Scrapped Stories

Re;birth Apocalypse [Original] Ch. 11: Desperate Measures

"Lady Blanc, we've secured another quadrant. The survivor's numbers are slowly decreasing, many infected... We were only able to bring a few of them back." White Heart sighs, looking out the window, to the horde of zombies roaming the nation. "There's nothing we can do but hold them off until help arrives..." Draq grits his teeth as he stares at the floor. "If only we had the cure ready..." ~ "How is that coming along?" Draq shakes his head. "We've only managed to cause minor explosions and make pina coladas~..." ~ "Pina coladas?" ~ "The scientists on the team have been drinking a lot... Most of their families have been turned or killed." ~ "No, why pina coladas?" ~ "They like the taste of alcoholic coconut drinks..." The door bursts open, as White Heart and Draq turn to a horrifying sight. Blood dripping on the floor, with Neptune sprawled out on my back. We both had many open wounds, and Neptune was missing an arm. "Hey... Do you know anything about reattaching limbs...? ...That I can't find..." They both stared at us with shocked expressions, as a cup of coffee drops from Draq's hand.

We run through the hallways of the Basilicom, Neptune on a stretcher as Draq pushes it. A few doctors meet us in the room currently being used as a safe zone. The medical equipment was already there and ready for use, so the doctors got to work. Neptune was laid out onto the hospital bed, as the doctors set up the Medical Monitors. The machine started beeping, as a heartline appeared on the screen. The doctor in charge of the procedure examined the monitor. "Her heart rate is stable, but we'll need to hurry." They place a medical ventilator over her mouth and nose, plugging it into the machine. Her breathing returns to a normal pace, but her heart rate starts to pick up. I look over to the monitor, as the heartline starts moving wildly. "What's going on?" The doctor puts some gloves on, as he grabs some devices that measure blood pressure. "High stress is causing her heart rate to increase rapidly, she's also experiencing excruciating pain." The two other doctors start to remove her clothes. "Woah, woah! What are you doing?!" The doctors continue until she's basically in a swimsuit. "She has many open wounds that need to be treated immediately." I deadpan. "I'm not even going to ask why she had a swimsuit underneath her clothes." Draq steps out of the room, as the doctors hand Blanc and I some gloves. "We're going to need as much help as we can get. The amount of people on duty are low, so we'll need some assistance." The doctor hands me a box of stitches. "...What...?" ~ "You'll have to handle the stitches, while we work on disinfecting the arm." ~ "Sure, three professionally trained doctors make an unprofessional fifteen year old, who has never even held a needle before, stitch up his girlfriend... Society is great." Blanc sighs, as the other doctors start working on the stump. I slowly move the needle through Neptune's skin, reconnecting the open wounds, rinse repeat... I'm not even sure I'm doing this right... Either way, I finish the stitching and the doctors wrap up their work on the arm. Neptune's heart rate returns to a stable bpm, and the doctors bring over an x-ray machine. "The arm will need some more work, it seems like the bone was split at an odd angle." The monitor showed that there were some bone fragments still laying inside of Neptune's arm, and the bone itself had been fractured and would need to be put back into place. Luckily, Neptune didn't lose her entire arm, just a little below the elbow. But I guess I did a bad job, because I managed to fracture and dislocate the bone in her arm, entirely... The doctors move the x-ray machine out of the way, and they grab some scalpels. "Kid, you're gonna need to stay back for this one, it won't look pretty." I nod and take a step back, not far enough to not be able to see the actual surgery, of course, but far enough that they wouldn't notice. They inject some anesthetic into her arm, which seemed like it wouldn't be enough for a goddess' immune system. One of the doctors drew a line across Neptune's arm, as the doctor with the scalpel, cut across the line. Blood formed around the incision, as the other doctor wiped it with some disinfectant. They used the x-ray machine to locate the bone fragments, and used tweezers to remove them. Neptune's heart rate starts to increase slowly, as I notice her twitch. The doctors get to the dislocated bone and move it slightly, as Neptune's arm bends in an uncomfortable way. They slide it into place as they use a bone stapler to keep it connected. Upon the bone stapler piercing into the bone, Neptune's eyes shot open, as her heart rate increased drastically. She let out a scream, as the violent movements caused the wounds to reopen. I hold Neptune down to stop her from moving, as the doctors insert more anesthesia into her arm. Neptune eventually calms down and falls back to sleep. "This isn't good..." I turn to the doctors, as they check the x-ray machine again. "The violent thrashing caused a broken rib to puncture one of her lungs. We'll have to fix that immediately." The other two doctors turn Neptune onto her side with the severed arm over her head. The doctor makes a surgical cut in between two of her ribs, going from the front of her chest wall to the back, passing just underneath her armpit. The doctors deflate the punctured lung, so that air doesn't move in and out during surgery. I step out of the room, as I meet Blanc and Draq outside. "So, what's going on?" I sigh, looking back to the room. "She punctured a lung and now they have to do surgery on it..." We wait about two hours, and then I go back into the room, the doctors just finishing up. They place drainage tubes into her chest area, to remove any fluids that had built up. Finally, they close the ribs, muscles, and skin with sutures. "There, she should be fine now. Her breathing has gone back to normal. We've just got to fix up the stitching from earlier, and we should we good to go." They start stitching up Neptune's wounds, but she doesn't seem to be responding well, as her heart rate drops to 40 bpm. Neptune's breathing stops, as the monitor flat lines. "We're losing her!" They charge up the defibrillator. "Clear!" They place them on her chest, but the flatlining doesn't stop. "Clear!" They use the defibrillator again, as her heart starts back up again. We let out a sigh of relief, as the doctors finish with the stitching. "Okay, we should be able to keep her heart rate stable, but we'll need some medicine from Leanbox." ~ "Alright, leave it to me."

I quickly leave the Basilicom on a speeding motorcycle, tearing through the horde of zombies. I pull out a PM-63 RAK, and insert a 9mm Makarov cartridge into the ammo slot. I pull the trigger, blowing the heads off of the zombies, as I pass. My motorcycle is blown into the air, as the surrounding zombies explode into bits. "My bike!" Chunks of metal slam into the ground, before exploding in a gas leak. "I just got that two chapters ago..!" I look ahead as someone lands on the ground. He looked like he was wearing a purple version of the CPU skinsuit, but with futuristic chest plate-like armor. He had an angel wing sprouting out of his back on his left, with a demon wing sprouting out of his right leg. He wore a silver mask that looked like spades from a playing card. He summoned a Katana in his hand, and turned to me. "It seems like your lucky day." A playing card appeared in his hand. "You get to play with the Apocalypse Callers." He turns the card, revealing an Ace of Spades. "You may call me 'Spade', and I will be your opponent." He shot into the air, as he summoned orbs of light around the angel wing, and fireballs around the demon wing. His visor lights up as his symbol appeared above him. "Time for you to see, the Ace up my sleeve."

End of Chapter