The Catalyst (GirlXGirl)

Chp. 51 "Hard Work"

Chp. 51 “Hard Work”

“Do you hurt?” I ask silently, gazing at Avery who was still lying still in her bed. Watching her move around made me worry, and it has now been an entire week that she had been diagnosed.

I knew the fever was wearing her down.

“A little, my joints ache a bit, that’s all.”

Then she leaned her head and closed her eyes softly, indicating her medicine was setting in.

I took in her frail figure, wondering how much weight she had lost since being here. She obviously didn’t look healthy, and I knew she had lost at least five to ten pounds because she wasn’t eating much anymore. Her voice was weak too, as if she was out of breath, and I knew that she was trying hard to keep her guard up but I knew the truth.

She was getting worse really fast.

The doctors had been doing everything they could to ease her pain and possibly make her last till we found a cure. They were giving her medication that attempted to break the fever, and other medicine to try and ease her aching joints. They were monitoring her like hawks now, and I knew it was because her condition had worsened a lot faster than expected.

And a possible cure didn’t seem to be in the near future.

We had made quite the amount of progress over the time I had been working with Henson, but now we were in the midst of the trickiest part.

The tricky part was actually creating the antidote that would lead to a cure and not accidentally creating more Healers

It all was a number game. How many hormones would completely transform a person from normal to super human? And how little were needed to actually rid the host of the disease? It was a trial and error but it could be timely, which Henson had warned me about from the beginning.

But staring at Avery’s withering body only furthered my impatience.

She now had more extreme symptoms, which was now excessive sweat, high fever, nausea, and joint aching. I had tried so many times to help her, just to try and ease her pain but it was no use, nothing I did was of help. Some of her medication dulled some of the aching, but other than that there was no escaping the sick misery she was in.

And it was entirely my fault.

 If I would’ve just come here alone, not risking my friend’s lives, knowing they weren’t immune to the disease… I should’ve just left her back in Jacksonville, at least then she wouldn’t have contracted the disease. I mean, how stupid was I to believe that me and my friends were invincible?

And now I was here, watching someone I truly cared about wither away with sickness, and I could do nothing about it.

Then I heard a knock on the door and I stood, walking slowly over to the door and peeking through the blinds. Roger was on the other side, but I was curious as to why. I typed in the security code and stepped out, letting it seat behind me as it shut. I spoke, “Hey.”