The man motioned for them to enter a cluttered office. They shuffled in behind him, Alex making a face at all of the things spread around the space.
Kyle shut the door behind them. “Look, Dr. Meade, what I’m about to tell you is extremely confidential, but I think it’s important that someone here knows what we’re dealing with.”
“Okay?” The man’s eyebrows rose, prodding Kyle for more information.
“This isn’t the flu, it’s a manufactured bio-weapon that has been purposefully unleashed on your town as a test of how it would behave in the wild.”
The doctor’s face turned ashen, and he collapsed into the chair behind his desk. It creaked under his weight. His hands fidgeted with his stethoscope, twisting it as if it might unravel the problem before him. His eyes darted between the team, searching for reassurance in the strangers who had suddenly taken control of his hospital. “Uhh, what?”
Kyle nodded. “Yes. This is a modified flu virus designed to be deadlier, more contagious, and resistant to readily available treatments.”
The doctor’s lower lip trembled a little. “Well, how? Why? What do we do?”
“The first thing we need to do,” Ava said, “is stop this from becoming a global catastrophe. I need you to get your chief of police on the phone. This town needs to be shut down and anyone who has come in contact with any of the sick people needs to quarantine.”
“Second, we need to up your PPE protocols. Full protective gear while you’re seeing these patients. Right now, we believe this is not airborne, but if the virus mutates, we could be looking at an entirely different form of spread. How are your supplies?”
“Uhhh,” the doctor murmured, shaking his head, “I’ll have to call down to find out. We’re not well-stocked, but…we do have a good supply for emergencies like this.”
“Good. I need to see all the patient files that have been identified as infected, and we also need access to the security.”
“Yeah, umm, I can take your guy to the security office now, and then, uh, I’ll get you a set of credentials for our system, Dr. Brooks. Is there a drug we can use to combat this?”
“Not so far,” Kyle answered with a shake of his head. “But we need to find something quickly. This virus was designed to kill up to seventy percent of the people it infects.”
The doctor froze, his eyes widening. “Seventy percent? Hemlock Falls will be decimated.”
“That’s why we need to stop this now.”
The doctor swallowed hard and nodded. “Come on, I’ll take you to the security office. They can call Chief Roberts, and you can coordinate the lockdown with him. Dr. Brooks, you’ll be with me. I’ll show you firsthand what we’ve been dealing with.”
Sebastian’s phone rang as Dr. Meade stepped toward the door. He glanced at it. “I need to take this. I’ll stay here if you don’t mind.”
“Of course,” Dr. Meade said.
Sebastian pressed the phone against his ear as the rest of them followed Dr. Meade from the small office.
“Dr. Meade, would you like me to–”
“Uh, not right now, Nurse, but if you’ll gather everyone, we need to have a staff meeting,” he answered without stopping.
As they continued to a back hall, he glanced at Kyle. “How much am I authorized to tell them?”
“A minimum. This is a contagious flu, they should wear all the PPE gear, they should be cautious about germ transfer, and if they have any symptoms, they should report them immediately,” Kyle answered.
The doctor nodded before he motioned to a small room filled with monitors. “Our humble security office.”
“Gentleman,” Ava said as she stepped into the room with two uniformed security guards eyeing the monitors, “I’m from the Department of Homeland Security. We have placed this hospital under a strict quarantine. This is now a matterof national security. I need your full cooperation and access to all of your security systems.”
Alex found a squeaky chair shoved in the corner and plopped into it, setting his laptop up on his lap. He frowned down at the airs, trying to keep his arms off of them as he typed.
“I’ll be accessing your security systems on my own laptop so I can monitor things,” Alex announced. “No one should be leaving this hospital once they arrive.”
“He’s right,” Ava answered. “From here on out, we are in a lockdown situation. How many entrances and exits?”
“Uhh,” one of the guards said. ‘There’s the main entrance, the ER bays, and an employee entrance.”
“Are you two the only guards that work here?” Ava asked.
