Coming Back Down

God Complex

    After the fuel had been unloaded and people were starting to settle down on Becca's island, someone had broken in late that night. Emori claimed him to be a horrible man, so it was decided that the Nightblood would be tested on him. No one really wanted to do it, but it had to be done so that we would know if we could survive or not.

  Using an injection made from Luna's bone marrow, we waited a few hours to let it circulate in his system. By sunrise, he was set into the chamber that would simulate the radiation that would affect the world.

  "Vital signs are strong." Clarke's mother declared. "Jackson, seal the chamber." She told her assistant as she stood in front of a monitor.

  "Copy that." He replied as everyone stood around, hoping that this would work. "He's ready."
  "Yeah. But are we?" Raven piped up.

  "The guy's a monster." Emori said clearly.

  "We've been over this." Clarke said. "None of us wants to do this, but the death wave will be here in 10 days. Luna's stem cells grafted successfully. Baylis is making Nightblood on his own. This really is our only hope."

  "We really still talking about this?" Murphy question. "Black rain is already here. 18 people died in it yesterday at Arkadia, so if Nightblood can let us walk around in it, I, for one, want to know about that."

  "If you have a problem turning that dial, I'll do it." I spoke up, seeing the look on Jackson's face as he stood by the chamber. The man looked back at me, then stepped away from the panel while crossing his arms and looking away. I already had blood on my hands, so I might as well spare the poor man from getting it on his. Plus, I didn't really care.

  "Ah, Viper." Murphy looked at me. "Cold-blooded as ever, aren't you?"

  "Shut up." And it took everyone by surprise with how it wasn't me that had said it. Looking back at Roan, I saw that he was glaring at the sloth-looking guy. "Pakstoka offered because she has no sympathy for the man. If this were to fail and he died, it wouldn't be on his hands, it would be on hers." He glanced at Jackson briefly before looking back to Murphy.

  "Is that supposed to be out of the kindness of her frozen heart?" He popped off while shooting me a look.

  "Murphy, if you don't shut your trap, you're the next one in here. Without the Nightblood." I said flatly.

  "And she strikes again, digging those fangs in deep." He popped the 'p' on his last word while holding up two hooked fingers to mock snake fangs. Looking him dead in the eye, I turned the chamber on, and he finally got the idea to shut up, believing I really would stick him in next.

  "500 REM...." Jackson said, looking over my shoulder as I slowly turned the large dial. "850....This is where we'd see symptoms in a non-Nightblood."

  "BP is 100 over 50. Body temp is 98.7." Abby stated as Clarke leaned close to the glass of the chamber. "Resting comfortably."

  "No visible effects." Clarke shook her head.

  "1,000 REM....1,500...."

  "All good here." Abby called as she kept an eye on the monitor.

  "2,000 REM, the level of the Black Rain." Jackson said as I glanced at the man in the chamber. He was still resting without any visible signs of radiation.

  "Still no signs. It's working."

  "2,500...."

  "Wait!" And I could hear beeping behind me.

  "No." Clarke gasped. "Turn it off!" She shouted to me, and I turned the dial the other way as the man began screaming in the chamber.

  "We need to get him out of there!" Abby raced over, but Jackson stopped her.