February 3, 2020
The Providence Regional Hospital was the largest hospital in the area. If you wanted anything better, you would have to use a plane to get there; that's just how Alaska was.
Typically, the place wasn't all that busy. On any given afternoon, you could walk in and find a few people here and there, reading a book or talking on the phone, getting a bite in the cafeteria, or just walking about. A soft hum of quiet conversation hung in the air, and the atmosphere was quite peaceful.
Sarah didn't notice. She couldn't feel the peaceful atmosphere, couldn't hear the friendly chatter. She sat crying in a chair on the hospital's highest floor, a place reserved for long-term intensive care patients, forgotten and unnoticed by the rest of the world. The atmosphere here was very different than below, with an unshakable chill of dread and hopelessness hanging in the air. The only sounds that reached her ears were those of heart monitors, respirators, and other various pieces of equipment. Every once in a great while, the echo of footsteps in the hall outside interrupted the gloomy pattern.
The room itself didn't seem to get the message, though. In addition to the overhead lights, the outer wall was made almost entirely of a special, insulated glass, allowing the room to be filled with natural light without letting in the winter chill. Wood-patterned vinyl covered the floors in a warm mocha, taking away the gloomy hospital vibe just a bit. In addition to the standard sink station, there were two plush armchairs with end tables, a small table with four chairs, some drapes, a television, and even a small bathroom tucked neatly in the corner. Overall, the room felt more like a fancy studio apartment rather than a hospital. Normally, they would never have been able to afford something like this, but the Department of Homeland Security had been generous enough to cover the medical expenses for all of the victims of what the news had dubbed the "ELO Scandal."
Of course, the image was marred by the two large hospital beds that took up the center of the room. The beds, separated by curtains and each surrounded by its own array of equipment and monitors, were occupied by her brother Bryce and one of the friends he'd been diving with when he was moved here, Braden. Originally, there had been three of them, and moving them here had been a terrifying thing, since they couldn't all fit in the same ambulance, so at least one of them would have to be disconnected. Fortunately, whatever madman had done this seemed to have taken this into consideration, because when they unplugged Bryce's rig, a message had popped up on his laptop, telling them they had two hours to reconnect him before the NerveGear automatically overloaded. When they got to the hospital, they had all gone into the same room so they could all reconnect to the server like they had been. Since then, the hospital had changed the setup so they were each connected to their own router, and one had been moved to a vacant smaller room. Sarah didn't want to think of where they had gotten the game cartridges for that.
Almost two weeks had passed since that vile pony game had launched, and roughly twenty people across the country had lost their lives to it, four of them from this very hospital. No ransom had been made, no demands, and no headway on the investigation. People were just dying for no apparent purpose and with no way of stopping it.
Lifting her head, she reached over and took her brother's hand, gasping at the obvious bony ridges along its back. For the past year or so, Bryce had been slightly overweight, but now, after only two weeks, that weight was rapidly disappearing. The feeding tube could only sustain him to a certain point, after all. Muscle and fat alike were being broken down by his body in a desperate attempt to keep itself from starving, and it was taking its toll.
She slammed her fist into the mattress. She hated this, hated it from the fiery depths of her soul. In all her seventeen years, she couldn't remember a time when she'd been without her big brother. They were three years apart, but ever since she was little, the two of them had always been together. They had fenced together for the past two years, competed as a team in their high school's Smash Bros. competition, and at times could spend hours in conversation about the most random things, from Greek and Roman mythology to who's dating who in school to the latest video game releases. Sure, there were times they fought, and there'd been times they'd been apart. There'd even been a time where he'd traveled to Germany for a summer. At least then, she had known that he'd come back, or that they would eventually forgive and forget, but now...
She buried her face in the bed, fresh sobs racking her body as she held the sheets in clenched fists. Now, she wasn't even sure he'd survive the day, let alone make it back to her. Every day, he was trapped in a world beyond her reach, his life ever in the balance. Every day, there was a possibility that the Fates would cut his thread, and just like that, he would be gone, and there would be nothing they could do to stop it.
Her big brother, who had stood by her side for so long, was completely beyond her grasp, and there was nothing she could do to help him!
That's not true...
The small voice whispered in the back of her mind, a voice she had nearly forgotten. It was the voice of determination, daring her to take action. Wordlessly she stood up, wiped at her face with her sleeve, and pulled out her phone, searching through the contacts until she found the one she was looking for.
She picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"
"Lizzie," Sarah's voice was hoarse, but serious. "I need a favor, and I need you to keep it quiet."