Sarah sneezed for the 147th time since she got sick. She was keeping count. As a scientist, she liked to quantify her misery. And she truly was miserable. Her department was on the verge of an incredible breakthrough, yet here she was, stuck at home, feeling sick, when she should be at work, doing true scientist's work (in other words inventing something that's either really useless, or really dangerous).  There was important work to be done! Robots weren't going to program themselves to act kind of like really slow, inefficient people who fell down alot and were boring to talk to!

Science was her life. And she was tired of this stupid cold preventing her from living it.

Just as her self-pity was at its peak, her phone rang. She answered it miserably.

"(sniff) Hello?"

"Sarah! It's me, Steve!"

"Oh! (sniff) Hey, Steve! What's up?"

"You've gotta come over to the lab!"

"(sniff) Why?"

"Because I just heard that the guys over at the medicinal department have created something that could help you!"

"Really? (sniff)"

"Yeah! It won't cure you, exactly, since the common cold is, by it's nature, impossible to cure, but it's supposed to ease the symptoms to practically nothing, and it should prevent your cold from spreading to others."

Her heart soared.
"That's (sniff) great! But...how do I get it? Those medicine guys (sniff) never share their stuff with the other departments. And are you sure it's (sniff) safe?"

"It's completely safe. They've already tested it countless times. They're on the verge of publicly announcing it. But we need you back at the mechanical department right away. We need to meet our deadline, or else our funding will be as dead as our social lives. And as for how you'll get your hands on the stuff, a buddy of mine got the product's serial number. All you have to do is sneak over to their department and get the stuff."

"...alright (sniff) I'll be right over."

Twenty minutes and seventeen sneezes later, she was at the lab.

"Heya, Sarah." said Steve, jogging over.

"(sniff) Hi. So, what's the serial number."

"Here, my buddy wrote it down."

He passed her a piece of paper that had 90690 written on it.

"Thanks, Steve. You're a (sniff) lifesaver."

"Don't mention it. Oh, and if anyone catches you, remember...I'm not the one who told you any of this."

"Gotcha."

She then began the laborious trek to the medicinal department of the building. It was a long walk, and having to go the whole way while feeling sick, and trying not to sneeze, made it even more unpleasent. And Sarah was never that healthy, even at the best of times. She was, not to mince words, fat. About 275 pounds, and below average height. In fact, her weight problems were the only thing keeping her from being deemed the best-looking scientist in the department, since she had a cute face, and fetching red hair.

Currently, her nose was just about as red as her aforementioned hair. But with any luck that would soon be fixed.

Ah, good. She had reached her destination. The medicine guys were probably all in the testing area, so their storage facilities should be empty. And voila, they were. She looked around the shelf-filled rooms, amongst the countless bottles, trying to find the right serial. She took the paper out of her pocket, and looked at it again.

06906

Ah-ha! She found it.

She cheerfully opened the bottle, and was surprised to see that there was only one pill inside it.

Ah, well. At least this way, I don't have to worry about how many I should take, she thought.

She dry-swallowed the pill, and then headed back.

Steve was waiting for her, looking rather anxious.

"Mission (sniff) Accomplished!" she declared.

"No one saw you?"

"Nope!"

"Great! How about we go to the cafeteria and get some food to celebrate? They've got pizza today!"

"Count me in!"

Later, as they ate, Steve asked
"Notice any improvement so far?"

"Not (sniff) really."

"Hmmm...how much did you drink?"

She looked at him, a bit worried.
"What do you mean? (sniff) It was a pill."

"...but...my friend said it was a liquid...are you sure you read the serial right? Lemme check the paper again."

"Sure..."

And as she handed it over, they both realized what had gone wrong.
The serial was made up of 0's, 6's, and 9's.
In the storage room, she had accidentally read it upside down.
She took the wrong medicine.

And suddenly, the intercom blared on.
"ATTENTION! A DANGEROUS EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE IS MISSING FROM THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT'S STORAGE AREA! THIS IS AN EMERGENCY! ANYONE WITH ANY IDEA WHAT MAY HAVE HAPPENED TO IT MUST INFORM THE HEAD OFFICE IMMEDIATELY!"

Sarah's jaw dropped. And she could feel something happening in her stomache.

TO BE CONTINUED