Chapter Text
Sam Golbach has always loved orchids. His obsession started when he was 9, after he was gifted a book on flowers. Almost immediately, the orchids caught his eye, and he begged his mom to buy one so he could admire the flowers beauty in person. Since then, his love for orchids grew stronger over the years. Who knew 17 years later Sam would still love the appealing, beautiful flower, even at the age of 26? After meeting Colby Brock in band camp, the two became best friends for years to come, and Colby would always listen to Sams little rants about how much he loved orchids, as if it wasn’t obvious enough with all the paintings and actual orchids Sam put around the house. Colby always admired Sam for keeping such a passionate obsession for the flower, and would always gift sam little tiny gifts that had orchids on it, such as a leather jacket with an orchid on the back. Sam always loved orchids, and admired their beauty daily.
But that was before the incident.
On a random XPLR adventure video during a dark and foggy night at a haunted farm, Sam began to feel nauseous but rubbed it off as “something in the air”. What else would it be? Colby began to get worried as his best friend started getting visibly ill, even though Sam kept reassuring to Colby he was fine. The two continued the exploration video and Colby began explaining the history behind the farm, when out of the blue, Sam passes out behind him. Colby immediately drops the camera and stops recording to rush to Sams aid, and stays by his side the whole time checking his pulse occasionally until Sam wakes up, confused and very nauseous. “Colby I don’t feel good at all” Sam says groaning in pain. Colby looks at Sam very concerned and begins to help Sam stand up and says, “We’re leaving lets just get to the car, Sam.” Colby quickly grabs the camera and him and Sam walk to the car and begin to drive back home. Soon after arriving, Sam goes straight to his room to lay down with Colby following not far behind him. Sam quickly falls asleep and Colby checks his temperature noting that it isn’t too high, but its still high enough to be classified as a fever. As days pass by, Sam seems to not be getting better, instead getting more sick with higher fevers daily, throwing up, and having a loss of appetite. Seeing his best friend getting weaker by the day, Colby begins telling Sam that he needs to go to the ER, but Sam refuses every time and insists its just a cold or the flu. After begging Sam for days, he finally caves in on Colbys offer, realizing he isn’t getting any better, so the two drive to the closest ER.
As the pair arrive at the ER, Sam waits for his turn to get checked out. “Colby i’m telling you it’s gonna be something simple, we’re here for nothing!” Sam scoffs. Colby shrugs and looks at Sam before saying, “It’s better to be safe than sorry, man.” Huffing and crossing his arms, Sam sits down until he hears a nurse call his name. “Sam Golbach?” The two stand up and walk into the back as the nurse begins to ask Sam about his symptoms, and proceeds to take his temperature, soon followed by taking his blood. “Okay! You can sit in here until we receive results on your bloodwork.” The nurse ushers them into a room and they sit down waiting for Sam’s bloodwork results.
30 minutes pass and the two begin to get impatient. “Whats taking them so damn long” Colby mumbles. “Yeah, usually it would be done by now” Sam agrees, getting a bit nervous as a headache begins setting in his head. Almost in cue, a doctor enters the room and says, “Hello boys, i’m Doctor Allen and im here to discuss the results of Sam’s bloodwork. You may want to take a seat..” “Is something wrong?” Sam asks slightly worried as Colby sits down next to Sam. “Well you see Sam, your symptoms are unlike any other thing we have seen before and we just don’t know what it could be, and due to them getting much worse, we fear it may be a new virus..” The doctor stops to let them process the new information. “Oh..so what are we gonna do about it?” Colby says out loud for Sam as its obvious to see he’s struggling to speak. “The next move is to move you into a different hospital for the time being to monitor you for research purposes since we cant identify it.” Sam clears his throat before saying, “Okay. Which hospital will I be staying at?” “You’re booked to stay at St.Martins Medical Hospital, so we are gonna discharge you and send you home to get some belongings, and you must head right to the Hospital.” The doctor says sympathetically. Sam and Colby exchange a glance before nodding. “Thanks, we’re gonna be on our way” The pair stand up and leave the ER, and begin driving home in silence. Sam is shaking slightly as he mumbled “I didn’t know it was that bad..” Colby sighs, “I know, you’ll get through this, Sam. Don’t stress too hard about it” Sam nods at his best friend, “You’re right, I’m probably overthinking it.” Sam chuckles.
Boy, was he so wrong..