Serenity finally had the time to stop and think, and he realized that he didn’t actually know how New York City fell in the original timeline. All he could remember was that there was a huge explosion somewhere downtown; he hadn’t been nearby and he hadn’t paid attention. There was nothing there for him anymore.

He’d been in …. Denver? No, Denver was later. He’d probably been in Charleston. It was before his parents died. He thought his mother was the one to tell him about New York City.

Serenity looked at Made. He hadn’t thought about it at the time, but the cities that were lost rarely went to an explosion; that was something Earthlings did to deny territory to the invader. It’d happened in DC, as well (though that was after his parents died). Was it possible that the invaders here weren’t as straightforward as the Sterath? Could an explosion really have gotten all of them, or had they hidden afterwards?

The Voice had been very quiet since Serenity came back to Earth. There had been stretches as long or longer on Tzintkra and in Tutorials where it was just as quiet, but they weren’t as eventful.

Are you still listening?

[Yes]

Why did New York City fall the first time? Was it Hegemon Worms?

[Interference at that level is not permitted]

[You have access to two Oracles. One is very experienced. Ask them]

Can you at least tell me afterwards, if I avert it?

[Yes]

Serenity nodded in satisfaction. That would help a lot; at least he’d know when he won that the known threat was accounted for.

If he didn’t hear from the Voice, or it wouldn’t respond to questions - well, that too was information. Knowing when he needed to keep digging could make all the difference.

Serenity was searching the area for possibilities on how to move Made without outside supplies and coming up empty by the time Lancaster returned. He’d taken far longer than Serenity expected.

The reason for the delay was obvious; Lancaster had a pile of stuff on the stretcher as he rolled it towards the group. “You would not believe the arguments I got over this stuff. No one could decide what it was or who was responsible. I eventually called a friend, who cut through some of the red tape, but I had to make the final call on what we’ll need; they’re probably still arguing. I guessed we’d want as much protection as possible, but armor’s probably good enough, so - heavy rubber gloves and boots and hazmat face shields. Not the ones with breathing stuff, the ones anyone can wear without training. The people in the ambulance will be in better gear, I think.”

Nat didn’t have armor, but as she said, “I’m handling the camera anyway. I’ll take some boots in case some worms end up on the ground but that’s all.”

Rissa was wearing armor, but it was the “armored clothing” from the Tutorial. She decided that probably wasn’t good enough, so she volunteered to carry other stuff like the Mundane and Magical Biology of the Wasps of North America and any extra protective gear that wasn’t used.

“I’ll help my daughter.” It wasn’t until Serenity looked at Russ that it registered he was also not in armor. Somehow, the fact that he’d been through several fights as a frontliner without taking appreciable damage had made Serenity think of him as armored, but he was only wearing a shirt and jeans.

Raz was happy to put on protective gear, and he was wearing armor, but it wasn’t the full coverage armor Lancaster and Serenity wore; Raz’s armor covered his vitals, but it wasn’t just his hands that were unarmored; the clothing he wore underneath was displayed on his arms and legs. He was disappointed when the boots didn’t work out; his legs, like Serenity’s, were digitigrade and boots made for a plantigrade human foot didn't fit properly. Perhaps it might be doable with straps or padding, but those weren't available.

“I guess it’s you and me, then.” Lancaster grinned as his face disappeared into the face covering. It reminded Serenity of a beekeeper’s veil, only there wasn’t a brim to the hat. It also didn’t fasten to the outfit; it simply sat there. Serenity wasn’t really sure how useful it would be, since a worm could theoretically climb under it and it wasn’t like worms could jump.

Could they?

Serenity didn’t think he needed boots, even if they would fit - which they probably wouldn’t. He’d have to be careful with the gloves or he’d punch holes in them. The hood seemed like a good idea until he put it on and realized he couldn’t see through it. He grumbled to himself as he took off the hood that he should have realized when he saw Lancaster’s that he couldn’t see Lancaster’s face.

There was a lot of plastic sheeting on the stretcher - probably tarps, but Serenity couldn’t tell if they were painter’s tarps or the ubiquitous blue tarps at first. A closer inspection showed that they were probably blue tarps, because there were grommets at the corners, and that wouldn’t be present in a drop cloth.

Serenity and Lancaster laid three of the tarps on top of each other next to Made, then carefully lifted her onto the tarp; Serenity took her shoulders and head while Lancaster took her feet. Once she was on the tarp, they backed up and checked each other for worms. There was a worm on one of Lancaster’s boots and two on Serenity’s right glove, but that was all they found.

They then pulled the tarps ten feet, sliding them - and Made - along the ground. The wasps closed in on the area where Made had been and started attacking worms.

There were a lot of worms there.

They didn’t watch for long; no one really liked seeing the reminder of the parasite. Serenity and Lancaster picked up the tarp and used it to transfer Made onto the stretcher. They folded the tarp over Made, covering everything except her face. It was the best they could manage to contain the worms that were still crawling out of her. Lancaster and Serenity worked out the straps and strapped her into the stretcher as best they could, before having the others lead the way out of the dungeon.

They were met outside the dungeon by two ambulances, a fire truck, and three police cars. The paramedics, firemen, and one of the police officers were near the entrance, but the other police officers stood near their cars, keeping an eye on the small crowd gathered around the excitement at the dungeon entrance.

All of the paramedics were in what looked like full biohazard suits. Serenity didn’t even want to think about how Lancaster had arranged that in so little time; yes, they’d probably waited an hour, but that wasn’t much time.

Serenity was mostly glad he hadn’t needed to do it himself.

By the time Serenity was outside with Lancaster and Made, the other four had already been directed to the left-hand ambulance. The three of them were sent to the right-hand ambulance after a quick check for any obvious worms.

Once they were loaded into the ambulance, Serenity saw one of the paramedics pull back the tarps to get a better look at Made. He shoved the tarp right back where it started when several worms stirred and obviously started climbing up Made towards the light.

When they reached the hospital, they were led in through a side entrance that had clearly been quickly taped off to serve as a makeshift isolation tunnel. Serenity and Lancaster were told to hold their breath and sprayed with some sort of nasty cleaning chemical, then rinsed off with water. They were then pointed at a room and told to “strip off the protective gear, stick it in this bag, check each other for worms, then get in there and stay there until we can figure something out, it won’t be more than a few hours.”

They didn’t see where Made was taken.

There was absolutely nothing to do in the room.

Jack hated biohazard suits almost as much as he hated being called up on one of his days off, but he was one of the few paramedics available who’d done the extra training in CBRN gear. He’d never expected to actually use the training, and he certainly hadn’t expected it to take him away from his family.

After seeing the worms wiggling out of the injured woman’s shoulder, which should have been bleeding significantly but was essentially blood-free, Jack could only be grateful he had the gear on. He could see the worms move as she breathed, which somehow made it worse.

Adam didn’t seem as bothered as Jack was, but then Adam was never bothered by anything. He always said he’d seen worse. Sometimes he even gave examples; Jack had long since learned not to ask what was worse, because Adam had a flair for describing things just enough to make them horrifying.

The two of them hurried the stretcher into the isolation room set aside for the known contaminated patient. Jack pulled the tarp away from her chest and had to control his gorge when he saw the worms still slowly wriggling out of the holes in her shoulder and arm.

Adam simply started grabbing what he could and dropping them into the various plastic boxes that had been hurriedly collected to hold “samples”. They didn’t yet have a way to transport them anywhere that would work on them, but they still needed to collect them.

“You’ve seen worse, haven’t you?” Jack wasn’t certain he wanted to ask, yet he felt compelled. Surely there wasn’t anything worse than this.

Jack caught Adam’s nod out of the corner of his eye. “Yes. Only once or twice, though, and those aren’t stories I want to tell anyone, even another paramedic. They’re bad.”

If Adam thought they were bad, Jack wasn’t going to ask.

They didn’t talk much as they packaged up all the worms they could find. Oddly enough, the ones that were inside Made seemed less lively than the ones that were on or under her clothing or trapped in the tarp. Jack didn’t know why that was; it seemed backwards, but fortunately it wasn’t his job to figure it out.

Once they’d cleared the worms they could easily find and catch off of her, they had to package her up in a protective suit of her own. It was going to be difficult since she was unconscious, but it was the only way they could take her to the MRI machine safely - not for her, but for the technician and everyone else who might need to use the machine. They could decontaminate the surface of a suit, but not a person who was leaking worms.

Containing worms that were very skinny and varied in length from well under an inch to five inches was different from containing other pathogens, especially since no one was sure if one worm was enough to infect someone, or if the immune system would help. The initial report made it sound like one could be enough, so they were treating it with as much care as possible.

They knew it was somewhere out there, and they’d be sending Made away for investigation as soon as possible, but for now they couldn’t wait. They needed to know if there was a way to find the worms and how to treat them - preferably before they took someone over.