I look back at the moron, Sam, as he hits on every woman we walk past while wearing a pair of obnoxiously oversized sunglasses. I brought Sam instead of Aponi or Eden for a couple of different reasons. First of all, I really wanted to bully someone to make myself feel better. If it’s Aponi or Eden, I’d feel a little bad. As for the others Terry probably wouldn’t go along with me, Audrey’s too afraid of everything, the Staff Captain might be dead as I forget to take him on walks or feed him sometimes, and Bryan would be at home in an insane asylum not that I’d bring him anyways. As for the remaining people, I haven’t talked to any of them enough to know if they’d be fun to tease.
The other reason I brought Sam is that he seems to be the only one who isn’t obviously afraid of me. Even Eden is a little nervous around me even if she wouldn’t admit it, but not Sam, for whatever reason.
I point at a person toward the corner of the room, “Hey, Sam. Check out that beauty over here.”
Sam nudges my shoulder with his fist, “Ah, yeah. That one’s a real good one. You have a good eye, Eira.”
“I sure do, Sam.”
Sam jokingly slicks back his hair like some kind of lame 1950’s greaser and walks up to the “lady,” I pointed out.
He cruises up to the person and taps them on the shoulder, “Hey gorgeous; you got a bandaid because I...”
The person begins to turn around… and around…. and around and they keep turning around to the point Sam has to take a step back. I saw this person a few days ago, and they have the weirdest anatomy I’ve ever seen. I was in the middle of drinking a soda at the time and spit it out into a woman's purse on accident after they spun around.
From the back and at just the right angle, they look like a splendidly curvy woman, but from the front, well, let’s just say they’ve got a lot of front. Not Sam’s type, that’s for sure. Oh, and I suppose I should also mention that it’s not a woman at all, but that’s the least amusing thing about this situation.
“Hey, buddy. I don’t swing that way. Do I know you or something?” the man put his hands against his sides.
Sam’s face drops, and he begins to stutter, “I-I’m sorry, ma’am, I thought you were someone else.”
He runs off like the coward he is.
“Eira, you knew, didn’t you? You knew!” Sam shouts, grabbing the room’s attention.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I did is point.” I say innocently.
“Why would you do that? I trusted you!” Sam shouts.
“As I said, I just pointed. I’m sorry everyone, my brother here has a hard time controlling the level of his voice.”
I punch Sam in the leg, nearly causing him to scream out in pain.
“Let’s go, brother.”
Sam and I walk past the entrance of the hospital, and I glance outside. There are now tents set up all around the hospital, and food stalls are set up for people to eat from. The soldiers walk around with gas masks and a special outer covering that looks like some kind transparent blue plastic sheet. It seems a lot of these soldiers are volunteers, and no one wants to come to this camp as it’s the closest to the Crawlers, which is why in a city of three hundred thousand, there are only ten thousand civilians located at this camp.
Anyhow, Terry told me that during his information gathering a lot of the doctors seem to be perplexed. They’ve had a tough time finding the virus or bacteria responsible for the Crawlers. This isn’t surprising because the Crawlers are made through a magical process, so there is no virus or bacteria to find. This has only stifled the government’s efforts and made them even more reluctant to release the lockdown as they don’t understand the Crawlers at all.
Continuing, Sam and I make our way through the crowded halls and stairways. People are everywhere, and most of them aren’t exactly at peak readiness. Well, excluding the occasional civilian walking around with bulletproof vests and assault rifles. It seems their gun hobby is finally paying off.
I look toward Sam, “Okay, Sam, I read online that hospitals typically keep their blood somewhere in Pathology in a refrigerator. This hospital is split into five different buildings, but I think Pathology should be in this building or maybe the Heart Studies building.”
“Right! Personally, I think it’s this building, and I have a feeling it’s this way.” Sam says while pointing toward a set of doors.
“Why that way?” I ask.
Sam smiles with confidence, “Call it a lucky guess.”
I glance upward where a Pathology sign hangs with an arrow pointing.
I raise an eyebrow beneath my hood, “Mhmm, lucky guess idiot. Come on.”
We enter Pathology, something usually difficult for non-hospital personnel, but right now, the hallways are filled with makeshift cots and other facilities for public use. There’s a desk to my right where two doctors are gathered around discussing their opinions on the Crawler “illness.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“I think it’s bacterial in nature. It just spreads so fast that antibiotics don’t work quickly enough, or perhaps it’s a superbug.,” the younger of the two doctors states.
“You call yourself a doctor? Something like this has to be viral with a short incubation period obviously.” the older doctor replies back.
“Damn. I’m just speculating here, okay? There has never been anything like this outside of the movies. Well, actually it's worse than that because at least in the movies they would know if it’s a virus or not.”
I glance around for a few moments, but I have no idea which room the blood bags might be in. Deciding going room to room might draw too much attention, I choose to sit and watch for a while to see if I can eventually find someone walking around with blood bags. To be perfectly honest with so many people and the military around, I’m not particularly interested in being noticed snooping in places I don’t belong. If I can take some time to build my strength, my people, or establish myself in some meaningful way, I’d like to.
To kill time while I wait for any clues, I continue to listen to the two doctors, mostly out of curiosity. The younger doctor keeps arguing the Crawler’s illness is bacterial in nature while the older sticks to it being viral. Finally, half an hour later, they change the subject.
“Anyway enough about that. It’s not our department or our responsibility. We just need to take care of the wounded.” the older doctor says.
“Yeah, yeah. Then if that’s what you want to talk about, our most pressing concern right now would be our stock of platelets. I have three patients with leukemia who need platelets, and we are going to run out soon.”
The old doctor looks at the youngster like he’s stupid, “The Blood Bank is right across the street. Why don’t you see if someone is over there?”
“I tried, but the military moved into the facility and is refusing to send any red blood cells, platelets, plasma, or anything else we may need. That means we can only use what we have on hand.” the young doctor replies.
The doctor glances toward a door nearby and continues, “Oh. That’s weird. Well, we have around seventy units of red blood cells left in storage at least. We’ll need those more than platelets or plasma.”
“Yeah, but what if we need more? What is the military even doing?”
“Well, I heard they think the Crawler virus may spread through blood and saliva, so maybe that’s why they aren’t letting us have any blood that was donated recently?”
“Maybe. It would make sense if the Crawler infection spread through blood. I mean that makes more sense then it being airborne, but didn’t the infection originally come from that cruise ship that crashed into the docks?”
Surprisingly finding the information I was looking for, I get up and slowly make my way toward the door. The two doctors have turned away, and I reach for the doorknob just in time to hear the two doctor's conversation continue.
“Yeah, it did, but they are just being careful, I guess. By the way, have you been in the storeroom recently? There are soldiers just sitting in there like they’re waiting for someone.”
I stop just short of turning the knob.
“Yeah, I know. One of the nurses went in earlier, and they looked like they were ready for war in there. They all grabbed their weapons and almost shot the poor woman.”
I begin to walk away and motion for Sam to follow. I try to work out how they could possibly know I would be looking for blood only to remember a misstep I made back on the ‘Moonlight’.
“They seem to be waiting for me… “ I say with frustration.
“Waiting for you? How would they know you’d go for the blood bags?”
“...Well, I had almost forgotten, but I may have sucked someone’s blood on camera once back on the Moonlight. I got a little too caught up in the moment, I suppose.”
“Shit, that wasn’t very smart. You know they probably have a task force set aside just to find you, right?”
“Yes, I know. Out of everyone, you’re the last person I want to hear that from.”
Sam smiles and changes the subject, “Well, where are we going now? Back to the morgue?”
“To surgical. I read that they also keep some blood bags in the operating rooms. They probably have at least ten units in there.”
Sam and I wander around the hospital and eventually find signs leading to surgical. When we arrive at the operating rooms, we immediately notice two armed soldiers entering the operating room. A moment later two other soldiers leave the room, making it obvious that some kind of shift change just occurred.
I sigh and turn to leave to come up with a new plan.
**Bang**
I quickly spin around to find someone having crashed into Sam. It seems to be a nurse that was in a hurry to return to the operating room. My eyes move to the ground, where I notice two blood bags lying on the floor. I quickly walk within a couple of feet of the bag and place them both into my storage ring.
“I-I’m sorry! I’m in a hurry.” the nurse shouts apologetically.
The woman starts looking around frantically for the blood bags.
“It’s okay. My brother here is a bit slow. He should watch where he is standing. Come on, brother.”
“What, but I…”
I pinch Sam’s leg so hard I almost take the skin off. I drag him away from the woman who is still looking around in confusion and panic.
With a tinge of disappointment, I speak to Sam, “Let’s go. I thought it would be simple, but I'll need to come up with a new plan. At least now though I can see what this blood tastes like.”
Sam seems confused, but nods. I yank Sam into a family restroom and lock the door. Removing one of the blood bags I read what’s written.
-------------------------------
Type O
Red Blood Cells
Adenine-Saline Added
Leukocytes Reduced
-------------------------------
“Hmm.”
I grab the tube that sticks out of the top of the bag and undo the seal. I suck the blood through the tube, watching as it makes its way toward my mouth. The blood hits my tongue and… the taste is underwhelming. At least in comparison to what I’m used to.
“This is like the diet cola of blood. It’s also a bit saltier than usual, and I’m not a big fan of it being cold either. Its consistency is also off. I’d probably rate this two and a half stars.”
“Here, let me try,” Sam responds eagerly.
Sam reaches for the blood bag and squeezes. Blood shoots up and splatters on the ceiling tiles.
I sigh and shove the bag into his arms, smearing some blood on his shirt, “Just take it.”
Sam drinks some, and his face shows a bit of disappointment, “It’s okay, but it has a bit of an… artificial taste, I guess.”
I nod in agreement, “Yeah, but either way, it’ll work for what I need it for. It’ll also help tide everyone over for a while if we can get enough of it. Finish that off, and let’s head back to the morgue and regroup.”