Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Lethally Hot ❯ The First 24 Hours ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I don’t own YGO or the book The Hot Zone. All quotes from The Hot Zone come from:

Preston, Richard. The Hot Zone. New York: Anchor Books, 1994.

O_o…MLA formatting…school…

Notes:
//…// is Yami speaking to Yugi via mind-link; /…/ is Yugi speaking to Yami via mind-link
Originally posted on fanfiction.net on 07-02-03. But Toboe LoneWolf still owns it. =P

Oh yeah. This fic is rated PG-13 because I highly doubt kids under 13 would want to read about Ebola viruses ravaging the human body in grotesque ways…he he. But hey, if you want to freak out, fine by me. ^^

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Chapter 1: The first 24 hours

A killer virus stalks the human race.

However, there is exactly one person who knows the cure.

Someone doesn’t like that.

* * * * *

Yugi and the gang were walking from Burger Palooza with full bellies, chatting like typical teenagers. However, Yugi noticed that Yami was being strangely quiet. Usually Yami would be calm and happy after doing things that normal teenagers do: eat, sleep, chat, hang out, etc. Most of the time Yami had to worry about saving the world and all that. After Duelist Kingdom and Battle City, Yami was overdue time to rest. But now Yami seemed concerned and worried yet again.

/Yami, is there something wrong?/

Yami sighed, within his soul room. //Yugi, I feel a dark presence approaching.//

/What? Again?/

//I just don’t know. But something wrong is coming, something seriously- //

Suddenly, Joey pointed at a small, brown object that was running towards them. "Hey, look guys, there’s something funky coming this way."

Tristan peered closely. "And it’s a monkey."

"What?!?" Tea exclaimed. She looked at Joey and Tristan. "Is this some sort of a joke?"

Yugi (and Yami) looked as well. The monkey had red eyes, a gaping mouth, and lesions all over its skin. Yami looked a bit closer. The nose and even the eyes were dripping blood. This was a seriously sick monkey. Oh, and it was definitely running towards them. Like it had an agenda. An agenda that had Yugi and the gang on the top of the list.

//Aibou, maybe we should run.//

Yugi told the rest of the group. "Uh, Yami says that we should run."

"Run? From a monkey?" Joey scoffed.

Tea stared at the monkey. It did not look very happy. In fact, it looked very, very angry. And it was staring right at Yugi. "Umm, guys? Remember Planet of the Apes? Remember how angry those apes were? I think that monkey is that angry."

Tristan looked at the monkey a bit more closely. That monkey was definitely running fast, and it was definitely running toward them, like it had rabies or something. "Yeah, that monkey looks like it has rabies."

"RABIES! LET’S GO GUYS!" Joey began to run, and so did the rest of the gang.

Yugi, being the short and unfortunately not-so-athletic person that he is, began to slow down. And the monkey was catching up.

"Hey! Wait…up…guys!" Yugi panted.

Joey turned around and saw Yugi falling behind "Aww man! We forgot Yugi!" Joey started to run back. (To do what, Joey had no clue; he certainly couldn’t carry Yugi and get away from the monkey at the same time, but it’s the thought that counts.)

The monkey had practically caught up to Yugi.

"YAMI!!!"

The millenium puzzle blazed, but the monkey opened up its mouth, with large, three inch fangs…

And bit Yami, not Yugi.

There stood Yami, with a 30 pound monkey hanging onto his leg. This was certainly a new experience for the 5000 year old pharaoh. One, he has a monkey biting his leg. Two, he had unfortunately not assumed control before the monkey caught up to his aibou and now he had to pay for it.

"MIND CRUSH!!!"

And with that, the poor, diseased, insane monkey went to the shadow realm.

"Yugi! I mean, Yami. Are you okay?" Joey asked Yami anxiously.

"I believe that I should go to a hospital for treatment." Yami pointed at his ravaged leg. Blood was dripping down, and there was a deep bite that made Tea almost sick to look at it.

"Guys, Yami definitely needs to get to a doctor. That monkey probably had rabies, and now Yugi’s probably infected…" Tea said.

"Right! I’ll call the hospital!" Tristan dashed back towards Burger Palooza.

* * * * *

"ARRGGH! Why does it have to take so long!" Joey ranted.

After an hour, the ambulance had still not arrived. Unfortunately, the monkey apparently had run loose for a good deal of time. That meant that the monkey ran around recklessly around Domino and created a great number of car accidents and traffic jams. Some people seem to think that swerving around and crashing into others to prevent running over a rabid monkey is a good thing. And as such, the ambulance couldn’t get to Yugi because the monkey just happened to have created a circle of jams around Yugi, and they were trapped until the police could untangle the mess.

Tristan stared off in the distance, hoping to see the ambulance if he just stared hard enough. "I seriously think that monkey knew what he was doing. I mean, how could there be jams in every direction, just from that one monkey?"

"Shh!!" Tea waved. The cell phone was currently attached to her ear, listening for some news from the ambulance crew or the police. "Yeah! The police have finally gotten one road way free. They’ll be here in about three minutes!"

//Yugi, I am very sorry that I didn’t help sooner.//

Yugi gritted his teeth from the pain. The medics said he couldn’t even take aspirin, because they didn’t know what condition he was in. /Yami, it’s okay./

//No, it’s not. If we had switched earlier, then I could have banished that creature before it bit you.//

/Well then, why didn’t you?/ Yugi winced. The pain was making him snappish.

Yami sighed. //I don’t like to take control of your body without your permission. It is not polite and certainly not nice to you.//

/We’re bonded, right? So, if you really think I’m in danger…then do what you have to do./

Yami smiled down towards his hikari. Yes, he was Yugi’s protector. He should ‘do what he has to do.’ //Thank you, Yugi.//

Just then, the ambulance arrived, and everything went crazy from there.

* * * * *

Yugi was lying on a hospital bed with an IV drip. Yami had switched with Yugi when the ambulance arrived, and the events that occurred were almost a blur.

~~ Flashback ~~

The sirens were blaring and making Yugi confused. The first thing they had given him was a shot to relieve the pain, but it also was making him dizzy and confused. Why weren’t his friends here…wait, the paramedics wouldn’t let them come…said they’ll meet up at the hospital…

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

A paramedic began spewing out questions. "Sir, did the monkey look sick to you?"

"Uh, yeah…" Yugi answered, weakly.

"Was it dripping saliva?"

"I dunno…"

//Yes, it was, Yugi.// Yami decided, that in the state Yugi was in, he needed help answering questions.

"I mean, yeah, it was…"

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

"Do you know where the monkey went?"

"No…"

The paramedic cursed softly. Without knowledge about the monkey, they couldn’t know exactly what the monkey was carrying. It could contain Lassa virus, SIV, rabies, or even some new disease, and without some sort of sample, they would be completely guessing on how to treat the patient.

"Are you sure? That monkey could have been carrying something. We need to find that monkey in order to get a sample and know for sure. Can you remember anything?"

Yami cringed. With the monkey in the shadow realm, there would be no way to tell exactly what the monkey had been carrying.

//Sorry, aibou. I over-reacted. By Ra! Why didn’t I learn about modern medicine? I should have known that we would need information about the monkey!//

/It’s all right, Yami…/

Yugi answered the paramedic’s question. "No…"

~~ End Flashback ~~

So with no idea of what the monkey could possibly have infected Yugi with, the doctors decided to inject as many vaccines as possible, in hopes that it would prevent a breakout.

The doctors were definitely scared. Monkeys were frequently used as test animals for deadly diseases and vaccines. With a monkey, possibly infected with a hot and lethal agent, on the loose and biting people, there was a huge possibility that a pandemic would break out.

Yugi groaned. He had been given no less than five shots, all for various diseases, and one blood sample. The doctors were hoping to identify something and then know the proper treatment. It had been practically a whole day now. At least his friends were here, keeping him company. Those needles must have been the biggest ones in the hospital…

Just then, a doctor came in.

"We have the test results. They are not good."

Joey stood up. "What’s wrong, doc?"

"He has tested positive for a previously unknown variety of the Ebola virus."

Yugi blanched, Tea covered her mouth, Tristan hung his head, and Joey scratched his head. "E-whatsit?"

The doctor glanced at Yugi. There seemed to be pity in his eyes. "Ebola virus. It is a rare and lethally hot virus that kills nine of ten people. In comparison, yellow fever kills one out of twenty. The incubation period for Ebola is around three to twelve days. However, with a new strain, it may be sooner or longer. Ebola attacks everything except skeletal muscle and bone. There is no cure. Yugi will most likely die."

Yugi’s face went white. In his soul room, Yami was also in shock. How could he have let his hikari get into this state?

"Die? Wait, you can’t do anything?" Tea pleaded.

The doctor shook his head. "I am sorry. As this is a serious case, we must quarantine Yugi and we must ask you to leave this hospital - that is after we have tested you as well. We must make sure that you were not exposed to the virus."

"Wait a sec. You’re just going to let Yugi die?" Joey looked at the doctor incredulously.

"Again, I am sorry. But there is nothing we can do."

With protests, screams and pleads, the doctor shooed Yugi’s only comfort out of the lonely hospital room. Then the doctor came back in, carrying a few things.

"I’m afraid that you’ll have to stay here. Certified personnel will come in occasionally, to see if you’re doing fine and try to keep the symptoms down. To keep you…occupied…you can watch TV or read this."

The doctor handed over a TV remote and a book. The title: The Hot Zone.

"It’s probably one of the few things written exclusively on Ebola, translated into Japanese, and also open to the public. If you want to learn more about it, you can look at it."

The doctor turned towards the door. "Again, I am very sorry." Then he walked out - the last human contact that Yugi had.

//Yugi, at least I am still here with you.//

/But what about Joey and Tristan? And what about Tea? Will I ever see them again?/

Yami had no answer. //I- I just don’t know.//

Yugi picked up the book. At least he could read about the life form that was living inside of him. He flipped through the pages.

A life form had acquired Charles Monet as a host, and it was replicating.

That’s me, Yugi thought. And now, I’m going to die…

 The victims developed headaches at about day seven after their exposure and went downhill from there, with raging fevers, clotting, spurts of blood and terminal shock.

Yugi slammed the book closed. So that was what was in store for him.

Then he winced. Oww, his head hurt. Like he had a headache…

Yugi shot up. A headache. And from what he just read, after just one day, he was doomed…

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Toboe LoneWolf: O.o Yeah, I know that wasn’t too freaky, but it gets better. Trust me.

Djanil: Sure…

Toboe LoneWolf: *Sighs* [Look at bio] Anyway, please review. This is one of my first fics, and I’d really like to know how I’m doing. (Like am I making this actually interesting???) Trust me, I’ll add in more freaky parts the next chappie, this is just the prolong. Besides, Ebola only gets interesting after the incubation period, so the next one should be more fun. I purposely made the incubation of this Ebola strain only one day because then it would be faster, and get to the good parts faster…*Thinks of liquefying organs* *grins maniacally*

Djanil: *whacks Toboe LoneWolf*

Toboe LoneWolf: So please review!!!