red-head, Sheila, leaning over him. Ryan, and a blonde lady he’d seen in the pub before, had been

there too. Where were they now?

A blanket wrapped around him tightly. Fizz’s t-shirt had been slashed in two, left hanging like an

open waistcoat. Little round, sticky pads were on his bare chest. Sheila told him he’d stopped

breathing, and they’d had to do CPR.

Fizz didn’t understand. “Why wasn’t I breathing? Can I see Ash now?”

One of the paramedics, a man, helped Fizz to stand. Keeping an arm around him, he started to walk

him out of the room. “Ash?”

“You can see him later.” Sheila caught up to his other side. “Can’t he, Nige?”

The paramedic said, “Yeah, wait till we get to the hospital, check you all over. You coming in the

van, Sheila? They won’t mind, as they know you.”

“Yeah, I’ll come.” Sheila moved in front, as the hall ahead was too narrow for the three of them.

“Good job I can nip to the staff room and get my own tea bags, though.”

Fizz moved in a daze. He was walked down the stairs, and outside to what looked like a scene from

a disaster movie; ambulances, police cars, flashing lights, and yellow tape saying Police Do Not

Cross.

Fizz felt panic swirl in his stomach. “Do you know my cousin?” he asked Sheila. They led him to an

ambulance, helping him inside.

“Dan? Yes, he’ll be at the hospital, too,” Sheila said, sitting down on a bench. Fizz sat next to her,

then did a double take as he realised that opposite them was a body on a stretcher, a man he didn’t

recognise.

“It’s okay.” Sheila squeezed his hand. “He’s just unconscious. That was one of the guys who first

came to help, and he, um...collapsed like everyone else.”

“Oh my God!” Fizz stared at the man, strapped into the stretcher. His eyes were shut, like he was

asleep. “Is...is my cousin okay?”

“He collapsed too, love. I’m sure everyone will be fine, though.”

“Oh God!” Fizz tried to stand, the blanket stopped his arms from moving. Sheila urged him to sit.

The paramedic, the one Sheila had called Nige, closed the vehicle door with a slam. Fizz’s panic

spiked. Where was Ginger? And Ash? What the hell had happened to everyone?

“Please.” He gripped onto Sheila. “I need to see them. What happened? I have to know they’re

okay!”

“They will be,” she answered calmly.

In his confusion, Fizz mistook her calm for indifference. He pushed away from her, trying to pull

the blanket off him. “Let me out!”

The paramedic swiftly undid Fizz’s blanket, but pushed him down to sitting with strong hands.

“Hold still,” he said firmly. “We can’t have you moving about when the van starts. You can see

everyone at the hospital.”

Fizz didn’t understand. He felt something tug at the edge of his memory, like a dream he could

almost remember. The panic took over his actions, making him want to move, to do something. The

man pulled out a syringe, and in a patient voice explained that it would “help him relax.”

“But what about the others?” Fizz trembled as they held him still.

“They’ll be all right,” Sheila said. “Just do as Nigel says, love.”

The needle stung his arm slightly. He winced, watching the plunger go down, pushing clear liquid

into his body. Would it react with his pills? It was probably stronger. Fizz had been sedated before, at

the dentist’s when he was younger. It was the only way the dentist could get near him. He hadn’t liked

it then, and he didn’t like it now.

Nigel encouraged him to lie down, and when Fizz tried to blink, his eyes stayed closed.

* * *

In a little side room, two nurses had Ryan, Rachel and Matt sit on the bed and chairs, while they

checked them over. All their vitals were fine; responses, blood pressure. Rachel had to be given a

sedative, as she was close to hysterics.

Strangely, her panic was what made Ryan realise he had to stay calm.

When they’d pulled up outside casualty, and more nurses had rushed out to help with the stretchers,

Ryan had panicked at being separated from Ginger. When Rachel lost it and burst into tears, Ryan

realised his choices were sedation, or to calm down.

He chose to calm down. He squeezed Beth’s pendant tight in his hand, and thought to himself, as

soon as he had a chance he’d sneak away and see Ginger. The nurses with them said that everyone else

who’d been brought in was stable. That was all that mattered.

“If you just do these tests with us now,” one of them said, “then we’ll take you to see your friends.”

Ryan nodded numbly, going along with what they wanted. Rachel was helped onto the bed to lie

down, and encouraged to sleep.

When Ryan and Matt were handed little pots, Matt threw Ryan a frustrated scowl. “I’m not pissing

in this!” he declared.

“It’s the quickest test we can do,” the older nurse explained. “We need blood samples too.”

“What? Why?” Matt frowned at her. “I’m fine. Ryan’s fine. Rachel’s fine. We’re all fine!”

“We don’t know that,” she said. “And until a diagnosis comes back on your friends, they might

even have to quarantined. We need to make sure you aren’t at risk.”

“I’m not –” Matt stopped himself from talking. Ryan looked at him, trying to convey warning in his

eyes. Matt breathed in. “Okay,” he said. “Fine.” He got up and stomped into the closet bathroom,

slamming the door behind him.

Ryan clutched the empty sample pot in one hand, the pendant in the other. How had it come to this?

The nurses spoke in hushed tones, darting wary glances at him. One of them left the room, while the

other moved over to the bed, checking on Rachel.

The door to the bathroom opened a crack. “Ryan,” Matt hissed. “Come and...help me pee.”

Ryan knew instinctively that Matt didn’t actually need help peeing. At least, he bloody hoped not.

He stood up, leaving his blanket on the chair.

The nurse glanced over her shoulder at him. “You two all right?”

“Yeah, fine,” Matt said. “I...look, we’ll be out in a minute.” He stood aside to let Ryan in.

“Keep the door open,” the nurse said. Matt relented, only closing the door partway, mostly to hide

them from the nurse’s view.

In the cramped, fluorescent-lit bathroom, he bent his mouth to Ryan’s ear. “What do we say

happened? Please tell me you saw all that, and I didn’t turn crazy when I woke up this morning?”

Ryan opened his hand, staring at Beth’s pendant. “I saw it,” he said quietly.

“Thank God.” Matt placed a hand on his shoulder. They stayed like that for a long moment, and

Ryan could almost hear Matt’s mind churning away. His own was going through the same, chewing

things over and over. Had it been real? Had they really seen Fizz acting like some crazy person, with

the room bleeding all around them? And had Ryan seen a vision, someone else’s memories, or had he

dreamt it? Matt hadn’t seen that vision, had he?

“Did you see him?” Matt whispered. “Did you see Fizz step out of – I mean, like he wasn’t in his

own body? And the body collapsed, just like that.”

Ryan saw it in his mind’s eye as Matt described it. A shiver ran down his spine. “I saw it,” he

repeated. Was more was there to say? He’d seen it all.

The door was pulled open, and the older nurse stood there, watching them like she might a pair of

naughty children. “You both okay?”

“Yes,” Matt gritted out.

Another figure stepped into view, and Ryan’s heart skipped when he saw the police uniform. He

greeted them in a casual tone. “Hello, there. Just need to ask a few questions if you don’t mind.”

Ryan nodded. He tried his best not to look guilty, but he didn’t think it worked.

Matt was the one who sprang into action. “Can we pee in private? Apparently we have to pee in