You head towards the sounds of music in one of the several clubs on the ship. You travel from the Casino Royal on Deck 5 to the Spot Light Lounge on Deck 6 towards the bows of the ship.
As a note the Royal Suite where the Saudis are staying is on Deck 8 towards the stern of the ship.
There is also a big dance club up on Deck 11 at the stern of the ship called, The Viking Crown Lounge. The youngest and most active tend to go there to dance the night away.
There are some people staggering and you can't really tell if their drunk or sick. It is probably a little or a lot of both.
Most of the women are using festive dresses and sarongs in the night air. It is a bit late for most of them to still be running around in bikinis as they prefer to dress more 'sensibly' for dancing.
You help the first person to their feet and start to guide them to the infirmary.
The closer you come to the infirmary, the more people that you see lying on the ground in lines arranged up and down the hallway. There appear to be several people working to help try and check on the people and move them somewhere.
Having spent time doing EMS work, you're familiar with sometimes having to track down a body. Wounded people have a nasty habit of getting up and trying to wander off even after you put an IV into them.
You can clearly see the trail of blood and follow it.
You also don't like the amount of blood you see staining the carpet. The person must have bleeding a fair amount to have left this trail. Head wounds tend to bleed quite a bit and this one seems to be bleeding more then is healthy.
You can only hope that someone might have found this person before you did.
You can track the blood trail if you want.
Geoffrey does his best to follow the blood trail to its (hopefully) not-grim-at-all end...
You're not familiar enough with the ship to figure out where they're taking the people but it is clear that the infirmary must be full and they have pressed some of the crew into helping move and care for the people that are ill.
You can also see that several of the people helping have bite marks or bandages on their hands and arms. A couple seem to be walking with a bit of a limp and rubbing their ankles; so, it may be possible that they have wounds on their lower legs or ankles.
When they see you with the person you are supporting, they just nod their head at a spot next to the wall as if to indicate to leave the person there.
What would you like to do next?
You follow the blood trail a bit farther to a door marked as a public washroom for women.
Going in?
If you go in then I would like a Initiative and a Perception roll.
Geoffrey glances around, hoping to find a woman in the immediate vicinity.
If he finds one, he will try to convince her to assist him, but working on the assumption that he probably will not find anyone, and fearing for the life of the injured person, he will knock on the door, and after a few moments, open it a crack (whilst standing behind it), and call out:
"Hello? My name is Geoffrey. Is anyone in there? I came across a blood trail, which led to this washroom, and as a trained medic, I am concerned about the amount of blood that has been lost. If I do not get a response within the next minute, I will assume that you have lost consciousness, and I will open the door."
DM:
With panic rising in his gut and his knowledge of first aid hidden behind a year's worth of experience with little use, Vic opts to defer to the authorities.
He jogs the distance to the infirmary doors and sticks his head in, trying to ignore the squelching noise his shoes make. "Anybody home? We got a sick person out here!"
Perception
You hear some slight clomping noise like someone opening and closing a stall repeatedly.
You also notice a few heads pop out of rooms but when they catch the smell of vomit in the air, they quickly retreat back inside.
As an EMS person you are familiar with the effect hysteria can have on symptoms. One person vomits and within a few minutes you can have a room of people vomiting even though only one person is ill.
There is a deeper smell coming from the doorway when you crack it open a bit. Being an EMS person, you've had to smell it dozen of times from the doorway. The only good thing is that once you know the smell; you never forget it.
Even the salt water breeze won't clear it from the brain.
Somewhere in the bathroom there is a dead body.
Fresh.
You just dodge a pair of girls coming from the lounge. You figure they are in their late twenties.
One is helping the other and as they came out of the club, the one in the black dress grabbed her stomache and vomitted. Lucky for you, you moved to the side in time to avoid getting any of it on you but there is a fresh pile on the carpet.
You head to the crew infirmary and see that the hallway outside the infirmary has people lying on the ground in neatly arranged rows. There appears to be a few 'less' sick crew pressed into service trying to treat the crew that are sick.
You also see a nurse struggling inside the infirmary with a patient that is either having seizures, delusional, or fighting to get off the bed. The nurse has a needle in one hand but she is being over muscled by the person on the bed.
What would you like to do?
You've been keeping low in the engine room. Late around midnight, the order came down from the bridge to bring the ship to a stop and just idle in the water for a while.
That was a bit unusual as the ship usually runs all night hopping between ports from dusk till dawn.
It was not till after midnight when Rodriquez came down with his tray from the mess that you heard the scuttle that the ship had found some abandoned fishing boat called 'The Typhoon Mary'. He said the ship had one survivor and two people that were being put in the mess kitchen secondary locker to keep cold until they could be quietly off loaded tomorrow night to port authorities before making sail.
Rodriquez also tells you that it looks like they're all going to be in for some extra overtime. This of course gets a laugh as everyone is on contract on the ship and there is no such thing as 'hourly wage'.
Evidently, the board is filling with people catching some sort of bug. Rodriquez again laughs and says it is likely the Americians and their silly diets and not enough of their mother's cooking that has made them sick.
DM
Laughing at Rodriguez' dry humor, Jose nods and chuckles. It has always been so. No overtime, no proper breaks, no vacation... That's how it seems to be for people who do the real work in the World.
Fighting the unease that begins to assail him whenever unscheduled changes in the Ship's routine happen...(Maybe Calderone has finally found him? Paid off someone on the SHip for his location...Perhaps..?)
Shaking off such thoughts. Still...it might do to try and get a look at this 'survivor'. It wasn't above his old enemies to use such a ruse. Perfect way for an Assassin to get to him.
Cleaning up as best he could, and grabbing his tool-pack, Jose then makes his way to the mess hall.
Perception
DM:
Perception
Shinko will offer to assist in attending to the basic comfort related needs of the patients during thier treatment downtime.
It is late in the night and early in the morning depending on how you look at the clock. The ship runs 24 hrs and even on the late night shift there are plenty of crew. These are the people that work behind the scenes; so, the passengers can have their breakfasts hot and ready with full buffets at 6 AM. These are the people that work the laundry all night long or clean the restaurants' kitchens from top to bottom with high pressure steam. They raise the anchors and service the flotilla of jet skis that the ship has in her internal harbour.
You notice that less of them are around then normal and that there is talk by plenty of the house cleaning staff being swamped with calls to clean up suites, change sheets, and mop up vomit and other bodily wastes through out the ship.
There is also part of the daily crew 'messages' a 'memo' that you are requested to initial to show that you have acknowledged having seen and read it. It is written in English.
The Official Briefing is as follows;
'All crew are reminded that discussion of viruses and diseases can have an adverse effect on a cruise ship resulting in unwanted media attention. It is the policy of the ship that no crew member may talk or engage in conversation within ear shot of passengers on any discussion of viruses or disease. Any passenger with questions should go to their cabin and call the ship nurse. The number is in the ship directory on the first page for the passenger's convenience.'
'All crew are reminded of the importance of cleaning areas of public traffic with approved agents as soon as possible. This includes chairs, stools, cupboards, handles, doors, fitness equipment, and other items. This cleaning should be done to show our attention to the safety of our passengers and not to cause them anxiety. If questioned on the usage of the cleaning agents, crew should smile and stress they are making sure that the passenger has a clean and safe voyage.'
'All crew are reminded that it takes many days for any 'testing' results to come back from laboratories and they are not 'trained' technicians or medical personnel. If there are any virus or diseases found to be present then the crew will be the first to be alerted and given further instructions. The captain places the safety of the ship as her highest priority and she looks to you to be her first priority. You are the ship and the vehicle for keeping her functioning well.'
Beyond that statement, you were 'unofficially' told to make sure to clean everything especially high traffic items like doors and equipment touched by people's hands on an hourly basis.
What would you like to do?
Looking around, you are fairly sure that no one has 'seen' your minor slip of constitution.
By the smell in the air, you wouldn't be the first or the last this night as the smell of stale and drying vomit is coming from several spots in the corridor.
It is likely one of the reasons there are so few people in the corridor.
Glancing into the dance area, there are a few people hugging together oblivious to their surroundings but most seem to be leaving by the nearest exits.
It seems the girls you spotted weren't the only ones having troubles with their stomachs in the lounge.
Are you going elsewhere or back to your suite?
'Thank-you, we can use all the help we can get. Here, make sure each of these people drinks one glass of this every hour. They'll likely fight you on it as it doesn't taste very good but it will keep them from dehydrating. We don't have enough medical supplies to give everyone who needs it IVs; so, we're saving those for the truly critical. Its just a mixture of water, salt, and a bit of sugar to help with their electrolytes.'
Oh hell. That is the last thing we needed on this cruise. Where on Earth are the crew? Something like this should never have been allowed to happen!
Fearing what he will see, Geoffrey pushes open the door, dreading what he will find inside...
|
He will also try and maintain a normal appearance, so as not to upset any passengers encountered.
DM:
Seeing the general state of things and the nurse's situation, he starts a brisk walk towards the bed, trying to avoid stepping on any of the sick or their ick. "Hey, ma'am, you need a hand?"
You spend the next couple of hours helping serve the electrolyte solution and dodging bites and grabs. You don't have much problem doing this and while some seem to be okay or getting a bit better; others don't seem to be responding to the treatment.
You also see more and more people being brought into the infirmary area. At the same time, some of the crew keep moving the worst of the patients from the hallways around the infirmary to somewhere else.
You open the lady's washroom and find the banging noise is coming from a woman dressed for Fiesta night with several plastic Leis around her neck and a plastic flower in her hair.
Her scalp shows drying blood where it has poured forth down her face and dress. She keeps taking small repeated steps forward and banging into a stall.
She appears to be in some sort of fugue state. It could be that there has been internal hemorrhaging of the brain that has killed an important centre of her higher thinking or she is in a state of shock and doesn't know what is going on.
There is still the strong smell of death coming from the room and there are five stalls.
You retire to bed for the night and are happy to get a reasonably good bed to lay upon. You can hear some noise of party goers even into the late night but having had a bad experience you figure it is best to wait till morning.
Morning comes and where would you like to go?
The woman nods at your offer to help but you're not used to working in an infirmary area with a needle. You also aren't sure of how hard to 'hold' the person with out causing more harm.
In your attempt to help, you nearly get chomped by the person that you're trying to hold down but manage to avoid the bite.
The nurse finally gets the syringe in the patient and the patient settles down. The nurse then quickly uses strips of bed sheets to secure the patient better to the bed frame.
'Thanks for your help. It seems this fever has a real kicker of a delusion on its carriers. I've gotten a couple myself.'
She moves her blouse sleeves to show a pair of bandages. One bandage on each arm.
'I'm Meg. How can I help you crewman ...'
DM:
"Oh! Main thing is you've got an escapee," he says, turning back towards the door. "There's another fella seizing just around the corner... Though I imagine that doesn't surprise ya." After a moment's pause, he adds, "I'll give you a hand with 'im if you need it, but after that I should probably check the duty roster. Looks like we're runnin' a skeleton crew right now."
Smerg
Perception
Finding some passengers and/or crew ill, Jose will go for the nearest Wall-Phone, to try and ring the sick bay.
"Are you folks OK? I will get someone from Medical down here quickly,don't worry...'
Initiative
You open the door to your stateroom on deck 4 and heading up to the My Fair Lady Dining Lounge on Deck 5. Deck 5 is the same deck as the Casino Royal and makes a convenient arrangement.
The first thing that you notice is that there is no complimentary news paper that should have been left at your door.
Add to that there is the smell of vomit that the cleaning staff has not yet cleaned up. It is a horrible way to start the morning.
You head towards the stairway that is towards the aft of the ship and next to the Champagne Bar.
While approaching this area you see that there appear to be some crew members lugging a couple of bodies.
What would you like to do?
Meg smiles and pouts at what she is told. You can see she is doing her best to stay positive in the midst of a growing disaster.
'I doubt there'll be many of the passengers wanting to wander round deck much today. Then, I've seen more than a few sign petitions and send them to the captain as formal complaints for him closing the trampoline and rock climbing areas because we were sailing through a tempest.'
'Idiots with too much money and not enough sense.'
'Okay, crewman, Vic, that's right? Well, let's see our escapee. I don't if there is much I'll be able to do. This illness is one of the worse cases of Norwalk, excuse me, unconfirmed and unknown cases of a 'mystery illness' that I've had to deal with.'
Meg uses her fingers to mark quotation marks around the words Mystery Illness but it is pretty plain what she thinks of the Captain's Memo.
She follows you to where you had left the crew person having seizures.
The crew person is gone.
Either the person got up and walked off or someone has taken them somewhere.
Meg looks at you for an explanation.
You have little trouble redirecting the woman. She clearly has little upper cognitive capacity at the moment and her body is moving more on muscle memory.
It is almost like working with an Alzheimer Patient in that they can move but have no real connection to the sensory input of their surroundings.
You are fairly sure the blood trail you followed belongs to the woman that you're helping.
You can see that the second stall from the end of the five stalls has a growing pool of blood. The stall door is closed. You are not sure if it is locked from the inside.
You ring on the Wall phone and the infirmary responds and tells you that they'll get someone there as soon as possible but they are very busy with patients at the moment.
They estimate the wait to get someone down to help you is around an hour maybe two.
He looks to Meg with a look of honest confusion and shrugs. "I don't wanna waste any more of your time, but I'll take a look around and see if he crawled off somewhere."
dm:
The man looks at you and points to a badge that says Cleaning.
'Sorry, English not good. Help.'
The other people nod and continue to move the bodies.
DM:
DM: ** spoiler omitted **
'Docente. Mau docente.'
The man tries to pantomine and then spitting or vomiting.
'Very bad. Mau.'
DM:
(Comp has been on the fritz, fixed now)
DM
Shinko will gladly continue to help with the electrolite problem. and once they deem her use finished, she will head out to the dining hall (or equivalent) for lunch.
Vic stumbles cluelessly about the area near the infirmary, not having much luck piecing anything together.
'Where poison?'
The men look at each other and one makes a gesture with his hand like a swimming fish.
'Sim, sim, Peixes'
'Deck 9, Windjammer Cafe'
The men return to moving the bodies.
You make it to the Windjammer Cafe. The spread of food is much reduced from what it has been in the last few days. It is buffet style set with some cold meat sandwiches, a few salads, and some cut up fruit and cheese. There is also a small amount of shell fish and shrimp trays that have been put out.
It looks like food that could have been prepared hours or days ago and just kept cold in a fridge until needed and put out.
There are not many people here. There are some that are working to make the best of their vacation but all are keeping a buffer of distance between themselves and others.
Trays and garbage are also not being cleared as efficiently as previously. There are stewards working but far less then you have seen on previous days of the voyage.
What are you doing?
You try tracking down the missing crew person looking in doors in the area in case the crew person crawled into a closet or a room to hide in their delusion.
It is common for people on various drugs to do such things you've been told by friends though you've never seen it yourself. Light sensitivity they've called it.
You open a door and ...
The woman appears to be stable for the moment. She doesn't appear to be getting worse.
You open the last stall and see the body of a woman that looks like it has been mauled by something. There are plenty of defensive wounds on the body and she is sitting slumped in a sitting position on the toilet.
Blood continues to drip from the wounds on her body but she smells of death.
Your knowledge of medicine has you familiar that blood doesn't usually continue to drip from a dead body for more than a few minutes as coagulation sets in. This person though smells like they've been dead for several hours.
It is possible that she has a number of sepsis wounds that are stinking and making you think she might be dead.
Shinko will buy one of the cold meat sandwiches and a light (preferably non alchoholic and nonsugary) beverage. it may not be her fiacee's excellent cooking, but it should be tolerable for such a situation.
DM:
What the devil did that to her? This is a cruise ship, not the middle of the big cats exhibit at the Sydney Zoo!
Remembering that he does not have any personal protective equipment, and reasoning that even if she is not dead, she is unlikely to survive much longer, even with the basic medical treatment available on board the ship, Geoffrey sighs, and reluctantly closes the door to the cubicle. He will then take his other 'patient' to the infirmary, stopping only to close the bathroom door, and put a sign on it, saying "Warning! Do not enter! Serious Infection Risk!".
If I can get a mask, some gloves, and some help, I will have to come back for the other woman's body...
DM
Perception
Keeping his eyes peeled for any help,as well as for anything 'wrong' in general, Jose makes his was along the current level, trying to spot any EMTs or other people capable of helping. If he spots a maid's cart, he will try and pick up some clean towlets,etc,to help, as well as digging into his pack for a facemask (Assuming that there are some, for when grouting and/or otherwise sanding,working at the machinery).
Edit:I keep accidentally posting as by base Profile, sorry.
Okay, you settle down and the food is best described as edible.
You see a couple of people get up rapidly from the table to run off presumably to their rooms.
You do see an American male enter the room looking around to see what is occurring here and possibly to get a bite. He is dressed in what you might consider casual cowboy style with a cowboy style of hat and his complexion is fairly pale with blue eyes and signs of greying in the hair.
You see three crew sitting huddled in a circle on the floor and sharing what looks like a pizza.
Your opening the door seems to have disturbed them as they suddenly get up and lunge towards you.
The group appear to be pretty messy eaters as they have marinara sauce on their faces and haven't bothered to use a napkin yet.
Being polite since they seem upset at the opening of the door, you close it quickly.
You enter the Windjammer and see the spread of food is much reduced from what it has been in the last few days. It is buffet style set with some cold meat sandwiches, a few salads, and some cut up fruit and cheese. There is also a small amount of shell fish and shrimp trays that have been put out.
It looks like food that could have been prepared hours or days ago and just kept cold in a fridge until needed and put out.
There are not many people here. There are some that are working to make the best of their vacation but all are keeping a buffer of distance between themselves and others.
Trays and garbage are also not being cleared as efficiently as previously. There are stewards working but far less then you have seen on previous days of the voyage.
There is a young Asian girl in her late teens or early twenties distastefully eating a sandwich and having a bottle of water. You might have seen her previously complaining of people looking at her or making advances on her when no one else saw such behaviours. She may have some sort of Androphobia.
You start to lead the woman away. She continues to move in her daze. There are small first aid kits at junctions along the hallway next to fire extinguishers. You can recognize the type as being the type you pick up at a drug store for five to ten dollars and have half a dozen band-aids, a little ointment cream, a first aid guide book, and maybe a single tri-angle bandage.
They do have hanging beside the kits a wrapped plastic mouth to mouth cup to avoid interchange of fluids if used properly and the person is not aspirating blood. The standard models sold and displayed usually lack a proper filter to avoid infectious material going straight from lung to lung.
Proper medical supplies are likely in the Med Bay or Infirmary of the ship. There are signs hung at corners of hallways giving directions.
You spot a couple of crew that appear to be already carrying bodies somewhere. The bodies appear to be of crew that are very sick.
The people carrying the bodies do not appear to be carrying the bodies to the infirmary for the crew but to somewhere towards the bow of the ship.
The people carrying the bodies appear to be part of the cleaning staff that largely speak Portuguese. Some of them speak a bit of English or other languages.
You would have to go to your work locker to get your mask as this is where you would store your tools and the work locker is in the upper part of the machine room.
DM
Curious as to where these workers are bringing the bodies,Jose will follow along beside,offering to help carry.
Untrained Heal
Am I sure that they are dead?
"Ugh." He rubs his eyes briefly and steps back out into the hall. If he's gone he's gone. Someone'll find 'im and take care of him eventually, I hope. Assuming he remains unmolested by the diners, Vic will head to figure out what duty he's on and possibly try to grab some breakfast.
And another pair of shoes, if they provide spares.
DM & Shinko:
Perception
Reading the signs, you are able to move down to the Med Bay.
You find the corridors leading to the Med Bay in a full triage type of environment. Ill people are lying on both sides of the corridor. Crew have been pressed into service wiping up vomit, holding bowls, and making sure passengers get a concoction that is likely a fruit juice and water electrolyte mix. The electrolyte looks like something cobbled up out of the kitchens as the pharmacy pre-mix stuff has likely already been used up.
Several of the patients have had bindings put on them to keep them from hurting themselves or the people tending to them. You see quite a few bandages on wrists, forearms, and ankles where likely delusional people have nipped or scratched their caretakers.
You also see several crew working in pairs and carrying people somewhere else.
What would you like to do?
The people being could very well be dead as they aren't resisting and the crew look like they are carrying dead weight.
You follow the crew and you see them joining many more on body duty carrying the people into the aft section of the ship and the Palladium Theatre which is on Decks 5 and 6. Crew seem to be bringing in people at the rate of 2 to 3 per minute.
What are you doing? Are you going in or staying out?
You're other pair of shoes are Black leather polish dress shoes for your dress uniform. They're no good for running in or other athletics. You do have a pair in your sports locker of climbing shoes which have the flimsy soles that are flexible for climbing but a bright neon green colour and a set of cross trainers for when leading an athletics class. Again, they're not going to match the normal dress clothes and you usually use them when you re-dress to your sports wear. They're likely your best choice but your supervisor will still likely fine you a hundred dollars for being out of uniform if she spots you wearing them.
Breakfast is pretty much a serve yourself this morning. Plenty of plastic packaged donuts and danishes have been put out. A big thing of coffee is available and big thing of hot water for tea or cocoa. There is a big bowl of fresh fruit but it is all apples, grapes, and oranges which take only the time to lightly wash and toss in a bowl to prepare. There are several loaves of bread of different types along with baegels that you can self toast. A couple of machines circulate a water and fruit crystal mix. There is one large pan of scrambled eggs that is three quarters gone and two English sausages in the pans left. This might be called a 'Continental Breakfast' in a Motel 6 but here on the ship it would be called trash.
The one thing that you can usually count on with working on a ship is the food, even for the crew, is often some of the highest quality that you could get and served in quantity. The Kitchen staff must be understaffed to provide this and call it breakfast.
The duty board has you on Deck 10 doing 'Security' which means watching over things as a roving steward. If you see someone getting sick or in trouble then you're to give first aid and get them to the med bay.
There are one or two stewards working to clean tables and put out plastic wrapped trays of fruit and meat for sandwiches. Normally the ratio is one steward to every five to ten passengers with a higher ratio of one steward for every two passengers for the first class passengers.
The ship boasts a crew of one crew for every two passengers though that includes all the departments like maintenance, cleaning, sail crew, entertainment, program directors, sales people, kitchen personnel, and other administration staff.
The few stewards are working hard to just put out fresh water for the hardy people coming into the Windjammer Cafe and chasing down the people that suddenly get up and run off with signs of being ill.
He can't help but grin a little as he works his way around the crew dining area - breakfast was slummin' it, for once, and although a lot of folks would turn their nose up it reminded him of childhood vacations. Both sausages, a couple of slices of bread, and an orange find their way onto his plate. Figuring it best to just get a move on, he grabs a cup of lukewarm coffee to drink, quarters the orange, wraps the sausages to create a crude sandwich, wolfs both down and only really takes time to savor the fruit.
With his belly full and as properly dressed as he can manage, he double times it up to Deck 10, ready to put on as pleasant a face as he can manage and trying not to think about how miserable the next few days will be.
DM & Shinko:
Sigh. So much for my holiday...
Reasoning that someone with probable neurological trauma should rate more highly than passengers with a stomach bug, he will gently direct his charge towards the Med Bay.
"Excuse me. Coming through!"
If anyone attempts to stop him, he will calmly explain to them that his charge appears to be suffering from significant head trauma, and needs to be assessed immediately.
Once he locates an actual nurse / doctor, he will explain his patient's status as best as he is able, conducting a formal neurological assessment himself, if necessary.
Once that is done, he will request some personal protective equipment (as well as some bandages, suturing equipment, and anti-septic agents, if possible), explaining that he encountered another passenger (probably dead) who appeared to have been savaged by some kind of wild animal; he will comment that they may have been warfarinised, as they seem to have continued to bleed for some time after death, but that he would like to go back to make sure...
DM
Jose follows the other workers into the Theater, curious as to what exactly is being done with these passengers.