[Wolfbane]

Failing Life

Outbreak: Part 2

Spoiler

Remnant - Comm Center

The day had been fairly slow with just 384 Emergency Calls on the Oh-Dear-God-Help-Me!!! Hotline, with only 139 as pranks and an additional 74 that no actual response was needed. Communications Officer Innari gave a silent nod of thanks to the medical technician that had switched out her caffeine drip, idly wondering what that one girl (Alice, wasn't it?) was doing now. The one who hadn't believed her about the drip.

The Twi'lek closes her eyes for just a couple moments, giving a pleasant sigh as the drug took affect, energizing her for her 40th hour on shift.

Ah...bliss.

At least, until a tell-tale pinging rang in her ear, warning her of yet another call. With a sigh, she answers it.

As she answers, the other officers in the Comm-Center begin receiving a new wave of calls within moments of one another. Several people begin looking at each other as they begin hearing similar things. Innari, still talking to the person on the other end, notices and draws up a map of Inside on the large display that covers a wall of the room. The officers know what to do and begin plotting the origins of their calls. Dozens upon dozens centered within a block radius of Lots of Hope Hospital. If her skin color had let her, Innari would have gone pale. "-ir, we have confirmation of something happening at the Hospital. Everything is going to be okay once we get it under con-"

"I can hear Them!! Oh sweet Terra, get them out of my head!" Ambulance Driver Cantal shouts through his phone before letting go of the other end, collapsing into tear-filled agony. Comm Officer Innari switches lines as she dots her caller on the map, seeing the source about a mile away from Lots of Hope, Cirrus Street. "Patch me through to Samuel Gale. We have an outbreak of some magnitude and prepare a recon force aside from two assault teams."

Cantal's Apartment - Cirrus Street

Melissa awoke at her father's scream, clutching her Teddy Zee close to her chest. She knows she ought to stay in bed, lock the door to her room and just be safe, but she had to go and make sure Daddy was okay.

Climbing out of bed, Teddy Zee in her hands, the four year old slips out of her room quietly before making her way to the living room. On the floor, her father laid still. With a gasp, she drops her toy and patters over to him, grabbing his shoulder with her small hands and tries to shake him awake. "Poppa! Poppa!"

Slowly, he gives a groan and rolls over, giving her a slight smile before opening his now red eyes. "Poppa!" Melissa says with a smile before throwing her arms around his neck and crying, scared and unable to know what had happened, but happy he's okay now. "It's okay dear, it'll all be okay soon..." He whispers to her ear before taking in a deep breath and releasing a small cloud of red smoke from his lungs....

Remnant - Bugs' Place

Looking at a picture of his once-living daughter, Samuel "Bugs" Gale gives a sigh. I'm sorry, Rebecca. I'm sorry I'm being selfish about all of this and...and...

The doctor can't go on thinking about it and just sets the picture frame aside before setting his face in his hands, sobbing. He cries for several long minutes before wiping his tears away. "Get a hold of yourself, Bugs. You've made your choice, live with it." With that, he sighs and pops back his nightly dose of Anthracycline before laying down on his bed, wishing that his long-dead wife was here as well as his daughter.

With that final thought, he closes his eyes and begins to try to sleep, only to have his relaxation cut off by his phone ringing. Grumbling, the doctor grabs the phone and answers it. "Doctor Gale here. This better be damned important."

"Doc, it's Innari. I know you just got off, but this is important, sir. Looks like we have a Class 3 Outbreak."

At the words, Bugs sits right up, wide awake once more. Ignoring the constant aches of his muscles and joints, his mind begins to race. "Wh-"

"Started at Lots of Hope as best as we can tell. That's where the calls are situated. We received 97 in a matter of minutes containing reports of Battery, Murder, and Sudden Illness, but as of 40 seconds ago, we have lost all contact with the staff at the hospital. Witness accounts are sketchy, but it seems that something is controlling people and is spreading like wild-fire."

The doctor takes this all in with a series of colorful curses. "Alright, I'm on my way. Is my team ready?"

"Aye, sir. We doubled your usual Honour-guard and we have strike teams already in place to establish Quarantine. Your kit is ready as well."

"On my way." Samuel tells Innari before shutting off the phone and getting dressed.

Lots of Hope - ER

Wake up.

Wake up, Cutter. Wake up or Die.

The words ring clearly in the doctor's pounding head and his eyes snap open just in time to see a pair of clawed hands reaching for his neck. Without thinking, he slips down with fevered speed, analyzing the scene before him. Geney was killed and an infected pair of half-orc orderlies stood above him, eyes of red and crystals poking from the flesh of their shoulders.

Reaching deep inside himself, he grips a blade of bone and rust. It slips from his wrist as he slides on the floor, and with a strength and agility that belies his form, he flips to his feet before spinning around. Paulo, the first of the two orderlies finds himself disembowled and looks dumbly down at his gut before falling over, a sickened pallor spreading throughout his skin and waging combat with whatever is infesting his body. Cutter can sense the diseases battling in a spot in the back of his mind, but ignores it for now, choosing to concentrate on Raul, Paulo's brother.

The half-orc looks surprised and raises his hands with a growl. "We don't mean you harm, fleshling. Join us and thrive in the Bliss of the Unity."

Strike him down and make him your servant. A deep, bubbling voice in his head tells him.

With a growl, Cutter lunges forward inhumanly fast and slices off Raul's hands and head before the half-orc can attack.

"You can go to hell." He tells Raul. "You too, Nurgle." He mutters to the voice in his head. The bubbling voice vanishes for now, and the doctor allows the sword to slide back in his hand. Looking at Paulo's body, he sees the sickened pallor is gone, killed off by whatever that red crystal was, and frowns. With a flick of his wrist, he draws a scalpel from his sleeve and begins twirling it in his hand.

It was time to get out of here.