The Cure

XAVIER AND SAM HAD BEEN ON the road for hours, but they were determined to get as close to the action as possible rather than resting halfway there. Time was not on their side and Xavier was concerned that if they took too long to get there, he wouldn’t have enough serum to cure everyone. They had to stop the virus before it left the hospital and risk it spreading amongst the general population. Sammy had been well rested from the night before so she had no problem with driving all night long. Carter sat in the back, making last minute modifications to the inhaler, hoping it would be enough to save people who were too young or too old to take the serum in their veins. When he finished doing what he could, Carter decided to nap knowing that things were going to be intense when he got there and would likely not get much sleep after he arrived. When Carter eventually opened his eyes, several hours had passed and they were less than an hour from the small town where the shit was hitting the fan. Carter could tell how close they were getting as there were a lot more helicopters in the sky, obviously part of the quarantine that was going on to prevent anything from spreading. Carter took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes.

“Pull over.” He called out to her.

Sam did as she was told and pulled the car to a stop.

“Is everything all right?” She asked him.

“I’m fine,” Carter replied, “It’s just that from here on I’m going to drive.”

Sam looked back at him with an expression that indicated her feelings were hurt.

“Am I doing something wrong?” Sam said, as she was jumping to another conclusion, “You’re not going to leave me behind, are you?”

“We already covered that one,” Carter said as he stepped out of the backseat. “I’m not worried about your health. You are likely immune because of the high dose of the serum that you took a few weeks ago. I’m asking to drive because it’s necessary for us to sell our cover to get inside.”

Sam did as she was told and hopped out of the driver’s seat. When she got out, she suddenly realized what was going on. Carter had brought some decent costumes to get them past the security check points. He handed her a lab coat which means she was a doctor that was being transported into the hot zone. Carter was putting on a light brown trench coat and was already wearing a two-piece suit underneath it.

“What on earth are you supposed to be?” She asked him.

Carter pulled something out of his pocket and flashed a badge. It now had his picture attached to it and read: Special Agent Anthony Deacon. It was the FBI credential that June had stolen when they were in Florida.

“I made a few modifications,” Xavier explained, “But considering how insane it is, this should be enough to get us through.”

“I am impressed,” she said with a sly grin. “And what am I supposed to be?”

“That’s classified,” Carter replied with a grin.

“Is that supposed to work?” Sam asked.

“It will.” Carter answered, “I’m guessing boys at the front line will just be relieved to know that the government is pulling all the stops to make this go away. It’s the perfect cover because they all want this to go away as soon as possible.”

“Alright.” Sam said as she put on her lab coat and then put her coat back over it. She was a little iffy about this, but Carter’s badge looked good considering how real it was minus the infused photo. Once they got back into the car, it took them only forty minutes to finally reach the outer parameter. Sam looked over at Carter as they approached.

“Let me guess,” Sam guessed “You do all the talking?”

“Look nervous and like a fish out of water,” Carter calmly requested, “And I’ll do the rest.”

As they pulled up to the heavily armed check point, several tough looking marines walked up to their car. One of them knocked on the window, which Carter rolled down immediately.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to turn around,” The man informed him, “This is a restricted zone, no access allowed.”

Carter replied by casually flashing his badge.

“Special Agent Deacon,” Xavier informed him.

The marine paused for a moment.

“What is the FBI doing here?” the marine asked.

“We’re here to help.” Carter replied.

“Who is the person in the back?” the guard asked.

“That’s above your pay grade, soldier.” Carter answered.

“What do you mean by that?” the marine asked. “And why didn’t you fly in by chopper like the rest of the medical experts?”

Carter was happy to see that the marine noticed the lab coat that Sam was wearing and went with that.

“Usually we would have,” Xavier replied, “But the doctor here has a fear of heights and never flies in anything. I’ve been driving for twelve straight hours because of that just to get her here as soon as possible.”

“Is she that important?” The marine asked.

“She could single handedly save the day, son.” Carter said, trying to give the guards a glimmer of hope in what was a very shitty situation.

“She’s that smart?” the young man asked.

“Let me tell you this much.” Carter said, leaning over. “We wouldn’t bring her out in public if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. If the Chinese had any idea that she wasn’t in a secure facility…”

“Alright, alright,” The marine finally said as he handed Carter back his badge. “Let them through.”

“Thank you very much.” Xavier said, as he watched the marines all step aside and allow them to drive past the check point. It took them only several minutes to drive to downtown area where the quarantined hospital was located. As they got closer, something finally dawned on Sam.

“What about you?” she asked him.

“What about me?” Xavier replied, never taking his eyes off the road.

“How are you going to keep yourself safe?” Sam asked. “From the virus I mean. Don’t you need a hazmat suit or something?”

“No,” Xavier said, as he almost laughed. “I was the first person to ever take the serum. I tested on myself to make sure it wasn’t lethal. I’ll be fine.”

When they reached the hospital, they had no trouble getting in as the main opposition was at the outer parameter and no one at the hospital questioned his badge and his mission. The staff wanted all the help they could get. Carter was carrying a bag full of the original serum along with a canister of it to refill the inhalers if they worked on the virus in question. Once inside, Carter walked up to the doctor he could tell was in charge of the quarantine.

“I’m special Agent Deacon,” Xavier said before making a motion to Sam who stayed in character by staying quiet and nervous. “This is Doctor Benson, and she’s got something here that might work.”

“What kind of something?” the other doctor asked.

“Something that’s classified.” Carter answered, not willing to reveal anything. “Let’s just say that the boys in Washington are not holding anything back to help you out. I can’t promise anything, but right now we’re the best chance these people have to get out of this mess.”

The doctor paused for a moment but found the story to be quite believable. Leave it to the government to withhold something that could save lives and only bring it out when there’s a crisis on their own soil.

“Alright,” the doctor conceded, “Let’s get you two into some hazmat suits and get you in there.”

“That won’t be necessary.” Sam answered, and she went quiet again after correcting the doctor. Everyone looked at her with a stunned look on their faces.

“Why not?” The doctor asked.

“It’s unnecessary,” Sammy replied, “We’ve already inoculated ourselves. We’ll be fine so reserve the suits for someone who needs it.”

“Are you sure about that?” the doctor asked.

“We’d stake our lives on it,” Carter replied as both he and Sam didn’t hesitate to walk through the screens and into the quarantined zone without any protection.

The other staff were guaranteed not to follow them in, which made Carter feel a little better. He had no doubt the serum would fight off the smallpox, aware that it had not failed against any virus thus far. If it didn’t work, they would find out soon enough, but they didn’t have time to worry about that.

Carter and Sam walked up to the nearest specialist in a hazmat suit who was stunned to see them there without their own protection.

“What are you doing here?” The doctor demanded, “And why aren’t you wearing anything to protect yourselves?”

Carter flashed Deacon’s badge. “We’ve already taken precautions.” He said and then he took a quick scan around. “We need to access to patient zero.”

“He’s beyond saving,” The doctor in the hazmat suit replied.

“No one is beyond saving,” Carter disagreed, hoping he was right. There was no telling how far along patient zero was. He was just hoping the inhaler would deliver enough of the serum to make a difference.

“Your point?” the doctor inquired.

“We have something we want to test on him first,” Sammy answered, “Considering how far gone he is, what have you really got to lose?”

“Alright, this way.” The doctor said as he wasn’t in the mood to waste time arguing with anyone. He led them down the hall with Carter and Sam in tow. Once they got to the end of the hall, there was a room that was completely sealed off from the rest of the ward. The doctor opened the door and let them walk in first. Patient zero was barely functional, but he appeared awake.

“Can he talk?” Sam asked.

“A little,” The doctor replied.

“Alright, let’s get this over with,” Xavier said as he grabbed the chart from the end of the bed, “Just to confirm, Mr. Gibson was the first patient to show symptoms?”

“That’s correct,” The doctor in the hazmat suit replied, “He lives alone and the next people to get infected next were the paramedics who responded to his 911 call. They’re in the next room.”

The doctor pointed to the left where the other two were in just as bad shape.

“Alright,” Xavier said, “We’ll treat all three of them right now considering they’re the worst cases.”

Sammy looked concerned as she was checking over Gibson’s charts.

“He’s over the age of sixty,” Sammy informed him, “He can’t take the serum.”

“I was afraid of that,” Xavier said, as he was looking over the patient. That means we’re going to have to test the inhaler first.”

Carter looked around and picked up a mask and attached the inhaler to it. He then moved the mask of Mr. Gibson aside in order to speak with him.

“Mr. Gibson,” Xavier started, “We are here with a special medicine that we think could save your life. It’s experimental and there’s a good chance we are breaking a lot of laws just bringing it here.”

This did nothing to appease the doctor, but he said nothing and kept listening as he was quite desperate to get things under control.

“We need your permission to administer it,” Xavier informed the old man, “Do we have your permission to treat you?”

It took a few moments, but Mr. Gibson was able to cough up a short breathed ‘yes’ along with a nod of his head. That was enough for Carter.

“Alright,” Xavier said, “We have consent.”

Carter placed the new mask with the inhaler over his mouth.

“When I say so…” Xavier informed the patient, “Breath in as much air as you can. On three. One. Two. Three!”

Carter released the serum through the inhaler and just for good measure he puffed the thing twice for good measure to help Mr. Gibson get as much of the medicine into his system as possible. The patient breathed in as much air as he could and took it all in through his lungs. Almost immediately, Mr. Gibson began to spasm.

“What’s going on?” The doctor in the hazmat suit asked, very concerned.

“This is normal,” Xavier said, as he and Sam began to restrain him. The spasms lasted only a few minutes, much to Carter’s relief. He looked back up at Sam.

“The body absorbed this much faster through the lungs,” Xavier said, quite surprised by how fast the serum went to work. “That would explain the quick spasms. Hopefully everything else will move faster as well.”

Carter was right about that as well, as within several minutes Mr. Gibson’s temperature started to go down and his breathing became a lot less congested. The doctor in the hazmat suit walked over and checked up on him.

“He’s looking a lot better!” The doctor said, as he was all smiles. “Whatever that shit is... it’s working!”

“Damn right, it is!” Carter said, tossing the other inhaler to the doctor in the hazmat suit. “Start administering this to every patient that has the pox but make sure you get permission before they take this stuff. People have been known to die over it. They must know the risks before we treat them.”

The doctor nodded and Carter made sure there were people around to help him restrain the patients when they spasm. Given the serious illness they were suffering from, they didn’t expect any patients to pass up the chance to get better especially since Mr. Gibson was doing better too. Carter and Sam immediately went to the next room to treat the paramedics and after similar attacks of spasms they both became calm and began to improve as well. Carter let out a huge sigh of relief.

“This is going to work.” Xavier said, smiling at Sammy.

“Think we should hurry?” Sam said with a sense of caution. “It’s only a matter of time before someone realized these people are getting better and realize that we might be the ones responsible for it.”

“Not until we’ve treated every patient,” Carter said with an air of conviction. He was determined to stay until the job was done right.