Contamination
A/n: Alright, I’ve always wanted to write a story like this. I hope you all like it, and all of the medical/scientific facts In this story are all 100% true. Where there are stars next to the word/phrase please refer to the end of the chapter for definition.
Summary: Kagome is an Epidemiologist that studies the most deadly virus‘s that occur in Japan. Just when she thought there was no way, one becomes very real and no one is safe from it, until she meets Sesshomaru, a brilliant medical investigator.
-V-
Green eyes closed and re-opened, trying to adjust to the pain that wracked the back of her head, swimming up to her eye balls in an unbearable aching manor. She stumbled out of bed and put clothes on, stopping to look in her bathroom mirror. Bloodshot eyes and pale skin, a head ache and a backache. The young woman assumed it was a bad cold or the seasonal flu. She stumbled out of the apartment and pushed the button to the elevator and waited. She coughed loudly, swallowing the pain and rawness in her throat. She walked in a haze to the nearest super market.
Coughing and sputtering into the store, wiping the fluid from her mouth onto her black sleeve not noticing the bloody mixture. She gripped the shelf next to the cold isle and coughed a gurgling cough and a black mixture of what looked like ground coffee grounds mixed with blood sprayed onto boxed of medicine and onto the shelf’s and floor. She collapsed onto the ground, bloody tears dripping onto her tan cheeks.
“Someone call an ambulance!” She could barley hear the manly voice that spoke.
Blood dripped from the woman’s ears, nose, and mouth as she was wheeled into the small hospital. Immediately a doctor rushed to the woman’s aid tilting her head back and sliding the cold steel of a laryngoscope entering her throat and the hard plastic of a breathing tube tried to enter her trachea but was rejected when once again the black and red mixture came up and was thrown onto the doctor, entering his mouth and flashing on his gown and face. Blood poured from every orifice and dripped onto the bed and floor, as the heart beat monitor line went flat and the raspy noise of the woman’s breathing stopped.
-V-
Blue groggy eyes fluttered open at the annoying ringing sound that invaded her ears. They looked sleepily at the blue light of her phone flashing at her. She reached over and grabbed it and narrowed her eyes at the caller.
‘He better have a good reason for calling me at two in the morning.’
“Hello.”
“We have a situation.” The deep voice on the other side of the line spoke gravely.
The hair on the back of her neck stood up and all sleepiness left her body as if it was sucked out. She sat up and swallowed thickly, throwing the covers off, already throwing her pajamas off and slipping into a black pencil skirt and a blue blouse.
“I need you to come in immediately.”
“I’m already getting dressed Bankotsu.” she stated, throwing her hair up into a sloppy bun and walking out of her apartment.
“See you soon.” He hung up the phone and she sighed.
She slipped into her car and proceeded to drive the twenty minute drive to the mundane looking building. She quickly exited her car and walked inside, flashing her badge at the man at the window.
“Your back early.” He commented as she walked by him.
He was greeted with no response as she quickly walked down the hall and into the elevator that took her below the ground. Her heart beat was loud in her ears as she exited the small elevator. Her heels echoed the quiet white hallway as she walked past many labs and safety locks. She opened the large door and stared at the man behind a large desk. His long hair braided and flipped across his shoulder. The lights flickered off and her eyes were directed to the wall where a large image was projected. Her breath hitched.
It was a microscopic image she had never wanted to see in her career. Blue eyes nervously took in the cheerio shaped head and the small curled tail at the end. She swallowed thickly.
“It’s a filo-virus*..?”
Bankotsu nodded solemnly “ This was found in a woman’s blood in a small town called Sasebo, its forty miles north of Nagasaki. The population, however small, has to potential to spread rapidly.”
Kagome sat heavily in a cushioned seat and scratched her head. “When did patient zero reach the end phase?*”
“About three hours ago. The doctor in charge of her was unprepared for the poor woman.”
Kagome could only imagine. A woman with blood pouring from every orifice was very unsettling. “ Any clues of how she got infected? Did she touch anyone? Did she go overseas?” The questions flew from her mouth quickly.
“I have medical investigators out now with the family, hospital and around the village looking and taking samples.”
“Have you informed USAMRIID*…?” Was her next quite question.
Bankotsu nodded “I have. They told us that if it reached the United States, then and only then will they get involved. The risk of sending researchers over and getting contaminated and then sending it back was to high.”
Kagome shook her head, if needed she would travel herself to USAMRIID and all of the stuck up generals a piece of her mind.
“The incubation period is a week, and the r-knot* is nine out of ten. Out of ten people Kagome, one will survive. This is too hot for anyone else to deal with I want no one to know about this except for you and the medical investigator I will be pairing you up with.”
Kagome nodded “When are the samples coming back to the lab?”
“They should be here in a week.”
Kagome nodded “I’m going to read up on some articles and look online to see if anyone has posted anything about this.”
She walked out of the office and into her own and sat down at the comfortable office chair. She logged into her computer and began to double check all of the knowledge she had spent years accumulating in her brain. Never once had she suspected that it would happen, and so close to home.
Hours passed as she read countless articles and looked at various news reports. One caught her eye.
‘Woman collapses in super market later dies.’
She clicked on the article and read the short report. Relief washed over her, no one knew what it was yet, panic could help the virus spread faster. A loud knock on her door and Bankotsu let himself inside.
“There is another patient presenting symptoms. I need you to go to the village and talk to the man before he reaches the end phase.”
Kagome stood up and nodded to her boss. “When will I leave?”
“Immediately. Go and prepare yourself and a driver will be waiting for you.”
Kagome walked out of her office after shutting her computer down and walked to the elevator and got inside the car. It took her back up to the surface and she hurried past the guard and into her car. She noted that the sun was now high in the sky, and it was already three in the afternoon. She looked around at the people walking on the sidewalk, touching, hugging, and some kissing. All forms of transmission. She shook the feeling that bubbled up in the back of her mind and pulled into a parking space outside of her apartment. She looked at a elder man who coughed and pushed the button to the elevator. She opted for the stairs.
Now out of breath as she reached her door she opened the door and walked inside. She shed her clothes quickly and hopped in the hot shower, hissing as it left her skin red. Soon she lathered her hair and rinsed it out, her blunt fingernails scratching her scalp. Conditioner sat in her hair as she scrubbed her body making it itch and become redder. Soon her hot paradise ended as she washed all the remnants of her shower off her body and hair. She stepped out and dried her hair quickly and threw on a pair of black scrubs and pulled her damp hair into a pony tail.
She threw a couple change of clothes into a small bag and peered out of the window and saw the driver waiting for her. She vacated her apartment quickly and entered the backseat of the Mercedes. The driver made no effort to make small conversation with the young woman, just handed her a manila file with many documents. She looked though the personal file of the newest patient.
It was patient zero’s brother. The symptoms had occurred just like his sisters and was in the mid phase of the virus, she guessed. By the time she reached the man, he would be close to the final stage.
She sighed as she re read the file for the tenth time. This was the longest boring ride of her life. The driver announced that they had arrived five hours after the journey began. She looked around as they drove to the mans house at the edge of town. He pulled into the street and Kagome slipped out of the car, her respirator on her face. She walked to the trunk and pulled out a large case with a huff and opened it. She sat up a large cage like structure and opened the package of sterile heavy duty plastic and draped it around the metal frame. She pulled another piece of plastic out of the truck and hung it up. It was orange in color and heavy with a large zipper. A portable level four biohazard space suit traveled with her where ever she went and she was glad that it was finally getting used. She prepared a sterilizing solution with bleach and began to spray the space suit until it was thoroughly doused. She stepped inside the thick plastic and her driver helped her zip it up and plug the air supply in. The whoosh of the air filling her senses. She turned to the door and swallowed the nervousness down. She took a step forward.
Forward to the deadly virus awaiting her.
A/n: Mkay now for the explanations.
1. filo-virus: A family of virus’s that contains the two hemorrhagic fever virus’s. (Marburg and the four strains of Ebola.)
2. USAMRIID: United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.
3. R-knot: The ratio of people the virus infects
4. East Phase: Ebola has three stages. Contamination, appearing symptoms and finally the stage where your organs fail and liquefy and you hemorrhage from every orifice. Often called “Exploding”
I hope you all enjoyed the first chappie. Sesshomaru will appear in the next chapter. Review please :D