The Quaranteam Universe is the creation of CorruptingPower, used with permission. One notable event is borrowed from Off The Grid (by BronanTheLibrarian), if you follow that story you’ll know it when you see it.
—-
Chapter 11: International Studies
20 August 2020
No matter the person, no matter the age, there is always a kind of awkwardness to the morning after a new member imprints into a new team. This was true of the young and enthusiastic Shannon, it was true of the direct and abrasive Callie, and it held true for the older Esther. She sat at the small table, barely fitting with the others, and blearily sipped her own coffee (bck, two sugars). Her voice was quiet, her accent slightly clipped. “Thank you for welcoming me into your home.”
Adam took a nibble of his toast, checking to make sure Shannon was eating (and that Callie still wasn’t). “And thank you for choosing me. I’ll go ahead and say, no matter how expected or not you were, we make things work here. Going to be a bit cramped, unfortunately, but that should be temporary.”
Esther closed her eyes to take a calming breath. “That should not be a problem. I brought a cot, and have slept on worse for longer. It is almost a relief to be somewhere out of the way.”
Shannon sipped her own coffee. “Not much happening out this way, that’s true. So, we know you’re a doc. Anything more specific you want to share with the css?”
The movement was a subtle one. Esther’s eyes hardened ever so slightly, her lips thinned half a millimeter. Shannon missed it entirely, but from the immediate reaction Adam caught the hint. Bme his time as a teacher for helping him spot problems early. “Not that you’re a student, mind, and if it’s uncomfortable feel free to take it easy.” The fact that he omitted the typical “we don’t keep secrets” part of these kinds of speeches was telling to someone who knew to look for it. Lucky for him, nobody in the room seemed to be looking for it.
Esther seemed to accept it, though. “My life story is a very long one. Short version, both of my grandmothers were young women when Japan invaded during World War Two, both of my grandfathers were Japanese invaders, which meant that my parents were both half and half. Neither country much likes acknowledging they exist, and myself by extension, so we came to the States. Don’t ask me how they ended up in Mobile, Abama. No version of the story they ever told me made sense. I got tired of dodging red hats, white hoods, and blue line stickers, so once I went to medical school I never looked back and ended up here.”
“That doesn’t seem very fair to some Republicans, Libertarians, and police I know,” Adam chided… gently.
“Maybe the Venn Diagram isn’t a circle, Adam, but it has more than enough overp for someone like me to realize that it is… call it hazardous.”
“Can’t help but notice there are a few gaps in the tale.” Callie’s look was a battle-tested one, meant to elicit missing information from terrified targets behind the scenes of major court cases. It had, more than once, caused people from police to convicted murderers to slip up and say things that she had been looking for.
It bounced off of Esther without effect. “I did warn you the full version would take a while. I’m sure I’ll tell the story bit by bit, eventually.”
“Anyway,” Adam interrupted, “Shannon, it’s Thursday, so I know you have one of your streams in less than an hour. Callie, you mentioned being busy on the case that just dropped into your p. We probably need to get to it.”
“And you are doing your best to interrupt fights,” observed Esther. “Admirable, though.”
“Teacher instincts, what can I say?”
“Ah, right, your profile did say that. Expins the comment earlier.”
Shannon chuckled a bit. “Nah, that was just me being a smart alec. I’ll cim it when I’m innocent.” She stood, stretching in a way she knew drew Adam’s eyes and libido. “AJ, it’ll take me a few minutes longer than usual to get set up since Callie was using the TV as a screen st night, but I’m feeling the need for you before my stream. You up for it?”
He smiled broadly. “Of course. Just get set up first so that you don’t get distracted.”
Shannon grinned wickedly at the thought and sashayed off to the living room. Callie got to work putting away the dishes from their completed meal. Esther, for her part, had a harder time processing things. “It seems to be an unusual kind of family I’ve gotten myself into. Very… open.” She said that st adjective with an even mix of confused fascination and concern. “I do hope sex isn’t all you ever think about.”
“It isn’t, though perhaps a lot more than I did a few months ago. I’m sure you have been noticing the side effects of your shot this morning.”
Esther looked down at the coffee mug she was still holding. “I had. It’s strange to me. I have not really had these urges for fifteen years, yet here I am. If you asked nicely, I feel like I’d be happy to go to that bed and be round one while that girl… Shannon, her name was?... is busy getting ready.”
“I’d say you get used to it, but I’m not the one who got the injections. Just the guy trying to keep up.”
“And oh, so very disappointed at the side effects, I’m sure.” Esther deadpanned. “Don’t mind me too much, you can go get to your… teammate? Is that the word?”
“First off, she’s your teammate, too. We’re a package deal. So is Callie, it’s kind of how this whole thing works. Second off, you and I both know this conversation isn’t done. We as a nation don’t have so many doctors running around that we can afford to pull them off rotation in general, so we need to figure out how you’re going to do what you do.”
“I’m a General Practitioner, and thanks to some fights against Covid and one or two other upper respiratory infections earlier this year I’ve been on remote duty. The muscle to the nurse line, basically. All I need is a room with some privacy where I can set up my work ptop.”
“The only one we have that fits the bill now is the bedroom, you can use it any time I’m not…” Adam drifted off, the look on his face betraying a sudden pain in his heart that had nothing at all to do with anything a doctor could help with.
“Adam? Are you alright? You dropped the end of the sentence there, do I need to be worried about health issues other than what the serum people told me about?”
He shook his head, clearing it much like his thoughts were written on an Etch-a-Sketch. “I’m okay. Just realizing that my own remote job won’t be interfering unless I get word of changes.” He closed his eyes for a moment, regret written on his features. “So, like I was saying, as long as the bedroom isn’t being used for something…”
“Adam! I’m set up and waiting for you!”
“... then it’s avaible. I’ll keep the window open when I can, if it’s any consotion.”
Esther’s sarcastic “thanks” would have to do. He stood and scurried off, hoping that his raging boner was not too evident as he passed his newest teammate. The st thing he heard before entering his bedroom, followed by his willing and eager girlfriend, was Esther’s voice asking if Callie had ever filled out a food log before.
As soon as the door was closed, Shannon was all over him. Her desperation belied the recency of her st dose, physiological need had nothing to do with it. They were out of their clothes, but her single minded intensity precluded even making it the few steps over to the bed. Shannon sank to her knees and took him into her mouth, sucking his dick with a will and the knowledge that she couldn’t have done so a week prior. Adam was fully hard in seconds, legs barely holding him as he leaned back against the door. A cool shock of air on his shaft snapped his eyes open in time for him to look down at her.
She met his gaze, and without breaking eye contact lifted her heavenly breasts up to engulf him. She began to pump, pressing her breasts close around him, seeming to stare straight into his soul as she did. In moments, he felt himself ready to blow.
Adam really did try to st. The sensations were indescribable, the connection with her intense, and he didn’t want the moment to end. There is, however, only so far that willpower can go under that kind of assault. She felt the moment arrive, too, and dove in to swallow his length once more. He came, powerfully, but she managed to keep up and drink him down without spilling a drop.
Slowly and sensually she stood… then put on enough clothing for modesty on stream and went to brush her teeth. Adam took a few moments to recover, put on his own clothing, then opened the window. After all, he’d said he would.
***
21 August 2020
Esther was sitting on his bed at about ten that morning, head in her hands and looking like she was about to tear her already-white hair out. Adam came to check in as he heard the newly-familiar hang-up tone coming from her computer, followed by her muttering under her breath. “What’s wrong?”
She looked up, gring daggers at him. “What’s wrong? The only person who makes the least bit of sense in this household is YOU… and you’re recovering more quickly from your infection than the other extremely rare examples we have of unvaccinated male DuoHalo survivors. Just… look at this!”
Adam came to sit next to her, wondering what exactly was going on. The screen showed a document with a mess of figures and numbers he barely grasped, and that only because of his own limited medical training combined with a certain familiarity with the subject. “This is about Callie, right? I think I recognize the weight checkpoints to the side.”
Her eyes reflected her frustration with what she was seeing. “You’re right, as far as it goes, but look at the spreadsheet. The left column is her intake from the food journal, as best as she could remember for the past three days. The right is my estimate of her calorie expenditures from what I observed yesterday and what she has told me.”
He looked over the numbers. The ones on the right seemed much rger than the ones on the left. “What is this number by itself, off to the side?”
Esther groaned. “That number is the frustrating part! I’m used to seeing people run calorie deficits, whether it’s because they’re dieting, struggling with a disorder, or dealing with the side effects of medicine. This number, though, is unreal. Four THOUSAND calorie daily deficit? Over a pound of pure fat burning every day just to keep her alive? That’s nearly double what most adults eat in a day AT ALL, and that’s her DEFICIT. It would be like an Olympic swimmer deciding to keep up their workout routine while following a fad diet! It’s not even the worst part, either.”
“I’m afraid to ask, but hit me.”
“That accounts for barely over half of the weight loss she has noted. I weighed her this morning, Adam, on a scale I calibrated myself. Two hundred and fifty-four pounds. She is losing two pounds a day like clockwork. Or, to rephrase, about seven to ten times the maximum recommended rate. Best I can tell, what isn’t being burned is literally being directly excreted. By all reason, she should be dead, and yet she is two rooms over, stubbornly refusing to stop moving.”
Adam permitted himself a smile. “She does everything stubbornly, so that much isn’t a surprise.”
If looks could kill, the one Esther gave him would have left the team without an anchor. “Not helping. Fortunately for her, whatever is doing this is causing her skin to contract right with it, so she isn’t getting some of the more cssic problems with rapid weight loss. Did you measure Shannon earlier like I asked, or did you get too distracted?”
“I’ll have you know that I made sure to do it before she distracted me. Her measurements as of an hour ago are a 28 inch underband with 39 and three-fourths inches around the fullest part.”
Esther input the measurements into another spreadsheet, looking at the numbers that sprang up thanks to unknown equations in other cells. “That also makes no sense, but for an entirely separate reason. In a mere 23 days, she has gone from a C cup to being just shy of an H. Mere days earlier, and she had nothing notable on her ribcage. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but even in severe cases of breast growth stemming from severe hormone imbances or cancer the rate is usually a tenth of that, a fifth at most. That tter is usually in cases that are in medical textbooks or are considered life-threatening.”
“From the way you’re talking about it, this one doesn’t follow the pattern. Or so I hope.” There was, after all, a shortage of perfect breasts in the world. It would be a shame to waste Shannon’s.
“No, it doesn’t! She is the picture of disgustingly perfect health! I can’t even find the slightest shred of evidence she ever had to use the scar gel she showed me, which was in her records as being quite necessary.”
“I applied a lot of it myself for the first month she was here. It wasn’t necessary after that, the scarring peeled off to the point that it wasn’t easily visible without close inspection.”
“Sure. Call it ‘close inspection,’ Adam. I’m sure the hardship you endured inspecting her closely was immense and Sisephean, requiring constant renewal of effort.”
Adam grinned. “Oh, of course. The massages to help her back and chest muscles are entirely incidental.”
“Entirely. Now, even the faint remnants are becoming less and less evident. And you know the most frustrating part?”
“Even more than the rest? Do tell.”
“My freaking libido, that’s what! I’m about to beg you to clear off this bed and pound me unconscious. I’ve NEVER had to beg anyone for that.”
“Then ask politely, it works around here.” Adam was already getting out of his shirt.
“... Please?”
***
24 August 2020
The television was on in the background, the news on to provide some white noise. “Rescue and recovery operations continue in Spokane after the recent and unexpected wildfire burned down much of the town. Authorities say that they do not suspect foul py, but are investigating the cause. Fireworks seem to be the most likely culprit due to loud booming noises heard prior to the confgration. The State of Washington reminds everyone that it is still summer, and to be careful to extinguish both campfires and cigarettes completely so as to avoid more tragedies…”
Adam shook his head. “Who the heck would be out CAMPING in the middle of a pgue? Or go out shooting off fireworks?”
Esther was carefully examining his left arm, looking for a vein. Nodding, she wiped off her chosen spot with an alcohol swab. “The same kinds of people who would forget to extinguish their fire when they do. I just hope they got the town evacuated in time. Make a fist…” She inserted the needle into her chosen target.
“Ow!”
“Bme the fact that I don’t have a dedicated phlebotomist. Rex the fist.”
Shannon was standing to the side, watching the process with some degree of fascination. She, like Callie on the bean bag chair, already had a bandage on her arm where Esther had drawn blood. “Is there a reason we’re doing this here and not in a clinic or hospital?”
Esther rolled her eyes in a way that looked odd on her wizened face. “Because requesting facilities access to a new pce when you aren’t working there is painful in ways that I have not found words to describe in English, Korean, or Latin. That process should finish soon, but I can’t risk the wait. Not when all of you have things that are changing this rapidly.” She turned her attention back to the slowly-filling vial of blood.
Callie gave a sharp ugh. “If it’s anything like requesting a court action from another jurisdiction, I’ll go ahead and add Gaelic and German to that list of nguages.”
Shannon shrugged, setting her own version of rapid changes jiggling noticeably under her light tee shirt. Her breasts had, as predicted, hit H cups and kept on going. “I can’t really argue that point. Did you want the depiction of my scarring, still?”
“It shouldn’t be necessary, but sure. Can’t hurt. Your records have a lot of the initial pictures but not after you had settled into your routine alone.” With practiced (but simirly painful) hands, she stopped the blood draw from Adam and removed the vial, bandaging him up afterwards with cool efficiency.
Something was off about her setup, and Shannon was the one to notice. “Wait. You’ve already gotten samples from the three of us. Why are there still empty vials on that mini-rack?”
“Because unless one of you can do it, I have to greatly disappoint several of my medical school professors and take a sample from myself.” Esther was already sitting down on the couch and reaching for materials.
“You? I don’t see any big changes happening to you, Esther.” Callie was peering at her closely, as if looking for signs of her wrinkles fading or her spine straightening out.
Esther, being focused on her own vein, didn’t respond. Other than saying something under her breath that sounded like Latin in a tone that sounded like profanity. Callie blinked when she heard it, but did not further eborate.
It was Adam who filled her in. “You were looking at the wrong time. Esther managed to wake up smoothly this morning. She was drinking her coffee like she enjoyed it, not like it was the only thing keeping her from walking back to the cot.”
“I’m impressed you noticed.” Esther was by now capping her own vials and bandaging herself up.
“I’ve been a teacher in the great state of Washington for over ten years. Trust me, I know what caffeine dependency looks like.”
“Said as a person who drinks more coffee than water.”
“I am not exempt from my own observations. I started in college and have no intention of stopping. Speaking of, I’m going to go grab the st bit in the pot.” He walked off to the kitchen to do so.
“Consistency is key, I see.” Esther stood and stretched, a motion that looked odd on her. “I noticed around the time that I was pulling my gear out of my bag today that I was feeling less creaky than usual.”
“That’s not a bad thing, though. Right?” Shannon walked over and started to try to help Esther put away her equipment, but was stopped. Gently, but quite firmly, Esther put her own hand in between Shannon’s and her gear.
“Please don’t touch unless you know what you’re doing. And no, not a bad thing, but the coincidence was one too many for me.”
Callie had been turning to go back to her own work setup at the kitchen table, but froze and slowly turned. “What… do you mean by ‘one too many?’”
Esther was puzzled. “I’m here on recommendation. Between you and Shannon there are a lot of medical oddities going on, so Adam was being promoted to doctors. He didn’t tell you?”
Two heads slowly shaking came back in her direction.
“I see. Before I was brought over here I was briefed on you two, and on what kinds of information I needed to be ready to supply to the serum team on request. All the calls Adam had to make put you three on the radar.”
“Whose radar? I prefer to be a stealth wyer whenever I’m not doing things in person.”
“I know some of the serum team doctors are paying attention, but besides them? Not sure.” She closed her kit up. “I don’t like being the center of attention any more than you do. The drawbacks generally far outweigh the benefits. Hopefully the data I am helping gather and send is enough to cool their curiosity.”
She obviously doesn’t know very many scientists, does she?
Adam chose that moment, perhaps unwisely, to step back into the room while sipping at his fresh mug of coffee. He was met with three gres coming from three separate women. Some social signals were harder to read than others. This was not one of those signals. “Uh, what did I do?”
Shannon rather archly replied. “Were you pnning on telling us that your profile was being boosted on Oracle?”
I’m pretty sure he’d forgotten about that piece of the call until she reminded him, and his reaction nearly resulted in spraying the living room with coffee mid-sip. He coughed a few times, his lungs not being nearly as effective at receiving the drink as his stomach.
Callie seemed satisfied with the response. “Okay, that answered why we hadn’t heard.”
Esther transferred her look from Adam to Callie. “What do you mean?”
“I mean he wouldn’t be gasping for air right now if this was pnned.”
“I’m… ah, sorry about that. One call mentioned it as a possibility, but I was making a lot of calls.” Adam had mostly recovered, and without spilling too much of his drink. “It looks like that one came through.”
“More unexpected results? More unexpined events? If I didn’t know any better, I’d accuse Oracle of being a government program.” Esther is much funnier when not aimed directly at you. “Adam, I need to use a corner of the fridge for a couple of days for these.”
Adam, rather desperate for an escape from the conversation, seized the opportunity with both hands. “Uh, sure. Just make sure you put something under them in case something happens… and I’m preaching to the choir, aren’t I?”
Three nods met him.
“Okay. Um. I’ll just… go check my emails now.” He scurried off to the bedroom with absolutely unseemly haste. For once, not because he was chasing Shannon. To his credit, he even got himself started like he said he would. Computer on, password in, and with a familiar series of clicks he started up his usual programs. Everything he would need to do his job, just like almost every single day of the st four months.
As expected, his email boxes didn’t contain any world-shaking updates. The amount of spam he got was much reduced from st year, but not zero. Perhaps it was still automated? Certainly not imaginative. The scams still needed blocking. No alerts from the bank, no new deals begging people to order groceries from different pces. Same as every day.
What was different was when he finally looked at the calendar. At the alert he was four hours overdue for. The alert that said he had children to teach. That it was the first day of school, and he needed to be in the cssroom for it.
Adam’s vision narrowed, he could only see the alert. His stomach sank, taking his heart with it. He could near nothing but the roar of blood in his ears, the rasping breath in his throat. He could feel nothing but an explosive dread in his soul and a tingling in his fingertips.
Nobody had called to say he missed setup. Nobody had sent him his schedule or pns. His school would not open. There had been too many deaths among the teachers, too many deaths among the staff.
Too many deaths among the students.
Adam’s world was torn apart, and he felt like his heart was torn with it. His body struck the ground, but his consciousness had fled well before it did.
