Lockdown: The Arcadia Diaries

Panic at the Hospital

St. Theresa's Medical Center, Arcadia, ME

July 4th, 2019

Terra M. Kimbrough

The stream of patients pouring into the hospital has not relented for the past hour or so and it worries me; what originally started as about thirty people had now turned into about seventy. All the patients are the same-they've all been afflicted with the horrific blisters and lesions. One man is even rubbing his stomach; the entire left side of his face covered in boils.

Sitting next to me, Charles had spent some time talking with the two Italians, Valeriana Moglia and Marianna Cifelli, who are now are completely silent as they take the scene in, with Valeriana in particular looking grossed out at the horrific afflictions on the people's faces and limbs. However, she continues to film the scene with the camera, seemingly transfixed to her chair.

Suddenly, Valeriana notices someone else-a young woman with short hair holding her cellphone and talking into it. Like the people in the waiting room, she is covered in boils and lesions. Most of them are on the left side of her face, although there are a few on her arms and legs as well. However, unlike the people in the hospital's waiting room, they seem to have died down considerably, which I'm thankful for, unlike the festering sores I'm seeing on everyone else. Her short, blonde hair is a mess and there are bags under her eyes. She looks like she hasn't slept in days. She looks calm now, but the tone of her voice makes it look like she's about to burst into hysterics at any moment.

As he sits next to me, Charles' eyes instantly widen in recognition. "Hey, it's that girl who was bitten at the beach!"

Then we both realize realize she is alone. Where are her parents?

Valeriana and Marianna look at each other, then at me. But before we can get up out of our seats, she is already staring at us through the window. Within minutes, we are running out of the waiting room and towards the girl, who abruptly freezes up upon seeing us, only to calm down when she sees us.

"Oh, thank you, God! You're still here!" The girl blurts out. "I thought you guys were infected! Wait, who's this?" She glances at me. 

"Faith, this is Terra. She's a friend," Charles says softly. "These two are Valeriana and Marianna. They're tourists from Italy."

"Ciao," Valeriana says softly. "Nice to meet you. I see the boils and lesions are not that severe compared to the others."

Faith nods. "Yeah, they gave me meds to help with the swelling. I'm not sure how long it takes for these things to heal."

"Where are your parents?" I ask Faith.

"They're infected," Faith says simply. "Those things got inside their bodies. The nurses and doctors told me they'll need surgery to get whatever's eating them from the inside surgically removed. But I'm fine now. They just discharged me."

"Okay." I take a deep breath. "That's good."

"What are you doing here?" Faith asks me.

"My boyfriend Justin got bitten by those things," I reply simply. "I'm awaiting his official diagnosis."

Suddenly, there is a pounding on the window behind us. "Oh, my God," Faith gasps.

Just then, her phone chirps. "Faith? Faith? Faith, talk to me! What's happening?"

Faith turns her phone camera to us, revealing a live FaceTime conversation in her iPhone with another young woman, a brunette. "Sorry. Denise, these are my friends. I met them earlier today. Well, I met this guy. Charles. Charles, Terra, this is Denise. She's a friend from out of town."