“Okay, Alex, Doc said that I should try to keep you calm and quiet. He also said that you should try to get up and walk around every hour or so and that I should give you both ibuprofen and acetaminophen, then monitor your temperature.” She pushed back the covers as she climbed from the bed.
Calm and quiet. Yeah, right. As if Alex could be calm while his mind raced with a thousand worst-case scenarios, each more terrifying than the last. He didn’t want Ava to see how scared he was, didn’t want to burden her with the weight of his fear. But every time he closed his eyes, he sawrows of hospital beds filled with pale, lifeless bodies—and the image of himself among them.
“Where are you going?”
“To the pharmacy to get a thermometer. If I can. I wouldn’t be surprised if they town hasn’t bought them all out already.”
Alex pushed up to sit, the room spinning around him. “I’ll go with you.”
“No, but I do want you to sit up while I’m gone, then we’ll get you up and walking when I get back.” She crossed to her bag and dug into it, pulling out a few pill bottles.
“Avs, I promise, I’m fine. I bet the test was faulty.”
Ava spilled two pills from one, and two from another and offered them to him along with a bottle of water. “I’m not taking any chances, Ace. Now, take those. I’m heading to the pharmacy. I won’t be long.”
She grabbed her purse and slung it over her shoulder.
“Hey, grab some cool snacks while you’re out,” he called, trying to sound like he felt better than he did. Maybe the snacks would help.
He was probably just rundown from all the stress. He grabbed his laptop as the door clicked closed behind Ava to search for the false positive rate of the flu test.
It looked like depending on the test Kyle used, it could be less than one percent or as high as four percent. Alex wrinkled his nose at the low numbers. Even on the high end, that wasn’t a great chance that he was actually not sick with the flu and the test showed he was.
He reached for his phone, shivering as his shirt rubbed against his skin and irritated it. He’d call Kyle and asked which type of test. There was no way he had that horrible flu that was killing people in droves.
With his phone in hand, he dialed Kyle’s number.
“Mav? You okay?” Kyle asked.
“No, I’m not,” Alex answered. “Tell me this could be a false positive.”
“I wouldn’t say that’s likely,” Kyle answered. “We did the test three times. That’s three false positives.”
Alex did the math in his head, his shoulders slumping as he closed his stinging eyes. “Come on, Doc, you’re not saying the right things.”
“Sorry, Mav. This stinks. And I’m doing everything I can to make sure we can tackle this.”
“Tackle this? Dude, seventy percent of people who get this are going to die.” Panic welled inside Alex, his palms turning sweaty as he ran a shaky hand through his hair.
“I don’t know what to say. I’m trying to find a solution here, but…it’s not looking good with any of the standard treatments. Not even combining them is giving us a good result. Is Ava there?”
“She went to the store to get a thermometer.”
Kyle heaved a sigh. “I should have left mine with you.”
“Well, you didn’t, and it’s fine, because I do not have the stupid flu. I amnotdying from this manufactured bug by The Board.”
“Mav…” Kyle began when a loud noise sounded on his end of the line.
Alex’s features pinched as alarm bells rang.
“Doctor, he’s crashing.”
Kyle cursed under his breath. “Gotta run, Mav. I’ll call Ava soon.”
The line clicked, and Alex pulled the phone away from his ear, wrinkling his nose at it. It sounded like chaos at the hospital.
He didn’t want to be a part of that chaos. Alex pressed his lips together, panic welling up inside him. What if he got sicker? What if he became one of the patients in need of critical care?
