Ground Zero: Prequel to Numbered Series Read Online Free PDF Page A

and her mouth sour with the
taste of synth coffee. It had been a long night, but only an hour or so more to
go. They had a ward of ten patients between them, and Marnee was doing the walk
around inspection.
    “All good. Patient four has
an elevated heart rate, but just a little,” Marnee said, with a yawn.
    She threw herself down on a chair, stretching out her
aching legs.
    “Elevated?” Aurelia's interest was perked. “I'll go
and check.”
    “She's fine,” Marnee said. “Don't worry about it. It's
just a little.”
    But something didn't sound right to Aurelia. She knew
that the patient had had a dose of a new drug within the last half hour or so.
Marnee saw the look on her face.
    “Fine,” she said. “These are my rounds, I'll go and give it a look see again, okay? I'll be back in a sec.”
    Aurelia smiled. She was grateful to Marnee for going.
She didn't want to get up, the small staff room was pleasantly warm, and she
could feel her eyes starting to close. With a jerk she sat up. Gods, she'd
almost been asleep. The cardinal sin on night shift. Rolling her shoulders she looked at her time reader. Hmmm. Marnee had been gone
almost five minutes. That was long. She only had to cross the corridor. Aurelia
shrugged and decided she'd better go see what was going on.
    The heart rate monitor jumped in spiky lines, Marnee
held down the patient's shoulders, trying to stop her convulsions. Two strides
across the room and Aurelia had pressed the emergency button on the wall.
    “Allergic reaction,” she said to Marnee, whose face
was white, all her energy focussed on keeping the writhing patient safely on
the bed.
    Within seconds a troop of Med A Workers had entered the room, but there was no sign of the qualified Med Worker
who should be there. Expecting Marnee to take charge, Aurelia took a step back.
But it soon became evident that Marnee, eyes wide and almost crying at this
point, had no intention of doing what needed to be done.
    They'd drilled this, done it so many times that it was
second nature to Aurelia now. She was a leader. All Med Workers had to be
leaders. And when the time came, you stepped into the breech .
    “Intubate, anti-tox shot, anti-convulse shot,” she
barked, pointing to three different Med A Workers.
    No one questioned her authority as she took over care
of the patient, ordering drugs, restraining the fitting woman, and slowly,
slowly bringing her reaction under control. And by the time the qualified Med
Worker ran through the door, still pulling on his uniform, the patient was back
under control.
    “Gods, I was sleeping,” said the male Med Worker.
    “It's all under control,” said Aurelia, calmly.
    And it was. She'd done what needed to be done. But
Marnee was nowhere to be seen.
    Aurelia eventually found her in a toilet cubicle, crying, damp strands of blonde hair sticking to her cheeks.
Wrapping her friend in her arms, Aurelia said nothing. There was nothing to
say. Marnee knew that she'd failed that night. But Aurelia was the only one who
had seen. She'd get another chance. But what would she do with it? Aurelia
stroked Marnee's hair. Medicine was no job for the weak, no job for those who
lacked confidence. Guiltily, she wondered whether Marnee really had what it
took.
    She kept Marnee's secret, though she knew she should
have reported it to their Trainer. Maybe, she thought, Marnee would learn from
this. Maybe this was what she needed to show her how important her leadership
skills were. Maybe. Aurelia kept her fingers crossed,
hoping that she was doing the right thing. But as it turned out, Marnee
wouldn't have another chance.

 
    Aurelia wasn't there when the accident happened,
though she wasn't far away. Tending to her own patient, she was steadily
filling in charts. It was almost time for graduation, and the final test was a
full patient experience. For all intents and purposes, Aurelia was this
patient's Med Worker, though her care was being overseen by a Trainer, and
Aurelia was