Day 3
#5 of Days
Once more into the breach!
I woke drenched in my own sweat, we were still a ways off from Cairo, so I got up and stretched my legs on the way to the facilities.
After dealing with matters, I looked into the mirror, dreading what I was about to do. I removed the bandanna, and most of my hair came away with it, well, male pattern baldness wouldn't be a problem now...
I wrapped the hair up in some tissue paper and flushed it down the lavatory, unfolding the bandanna in the process. When I had it folded and was lifting it back to my head, I noticed something strange, I seemed to have some very fine hair still on my scalp.
Running a hand over it, it felt softer than what 'prickly short' hair should, and unlike my usual brunet-brown hair, it was a light orange. As I was running my hand over it, I noticed that it wasn't just my head it was growing on, my arm had a very short down over it too, the fuzz changing to black as it reached my hand.
The alignment of my face seemed different too, somehow my features appeared sharper than they used to and if anything my ears seemed a bit higher. "Just what the fuck is this shit doing to me?" I asked no one in particular.
I freshened up with some water and re-applied the bandanna then returned to my seat, they were still running an in-flight movie, apparently news was not a nice subject for air travellers at this point in time.
I filled in the remaining hour of the flight trying to re-assure myself that this wasn't all my fault, I was only trying to survive, like the others who were likely jetting around too. Unfortunately, I wasn't doing too well in the argument, and my conscience was starting to erode the fragile wall of truths I had piled up around my soul.
As I was departing the air-plane, I saw that at least the airport had some of its tvs running the news, and it wasn't good. The island of 'England' was cut off and quarantined, so far not much news was getting out of there, America was not fairing well either, with the virus having spread from the two major airports I had been to and was cutting down the population like a scyth does wheat. France and a large part of Italy, Spain, Belgium and Germany being considered 'death zones', anything that tried to leave the area was shot on sight, but still it spread.
Realising my itinerary had been the exact locations that the different ground zeroes had been, with smaller ones expected to be popping up as my fellow travellers made touchdowns, I almost screamed, how I kept the fear and sense of self hatred contained I don't know, there was no other fellow 'sick travellers', I had been the only one, or at least the only one who had travelled.
I made it as far as the bathroom before I broke down crying, all those deaths, all my fault. I had to end this, I had to stop, I curled up in a little ball in the cubical and waited for the end.
Please let it be soon.
-
We were no nearer finding a way to stop the pathogen.
"It can be air-transmitted, in which case it takes one to three days to incubate and spread through the body enough, or it seems it could be transferred almost instantly via bodily fluids, it passed fleshy membranes, so even just kissing would pass the infection on" I repeated what we knew.
"Once the host is infected and starting to show signs, so after incubation for air, or instantly for fluids, it was highly infectious." This was usually the weak link in any virus, if you could shut down its re-production, it would halt dead in its tracks.
"Death occurs within twelve to thirty six hours." I concluded to myself, tapping the bullet points on my notebook.
"Very succinct doctor, now how can we break the chain?" My research partner a Doctor Galdin asked, for about the thirtieth time, annoying as it got, this kind of brainstorming could quite often come up with usable results.
"Well we cou-" I started as I noticed the phone I had been issued start to flash, I had turned off the ring for everyone but the team leader, his calls were usually important enough to interrupt work, nothing else was.
I reached over looking apologetically at my colleague, "Dr Ellis, this had better be im-"
"Doctor." One of the senior lab technicians cut in, "We have a problem, please come to the containment room immediately."
It went dead and I gestured for Frank to follow me.
What we saw when we came into view of the big specially sealed containment room floored me, Dr Willins was inside, talking via the intercom.
"...nd so I had programmed the field spectrometer to single out the virus and then gave it my own skin sample as a quick test, it came back positive. I have brought a terminal in with me, I can continue my work within here till we find a cure or..." He trailed off. Our decontamination procedures had failed apparently.
The lab tech passed us the little field unit, a sample pad and a lancet to prick our fingers each. We tested ourselves, we were both positive.
"Yeah, we thought as much, the air in here must have been contaminated. Well ladies and gentlemen, we now have further incentive to get this done, and Dr Willins, please remove yourself from that chamber and we can get back to wor-"
It was then a phone started to ring, it was a full music ring tone, halfway through the ring "Hot guy nine out of ten in bed" was stated in the mechanical voice of the phone.
Reaching around to the evidence bag we had recovered from the stewardess I tore it open and answered the phone. "Hello, who is this?"
"Its David, we met on the plane, uh, is this the right number, your ok?" The male on the other end seemed to be sobbing whenever he paused for breath.
"David, this is not Jacqueline Lernal, I am with the world health organisation. Did you encounter the-" I started but he began bawling and talking real fast into the phone, "Slow down David, what are you saying?"
"Its me, I was kidnapped and infected in France, they had me fly to America and England and, and." He sobbed a bit further, "You need to come to Cairo and shut the place down, its about to get bad here too."
Patient Zero, how fucking lucky can a girl get?
"Wait, David, your saying your in Cairo," I was repeating it so the others could write it down and arrange things, "Where are you in the airport, we will have someone come and make sure your ok. Then we will come over and secure the area, try and stop it from spreading further."
"I am in the mens water closet in the west concourse, its the one near customs in the international area. I didn't mean to, I mean they said they wouldn't give me any of the drug to slow it down unless I did what they wanted, they said there were more like me, they-" He was babbling and it seemed was no longer giving any useful information.
"David, I know it seems like it was your fault, but it wasn't, someone did this to you, they are the ones killing all these people. You said a drug, what drug is it they are giving you to slow it down?"
"Azath-something" He replied.
"Azathioprine?"
"Yeah, that's the one. Twelve of the little things every few days, they said it would stop it from killing me, but that I was dead anyway." Poor bastard, no wonder he was feeling like crap, three times the max dose for an average human of a strong immune inhibitor, plus the weight that must be on his conscience, if he was still sane by the time we got to Cairo it would be a miracle.
"Yes, yes, tell the airport security he is a WHO employee and needs a comfortable room to rest while some of his colleagues rendezvous with him, yeah, don't bother mentioning the virus, if they are in the same airport with him the HVAC would have distributed the plague to everyone in there, yes and ready the jet, we need to get there asap" Dr Willins was telling a junior assistant, the job I had occupied up till about three weeks ago.
"David, someone will come and get you, they think you are just having a bit of a breakdown, they won't know about the virus, it won't matter anyway, they will make sure your comfortable, we will be there as soon as we can, our jet is almost ready to fly." I reassured the poor guy.
"Please, please come make it better soon, I don't know how much longer I can go on. Please." He begged, I wanted to tell him we would come make it all stop, and catch the bad guys, but I knew he wouldn't believe it no matter how well I lied.
"We are on the way David, don't give up hope. Stopping these kinds of things is our job, understand? Be safe David." I said and heard him hang up from his end.
"Well done Karen, very well handled, if nothing else, we can secure the gentleman and learn as much as we can from him." Dr Willis patted my shoulder, I had tears in my eyes for the poor guy, how could anyone put you in that kind of situation and still call themselves human.
"Sir." The lab assistant had returned, "Security at Cairo reported they have the man secured and are awaiting our arrival, they asked if he would need food, I took the liberty of telling them he had an open account for whatever he wanted to order. The pilot has confirmed he is ready to fly in two minutes, and that normally the fourteen hour flight to Cairo would be do-able in less than eleven."
"Well done Coraline, good work handling the security." he turned to us, "People, we have lab equipment already stored at Cairo airport, just gather your personal effects, enough for a five day stay, and we should be good to leave in ten minutes, please be sure you are on the plane by then." The Doctor said, and we all scurried off to do our tasks.
-
I passed the time with a quick meal, I didn't want to over-extend their hospitality, I felt ravenous, and realised that I had likely missed a few meals again.
The nice girl on the phone had given me a measure of self worth back, thoughts of suicide were pushed a little further back.
I managed to finish the second of the terrible books I had been working through and realised there was something smelling rather ripe in the room with me, then it dawned on me that it was me smelling rather ripe and the poor room had done nothing to deserve such a fate as my current state.
I asked for a trip to the restroom to freshen up and the guard ambled with me, he didn't talk, not much English I guessed, but at least he didn't recoil in horror at the smell.
I had the bathroom to myself, it was not a public one, and the guard had assured me that no one would disturb me, so I stripped and stood beside the sink, closest to the floor-drain.
It was as I started splashing water on myself I started to notice further changes, my already lean frame had leaned out much more, although weather due to my interrupted diet lately or not, was debatable. However narrower shoulders could not be caused by diet, nor could a matt of what I could only describe as fur growing all over my body, it was coloured from a darker orange/red over my back to a lighter white/red on my chest and down the insides of my legs and arms, terminating in darker black about mid forearm and shin level. The next thing to notice was my face, the fur lining was now covering my face completely, no wonder I was getting odd looks from the guard. Removing the bandanna revealed the last of my brunet hair was gone and my ears had migrated further up my head, and it seemed I could wiggle them with a little concentration. As I turned side on to examine them a bit further I noticed that my nose and mouth were pushed a little forward on my face, there was a definite lengthening to my face and I suddenly realised where I had seen something like that face before, the face of the fox in the shipping container on the tarmac at New York. I wagged my tail at the fact that I could remember that.
Tail...
I almost fell over trying to spin around and see it, it was rather short and stubby and explained my discomfort while seated before.
"What the fuck is this doing to me, I'm not... I'm not human any more." I wondered, then further postulated, "Will it stop?"
Dousing myself down further and washing the smell of stale sweat and fear off my skin and fur, scrubbing my face, I instinctively shook myself hard to dry off and realised too late, the whole room was sprayed with water now.
Shrugging with a little grin, I took out my clean suit and dressed as best I could, slipping my tail into a pants leg, it wasn't comfortable, but it would be a little more noticeable than my extra hair, and if I wore the bandanna low it would cover my ears.
Looking into the mirror, I couldn't help but give a little whistle and two clicks with my tongue, Mr Fox would be proud.
Packing my things back in the case, melencholy filled me when the card the stewardess had slipped into my pocket with her number on it had slipped free, I put it back in my pocket and made to open the door but, despite the guards assurance, a woman walked into the room.
"David, I am Doctor Karen Ellis, of the world health organisation, we spoke on the phone." She stated, I was incredulous, they mustn't have believed me, she wasn't in one of the big 'germ suits'.
"No, get back, I am still contagious! You have to-" I began, but her voice cut me off.
"You are indeed, and so will I be in another day or so, regardless of my contact to you. My team was contaminated in Los Angeles. Now, are you going to help us find a cure for this before it kills either of us or what?" She asked, very matter of factly, the challenging glint in her eye threatened me, dared me even, 'help me, and we will stop this, don't, and be damned to hell'. She held her hand out to me.
I took it.
Ahh, the two protaganists have now met, face to muzzle.
As for hitting the fan, Sir in the previous story, the excrement had barely even stained the blades of the rotary air excitation device ;)
Who saves the people sent so save the world? Hehe, WHO, get it, come on, someone laugh....
Tough crowd.