“Yeah, maybe. I feel really tired. I’ll just–”
He stopped mid-sentence, his vision narrowing to pinpoints of light. The world around him blurred, sounds muffled as if they were underwater. His limbs felt heavy, likelead, and his heartbeat pounded in his ears. He blinked, but the darkness crept in from the edges of his vision.
“Ace?” Ava’s voice sounded far away, distorted.
He tried to respond, but his lips wouldn’t move. His legs buckled beneath him, and the floor rushed up to meet him as everything went black.
CHAPTER 12
AVA
Ava pulled herself out of bed the next morning, glancing over at Alex’s still-sleeping form. His eyebrows pinched together like he was having a bad dream.
She rubbed his chest gently before she leaned over to kiss his cheek. His skin felt warm under her lips. She frowned but let it go, assuming it was just the blankets and the heater running in the room.
After a quick check of her cell phone, she pushed into the bathroom and turned on the shower, heating the water until it steamed.
As she climbed under the hot stream, her mind whirled. Alex’s calculations showed the town being overrun with the deadly flu so quickly, they may not be able to work fast enough to save most of its residents.
Despite the heat of the water, enough to turn her skin pink, she shivered. Seeing so many people sick with no treatmentin sight twisted her stomach into a tight knot. If this so-called trial run of the flu looked promising, there was nothing stopping The Board from unleashing this on the general population.
She crinkled her nose. Something didn’t add up about that. How would they protect their own? Quarantine with advanced notice? Still, it was risky, but maybe they had preparations for this–a hidden bunker where they could ride it out until the world’s population was decimated. Then they would swoop in and rebuild, tailoring the world to their specifications.
A wave of nausea crashed over her as she faced the bleak future. She shut off the water and toweled off before pulling on her clothes.
When she stepped out of the bathroom, she found Alex sipping a cup of coffee as he sat in the rickety desk chair. With dark circles under his eyes and pale skin, he looked like he hadn’t gotten any sleep at all.
She crossed to him, pouring herself a cup of coffee as she greeted him. “You look rough, babe. No sleep?”
“Barely,” he answered, his voice sounding a little hoarse. He rose, and she swore he swayed a little before he started toward the bathroom. “Hopefully, a shower will help. Let me know what Doc finds out when he calls.”
“Okay,” she said before she took another sip of her coffee, eyeing him over the rim of the paper cup.
Alex hated germs, and this seemed to be taking a huge toll on him. Maybe the best thing they could do was stay back at the motel today to settle his nerves. Besides, outside of ensuring this flu didn’t get loose into the general population, there wasn’t much she could do.
A knock sounded at the door, and she crossed to open it, stepping back to allow Kyle and Sebastian into the room.
“Good morning. Any news?” she asked.
“It’s not good. Huge influx of patients overnight. The hospital is basically overrun. They’re calling physicians in from neighboring hospitals to help but they’re basically bursting at the seams.”
Ava’s eyebrows raised. “They cannot send these people to another hospital. It’s too big of a risk.”
Sebastian crossed his arms, his biceps bulging. “They’ve been told that already. And if I have to, I will call the other hospitals and tell them they cannot accept these patients.”
Ava bobbed her head. “All right. Well, it looks like we should probably head in there today and keep this under control.”
She didn’t want to do it, but they may have no choice. She’d tell Alex to stay here. With the little sleep he’d gotten, he would have a difficult time dealing with the stresses of being in a hospital full of sick people.
“I’m heading in anyway. I asked for them to try a few drug combinations on patients to see if they had any effect on this thing,” Kyle said. “I’d like to see the results firsthand.”
“Is this thing really that drug resistant?” Ava asked.
“Seems to be. All the standard treatments have had no effect on patients.”
Ava pressed her lips together, shaking her head. Of course, they would have designed it like this. They hadn’t created a deadly virus only for a simple dose of Tamiflu to defeat it.
Before she could ask more questions, Alex emerged from the bathroom. It didn’t look like the shower had helped at all. In fact, he looked like he was barely on his feet.
