AVA
Ava walked into the hospital with a smile on her face, but it almost instantly faltered when she was met in the lobby by Doctor Mars and Doctor Watson. Their grim expressions chilled Ava’s mood.
“Doctor Jackson,” Doctor Watson began. Her voice was tight. “Have you come up with a public statement?”
“Come up with one?” Ava asked. “I thought we were still deciding if we needed one.”
“I believe we do, Doctor Jackson,” Doctor Mars said. “Word has gotten out about the campers, and the treatments aren’t working. We need to make sure that if anyone else has symptoms they will come in as soon as possible.”
Ava nodded; she had to agree. “When do I need it?”
“I have a press conference scheduled for tomorrow morning,” Doctor Watson said. “We have taken some of the samples back to Atlanta, and we are working on them from there also. Have you made a determination as to what it is yet?”
“We have a working theory,” Ava answered. “We know where it started anyway—it has to do with the dust and decaying rodents we found at Sandra’s place of business. Something had been bringing them into the wall. But the virus goes dormant, it’s like it has a self-protection sequence.”
“And the treatment?” Doctor Watson asked, though it looked like Doctor Mars was getting ready to.
“I’m not sure before I get to the lab. We’ve been working all through the night. Most of the antivirals will neutralize it, but once the virus detects that it is under attack, it goes dormant, so the antiviral will work as long as it can get in, but as soon as the threat is gone, the virus opens itself back up again. We are looking for something that can either work around that or kill it fast enough that it can’t go dormant. We are trying a treatment process, but I need to get back to the lab to see how it is working.”
“What process is that?” Doctor Watson asked.
“It’s done in stages, basically we kill what we can then once it goes dormant we wait for it to come back and try again. We are hoping to get rid of it that way,” Ava said then paused.
“But?” Doctor Mars asked, though she knew the answer, they had talked about it the night before.
“The virus replicates so fast that waiting for it to come out of dormancy gives it a chance to proliferate, and I’m not sure our medicines can keep up with it,” Ava said, her heart sinking. She couldn’t help but wonder if Dr. Mars had more information about how that was going than she did at the moment.
“Sounds like you need to get to work then,” Doctor Mars said, her voice was sharp and did not leave room for argument. “And have a press statement ready for nine a.m.”
“Of course, Doctor Mars,” Ava said and straightened her shoulders. She turned to head toward the elevators.
“Doctor Jackson?” Doctor Mars called.
“Yes?”
“Where is Doctor Grant?” she asked.
Ava blinked a few times before responding. Did she already know that they had spent the night together? Surely not, she didn’t get involved with her staff’s personal lives, just the professional. “I… um… I don’t know, I haven’t seen her yet,” Ava answered. She noticed Dr. Mars’s eyes narrow slightly, but she nodded and turned to usher Dr. Watson back into her office.
Ava crossed the floor to the elevator and sucked in a deep breath as the doors closed in front of her. She hoped that the lab would have good news. The button for the third floor lit up as she pressed it, and when the doors opened again, she found the lab eerily quiet. She walked in and looked around, startling Lindsey, who was sitting on a stool at one of the tables.
“Oh, hey, good morning, Doctor Jackson,” Lindsey said, blinking the exhaustion from her eyes.
“Have you gotten any sleep?” Ava asked, furrowing her brows.
“Um, a little,” Lindsey said, though Ava didn’t believe her. “I’ve been monitoring the patients with our treatment plans.”
“And?”
“Well, it’s not the news you were hoping for—they seem to be getting worse. We were worried that the virus would replicate too fast for us to keep up, and it seems we were right.”
“Damn,” Ava said, looking over the test results as Lindsey handed them to her. “Have any of them worked yet?”
Lindsey shook her head; she almost looked as though she was about to cry.
“Go get some sleep, Lindsey,” Ava said gently. “I’ll work on this from here. Come back once you get some rest, you won’t be able to help if you can’t think.”
Lindsey nodded but still hesitated before sliding from the stool. “I’ll try, Doctor Jackson, but this virus won’t let me sleep. We have to figure it out or those patients down there will die.”
