Greer got to his feet. “What’s up?”
“I don’t know. There’s an outbreak of something that’s filled the infirmary. Lion’s there with one of his boys. Have Remi stay in your cabin. We don’t know what we’re dealing with.”
“Roger that.” He turned to Remi, who was watching him with anxious eyes. “I have to go check something out.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“No. There could be an outbreak of something infectious. I don’t want you exposed.” He looked at her. “I mean it. Promise me you’ll stay here.”
Her eyes widened. She nodded. He went over to shut and lock the windows. “Swear you’ll stay in here.”
“I swear.” She came over to walk him to the door. “Be careful.”
He touched her cheek, then kissed her cheek. “Lock the door after me. No matter what, don’t open it to anyone other than me or someone from the team.”
Again she nodded. “I won’t. Be safe. Hurry back.”
Greer jogged toward the infirmary on the far side of the community. He was glad they’d had the foresight to put their small clinic a distance from the main section of homes.
Lion was standing outside the building. He looked relieved to see Greer. Without preamble, he turned and showed Greer the little boy lying on the bench, lifting the blanket covering him. The boy wore only his boxers. His head, arms, hands, legs, and some of his torso were covered with blisters.
“Oh, motherfucker.” Greer snapped a pic and sent it off to Max, then dialed him. “I’ve only ever seen pictures of smallpox, but I think that’s what’s happening here. It’s some kind of pox, anyway.”
“Find the healer. Get me a picture from inside the clinic.”
Greer stepped into the small infirmary. There were ten cots lined up on the long walls in the big back room. He saw sheets drawn over four of them. He pulled back the sheet from one patient, revealing a face swollen and so full of blisters, there was no skin to be seen. He snapped a picture, then covered him up again. He repeated that with three of the other corpses, sending all of them to Max.
None of the other patients objected to his presence or his taking pictures. Only one of them was conscious. The man coughed. He was too weak to cover his mouth. Greer took a picture of the whole room. “Help is on the way. Where’s the healer?”
“Creek,” the man said, but that little effort caused him to cough.
Greer left the clinic. “Lion, the healer went to the creek.”
Lion nodded. “It’s a common remedy to douse a feverish patient in cool water. He may not have wanted to take the time to fill a tub. The creek is easier—and colder.”
“Show me where he would have gone.”
They walked downhill through a steep draw, to a mountain stream. There, perched in a natural pool, were the healer and two boys. The healer’s dead arms still clutched the boys’ bodies. Greer snapped a picture, then went in the river to pull them out. Lion followed him.
“No! Stay back. My smallpox vaccine is current. You can’t come in contact with them.”
“I’ve already been in contact with it from Sparrow. And I was in the clinic.”
“Lion.” Greer leveled a hard glare at him. “Stay back. That’s an order.”
Greer pulled the three bodies from the stream and settled them several yards from the bank. He took another picture of them on the bank, and one more downstream shot from the spot where they’d been.
Lion looked down at the three dead community members.
“I suspect this is smallpox,” Greer told him, “a deadly disease that was thought to have been eradicated a long time ago.” He looked at Hope’s brother, searching for the pox on him. “How are you feeling?”
“Tired. I’ve had little sleep since Sparrow became so ill.”
“What about the other boys?”
“They seem fine so far. Once Sparrow became sick, I sent them to sleep outside.”
Greer shoved his hand through his hair. If this was smallpox, and if it had jumped from Lion’s pride into the WKB compound, they could be looking at national—even international—pandemic in no time. Where did it come from, though? Smallpox was no longer a naturally occurring disease.
“Let’s head back. I have to warn the village.”
“What about these three?”
“Leave them.”
Back at the infirmary, Lion checked on Sparrow.
“It’s best if you stay here, Lion. Warn anyone else who comes not to go inside the clinic. Max is sending help this way. Doctors from our world will be able to help you, your pride, the community. Even the WKB. Call me or Max if you have any problems. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Greer moved quickly back to the village. He stopped at the cabin he shared with Remi. She opened the door and stepped outside as soon as he neared the cabin.
Greer held up a hand. “It may be smallpox. Don’t come closer.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh my God.”
“Do you have any hand sanitizer?”
She nodded.
“Throw it out to me, then get back inside and lock the door again.”
She did as he requested. He slathered it over his hands, arms, and face—all of his exposed skin. The disease was still on his clothes, but there was nothing more thorough he could do at the moment. He stashed the little bottle in his pocket, then hurried to the mayor’s cabin.
When Wayne Dunbar opened the door, Greer stepped back. The Haskels came outside with the mayor. “I’ve been down to the infirmary,” Greer told them. “Your people have contracted a deadly fever. The healer and six of his patients have passed. The others there are close to dying.”
Dunbar’s lips thinned and his eyes hardened. It was almost as if he wasn’t surprised by the announcement. Mr. Haskel didn’t show a reaction either, but his wife gasped in shock.
“Mrs. Dunbar is down there,” she said, speaking through the hand that she still held over her mouth.
Greer nodded. “We need to warn the village and ask them to return to their cabins, to stay inside until help can come.”