Her hands went automatically to a purse or a wallet but there was nothing in her pockets, nothing that could help her answer that question. Something told her to lie. Not a voice in her head so much as a rising tide of panic that came out of nowhere. Unfortunately she had no idea what to say.
While they had been bantering she had devoured the entire box of cookies. She looked down at the empty package which she had reduced to bits of shredded cardboard and wax paper. She'd even sucked out all the crumbs.
'Nilla,' she said. Nil. Nothing. She had nothing of herself left, after all. She would have to create something new and the box of cookies, the first purely good thing she'd found, made the perfect inspiration.
She wished she had some more. Not cookies necessarily. More food, real food.
Five minutes later they reached the hospital only to find the emergency room entrance blocked by two ambulances that had collided with each other. Nilla could see into one of them through its open rear doors. Nobody was inside but the interior lights were on. Blood dripped from the rear bumper.
'There must be something bad going down. This place looks swamped,' Pankiewicz said. He popped open his door before the patrol car had even come to a stop. He opened her door and helped her out. She leaned on him as they made their way around the ambulances and into the emergency room.
Monster Nation
Chapter Four
'LARGEST EVER' MANHUNT IN NEVADA DESERT TURNS UP GRUESOME RESULT: Partial Body Found, Feared to be Shawna, Awaits Identification [CNN.com breaking story alert, 3/17/05]
One look at the blood on Nilla's shirt and they put her in an examination room right away'really just a cubicle, hemmed in by mobile partitions, barely big enough for her narrow bed. Outside the moans of the injured and the sick never stopped. Shadows crossed the fabric of the partition, the acoustic ceiling tiles above her head. A nurse in a jacket decorated with panda bears came in and attached a plastic clip to her finger but didn't have time to turn on the attached machine before she was called away. The back of her jacket showed a bloody hand print.
She heard screaming a minute later and what had to be a gunshot. An orderly in a white uniform opened her partition and stormed inside. 'I'm really sorry about this, Ma'am,' he said. He spoke with a West Indian accent, syncopated and musical. He had a shaved head and he looked exhausted. Draped across his arm were countless thick loops of thick black nylon. He tore one open by its Velcro closure and started feeding it through the tubular frame of her bed.
'That's not necessary,' she insisted as he fastened the loop around her left wrist. A rivulet of icy cold ran down her back and her body twitched. Her head was pounding.
He just shook his head. 'Lots of people get them, Ma'am, I'm just doing my job.' He bit his lip before securing her right wrist, perhaps wondering if she was going to fight him. The thought hadn't crossed Nilla's mind until then. 'It's rabies, we think.'
'Rabies? What the hell is going on? I haven't even seen a doctor yet!' Fear rattled inside of her emptiness, desperation at being imprisoned. This was a hospital, goddamnit! They were supposed to help her. 'Get away from me!'
'Ma'am, you've got a textbook pattern of bite marks on your shoulder,' he said quietly, with infinite delicacy. 'Ma'am, I have a gag here, too. That you don't have to get, if you cooperate.'
It was a second gunshot, though, that convinced her. Together they looked up'and then their eyes met and she knew he was deadly serious. Something was happening outside, something very bad, and the orderly didn't know any more than she did but he intended to complete his task one way or another. He tied down her ankles and then turned to go. 'Thank you, Ma'am,' he whispered, as if he didn't know what else to say.