Just a prologue, let me know what you think.

“You say this started two nights ago? You need to go to the hospital Mike. You need fluids, and an I.V. You are dehydrated, running a fever, and I want blood work done as well. There is some jaundice to your eyes that worries me a bit.”

“Dave, I arrived back just over 48 hours ago. I am only here because Carol made me come see you. All I need is a good rest and some sleep. That trip was horrible, and the stress of it all just got to me. I’ll be fine.” Dr. Mike Branson had just returned from Belem, in the Amazon basin, where he had been working on a water treatment program in conjunction with his employer, Penn State University.

“Yeah, I thought you weren’t supposed to be back for about 3 more months? Or did I have that date wrong on my calendar? C’mon, I’ll drive you over to University Medical Center. I have connections. I can get you in quick.”

“There was some sort of flu or something going on down there, and the Army came in and started hustling people out that weren’t sick. You should have seen that place. There were about 20 of us working on the plant, from 8 different Universities in America, as well as the University of Edinburgh, and a group from Imperial College in London. I would have hated to have been in charge of travel arrangements. It’s no wonder I had to transfer planes so many times.”

“Flu? What kind of flu? Serious enough that they called in their army?”

“Don’t worry Dave, I didn’t even see any sick people. We weren’t anywhere near them. I’m a doctor of Hydrology remember? First we even knew of this thing was when they came thru and told us to pack up shop. We got a quick look over, a clean bill of health, and seat on a plane. But of course I feel sick now. I’ve been shuffling from plane to plane thru every armpit airport in Central America for 5 days. I’ve been sneezed on, coughed on, and sat in the nastiest seats known to the Western world without so much as a wetnap to clean off with the entire time. Honestly, I’m surprised I’m not worse than I am. Seriously. I am fine. Besides all that glorious travel, I’ve been working my ass off in that jungle for 6 months trying to get the water treatment plant up and running.”

Dr. David Phillips stared at his friend blankly. “Doing God’s work down there Mike. I’m just gonna call Carol then…” He turned to pick up the phone, and could hear Mike sigh behind him.

“Fine, but just one I.V. You know I’m a lightweight. But let’s get going, if I’m out all night, Carol will be pissed.”

Dave chuckled. He thought that if his friend could still make those kind of jokes, he can’t be that sick.


10 hours later, Dr. Mike Branson was dead.

I never thought that it was so difficult to write an essay on my own, I was lucky that I can still buy a essay just like at school, and experts will write it for me, I won’t waste my time on this