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Twenty-seven
“Isolation”
12 January
Saturday
University of Maryland Hospital, Isolation Unit
Baltimore City Police Detective Joaquin Denton had one hell of a mystery on his hands and he didn’t want it. By rights it should have been in Charles County, but since the patient was here, next to death, the ball was in his court.
Found in a vacant lot next to a pit with an empty coffin in it, the man should have died of exposure after being abandoned by whoever he was there with, and Charles County Police reported that there was definitely evidence that he was not alone there. Why was he left to die like that?
He was a mess, that much was certain. Denton had never seen anyone in this kind of shape; generally the bodies he came across were dead homeless people who suffered malnutrition and disease or had both followed by blunt force trauma, and knife or gunshot wounds.
This fucking guy was a grotesque thing to see even from outside of the airlock door or the glass windows.
His muscles were all but gone, yet his stomach was bulging like a helium balloon. His hair and beard were about to be shaved because they couldn’t even be trimmed. The tangles and matting by water and other things made scissors look like tweezers. They weren’t even going to mess with a barber’s electric razor. No, it was going to be a laborious and delicate job with a straight razor.
His skin was a deep suntan, but burn scars were there, too. His back had a long scar from a deep cut. It looked like he’d been attacked with a machete.
Worst of all was his face. Madness dwelled behind unseeing eyes, and nobody knew anything about him.
Over the past few days, doctors had determined that Dengue had been contracted, but was now in remission. They withheld IV fluids and gave shots directly by syringes to a port. And then, the mystery got so bizarre that Denton called in and said that if he wasn’t taken off this case, he’d turn in his badge. He figured he could go to any state outside of Maryland and hire on; he didn’t need this shit.
He was about to tell the doctor who was in charge when she got called to the consultation office.
An intern got the task of telling her what the nurses refused to:
“All labs are complete and you’re not going to believe this. He’s got two intestinal parasites, both are only found in the South Pacific regions near the Philippines, and they are found in fish and shellfish. There was also evidence of a fluke, but someone got to that. Doctor Valentine said that for the patient to have infections this severe, he must have been stranded on some island alone for at least six months. That also accounts for the condition of his hair, nails and beard. The patient was found, as we know, by medics answering an anonymous call, but tell me how he had no clothes on for any time out there without freezing, and how he now displays every appearance and symptom of brain damage by high fevers, possibly the Dengue but also probably malaria before that. Tell me how he was in the Philippines. Tell me how this guy’s here?”
***
Vince answered the phone and was met with a harsh accusatory question: “Why did you idiots leave a man to die in Charles County?”
“Who is this?” He asked just as harshly.
I’m Doctor Lauren Frank at Shock-Trauma Isolation. You have an investigator missing from your ‘historical investigation’ team?”
“Two, actually. What the hell is going on?”
“An anonymous call led police to a man we can’t identify. Suppose you get your ass up here and see if he’s one of your two missing men? If he is, I’ll need a family member to sign some paperwork.”
This time it was Vince and Zelda taking Lilith to see Hippie or Joe, but probably Hippie because Joe hadn’t been in Charles County. Nobody knew where Joe disappeared from. But Hippie…
Lilith was so terrified of city traffic and the tall buildings that she was weak on her feet, unsteady and crying silently when they slowly led her inside. Zelda had an arm around her to comfort her and said, “Your memory ended in the Garden and then started here. I’m sorry it’s so scary. We’ve gone too far and done too much to this world. I know, but we’re here to help you. We won’t leave you alone to face this.” She knew that Lilith trusted them, especially her. Zelda fed her the most delicious food and always got the most grateful expressions in return.
Security took them the rest of the way but Vince was uneasy with how the guard stared with open lust at Lilith and Vince told him to watch his fucking eyes because “she’s married.” Vince, big and muscular, immediately made the guard look down.
—
She stood outside looking in, and was wide-eyed with pain for the thing on the bed. It was her husband, she knew, but why, and how was he dying?
She said in broken English, “No, cannot. He is my husband…we share.”
The doctor from the phone call braced Vince and he said, “That’s our man, but we camped overnight where he disappeared, and we couldn’t find him. And frankly, it’s not the first time. So take your judgement somewhere else. What’s his condition?”
“Dying,” she said bluntly. “He’s been eaten alive by intestinal parasites you can only get in the Philippines. You want a real puzzle? Tell me how he’s lived six months in the South Pacific when he’s only been missing since Tuesday.”
“What?” Zelda was in total denial and refused to believe such a thing.
“That’s right. South Pacific. Philippines. Parasites. Hair and beard just like you see, so bad we have to use—”
Husband, come on, get up and hold me like we held each other before…
“I don’t see anything wrong with his hair,” Zelda said. “You don’t like men with long hair?”
The doctor turned to point at his mass of hair and saw the patient sitting up, his color beautiful, ribs no longer showing, hair flowing long, straight and black, beard neat, his eyes clear, and before her eyes he began looking even better. She broke and ran. Alarms went off. Locks clicked. Nurses vanished. Red globe lights flashed. Hippie simply got up and pulled out the IV port, wrapped himself in a blanket, tore the lock from his side of the airlock, and walked out of the room.
Lilith was ecstatic. She threw her arms around him and smothered him with kisses, and he said, “Hello, my wife,” and she said, “Hello, Husband.”
But leaving was out of the question. The hospital staff and the BCPD determined that all four had to be kept in isolation now, and in the interest of peace, they finally agreed even if they could easily walk out. They needed everyone to feel safe.
The doctor and the detective never returned. The entire staff went through immediate shift change with personnel on call for emergencies. By Sunday night, they were found safe for discharge. They had questions about the patient’s blood, but nothing infectious was found. They left after Sandy came up and brought Hippie some clothes. But they had no way of knowing that an open file on Hippie was now open at USAMRIID at Fort Detrick. They were watching him.
***
At Vince’s house, They all had questions. He just went through the story from the beginning. Lilith sat on a sofa beside him, never taking her eyes off him. He loved it, he loved her; he didn’t remember anyone else ever looking at him like that. He didn’t know that he was giving her the same look, and everyone else did. After going through so much, they were finally back together. The only one who didn’t like it was Sandy. She was thinking about how this would break Shannon if—or when—she ever came back.
Lilith said, when his story was finished, “It was the Old One. He was there when my crypt was opened. He sent you away because of me. I’m sorry, Husband. I did…not know.”
“You’ve never done anything to apologize for,” he said. She did explain the rogue demons, though. It was those who opened her coffin and flung the lid so far, then protected them both.
“I did not have power over. They liked. My…chaos.”
“It must have been terrible to go so long apart from your husband,” Sandy said sarcastically. “So terrible that you played with demons and killed untold millions for eons.”
They forgave her. Lilith couldn’t remember anything but what she experienced when the demons opened the coffin and expected her to tell them what to do.
And Hippie was too happy to let it bother him.
But Hippie silently bore memories of a ship and a war that started after he was already aboard her. He remembered the delusional vision of the mermaid. He was never going to forget those things. He wished he could.
Lilith said, pulling him gently toward her, “All is past, Husband. Let go. You have me now, and I will never leave you.”
