“Cole, Meg’s sick. Go get everyone from the lab. Run!” Alik ordered.
“Oh, God, Meg!” Cole took half a moment to study Meg’s face before he bolted from the room and down the hall toward the laboratory.
“Should I call 911?” the stranger asked from a few feet behind the sofa.
Both brothers turned quickly to glare at the guy they hadn’t even realized was in the room.
“We got it from here,” Evan responded cautiously.
Alik stood, hurried to the door and opened it saying, “Thanks for your help, man. Really, we appreciate it.”
“Right,” Creed nodded, getting the hint. “Don’t mention it.” Just as he slipped through the open doorway he turned and added, “Hey, I’d like to stop by tomorrow and check in on her, if that’s okay.”
Alik looked back at his sister lying on the sofa and really just wanted to get rid of this guy so he could go back figuring out what was happening to her. He turned to the stranger, shrugged noncommittally and said, “Aloha, man,” before letting the door shut firmly between them.
Creed didn’t move for a minute, thinking about what just happened. He took a deep breath before heading back down the steps toward the path. He was replaying the events of the last half hour and trying to be sure he hadn’t forgotten anything.
Farrow’s impulsive shot was right on target, and so far, the family seemed to be reacting to Meg’s “condition” as planned, but he had a nagging sensation that something was wrong.
“It all feels wrong, damn it,” he muttered to himself. He shoved his hands deeply in his pockets and bit his lip. He was going to have to do some serious thinking tonight. He had to go weigh his options and their consequences. If there was one thing he learned is that there were always consequences. He picked up his pace as he walked toward his rental parked down the road.
24 Uncertainty
Now that the stranger was gone, the brothers returned to their examination of Meg.
Evan pulled a small flash light from his pocket, gently lifted Meg’s eyelids one at a time and flashed the light into them looking for pupil dilation. “Well, her pupils are responsive, but sluggish. Her heart rate is extremely fast. Breathing is shallow and her lips are purple. She doesn’t seem to have any bruising or lacerations I can find. Her fever is very high.” Internally, Evan’s mind was racing with logical possibilities, externally, his face looked almost as pale as Meg’s.
“Evan, we’ve never been sick; none of us. What’s wrong with her?” Alik was searching his brother’s eyes for an answer. Evan only shook his head slowly.
They heard the family running down the corridor and moments later burst into the room. Dr. Andrews was the first at Meg’s side, “The calculations were correct. This wasn’t supposed to even begin happening yet.”
“You knew this was how it was going to come on and you didn’t warn us?” Margo was seething with worry and anxiety.
“We need to get her back to the lab. We have to run tests on the status of her gama-globulin and electrolytes. Maybe something set off her countdown; something that triggered this early onset,” Paulie thought out loud while scratching his scruffy beard.
Alik carefully lifted his sister and hurried down the corridor to the laboratory. Everyone else was right on his heels.
Margo took the lead in removing her daughter’s clothing so she could dress her in a hospital gown. As they worked, she only allowed herself to think as a doctor. She saw no cuts or bruises anywhere on her daughter’s body. Her coloring was unusual, though. She had taken on a yellowish hue to her skin and her lips were somewhat purple. That, combined with her high fever, made for very strange symptoms. Margo fought back panic because she couldn’t think of any reason for her daughter to be in the condition she was in.
“Okay, we’re ready,” Margo called to the other side of the privacy curtain.
Evan came in with a syringe and several empty vials to collect blood samples. Dr. Andrews began setting up an I.V. so he could hydrate Meg with fluids and so there was a path already established should medications need to be administered quickly. Margo took on her motherly role and simply worked to position a surgical cap on Meg’s head so she could tuck in all her daughter’s dark curls, minimizing possible contamination to the sterile room.