The Ascent

Chapter 45

"Are you really saving her?" Asher asked, snapping himself out of the anger-induced daze rather quickly. "Can you help my little girl?"

The look on his face was heart wrenching, torn between so many different emotions that it was difficult to tell which one was the predominant one: fear, anger, love, distrust, or hope. There was a storm in his heart where all those emotions were huge waves trying to sink him. Only one thought, one wish, kept him anchored. That was his daughter's well-being.

"We'll do our best," Melissa said as she was putting on sterile gloves and a mask. "I can't make any promises because we can never be one hundred percent sure with extractions, no matter how many times we do them. Still, we'll do everything in our power. Believe me, no one wants anything bad to happen to a child."

Asher nodded his head automatically while Jasmine hurried to his side, shouldering his weight as he sagged over and explaining in a whisper what had happened and how she believed they were actually trying to help Ariyana after she had quite a dangerous-looking seizure. Still, there were no guarantees that these people were helping her. All they could do was hope for the best and pray it wasn't some elaborate trick they were falling for.

However, could they take the risk of doing nothing if what they were saying was the truth? What was the right thing to do?

Even though Asher had said some rather mean things, Jasmine knew they didn't represent his true feelings. He was just bewildered and scared by what was happening. It was an understandable reaction to seeing one's child in that kind of situation, but it still hurt Jasmine's feelings. On the other hand, they didn't know each other well, and no matter how close they got because of the less-than-ideal circumstances, they couldn't have complete faith in each other. At least not then. Not yet.

"You just need to stand back and let us do our thing," Melissa said as she set out to work.

"I am sorry for yelling at you," Asher told Jasmine moments later, taking her attention away from the procedure about to be performed on the little girl looking even tinier on the large bed.

Then his legs proceeded to wobble, his strength waning, so Jasmine had to help him take a seat on a nearby chair.

"I need to..." Asher said, breathing heavily, sounding so small and lost that it hurt Jasmine to hear it. "Stay here with Ariyana. This sounds serious."

His hand went through his hair so repeatedly making an unfixable mess out of it.

"But I need to go back to Arman... He and Isaac are all alone," Asher went on dazedly. "I don't trust these people, but Ari did seem a bit off, not like her usual self."

In that second, he quickly lifted his eyes as if a realization had just hit him hard, although what it was remained unclear to Jasmine.

"I need to go back to the boys," Asher said, sounding more determined, decided. "Will you please take care of Ari for me and call me the second something happens?"

"Are you sure you can trust me enough to do that?" Jasmine couldn't help but ask.

"I am sorry for what I said," Asher said, looking into her eyes with such honesty that didn't allow for doubt to settle in. "I was angry and terrified, but that doesn't justify my actions. I shouldn't have taken it out on you. The last thing I ever wanted to do is hurt you."

"Apology accepted," Jasmine said as they both cast another anxious look in Ari's direction. However, their view was obstructed by the people hopefully working to save her life. "I'll call you the second there is news. Now go take care of the boys."

Asher hesitantly got up, gave his little girl one last long look, and proceeded to do what he thought was best. After all, leaving Arman and Isaac alone among strangers wasn't the best of ideas in a world that was slowly falling apart. Jasmine was there for Ari, but who would stand by two scared little boys if both of them stayed by Ari's side?

Jasmine, on her part, proceeded to stand a bit closer to where the doctor was working on Ari, only to regret it immediately.

She had expected an operation type of situation, them cutting into Ariyana, blood, and stuff like that, and was hoping to be able to follow the process and make sure they weren't harming the little girl. However, one look told her this wasn't the type of procedure she was familiar with but something far more disgusting than anything she had ever witnessed.

"What's that?" Jasmine asked in shock as she noticed something black slightly protruding out of Ariyana's ear.

If she didn't know any better, she would have assumed that a tiny branch had lodged itself into the girl's ear. As it was, she had no idea what it could be. All she could say was that watching it was unnerving. It gave her the chills.

"This is an alien parasite," Melissa said without missing a beat. Like it wasn't a big deal. "We need to pull it out very cautiously, or it will leave harmful toxins inside the person's body if its structural integrity is jeopardized."

Half of the parasite was already out of the poor child's ear, reminding Jasmine of a cockroach, only with far more legs and uglier looking than that. It was squirming like crazy, making a detailed examination nearly impossible.

"We'll need the emergency host," Melissa told Plague, whom Jasmine didn't even notice there. "It's one of the harder cases."

Plague immediately disappeared behind a plain-looking door Jasmine assumed led deeper into the building, resurfacing moments later with a small cage with a white mouse in it.

"What are you going to do?" Jasmine asked way too many ideas running through her head, every following idea more disgusting than the previous one.

"I am going to coax it out with a new, uncontaminated host, the one that doesn't have any sedatives in its bloodstream," Melissa said as she carefully brought the mouse closer to Ariyana's ear using double gloves that went to her elbows.

"You're going to experiment on the poor mouse," Jasmine blurted out.

"I'm going to save a little girl's life using a mouse," Melissa said, unperturbed by Jasmine's judgmental tone. "The parasite in her body is very unstable. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because of longer exposure or because she is so young, so her immune system isn't yet fully formed."

Jasmine was about to respond when she saw the little thing worm out of Ariyana's ear and into that of the mouse. Once it was out, it became clear its size was no bigger than a cockroach, but something about its texture seemed strange.

It was similar to how the bodies of the aliens Jasmine had seen seemed somewhat off.

The only word that came to Jasmine's mind to describe those parasites was juicy, and she didn't like that word to be used for something as disgusting as them.

"Okay, all done," Melissa said once the parasite was out of sight, and she returned the confused-looking mouse to its cage.

"Will Ariyana be alright?" Jasmine asked, looking at the girl's tiny face that appeared strangely peaceful.

"She should be fine. There were no complications, but you never know with these otherworldly things," Melissa said, sitting down tiredly on a nearby chair. "Sometimes there are some consequences, but usually nothing too bad."

"Consequences like what?" Jasmine asked confusedly.

One part of her mind mulling over how well-informed these people were about the situation that should have been utterly unfamiliar, Jasmine was finding it difficult to keep up with what the doctor was saying.

"Only some residual headaches, nose bleeds, strange and vivid nightmares, things like that. It takes time for the human body to wash away those toxins completely," Melissa said clinically.

Jasmine's mouth fell open upon hearing that.

Those symptoms...

Could it be?