Sacrifice

Chapter Forty-Nine

Present Day 

Teresa walked through the lab doors, smoke fading as the sanitizers finished spraying her. As she walked across the room, she glanced at the Cranks pounding against the glass doors that kept them separated from everyone else. She then approached the patient she had come to see. 

"Shai?" 

The young girl resting in the reclined chair turned her head to look up. 

"Hi, Miss. Teresa," she said in a weak voice. 

Teresa did her best not to show the pain she felt for the young girl. Shyanne had been brought to them three weeks ago. Her family owned a popular restaurant in the city, when they discovered that she had caught the Flare they immediately sent her here for treatment. Shyanne was only thirteen-years-old, her odds of being immune should be strong. She was by far the youngest patient Teresa had seen since coming to the city. She prayed the serum would work. 

"Is that gonna make me better?" Shyanne asked. 

"I hope so," Teresa answered honestly. "Do you remember the story you were telling me? About the house you grew up in?" 

"I-I don't remember." 

"The one by the lake?" 

As Shyanne was distracted, trying to remember the house, Teresa injected the needle with the serum in her arm. 

Shai winced in pain, she clung to her seat while pain shot through her body. 

"It burns." 

"I know, I know." 

A moment later, the serum emptied out of the needle. 

"There, all done," Teresa assured the young girl. "You're so brave." 

Shai's breathing slowed down. For a moment she was so still that Teresa worried something had gone wrong. 

But then the veins on Shai's skin started to fade. 

************** 

Janson walked down the hall, in a good mood for the first time in days. The whole lab was buzzing with excitement. He found Ava Paige standing in the hall, looking into one of the lab windows. Inside the lab, Teresa was talking to Shyanne, a little girl who had been sick for weeks. Now she didn't show any sign of infection. 

"Oh that is incredible. How soon can you administer to the infected?" 

"You show a lot of compassion for someone who just opened fire on a crowed," Paige remarked. 

"You told me to do my job. I had a shot, I took it." 

"And missed apparently," Paige said. "The patrols never found a body. Thomas is still out there." 

"What about her?" Janson asked, nodding toward Teresa. "Does she know?" 

"No, she can't. I need her to stay focused. Elevate security levels throughout the city. I'm counting on you to handle this, Janson." 

Janson grinned. "Yes, ma'am." 

************* 

Thomas, Gally and Newt soon came to the end of the tunnel. Gally stopped them at the tunnel's opening, waiting for something. A moment later, a fast moving train came into view and whizzed past them. 

"Okay, we gotta be quick about this," Gally said. "We're not gonna have a lot of time, so stay on me okay."  

Neither Newt, nor Thomas responded. Once the train passed the boys quickly climbed out onto the tracks.