Epidemic Exsilium: Stage Two

[initiates]

Date & Time: June 8th - June 14th
Location: Throughout Exsilium
Characters: Anyone participating in hunting down the sleeper agents; anyone participating in taking care of the ill, or being ill themselves.
Summary: Stage Two of the Super Virus Epidemic strikes; sleeper agents of the United Earth are revealed.
Warnings: Illness, violence, needles. (Those IVs, man!)

Sniffles and coughs aren't unusual during the spring, with people combating allergies even in the far future, and colds being as present as always. But with more and more people falling ill, and none responding to antibiotics, things are starting to get worrying.

The first death is of an infant, on the night of the 7th. It's not the only one: three more are recorded not long after. It's unknown about the state of patients who never presented for medical assistance. Those familiar with viral infections fear the worse, especially as the usually healthy demographic starts arriving, coughing and displaying symptoms of the same sort of illness.

If that's not enough out among the natives, the Initiative has received its own information and insight into the true nature of the virus. "Wasmannian" Agents, spies of the Initiative in the United Earth, have reported back information at great cost to their security in their undercover positions. There is a super virus headed your way. They've been shipping it in to the island since December 3312. These are the manifests. We've deciphered most the code-names. Good luck.

Now the Initiative turns to the Transports for additional manpower to hunt down the United Earth's sleeper agents, pick up the shipments of the virus, and track down its physical origins in order to do something to stop the impending decimation of Exsilium's population.

Things are getting scary. It's a sick, sad world out there. Where are you, in the middle of it all?

Comments

[ladyspitfire]

So you keep saying, but that isn't true at all.

[She moves so she can put a hand to his back and help him, strength where he may need it. She doesn't push him to move any faster than he's capable. Though she doesn't say it, she considers the possibility of having to carry him on her back. He won't have it, she imagines.]

Thank you. I just don't want this to get any worse for you.

[If something happened to you, I'd never forgive myself for letting you stay here and waste away.]

[bloodyantivan]

[Much to his shame, Zevran leans heavily on Elissa - has to. Standing up is proving to be a bit of a chore. His muscles are simultaneously sore and weak, and he moves quite slowly.]

--It is likely to get worse no matter where I am. But I promise you I will not die.

Just suffer. Suffer and make sad faces at you, for having made me move in this state.

[ladyspitfire]

That is a promise I will hold you to.

[She can feel how much he needs to lean against her. It sparks another round of concern and worry, try as she might to quell it. She already knows that the stairs will not be kind to him, nor the walk to the clinic.]

I'll take whatever faces you'd like to make at me so long as you're still breathing.

[bloodyantivan]

Right. I will make sure to breathe as much as possible.

[Zevran moves like he is old, but he insists on getting dressed properly. Soft, warm clothes: he actually has a propensity for such flowing things, enjoys how he can hide weapons in the folds of the innocuous.

He has a rather violent coughing fit as they leave the housing. A little blood's coming out, he realizes with a flinch.]

[ladyspitfire]

[She likes his newly decided fashion, the softer fabrics and the many places where he can hide his weapons. Elissa hates the tighter clothes women are given to wear, despising how much more difficult it is to hide her knives. Not that it's practical to hide the longswords, but...

As they leave and he begins to have another fit, she stops and turns to him, trying to support him through it. The flecks of red catch her eye.]

Zevran--

[bloodyantivan]

...It is not so bad as it appears, I think. Just irritation in the throat and chest from the coughing, perhaps some bruising.

[Zevran's knowledge of anatomy proves useful, at least. And he knows enough about what someone bleeding internally might look like. There are poisons that do similar things, after all, and a variety of wounds.]

Ah, now now. I told you, it is I who is supposed to be giving the sad looks!

[ladyspitfire]

[Not so bad, he says, but he's coughing up blood and he can barely walk. She sets her jaw to keep from protesting, trying her best to harden herself, but she can already feel a gnawing sense of fear settling into her belly.]

And you'll have plenty of time for that later. Come on. The sooner we get to the clinic, the sooner you can get help.

[bloodyantivan]

I am enjoying the part where you think help will come fast and readily. [But Zevran does begin trudging along again, stumbling bit by bit on their way to the clinic. Who knew a short journey could be so exhausting?]

[ladyspitfire]

I think it's cute that you think I won't slit someone's throat if they don't.

[She gives him a brief look but then continues. It's not so much further to the clinic, thank the Maker.]

[bloodyantivan]

Using cutthroat violence to get what you want. You would have made an excellent Crow, my dear.

[Zevran smiles weakly, and continues walking, pausing once more to cough.]

[ladyspitfire]

I'd be dead at least a thousand times over if I was a Crow and you know it.

[She puts an arm around him.]

Come on, Zev. Stay with me a little longer. You don't want me to have to carry you, do you?

[She tries to make it sound teasing but her heart is pounding thunderously every time they have to stop, every time he coughs.]