31: The Beginning of Woes

Monday morning, Glorfindel was in the lounge getting a cup of tea while everyone was still in class, taking a break from his work. Being an administrator of the Academy involved a lot more paperwork than he originally had thought it would and he was grateful for people like Zach and Marian acting as his assistants. He briefly pined for his old job in Search and Rescue, wondering what his fellow workers were doing right now. He had not been close to any of them — far too dangerous and any relationship would have been brief and eventually full of grief for him — but he had cared for them and hoped they were doing well.

He took a seat at one of the tables, idly looking out one of the wide windows that gave a view of the campus. From where he sat, he could see several of the other classroom buildings and the main administrative office for the entire college. Students strolled or hurried along the pathways, making their way to their classes or meeting with friends for coffee at the student center. Clouds were beginning to darken the sky and he could tell that snow was coming.

He was taking another sip of his tea, thinking he should get back to his office, when students started filing out of the various classrooms down the hall. He noticed Alex among them and gave him a smile when their eyes happened to meet. Alex only nodded back, making his way to the counter to give his order to the attendant, then joining Glorfindel at his table.

"Loren," he said in greeting.

"Alex. How are you today?" gesturing for him to take a seat, which he did.

"Farrell contacted me Saturday," Alex replied softly, not really looking at the Elf. "He’s very upset."

"Of course," Glorfindel replied with a nod. "What else?"

"Finally heard from Maddy Washburn. She’s ordered me to stay put until further notice. Wants me to help Farrell to track down Amroth’s... um... kidnappers." He flashed Glorfindel a wry look. "Will there be a ransom note?"

Glorfindel shook his head, a faint smile of amusement on his lips. "No. We’ll keep the identities of the... um... ninja Elves a secret for now."

Alex nearly choked on his drink, trying not to laugh. When he had gotten himself under control he gave Glorfindel a shrewd look. "Amroth can’t hide forever. How long will we keep this up?"

"Give it another week or so and see what happens," Glorfindel suggested. "So where’s Derek? You two never seem to be far apart."

"He wasn’t feeling well this morning," Alex replied, "so he didn’t go to class. Funny thing is, at least three other students were out. Must be something going around."

"It’s that time of year," Glorfindel said with a nod.

Alex gave him a considering look. "You ever been sick?"

Glorfindel shook his head. "My people don’t suffer illness or disease as you Mortals do."

"Lucky you," Alex retorted with a trace of sarcasm.

"Others may consider your people’s propensity towards illnesses and such a weakness but I have always admired you Mortals for being able to overcome such things and going on. Besides, you know what they say, what doesn’t kill you...."

"Only makes you wish it had," Alex interjected with a snort of grim amusement and Glorfindel laughed, the sound of it suddenly lightening the atmosphere around them and Alex found himself smiling for no particular reason and noticed others who were in the lounge doing the same. "Well, I see it’s almost time for the next class," Alex said, draining his mug. "I’ll catch you later."

"Tell Derek that I hope he feels better soon," Glorfindel said and Alex nodded his thanks as he stood and returned the mug to the counter before joining the exodus with the other students.

Glorfindel remained where he was for a few minutes longer until the lounge had emptied out and then got up and went to the counter. "Let me have another Earl Grey, Larry," he said to the attendant and once he had gotten his tea, he headed back to his office to tackle the day’s work.

****

Alex noticed that several more people were absent from the CPR class and commented on it to one of the other students.

"Yeah, my roomie seemed to spend half the night in the bathroom," the young woman said. "Hope I don’t get what she’s got."

After class, he stopped at his room to check on Derek but found the room empty. On a hunch he headed for the bathroom, meeting Derek as he came out, looking wan.

"You okay?" he asked worriedly, taking his arm and helping him back to their room.

Derek shook his head. "I should just move into the bathroom. It seems that’s all I been doing all morning is running back and forth."

"And you’re not the only one," Alex said. "You should try to drink as much water as possible. Here, I’ll fill your water bottle. Where do you keep it?"

"Check my closet," Derek said. "I usually keep it on the top shelf if I’m not carrying it."

Alex opened the closet and found the bottle, taking it over to the sink and filling it. "Something’s going around, that’s for sure," he said as he handed the bottle to Derek. "I think between the two classes this morning, a good third of the students were out."

"All at once?" Derek asked, frowning. "That doesn’t sound good." He paused to take a long sip, lying back against his pillows. "For something to come on that quickly and hit so many people at once sounds almost like a plague."

Alex gave a shudder. "Or food poisoning."

"Do you think that’s what it might be? Makes sense, all things considered."

"The only thing wrong with the theory is that I had the same as you did last night at dinner, so why aren’t I sick as well?" Alex asked.

"Don’t know," Derek said, then muttered a profanity as he pulled the covers off him and thrust his feet into his slippers and practically ran out the door. Alex waited for him to return, filling the water bottle and mulling over things. After several minutes, Derek came back, practically stumbling into his bed.

"Looks as if I’m not the only one on this floor suffering," he mumbled as he took some water.

"Look, I can stay here if you’d like," Alex offered.

"No, don’t do that. Go have lunch and get on to class. I’ll be fine. It’s not like I haven’t been sick before."

"Okay. I’m going to see if I can get some tea and toast for you while I’m at lunch and bring it back before I go on to archery."

"Thanks. I’m going to try an get some sleep in the meantime."

****

Alex was halfway to the cafeteria, when he changed his mind and headed for the administrative offices, thinking to check in with Glorfindel. He knocked on the office door but, receiving no answer, walked down to Daeron’s office, hoping he would be there. When he knocked, he received an answer, and opening the door, was surprised to see not only Daeron but Glorfindel and Vorondur. The three Elves looked up and frowned.

"Now’s not a good time, Alex," Glorfindel said.

"Derek thinks it’s plague or maybe food poisoning," Alex said without preamble. "Just from my two classes this morning I counted at least a third of the students out. That’s too many too quickly not to be something serious."

"You’re right, of course," Daeron said before Glorfindel could respond, gesturing for him to come further into the room. "How many were out from each class?"

"Well, Gil’s class had four out and in the CPR class, which should have had twenty students, we were down to fourteen."

"Who from Gil’s class should have been in the CPR class but weren’t?" Daeron asked, plugging some information into his computer.

"Uh... let me see, Derek and...uh... I think two others. The others who were out are from the other section."

"So seven students altogether," Daeron said. "And that’s just those two classes. The reports I’ve been getting all morning from the main administrative office seem to suggest a viral infection of some sort, possibly that Norovirus that seems to be everywhere lately."

"Stomach flu?" Alex asked. "I know it goes around. Lord knows, I’ve had my share of it, but it’s a bit early for it isn’t it? Doesn’t it usually hit during the winter?"

Daeron nodded. "It can occur any time of the year though about eighty percent of the cases occur between November and April, but it just takes one person to come down with it and it can spread very quickly. My guess is that someone on the cafeteria staff had it."

"Makes sense, when you think about it." Alex said with a nod. He glanced at Glorfindel. "I was just about to go to lunch myself but now...."

"It is a concern and I will be speaking with Grace in a bit," Glorfindel said. "At the moment, only about a dozen people associated with the Academy are down with it, but it can easily spread through the entire campus. From what I understand, a person can be contagious for up to two weeks even though they only suffer from it for a couple of days."

"A domino effect," Alex said.

"Exactly," Daeron said, looking grim. "And that can cause serious problems with the school. A campus in Minnesota, I think, had to shut down completely for nearly a month until they were able to get the contagion under control."

"And we have six weeks left of this term," Glorfindel said. "We can’t afford to shut down. The tourist industry is depending on us to produce tour guides ready to work by Thanksgiving. I’m going to check with Grace now. Keep me posted," he said to Daeron who nodded.

"I’ll go with you," Alex said. "I may not eat lunch but I promised Derek some tea and toast if I can get it, though now I’m wondering."

"Let’s talk with Grace," Glorfindel said, then turned to Vorondur, speaking rapidly in Quenya. Alex recognized it was that and not Sindarin though he did not know what was being said. Vorondur nodded, answering in the same language and then Glorfindel was gesturing for Alex to proceed him out the door.

"I need to learn that language," Alex said as the two headed for the cafeteria. "For all I know, you just told Ron that you think I’m ugly and my mommy dresses me funny."

Glorfindel choked back a laugh. "Not even close. Actually, I was giving him some instructions and they had nothing to do with you, so don’t worry about it. If you’re interested in learning Quenya, I’ll be starting up another beginner’s course after the New Year. You’re welcome to join it."

"You’re assuming I’ll still be here then," Alex said. "By rights, I should be scouring the countryside looking for clues as to Amroth’s disappearance, or at least pretending to, because once they decide to give up the search, I’ll be recalled to D.C."

"Unless they decide to investigate the Academy further," Glorfindel retorted, "in which case, they may tell you to remain under cover."

"Worry about that when and if it comes," Alex said with a shrug. "Right now, I’m concerned about the health and well-being of my friends."

"It’s not a deadly plague, just a nuisance," Glorfindel reminded him.

"But I know some people suffer more than others and it can take a deadly turn, because you can get it again and then it gets even worse. I know because I suffered from it about five years ago. Spent nearly twenty-four hours throwing up. Got over it, went back to work and bang! A week later I was out for a whole other week being so sick I wished I could just die and get it over with."

By now they had reached the cafeteria and made their way into the kitchen area where they found Grace directing the servers. She acknowledged Glorfindel’s presence and the three of them stepped into her office for more privacy.

"We have several people down with stomach flu, it seems," Glorfindel said without preamble. "Given the swiftness of the attack, we suspect perhaps someone working here had it at one point."

Grace nodded and said, "Christy Ogden. She called in sick a couple of Fridays ago, but was back at work on Monday."

"Did she say why she was ill?" Glorfindel asked.

Grace shrugged. "Said she had the runs for a day and felt under the weather for most of the weekend but was fine on Monday. Do you think she somehow spread it? I’ve been very strict about my workers washing their hands and wearing gloves and donning new gloves whenever they move from one work station to another and we’re constantly running the dishwasher. I don’t let any dirty utensils sit around long."

"Even with all those precautions, it can still spread," Glorfindel reminded her. "Christy may have gotten the symptoms on Friday but she was still working here the day before that. She would still be infectious even now. Just touching people or coughing could spread it."

"Is Christy here and has anyone else called in sick?" Alex asked.

Grace gave him a considering look, as if wondering what he was doing there, but answered readily enough. "Christy works the dinner shift. She won’t be in until four. Two of my other workers are out today though, and I was a bit shorthanded for breakfast and now lunch. If we lose too many others to this virus, I’ll either have to petition the college for additional outside help or we’ll have to shut down the cafeteria for a couple of weeks to make sure it’s okay to eat here again."

"And that is only one of our concerns," Glorfindel said. "Darren says there are reports of other cases throughout the campus. We suspect we may have a Norovirus plague on our hands."

"I’ll start implementing a shut-down of the cafeteria immediately after lunch, then. There won’t be any dinner, I’m afraid. My people and I will be too busy disinfecting every inch of this place. We’ll reopen again tomorrow, unless we’re given a no-go from Administration."

"I’ll have a general announcement made that the cafeteria will be closed until tomorrow," Glorfindel said. "People will have to either eat in town or go to the other dining halls."

"I’d like to get some tea and toast for Derek," Alex said to Grace as the three left her office and Glorfindel went on his way.

Grace nodded. "I’ll fix it myself. What about you? Have you eaten yet?"

"No. I’m not all that hungry at the moment. I have some energy bars I can munch on before I go to archery."

"I’ll get the toast ready. You go out to the dining hall and get the tea."

Alex thanked her and went over to the drinks dispenser, grabbing a styrofoam cup and filling it with boiling hot water, shoving a cover on it and picking up a tea bag. He was standing out of the way of the other students, looking out the window. It was snowing now, the flakes gently falling, but already the ground was covered. Grace came over with a plate covered with a napkin, handing it to him.

"Looks like we’re in for a bit of a blow," she said, staring out the window.

"Does it always snow this early?" Alex asked.

"Early?" Grace said in surprise. "No, young man. It’s just on time. We won’t see any green again until April, if we’re lucky."

Alex sighed, thanked her for the tea and toast, and left. When he reached his room he was glad to see Derek was sound asleep and hated to wake him, but he didn’t want the tea and toast to go cold so he gently shook his friend awake. Derek gave him a weak smile.

"Sorry to wake you, but I brought you some tea and toast. Do you think you can try some?"

"Tea sounds lovely. Not sure about the toast, but I’ll give it a try," Derek said as he struggled into a sitting position.

"I need to get to class. You going to be okay?"

"Sure, mate. Get on with you. I’ll be fine."

"They’re closing the cafeteria for the rest of the day," Alex told him. "It may open again tomorrow. I’ll try to find some dinner for you somewhere. I may go into town and get a pizza. I’ll stop at the café and get some take-out for you, maybe some soft-boiled eggs or something."

"Thanks. I appreciate it," Derek said, sipping the tea. "Better get going or you’ll be late."

Alex went, grabbing his coat and hat. He left the Academy, making his way to the phys. ed. building, and joined the rest of the class for archery. It did not escape his notice that the class was smaller than usual and halfway through the lesson one of the other students asked to be excused, complaining of not feeling well. Elrohir gave his permission but when the woman started being sick before she reached the door, he dismissed the rest of the class and went to help her.

Alex hung around long enough to assure himself that the Elf had the situation under control and then left. Elrohir could not get the virus so it was safe enough for him to handle the mess. He stepped outside and swore. In the time he was in class the snow had continued falling and apparently at a more rapid rate. He thought at least six inches were on the ground already and the walkways were gone. No way was he going to go into town in this. Instead, he trudged over to the student center, muttering curses at the snow, his feet soaked, for he was wearing just shoes rather than winter boots. He stood in line at the snack bar and ordered a large tea and coffee, bought some pre-packaged sandwiches and some chips for himself and some vanilla pudding for Derek and then made his slow way back to the Academy, all the while hoping against hope that he didn’t come down with the dratted virus himself.