VI
966 Words
VITHAT NIGHT, ALARMS went off.
I jumped from my cot in the administration room and reached for a non-existent gun in a missing holster. Habit.
Lights were strobing and it took me minutes to figure out where the stupid off-switch was. I turned the lights to "On-Full" and saw the problem.
Our only remaining maintenance tech was out cold on the floor. I felt his head - fever. And foam coming out of his mouth.
Contagion.
So I did what I needed to do. I pulled him up in a fireman's carry and went right through all the double doors I needed to so we were both in with Cathy, the nurses, and the other quarantined patients.
Cathy looked up and rushed toward me. Sue was already motioning me to an empty bed near the doors I'd just barged in through.
They both went to work taking his vitals and hooking up the monitors. I found a chair that was out of their way and dropped into it.
About then, the situation sank in. I was one of the walking dead, now. Maybe minutes before I got infected myself and into the same state as Carlos, our last tech in this death trap.
Cathy turned around and saw me, then gave me a sad smile. "No, it's not that bad. Come with me." She bent down and grabbed my hand, pulling me upright to follow her. I'd have sworn I was being pulled by a half-back from the line of scrimmage. So much power in such a small package.
She took me into the same room with the babies and over to where one was crying. Picking up the curly-headed tyke, she pushed him into my arms, putting a towel over one of my shoulders. "Walk him up and down the floor until he goes back to sleep. Then take another one that your alarms woke up and repeat the process. Your job is to get all these kids back to sleep. No, they are perfectly safe in your hands, and as long as you keep holding one, they'll keep you from being infected any more than you already are."
She winked at me. "So? Get walking. That's your prescription." Then spun on her heel to see how the new patient was doing.
I walked and walked the rest of that night. I got them all to quit crying after awhile, but it didn't mean they didn't want to be walked. One or more of them would be standing up in their crib looking at me with hopeful, round eyes. I'd always smile and start again.
I guess that was the point. Smiling was something to do with their method. And I had to have faith in their method. Or I'd be dead in days.
- - - -
One of the other student nurses came in after a few hours and took over. Reg put down the last one he was carrying, who was too content to just lay down and sleep.
The nurse nodded at him to go outside. I met him as he came through the double doors.
"Time for your own check up. It looks like the 'baby-cure' did it's job.” I looked at the towel on his shoulder and saw the drool that had leaked through to his shirt. “Congratulations, you are officially inoculated."
He picked it up and folded the wet spot inside, then felt his shoulder. "That would be about right. Hey, how does that work? I should have come down like Carlos there hours ago."
"It wasn't their drool that inoculated you, it was touching them. We rotate all the nurses and myself through this duty once a day, and the rule is to not wear gloves, but only use bare hands. Kissing the occasional darling head is also permitted." I had to smile at this, they were all just too cute.
I took his hand and led him into one of the two chairs next to our maintenance tech's bed.
"How's Carlos doing? Will he make it?" Reg asked, concerned.
"He'll be OK, it will take a couple of days before he'll do much but sleep it off."
"What did you give him?"
"Just a simple saline solution. When he's up to swallowing, we'll get him onto something he'll like."
"Such as?"
"A home remedy of apple-cider vinegar and honey, plenty diluted. That will keep his electrolytes balanced until he gets over the hump of it. Good thing you got him here fast. Most of these patients were days or weeks with the wrong treatment, and is why they are taking so long to recover."
"Treatment? You haven't given him any pills or injections..."
"Because he won't need any. We treat him by what you might call 'laying on of hands.' That works best and is the core of the therapy."
"You're kidding."
"No, I'm not." She frowned a bit. "About this time, your professional skepticism comes in and we quit having a conversation, then I tell you to lay down and get some rest."
"Sorry, I did read about what you've been doing to all these patients. It's just as you said. The only thing you've had to do is to slowly get them off the meds they were on. That's in all the reports. But I can see that none of your student nurses are wearing gloves at all. And not even face masks."
"The worse thing you could catch in here would be the common cold. Way too sterile for me. I'd bring some plants in here, maybe some non-allergic flowers if I could. A therapy dog would be a great addition. But my 'druthers' don't count for much. Maybe since our quarantine is gone, it might."
I frowned at this. "No, it's going to get worse. I've read up on the procedures. The next thing that is supposed to happen is to gas us all and seal us in. Eventually pour cement over the entire building."
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