Sea Quests: Desert Cures Chapter Three

I'm back and with the one and only chapter three. Sorry about how long the post was yesterday. I didn't notice that it was that long. I don't that this one will be long because chapter three is a particularly short chapter and it's only one chapter. Here you go.

Chapter Three

Eliza

I jump up and run to the kitchen, ready to go to school. My mom is in the kitchen making oatmeal. I look around the room for my siblings then I remember; it’s Saturday.

“You’re up early for a Saturday,” my mom says, smiling. “Are you going to come on my jog with me. It looks like you’re already dressed.”

I look down at my rumpled clothes and laugh. “Mom, these are the clothes that I wore yesterday. I guess I fell asleep before changing,” I say.

Mom nods and sits down with her bowl of oatmeal. “I understand what is happening. I know that you were stressed and that this will be hard for you,” my mom says, sprinkling brown sugar on her oatmeal.

I nod and sit down across the table from my mom. All my thoughts magically come floating back into my mind. “Mom, I don’t know how to get through the journey. How will I heal Harper? And if others get sick, how will I heal them?” I ask reducing to tears.

“Honey, you can do this. The desert people have a cure for all diseases and you must get that from them. You must get them to give it to you. You cannot steal it. It will depend on what is happening over in the desert. If people are sick there, too, it will be harder for you to get the cure,” my mom says. She stands up and grabs her sneakers.

“Do you want to come with me on my jog?” my mom asks tying her shoelaces. I nod and run to my room, quickly changing into yoga pants and an exercise shirt.  I grab my purple converse from under my bed and quickly slip them on my feet before running to the kitchen.

I tie my shoes and jog in place until my mom is done pulling her hair back in a ponytail. We run along the sand until we hear yelling from a house… Victoria’s house.

The door bursts open and Victoria runs out, tears running down her cheeks. “Eliza, you have to help me! Mom is getting the same thing that Harper has!” Victoria gasps. Her blond hair is glossy and combed even though it is only seven in the morning and it is a Saturday. Obviously she has been up for a while.

Mom runs up to Victoria and up into the house. “Dad is gone because he had a early morning meeting and so mom was the only one home with me and Hannah. Hannah’s freaking out and she almost fainted,” Victoria says between gasps. “ I don’t feel good myself.”

I give Victoria a hug and we run into the house. Mom is calling the hospital and Victoria’s mom is on the couch. Hannah is sitting on her knees by her mom. She looks up at me, her eyes pleading.

“Victoria, is she still conscious?” I ask. She nods and sits down by her mom. Mom hangs up the phone and comes over to give Victoria and Hannah a hug. “The ambulance is coming, Jane. You should be fine, no harm to your little boy,” my mom says pulling Hannah onto her feet. Victoria’s mom, Jane, nods while coughing. The door opens and James rushes in.

“My mom woke me up and told me to come over here. These are the things we need to keep track of, we need to know how many people get sick until Friday,” James says, his face red from running.

“James, we need to hurry and get down to the hospital and tell the nurse that other people are getting sick,” I say trying to think if the nurse told us her name. James nods. I look at my mom who nods as we begin to run out of the house.

“Did she tell us her name?” I ask James, failing to remember. James tugs at the bottom of his navy blue t-shirt that has a silhouette tree and some eagles on it.

“I don’t think she did, come on we need to hurry,” James replies speeding up and getting ahead of me. Suddenly I’m glad that I went on the jog with my mom. If I hadn’t, Victoria would never get the ambulance to her house and then we wouldn’t have been able to track this sickness down.

I speed up and we reach the door of the hospital, which is already opened because people are rushing in and out. We walk up to the desk that is tucked up in the left corner of the lobby by a potted plant. The first thing that I hear is the sound of ringing phones a lot of voices.

A man with dark skin and a black suit is sitting behind the desk talking on the phone like many other nurses that are answering pay phones and even cell phones. “Are you Eliza and James?” the man asks, his voice deep and rich. James and I both nod, out of breath. “Dr. Semen told me to give these to you. They are trackers that tell us how many people are sick. Whenever a person with the sickness comes in, we put a tracker on their right thumb. This will tell you how many people have the illness,” the man says, answering our nods.

He hands us a thin pad that has a glossy black cover and has a screen. It says 42, a high number. 42 on the second day? I ask myself. “The illnesses with slow down within a week,” the man says, as though reading my mind. Hannah and Victoria hurry into the hospital, a couple of nurses carrying a cot with Jane, Victoria’s mom, on it following behind them.

Victoria rushes over to me. She collapses into a hug and begins to sob. I pat her back and she gasps for more air, “Y…you ha…have to get th…the cure!” I blink away tears. Suddenly I know how much the sea depends on me.

The front door closes and opens again right after. Another family rushes into the hospital. Victoria lets go, sobbing. Her face is soaked and pink. “Please, will you really, really look for the cure?” Victoria asks me. I nod and wipe the tears off my cheeks.

“Victoria, if your mom hadn’t gotten sick I would have looked really hard, now with your mom sick, I will search really, really hard because that is what true friends do,” I say, trying to keep my voice strong, “it’s just like what you did last night, you saved me from death and now I will save your mom.”

Victoria hugs me again and we follow the nurses to the room where Victoria’s mom will be. Victoria opens the door and steps in. I give her some time to herself. When she opens the door again and ushers me in I walk through the door.

“Thank you, Eliza,” Victoria’s mom says as a take a seat in the metal chair in the corner of the room. I nod and everyone is silent. Hannah stands up and breaks the silence by saying, “James and Eliza have to find the cure, this is people’s life on line and we can’t let these lives slip away.”

I nod, standing up. “I don’t think that I should be here. This is your mom, not mine. I promise that I will find the cure,” I say wiping off my yoga pants. Victoria looks up at me.

“If you need me, I will be here, until you find the cure,” Victoria says, looking down at her hands that rest on her lap. I nod and wipe away the tears from my eyes. A nurse comes into the room and smiles at everyone.

“I knew that you would be here, Eliza, come with me,” the nurse says. Her hair is blond and tied into a ponytail. She is wearing blue scrubs and white sneakers. I stand up and followed the nurse out the door. Her sneakers squeak on the clean white linoleum floor as we walk down the hall.

I see James standing at the edge of the hall. He waves at me and smiles. I speed up to reach James. “56,” he says, his grin fading away. I nod and the nurse stops and opens the wooden door that says Employees Only. James makes a puzzled face and I look at him and shrug.

Inside there is a red couch, a bookcase, an oven and microwave, and a small refrigerator. I see the nurse that was in the room with Harper the day before. She has her hair down and is wearing jeans and a grey and white shirt.

“Take a seat, make yourself at home. Get a soda, microwave some pizza or something,” the nurse that we met yesterday says. I sit down while James goes to get a soda and some microwave pizza. Boys I think, always hungry.

“Really James? In the morning? We just woke up!” I exclaim.

“I am sorry that I did not introduce myself yesterday, it was just so chaotic,” the nurse says. I nod and the microwave beeps, telling James that his pizza is ready. “My name is Lydia Semen and I am the disease manager at the Sea Side Hospital.”

James sits down on the couch by me, chewing on his microwave pizza. I nod and elbow James, who nods afterward. In about thirty seconds the pizza has disappeared and on its way to James’ stomach.

“What about the doctor? Who was she?” I ask, questions suddenly filling my head. Lydia shakes her head and laughs. “That was my sister. She lives in Ocean Territory and luckily she was here while all this happened. She will be staying until you guys find the cure. Her name is Clare Semen.”

I nod again and wrinkle my nose, “Is she like the other ocean people?” Lydia laughs and makes a sign with her hand that indicates so-so. James stands up again. He walks over to the microwave and microwaves another pizza while still sipping at his soda.

“The reason that I have you back here so soon was for two reason, one to give you the devices to tell you how many people are sick who they are. In this case they only show the one sickness but on normal day it show how many people are at the hospital, what illness they have, who they are and what medication they need if they need one. . The second reason that I needed you in here was to tell you what to need to do. Well, I guess three things. I needed to tell you my name,” Lydia says. I laugh at the last comment. James smiles with his mouth closed because it is filled with microwavable pizza.  “What we think is that you will just have to ask the people of the desert to give you the cure. They want all people in all the regions to by healthy and give them what they need so that we do not war. Remember, this is just what we assume so please don’t blame us if it goes wrong. I guess you guys can go now,” the nurse says.

I nod and throw away my water bottle in the trashcan that is in the corner. James stands up with me and we walk out of the room. As we pass the room that Victoria’s mom is in we hear crying. James stops right after me. I hear voices and press my ear against to door. “Mom, I just don’t think that Eliza will find it.”

 Again, I would love it if you told me if I have any mistakes and if you have any suggestions please leave a comment telling me. I would love it if you would do that for me! Another chapter tomorrow! Bye! :)