Infected - ALL - OPEN

[~ ADMIN]

Infected
Annabelle McAdam

Anna had been feeling more and more irritated lately. She noticed it more in the past couple of days; she couldn't tolerate paper work at the moment, it just wound her up; if people had questions, she just ignored their emails, refusing to reply to them; and she'd been getting headaches, she believed it was down to stress. Usually, she didn't get like this, not even with PMS - oh the joys of being female - so, that was making her even more irritated. This morning she'd snapped a stylus in order to prevent herself from throwing the computer across the room. Some rational thought told her that paying for a new stylus would be cheaper than paying for a new computer.

To try and help ease this irritation, she'd promptly thrown a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and made her way to the gym. The punching bag wasn't going to know what hit it. Oh good lord.

Once she arrived, she'd jogged pretty much the whole way, she strode over to the thing, getting in her first punch before she'd even put her gloves on - she hadn't brought her gloves with her - that wasn't going to stop her now. She needed release, and this was going to give it to her. Anna dodged and weaved around the bag, going hell for leather, her knuckles smarting, but she ignored the pain. She growled, her skin breaking, but she kept on socking the damn thing. She wouldn't stop until this was all out of her system.

[karen2]

Despite the fact that Anna had done nothing to even suggest that she was mad at Ben for what had happened with Will, he'd taken to avoiding her. First they'd nearly been killed, then he'd gotten the closest to a love confession as he'd come to since he was fifteen, and then he'd gone and shown her what a nice person he was by going to beat the crap out of Will for what his father had done to them.

But now, several days later, he decided that if she hadn't done anything yet, she probably wouldn't. In fact, after seeing her once today he realized that she seemed to be quite stressed herself. Worried about her, he managed to squeeze in a break when she got off shift and took a gamble at where she might go. Anna was the type of person who seemed to need physical release, so maybe the gym?

As he couldn't think of where else she might go, that was where Ben headed, and he turned out to be right. Anna was already there, beating the living daylights out of a sandbag. Funny, he didn't recall the sandbags getting tie-dyed red. When she pulled her un-gloved fist back to reveal it was the same colour, he grimaced and paced over to her quickly. Grabbing both her wrists he spun her away from her victim.

"Jesus, Anna, what are you doing? Gods, look at your hands!" he sighed, attempting to examine her bloody and beaten fingers.

[~ ADMIN]

Adrenaline was coursing through Anna's veins now, so she wasn't aware of the pain or how much her blood was staining up the bag. It was like she couldn't control herself any more, she was seeing red, and she couldn't stop herself from pounding the bag - and her fists - to death. There were no thoughts in her head, just a numb silence.

Someone seized her wrists and she immediately fought against whoever it was, tugging hard, but to no avail. When she finally laid eyes on who it was, something in her brain triggered to calm her down, and the pain receptors in her knuckles regained their feeling all at once. "Ben," she said, watching the blood ooze from her skin.

Anna hadn't seen Ben in days, not since he'd taken his fist to Will's face. She'd received a message from him letting her know that he was, in fact, still alive, but it was like he'd been avoiding her - very well, she might add. Of course, she hadn't been best pleased about what he'd done, but her over riding feeling had been concern, and then curiosity.

"Where have you been?" she asked, her voice broke a little, her hands shaking from the strain. At the moment, she didn't trust her emotions or ability to keep herself under control, so she took a couple of steps away from the punching bag, and the smell of her own blood.

[karen2]

Some of the energy in Anna seemed to evaporate when she saw Ben, and for that he was grateful. The last thing he needed was for her to start taking swings at him, too. "I've been around," he told her calmly. No doubt she knew he'd been avoiding her, but there was no need to make it even more blatant by admitting it.

Instead he changed the subject by frowning at the state of her fists and glancing up to meet her eyes. "I think we should get you to med bay or something. These look pretty bad." He turned to head for the door, expecting her to follow, but just as he'd stepped into the hall he heard more punches behind him. Turning, it was to find that Anna had gone back to pummeling the sandbag with a vengeance.

"Anna, love, what are you doing?" he asked cautiously, stepping back into the gym. "Your fists are already mangled, you can stop trying to make them worse anytime now." She seemed to be ignoring him. With a mildly annoyed sigh he went over to pull her away again, shaking his head at her when she resisted even more than the first time. "What'd gotten into you? Jesus Christ, you're acting like a madwoman."

[~ ADMIN]

That was a crappy answer, but Anna was beginning to lose it again, and she couldn't get a grip on her words. She wanted to reply in some way, but she just wasn't able to. When he turned to leave, her brain screamed no, but nothing came out of her mouth, and before she knew it, her already severely damaged fists were driving themselves into the bag again, much to her horror.

It was like she was possessed, and it was freaking her out. Ben grabbed her again, and her body struggled violently against him, although her mind just wanted to stop. "Get me out of here," she choked out, tears stinging in her eyes, "knock me out if you have to, just stop me!"

This must have looked completely insane, to Ben especially, her body saying 'let go of me', while she told him to stop her. But she desperately needed Ben to know that she wasn't doing this intentionally. "Do something before I hurt you!" she pleaded. She hadn't forgiven herself for nearly socking him in the face back on that undercover mission. His face had only just nearly healed, she didn't want to be the one responsible for messing it up again.

[karen2]

Ben had been through a lot. He'd suffered through his parents dying, he'd raised his sister on his own after they had, he'd trained to become a tactical officer, he'd watched friends die, and yet this whole "fear" thing was new to him. But the word "afraid" definitely summed up how he was feeling. He cared more about Anna than he did almost anyone else, and that she was out of control like this... well, it terrified him.

She was screaming for him to get her out of the room, to knock her out or something, to do anything to stop her from acting like she was. The unfamiliar feel of tears in his eyes shocked him back to his senses, and he set her gently on her feet but kept a firm hold of her shoulders. "I'm sorry, love," he murmured, planting a kiss on her hair.

He then preceded to nerve-pinch her neck, causing her to go limp. He wasn't sure if she was actually unconscious or not--he'd never really be good at nerve-pinches--but she was certainly acting like it. Sweeping her knees out from under her, he carried her out into the hall, and was grateful when the way to med bay turned out to be clear. He wouldn't have to answer awkward questions until he got there.

"Penn?! Kiri?! Dee?! Someone! I have a situation here!" he called, praying they'd be able to help Anna, or at least figure out what was wrong.

[~ ADMIN]

Anna felt a sense of relief wash over her as her consciousness slipped away. It had taken all of her control not to lash out at him while he kissed her on the head and muttered an apology for what he had been about to do. There was no need for the apology, she would have gladly accepted anything if it meant that she, in turn, didn't hurt him. She wouldn't have been able to bear it.

For a few moments there was darkness, then Anna opened her eyes to find herself standing in the middle of her old bedroom. She recognised it instantly even though it was currently devoid of furniture. Her room had never felt like it was hers; it had been decorated how her Mum had wanted for years, and the wooden door never stopped her brothers from entering. She hadn't been allowed a lock, despite her pleading.

There was a knock at the door. Anna froze, her mind immediately racing. No one ever knocked on her door. Slowly, it opened. At first, she couldn't quite get a grip on who was standing there, it was like every time she tried to focus on the person, her line of sight shifted away from them. But, eventually her eyes settled upon the figure, and she stumbled backwards.

"Anna Banana."

[Alliana Porter]

Ally had slinked into the medical bay to retrieve a few things to help take her mind off the craziness. People were falling left and right with strange behaviour, high fevers, vomiting and a whole slew of other issues. Thankfully, she was better equipped in the scientific field, rather than medical, although they were hand in hand. She had been hiding in a closed off room in the lab, messing around with a few compounds, so she wouldn't be called, no drug in rather, to help. She usually stayed away from this sort of madness.

Ally was about to step out of the door, when she met a frantic Ben, Anna in his arms, calling for someone to help. She could hide no more. Her jaw fell and she dropped one of the test tubes she had been holding, listening to it shatter on the floor. "Oh bloody hell. Oh shit..God...Ben, what the hell happened?" She asked in a nervous tone, leading him over to an examining table.

She gently arranged Anna, resting her hand to feel her forehead. 'She's burning up, how long has she been like this? She's easily over a hundred." This made no sense. There were goosebumps beginning to form on her arms. she was chilled too? no, no this couldn't be right. She looked like she was freaking, but her temperature said other wise. "what happened to her hands Ben...ben...her hands? Why are they so bloody?" It was clear he was still too phased to talk right now. Normally she would stay away from this sort of thing, but for God''s sake, it was her best friends. She had learned enough in college to begin to figure this out. She began making a list in her head of what to do. Check her vitals, check her blood, observe her body's reflexes and go from there. This was easily the most nerve-wracking incident she had faced since her unfortunate trip to Earth.

"Ben...snap out of it, I'm gonna need your help here!"

[karen2]

Instead of one of the medical officers, Ben was met with Alliana, but thankfully she seemed to have some idea of what to do. He let his brain go on autopilot as he numbly followed over to one of the examination tables where he set Anna down gently. Ally quickly went about checking her over, talking aloud as she did so. He barely heard her.

Of course, that probably had to do with the fact that he wasn't even trying to listen. No, not Anna. Please, not her. Were my parents not enough for you? Do you really have to take everyone I love away from me? Please, don't take Anna. Just... please. I'm praying here. And it was true; he was praying. Which was odd, because he'd never really bothered with religion before.

Ally said his name abruptly, determinedly catching his attention. "Sorry," he muttered quickly, coming over to stand next to her. He looked down at Anna's beautiful face and gently pushed her hair back. "She was in the gym," he explained, not looking up. "I went after her to see if she was okay. She was having a round with one of the sandbags, but she wasn't wearing her gloves. I pulled her away, but she just went right back to it after. She..."

Ben paused, swallowing hard, and caressed her cheek lightly before finishing his explanation. "She begged me to 'stop her', so I knocked her out." He let his hand drop back to his side, lifting his eyes to Alliana. "She's sick, Ally." Those two words carried a lot of weight, considering the other crew members who'd been falling ill lately.

[~ ADMIN]

"It can't be," Anna stammered, her eyes wide with fear. It was Lyle, her oldest brother, standing there in her doorway like he had many times before. Only, now he was thirty, and although he claimed to have put his past behind him, Anna didn't trust him as far as she could throw him - the sinister look in his eye wasn't doing him any favours.

"Of course it can be," he said, stepping inside the room before pushing the door closed behind him. He looked back at her with her green eyes, his hands at his sides, his fingers flexing. "This isn't real," Anna told herself, trying to hold onto the memory of Ben standing there, his fingers tight on her collar bone, despite how distressing that sight had been. Anything was better than this.

"It's as real as your mind will allow it to be," Lyle said, looking away for a moment, knocking his finger against the wall. Anna grasped her hand to her head, a pain shooting through it. "Strange place really," he mused, "but then, the mind does tend to show its vulnerabilities in cases like these." Anna frowned, "in cases like these?"

Lyle smirked, "I'll let you figure it out. It'll come to you eventually. In the meantime however, I have other ideas." A smirk crossed his face. "It'll be just like old times."

[Alliana Porter]

"There's some towels over there, wet them and dab the blood off her wrists, okay? Thanks." she ordered him in a surprisingly calm voice. Anna was beginning to have dreams, nightmares, visions, whatever would fit best. She ran her hands down her face, holding them there for a moment as she took a deep breath. Anna was getting delusional in her sleep, which wasn't good. The brain was a dangerous thing when it was ill. She stood there, silent for a moment, trying to think of what to do first.

" know Ben...I know." she sighed, finally moving to go grab a needle to draw some blood. After preparing Anna's arm, she inserted the needle and drew just enough. "See if you can find some ice bags, cool her down. I know she's shivering, but she's burning up. We need to take down the fever first. You can leave her side for a second ben. I'm really going to need your help, okay?" Ally couldn't stress enough, how desperately she needed his help. The medical field was not her forte and she couldn't do this alone.

Ally did what she could, and waited for the blood to process. She rubbed Anna's forehead tenderly for a moment, trying to keep from crying. "I've got you Anna, I promise. Nothing is gonna happen to you. " She kissed Anna's forehead, and began checking her vitals. Her blood pressure was off the charts, fever 108 and rising, her heartbeat was wild and her breathing seemed hard. 'Shit." she muttered suddenly. "She's got a rash now, dear god I hope it doesn't spread. My God Anna, what the blazes is wrong with you?"

[William Blake]

((OK, now that everyone has come down with the illness, I'm moving everyone into the one thread, so that they can all figure it out together.))

Will had read enough to know that Natalie's symptoms were pretty dire; she had a fever, but a cold sweat, she was shaking, breathing erratically, and she was tense, but he was sure that was her fighting to keep control of her body. Everything was pointing to a virus of some sort, but for it to be able to take control of the body like this, it couldn't be simple bacteria, it had to to be something more. Something that Will hoped it wasn't, but it was beginning to look certain.

"I know," Will said, his breath a little uneven from speaking while he was running, "I know, just, hold on for me." They were nearly at the medical bay, but she was beginning to lose consciousness. She was detereorating fast, he needed to get her hooked up to an IV and blood quickly, he didn't want to risk the chance of her going into a coma.

No sooner had he slid through the medical bay doors, Natalie went limp in his arms. Ben and Ally were already in the medical bay, standing over Anna. Ally looked as if she was about to cry, even though she was still tending to their red-headed friend, and Ben looked... well, terrible. Striding over one of the free beds, he gently set Natalie down, "Anna too?" he asked, taking control of the computer by the bed in order to set up Natalie's vitals etc. so he could see exactly what was going on. Any bad blood between the lot of them could wait until they'd got this problem sorted.

"Have you taken Anna's blood yet?" he asked, figuring it would be easier to look at hers first while Natalie's was sorted.

[jsneill]

John caught the hat. If there was one thing John was good at, it was thinking on his feet. That, and his memory, came in handy in this situation; he listened intently to everything that Penn said as he stumbled round trying to be his own Doctor. The man was clearly gripped with some sort of disease. Temperature 13 degress above normal? If that temperature didn't drop soon then it was sure to kill him. John didn't fancy seeing any dead bodies today.

Once Penn was out, he moved quickly. First, he pulled the results of the scan that Penn had run onto a small hand held device, slipping it in his back pocket before he walked over to Penn lying on the floor. Good thing he wasn't a big guy. Crouching down, John hoisted Penn onto his back, grunting against the weight, then he carried Penn through to where the others were. Annabelle was indeed ill as well, and so was Natalie, it appeared.

"Fantastic," he muttered, moving over to put Penn down on a bed. Then, he pulled the computer from his pocket. Alliana had some medical experience, that he knew from her file, but Will seemed to know what he was doing as well. "Will," John said, catching the man's attention before tossing him the device. "Penn ran a scan before he passed out, that might help." Now, to alert the rest of the crew.

[karen2]

It was like Ben was separated from his body, watching himself do each thing that Alliana asked without question. He went and got the towels hastily, running them under the sink quickly before going back over to wipe the blood off of Anna's hands. He heard his own voice say something about bandaging her knuckles up, but then he was gone to get the ice-packs Ally had mentioned.

When he came back, Will had arrived carrying an unconscious Natalie. It was immediately obvious, without even having to ask, that she'd fallen ill too. Ben offered the other man a half-hearted apologetic look. Just because they didn't get along very well after that little episode down in engineering, it didn't change the fact that they were in this boat together, both of them worried about the most important women in their lives.

"I... think so," Ben mumbled in response to Will's question, glancing back at Alliana. He then decided he probably wasn't going to be too important in this conversation, seeing as they were likely to discuss the illness, and so instead he went back over to stand by Anna. Aside from the symptoms he'd witnessed her exhibiting, he didn't know much.

He'd just set one of the ice-packs on Anna's forehead when John stumbled in with Penn over his shoulder. Another one? John said something once he'd set Penn down on a bed, tossing a hand-held device of some description to Will. Ben ignored whatever they were talking about, throwing an ice-pack to John to use on Penn and then coming around to tend to Natalie seeing as Will was distracted.

"Anything useful?" he asked listlessly as he pushed Natalie's hair back so that the pack could rest on her forehead properly.

[Alliana Porter]

"Thanks Ben," she sighed, turning to pull her dark hair out of her eyes. She needed a moment, before she collapsed in tears before the real stress started. "Watch this rash for me, will ya? Let Will know if it spreads. Fill him up on all the symptoms I've told you. I"m gonna step out for a minute I need a breather." Ally patted Ben's shoulder reassuringly as she headed towards the door. "Be strong Ben, be strong."

As soon as she was out she thumped back against the nearest wall. She heaved an even bigger sigh than before, letting a groan of stress release from her throat. This couldn't be happening. It was all so...fast. Two days ago Luke was unexplainably tense, Anna had bitched at her for something small, natalie seemed...weird. It acted like a virus, but a slow acting one, right up until the last minute. She would have to wait for the blood work so she could see if that's where it had settled. That would take at least 30 minutes. Enough to go see if Luke had fallen prey to the virus. He seemed off too, the first he had noticed, but he hadn't gone out just yet. Maybe he was just tense, stressed. She silently prayed he wasn't affected, and made her way to the kitchen to make him some tea.

((Ben post-Here