Game of Thrones Workbook

House of the Undying: The Epidemic

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Entry #1 by joycag

“Idiots, clumsy morons!” His nostrils flaring, Dr. Dalton Davis, The Chief of Staff, banged his fists on the desk in his office at Richmond Medical. How could they admit a patient with such a contagious disease into the crowded floor of the Emergency, without sending him into the triage area, first!

The guy, who had a foreign name, was found on the ground in the park near the playground, while still alive. He had died in the triage, the day before. What he croaked from was a mystery.

The paramedic who brought him had collapsed on the floor a few hours later. Now, he was the one in the triage! Plus, two patients and a practical nurse, showing the same symptoms were under observation, too.

Luckily, he had been quick. He had ordered the floor to be emptied and the patients at risk to be taken to separate rooms with contagion signs at their doors. Then he had alerted all the agencies one could think of, starting with the CDC.

The deaths were awful with blood coming out of every orifice, shaking as if with a seizure, plus asthmatic symptoms. Before dying, patients turned purplish blue, cyanosis circling their mouths.

All the doctors and nurses were hysterical. Some had left the premises despite the threats Dalton had thrown their way. Now a skeleton crew was taking care of the rest of the patients with the urgent voice periodically barking over the hospital’s sound system: ”Code blue, code blue, bed 17…”

He grimaced when his phone rang. He picked it up. “Dalton, don’t kill yourself looking for your cell. You left it on the counter here. And can you pick up a loaf of rye from the bakery, on your way home?”

“Nooo!” he barked at his wife. ”I may never be coming home.”

“Jeez, just because I said at breakfast…”

“It isn’t you! Why does it have to be you all the time!” He banged the phone down. Then, he picked the phone up and dialed.
“Look! I am sorry. We have an emergency at hand here. Keep the kids at home, and don’t get out of the house, any one of you. We may have an epidemic brewing.”

“Okay! Be safe,” said his wife, her voice shaking. “I love you! Take care!”

“Gotta go, Love. Other calls may be coming on the line.”


Nurse Melinda Vega’s stress soared as the minutes rolled by. Even the calmest doctors were freaking. For the amount of the emergency calls, they had difficulty choosing which patient to attend and how to protect themselves and the staff. Melinda was not just a nurse. She was a dedicated nurse, having lost most of her family to disease, she had made an oath to herself to never shy away from a patient.

She pushed aside the specialist, Nathalie Loomis, who was trying to intubate a patient but couldn’t because her hands were shaking so. Melinda intubated the woman by herself but was unable to get a cardiac response. Flat line! Someone rolled the defibrillator.

Tragedy! It wasn’t only the woman but FDIU, too. That poor fetus!

“Mel, you better let it be. There are others…” Melinda could hear the tension in her colleague’s voice.

“Got it!’ She calmly replied. ”Sterilize the room! Lock the door. Don’t let anyone come in!” Then she pushed her way through the personnel to one of the many calls on the system. “Nurse…quick! Bed 44, Nurse needed at room 32….”

Even the people who manned the floors’ desks were turning white with fear. As she passed by a desk, she yelled at the people. Wear masks. Keep using that sanitizer.”

Someone grabbed her arm. “Guess what?” The tension in Dr. Georgianne Kempton’s voice spoke volumes. “A taxi driver is just being admitted with the same symptoms. This is bigger than just what’s happening here.” And she rushed away toward the elevator.

Georgie and Mel had been good friends after they had worked on the same floor when Mel was just starting out. Each one admired the dedication of the other and found many things common between them.

How could something so unknown spread so quickly? Mel tried to reason inside her mind. Was this the result of food poisoning? But then, that practical nurse was meticulous about what she ate, the poor soul! Unlike Mel who carried a bag of gummy bears in her pocket. Did the disease just descend from the air? How could that be? What about the biological warfare that some crazy dictator had just exercised on his own people? But hadn’t this one started with the guy brought into the emergency room? But that was only in Richmond Medical. What if other cases were showing up elsewhere?

It had to be terrorism, Mel concluded. Terrorism by who? She shook her head as if chasing away the thoughts. Georgianne was right, though. This was bigger than they could imagine.

She suddenly realized that the loud speaker was issuing another order with her name. “Melinda Vega…Melinda Vega…Report to Dr. Davis’s office, ASAP!”

What would the chief of staff, Dalton Davis, want from her? Mel always admired the man’s professionalism and sensed that the feeling was mutual, but she hadn’t worked with him at all. Well, maybe just once, just maybe, when she was starting out and couldn’t distinguish one doctor’s name from another. She pushed to elevator button to Dr. Davis’s floor.

At the Chief of Staff’s door, she paused a bit straightening her skirt and cap and lowered the mask covering her mouth and nose. Then she knocked on the door.

“Come in!”

“Melinda!” Dr. Davis stood up when he saw her. “You are the one person I can trust to do her work right. I think we have a serious situation, a viral outbreak maybe. Maybe something much bigger than that.”

Melinda looked up at him. Dalton Davis’s face was reflecting his concern. “I thought so, too,” she said. “What can I do?”

“I want you to stay in the triage area in the emergency and make sure that no more contagion happens to the other patients and the staff. In fact, I am giving you full responsibility for this. Do what is needed. Send the ones who seem to be recovering, to the intensive care special units--that is if any.”

She stared at him, her eyes wide. “All right! No problem. I’ll do it,” she said with a self-confident tone.

He cracked a half smile. “And Nurse, be careful yourself! You may go now.”

“Thank you, Dr. Davis!”

Mel felt him watch her leave, as a dark ominous feeling of dread took over her.

As she closed the door behind him, she thought, Oh, God! What are we in for!”


Entry #2 by dmt1967

Melinda hurried along the corridor and bumped into her friend, nurse Georgina. Georgina's pale face and stooped position caught her eye.
She reached out and caught her arm. "Are you alright?"
Georgina shook her head and bit her lip. "No, a sixty five tycoon was admitted an hour ago. He'd all the symptoms of someone with the disease, but after further cheeks we found he had a rare snake venom in his blood stream. I had a nasty suspicion and did more tests and found that, while not all had the venom, the richer ones did. Is that a coincidence, Mel or..."
Melinda's eyes opened wide. "You think someone is using this epidemic to..."
Georgina shook her head and dropped her gaze. "But we haven't had any fatalities which we would if someone other than a medical professional had administrated these doses."
Melinda held both of Georgina's arms. "You think a nurse administrated this snake venom?"
"But we examined everyone and, if they had this poison in their blood we would have found it. I think it was administrated after they had been seen by us."
Melinda leaned against the wall. Her hands shook and her legs trembled. She stared at her friend. "You think someone here poisoned these men."
An orderly approached them and cleared his throat. "Excuse me, nurse but there is a detective inspector from the 25th prescient wants to speak to someone in charge of the epidemic and I cannot find doctor Dalton."
Melinda ran her fingers down her pinafore and smiled. "It's okay, Jimmy, I'll see him." She turned to Georgina. "Redo those tests and make sure you are correct."
Jimmy began to walk towards the reception area and nurse Melinda followed.

Jimmy the orderly led Melinda out to the reception area where the detective was waiting.

“Hello,” Melinda said, offering her hand. “Melinda Vega. I’m one of the nurses on duty tonight.”

“Detective Inspector Wallis,” the officer replied. “Have you been here all night?”

“My shift started at six. Been here ever since.”

“Anything unusual happen tonight?”

“You mean other than an unknown pathogen spreading rapidly through the population and someone deciding that tonight is a good night to poison people? Nah, it’s just the same ‘ol, same ‘ol around here.”

“So you’ve discovered the snake venom?”

“It’s clever,” Melinda said, “Using the epidemic as a cover to poison someone. But there doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason to who’s been poisoned. And, more importantly, someone willing to cause an entire epidemic to cover their tracks clearly as a lot to lose.”

“Our thoughts exactly,” Wallis replied. “And that’s why I’m here. Can you take me to the poisoning victims?”

“Of course,” Melinda replied. “They’re down in the morgue.”

She led the detective to the morgue in the sub-basement of the hospital, where the bodies of the poisoning victims were laid out on a row of stainless steel tables. Melinda watched Wallis inspect the bodies, then grab their charts. He looked to Melinda.

“Go ahead,” she said. “At this point, the need for information supersedes doctor-patient confidentiality... plus, you know, they’re dead and probably won’t mind.”

Detective Wallis poured over the documents, comparing information and data from one file to the next. After several moments, he looked at Melinda with surprise.

“What is it?” Melinda asked.

“All of the victims,” Wallis said, excitement in his voice. “They do have something in common. They all live on the same street in the same residential development. What are the chances of that?”

(301 words)