Western Outskirts

O’Shea leaned against a tree as he watched as a column of Halandians moved slowly along the street 20 or so meters down the hill from them with several covered wagons as they headed out of the city. “People are definitely spooked, second group of people leaving the city in the last four hours,” he said as he glanced over at Dougal and Cezear. After spending the last few hours wandering the city and eerily empty streets with no sign of the missing observation team, he was getting a little frustrated. The Mercy’s sensors were of little help and could not identify the life signs of the missing team. That mixed with the knowledge that the mission commander was actively hiding something and the knowledge they were now infected with this disease had him irritable. 

“The hospital is about 10 minutes along the road, we could try to get information from these people before we go there?” O’Shea remarked before he adjusted his new coat and hat.

“There’s risk,” Dougal cautioned.  “I’ll stand behind whatever decision ye make lad, but that may not keep Pottinger from tryin’ ta put ya bawls in a vise if it blows up in ye wee face.”

“Agreed, hospital first.  At least it’s a sign that we are on the right track, if they are leaving then us going forward makes sense. A couple questions so we are all on the same page. First, what’s our story? In case we get questioned about why we are coming to this town. Second, what’s the plan if we do find any of the missing crew? We may not be able to just take them back to the post. Something else to think on a finding lodging in case we have to be here for a bit.”

O’Shea nodded in agreement, “Ideally if we find one of the missing crew we can transport them back to the observation post without anyone noticing but if we can’t then we will need to play it by year.” Looking back at the others he paused as he thought about a possible story, “When it comes to why we are here, the similar the story the better. We are coming to visit family, if, I guess when we hear about the sickness, we should act surprised and concerned for our family members. Should give us a chance to get some information.”

“A braw plan.  Keep it bloody simple and as close to the truth as possible,” Dougal agree.  Removing a tricorder he scanned the area to get his bearings.  “No human lifesigns, I’ll see if I can get us a wee map.”

“Agreed, keeping it simple is probably the best thing we can do. To many details in these type of circumstances lead to mistakes bring made. Mistakes we cant afford.” Cezear   Was kneeling under the tree watching the wagon approach and keeping an eye on the road. “maybe ask if the can give us directions to a boarding house or lodging. We could use that to start a crude map of sorts.”

“A map with names would be beneficial, all we have is the orbital imagery.” O’Shea said with a shrug. Without a pause, he pushed off from the tree he was leaning on and started to make his way down the hill towards the column of people.

A few moments later he causally approached the leader of the column, “Hello, friends!” he called with a smile and mirroring the local gesture of greeting.  The man at the head of the column stopped and looked at O’Shea with a mixture of concern and curiosity. O’Shea knew is blended in fair well with the local population but wore his hair a little longer than was typically custom.  

The man nodded towards O’Shea before speaking, “Greeting strange, what can I do for you?”

O’Shea frowned slightly, fainting worry on his face. “We are coming to visit family we haven’t seen for a while and have noticed several groups like yours leaving the city. Is there something going on? Do I, we, ” he waved at his colleagues, “need to worry about something?”

Cezear stood and waved as O’shea pointed towards them. “Dougal, look at the way he is presenting himself and watching us? Something is definitely going on around here.”

“Aye, but what does it mean lad?” The Scotsman asked. Dougal missed little, and too had observed the odd behavior. 

Cezear stood and kept on eye on O’shea and the wagon. “I’m no expert but it feels like he is being extremely wary of strangers. Like, something has him on guard particularly about strangers. Reading the first observation notes they should be rather welcoming and friendly in nature. He is definitely being guarded.” He adjusted his pack and leaned against the tree. 

“Aye, I would agree. Dinnae mean much or it means everything.”

O’Shea couldn’t help but notice the man’s wariness of him though he admitted to himself he wasn’t surprised as he waited for the man to speak.

“Worry?” the man said as he glanced around a little nervously. “We are not worried,” he said with a bit more steel in his voice but that vanished when one of the woman in the wagon behind him coughed. His eyes widened and several people, including him, spun to look at her with worried and terrified faces.

The woman paled and held up a hand, “A bug flew into my mouth, I am not sick.” At that many people visibly relaxed and the leader turned back to face O’Shea.

“Is there sickness in the city you are worried about?” O’Shea asked as he looked between the woman and the men around the wagon.

The leader just stared at him for a moment then deflated, “We are leaving to avoid it, some people have been getting sick so we are leaving. You should as well.”

O’Shea let a worried expression cross his face, one he didn’t have to feign. “I need to find my relatives if that is the case and take them home with us.” He nodded towards people in the column, “Be safe.”

With that, he turned and walked back to the others, “It is spreading sadly.” He pulled out the tricorder from his pocket and looked over it, “ Looks like they were infected. We need to get moving quickly to find our missing team. Hopefully, the doctor will find a cure before it’s too late. Lets get to the hospital.”

“Dinna fash lad,” Dougal replied. “The lass will have it.  I promise you.”

They walked, eyes and ears to those around them.  They were dressed as the others, but the awareness of how quickly their act could be found out and the mission’s challenges would be greater than anything they’d experienced in their time on the Mercy.  They trekked back into the city and arrived at the sprawling hospital.  Patients were spilling out of the main doors and into the garden area around the entrance.  The gardens had been hastily destroyed, a sign of how quickly the medical facilities were starting to be impacted.  The medical staff was calm, and there was no real panic among the patients. It just felt a bit more crowded as various people not in portable beds wandered aimlessly around the area.

“Bloody hell,” Dougal exclaimed as he crossed himself.  

“This is not good, not good at all. The hospital is overflowing into the gardens. I’m no doctor but I would guess that what we are seeing on the outside are those that are not considered as being in critical condition.  O’Shea we didn’t see this on the cameras, my question is why not? You would think the observation team would be watching the hospitals to gauge medical practices.“ He fall in behind O’Shea and Dougal and quickly pulled out his tricorder for a quick scan. “Definitely a hot spot, but I’m not reading any of the team’s signatures in proximally of the hospital from here. We may have to move in closer.”

O’Shea looked at the hospital and frowned, “Your likely right, this many people outside is not a good sign at all.” He thought for a moment then looked at Dougal, “We should get in closer, we may get lucky. While we are in do you think the Doc would want some new samples?”

Dougal shrugged,  “Dinnae ken. I dinnae go to medical school lad, but it would likely no hurt.”

O’Shea nodded, “That is my thought.” As he said he stepped back out of a direct line of sight from most people and pullout out his tricorder from his coat as he began to scan the interior of the hospital and surrounding area for good candidates for samples. After only a moment he stopped when the tricorder flashed an alert message for when key information was detected. 

Anomyous Human lifesignes detected – Distance 2.3km, Strength: Faint

“Ugh, looks like a change of plans,” O’Shea said as he leaned over and showed the alert to Dougal and Cezear. “Best go check it out.”

Dougal simply nodded.

Cezear nodded, took a second to relook at the signal’s direction and started off. “Let’s see what or who this may be.”

“Perfect,” O’Shea said as he looked back at the hospital. “The faster we can find the missing team and sort a cure the better. Let’s get there as quickly as we can without drawing attention.”