(M) Outbreak: Genesis IC

[Dnafein]

"Sure, lets trade aquiring a vehicle that can safely ttansport months worth of supplies for getting one designed to move a single person to a hospital. I can see how thats the smarter thing to do." Ash shook his head and stood up. "And if younare done thinking only how right you are, I think you'll take note that my suggestions are all along the paths that will accomplish the mission. Not off in dreamland, where we don't have the situation we're currently in."

"Speaking of dreamland, I'm gonna go catch some sleep." The Analyst headed for the door. "Hopefully when I wake up we'll be aiming for a better chance for survival and not just whatever direction this conversation was headed."

[bluemoon]

Andi awoke, not with a start, but with a groan, her mind in a foggy haze. The darkness inside the barracks limited her vision and she determined it was still night as she rolled onto her back, content that she still had a few hours of sleep left before she had to get ready for work. The pain from the movement caught her off guard and she groaned again. "What the hell?" she mumbled, feeling a piercing pain in her right shoulder, a twitch in her lower back, cramping in her fingers, and a myriad of aches all over. It took a moment before the day's events started coming back to her and even then she found them hard to believe. "Zombies...jeez, I must be losing my mind," she murmured as she sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Using her hands she boosted herself up off the bed, only realizing in the brief second when her feet met open air that she was on a top bunk. But it was too late to stop her descent and she landed awkwardly, dropping to the floor with a solid thunk and landing on her bottom.

"Fuck!" she cursed, looking around to see if anyone saw her. A foolish act, but one that was ingrained in a lot of people when they did something especially embarrassing. Andi could only see a few feet in front of her and Zeke was directly in her line of vision. She pushed herself up on her knees, feeling the fresh pain in her tailbone, probably the only part of her which had not been hurting, but she took care of that in real fine fashion.

Crawling was the best that she could manage right now and she made it to the side of the cowboy's bed before she hoisted herself up to his mattress. She was sure he was awake by now....and wondering what the hell she was up to, crawling around like a damn spider in the middle of the night...a loud, extremely clumsy arachnid, to be sure. She turned her head to look at him and smiled at his relaxed features. In slumber he looked sane...normal...who would guess that a thrill-seeking maniac lived in that body. She touched his shoulder, gave him a gentle shake. "Hey...you awake? I think I broke my ass." She laughed lightly, but the pain was real. "I could really use a pain killer. Do you have anything?"

[SikstaSlathalin]

Zeke usually slept like the dead even before the world ended. This time was surprisingly different. He was back home on the Edge family farm. It was the beginning of fall. He could hear the harvesters rumbling along a distant part of the property.

Zeke was seated on his front porch covered in dirt and corn husks. Sipping some sweet tea and rocking back and forth slowly in his grandfather's old rocker. The miserable old codger would beat him black and blue for even touching the genuine antique. But something told the man the old patriarch wasn't around.

He could feel the cool nip of an early frost in the air. Even in the south cold can happen at anytime. Behind him a door opened and he turned just in time to see Andi exit wiping sweat from her brow and carrying an empty corn basket. The man smiled and was about to speak when the slamming of the old screen door sounded off and Andi's actual voice penetrated the dream forcing him to awaken.

He mumbled into the darkness and his arm instinctively grabbed Andi's waist and pulled her close bringing her face to within inches of his own. His wild unfocused eyes stared into her soul for a few seconds. Soon he realized who it was and while he stopped staring he still kept his arm securely around Andi's waist winking at her. "Well how'd you get out of my dream? As for the pills, I think I may." He pulled away from the woman and then kind of just freefell from his bottom bunk, landing with a loud thud then crawled to the locker and unlocked it.

He rifled through his bag and let out a slight click of his tongue then crawled back handing the woman the painkillers. "How'd you sleep?" He asked smiling at her through the darkness.

[Leanna]

The Outbreak Day 1


Eric's eyes perked and his face flushed when she mentioned taking his shirt off. "Here? Now? You....You uh sure?" He asked blinking a few times but looked away from her turning his back to her as he slipped his shirt off using both of his hands regardless of what she had tried to tell him. He only cringed at the pain before rolling his shoulders. While he didn't believe it to be much, it was clear where his shoulder impacted the vehicle at. As the area had become red and bruised. The bruise all in it's own was the size of a fist. Yet Eric didn't mind the pain. As he had much worse injuries in the past. To him this was nothing, falling off a two story building and landed flat on his back cause he didn't climb correctly? That was painful.

At first his body looked rather normal but closer look one could see a few small scarring across his back, and if his front was revealed the large scar on his chest could be seen. Along with minor scaring around the larger one as well. "See just a sprain." He said glancing back to her over his shoulder. He knew it hurt but couldn't see the entirety of the wound.

*

Very carefully, Eniko began to inspect both of Eric’s shoulders, comparing the injured one with its uninjured twin. She was searching for any sign of swelling, shape differences, abrasions or contusions, after assessing his ease of movement as he took off his shirt, of course.

“Tell me where the pain is,” she requested lightly, even as she gently pressed on his shoulder joint before moving onto his collarbone. At any rate, the fact that he could lift his arm was a good enough sign, Eniko knew; but she wanted to make sure the tendons and ligaments that held his shoulder in place were not substantially weakened, as this greatly heightened the future risk of dislocation. She had seen such injuries time and time again at the hospital—usually with football or rugby types, or with poor souls who had struck their shoulder on their steering wheel during a car accident.

“It’s... not the worst case,” she admitted with apologetic eyes, trying to keep herself from staring at his many odd scars, out of politeness. “But over time, shoulder muscles and ligaments are much more susceptible to weaken, stretch, or tear once damaged. Your shoulder joint feels destabilised to me, so the ball of your shoulder can dislocate easier. So just be careful with it.”

Because of the many important blood vessels and nerves that travel through the shoulder area, Eniko also decided to check the pulses at Eric’s wrist and elbow, as this was standard protocol. She then moved on to check the muscle strength and feeling in the young man’s arm, hand, and fingers.

“By the way, I’m Eniko,” the medic muttered as she concluded her inspection of him, hoping that formally introducing herself would help deflate the embarrassment that he seemed to be feeling. She handed him his shirt, once again internally stifling her curiosity about his bizarre scars. She kept herself from inquiring about them, however, as that seemed much too personal of a question to ask of a near-stranger.

“Your shoulder is beginning to swell, though. I think we should ice it. I heard someone say that they were headed to a canteen earlier. I’d say we’ll find some there.”

*

Eric felt the embarrassment wash over him when she touched his shoulders. The only person he’d ever let near him like this was his best friend at the time. And even then it was on rare occasions. When she requested to note where his pain was he waited until he hit right next to his collarbone and with a cringe he nodded. “There.”

His shoulder was in pain and he knew it would take at least a few days to heal up. He had only hoped that he had a few days to get the healing done, but with things going the way they were he wasn’t 100% sure on anything. While she examined him he glanced back. “So what’s it like?” He asked only to get a response telling him it wasn’t the worse case.

Eric rolled his shoulder and shrugged. “Yea, not expecting it to be better in like a day or two. Expecting at least three but hey, after that I have to do something. Can only hope that it doesn’t get any worse.” He said and smiled at her letting her examine him fully. He hated check ups as it was but if it told him what to do with his shoulder he was game.

When the female spoke her name he gave her a nod. “My names Eric.” He said as he took his shirt and slowly put it on taking note at her glancing at his figure. “Looking at the scars are we?” He said with a small laugh. “Don’t worry, it’s not a problem. When you work in a demolition type of job and have rock climbing as a secondary thing to do. It happens. Had a few bombs explode on me here and there. Nothing to big luckily as it was just me screwing around and messing up.”

Eric then slipped his shirt on the rest of the way and stood up trying to focus on something aside from the annoyance on his shoulder. “Ice sounds great, as long as it works I’m open to it.”

*

Days?

The medic’s expression cynically questioned the young man’s presumption of days.

“This will take longer to heal than that. You’ve damaged your coracoclavicular ligament, which is what keeps your shoulder attached...”

Pausing on that thought for a moment, Eniko grazed her index finger over the top of Eric’s clavicle, lighting touching the point that he had specified as being painful, ever careful to not place too much pressure on the inflamed tear.

“...to here.”

A bout of silence was allowed to pass as Eniko smiled apologetically.

“Er, and yeah. Sorry for staring. I’ve seen a lot of scars, just never any quite like yours. I was trying to figure out what caused them. They’re so peculiar.”

The young woman began to make her way towards the door, suddenly on a determined mission to find ice for Eric’s swelling shoulder, while also entertaining a strong curiosity about the meeting initiated by the Sullen Man who had addressed the crowd earlier.

“If you can keep the inflammation down, your arm may be back to normal in as little as two weeks, but only if you allow it to fully rest. I’ve seen sprains like this result in separated shoulder, due to the impatience of... well, hah, patients.”

This thought reminded Eniko of one of the regulars who graced her office at George Washington University Hospital. He was a spirited fellow—a motocross racer that she had taken quite a liking to for his joking nature. The man was back monthly with new injuries, it seemed, once including an injury similar to Eric’s. He was always playfully arguing with her about her instructions to quit taking such risks and allow his battered body to rest. Against her advice, he was always back on the tracks much too soon, testing the limits of his body...

...that is, until the repeated damage forced him to permanently say goodbye to his passion for good. Some days before, Eniko had feared that he was on the brink of paralysation, and she still remembered the look of devastation in his eyes as she liaised with him over this fact. She was signing a letter that instructed a very long bout of physical rehab, and for what? A serious spinal injury and separated shoulder. Every person’s body had its limits, she knew, and ultimately its point of no return—and it often was the strongest of ones who ignored such things until it was too late.

“Healing takes time, Eric.”

The young medic sighed at how true those words were. This outbreak was no exception. This epidemic was an extremely grave wound to the human collective, and deep down, Eniko knew that none of this would be resolved in any sort of short-termed timeframe.

“Healing takes time,”she repeated, the second time with more emphasis, hoping he would listen. “And you’ll be better off with two strong arms. I’ll find you some ice and then we can go to that meeting.”

Like a unexpected smack to the face, Eniko suddenly realised the unlikelihood of that injured motocrosser surviving the madness of the current state of affairs, as she had left him immobile in a hospital bed. God, and how it hurt to know that spirited jokester—the one who had always tried to brighten her day—was now in such a dangerously vulnerable position. She hoped that there was someone at George Washington Hospital protecting him, protecting her patients.

But what good is hope, now?

*

Eric sighed hen she mentioned that it would take longer. He knew he didn't have the time to wait but what could he do? He damaged hiself rather horribly, and from what the girl had said it was what kept his shoulder attached? He was never good when it came to the body structure area of science. He was much better at Chemistry and excelled in it rather gracefully.

A long shiver rolled down his spine, part of it being from the throbbing pain, another from a what felt like a soft warm touch grazing his back. "Sounds great, big area...." He said not really having much to say to it, he then shook his head and nodded. "Big bone, horrible scaring, going to be a lovely time to deal with in this era."

As the woman stood and moved to the door he turned to see her as he pulled his shirt over his head. "Two weeks? Are you serious?" Eric groaned in frustration and sighed. "We don't really have two weeks, now do we?" He asked the question quite retorically, hoping he didn't sound too rude. "I'll do what I can, but not going to lie. I'm bad at promises."

'Healing takes time, Eric.' were the following words to come from the woman in which he only sighed at. He hated the words that came from her but knew she was right. The multiple scars from the shrapnel, even a dislocated leg from a horrid fall in his past pained him to deal with yet he endured it. At one point almost re-dislocated that same knee thinking he was some form of super human and could take on the world. "Yea yea, I know. Lets get that ice, go to that meeting and hopefully we can do something from there. I can't help protect if my shoulder is fucked now can I?"

*

“Don’t worry. I’ll do the protecting.”

Of course, this was said entirely in jest. They were ironic words coming from a small woman, which were punctuated by an awkward shrug, to boot.