The fever

“Hold his arm down, Chloe!”

“I’m trying! He’s burning up, Amelia. I can feel it through my gloves.”

Amelia Carter pressed two fingers against the man’s wrist. His pulse was racing. She checked the monitor above bed six, and her stomach dropped.

“Forty-one point two,” she said, staring at the reading. “That’s dangerously high.”

“Maybe the thermometer is broken?”

“I checked twice. Something is seriously wrong.”

Chloe Bennet went quiet. That alone was enough to scare Amelia. Chloe talked through everything bad coffee, twenty-hour shifts, even the night a drunk man threw a shoe at her head. If Chloe had nothing to say, something was seriously wrong.

The man on the bed muttered something. His eyes were wide open, but there was no sign that he understood them. The skin on his neck had turned a strange grey, with dark lines spreading beneath it like cracks in old paint.

“Sir? Can you hear me? I’m Dr. Carter. What’s your name?”

He didn’t answer. Only a wet, rattling breath came from his throat.

“Dr. Carter is a pretty big title for a resident,” a voice said behind her.

Amelia didn’t turn around. She knew that voice. Dr. Andrian Hayes always walked into a room like he owned the building, and he never let anyone forget his rank.

“Dr. Hayes. Good timing. This patient needs a neuro consult and an isolation room right now.”

Hayes barely glanced at the chart. “It’s a fever, Carter. Give him paracetamol and keep him under observation. We have a waiting room full of patients.”

“His temperature is over forty-one degrees. Look at his neck.”

Hayes finally looked. For a second, something flickered across his face, but it disappeared almost at once.

“Could be a skin reaction. An allergy, perhaps.”

“An allergy that makes grey lines spread under the skin?” Chloe asked. “I’ve been a nurse for six years, sir. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Then you haven’t seen enough.” Hayes checked his watch. “Monitor him. I’ll deal with it when I have time. Don’t make a drama out of this, Carter.”

He walked away.

Chloe made a face at his back. “Paracetamol. For that man.”

“Forget him. Help me turn the patient on his side. I want to check his back.”

They rolled the man together. His body went stiff, then loose, then stiff again. A low, wet sound came from his throat. It wasn’t a word or a normal groan.

“Amelia…”

“I know.”

“That sound. What is it?”

“I don’t know, Chloe.”

Amelia pulled the curtain wider and looked down the ward. Every bed was full. Two more patients waited on trolleys in the hallway. Somewhere in the distance, a man was shouting, and a phone kept ringing with nobody answering it.

“How many fever cases came in tonight?” she asked.

Chloe counted on her fingers, then stopped. “Eleven since midnight. Four from the same street. The paramedics said one family stopped answering their door.”

“Stopped answering?”

“That’s what they said. Then they laughed it off.” Chloe rubbed her arms. “One of them told me his partner got scratched by a patient last week and hasn’t come to work since.”

Amelia stared at her. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“I thought it was a rumor! There are always rumors. Last month, people were swearing there was a shark in the river.”

“This is not a shark, Chloe.”

The man in bed six jerked hard. The metal frame rattled, and Amelia grabbed the rail.

“Sir! Can you hear me? Stay with me!”

His head turned slowly, as if something were pulling it. His eyes landed on Amelia, and for the first time, she felt that he was looking right at her.

There was no pain in his eyes. No fear.

Only hunger.

“Chloe, get the restraint straps.”

“Already on it.”

“Fast.”

Chloe ran to the supply cart. Amelia stayed beside the bed, her heart pounding so hard she could hear it in her ears. She hated this feeling. She had hated it since she was nine years old.

A red puddle on a white kitchen floor. Her mother’s hand reaching toward her, shaking. Amelia had stood frozen, unable to move while the blood spread.

She forced the memory away. Not now. Not tonight.

“Straps!” Chloe returned, breathless. “Three. That’s all the cart had.”

“Wrists and one for the chest. Go.”

They worked quickly. The first strap clicked shut around the man’s right wrist.

He didn’t fight it.

That scared Amelia more than if he had.

“He’s too calm,” she muttered.

“Being calm is good, right?”

“Not like this.”

The second strap clicked into place. Chloe’s hands shook so badly that she dropped the buckle twice.

“Sorry. Sorry, it slipped.”

“You’re fine. Just keep going.”

Chloe looked at Amelia, her eyes wide with fear. “Can you at least tell me what we’re dealing with? Give me a word. Anything.”

Amelia swallowed. “I don’t know. I really don’t know, and that’s what scares me.”

The curtain beside them snapped open. A young nurse stood there, pale as paper, holding a clipboard against her chest.

“Dr. Carter? Bed four just stopped breathing. And bed nine is… well, he’s biting the metal rail.”

Amelia blinked. “He’s what?”

“The rail. With his teeth. There’s blood coming out of his mouth, and he won’t let go.”

Her hands went cold.

“Chloe, stay here. Don’t take your eyes off him. If anything changes, scream. Loud.”

“Amelia, don’t leave me alone with him.”

“Two minutes. I’m going to bed four.”

“Two minutes!”

Amelia ran.

Bed four was an old woman whose face had turned grey and whose lips were growing blue. Amelia checked for a pulse, pressing her fingers against the woman’s neck.

Nothing.

“Call a code! Get the crash cart!”

She placed her hands in the center of the woman’s chest and began compressions, counting under her breath. One, two, three, four. She pushed hard, using her whole body.

“Come on, ma’am. Don’t you fucking quit on me. Please.”

A rib cracked beneath her hands. Amelia flinched but kept going.

Then she felt it. A tiny flutter beneath her fingers. Weak, but there.

“Pulse!” she gasped. “I’ve got a pulse! Get the oxygen mask, now!”

The young nurse fumbled with the mask, then managed to place it over the woman’s face. The monitor began beeping again, slow and uneven.

Amelia leaned back, sweat running down her neck. For a moment, she wanted to laugh. One saved. Just one.

Then every machine in the ward went silent.

Not just the old woman’s monitor. All of them.

The sudden quiet was so strange that Amelia looked around, waiting for the sounds to return. Somewhere nearby, a machine gave a sharp snap.

“Amelia!” Chloe screamed from bed six. “He broke the strap!”

Amelia spun around.

The man was standing beside the bed. A torn piece of leather hung from his wrist. His grey skin glistened under the lights, and his head tilted as he stared at Chloe, who had pressed herself against the wall with both hands raised.

“Sir, please lie back down,” Chloe said, her voice cracking. “You’re sick. We’re trying to help you.”

He took one step toward her, then another.

“Chloe, don’t move. Don’t run. Just back away slowly.”

“Jesus Christ, there’s nowhere to back up! I’m against the wall!”

The man opened his mouth. His teeth were stained, and a low, wet sound vibrated in his chest. Then he lunged.

Chloe squeezed her eyes shut.

But he didn’t go for her.

He vaulted past Chloe and charged at the young nurse standing only a few feet away. Before anyone could react, he grabbed her by the hair and sank his teeth into her shoulder.

The scream tore through the ward.

Blood sprayed across the curtain and the floor. A dark puddle spread toward Amelia’s sneakers.

She couldn’t move.

Her eyes fixed on the blood as it widened across the white tiles. The ward faded around her, and she was nine years old again, standing on the kitchen floor while her mother bled in front of her.

Her legs felt locked. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t even scream.

“Amelia!” Chloe shouted. “Amelia, please! Move! Do something!”

The man lifted his head from the nurse’s shoulder. Blood ran down his chin and dripped onto the floor. The nurse’s body hung limp in his grip.

Amelia stared at her, unable to look away.

“Amelia…” Chloe’s voice sounded distant.

The man slowly turned toward her.

His eyes were empty, but something inside them seemed to recognize her. Amelia’s breath caught as he stared straight into her eyes.

Then his lips pulled into a smile.

And then, he smiled.