The Flu

"Yes, we appreciate your help."  May said into her phone as she and Coulson headed down the hallway to check on more of the people on their lists and on the division of Skye and Simmons" lists.  "No, I don't need you to send anyone.  The situation is under control and…"

Just then there was a loud booming noise from deeper in the building.  May and Coulson looked at each other, knowing all too well what the sound was, an explosion.  "I'll call you right back."

"An attack?"  she asked as they headed in the direction they thought the explosion was coming from.  If someone knew that everyone in the building was sick except a handful of people, it would be the perfect time for an enemy to mount an attack.  And if they were under attack…  May was confident that even with just herself, Coulson and Ward they could mount an effective defense, but how could they manage that with the sick agents scattered through the building, and Victoria in critical condition, fighting for her life, upstairs?

"Communications."  Part of Coulson felt relieved when he saw smoke pouring out of the main communications room.  If someone was attacking and trying to breach the building, surely they would go for the doors or an exterior wall, but he wasn't about to let his guard down as they reached the doorway just as Ward staggered out, dragging two techs on either side of him.  "What happened?"  He demanded to know.

"I don't know."  Ward said as he eased the techs, who now had painful coughing to deal with on top of the shivering and achinging of the flu down onto the floor.  "We were checking them, and a bottle of water got knocked over and….  Wait, where's Fitz?"  He looked around as he realized that the engineer hadn't followed him out of the room.  "Is he still in there?"  He turned, and started to head back in, only for Fitz to come staggering out, coughing as he come, wires clutched in his fist.

"Fitz, what were you doing in there?"  Coulson demanded as he looked around the other man.  The smoke was too thick to really see anything in the communications room, but at least he didn't see leaping flames.  Hopefully that was a good sign.  "Is anyone else in there?"

"Just the two."  Fitz said as he waved at the coughing techs and then had to stop and cough himself before he held out the wires.  "Got a fire extinguisher and pulled these before they got too damaged.  It looks like the same work that there was down in the lab."  And not only did it look like the wires had been damaged either when they were removed from where they had been located originally, or when they were put into the communications room, but it looked like they were in poor condition to start with.  "Agent Hand is going to kill whoever did this when she's feeling better."  And his pride in engineering and good work made him want to have more than a few words with whoever was responsible too.

"Wait, this was an accident?"  Coulson asked.

An accident?  Was Coulson thinking sabotage?  Fitz's brow furrowed as he considered it.  "I don't know.  If I knew who worked on that panel last I might be able to make a better guess."

"Edwin Tuttle."  One of the communications techs said between coughs.  "Level 4 maintenance tech.  Always looking for a way to level 5, letting everyone know how fast he works, how he keeps maintenance costs down."  The man shivered as he slid down the wall, his head foggy with fever and now with smoke.  "Where's Agent Hand?"  Shouldn't she be here with the other agents, demanding answers to why her communications room had just suffered an explosion?

"Agent Hand is resting right now."  Coulson said.  "We're filling in for her until she feels better.  Ward, can you take these two down the hall and away from the smoke?  Fitz, can you take another look, see if you can be sure if this isn't some attempt at sabotage?"

"Clear the smoke a little and….  Wait, we need to vent the smoke!  Smoke rises!"  And even with the small fire that the short had triggered out, more smoke was still pouring out of the room.  If even a bit of that made it upstairs to Agent Hand's office….

Coulson nodded.  Smoke inhalation was definitely not what Victoria needed to be facing at the moment.  As sick as she was, it would trigger pneumonia for sure.  "Fans?"

"Fans and an open window might do it.  Do the windows even open here?"  It wouldn't be very sophisticated, but it would be fast, and that's what they needed.

"I'll get a window open somehow."  May said, and hopefully opening the window wouldn't require too much breakage or possible structural damage.

"And I'll get fans."  Coulson said.  He was suddenly very glad he had dropped his phone somewhere.  He wasn't looking foreword to calling Fury to report to him about this.

"Agent Hill?"  Steve Rogers asked as he followed the Deputy Director down the hall.  "Could I ask what's going on?"  He had been about to leave to visit some of the sights to try to catch up a bit more when the lockdown announcement was made.

"I think the director better explain that."

Fury was on the phone as they entered, and he waved at them to wait.  He had finally got through to medical at the Fridge.  Hopefully they would have better news for him than the medical staff here.  "Doctor, you have three cases of this on your hands.  I've told you about the situation at the Hub.  What's your opinion?"

The doctor on the other end of the phone was glad the the Fridge was located far away from the director, but with what he had to say, he wasn't sure it would be far enough.  "We have three cases, but those three cases were already in medical, with minor burns from contact with an 084.  I can tell you that we've found temperatures of 105 in all three of them."

"But this cytokine storm that medical here is talking about, no signs of that?"  Fury demanded.

"Not yet, but their immune systems were already slightly low.  It might have provided a degree of protection to them.  But someone without any compromise, what were the symptoms you reported again?"

"Fever of 106.2, and something about possible seizures."  Fury said, suddenly remembering the last part.  Seizures and the fever, what sort of damage could that do to the brain?

The doctor winced at the mention of seizures, although he supposed it would be better to go from one of those, than from having your lungs fill with fluid from pneumonia.  At least a seizure and triggered respiratory arrest would be quick.  "I can't be 100 percent sure, not without seeing Agent Hand or the other agents, but….  I wouldn't question your medical staff's diagnosis."  And that worried him seriously for the safety of the patients he already had, and the potential for more illness if there were more problems with the defective shots.

"Treatment options?  Can you give me something there, then?"  Fury demanded.

"Under 24 hours from symptoms developing to the condition you reported for Agent Hand, there's nothing we could get to them in time."

"Life support isn't an option?"  Not that he was sure of how he would contact Coulson and the other agents.  Coulson's phone kept going to voice mail and May's kept showing busy but if someone could give him an option to save those people, he would find a way.

"If there are milder cases, and there's someone there who knows how to initiate it, it might be some help.  But as for Agent Hand, honestly with what you're reporting, even if they could put her on the machines, all it would do would be delay the end.  And if she did suffer a seizure, she could very well be already brain damaged or brain dead."

"Sir?"  Steve looked at Fury with concern as he abruptly ended the phone call.  "What's going on?"

"What's going on is that we're in the middle of a flu epidemic, and I might be having to plan a funeral for one of my level 8 senior agents.  We were provided with defective shots that have managed to take out one of our bases better than any enemy could do.  You're about the only one who might be safe to investigate this.  Head to the company that provided the vaccines, see what you can find out.  I want to know if this was an accident, or not."

The flu.  Steve winced a bit.  His mother had lost two sisters to the flu back in 1918, and he knew how bad a way it was to go.  "Right away.  And sir, I'm very sorry about your agent."

Jasper came in, envelope in hand, and stopped Steve as he was going out, and after a few words, money was exchanged.

"Sitwell, what was that about?"  Fury demanded as soon as Rogers was gone.

"We're taking up a collection for flowers for Victoria's funeral."  Jasper said  If as many people were affected by this as they were afraid of, she could easily get lost in the crowd, and he and Felix didn't want that.  They could arrange something nice for her before panic hit and people were reluctant to contribute.  "Felix is already sending a hundred. and I've got four hundred more already.  What about the two of you?"

Funeral flowers.  They were already planning to order funeral flowers?  But….  Fury pulled out his wallet and tossed a couple of fifties to Sitwell, while Maria went through her pockets, and said she would find more in her office.  Funerals.  He was going to have to go to a lot of funerals very soon, he was afraid.  How he hated going to funerals.