Lita, Rose, Mina, and Pete - PART ONE
“I know a consult wasn’t really in the books but I was passing and I heard…” Lifting a hand Rose waved the comment away. “No-no, I think you’re needed here as much if not more than me.” The sick doctor moaned again, topping it off with some incomprehensible chatter that Lita only barely recognized as English. Lita felt a chill run up her spine as the patient’s eyes rolled around in their sockets, showing only white veined with livid, red capillaries. Driven by instinct, Lita went to the patient, who looked on the verge of keeling over. Clearly this something more than a mental break of some kind.
“This isn’t right,” Lita mumbled, trying to corral their coworker back onto the exam table but finding it difficult. Luckily Rose wasn’t far behind, having discarded her clipboard to assist but despite it the woman seemed abnormally strong despite her clearly dangerously ill situation. She took the woman’s wrist; her pulse was thready and weak and her skin felt like it might slough off if Lita gripped too hard. “They checked her for bites, right? They wouldn’t have shirked on standard admitting procedure, even after so long without an incident. No one is that stupid.”
Lita knew the patient had been looked over; she’d seen it on the damn chart herself but she needed Dr. Montgomery's reassurance which came in the form of a rushed yes as the blonde tried to get some sort of coherent reaction from the patient. Knowing she was immune in the extremely small chance this woman had been infected somehow helped matters slightly but Lita was still of the mind that this was something wholly other by the simple, immutable fact that no one could be so goddamn stupid as to come into work after they’d been exposed to the undead.
With what Rose could only attribute to a sudden adrenal burst the woman bucked against them with extraordinary force. “Grab her.” Lita didn’t need to be told twice. She pressed down on the patient’s shoulders and arms, trying to hold her steady to the table for Rose to administer the syringe. She didn’t leave all the work to Dr. Singh, though. Rose herself was trying to keep the patient down and finding it extremely difficult. “Ma’am, please, we won’t hurt you.” Or I’m trying not to, but if you don’t stop I’m going to stab this syringe into your neck… she thought, her own adrenaline bubbling in her veins as she tried to assess how to get this woman sedated.
“Perfect.” Rose sounded momentarily triumphant as she plunged it into the woman's arm, finally getting it still for more than .5 seconds. The triumph faded though as she realized the woman only became more agitated. Lita tensed and tightened her grip on the thrashing patient, sharing a look of rising panic with Dr. Montgomery. “No, this isn’t right. Her chart said she’d used this before, this is wrong.” Her pitch rose, high enough to get the attention of the nurses outside who preceded the orderlies that were now suddenly eager to do their damn job.
“Get out the goddamn restraints,” Lita barked at the johnny-come-lately orderlies, who rushed around the three women. As soon as the words passed her lips, the patient gave a violent shake; once, twice, and then fell still. The steady, mournful tone of the heart monitor pierced the din. Half on top of the woman, Lita pulled back. One of the orderlies made a move for the crash cart.
“Wait,” Lita started, trying to climb off the unresponsive woman but there was too many people milling around her, she couldn’t get away. She knew the situation was too unsure, too strange to mindlessly follow crash procedure but these ineffectual orderlies wouldn’t allow her to remove herself. Lita knew she had to get away and she lumbered on top of the exam table, shouting orders as she tried to extricate herself. “Restraints first, then paddles. We don’t know -” The patient’s eyes opened. Milky, unseeing orbs stared through Lita for one brief moment and then they suddenly focused, hungry and animalistic.