bbc merlin || @jericholeader "the victims are dying within twenty-four hours and it’s spreading fast." (human!verse Nurse Markus talking to human!Verse Connor, perhaps an pre-apocalypse?)
“THAT’S NOT LONG enough to even get samples from the patients, let alone be able to start working on a cure.”
CONNOR’S FINGERS SLID through his hair, tugging lightly at the ends of them as he stared at the surfaces of his couch, his coffee table, the big corkboard he usually used for murder investigations--all filled with as much information on this virus that he’d been able to scrounge up. He’d not slept in nearly two days; the cans of energy drinks that dotted the living room and kitchen, as well as the acidic edge that clung to the curtains, an empty pack of smokes discarded on the television stand. There’d be more than just that, but Connor also hadn’t been outside in days--both because of the infection rate and because he was so focused on trying to work it out, Fowler having given him the case full time.
HE’D CALLED MARKUS only a few hours ago, asking him to come over. He didn’t think the poor guy was doing much better; hospitals were absolutely slammed, and he’d only managed to snag him now, a small breeze of chilly, post-midnight air curling through the gap where Connor had cracked a window to get some circulation.
“HAVE THEY AT least figured out how it spreads?” he asked, pacing back and forth a few goes before returning to the corkboard, tugging at his tie to loosen it a little, grimacing. The faces of dead patients stared back at him, their symptoms spread out, connected to each. There was a pattern here--he could feel it. He just needed to see it, too. “That might give us something to work with here.”