Resurrection Hour - Hidden in Ice(Nanowrimo)

Chapter Twenty

"How could you be so deceptive, Cheryl?" she asked, reaching for her vocera. "We have to tell him."

Cheryl grabbed her hand and pulled her into the small bathroom, shutting the door behind them. "I'm not going to let him be stuck in the clinic with those doors wide open, not with that thing on the run."

"You could have just exposed yourself to whatever he's carrying."

"News flash, Hannah," Cheryl said, pretending a lightbulb went off over her head. "We already were back in the lab. It makes no difference now."

"I can see your point, but it was a rash and impulsive decision bringing him back here."

"Relax, it's fine."

"Cheryl, he's sick. Look at him. He needs to be at the clinic with the doctor."

"He looks fine to me," Cheryl snapped.

Hannah left the bathroom and picked up her stethoscope and listened to Flynn's chest, then took his temperature. His pulse was high, and his temperature was one-oh-four-point-five. Crap. That wasn't good. Putting down her tools, she rolled up his sleep and removed the bandage he had on his arm.

"Oh geez," Hannah gasped, turning her face away for a moment, away from the putrid smell. The wound was festering and black lines were leading away from the open bite. "Cheryl, run a cool bath. Now! Flynn, I have some painkillers in my bag and I'm going to order you some antibiotics. It's infected."

"No duh," he said weakly.

Cheryl jumped on top of her order, but Hannah was fuming inside. "How could you have taken him out of isolation? Now you've exposed us even more."

"What the hell, Hannah? Why are you more worried about yourself than him? I thought you cared for him."

"Of course I care for him, but I don't think you've realized what you've done. In the lab, there was limited exposure, even taking him to the clinic, but you moved him through the main hallways, exposing quite possibly the entire station. We don't even know if this is airborne, Cheryl."

She hung her head. "I'm sorry."

"We have to tell Xavier."

"No!" Cheryl shrieked. "You can't tell him. He'll make him go back."

"No, he won't. He won't risk another exposure. We'll just have to self-isolate in here until we know what's going to happen to us."

That brightened her friend's face a little. "You think so?"

"It's not a good thing," Hannah snapped, as she paced the living room.

"Girls, girls!" Flynn croaked, as he flopped face down onto the bed, burying his face in the sheets. Great, now she couldn't even sleep in her bed.

"Call Corey," Hannah said into her vocera.

"Corey here."

"Flynn is in our room and isn't doing good. Do you have time to drop off some antibiotics at our door."

"Does Xavier know? He'll likely want to post security outside your door."

"That's unnecessary. Flynn's not going anywhere and neither are we."

"I still have to let him know so that he can make the decision."

Hannah understood that. Everyone needed to be kept in the loop. She hoped to God that whatever the boy spread wasn't airborne. So far that hasn't been the case. They had worked with him outside of isolation before he started moving and no one had been infected then. But things could always mutate, that was the danger with live organisms. The hard part was still not knowing what they were dealing with. Was it a virus, bacteria, or simply an alien organism infecting a host?