The Fridays when Dr. Patel was on call were Malik’s favorite days in the office. The entire staff spent the first half of the day getting caught up on work while everyone got a chance to play their music of choice for an hour each. Then, they went out to lunch together before most of the staff headed home for the rest of the day. Malik and Christine would typically hang around to take any calls, though the phones were usually quiet. Christine would head out early to pick up her kids from school, and then Malik had the office to himself for a couple of hours. Living at home with his family, Malik rarely had time all to himself. He liked to spend the time jamming to music or lost in a book, but he couldn’t focus today. This Friday was different.
Malik checked his watch and then wiped his sweaty palms on his pant legs. Ten minutes until five, he thought just as he smelled a light fragrance in the room, the sweet yet subtle Chanel Coco Mademoiselle. Malik had selected Magaly’s name for last year’s holiday party. He knew that she only wore one type of perfume. Everyone made fun of him for not sticking to the twenty-five-dollar max. He turned around and lost his breath when he saw Magaly in her black blouse, form-fitting jeans, and heels. He wasn’t used to seeing her in anything other than scrubs. Her black hair was pulled back and tied with a red scarf, but her curls still cascaded down from her ponytail to just past her shoulders. Her golden hoop earrings were a final touch.
“I wish you had let me pick you up,” Malik said.
“I live too far out of the way. It wouldn’t have made sense.”
“I should at least change out of my work clothes,” he said.
“I like your slacks and dress shirt,” Magaly smiled.
“I think it’s okay that we close a few minutes early today.” Malik stood up and walked to the front door. He twisted the deadbolt until it clicked into place and turned off the virus detection machine.
As soon as Malik walked back to the patient area, he and Magaly both jumped when they heard a loud pounding on the entrance door. They waited for a minute, thinking the pounding would go away, but it didn’t.
“Open up!” a stern voice said from the other side of the door.
“Who in the world—?” Magaly started.
“I don’t know. All of our patients know that Dr. Patel is working at the hospital today.”
Malik walked to the entrance and peeked out of the window to see two large bodies dressed in black tactical gear, with helmets that blocked their faces. They were pushing a gurney with a person covered in a sheet on it. “They’re CB tracers. It looks like they have a patient.”
“We’re not open,” Malik shouted. “The doctor’s at the hospital.”
“Open up. It’s an emergency,” one guard shouted back.
“We are closed, and Dr. Patel isn’t here,” Malik shouted again.
“We know,” the guard said impatiently. “He’s at the hospital. He told us to come here. Open up.”
Malik looked back at Magaly. “You should grab a mask. There are some behind the desk.”
Malik waited until Magaly securely put on her mask and then opened the door. “What’s going on?”
The men eyed Magaly, and then Malik. “Are we the only ones here?”
“Yeah, we aren’t seeing patients today,” Malik said.
“Why?” Magaly asked from behind the desk.
“Good.” The man ignored Magaly as he and his partner pushed the gurney inside. “We don’t want to put anyone at risk.”
Malik noticed that the other person on the gurney was also wearing tactical gear. “What’s going on?” Malik asked again. “What happened to him?”
“We were out on patrol when our colleague here,” the man patted the side of the gurney, “collapsed. We tested him, and he came up positive for the virus.”
“Then you should be at the hospital right now, not here,” Magaly said.
“We were on our way to the hospital but were instructed to come here instead.”
“Why here?” Malik asked.
The man talking patted the man on the gurney. Why does he keep touching him?
“He had no symptoms at all this morning; then a couple of hours ago, he just collapsed into an unconscious state. We believe that he may have contracted a new strain of the virus. Dr. Patel told us we could use his office since no one would be here today. Is there a room we can put him in?”
“S—sure,” Malik said as he locked the door behind the men and turned to lead them through to the patient area.
The man said to Magaly, “Can you please go to the hospital and tell Dr. Patel that we are here?”
“I can just page him,” Magaly said.
“No, we need to ensure that he gets here quickly. And you don’t need to be in here. If this is a new strain, we need to minimize who comes into contact with it.”
“I’ll go too,” Malik said.
“No!” the man said, too loudly. “You stay here. We need someone here who knows where everything is.” He looked back at Magaly. “Now go, and hurry.”
Malik nodded at Magaly, then she turned to leave. Malik pointed the men toward a patient room when there was more loud knocking on the front door. Malik sighed. “I’ll be right back.” He went back through to the waiting room.
“Where are you going?” The lead man tried to follow him, but the door auto-locked.
Malik said, “I’ll be right back. Go ahead to the patient room. Just a minute.”
The men reluctantly pushed the gurney down the hall.
Malik looked out of the window to see three more figures wearing all-black tactical gear. Malik opened the door, and the first person said, “Are they in the back?”
“Yeah,” Malik said, “I’ll show you where.” Something about this trio was different. Maybe it was their demeanor. They seemed calmer than the first group. It could also have been their headgear. These had dark-tinted visors that obscured even more of their faces, leaving only their mouths visible. After Malik let them in, he went to lock the door again.
“There’s no need for that,” the man in charge said. “We’ll be out of here quickly. You can go to the hospital and get Dr. Patel.”
“But— Your friend just said that I needed to stay here until Dr. Patel comes.”
“It’s okay; we can cover them. You should get out of here too until the doctor comes back.”
Malik left and went to the hospital.