Grace kissed Macy and laid her on the gurney. Macy didn’t move.
“Tell me, how did you make it through the infected to the hospital?” Darshan asked.
Grace answered, “They don’t react to either of us.”
“For now,” Darshan said. “I am guessing that could change so do not take a lot of security in that.”
“Have you seen any others like us?” Grace asked.
“Yes, we have a couple here. They are our supply runners. Parents such as yourself seeking help.” Darshan glanced at Macy as he grabbed his stethoscope.”She is infected with the virus, you know this, right?”
“Yes,” Grace whimpered.
“How did you sedate her?”
“Benadryl.”
Darshan carefully examined Macy. “What happened to her shoulders and chest?”
“She tried to get out of the car seat.” Grace stood nearby, arms folded tight to her body.
“She is in a full blow viral state. It has hit her glands.” He tiled her head left to right. “As you can see, heart rate is exceedingly rapid, respiration as well. Temp…” He placed the aural thermometer to her ear, “well into the danger zone.”
“Is there anything we can do?” Grace asked.
“I don’t know what to tell you. It is still early. This thing... this virus, is like a melting pot of every extinction potential virus known to man. It’s like Mother Nature made a soup of it all and tossed it in the air.”
“What do you mean?”
“Upon examination, we have the respiratory and fever reaction of H1N1, the blisters on her arms are remarkably similar to smallpox lesions, the mental state is akin to rabies. He lifted Macy’s arms. “On her neck and in her armpits the lymph nodes have buboes which have formed pustules. See how black they are? These are why the bubonic plague was also known as the Black Death.”
“Have you heard anything from authorities on this?” Grace questioned.
“We received a health alert three days ago about the possibility of the outbreak. They stated it could be rapid and overwhelming. I will say it is my belief that no one has had time to examine this phenomenon. It moved and struck too fast. Whether it is only locally, or a few states, or America, we don’t know. No one knows. Communications have broken down.”
Grace lowered her head. “What’s going to happen to her?”
“Again, I wish I had answers,” Darshan replied. “This is new. We’ve been seeing patients only a couple of days. Most of them passed away without ever hitting the rage state. The ones that become violent started yesterday afternoon. A fast mutation defying nature. That’s why I said don’t get comfortable being invisible to them. Now in answer to your question, more than likely she is suffering a complete breakdown of her internal organs. The fever will do that. She’ll more than likely pass away in her sleep when her air supply completely blocks.”
“There’s no hope?”
“You should never give up hope.”
“What about the other parents?” Max asked. “You said other parents came here seeking help.”
Darshan nodded. “They did. Some opted to spare their child. Most opted for hope. I gave them medication for sedation. Because there is no way this isn’t hurting her. She lacks the brain function to recognize it, or she does know and the attacking is her reaction.”
“So she is suffering,” Grace stated.
“Look at her, what do you think?” Darshan asked. “Although sedating her would ease the suffering.” He placed hands gently on her arms. “Take a moment, think about what you’d like to do. I will assist in any way I can,” he said, and Grace nodded.
Darshan turned to Max. “I saw the wound on your hand. Let’s see this bite.”
Max slowly rolled up his shirt and then brought it over his head.
Grace wasn’t as inconspicuous about her reaction as Darshan. She gasped when she saw Max’s chest. The bite mark had never been dressed and was raw, like a stretched piece of flesh was pulled across his body.
“Three bites. Two minor,” Darshan said then whistled. “This one here, a chunk of your flesh is missing.”
“I’m aware. It hurts like hell.”
“I bet. Excuse me. I need a little more than what is on that cart.” Darshan turned and walked out of the exam room.
Max brought his tee shirt to his chest and stared outward.
Grace wanted to ask Max what she should do. However, Max was unpredictable, almost bipolar in his behavior. One moment he was quiet, reserved, the next angry and cold, and then nice. She was fearful that if she asked Max for advice he’d tell her to let the doctor put Macy down and move on with it.
It was her daughter lying on that gurney. Macy had rolled to her side and her body was shivering. Grace grabbed the blanket on the bottom of the bed and placed it over her child.
“Once the doctor fixes me, if he can,” Max said, “we’ll head back down to the house. We can make her comfortable there, wait it out and plan our next move.”
Grace replied, “I thought for sure you’d say opt out and put her down.”
Max shrugged. “That’s not my call to make. You’ve been toting her around so it’s obviously not a call you’ll make either. Not an option, as I see it. Something better than Benadryl is though, so that’s what I assumed we’d go with.”
“If she were your child, what would you do?” Grace asked, stroking Macy’s forehead.
“I don’t have a child.”
“But if she were your child what would you do?”
“I’d… I’d end it now for her.”
Grace exhaled and nodded.
“It’s unfair to ask me that because I don’t have a child. I don’t know what it’s like to have a child. In a bad analogy, it would be like asking me if I were Jewish would I eat pork. A hypothetical decision based on experience I don’t have.”
Max was right and Grace knew it. He didn’t have that innate parental instinct that guided him. Grace did. When it came to her children, like every parent, she tried to think of the best interest of the child.
Was allowing Macy to linger in the best interest of Macy or the best interest of Grace? It was something she’d grappled with all day.
Truth was, Grace knew instinctively that her time with Macy was limited and a part of her, selfish or not, wanted to grab and hold on to every second she had left with her baby.
EIGHT – ELLIPSIS
Following Stanton’s advice, Paul gathered those who came to the shelter in a close circle in their safe haven gymnasium.
He could tell by their faces that none of them were at ease. They were frightened, confused.
“So you see there is some semblance of safety,” Paul told them. “We stay high up, they won’t make it to us. Even the dead... ish aren’t exhibiting the ability to climb at this time. They reach, jump, hell they’ll jump from a window at you and get back up. But at this time, they are not going up.”
A man in the group spoke up, “We’re aren’t high. We’re in this gym.”
“Behind steel doors.”
“Lot of good that will do it. Get enough of them together, they’ll break in. Or worse, someone in here turns and starts a chain reaction. I was in the supermarket when one person,” he held up a finger, “one – turned. Within five minutes, anyone bitten or scratched were turning.”
“If anyone feels safer being upstairs or locked in a classroom, you are more than welcome to go there,” Paul said. “We’re here together because it is easier to protect everyone in one place.”