She could hear her own breathing inside the suit. Outside, she heard the moans and crying of the patients. But amid the sounds of agony, a beautiful sound cut through: singing. Groups in clumps performed church hymns and folk songs. The contrast of pain and beauty and courage was inspiring—and unnerving.

The box Hannah carried had seemed light at first. Now it felt like an anvil. She set it down next to a young woman lying in the corner.

“I’m Dr. Hannah Watson. I’m with the CDC. I need to take a small sample of your blood for testing.”

The woman slowly opened her yellow, bloodshot eyes but said nothing. A black fly landed on her face, causing her to turn her head, sending the insect back into the air.

Hannah drew out the ReEBOV test kit, took a drop of blood from the woman’s finger, and placed a small bandage over the place she had pricked. She slipped the sample in the cooler and lifted the bottle of ORS by the woman’s side. It was half full.

“How many bottles have you been drinking per day?” Hannah asked.

The woman just shook her head.

“You need to stay hydrated. Can I get you anything else?”

After a labored breath, the woman said, “No, Doctor. Thank you.”

Glancing around, Hannah noticed that on one wall someone had written the letters A through F to mark the rows, and along another wall, the numbers one through twelve marked the columns. She made a mental note that A1 was not taking enough fluids and that she had no other requests.

She took out another test kit, lifted the cooler, and moved to A2.

Twenty minutes later, Hannah exited the hospital. She was so hot she felt like clawing the PPE off. It clung to her sweaty skin, a hot plastic film that felt like it was melting onto her. But Dr. Shaw’s warning was fresh in her mind. She took her time doffing the suit, then hurried into the tent where an EIS agent was testing her samples from row A.

The agent looked up. “All negative for Ebola.”

Hannah nodded. Dr. Shaw had told her to expect that. But even though the Kenyans had already tested the patients and found them negative for Ebola, the prudent course of action had been to run their own tests with kits from another manufacturing batch, just to be sure.

Hannah also knew that Dr. Shaw had likely planned this as part of her training. Hannah would be testing more patients in the field soon, in the villages around Mandera. She’d be on her own. And she was thankful for the opportunity to learn the procedure here, where she had help close by.