general form and a ferret in coloration, there was something distinctly bearish about his teeth, broad skull, and the texture of his fur.
“I’ll have to take your word for that.” She straightened up, seemed to recover her professional demeanor, and stuck out her hand. “I’m Christine Ottaway, M.D. And you are”—she glanced at the clipboard—“Jessie Shimmer?”
I took her hand and shook it. Her grip was strong, and she had a guitar player’s calluses on her fingertips. “Yes. Thanks for seeing me on such short notice.”
“Honey, it’s all short notice around here.” She laughed. “I’m lucky if I get a solid five hours of shut-eye. But let’s not make this about me. So. You’ve got a pretty bad fever, and a rash, and you’ve had some blood contamination. Any new headaches and body pains? Upset stomach?”
I nodded. “All that, yeah.”
She stepped up beside the table and started feeling the lymph nodes in my neck and under my jaw. “You’ve definitely got some swelling in here.”
She pulled a wooden tongue depressor and a penlight out of her breast pocket. “Open your mouth, stick your tongue out, and say ‘Aaah.’ ”
I did as she asked.
“Okay, you can close now.” She turned away and tossed the depressor into the trash. “I think, my dear, that you’ve got the local superbug: Ehrlichia mutans.”
I suddenly felt a bit queasier. “What’s that?”
“It’s a bacterium in the family Anaplasmataceae.” She went to the sanitizer dispenser on the wall, pumped some clear alcohol gel into her palm, and vigorously rubbed her hands together. “Normally it’s transmitted by tick bites, and normally symptoms don’t develop until a few weeks after exposure, but things aren’t exactly normal around here, are they? Our local mutation is a speedy little bugger. It mostly causes the flulike, rashy ick you’re feeling now, but I’ve been seeing it destroy some people’s kidneys. To my regret we haven’t had much luck at keeping people alive on dialysis around here, so aggressive treatment from the start is our best option. Knock it out before it knocks you out.”
I nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
Dr. Ottaway turned to the nurse. “Please bring me a bottle of doxycycline, the usual strength, and a bottle of ibuprofen 200s.”
The nurse left to fetch the antibiotic, and the doctor pulled a small notepad out of one of her front coat pockets and started writing down some directions. “I’m going to give you a bottle of hundred-milligram doxycycline tablets. I want you to go straight to the cafeteria, have some food, and take three of the doxy pills. You’ve already had eight hundred milligrams of ibuprofen, and you’re likely to make yourself sick if you take all this on an empty stomach. And then tonight when you get ready for bed, I want you to take two more doxy pills, and then one in the morning and one at night until the bottle’s empty. I’m also going to give you a bottle of ibuprofen, but do not take more for at least eight hours … after that, take two every four to six hours as you need them for fever.”
She paused. “Also, try to stay out of the sun as much as possible—both these drugs can make your skin burn very easily. Do you understand everything I’ve told you?”
I nodded. “I think so.”
“Good.” She tore the instructions off her notepad and handed them to me. “If you see any blood in your urine, come back in here immediately.”
“I will. Thank you.”
Nurse Barnes returned with my medication in a small brown paper bag, and the good doctor bade me good-bye and sent me on my way.
chapter
twenty-three
Monsters
After a breakfast of antibiotics, rubbery powdered eggs, and watery oatmeal in the student center’s cafeteria, Pal helped me back to the dorm and strapped me back into the restraint chair so I could take a nap.
“That egg ration wasn’t terribly filling,” Pal said. “I’m still feeling rather peckish. I think I smelled rats when we were in the lobby … do you mind if I go down to the basement to see if I can do a little hunting?”
I don’t think that’s a good idea, I thought back, unable to speak with my head immobilized. I mean, I don’t mind for myself, as long as you locked the doors so nobody could come wandering in here while I’m asleep. But you look like a monster and practically everybody here has a big gun. I wouldn’t want you to get shot.
Pal looked offended. “I was aware of that, thank you.