138 The patient zero
The alchemia room inside the main hospital was in a ruckus. However, they stopped for a mont when Anne interrupted their busy day by entering the room. Riya, the alchemist in charge, gets so annoyed to see her co barging inside. She stared at Anne, trying to intimidate our heroine.
“So, tell , what are you doing inside the alchemia room? don’t you have a task to do, like tending to your patients?” Riya asked her, with her eyebrows up far along. Even Anne was scared it might lose from her face.
Anne tried to smile at Riya, even though she was volatile towards her. “Senior Nathan gave my worksheet with instructions that I will assist the alchemists for the next four hours, probably because of my experience with…”
Sneering at her, Riya look at Anne’s worksheet and said, “Experience? What did you know about this new variant, after all?!”
“Moskeet fever? I have treated patients with a moskeet fever before the first variant and also the second variant.” Anne bravely stared back to fight the animosity that ca from Riya, the alchemist in charge.
Moskeet fever was a disease that was coming from a bug na moskeeto, it becos a problem almost ten years ago, in one particular area of the kingdom, thankfully the alchemist and the healers back then successfully concocted the cure before the disease becos a pandemic. Now unbeknown to everyone, Moskeet fever got a new variant that even the previous cure couldn’t even make the patients heal and make it worse.
The alchemist was in charge, just looking at Anne, furious when she walked towards our heroine, “You know what?! No wonder chief Clara never liked you. You’re one of the…”
Another alchemist that just ca inside imdiately cut Riya’s sentences, “Oh, miss River Anne, I was wondering when can I finally et you!” The alchemist was a man with a friendly smile, he turn around to Riya and asked her permission, “Can I take it from here, miss Riya? I am her teammate after all.”
“Ugh, fine, Hector, just don’t let her near for now. I was so irritated by your senior’s decision.” Gruntled Riya, while walking away from the two of them.
.....
“So sorry for that, believes , she is a kind woman, just… Well, sothing private ca along.” Said the man who had just ca inside. “My na’s Hector. I am under Nathan’s supervision as well, so nice to et you.”
“Nice to et you, too. Thank you for earlier, Hector. Don’t worry, I don’t hold grudges.” Anne said, while giving him a wink.
He chuckles and takes her into the lab. Inside, there were two other alchemists working on the vials at the burner with a fire orb. Hector handed her the report and explained to her about the cure for the new variant of moskeet fever.
“So, we were trying to make the exact cure from the original moskeet when we have the patient zero. However, the cure failed to heal him, and instead of making him worse, we don’t know what went wrong with it.” Said Hector to Anne, explaining the first man who was suspected as the one that is infected first. They called him patient zero.
Anne read the report of the cure, and just like Hector said, the cure failed in a worse way. “This is strange, I an… Wait, do you have the thorough report on patient zero?”
“There were inside the archived room with the librarians, but I could take you there.” Hector lead her outside the alchemia room and into the library, Anne turn her head to the alchemia room door when they were already outside, Hector glanced at her and asked, “What’s the matter?”
“My worksheet, I an senior Nathan, instructed to help in the alchemia room. I thought I need to be inside to help?” Anne pointed at the alchemia room, questioning her placent from the worksheet.
Hector looked at her and gave her a grin, “We are not cooped up inside those rooms for hours, you know, sa as you, and the purpose of your placent inside the alchemia room is to assist us to find the new variant cure.”
“I see. Well, it is essential for to read the report of patient zero first.” Muttered Anne to Hector.
When the two of them arrived at the archived room, only one librarian that was inside, he was humming while on his back, and even failed to see Anne and Hector. Hector needs to clear his throat to alert the librarian. The librarian finally turns around and fixed his glasses. Anne recognized the librarian as soon as she looked at his face.
“Wait, Andy? What are you doing here?!” She rushed to the librarian, who was also surprised to see her.
“Oh, Anne, you’re here already. I heard a rumor about your arrival.” He gave her a warm embrace that makes Hector a bit surprised.
“So, the two of you know each other?” Asked Hector when he observed their interaction.
Andy nods his head enthusiastically. “Yes, she was my old friend. We knew each other for years.”
“Great, then you two shouldn’t have a problem working together.” Hector told them, and when he glanced at the moonsun dial on the wall, he excused himself, and tell Anne to wait for him in the archive room, “I’ll be here in two hours. Familiarize yourself with the case file first.”
The only thing Anne could say before Hector was gone from the door was so incoherent words. Andy was chuckling when he looks at Hector that was gone as soon as he enter the archived room.
“Don’t worry, it wasn’t your fault, he… Wasn’t fond of this room in particular.” Andy then walk away and told Anne to follow him, “Co on, the report about patient zero was in the back.”
Half an hour later, Anne was already invested in reading the thick docunt about patient zero. A mushroom farr in his forty, living in the wet soil part of the kingdom, was exposed by the moskeeto nest and got bitten all over his body. When he got a fever, the family thinks it was just the original moskeet fever. Turn out, it was more than that.
“Blackened bruises all over the moskeeto bites, coughing, and also high fever. The cure failed and sohow made him worse than before.” Anne was reading the report with a frown on her face.
Andy ca inside and bring her so caftea, “Hey, I’ll put this on the desk. Take a break once in a while, alright?” Anne never took her eyes off the book. She ignores him completely. When Andy saw it, he took a sigh and said, “It’s almost like you’re actually a librarian at one point in your life.” And then walk away from her.
Anne took glanced at Andy’s back and rembered her ti in her old world, she was a librarian and was very good at it, but another wicked smile appear in her imagination, the words of an evil witch of the mountain, that will always be inside her head.
“A gift for you, my newest girl.”
Shuddered, she goes back to read the report and tried not to think about her.
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