“Heather, do the checklist while I look at Mandy?” Danielle requested.

  “Um, sure,” Heather said. She started going over the checklist with the girl who had opened the door while Danielle moved into the bedroom area.

  The other three residents of the room were all in their beds. One was clearly alive, sitting with her back against the wall, drinking from a Decision Day canteen. Danielle activated Medic’s Diagnostics as she approached the next bed, only to catch the sound of a faint snore. She looked to the girl with the canteen and pointed to the snorer. “I don’t suppose that’s Mandy?” she asked. The girl with the canteen lowered it and shook her head worriedly.

  Danielle went to the last bed and found that while she could easily tell Mandy was alive, it was concerningly easy to see how the other girl might have entertained doubts. Her breathing was shallow, and her complexion pale behind the livid red spots. Danielle put her hand against the girl’s head, and was immediately certain she was still feverish. She activated her thermometer Skill and drew a sharp breath. “Heather?” she called. “I’ve got a fever of 104.3o here. How do you contact the Rangers when you actually do need them?”

  “I step out and use the radio,” Heather said. “It’s in my bag.”

  “Do that, please,” Danielle said, untangling the girl’s hand from the covers so she could gently pinch the skin on the back of it. Dehydration confirmed, whispered Medic’s Diagnostics.

  “Feverish means still alive, right?” The girl in the kitchen asked.

  “Oh, definitely,” Danielle said. “I’ve got Improved Hearing, too, so I could hear her breathing once I got close. She might need an overnight in the Ranger clinic, though. My Medic Skill is telling me she’s dehydrated as well as feverish.”

  “Told you,” the girl with the canteen said.

  The girl in the kitchen gave a sigh of relief. “Yeah, you told me. Glad to be wrong,” she replied.

  “ ’M try’n’a sleep here,” the snoring girl mumbled.

  “I’m very sorry to wake you,” Danielle said, “but you need to stay on top of your water and Fever-Ace so you don’t get badly overheated and dehydrated like Mandy, here. Can you sit up long enough to take a Fever-Ace with a bottle of Urgent-C?”

  “Do I hafta?” the girl said, rolling over to squint unhappily at Danielle.

  “It would be very good for you,” Danielle said. “Adding half a can of soup would be even better, even if you’re not exactly hungry. After that, you can go back to sleep until dinner time.”

  “What’re you gonna do with the other half a soup?” the girl asked suspiciously.

  Danielle shrugged. “Feed it to you for dinner, probably,” she said.

  “Huh.” The girl stared at Danielle for a minute before finally agreeing, “Refill my canteen and I’ll drink the orangey-C stuff at least.”

  Danielle filled her canteen for her, and helped her get an Urgent-C tablet into it. Then the girl propped herself up against the wall like the other girl with the canteen, and started drinking it. A minute later, Heather finally knocked to be let in. “I’ve got it,” Akari said, “You can stay there with your soup stove.”

  To Danielle’s surprise, Ranger Flo was there with Heather already. “Good afternoon, everyone,” she said. “Medic Falconer, it’s good to see you up and about.”

  “It’s good to see you too,” Danielle said. “The girl over here is Mandy,” she moved back to the side of the girl with the high fever. “In addition to the fever, Medic’s Diagnostic points out that she’s non-responsive, and has signs of significant dehydration.”

  “Concerning,” Ranger Flo said. She came over to Mandy’s bed and went down on one knee. “Let’s see what my tier 4 diagnostic has to say.” She activated a Skill; it felt/sounded like a scanner, running a line along Mandy’s body to assemble a picture; its song was penetrating, but not cutting. Ranger Flo’s expression turned even more concerned. “I think we better take this patient to the clinic for a day or two,” she said.

  “Will she be all right?” the girl in the kitchen asked anxiously.

  “I don’t know yet,” Ranger Flo answered in a tight voice. “I think we caught it soon enough to help her recover, but we can’t be sure until we try and see how she responds.”

  “That bad?” Danielle asked, a sinking feeling dropping into her gut.

  “It depends a little on how long her fever’s been this high, and why,” Ranger Flo said. “It’s unusual for mana pox to produce such a high fever. Does she feel unusual to your Mana Sense?”

  Danielle concentrated on her mana sense for a long moment, frowning thoughtfully. “No,” she said, “I haven’t had this Trait very long, but as best I can tell from my experience so far, she feels pretty normal in terms of that sense.”

  “That’s a good sign, then,” Ranger Flo said. “The worst case scenario with this is for the disease’s mana production to spiral out of control. Just a moment while I call for a stretcher truck.” She got out her radio and called in to a “Layer 1 mana pox response coordinator,” requesting a truck to building six.

  “They’ll just be a few minutes,” she said. “Will you help me assemble the stretcher?”

  “Sure,” Danielle said, and watched with fascination as Ranger Flo pulled two large telescoping rods and a roll of fabric out of the usual high-tier boti bag the Rangers all seemed to carry. She helped Ranger Flo slide the rods through loops on each side of the fabric.

  Then Ranger Flo produced a D-shaped piece and slid the sockets in its two corners over the ends of both bars. “This part helps keep the bars apart, and protects the head a little,” she explained. She shifted Mandy closer to the wall, then laid the stretcher on the bed and rolled Mandy onto it. Mandy gave a low moan, but didn’t respond otherwise.

  “You take the feet, please, and let’s get her out to the stairs,” Ranger Flo said.

  “Um, maybe Akari better do the carrying,” Danielle said nervously. “I was still walking on a slant yesterday.”

  Akari promptly came over. “That sounds like a good idea,” she said. “Danielle’s been doing much better than I was afraid she would when we started, but I’d still be nervous about her carrying other people around.”

  “Um, I think we’re done aside from that, so we can head out with the Ranger,” Heather said. “Everyone else has water, Akari got their camp stove started for the soup, they’re good on Fever-Ace.”

  “All right,” Danielle said. “You girls take care of yourselves, and make sure Mandy has a clean, healthy room to come back to, all right?”

  “We’ll be OK. Thank you, though, I was really worried,” the first girl said. Danielle vaguely thought she ought to know her a little from school, but the name wouldn’t come to her. Oh well.

  Danielle and Heather followed Ranger Flo out of the room with the stretcher; Akari led with Mandy’s feet. At the stairs, Ranger Flo had everyone helping keep the girl from sliding as the stretcher tilted while they carried it up, though she did her best to keep it fairly level also. Watching her lift the heavier end of the stretcher to keep it level with Akari’s position, Danielle was reminded that Ranger Flo was at least level 10, base and Class, with all the strength and other advantages one would expect from someone that advanced in the System.

  Still, it was only a half-flight of stairs, and then they walked the girl over to the grass and gently set her down to wait for the truck. “Danielle!” Ranger Flo called, as she was about to turn away. “Come let me have a look at you while I’m waiting, please. You’re one of the top ten people the Inside keeps asking about right now. Ranger Hart’s report of your condition on Monday evening wasn’t exactly what they wanted to hear.”

  “I don’t remember much of the last few days, but I think I’ve seen you more recently than Monday,” Danielle said.

  Ranger Flo gave a strained chuckle. “My report wasn’t what they wanted to hear either,” she admitted. “Will you lower your mana resistance for me? I’d like to give the commander and poor Bea something better to say.”

  Danielle chuckled in turn, though she suspected she also sounded a bit strained. She wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea of people Inside already treating her like a VIP, even though she’d never met any of them. Still, she lowered her Mana Deflector and told Ranger Flo, “Go ahead.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Ranger Flo used the scanner-feeling Skill on her, then a rather stronger version of See System Info than Danielle was used to feeling from her. “Are you – I’m not sure what I’m asking. Can you choose what level of a Skill to use?” Danielle asked.

  “There’s a Trait for that, yes,” Ranger Flo said. “Anyone who watches their mana usage a great deal eventually unlocks it – so pretty much all Healers, just for example.” She activated a Skill that made Danielle think of sonar, sending out a pulse and listening to how it echoed back, except she thought this one was ‘pinging’ her mana rather than her body. “Hm. Your production is still high, and I think you’d be just slightly feverish if your acetaminophen wore off – good job helping everyone keep up with that, by the way. I know there are a lot of complainers, but you’re really making a difference, and it’s helping us stay on top of things in spite of the size of this group.”

  “Yeah, Heather said you told my party not to stop me,” Danielle said.

  “We did. Keep it up today and tomorrow, and we’ll check in tomorrow night about whether to keep it going beyond that,” Ranger Flo said. “Anyway, you’re not quite out of the proverbial woods, but you’re definitely doing better, not that your ability to come out and help with temperature checks didn’t already prove that.” She switched to yet another Skill, this time something that hovered around her eyes but felt/sounded oddly deep. “Your Skill uptakes look good, too,” she added. “You’re a mana density reduction specialist’s nightmare right now, but all those new abilities are sponging up a lot of the excess and turning it into System for you.”

  Danielle nodded. “Yeah, I think I’m on my third round of going through my Careers,” she said. “Plus the cheese-induced goat Skills, and the enhancement on my watch. Do you have any idea how a watch is enhanceable, by the way?”

  “Oh, it’s the tiny little quartz in the quartz movement,” Ranger Flo said. “It’s a known phenomenon. You’ll need to keep it on most of the time if you want it to stick around; the quartz anchors it, but it’s so tiny it can’t do the energy storage it needs to be self-persistent, so it draws energy from the wearer instead. Depending on how strong the enhancement is, it might need anywhere from an hour to twenty hours of wear-time per day to stay active.”

  “Hm. I’ll have to make a project of reproducing it with my enhancer Skills,” Danielle said. “Not that I’m not wearing my watch most of the time anyway, but I’d hate to just lose such a cool enhancement, so if I can figure out how to, you know, back it up? That’d be awesome.”

  Ranger Flo chuckled distractedly. “Very few enhancers ever develop the Skills to reproduce wild enhancements that way, but considering how often you prove people wrong about what’s ‘impossible,’ I’m just going to say good luck,” she said. “Health report is good, though; as long as you continue to stay hydrated and get plenty of rest, we can confidently expect you to recover fully from here without any need for intervention.”

  “I’ll take care of myself, I promise,” Danielle said. “I’ve got a checklist in my Planner and everything. Someone must have helped me write it. It’s a lot less, um, improbable than some of the other stuff I wrote the last few days.”

  “Dare I ask what the improbable writing says?” Ranger Flo asked with a smile.

  “Let’s just say, feverish-me thought ‘totally eradicate disease’ might be a tier 3 Medic Skill,” Danielle admitted with a grin.

  Ranger Flo laughed. “Not the worst thing I’ve heard out of a delirious patient, but somehow I doubt it’ll pan out for you,” she said. A truck rolled between the buildings and carefully approached their position. “Real quick then – I’m not allowed to seek out individual Sent unless called, but since you’re here and they’re in your party, can you update me on Cassiopeia Stellana or Zephyr McPherson?”

  “I saw Cassy a little before noon; she was doing pretty well. Excited about her new Skills, heating soup for her roommates and stuff. You’ll have to ask Heather about Zephyr,” Danielle said.

  Ranger Flo looked over to Heather, who shrugged. “As of yesterday, his fever was down but he was still tired, itchy, and cranky. Oh, but he got a Skill he’s really excited about too, so that’s good.”

  “He and his temporary roommates are taking care of themselves, though? Staying hydrated and everything?” Ranger Flo probed.

  “Oh, yeah. Jordan’s one of the guys doing temperature checks for the ground floor of building one, you know,” Heather said. “I made sure they’re all being good and not overusing Weaken Disease, too, and they said they definitely only used it once a day, and yesterday they weren’t planning to use it at all, since they were feeling almost better. Tom says they’re all following the Now Hear This instructions to the letter – Fever-Ace, water, and soup. Even the evening walk.”

  Ranger Flo chuckled. “It was such a surprise when half the camp came out to take a stroll around the buildings yesterday. It’s a very good idea, though. Was that your suggestion?”

  “It was Akari’s, actually,” Heather said.

  Ranger Flo turned to Akari. “It was a good idea,” she said. “I don’t know if any of your fellow residents will thank you for it, but for myself, I thank you for getting it in there.”

  Akari blushed. “You’re welcome. Um, I’m the only one in our group that really did sports or training stuff at school, so it’s kind of my area of expertise in the party.”

  A ranger wearing an armband with a medical symbol got out of the truck and came over to them. “Just one patient?” he asked.

  “Yes, I was just checking up on the Medic here, but she’s not coming in,” Ranger Flo said. “She is fortunately doing much too well to justify that.”

  “Oh? Oh, wait, the week-three Field Medic? Miss Impossible?” the Ranger asked.

  Danielle sighed. “I very much prefer to be referred to as Medic Falconer,” she told him.

  He chuckled. “Duly noted, and it’s good to see you up and doing your thing. Is the actual patient ready to go, Flo?”

  “Yes, we’re taking her all the way back to Healer Hart. You’ve got the foot end?” Ranger Flo confirmed.

  The driver handled the other end of the stretcher, and they got the poles locked into a sort of rack in the bed of the truck, apparently designed for that purpose. Danielle looked in and saw that one of the benches had been removed in favor of the rack, most of the safety belts had been removed, and those that remained on the rack side had been re-anchored in new positions. One belt went around Mandy’s whole stretcher, presumably keeping her in, and anchored to the rack. Two more anchored the wall-side pole of the stretcher to the wall itself, each with both high and low anchor points.

  “All set,” the driver said, and jumped out of the back to head around to the cab. He gave the three roommates a quick wave.

  “Goodbye for now. Go get your lunches!” Ranger Flo said with a smile, as she belted in near the end of the remaining bench, where she could keep an eye on Mandy.

  “Bye for now,” Heather replied, and they all waved as the truck started moving.

  They got back to the room to find a pot of soup bubbling over the camp stove. Their mugs were lined up next to it on the counter, but Sadie’s was already used, washed, and sitting by the sink to dry, along with her spoon.

  “There you are!” she said, without getting up from her bed. “I was starting to wonder if you were coming, after all.”

  “We found someone who needed a visit to the Ranger clinic, and Akari ended up helping with the stretcher, and then we waited for the truck,” Danielle said. “Thanks for getting lunch ready.”

  “No problem. Heather’s been doing it all week, it was about time someone else took a turn,” Sadie said with a shrug.

  Heather dipped a mugful out for herself and settled next to her bed to eat it. Akari followed suit, and Danielle poured what was left into her own mug and headed for her footlocker. “I’m a bit late for my Fever-Ace,” she said, and got into her first aid kit for her open bottle of pain relievers.

  “We’ve been using the one out of your crate. Believe it or not, those have a sooner expiration date than the stuff we got from the store,” Akari said.

  “Oh. I, uh,” Danielle paused in the act of opening the bottle and looked around. “Where is it?”

  “On the counter, against the wall, about halfway along,” Heather said. “Ranger Hart marked our initials on them, so you’ll know which one is yours.”

  Danielle went over to the kitchen and looked on the counter against the wall, and found four little wooden bottles – she almost wanted to call them tubes. “Wow, no wonder they have a shorter expiration date,” she said. “Even if they haven’t been in storage for a year, the wooden containers can’t keep out air and water and stuff as well as plastic ones.”

  “Yeah, they seem to have a real hangup about giving us plastic stuff,” Akari said. “You hid that salad box when I called the Ranger Healers to check on you, and we thought you were just being weird, but when we mentioned it to Ranger Hart as an example of weird behavior he tried to get you to let him have it back. He kept it up until the third time you told him you weren’t letting him ‘take away your greenhouse’ and then he started laughing and gave up.”

  “I figure they had problems with it once upon a time, so they made a rule against it, and now they can’t walk it back,” Heather said. “I mean, we burn or bury all our trash, and that doesn’t work for plastic, so it’s not hard to see how there could’ve been problems.”

  Danielle got a dose of Fever-Ace out of the tube with the D on its cap, then remembered to refill her canteen so she could drink it with the medication like her checklist said. She sat down next to her bed to eat, like the others, and for a while there wasn’t much sound in the room besides slurping. Danielle ate her soup, then went through the rest of the checklist: send the Now Hear This? Done. Take Fever-Ace? A little bit late, but done. Eat soup, drink a full bottle of water? In progress. Use restroom and take everyone’s temperatures? Hm.

  “It occurs to me that when I took your temperatures this morning, I kind of used the Skill and moved on without actually reading the numbers. Are you guys still feverish at all? Do I need to keep taking your temperatures every six hours?” Danielle asked.

  “We were all below the 100 degree threshold,” Heather said. “You need to keep using up mana, though.”

  “Ah. I think maybe I should use it up somewhere more useful than here, though,” Danielle said. “Or some way more useful than that. I spent ten points of mana in that one room, mostly sterilizing stuff for them; we should go out again and do more of that.”

  “Aren’t you tired, though?” Akari asked skeptically. “I mean, according to the chart in that booklet they gave out with the soup crates, the three of us are probably on our last day of being sick, fever’s down, rash retreating, but I for one am still super tired.”

  “Well, now that you mention it, a nap does sound good,” Danielle admitted. “Maybe we can go out again after dinner, instead.”

  “If you don’t want to waste the thermometer mana, maybe just take your temperature, and then go purify everything in the cold box,” Sadie proposed.

  “I can do that,” Danielle agreed. Accordingly, she finished her soup, activated Infravision just for the sake of it, checked her temperature (a bit over 100o, but Heather assured her that getting a little warmer in the afternoon was to be expected), and then spent 5 points of mana on Purify Food in the cold box before finally checking “use restroom” off her to-do list. She started on a more realistic (she hoped) emergency leveling plan for level 2 of Field Medic while she finished her canteen of water, then lay down to see if she really was tired enough to sleep, and the next thing she knew her watch was gonging.

  They're properly panicked, but unlike bureaucrats in relevant agencies or Returned citizens, they have no authorization to receive information from a Sending zone. The only reason they know anything is going on in the first place is because of the care package volunteers getting quarantined.

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