Day 22

"If we are going to figure this bloody thing out, we need a sample" Benjamin finally says. Abigail, Riley, Hunter, and Isabella are sitting in the break room.

Abigail finds herself nodding in agreement. It had been over a week since their last meeting and they hadn't found out anything. So far they had eliminated all but two of the possibilities that Benjamin had written on the white board.

"That and a bloody drink" Benjamin mutters more to himself than to anyone else in the room.

Abigail and Riley share an amused glance.

Hunter nods in agreement.

In the past few days Abigail has gotten to know each new member of the team. She and Isabella have gotten to know each other fairly well, she discovered that Isabella had been in two semesters through veterinary school before switching to human medicine. Hunter was looking more and more like a big brother figure, pediatrics his forte. Capitan Marian still intimidated the hell out of her, and Riley was… sweet.

"You always want a bloody drink" Riley says to the man.

"And I haven't had a bloody drink in three weeks…I am going bloody mad" Benjamin answers gruffly.

"You're driving me bloody mad" Abigail hears Riley mutter to himself while Isabella tried to suppress her laughter.

"I'm surprised you haven't gone into withdraw. But you're right, I'd kill for one right now too."

Abigail nods in agreement.

"So let's go get one" James answers.

Isabella stops laughing then. 'B-but the outbreak?" she questions.

"Well aside from that one report…there haven't been any others have there?" James asked.

"Did you really just ask that?" Hunter demands.

"Beau didn't reach the hospital in time. The hospital that man was sent to is completely shut down. There hasn't been much coverage. Just that there was a biohazard from a patient that went from a Code Grey to a Code Orange. All that I know is that the man attacked a couple of nurses. Looks like the ICU doctor on call knew something and quickly shut down the hospital. Sounds like the media is trying to keep it under-wraps." Benjamin explains.

"And there was another about a family of five who attacked a woman and devoured her before the man was killed." Isabella chimes in.

"And there have been almost three hundred reports of people catching the disease and killing their family and friends in Eastern Europe. CDC hasn't confirmed it a pandemic, but this can't stay hidden for much longer" Riley says.

Benjamin rolls his eyes "So no bloody drink then"

Abigail shakes her head sympathetically.

"How long before he goes into withdrawals?" Abigail hears James whisper to Riley when Benjamin walks out the room muttering to himself.

"Who knows…if he got bitten by a mosquito the poor mosquito would be hung over for a week" Riley replies.

Abigail laughs. "Really?".

"Most likely" Riley grins. "But believe me, he is always stone cold sober when we are at work. It's after that." he quickly defends he coworker.

"So we have gotten rid of mad-cow, neurotoxins and ironically enough, nanobots are still on the table" Hunter says bringing the group back to the topic at hand.

"What's left" Isabella askss.

"Toxoplasmosa gondii , Neurogenesis and nanabots" James scoffs.

"And we won't be able to test the toxoplasmosa gondii or nanobots unless we can get a sample" Abigail says thinking aloud.

"Have you heard anything from the South America team?" Hunter asks.

"Are we seriously talking about this while we are on break?" James demands suddenly.

"Let's talk to the others. And wait a few more days…who knows what could happen" Isabella is the voice of reason

Abigail sighs, the South America team really could have found something.

"Come on, break's over" Hunter says as he stands up.

Abigail follows suit offering a hand to Isabella.

The woman takes her hand with a smile, "I h-have to go check on the animals…there could be a change" They had injected a few rats with a Mad Cow strand to see if there was a possibility it had been that, but so far there was nothing to report.

Abigail nods.

On her way to the lab, Abigail runs into Beau and Kaitlyn.

"Abigail, welcome back from your break. How have the test been going?" Beau asks.

"We have almost eliminated mad cow from the list of possibilities, Isabella is checking on the rats now…that leaves us with toxoplasmosa gondii and neurogenesis." She hesitates, and nanobots. But we would definitely need a sample if we are going to test for toxoplasmosa gondii. And a female soldier with a contraceptive implant" Abigail explains.

Beau and Kaitlyn looked at one another. "South American just called, toxoplasmosa gondii has been eleminated." Katilyn reports.

"We really need a sample then don't we." Riley says coming up behind Abigail, his hand resting just above the small of her back for the briefest of seconds. She jumps and hopes that a blush hasn't appeared on her face.

"You do make a valid point" Beau muses.

"Has Marian been able to contact the Pentagon?"

"She has, but HIPPA has been an endeavor." Kaitlyn pauses when her phone dings, indicating either a text or an email. She pauses and looks at her phone. "New York has reported 500 more cases. Moving those infected into prison cells. There are now 80 in Chicago." Kaitlyn replies looking up from her phone.