C0NV3RG3 (Sequel to M3RG3)

Chapter 5

Wednesday

Lyla

I had spent the entire morning searching for a possible document where Anthony had hidden his documents. Even though Warwick's filter hadn't been particularly useful in searching for hidden items, it could easily scrounge up confidential documents that Anthony hadn't bothered to delete. However, the more I scrolled through the Republic's files and documents, the less I understood about the Republic's system. The Merging Process was only a fraction of what the Republic represented, gaining recognition five years ago. There were other departments that I had heard of, such as the Security and the Medical Wing. Still, others such as Mech & Tech, Serum Advancement and Languages were completely foreign departments to me.

As usual, I was inspecting my 'patient' for signs of injury. I had quickly identified the multiple scratches and fractured wrist, but I suspected that there was something more to these relatively mild injuries. That was when I saw the startling dark blue veins encircling the patient's elbows. Venom. Of course. It was a nasty concoction of serums 10-29, weakening the victim while creating jolts of blinding pain. Swiftly, I injected a dose of serum 80 into the patient's body to numb the pain. The next step was to find the serums that would match the colour of the injected venom.

"Your patient has already bled to death, Astrid. There's no point in healing someone if you're going to spend all day idling your life choices." Rebecca scolded, injecting blood into my dummy patient. "You should first stop the bleeding, then start working on the healing."

I nodded, mopping up the wounds with a disinfected damp cloth. Rebecca continued, her tone pointed, but not condescending. "The point in being a Medic is to be quick, fast, and accurate. It is a race against time. If you do not finish quick enough, your patient may die to loss of blood or infection. If your methods lack accuracy, you may end up hurting your patient rather than healing them."

She then gestured towards my patient. "The first thing you notice is the number of scratches all over the body. After you clean those wounds, check for any signs of serum influence. As you can see, the dark blue veins on the elbows are the iconic sign of a Venom serum. Cleaning it out is simple. Just extract all the dark blue stuff out and your patient should be fine."

"How do you memorize all these things?" There were so many serums to identify, so many serums to combine, and so many different types of poison. Being a medic meant memorizing all these formulas and applying them with speed and precision.

"I just do. Anyways, how's your research holding up?" Rebecca casually asked. "Found anything interesting?"

"Not yet," I mumbled. "It just seems to be crammed with so much information that it's difficult to find what I'm looking for."

"Maybe they didn't want people to find it," Rebecca suggested. "Try a different approach. Think out of the box."

Think out of the box. Arista whispered, stunned. Maybe Anthony didn't save it as a document but as something else.

"Thanks, Rebecca." I nodded, pulling a syringe from the worktable to extract the dark blue solution in the patient's veins.

"You still have venom over there." Octavius pointed at the other patient's elbow. "I thought you would be good at this."

"I'm not good at everything." I retorted. "If I were, I wouldn't be here learning with you."

"I'm just saying." Octavius shrugged. "I mean, you are the teacher's favourite, so you should know everything."

He ran a hand through his wild, curly hair. Arista stiffened and an uncomfortable feeling swelled up in my throat. "Zachariah?" I asked before clamping my mouth shut.