You can only be scared for so long

[Interview conducted by the Harmony Institute with Valerie Turnbull, triage nurse, St. Vincent’s Hospital]

I had just started at St. Vincent’s and didn’t know too much about the whole thing. There had been rumours, you know, just whispers about what the poor people might look like or how you could tell.

In the beginning I was dreading walking through the wards in case someone had it.

But you can only be scared for so long.

Everyone was holding their breath for a new case but it just didn’t come. Eventually we just got on with it. We didn’t forget exactly, but I figured if I was going to come face to face with a Zombie, ah sorry, Post–dead, I had better know what I could do to help.

One morning all the nurses were called into a presentation from the senior medical staff about procedures and early detection. We were all a bit confused, we had listened to Dr. Boyd, we thought the risk was over. Turns out some doctors weren’t convinced. They wanted us to be prepared.

They showed us this video of one of the first cases. Close up shots of the skin and the eyes. How they acted around raw meat and, well, brains. I thought to myself, there is not a single thing I could do to help that thing.

Nothing.

Isn’t that an awful feeling?