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

[medicating]

Like you wouldn't believe.

[After the terrible battle for Elmer's world he had people with gashes, broken bones, and attitude. Hell, he knows no one likes being being in a hospital, but his goal is to heal them so they can leave faster. These people just make his job harder.

Turning to the nurse, he issues instructions for setting Nikolai up with treatment and grabs an empty chart to get started.]

Name?

[justthedriver]

[ Nikolai doesn't really protest. Well, it's more of that he tries to move before he can be moved, but that's the whole of it, really. He knows when he's beyond his limits.

He grins a little at the question. ]

Mikhail Ivanov.

[ ... That's not his name. At all. But he doesn't want to give his name, so. ]

You have one, doctor?

[medicating]

McCoy. Leonard McCoy. You just lie back and try to breath steadily while we get you set up in a room.

[justthedriver]

[ He's almost tempted to give McCoy a thumbs up at that. But he doesn't - not going to test his luck with someone who is going to try to stick a tube down his throat - and instead nods. ]

Okay. [ He lifts his shoulders. It would be a shrug if he'd put more effort into it, but now it's just a half-hearted thing. ] I can wait.

[medicating]

[And sadly, waiting is what he'll have to do, all right. McCoy is being pulled in a hundred different directions at once, but at least he finds time to first drop off the vial at the labs so they can get to analyzing it.

It isn't until about a half hour later that McCoy checks back in on him, wherever he's located now.]

Feeling any worse yet?

[justthedriver]

[ He shrugs a little. He's right now stuffed into one of the rooms. ]

Not bad. [ He's felt a lot worse. But given his life, that doesn't say much. It might be interesting to note that his voice practically gurgles in his lungs, though.

More importantly: ] You still have vial?

[medicating]

I passed it off to the lab techs. Thanks for that, by the way. I'll really help us understand what we're up against.

[He moves around the room, gathering sealed supplies before he comes over.]

Think you can roll onto your side for me? I want to take a listen to your lungs.

[justthedriver]

[ It's a good thing he has given a false name, Nikolai thinks. Not only for the trails, but also he thinks that he has stumbled upon a truly decent doctor, given what McCoy is saying. It's almost enough to make him laugh - he doesn't not for the lack of mirth, but because he doesn't have the breath - even as he turns over. ]

Da, vrach. [ His eyes flicker backwards even as he turns, showing McCoy the full extent of the tattoo on his back. A church with three spires, with Cyrillic letters on top and below. ]

So how long do I have to wait until I die?

[medicating]

You're not dying. Don't be so dramatic.

[Which is easier to say than to conjure up some heartfelt speech about so many people busy doing all they can to save them all. He's exhausted and he's never been that type anyway, except with kid patients. Real kids, not those five years younger than himself that he calls "kid."]

Go ahead and slowly breath in. Not deeply, just normal as you can.

[He's got the stethoscope one the roof of one of the buildings on his back, but he doesn't comment on the tattoo.]

[justthedriver]

[ Nikolai isn't much for heartfelt speeches anyway - they all ring false after a while - so he only laughs, and it's a bubbling sound in his throat. And he closes his eyes and tries to breathe normally, in, and out, the exhale hissing through his teeth. ]

You think virus will still live even after we died?

[ An idle question, a kind of curiosity. He doesn't ask why McCoy - or any of the doctors - bother to save people when dying might cure them, because he already knows the answer.

Even a place without death doesn't make it seem less dreadful to those with good things to live for. ]

[medicating]

[He listens to his lungs and, boy, that doesn't sound good.]

No, because we're going to find a way to stop it. I'm not being defeated by damn bioterrorism, that's for damn sure.

[justthedriver]

[ Nope, it doesn't sound good at all. But Nikolai isn't particularly concerned about that bit, instead blinking at the sheer passion in McCoy's voice. He pushes himself up a little, craning his head back. ]

I would've thought doctor would say something like how life is always precious. [ Dryly, and he laughs for a second before he is wracked by a series of heavy, wet coughs.

Onset of pneumonia and the disease both are not good things. ]

[medicating]

Isn't that a given?

[He frowns, moving quickly to get one of those bins to cough into in case he hacks up blood.]

Here; I'm thinking conversation's out for right now. Just get some rest.

[justthedriver]

[ He slumps back onto the bed when he's done with the cough. There's probably blood on his lip - he can't see it and he can't be bothered to wipe his mouth with a hand either - and he grins a little at McCoy. ]

Not given where I come from. [ A pause, then the second sentence finally sinks in. ]

Okay.

[medicating]

Good.

[He heads over to a paper towel dispenser on the wall and pulls out a few sheets, bringing them over.]

I'm guessing you're too much of a tough guy to want someone wiping your mouth for you, so here you go. Got a little blood on your lips there. It's normal with this cough.

[Normal for the cough, but not normal in general, of course. He'd better go check in with the lab techs to see if they've found out anything useful yet.]

[justthedriver]

[ Nikolai laughed at those words, but it's a raspy thing. The blood on his mouth has to come from somewhere, and he has an inkling that it's not from his throat but somewhere deeper. He shakes his head, taking the sheets of paper towel and covering his mouth and coughing hard.

When he's done with this particular fit, he lifts his eyes and looks at McCoy again. ]

Maybe normal. [ A pause, and he cocks his head. ] Try not to get sick, da?

[medicating]

I'm not planning on it.

[He gestures to his mask.]

I'll look in on you later.

[justthedriver]

[ He considers reaching out and grabbing McCoy's mask and pulling it to show him how flimsy it is as protection. But he doesn't actually want McCoy to get sick, so he just shrugs, giving the doctor a half-hearted salute. ]