked up to find the blond haired officer addressing her.

"Yes, can I help you?"

"He's awake"

"Awake?"

"Yeah, Cameron I mean." Vash added his hand going straight to the back of his neck in a nervous gesture.

"But he can't be." She replied coming around the edge of the desk. She made her way to said room and couldn't believe what she saw. She had ordered enough sedatives to knock out a horse but there he was, fully conscience. She walked over to his bed and began an exam. The tissue around the bite was necrotic, just as Amanda had said. This man also had raging fever.

"So what's the verdict doc?" Wolfwood quipped

"The verdict is he stays and you both leave." She replied her left eye twitching a bit.

"Awww, but doc." Vash wined

"No buts… your friend will be going to surgery. If you leave me a card I can call you as soon as he gets out.

Vash sighed. "All right." He fished a card out of his pocket and handed it to the young doctor. "As soon as he's out." He instructed

"I'll pass the message along. Now if you two don't leave I'll have to send a nurse in to shuffle you both out."

Vash help up both of his palms in a placating gesture. "We're going, we're going. Promise." He gave her one of his hallmark grins but all he got in return was a cold glare.

Wow, two chapters in one night. Yay me! Okay. So please Review if u have read to the end. Chao!

The Empress Rayanna