Marked

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Hector said. “Ramos could be sick with anything. Who knows what type of conditions they were exposed to out there? But what we do know is that we need to get you out of that soaked shirt and cleaned up just in case it’s contagious.”

“But there isn’t anything here for me to wear,” Rachel said.

Hector handed her a small towel that he soaked through with warm water in the sink, and she used it to scrub her neck and cheeks where Ramos’s blood had become dried and sticky.

Simone rummaged through the nearby cabinets and drawers but couldn’t find anything except a few blankets. Rachel grimaced at the thought of having to sit there in a blood-soaked shirt for who knew how long.

“She’s right. There’s nothing here but blankets.” Simone confirmed, lifting one as evidence.

“Here, you can have my shirt.” Before Rachel could object, Hector pulled his long-sleeved t-shirt over his head, revealing the tanned and muscled skin below.

Rachel looked away, slightly embarrassed and Simone waggled her eyebrows in approval.

When she turned back to Hector, he held the shirt out to her, and she forced herself to look at it and not at his bare chest. She took it and went to the sink where she scrubbed her hands and then put on a pair of gloves so that she could peel her shirt off without getting blood on her skin.

Jerking a curtain that hung near the cot until it obscured her completely, she changed into Hector’s shirt, careful to throw her own blood-soaked t-shirt onto the floor. The shirt smelled just like him and she welcomed the warmth that still lingered on the fabric from being next to his body.

When she rejoined them, she could see Simone nervously chewing away at her nails while they both stood by the door’s window.

Nobody could be seen beyond.

“I wonder where they took my mom. What if they all get sick, Ray?”

“You heard Doctor Everest. They’re going to take good care of them.”

“But they wouldn’t quarantine the entire floor if it wasn’t something serious.” She protested.

“It’s just a precaution.”

“We need to get in contact with Debra. She’s our counselor- she should be able to help us or at the very least she can give us some answers.” Hector said as he resumed his pacing.

“You heard the doctor- no one goes in or out of this place.” Rachel replied.

“She doesn’t need to come in. We just need to contact her.”

“We can use those.” Simone pointed at Rachel’s wrist where her watch rested. “I’ve seen Tom contact people through it. Yours should work too, right?”

“That’s right. Good thinking, Simone. Let me see if I can get this thing to work.” Hector fiddled with his watch and while they waited, Rachel couldn’t help but wonder if he was cold. There was a draft in the room, and it made her shiver even while wearing his oversized t-shirt.

All things considered; he was very pleasant to look at. His skin was the color of melted caramel—an effect, no doubt, of his Hispanic heritage. He was tall and though he didn’t have a six-pack, he was muscular and lean.

Rachel, my beautiful rose.

Rachel dug her fingernails into her leg just slightly to help bring her back down to reality. The compound people were out there probably sick and terrified and all she could do was stand there and drool over Hector.

Ramos was sick—he could very well die and his blood had landed all over her. What if he really did have that disease she’d heard so many covert whispers about? Did that mean she would get sick too?

For a brief second, she felt fear well up in her chest.

It traveled from the soles of her feet, all the way up to the crown of her head and left her feeling clammy.

She had been a toddler when the Mark began, and Ruth never spoke of her life before the transition and Rachel had never asked as she figured it had been too terrible to speak about.

But Rachel knew that by the time the Mark hard rolled around, the country was a mess of fear and uncertainty. The nations that hadn’t been destroyed by the Great War were suddenly affected by disease and drought- not to mention the dwindling resources and the failing crops.

Hector, as if sensing her fear, took two strides toward her. She looked up at him through her eyelashes.

"It's going to be okay," he said, only loud enough for her to hear. He ran the back of his hand gently across her cheekbone before tearing himself away to focus on the watch.

“Juan? Can you hear me?”

A string of static was followed by a choppy, “Brother?”

“Juan, it’s me, Hector. We need you to get to Debra to find out what’s going on with the compound survivors. Can you hear me?”

“Yeah. What did you say about the compound people?” This time, Juan’s voice sounded much clearer.

“We saw Ramos. He’s here and he’s sick and the nurses and doctors have quarantined the entire floor. They’re keeping us in a room and won’t tell us anything.”

“No one is allowed to go anywhere. I’m stuck in the cafeteria with no way of getting to Debra. Are you guys okay?”

Hector cursed and held the watch closer to his mouth. “We’re fine but listen--we need you to find out anything you can. Ask around.”

A shadow came over the door and all three of them turned in anticipation.

A raspy voice from the other side ordered for them to step back. Before long, a doctor she didn’t know entered the room and the doors hissed with air as he stepped inside.

He wore an outfit that reminded Rachel of an astronaut she’d been once in a book.

Fingering a clipboard in one hand and a small flashlight in the other, he cleared his throat to speak.

“I’m going to preform and exam on you, today. We’ll start with you since were directly exposed to the patient’s blood.”

Rachel stepped away from him. “You can’t examine me until someone starts giving us some answers.”

“Mrs. Wilson, you don’t have much of a choice in this matter. This affects the health of our entire population.”

“The hell she does,” Hector growled as he stepped in between her and the doctor.

“Please, let’s not make this harder than it needs to be. I would hate to have to restrain you.”

Hector took a step toward him but Rachel grabbed him by the arm, the anger practically radiating off of him in waves.

Thankfully, another voice interrupted. “I’ll take it from here, doctor.”

A moment later, Doctor Everest slid through the doors, donning the same body suit.

He nodded his head, making the fabric of his suit crinkle. His colleague clicked a pen back onto his clipboard and left without another word.

“Hello, Rachel.” Dr. Everest said, his voice breathier and heavier over the suit. "I wish you'd listened to my orders. Now you are all at risk. Have any of your friends touched you?"

"I... I touched Hector's arm."

"Simone and Hector. Please step to the other side of the room and put these on."

He handed each of them white masks, slightly pointed at the ends.

Hector and Simone both hesitated.

"It's okay, go," Rachel said. She stood alone on the other end of the room, her arms going up to wrap around her body.

“Can you tell us what’s going on? Please?”

“You might want to sit down for this.”

Rachel complied, sitting on the single cot. Hector remained standing; his arms crossed over his chest. Simone wrung her hands together with worry.

“A few of the compounders have come down with a serious illness.”

“How serious?”

Dr. Everest met Hector’s eyes. “Fatal. Three people are infected with hemorrhagic fever. The prognosis isn’t good. In most cases, the disease will kill within seventy-two hours.”

Rachel allowed the words to sink into every cell of her body, like a coat of poison.

She saw Hector shoot her an anxious glance before whipping his head back to the doctor.

“How is it spread?”

Dr. Everest was quiet for several moments. “You get it by coming into contact with another person’s bodily fluids such as vomit, saliva...and blood.”

The room spun a little.

Rachel dug her nails into the leather siding of the cot, trying to understand what the doctor had just explained.

“Not everyone that comes in contact with it will become infected, however. Some people have an acquired immunity but there is no way to know who has come in contact with it and built the necessary antibodies.”

“There must be a cure...” Simone trailed.

“There is, “—He paused again and drew in a deep breath— “But the cure and vaccine can only be found in the capital.”

***

“You should both go,” Rachel repeated for what seemed like the millionth time.

Neither Simone nor Hector listened.

She sat on the hospital cot by herself now while Dr. Everest worked a needle into the inner crease of her arm. He clicked a plastic tube into the back of the needle and Rachel watched it fill up slowly with her blood.

After setting down the first tube on a metal tray, he filled up another one and finally pulled the needle out of her arm. He'd already done the same to Simone and Hector.

“I’ll send these all to the lab for testing. We’re going to take good care of you, ok?”

“How did this happen? Where did this even come from?” She asked, keeping her eyes firmly glued on the doctor.

She refused to look at Hector and Simone, too afraid that she would find them staring at her with pity.

She wasn’t sick yet.

And she was determined not to make them worried for her.

Doctor Everest clasped his hands in his lap and drew in a deep breath as if readying himself to delve into a long, painful story.

“I first heard about it in the news in the summer of 2128 while I was doing my residency in Texas. They called it the E-91 virus and it was a deadly, mutated version of Ebola except that this one could kill within seventy-two hours.”

The doctor snapped the gloves off his hands and tossed them into a red waste bin before resuming his story.

“During World War III, fear caused a European nation to release it as a defense to keep the Chinese military from invading. In theory, it was meant to have a short lifespan. Since it could only be transferred through direct contact, they figured the disease would run its course and burn itself out within a few days, just long enough to weaken the enemy’s military. The reality of it turned out to be much different. The E-91 virus spread across the world killing millions.”

“By the time it reached the western hemisphere in 2131, it burned its way through most of central America in a matter of months. Around the same time, the CN formed an alliance between the United States, Canada and Mexico in the hopes of putting an end to the war.”

A short pause followed as he collected his thoughts. “When it reached the first parts of Mexico, all hell broke loose. I remember the panic, the announcements on TV—images of people looting stores and rioting. Of course, this only allowed the disease to spread more quickly.”

“That’s when the CN decided to close the borders and like flipping off a switch, communication with the rest of the world was cut off. No more internet, no more radio, no more media. Absolute silence.”

Dr. Everest remained quiet for such a long time that Rachel thought that he was done speaking.

“The Mark was advertised as a fool-proof method of rationing out food, water and the life-saving vaccine that was meant to stop the spread of E-91. Most people got the mark in an attempt to save their families from a sure death, but it quickly became evident that the mark was so much more than just a safe haven- it was extinguishing our freedom.”

“As the disease dwindled down in our part of the world, more and more people became reluctant to receive the mark. That’s when the CN made it mandatory. First it became punishable by prison sentence. Once the prisons began overflowing, it became enforced through less conventional ways.”

It took Rachel a moment to process it all.

Sure, the CN had managed to stop the virus but had they really succeeded? Was this world of lesser freedoms really any better than having succumbed to disease and starvation?

For Rachel, the answer was easy: no.

“But to what end?” Rachel asked.

“Who really knows? They kept us blind, dumb and submissive as a society. Who knows why our government did the things they did?”

“This is all very interesting Doc but all I really want to know is what’s next for Rachel? How soon can we go to the capital to get the cure?”

“It’s not that simple, Hector.” Dr. Everest said quietly. “We need to plan carefully. We can’t afford to jeopardize the mission.”

“Screw the mission. Your nurses are the reason she could be sick. They pushed her into Ramos’s way.”

Dr. Everest opened his mouth to speak but Rachel quickly interrupted, worried that the things Hector was saying could get him into trouble there.

The last thing she needed right now was to worry about his safety, too.

“It’s okay, Hector. We’re going to figure something out. I’m sure Abby will find a way to help our people.”

A thought occurred to Simone just then. “Dr. Everest, you said three people were infected. How many more came in contact with them?”

“At least twenty. Including some of my staff and now you three.” Dr. Everest placed his gloved hand on Rachel’s arm. “Rachel, I want you to stay calm, ok? I’m going to have a meeting with Abby and discuss a way to retrieve the cure. Trust that we’re going to do everything medically possible to keep this from spreading and to save your people.”

“How soon will we know if I’m infected?”

“With this type of strain, you’ll most likely exhibit symptoms before we get a chance to get your lab work back.”

Rachel nodded slightly and wrapped her arms around her body.

She felt light-headed and cold, but she hoped it was from fear and not from a deadly disease that could kill within seventy-two hours.

Seventy-two hours. Is that how long she had to live? Only a mere seventy-two hours?

How could she possibly say everything she wanted to say to the people she cared about in just a few hours?

She’d never realized just how badly she wanted to live until the possibility of death was staring her down in the face.