video, backdated to the 15th

[hippocratical]

[One day in, after conversations with the guard and various others, Simon finally makes his broadcast. The man on screen is well-dressed, despite his collar being unbuttoned and sleeves rolled up to his elbows; his hair is carefully combed back, even if it looks like he did the job with his fingers. He clears his throat, and when he speaks it sounds like he's careful to modulate his voice, that of a doctor giving bad news to a patient. Diagnosis: grim.]

Ah, hello. I'm Dr. Simon Tam, one of the medical professionals at the clinic. In my previous residence, I was a trauma surgeon. I have years of medical training and am here to help in whatever ways I can with the usual injuries one acquires through violence or accident.

As I'm sure you're all aware, Fear--I'm presuming--has brought in a new kind of creature, one that appears to previously have been human. I'm reluctant to use the word 'zombie,' but that will have to do, I suppose. I want you all to know we are working on studying these zombies and trying to find what created them, whether it's a virus or something less mundane. Anyone who has had experience with beings like this in their previous worlds, please reach out to your clinic staff, any information can be helpful.

For those of you who have been wounded by one of these zombies or have had close physical contact, please report to the clinic. We may be able to help you--and if we can't, maybe we can help keep you from hurting anyone else. I'll do my best to make sure it's the former.

Comments

audio

[unitas]

They'll be gone in a week, or less. Why bother studying them? You won't learn anything, and could just be opening yourself up for accidental infection.

audio

[hippocratical]

Because we don't know for sure they'll be gone in a week or less. We don't know that the effects won't linger. We don't know enough to make those kinds of decisions, and I can't live with myself if I just wash my hands of it all. That's not who I am.

audio

[unitas]

You don't know enough about those kinds of things, but, thanks, I've been here for a hell of a long time, and this shit never lasts. There's a little wiggle room, sure, maybe it'll last a shockingly long two weeks, but everything will turn up peachy when it ends.

[ a beat, and then: ] Except our mental health.

audio

[hippocratical]

You--no, you misunderstood. I'm not saying you don't have the experience here. Just--it's my experience that the second you accept a pattern as that--a pattern--it changes. I sincerely hope you're right, and that it is only temporary. And that we're all...more or less fine, afterward. Mental health notwithstanding.

audio

[unitas]

You don't need to hope, I will be right. [ It doesn't come out haughty, just sort of factual. This is how it is, has been, and probably always will be.

And she almost ends it at that, but it sounds cold, even to her. ] But, uhm, I appreciate what you're trying to do. You should just focus your efforts on helping the injured, not trying to figure out the zombies.