Heritage

Heritage (Chapter 36)

Chapter 36 - Stella

"It all makes sense now Elena, he's infected. He's had it his whole life, and it's grown as he has. It's mutated, become a part of him. It's completely different because he grew up with it," Ethan says erratically, sending knives of fear crashing into my heart.

"What?! No, no that can't be Ethan, please tell me it's not true!" Elena says to her husband, tears cascading down her face at an alarming rate.

"Infection? What infection?" I ask, fearing the answer, but knowing it already.

"Please, not that...anything but that!"

"Stella, you've read everything about me, including the infection that I had while on the Zeus, take a wild guess," Ethan answers, confirming my worst fears.

A powerful wave of emotions overcomes me and I can't help but to let them flood my senses as tears pour freely from my eyes. My heart feels as though it's been shattered as I glance over at Leon, the man I love.

Why him?

"What are we gonna do, Ethan?" Elena asks, a tone of desperation for her only son s well-being in her voice.

"Look, we know how to treat it, we just need to get the means. For now, we just have to keep him restrained and we need to focus on matters at hand. We need to give Dante some medical attention before re-animating him. This means that we can't use the device on him until that's done. We better get started right away, I don't know how much time Leon has so let's get to it," Ethan says, looking over at his brother, Damien.

"Listen bro, we gotta get the hell out of space and fast. If we're going to have any chance of helping Leon, you said it yourself, we need the means to do so. Well...I just happen to be married to those means," Damien says, a look of pride on his face.

"Wait...Tanya? Elena asks sharply, glancing at her brother-in-law.

"Yup, she is a nurse after-all," Damien replies, removing the last piece of his suit.

"Yeah, but how do we know that she'll have all of the necessary tools and meds to properly treat the infection? Elena asks, looking uncertain.

"Standard training for nurses. After everything that went down on the Zeus, the government got scared that infected citizens would pass it to healthy citizens, thus causing an epidemic. They made it to where all nurses must know the proper way to not only administer the antidote, but also must know how to properly obtain the brain fluid to mix it themselves. Since the antidotes must use the carrier's brain fluid, and only theirs, it was added as part of the curriculum. Although...she's never actually made or administered one since her training," Damien explains, looking thoughtful.

"But does she have the proper materials, Damien? I can't lose him..." I say in a whisper, covering my tear-stained face in my hands as sobs wrack my body violently, causing me to shake.

"You bet, kiddo. She's always got a full stock of meds, tools and materials in her lab in the basement. I wish I could give her some advance warning, but that doesn't matter," Damien replies, placing a hand on my shoulder comfortingly.

Elena immediately rushes to my side, wrapping a motherly arm around my shoulder and running her hand gently over my hair as we both quietly cry.

Ethan approaches both of us, leaving the frozen-in-time form of Dante next to Anika, who is carefully running her fingers over his facial features.

"Listen to me, girls, Leon will be ok. We've made it too far to lose hope now! Look at what we've accomplished! I know it's a scary thought, but Leon is a fighter through-and-through, have faith that he will pull through, and have faith in all of us to get through this together. We're all a family here, and if you can't count on family, then you can't count on anyone," Ethan says, enveloping us both into his strong arms, our faces buried into his shoulders.