Arthur gave her a doubting look. “No, they just fell over.”
“No, they stood for a while, and then fell. What were you doing when it happened?”
Minji glowered at the man, not willing to forgive him for abandoning her and the girls.
“I had just come out of the men’s room when they collapsed,” Arthur answered.
“So you didn’t see it all,” Minji declared.
“No, I didn’t.” Arthur pointedly looked away.
The other doctor approached Minji. “I’m Doctor Andrew Ramos. I need to take some blood from you and your daughters.”
Pressing her lips together, Minji reluctantly nodded her consent. “Please be careful with the baby. She’s very afraid.”
“But not your other daughter?” Dr. McCoy’s keen blue eyes focused on Ava, who stared blankly in the direction of the horde. “Your daughter isn’t in shock, is she? She’s affected.”
Minji inclined her head. “Yes.”
The doctors glanced at each other in a silent exchange that made Minji uneasy. The woman made a notation on her tablet screen while Dr. Ramos immediately strode out of the tent toward another that was heavily congested with people in hazmat suits and body armor.
“What is it?” Minji demanded, alarmed. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s outside the event perimeter,” was the clipped answer.
“So?”
“We haven’t seen any of the affected up close because we couldn’t enter the event perimeter without falling victim,” the scientist explained, setting down her tablet on a table. She held out her hands. “May I see your daughter?”
Ava’s head swiveled toward Dr. McCoy, startling Minji. Did her daughter understand what the doctor had said? Was she coming out of her trance?
“What are you going to do with her?” Minji glanced toward the police officer who had taken a subtle footstep toward her.
“We need to understand what’s affecting her. Please hand her over.”
“No,” Minji said automatically. “No, I don’t feel comfortable with that.” Clasping both daughters tighter, Minji ignored the pain in her back and throbbing in her arm muscles. She wasn’t about to turn over her child.
“I have to insist,” Dr. McCoy said in a voice that was purposefully neutral.
Backing away from both the doctor and the police officer, Minji shook her head.
“Don’t you want your daughter to get better?”
Of course Minji wanted Ava to return to normal, but the thought of handing her daughter over to the doctor sent off warning bells in her head. Glancing outside the tent, she saw Dr. Ramos and several other people in hazmat suits wheeling what looked like a plastic capsule on a stretcher. “You’re going to take her away from me.”
“Yes, but she’ll be safe. We’ll fly her to our facility in Atlanta. She’ll have the best care. We’ll need you and your baby to come with us as well. We need to know why you’re not affected.”
The doctor’s calm voice had the opposite effect on Minji.
It terrified her.
“She’s not a specimen to be poked and prodded.” Minji scooted around a table loaded with plastic bins filled with medical supplies.
“Are you going to take me, too?” Arthur asked, taking a sharp step in Minji’s direction.
Beyond the tent, the people in the hazmat suits were now surrounded by a new set of armed guards. These wore military insignia.
With an explosive sigh that frosted her mask, Dr. McCoy nodded. “Don’t you want help?”