Toxic

Chapter 16

Moi-Moi: I guess quarantine is good for something. I'm back again so soon. I hope you guys are doing okay, staying safe, staying indoors... These are crazy times we're living in. Make sure to take care of yourselves. COVID-19 is like a worse version of Thrax. It's no where NEAR as charming and charismatic, but still just as contagious and deadly.

~:~

For all his boasting, Thrax wasn't as thorough as he thought when it came to eliminating the Pneumonia family. The few bacteria that were left had taken it upon themselves to try to reclaim their old territory. Normally, I'd laugh. What could twenty or so bacteria do against my armed and morally loosened Immunity officers? It wasn't even worth my time. Not when I had bigger fish to fry...

I hadn't gone home last night. I needed to plan. The one advantage I'd had over Thrax- the material I'd ordered his claws to be covered in- had been used up. He'd be expecting it next time. Maybe I could work with the cells in the labs to fix the material again? (Luckily for me, they'd already developed the prototype material to help Immunity when Marcus had gotten strep throat last year. I'd only offered a few tips on how to better cater to Thrax.)

"Chief! We're really getting hammered out there! Our boys need backup," one of my officers said as he pushed into my office. His eyes were wide and he was shaking slightly. Was he afraid of me or Pneumonia?

"More backup? I just sent-" I started but stopped. Wiping a hand over my face, I groaned in irritation. Useless. "When you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself," I mutter and grab my gun belt. I could see the relief in the officer's eyes as he ran off while chatting quickly into his radio. I would just have to handle this quickly. Thrax would have to wait for a little while.

~:~

The sound of gunfire was starting to grate on my nerves. How is it that thirty-six bacteria were effectively keeping my men at bay? They were holed up in an abandoned building near the rectum with what appeared to be a small army's worth of ammunition. My men had made a solid wall of patrol car on both sides of the building, but couldn't press forward. I was crouched behind a patrol car with a hand squeezing around my leaking upper arm. Cursing softly, I yanked my belt from my waist and used it to fasten a tourniquet around my arm above my gunshot wound. I wasn't sure which bacteria had shot me, but they would all die for this. There would be hell to pay. This was a brand-new top!

Whistling loudly to a nearby officer to get his attention, I pointed to the shotgun in his hands. He looked surprised for a second before he slid the gun and his ammo over to me and pulled a pistol out from his belt. "Kid guns," I scoffed. I needed to get a bigger budget for Immunity. Slipping the ammo belt over my chest, I reloaded the gun and waited. When I heard the slight lull in gunshots, I stood up quickly and took aim.

One, two, three, four, fi-

"Spit!" I shouted and ducked down. For a second, I felt my world tilt as my hand slipped down the bumper of the patrol car and I collapsed onto the ground. My hand shook as it reached the wound pouring out from my shoulder. The same Marcus damned arm... "Bullet proof vests," I scoffed. What good are they when scum aim for arms and legs!?

"Chief!"

"The chief is down!"

"Someone call for more back up!"

"An emergency ambulance!"

I tried to keep as much pressure on the wound as I could and rolled over onto my back. This was such spit. My body was far more resilient than the average white blood cell's, but even I needed to get out and get patched up ASAP. I was losing too much cytoplasm.

"Now, that doesn't look pretty."

My eyes snapped open.

Yellow. Bright and practically glowing. I had to be hallucinating. I should be angry with myself for hallucinating Thrax at a time like this. I should be even angrier at how my organelles were flipflopping at the sight of him. I was hallucinating Thrax crouching over me with what looked like pity in his eyes. "Not good at all," Thrax muttered and tsked.