Plague (13 page)

“What’d you do this weekend?” he said, passing a
Gatorade
to her.

“I met some guy at a bar and hung out with him.”

“Just hung out.”

“We fucked around, but nothin’ too hot. He got all limp
‘
cause we smoked too much weed.”

Ele giggled. “That’s why
you need a real man.”

“I don’t mess around with people I work with,” she said, taking a swig of the drink and handing it back. “I got fired from my last job doing that.”

“Where at?”

“It was a psychiatric hospital on the mainland. It was pretty fucked up.
This
one patient was a soldier in World War Two and he had a head injury. So to change his diaper, you had to play the national anthem
‘
cause he would stand up and salute. And then you just had to hurry and change it
‘
cause otherwise he’d fight you. Then there was this one dude that thought cats
had
filled his room. He thought he had like thirty cats in there and you had to be careful where you walked
‘
cause if you stepped on one of his cats he’d attack you.”

“Man. That sounds fucked up, yo.”

“It wasn’t fun. But they paid good.
‘
Cause you got your hair pulled and got gassed and shit. You know what gassing is?”

He shook his head.

“It’s where they shit or piss or both and then throw it at your face. Some
a the patients gassed the staff all the time so with some of ‘em you had to wear gasmasks. If I ever get old
,
just fucking shoot me.”

Ele took a deep breath. “Ready to go back?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

They went inside and up to the locker rooms. Ele went into the men’s and changed into a fresh pair of scrubs. He brushed his teeth, used eyedrops, and washed his hands and his face. He ran some cold water through his hair
—
he knew the hair could hold the scent of marijuana as good as anything
—
and then dried off with some
paper towels
and headed into the corridor. Tiffany was already waiting for him.

He had hit her up at a party once when they first started hanging out, but she didn’t show any interest. She said it was because she didn’t date people she worked with but Ele didn’t believe that. She only dated white guys, never
islanders
. He wondered why she would move to Hawaii if she didn’t like Hawaiians but people
were
like that he guessed. They came out here for all sorts of reasons and few of them made any sense to him. Hawaii was expensive, you made less money, many of the locals didn’t like whites, and it was difficult to get all the conveniences of the mainland. But the grass was always greener. While people were trying to move in
,
he was desperately trying to move out, but money was always an issue.

“Where you gotta go?” Tiffany asked.

“Up to six.”

“Nuh uh. I thought no one was supposed to go up there?”

“Nah, they got barriers set up. You just can
’t
touch the people. What you think they’re sick with?”

“I heard it was AIDS.”

“That don’t make sense
‘
cause I heard
Dr.
Hennessey
saying that patients were getting infected faster than they thought they would. So AIDS wouldn’t do that.”

“Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t really care
.
I just wanna get outta here and chill with a bottle
a wine at my house.”

They passed the elevators and Ele said goodbye and hopped on. He headed to six, where the patients were quarantined, and when he stepped off the elevator he grabbed some rubber gloves that were hanging in a box on the wall. Several nurses were up here but they wore facemasks and plastic suits over their scrubs. He didn’t get any of that
be
cause he was only here to empty the trash.

He went from room to room, trying to catch a glimpse of the patients. No one told the orderlies anything and there were a lot o
f rumors about what exactly was
wrong with them. In one room was a young woman who lay back with her eyes open
,
staring at the ceiling. He would’ve
thought
t
hat she was dead but her chest kept moving. It creeped him out and he left and went into
the
room next door.

This one had an older man with a bald head and
a
big pot belly. He was laughing with one of the nurses who was preparing a meal for him and he smiled to Ele when he walked in.

The man’s name was Phillip Bourde and he’d been committed to level six yesterday when he had vomited blood and displayed a rash over his chest and arms.

“How you doin’ today
,
Ele?”

“Good
,
boss. You?”

“Oh hangin’ in there. Did you see the Chargers play last night?”

“Nah I was with my girl and she hates football,” Ele said as he began emptying the trash.

The nurse said a few things to the man about relaxing and not stressing himself and then left as Ele went into the small bathro
om that was off to the side of the room
and emptied the trash there. Water ha
d splashed onto the sink and he
began to clean it with supplies that he carried with him on a belt.

“What’s your girl like?” Phil yelled.

“She just one
a my girls. She cool. Big fake tits.”

Philip laughed. “
Thatta
boy. You get ‘em while you can. When you hit my age if a woman even smiles at you
,
you think it’s your lucky day.”

Ele stepped out of the bathroom. “So how’s
everythin’ lookin’
? Doctor got good news?”

“They haven’t talked to me since last night except to tell me I can’t have any visitors and they gotta put this plastic sheet over my bed. But I guess no news is good news.”

“Well you look good. I’m sure it’s just the flu or
somethin’
.”

“I hope so. I’ve been
feelin’
stronger today so hopefully it was just a bug. Hey, do me a favor
,
will ya, Ele? My phone’s in my pants pocket over there
. Can
you hand it to me?”

“Yeah.”

Ele walked to the stack of clothes on a shelf and pulled down the jeans.
He took off his gloves and ruffled through the pockets until he found a Blackberry. He walked over to the bed.

A
chart and a set of instructions
hung
on a clipboard next to the bed. Ele noticed that notes were scribbled in on a few lines near the bottom of the page. One note said, MEETING LAST NIGHT ABOUT HANDLING PROCEDURES. He wondered what that was about. He’d found that meetings
for
nurses, doctors
,
and staff were frequent
but
that
usually they forgot to notify the orderlies and custodians to attend.
Or, it was done on purpose.

He moved the clipboard so he could open the plastic canopy hanging from the ceiling over the bed.

“Thanks,” Philip said, taking it from him.

“I gotta run. You take care, boss.”

“You too. Get some T and A for the both of us.”

As Ele left the room to head down the corridor, he checked his cell phone for messages and emails. He had an itch on the corner of his eye and he rubbed it with his finger, and put the phone away.

CHAPTER 17

Samantha Bower stood on the beach and stared out over the water. Her thoughts were racing and she felt anxiety that she hadn’t felt since taking medical school exams. Thirteen more patients had
been admitted in the last
three
day
s
with black pox symptoms and they were averaging one adm
ittance per four
hour
s
.

Dr. Wilson planned another pr
ess conference
,
as the news programs
kept playing the video clip of him saying he didn’t believe there would be any more cases. In the end, as the numbers started to climb, he cancelled
the press conference
.
He
had been incommunicado for the last
ten
hour
s
.

Sam
looked back to the Ducati bullet bike she had
traded in the car for
. It was yellow and gleamed in the bright Hawaiian sun. Eventually, she would have to go back to the hospital, but for now, there was a highway in front of her with few cars on it this early in the morning.

Sam hopped on the bike and it roared to life. Riding motorcycles was something quite routine in her family until her uncle had died on a highway when he hit a stone and careened into a semi. After that, her father refused to let her ride but when she turned eighteen, he didn’t stop her.

She turned into traffic and sped through a
yellow light as she took the onramp onto i
nterstate H1. She raced up the onramp and slid two lanes over before easing off the throttle. Her helmet was shiny and black with a tinted shield. She knew that many people thought she was
a
man when they saw her speed by.

The i
nterstate snaked around the island and she would occasionally glance at the bright green vegetation that surrounded her like a closing army. The jungle seemed to envelope everything and the city and its inhabitants were only fighting it off in short bursts.
I
t felt like
with one relatively short
absence or
time of
neglect, the jungle could take the city back.

She pulled off on an exit near another beach and came to a stop in front of a
roach-coach that was selling Hawaiian sandwiches. She ordered a pulled pork sandwich with French fries and an apple juice before sitting on one of the benches and watching the surfers gliding on the waves. Her cell phone buzzed and she didn’t recognize the number.

“This is Sam.”

“Oh, hey, didn’t expect you to answer on the first ring. This is Duncan. Um, from the hospital.”

“I remember
,
Duncan. What can I do for you?”

“Um well, I was just, I mean um, I was looking at and wondering if maybe
…
you know
,
I don’t know anyone here and I wanted to maybe grab some dinner.”

“Are you asking me out?”

“Yes and it’s going terribly
,
isn’t it?”

“Not the best I’ve been pitched. But not the worst either. Yeah, I’ll have dinner.”

“Really? Just like that? I was expecting you to say no.”

“Why?”

“You don’t strike me as the type of person that needs other people around.”

She smirked. “A psychopath doesn’t need other people around. I’m going to be at the hospital until about six.”

“Great. I’m at the base. I’ll pick you up then.”

“All right, bye.”

“Bye.”

Her
food
was ready and she was surprised the French fries had been put on top of the sandwich along with a tube-full of barbeque sauce and at least half an onion and
a
tomato. She took a couple bites and realized it was the best sandwich she’d ever had.

When she finished, she thanked the cook and got back on her bike, heading toward the hospital. She’d left a bag there permanently now that contained toiletries and several changes of clothing so that she wouldn’t have to bring anything with her when she went.

It still wasn’t yet 9
:00
a
.
m
.
when she parked and went inside the building. She noticed several more guards in uniform standing at all the entrances and exits and sh
e saw Wilson speaking with G
eneral
Lancaster
.

“Hey,” she said, “where’ve you been hiding out?”

“We have a situation. One of the orderlies here called in sick to work. On a hunch, the nurse asked him his symptoms. I don’t think I need to tell you what they were.”

“I knew those canopies weren’t enough.”

“The canopies were fine. He reached under them to hand one of the patients his phone. I talked to the kid myself. He was with his girlfriend all last night, at least a few days after he’d been exposed to the agent. We think the girlfriend is infected too. Guess what her profession is? Flight attendant.”