"Let's talk with her," Jessica says with a note of exasperation in her voice. "I want to stop guessing what's going on here."
Amelia nodded her agreement at the idea and headed over. "I know things are rather...tense, but can you perhaps tell us who that nurse from before is?"
While the other young people continued digging through boxes, the girl took a minute to write, then folded the yellowed page like an airplane and floated it down towards Amelia...
Amelia showed the others the note. "So those that follow have died? But you yourselves have not, and can therefore still resist?" Well...that was unsettling.
Jessica frowns and shakes her head. "Find a cure? How are we supposed to do that? Call in the CDC?"
"It revives the dead," Amelia noted dryly. "I fear magic may be the solution, more so than the sciences. There is no level of humours that can be balanced into bringing back the dead."
The girl listened and then wrote again before she dropped another page near Amelia...
An old book in the church thing said they had cured this a long time ago and it was fine until weird things happened and it came back and then the nurses came and more weird things. The book was falling apart so what weird things or how they cured it either isn't there or in the missing parts. There are a lot of boxes in these buildings, we're hoping something is in one of them...
"I do not suppose you have any idea where yon book might be found?" Amelia asked hopefully, holding the note out to the others.
The girl nods and gestures behind her, before she turns to cough into her jacket elbow. For a moment, she looks less than steady on her feet before she leans back against the crumbling wall edge with a tired face.
"Thrice damned illness," Amelia muttered as she moved to try and help the young woman. "I am going to attempt to strengthen you. It will not last forever, alas, but should help for now. I merely hope it works..." She frowned. She had been using a lot of magic - far more than she would normnally use - and she feared it might be taking a toll. Still, she didn't see another choice for now.
Amelia let out a curse as the spell failed. She looked to the others, hoping that Zeke or Jerry could help carry the girl, or perhaps Jessica had some unknown divine gifts in this direction.
"Look, I... I don't know a lot about magic. I've been more of a stop-the-guy-using-magic or protect-the-guy-using-magic type. But it seems to be taking something out of you when you do it. Is there a way that you can take that 'something' out of me instead? I wouldn't know what to do if I tried."
Not knowing the first thing about magic that doesn't come from Harry Potter novels (or her own unnerving abilities), Jessica isn't sure how she could help. She calls forth her wings and plucks a downy feather, offering it as maybe something that can be used to don't think about the a-word, don't think about the a-word help with Amelia's magic.
Yeah, didn't think that would do anything. At least I didn't say leviosa or something.
Amelia lost control of her magic as she attempted to send revitalizing magic up to the ill young woman -- and the others, in their proximity and desire to help were dragged into the mayhem as they were all swept off their feet in an odd wind. Some of the boxes nearby lifted as well.
After a moment, they all fell with a sharp thud , the breaking boxes making a cacophony and spilling items over the grass.
Raspy groans and a commotion of moving items can be heard from the young people. The young woman is out of sight, though is likely still in the nearby crumbling building.
Amelia gasped in pain as the world went all light and then came to meet her behind with a crash. "Are all unhurt?" she called to the others. "Mostly," she added, rubbing her ankle.
Jerry stands up, rubbing his head.
"This is why I don't bother with magic."
"Ow."
Jessica sits up. "Well, that didn't work. Maybe I could start moving these people to a hospital. I can only take two at a time, and there's a good chance I'll lose them along the way, but it might be our only way of getting them some treatment."
"Not until we know what it is. If the doctors can't treat it, it could spread to every other patient in the hospital."
Jerry looks at Amelia. "Look, let's just try to talk to that girl using the notepad. If that doesn't work, let's go search for this ghost nurse. That, at least, I think we are better equipped to deal with. If that's what's needed."
Amelia shook her head. "If this disease is magical, then no pills nor potions nor bleedings shall cure it. And if it can also spread..." She shrugged. It didn't bare thinking about.
The young woman with the notebook that Amelia ad been talking to remained out of sight for the time being. The next building down, where most of the young people had fled, a couple come out to investigate the broken boxes near them.
Rubbing the back of her neck, Amelia looked over at the fallen buildings. It was, perhaps, time for a different tact. "We must investigate something else, and shall consult with you all once you have...recovered."
Well, checking out the nurse seemed like the next best idea, so Amelia headed to where the woman and her wards had gone and tried to follow.
During the time that has passed, the nurse and those under her thrall were out of sight with no trace, but Amelia - having seen the nurses before - knew how to find other nurses which seemed a first place to look for them.
Shotgun at the ready, Jerry follows Amelia's lead.
Wings out, Jessica calls forth her sword. It bursts into flames as she strides along with the others.
Glancing at the impressive displays of Jessica and certainty of Jerry, Amelia made sure her own sword and shield were out and advanced towards the nurse's previous location.
Amelia passed into the lean-to near the back of the towering temple, the bags and lantern still sitting there, before going down an old stoney staircase. The long hall at the bottom had doorways on either side, the sounds of raspy breathing and coughing peppering the silence.
Frowning at the sound, Amelia looked at the others. "Unless we have cause, I would suggest asking questions first and falling back to violence only if we must," she said quietly. Looking to the left she moved to open that door.
The stone doorways were open and, like before, there were rows of bed mats. People in a wide range of styles of clothes laid in various stages of illness. Two appeared to be from the group that had been seed outside. There were four nurses in this room who paid the new arrivals no attention, a few lanterns, and a soot filled fireplace at the far end of the room.
Jerry nods at Amelia, indicating is understanding.
"Fine," Jessica says, letting her sword extinguish.
She clears her throat. "Excuse me? Can you speak? We're looking to cure this disease. How do we do that?"
"If you could, perchance, use an implement of writing or other device instead we would be most grateful." Amelia considered, wondering if this might be something her time knew more about. Especially the strange nurses.
Jerry has had a fear of catching whatever this disease is simmering on a back-burner in his mind, but now that's he's faced with a whole room full of patients, he's beginning to worry.
Are there any dangers we haven't noticed?
The nurses entirely blanked Jessica and the cold and moist atmosphere in the room became even more chilled and tense.
Amelia's request gets no response from the nurses, but a couple of the people in what Amelia would recognize as high fashion if tattered attired. The sight of them reminded her of various stories she had heard of creatures who disguised their actions by mimicking diseases and caretakers. There were many stories in Amelia's time of nurses or nursing groups that had strangely high rates of mortality, lingering rates of illness, or confusion due to lack of bookkeeping as to how many nurses there should be.
The illness was a threat, though Jerry was still uncertain how it spread. As he watched Jessica and Amelia make their attempts, he recalls that there were several other rooms that seemed to branch off the hall and notices the odd sound of running water coming from somewhere he cannot see.
Amelia narrowed her eyes as she recalled the tales from her time. "Tell me," she murmured to the others, "Does this time still have tales of those pretending to be healers who are there to prey upon the weak and the ill?"
Jessica looks at Amelia uncertainly. "You mean home caregivers who steal from their patients? Yeah, we still got those."
"Once found a pack of vampires that ran a blood bank. Why, what are you thinking?"
"That it would be easier to secure food if it was too sick to resist or call for aid. But it is just a thought." Amelia wasn't sure how to deal with this problem otherwise. And if it was whatever the nurses were doing that was keeping people from ages past alive, what would happen if the nurses were no longer doing it?
"Another thing I've been thinking about is where all the water from the river has gone. That's a big change that might be worth looking into. I'm still hearing running water in certain places in this temple, but where is a river's worth of water draining to?"
"There was the underwater place, and the things in the water." She tried to remember if there were any water spirits that pretended to care or heal like this.
Amelia shrugged. "If they will not respond, perhaps we must force the issue. Shall we try removing any of the ill who wish to leave?"
A few of the several ill groan, but none seen to really respond to your discussion. A chilled draft seems to breeze past and out of the room.
Unable to think of another way to make the nurses react, Amelia moved over to one of the groaning people, and apologising for the presumption, tried to move them.
Jerry slings his shotgun and draws his nightstick. He moves to cover Amelia in case she's attacked.
The person gave no resistance to Amelia, but a couple of the nurses, in the blink of an eye, blocked the way out of the room.
"Well, we've got their attention at last," Jessica says.
She moves to the opposite side of Amelia and gets ready to defend her, sword out.
Amelia nodded. "We do not need to take the door to leave this place. My ally here has other modeds of transport. Would you like to try and communicate, or shall we begin to leave?"
At Jessica's remark finished, an annoyed smirk crossed one of the nurse's faces. The chilled wind grew stronger, as did the groans from the ill.
An odd raspy chuckle noise came from the nurse in response to the question. As the faded lips parted, the person slid like sand through Amelia's arms and remaining dust floated around in the breeze.
And all the nurses let out a satisfied sigh.
Jessica shakes her head to get the dust out of her hair. "Okay. Time to die."
Her sword blazes as she thrusts at the closest nurse.