Gabriel lifted one end of the stretcher, leading the way into the tent backwards. He stepped carefully through the rows of cots, knowing they would soon be filled and that the tent's pristine condition wouldn't last long.
"We'll start in the back corner and work our way forward so that people close to the door don't have to endure us going back and forth all day." He instructed.
Mason nodded for once instead of arguing, which was a refreshing change. Or a concerning one. The man had looked positively green ever since they'd arrived.
"Are you feeling all right, soldier?" Gabriel's eyes darted across the man's face and body, assessing him for early warning signs of the disease.
Dr. David, the local physician, had shared his notes for Gabriel to look over. Though the local was only slightly older than Gabriel, he'd apprenticed much earlier and been practicing on his own for over two years.
The earliest noticeable symptoms seemed to be exhaustion and fatigue, followed by headache, and then fever exploded through the body with violent shakes and vomiting, followed, most times, by death.
The good local doctor had offered with hollow eyes to take Gabriel by the mass grave at the cemetery on the edge of town. Gabriel had politely declined. He preferred the living; there was nothing he could do for the dead.
Gabriel and Mason delivered the stretcher to the corner and transferred the first patient to a cot.
"Check vitals, make sure he's stable," He said to Victoria, "More are coming, I'll try to check them at the door. If any have perished on the way, we don't want to waste a bed on them. You try as best you can to settle everyone."
She began work without hesitation, but her brow furrowed. "Are there really so many?"
Victoria didn't look at him when she spoke, as was common ever since he'd joined the army alongside her. She resented his interference, he could tell.
"Yes. And more." He replied darkly. He'd intended to protect her from the ravages of war, but illness could be even more deadly. Had he removed her from one danger only to put her into worse?
He swallowed, and went back to work. The soldiers filed in with more stretchers, and Gabriel briefly looked over each patient as they came. He'd screened them all carefully before designating them to come, but the trajectory of the disease was, according to Dr. David, unpredictable. A patient could drop on the street and be dead within hours, or linger in agony for many days.
Some held on almost to the end, only to die just as they seemed to be getting better.
The patients continued filing in on stretchers held by soldiers until there were only a handful of beds available in the large army tent.
Gabriel sighed and washed his hands–again–in the basin by the door. His hands were going to be raw from lye soap before the end of this disease.
"I came to see whether everyone made it." A tired voice came from behind him.
"Yes, it seems so, though of course that could change," Gabriel turned grimly to Dr. David. "Thank you for your hard work. I'm sure it would have been far worse without you here."
"It's not over. All my work–now our work–might be for nothing." The brown-eyed man ran a hand across his face. "There's only two of us, so it isn't a promising situation, even with the fresh supplies you brought."
Gabriel frowned, wishing he could have brought more, but Klain was stretched thin in so many ways right now. This was not ideal in the least.
"Only two doctors, but a nurse and a troop of healthy soldiers to assist, and it's a rather formidable force," He encouraged.
"Nurse? You didn't mention a nurse before," Dr. David looked around, "I didn't know the army—Victoria?"
The woman turned from where she was tucking in a patient, and blinked at the man a couple of times before smiling brightly.
"Dr. David! I didn't know you'd moved this far North!" She said. "I wish we were meeting again under better circumstances."
"Just call me David," He said warmly. "You're all grown up now, but I had no idea you would become an army nurse! Of course, any daughter of Dr. Sherman is bound to make something wonderful of herself."
Gabriel tried to not let the intense curiosity in his stomach be anything more than that, but it was difficult.
"That's kind of you to say. How did you come to find yourself in such a place? I'll have to write a letter to Papa and give him your good wishes." She continued working as she chatted with the doctor, straightening another patient's blanket and lifting her wrist to check her pulse.
"After I finished my time apprenticing, an aging doctor sent word he needed someone to take over caring for the patients of this town, as he had no successor. The letter found me, and having no particular attachments in Klain, I agreed to serve, so he could move to the city and be with his grandchildren." Dr. David said humbly.
"I gather you are acquainted with Dr. Sherman?" Gabriel interrupted the perplexing reunion.
"Yes, yes, do you know him?" David turned to include the slightly younger man, as if suddenly realizing he was being rude.
"I just finished my apprenticeship with him," Gabe nodded.
"He started… oh, just about the time you disappeared," Victoria said thoughtfully. "He was off doing his year of military service when you were around."
"Around in what way?" The younger man was becoming slightly frustrated, not knowing exactly the manner or closeness of their acquaintance.
"My master had an unusual case with a young man who lost his ability to walk after witnessing a terrible accident. There was nothing physically wrong, but the problem persisted. After consulting with Dr. Sherman, the patient began coming for a time, daily, to see and speak with your good master. It was part of my duties to transport the patient, exercise the limbs to prevent muscle atrophy, and monitor his progress, reporting to my master so that any success might be duplicated in a future patient."
Gabriel's slight resentment over David's daily presence at the place he'd come to call home was overcome by his curiosity. He continued the conversation as he moved amongst the cots, and David did the same.
"Did the man recover?" He queried.
"Yes, after months of daily conversations, some short, some longer, the man regained the use of his legs." David nodded, and then glanced at the door. "I must return to the town. If the situation weren't… what it is, I would invite you both to dinner. It is a relief to have other medical personnel now."
Gabe had noted earlier the dark circles under the man's eyes. People tended to forget that even doctors need sleep. Even the doctors themselves.
There had never been such strain on Gabriel; he and Dr. Sherman had taken shifts during times of great need, with Mrs. Sherman and Victoria's help. If his master hadn't been there to order him to go get rest, and especially if there had been no trained help… he probably would have pushed himself to the brink of madness caring for others.
"You need rest," Victoria chided David before Gabriel could do so. She was very good at looking out for the needs of others, so it shouldn't irk him that she focused on David's for a moment. "You're little good to anyone if you're half-dead."
"I've briefed Gabriel on what I know of the disease… perhaps a nap would be in order to clear my mind before I attempt to talk out some manner of cure, for I've had no luck yet." He lamented. "People either get better, or die. I can't find any sort of rhyme or reason to it, nor origin, no way of preventing it or lessening the symptoms, even. The only thing I can do is try to minimize the vomiting so that they don't die of dehydration before the disease passes."
"Your wells, they are all clean?" Gabriel asked. He'd asked a townsperson when they arrived, but of course the lay people often didn't know as well as doctors on the topic. He also liked to ask these kinds of questions of multiple people in case the first one he talked to was ill-informed on the topic of inquiry.
"Yes… yes, I heard about what's happening in the South. Terrible business, that, and now this, this… plague. It seems like the end of the world, doesn't it? I will consult with you more after I rest." David shook his head tiredly on the way out of the tent, thankfully missing the somber look on Gabriel's face.
In a way, it very much was the end of the world, but saying so wouldn't help anyone just now.
Tossing his jacket to Mason and rolling up his sleeves, Gabriel sent a brief plea for help to the Fae, and got to work.