No, that was ridiculous. He had nothing to be afraid of. Under the direction of the president, the secretary of Health and Human Services was given emergency powers in dealing with a health crisis. He would just claim he was acting under those orders; the bureaucracy was so thick no one would be able to say otherwise.
He placed his bag down on the floor and kept his hands down to his sides to show them he was non-threatening, but they didn’t stop running. He thought maybe they meant to tackle him but then noticed they weren’t looking at him at all but past him. They sprinted past without so much as a glance.
A nurse and a CNA were running after them. Ralph managed to step in front of the CNA.
“What’s going on?”
“Sir, just stay in your room please.”
“My sister’s a patient here. Please tell me what’s happening?”
“One of our patients has escaped custody. Now please go back to your sister’s room. Let us handle this.”
Ralph stepped aside and let her run past. It was possible that they had a suspected criminal here and while under watch he escaped. All gunshot wounds were reported to the police and most of the gangsters in any major city knew to get treated and sneak out before the cops got there.
But he had a feeling that wasn’t what this was.
Ralph watched them run down the hall and then decided to go the other way. The front doors were too heavily manned. You’d have to be a fool to run through them, and the ER was the busiest section of the hospital this time of night. The other floors, though, especially the top floors, which in any hospital usually contained the administrative offices, were nearly empty past nine. If someone were smart, they would go to the top floor and find a way to climb down.
Ralph hopped onto the nearest elevator. He pushed the button to the eighth floor. He leaned against the elevator as it rose, tilting his head back and closing his eyes. Fatigue was making his neck ache and giving him a migraine.
The elevator buzzed and the doors slid open. Ralph stepped off.
The floor was dark and only a third of the lights were on; an effort to cut costs that most hospitals were employing now. The corridor ran both to his left and right equal distances and he chose to go right. He could see his reflection in the windows at the end of the corridor. He resembled his father and it sent a chill down his spine.
He turned left and went past the restrooms and the vending machines. The floors in this hospital were massive and he thought it could take days to find someone in here.
Ralph walked another twenty minutes and then sat down near the lounge. He needed a break. A television was up on the wall with a remote on the reception desk and he grabbed it and sat back down.
He kept the volume off and flipped through the channels until he came to a fishing show. The boat was out on the Pacific somewhere-he could tell from the sapphire blue water-and the sky was cloudless. He wished he was there now, fishing and soaking up sun and thinking about…nothing. Rather than being stuck in an empty hospital doing what he was about to do.
He watched the show a long time when he heard a sound. It was muffled, coming from a far room, but it was enough. He rose and quietly followed the sound down the corridor. It was coming from a small room to his right. The lights were off. He reached in and turned them on.
A young woman sat on a gurney, her face in her hands, weeping. She gasped when the lights came on and looked up. Her eyes were rimmed red and her face was pale with splotchy patches of white. She looked healthy but malnourished. The only giveaway that something was wrong was the crusted blood that stained her teeth and the corners of her mouth.
“Please,” she said, “I don’t want to go back.”
Ralph took a breath and sat down on the black stool against the wall. “You’re the patient, right? John Doe? The one that’s suspected of being infected with Agent X? Clever calling you John Doe. I could have walked past you in the hall and I wouldn’t have even thought about it being a woman.”
“I don’t want to go back?”
“Go back where, honey?”
“Downstairs. They want to quarantine me in a room and they said I can’t see my family anymore. They said they’re gonna lock the doors.”
“They have to. You’re carrying something extremely dangerous inside you right now. The people here don’t even know how dangerous it is. Otherwise, you never would have had the opportunity to get away.”
“Please,” she begged, “I have a fiancé. I just want to go home.”
“You look healthy enough to me. Were you in Hawaii recently?”
“Yes?”
“How did you get back to the mainland?” She didn’t say anything. “Don’t worry, I’m not the cops. I’m a doctor.”
“They were letting people in the Army off. I bought a uniform and a fake ID from this guy that was sellin’ ‘em and they let me get on one of the planes.”
“How many other people bought uniforms and IDs?”
“I don’t know. There were three other people with me. I don’t know how many others.”
Ralph nodded, melancholy on his face. “The will to survive. It never ceases to amaze me.” He reached into his bag and came out with a syringe and bottle with a white label. He stuck the needle through the rubber top of the bottle and pulled up an amber fluid.
“What’s that?” the girl said.
“It’s to help you relax. You’re frantic. Stress aggravates your condition.”
“I don’t want it.”
Ralph took a cotton ball out of the bag along with a Band-Aid and then approached her.
“I said I don’t want it.”
“You need it.”
“No I don’t. Get away from me.”
“Listen to me,” Ralph said, showing her his palms in a placating gesture. “If you don’t get this shot and sleep through the night, you will overwork your endocrine and cardiovascular systems. It could literally give you a stroke. We’ve seen it in other patients with your condition. I’m just going to give you the shot and then let the staff know where you are. They’ll take care of you. As soon as you’re better, they’ll release you. I’ll see what I can do about your fiancé coming to visit you here.”
She didn’t speak or move. Her lip quivered a little and Ralph didn’t push it. He stood silently until she was ready.
“What’s in it?”
“It’s Mebaral. A sedative. You’ll feel like you’re slipping into a warm bath. It’ll be euphoric at first and then you’ll sleep like you’ve never slept before.”
She looked away a moment, and then held out her arm.
Ralph came over and wiped an area just underneath her bicep with the cotton ball. She didn’t notice that he hadn’t used any antiseptic to clean the area; he wasn’t worried about her getting an infection.
He injected her and then withdrew, gently caressing her forearm, and he laid her back on the gurney and sat next to her. He held her hand; her breathing was slow and growing labored.
“I feel weird.”
“I know,” he said.
“Wait…wait…I don’t like this. I don’t like this, Doctor. Please stop it. It feels like my head is burning.”
“It is. It’s potassium. It’s slowly suffocating you and soon your heart will stop. People will think it was a natural death, probably brought on by Agent X.”
“No,” she said, her eyelids dipping and then opening again. “No. Ple…please.”
“I’m sorry. There’s no other way.”
“No,” she said, attempting to cry. “No no…please.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, gripping her hand tighter.
She wept for a few moments and he didn’t interrupt her. She looked up at him, their eyes locking. Ralph wanted to look away, but didn’t. There was a measure of respect involved.
“I have to tell you somethin’,” she said, her breathing growing difficult. “About the other people.”
“What is it?” She mumbled something. “I didn’t understand you.” There was more mumbling. Ralph hoped he hadn’t moved to soon; perhaps she had information that could help him track down the three others that had snuck off the island with her.