Escape

Chapter13

Eryn
A suggestion to Mica Vise? Was that what Rinco's smart brain was planning? I was thinking a rebellion, something big, that'll get us into the newspapers. But this?
It was lame.
So I told Rinco.
"It is not lame!" She insisted, stomping her foot.
"Is," I told her, as it was a fact. Sad, but true.
"I mean she has to listen to any idea with can come up with now! The world is dying. Haven't  you heard the latest news?" Rinco reasoned.
"What news?" I asked her, embarrassed. I had not been catching up lately.
Rinco sighed, "Seriously, even if you haven't been catching up, you should know. The virus can evaporate,"
I took a while to process this. If the virus could evaporate, and the virus was in the sea then....
"No...." I muttered.
"Yes, Eryn, yes. It rained down on everyone, in fact, it is still raining. People who went outdoors were infected. So were the water plants. The drinking water also has the virus."
I was frozen in shock and pure terror. How could this be?
"The Missle Water System still has plenty of clean water. They're helping those who are not infected now."
Missle was now the only place that had clean water now?! All we could depend on now is a indoor recreated sea?
Let's face it. The world was coming to an end.
------
The sirens blared loudly, signaling us to go to the saferooms. Rinco and I put own our clipboards immediately and ran out of the room. I took Gryer's hand. Like Rinco, I was becoming quite attached to that girl.
I broke one of the test tubes and used the glass to scar my hand. Crimson red blood oozed slightly and I wiped it against the sensor.
"All clear," the robotic voice said monotonously. We went in and slammed the door. While doing that, my hand banged against Gryer. It was stuck in her mouth.
"Eww, blood," her muffled voice said in disgust. I coughed and saliva rained down on her, into her mouth too.
"Sorry," I muttered.
We settled down on one of the bunkbeds, wondering how long we would stay there for.
"What is going on?" Gryer asked.
"Probs someone got diagnosed with Hydroswell or something. The people here went through the drill alot of times." I explained.
Just then, Jonathan and Wyatt came bursting through the door, panting. He kissed Rinco on the cheek.
"It's Reagan," he said. My eyes opened wide.
"What? What happened? He was perfectly ok!" I cried. Jonathan nodded solemnly.
"They injected a drug to calm him down for a while."
Rinco covered Gryer's ears so she couldn't hear the details. She shook her hands away.
"It's okay, I knew this was my fate. I was just hoping..." Gryer said. Rinco shook her head.
"I thought the liquid would give him about a year or two," Rinco said. Jonathan shrugged.
"For now, we don't know what actually happened yet. They're still monitoring,"
I hugged Gryer and she pushed me away.
"I don't need sympathy," she told me.
I tried very hard to fight back tears. "But..you're so young!" I choked. Gryer was silent for a while. Then she said, "I'll just die, then, no pain."
"Who said we weren't going to find a cure?" Rinco spoke up with sudden determination.
This time, I agreed. We are going to find a cure.
Rinco
Not long after, we were released from the safe chambers. Reagan was currently in Missle's ICU. They suspected that he would not hold on for long. Therefore, we decided to pay him a visit.
A part of me wished that I had not.
It was scary and heartbreaking to see Reagan hooked up onto life support machines. A burly nurse came in and said "Let me pass, you kids, I have to give Reagan here his shot."
His 'shot' meant another round of sedatives to keep him calm and composed. However, this round, it was for him to fall asleep and get rest.
"Water.."' He croaked, his throat dry from all the screaming he did. The nurse shook her head.
"Not now, Reagan. You will only want more."
We learnt that they weren't going to give him any water. There was a drip, providing him with the nutrients he needed. Jonathan put his arm around my waist to support me as tears came rolling down my eyes. One of us Questers, had finally succumbed to the virus. It was like the end was very near if we didn't find a cure.
"Should I?" asked Emmiera suddenly.
"Should you what?" Ernest asked
"Do this before I die,"
"What die-" but he was cut off as Emmiera suddenly grabbed his waist and pulled him closer. Their lips touched once. Twice. Thrice. Slowly, just a peck. Both of their eyes were closed.
The fourth time, it was long. Ernest finally got over his shock and put his arms around Emmiera. He initiated the last one, pulling her head so that it touched his.
"Wow Ernie, wow," Eryn muttered under her breath.
When they were done, Emmiera said, "I love you, Ernest."
Ernest's eyes were red. "I didn't dare to tell you before, but the feeling is mutual."
"How beautiful." a ragged voice spoke, belonging to Reagan. All attention was then focused on him. Face paled, his breathing was irregular. Actually, it sounded like he was wheezing. He put a hand around his chest and tried his best to obtain oxygen. The monitor at the side started beeping showing warning signs.
Reagan, due to the unquenchable thirst, the overload of sedatives, was going crazy. What was supposed to be mental turned physical.
"What is happening?!" Rianna cried, shaking the nurse frantically. The nurse just shook her head and gave a sad smile, making some notes on her clipboard.
"IS THAT ALL YOU ARE GONNA DO?" Jonathan broke free from my grasp and tackled the nurse. Wyatt did not do anything to stop his Quest Friend. Instead, he ran out to find the best Doctors and Scientists.
Unfortunately, he was too late, and so was everyone. In just mere few seconds, the heart monitor, lung monitor and brain activity monitor just stopped making noise. All the graph lines were straight, indicating no sign of life.
Which meant....
Reagan was gone
————————
Every action seemed to stop. Jonathan froze, his hand on a rather inappropriate place, on the nurse. The nurse who was tackled onto the floor, quit screaming. Reagan's Best Friend, by the name of Owen, fell to the ground, screaming from the inside. Reagan's family came rushing in to witness this. The death of their son and brother. His younger brother practically broke down in uncontrollable tears. His parents were too stunned. Shocked. Too broken to speak. To even cry. They just held their only son that was left close to them, never letting go. Wyatt came back to the scene, knowing immediately what had happened. He kicked himself hard on the shin. The Doctors had the last conclusion to proclaim that he was indeed dead.
"So this experiment failed," said the insensitive, low emotional quotient nurse.
Reagan's dad, who shared the same physique as him, grabbed the nurse by her spotless white collar. His muscles gleamed along with his tanned skin, warning the nurse about her fate if she dared say anything more.
"Is," he mouthed dangerously, "my son," the atmosphere was quiet and eerie, for nobody dared utter a single word.
"Is my son just one of the other test subjects? Is my son..." His voice got higher, higher. Louder, louder with each syllable.
"ANOTHER ONE OF YOUR FAILED EXPERIMENTS?"
As described, the nurse had a very low emotional quotient for some reason. Stupidly she said, "What if he was?"
Reagan's dad kicked the nurse on the shin while Reagan's mom screamed for him to stop. Jonathan fought against the nurse in pure fury. Wyatt supported him. The females screamed, but they were able to stop some people from doing reckless things.
It was only when Gryer jumped onto the nurse when all hell broke lose.
Eryn
"How are you?" I was visiting Gryer at the hospital. It wasn't even because she was sick. In fact, surprisingly, her condition had improved greatly. However, looking at the bandages on her head, her hand in a cast...
I could not bear to look but I had to. I had to care for Gryer. She was my responsibility.
"Physically..well no. But the Hydroswell, it's almost like its gone."
Gone? Not fully understanding what she meant by that, I probed further.
"What do you mean?"
Gryer did not answer me. She just slammed the table really. She punched her free fist into the air and screamed in pure delight. She tried to get up but I immediately pushed her down again.
"Yessss!!!!!!" She squealed, shaking me.
"What the..Gryer. GRYER!" She was pulling me back and forth, my neck jiggled helplessly. Yes, it jiggled.
She looked around and then whispered into my ears, "The world will be saved."
People say that before death, you would always have this moment when everything seems fine. Maybe the past days, that was Gryer's last moments. Maybe, hydroswell was finally catching up with her. I stifled a sob.
Worried, Gryer put her hand on my shoulder.
"Why are you crying? Isn't it supposed to be a good thing?" Gryer asked.
I sniffled and said, "What?"
Gryer said, "The cure has been found."
———
Rinco, Jonathan, James and I, we had a gathering once Gryer was certified medically fit.
I told them about it but none of them seemed to believe that.
"Are you sure, Ryn?" James asked. We had been hanging out a lot lately. I still had not asked him the big question yet though.
I was not sure if I even believed myself either. A cure? It was too good. Too good, that it seemed impossible. How could a child so young find the cure?
Gryer demonstrated.
"Eryn, I would need your blood." I gladly used a sterilized needle to poke myself. A little blood oozed and Gryer collected the sample and put it in a test tube.
Holding up another tube, she asked me to spit into it. Lastly, she used the needle to poke herself and collected her very own blood.
"Watch," she told us as she poured the contents of my saliva into the blood. She then took her own blood and poured it inside. She then dripped a sample of the mixture onto a disk. Adjusting the microscope a little to a suitable magnification, she then connected it to a projector.
I could not hide my shock. Right before my eyes, I could see my white blood cells breaking down the virus.
"There's a something in your saliva that reacts with the white blood cells, creating chemical so powerful that it can kill the virus. However, I think my blood has also something inside but it only secretes a special curing chemical when put together with yours."
I kept quiet, taking in this nine-year-old child's words. During her hospital stay, in that short span of time, how was she able to figure out all that.
"The catch is, I took a sample from Emmiera. The virus was at full strength, unlike mine which was not as I am healing. Thus the results might not be as reliable but the concept is pretty much the same. It is unfortunate that Emmiera does not have that something, which I call the Prawn, due to its shape. So she cannot be cured."
Rinco breathed deeply. Then started, "So you mean only some people can be cured?"
Gryer nodded, "Unless we can recreate the Prawn."
Right. That was our next mission. Prawns. How did it end up that way?
Rinco
"Sometimes I just don't understand that kid," Jonathan told me as he saw Gryer working through the night, examining each cell carefully, going nowhere at all. I shook my head. It was true. Just as we thought we had the cure, we could not save everyone. It was just like another dead end. I sat down on a comfy armchair and heaved a sigh. Would things ever work out.
Suddenly, an idea struck me so hard that I almost fell off the chair.
"Gryer!!! Gryer!!!! Have you ever heard of cell culture?" I asked, bouncing in pure excitement.
Gryer nodded her head blankly, and went back to examining the cell.
"Exactly! We can culture your cells! Then, we inject it along with the chemicals in the blood and saliva, producing the cure!"
Gryer furrowed her eyebrows, frowning.
"Won't the cells die after several times of multiplying? They might even become cancerous. People might get sick." She told me as a matter-of-fact, arrogantly rejecting my idea right away.
I sighed. This girl was either horrible at general knowledge, or that science wasnt her forte.
"Cancer might be a side effect but it can be cured easily now! Besides, haven't you heard the news two years ago? The Researchers have found something that allows all cells to be immortal, reducing the chances of it becoming cancerous almost to zero." I explained. Gryer looked up and her eyes glinted with hope.
"Really? We can culture the cells? My cells will be part of the cure?" Gryer asked. I nodded. This was another breakthrough, another milestone in our quest.
Our test subject? The one and only Emmiera.
———
We got everything prepared for that big day. Emmiera agreed immediately to be our test subject. She said she would die sooner or later. Much positivity, ahem, ahem.
This time, however, theory wise, it was going to work and I knew it from deep down. We did not want to tell Mica yet, as if if it failed, we would not want disappointment to hit her like the previous time. She has had enough so far.
So that night Emmiera came to the lab for her shot. Jonathan was wearing short sleeves for once. His prosthetics were a secret no longer. Secretly, I liked it when I was the only one who knew. It was a selfish thought, but it made me feel special. Of course, I was happy for him. With much more confidence in himself, he could do so much better. He knew that he was not a freak, which was good for him.
We sterilized the needle and made sure Emmiera was comfortable. Ernest was there too, and he gave her a kiss before the shot. Finally, he showed feelings! I knew that they had something.
"You will get through this, I promise." Ernest told her. She nodded as the needle plunged into her skin. She did not wince, or cry out in pain. Because she had gone through much worse.
And that little prick would make her better.