‘If there is anyone.’
Back at the hospital she’d done the telephoning herself, leaving the nurses free to concentrate on the patients. It was the most useful thing she could do. It would be two hours at least before anyone could come and help them, the voice at the other end said when at last she succeeded in getting through; even then, they couldn’t guarantee anything. Then the line went dead.
With jellyfish-infested flood-water now lapping at the hospital steps, it had been a nightmare fetching the patients back inside. The driver had brought the bus as close as possible and then personally carried the old people across while Sue had kept guard with a broom, beating off any jellyfish that came too close. The four children — three boys and a girl — had jumped across the gap, although one had landed short and would have fallen if Sue hadn’t grabbed him. As it was, he twisted his ankle.
Inside, they’d all gathered in one ward, feeling they’d be better off sticking together until they could be rescued. Sue had been delegated to try telephoning again while the nurses made everyone comfortable and brewed tea. She marvelled at the way they took charge quite naturally, bustling around to do whatever had to be done. They were hardly out of their teens. She’d witnessed the fear in the blonde one’s eyes when a jellyfish had washed up against her leg when she stepped down from the coach. Yet she’d recovered immediately, hiding her feelings from the patients.
Sue looked at her watch, holding it near one of the oil lamps to be able to read it. Almost three hours had passed since that first phone call and there was still no sign of anyone coming to get them out. It was a couple of hours already since the lights had suddenly gone out.
Yet everyone was so quiet, cocooned inside that long, narrow ward, no doubt persuading themselves that the jellyfish were no more than a bad dream from which they would soon wake up. Over the windows down both sides the curtains were closed, shutting out reality. The old people dozed in their beds or played cards around one of the tables; the coach driver sat in a corner with the four children, telling them stories, and the blonde nurse went over to join them, joking about something.
Sue remained at the far end of the ward near the telephone, preferring to be alone with her thoughts. By now she accepted that their chances of getting out alive were minimal. It was only a matter of time before the jellyfish invaded the hospital itself, if they weren’t in the building already.
And that’s the way it would be all over the world, she was convinced. Jellyfish were unbeatable: when one was killed, ten more took its place. Dinosaurs had once ruled on earth, then their day had come. Now it was the turn of the human race to face extinction.
She’d watched Tim’s broadcasts, every one of them, just to see him. Mark had said nothing, but he’d known only too well why she’d always rushed to the set to switch on.
Tim…
‘Oh, excuse me…’ The blonde nurse startled her, cutting across her day-dreaming. ‘It’s only the outside line that’s dead, isn’t it? I mean, you can get an internal number?’
She didn’t wait for an answer, but dialled a couple of digits.
‘What is it?’ Sue asked. ‘I thought we were the only ones here.’
‘So did we, but that little boy who twisted his ankle swears his sister is still here.’
‘One of the nurses?’
‘No, a patient in the isolation ward. A little girl, suspected smallpox. It’s my friend Deirdre on duty there, that’s how I know about her.’ In exasperation she shook the receiver, listened again, then slammed it down. ‘He says he came here to ask about her, without telling his parents. I was sure she went in one of the ambulances, but he says no, he was told she was still there.’
‘We’d better go and see,’ said Sue, glad of something to do at last. ‘As we can’t phone.’
‘It’s outside.’
‘Where?’ She felt a sudden shiver of fear.
‘That brick building at the back near the trees.’ The nurse looked at her, understanding; she put a hand on her arm. ‘No need for both of us to go.’
‘Then it’s up to me, isn’t it?’ Sue’s flesh crawled at the very thought of wading through those jellyfish; yet she knew, if anything went wrong, she was the one they could most easily manage without. ‘It’s only a question of checking if she’s there or not. And you’re a nurse, you’re needed here.’
The look of relief on the nurse’s face was unmistakable, yet she still argued for a minute or two before gratefully agreeing that Sue should be the one to go.
‘I’ll find a torch for you.’
‘It’s still daylight.’
‘You’ll find it gloomy in the ward unless there’s a lamp there. It’s not somewhere I’ve ever worked but I know it’s just a small room — four beds. The bacteriological lab’s in the same building.’
She led Sue into an office at the rear of the hospital. From its window they could see the building. It looked dark and silent, but then the current would be off there too. The gusty wind was lashing the trees violently, though the rain had eased a little. As far as she could judge the grounds were not deeply flooded — three or four inches at the most — but wherever she looked she saw jellyfish gliding about in the water.
‘Are you sure?’ the nurse asked her anxiously.
‘What’s your name, nurse?’
‘Angela.’
‘I’m quite sure,’ she said. ‘Someone has to do it; it may as well be me. But I need a spear… a spade… something I can defend myself with. Don’t worry, Angela. I’ll be all right.’
They searched around in various corners of the hospital. In the end, they settled on a broom handle to which Angela taped a long amputation knife. They also found a pair of surgeon’s white drill trousers which Sue pulled on over her jeans as extra protection and a fireman’s belt complete with axe which she strapped about her waist over the ski jacket.
‘I feel ridiculous in all this gear.’ She tried to laugh, but Angela merely shook her head.
‘Ready?’
Sue nodded.
Angela drew back the bolt and held the door open just long enough for Sue to step outside, then slammed it shut behind her.
Gingerly she moved down into the water, feeling her way with the blunt end of the broom handle. A medium-sized jellyfish drifted against her ankle; then it floated away again, showing no interest. She felt grateful for the protection offered by the high white gumboots she’d borrowed from the theatre wardrobe the day before.
Yet she’d only to slip and they’d be all over her. She knew that well enough by now. She walked slowly, dragging her feet through the water and testing every inch of the ground with the broom handle to make sure she didn’t tread on one. Above her, the sky was still dark with rapidly moving clouds. The luminescence from the jellyfish hung over the ground like a translucent, supernatural mist, merging with the daylight at about waist height.
They weren’t attacking her, she suddenly realised; they were letting her through.
‘Why?’
She spoke the word aloud, gazing around her. Jellyfish surrounded her on every side — and ignored her.
Looking back, she caught a glimpse of Angela, watching from the office window. She waved and then went on.
Almost immediately, her foot came down on unyielding, slippery muscle; it slid forward as the sole of her gumboot refused to grip. To save herself, she stabbed at the ground with the broom handle, but that too failed to hold.
Her arms waved about in a futile attempt to regain her balance as she felt herself going down. This was death, she knew it. This was how it was going to be. The thoughts flowed through her mind with a slow, logical clarity: it would be the best solution after all; it would free Tim; oh, how she envied Mark with the whole experience of dying behind him; oh, Tim, if only I’d been able to… if only we hadn’t… like drifting jellyfish…