“How about tomato soup with the grilled cheese?” Wendy asked and the twins made not so pleasant faces. “Tell you what, if you try it and don’t like it, you’ll never have to eat it again,” Wendy offered and the twins nodded.
With their food prepared, they put it on a cart to move to their rooms and ate. To the surprise of the twins, tomato soup went very well with grilled cheese.
Chapter Twenty Four
The team decides who is a member
May 16
Carefully working under the microscope, Sutton gave a startle as Sarah’s voice came over the intercom. “Dr. Sutton, I need to see you in the ready area now,” Sarah called out. “Please, it’s an emergency,” she added and Sutton lifted his head up from the microscope.
He looked around the lab and noticed everyone else was looking up at the window that overlooked the labs. Even looking through the face plates on the suits, Sutton could tell the faces were worried. Like him, they’d heard Sarah’s voice trembling.
Dr. Skannish came over, pushing Sutton out of the way. “Where are you at?” Skannish asked.
“Prepping a second batch of eggs,” Sutton answered, stepping back as Skannish picked up the pipettes Sutton had been using.
“I’ll finish this, go see what’s bothering her,” Skannish said, bending over the microscope. “Sarah showing emotions of worry upsets the natural order of the universe.”
Disconnecting his suit from the air hose, Sutton headed for the decontamination chamber. Closing the door, Sutton held up his arms as the shower started. When he walked out, he found Sarah waiting on him, clearly worried.
“The flu is inside the complex,” Sarah blurted out and Sutton stumbled back, hitting the outer chamber door.
“How?” he gasped, pulling the suit off. “I’ve looked at the filtration system and the decontamination procedures of stuff that’s brought inside. Nobody is allowed inside for twenty days and are held in quarantine.”
Nodding, Sarah came over and helped Sutton take off the suit. “I know, but the first ones to come down with the flu were part of the base crew that mans the installation. Homeland and the FBI retraced their guard routes and found that some were going outside to smoke. At one entrance, they found dead pigeons right outside the door.”
Feeling lightheaded, Sutton moved over and sat down in a chair. “How many infected inside?” he asked.
“So far over four hundred, but the testing has only started and there are over five thousand in the main bunker and fifteen hundred troops in the outside bunker. So far, they haven’t found any infected among them,” Sarah said, sitting down. “I know the team has had minimal contact, but we have to test them.”
Looking up at Sarah, “You’ve had more contact with others than we have,” Sutton said fearfully. “I need to test you,” he added, quickly moving to get up.
Reaching out, Sarah stopped him. “I showed negative,” she said and Sutton gave a sigh of relief. “I have to admit, getting attached to the team probably saved my life. Since you and the team don’t like leaving to eat and I never know when I can get any of you out of the lab, that’s why I’ve prepared your food in the office.”
“I’m glad you got the president to let us do the conferences via video,” Sutton mumbled and then looked up. “The president?”
“Not infected, but several others on his cabinet were, so everyone is in isolation. He wants to talk to you,” Sarah said, grabbing a test kit off the table beside her.
Watching Sarah open the kit up, Sutton gave a nervous chuckle. “Turns out smoking is dangerous for everyone.”
Uncapping a swab, Sarah inserted it in Sutton’s nose and then pulled it out and put it in a test tube, breaking it off and closing the top. “You do that rather well,” Sutton said, clearly impressed.
“Well, you go and get me promoted to the upper ranks of the CDC, I’d better know how to do some of this stuff,” Sarah grinned, putting the tube in the rack. “The only contact the others have had with the outside are the guards at the entrance to the lab and private quarters. I thought I was going to have to beat Skannish yesterday just to get him out of the lab to eat.”
Sutton grinned, “Tapping on the observation window with a baseball bat did have some effect.”
“It was all I could think of,” Sarah shrugged.
Dropping the grin, Sutton asked. “Sarah, may I ask you a question?” When Sarah nodded, “Why aren’t you wearing a mask? You know you’re not infected, but we could be.”
“I know you’re not, but if this team is sick, my team, I go with them,” she said with a straight face.
Jerking his head to the table, “Well, I’m not,” Sutton told her and Sarah glanced over to see the liquid was still clear.
Getting up, “We need to brief the president and then test the rest of the team,” Sarah told him, holding out a hand. Sutton grabbed her hand and she pulled him up. Letting her hand go, Sutton followed Sarah to her office. Walking in, he grinned at the large fridge, hot plate, and microwave that Sarah had put in the day she’d been promoted just so she could cook for the group.
“Not many bosses cook for their team,” Sutton chuckled, walking around the desk and sitting in one of the chairs.
“All of you better be happy I took classes,” Sarah told him, dropping in her chair. Tapping the keyboard, the two monitors came to life. On one screen was the President, looking at them and the other was subdivided into multiple sections, showing the rest of the cabinet. Even though he didn’t know all of them, Sutton could tell there were missing faces.
“Dr. Sutton,
