The Touch of Infection

Chapter 47: How long will I last

Carisa was sprawled on the bed crying her eyes out. She refused to see anyone, refused to talk, and just wanted to lay down and do nothing. Knocking on the door, Marnik looked away from her for the first time.

Open opening it Vasin and Bavyn were standing there, "I heard the news." Vasin said, "Everyone's working on it."

Marnik nodded, and when Vasin looked past him he could see the room filled with lab materials, some broken glass, and a machine running some tests and everything was just a mess. Bavyn looked up at Marnik, "Where's Carisa?"

Marnik looked at the kid a second, before looking back up at Vasin, "Carisa isn't in the right state to be seen." Unbeknownst to him, Bavyn walked past him and towards ten whimperings of Carisa, walking to stand beside the bed, bringing his little hand to hold hers.

Vasin noticed after a second and panicked, looking behind him and not seeing Bavyn, "Where'd he go?!"

Marnik was quick to look towards Carisa and see Bavyn standing beside her, Carisa had gotten quieter, and her face was turned towards Bavyn. He'd just been standing there looking at her, "He's here." Marnik said, "He's holding her hand."

Vasin was about to walk towards him when Marnik held him back, "He's disturbing her."

"No." Marnik grabbed the door and shut it, leaving Vasin and him out, "He's doing a better job on calming her down than me."

"Marnik listens, we can't exactly be sure the cure could work... not without tests." Vasin said Marnik could tell what he was getting to, "We need live human subjects. Surely we can find a few in the preservation camp. But Fallyn wants them to offer themselves, and I doubt humans will let us use them as test subjects."

"Then we force them, after all, they'd be dead without Carisa." Marnik glared but not at the commander, more like he could glare et al, those people, "If Fallyn finds out, then at least we would have gotten closer to the cure."

"This can be considered treason..." Vasin said, but grew quiet, "I'll get a team to answer only to me. But if you leave, Fallyn will grow auspicious to where you might go without Carisa. So you'll continue to test here, make whatever progress you can."

Marnik sucked in a deep breath, "Isn't there anything we can give her to slow the process down. It's been two years, and I've not even heard of something like that."

Vasin nodded slowly, "But it has after-effects. And we only tested it on animals, who even know what effects they can have on some human."

"We'll have to take our chances there, she needs to last until we have a cure." Marnik walked back towards a machine, looking at the tests in there and growling, "I've tried reverse-engineering every single form of this disease, I've tried adding other DNA to the mix... but no animals DNA we've got in this ship seem to have any effect as humans do. Yes the animals on this planet get infected but they don't exactly turn cannibal, it's like it's dormant inside them."

Vasin leaned up against the wall, his thoughts running rampant, "No, you've got something, I have someone testing that but on the plants from other worlds." He clicked his tongue, "One of them came out having a very similar effect, but instead of eating its own kind it just infected it and ate everything else around them."

"And?"

"It's just a theory but... they say that by combining the DNA's of other species that have zero effect towards this disease, it could create a cure, or vaccine-"

"But a vaccine can't help her," Marnik said, "She's already infected, it would do nothing. We need a cure, she needs a cure..."

"Listen Marnik, this messes with a human's DNA, she could change completely, we haven't tested it. Let's just give it time, investigate more, and I'll get back to you." Vasin headed to the door, "I'll take Bavyn with me."

"I'll get him." Marnik walked past him into the room and it was completely quiet, Bavyn was laying in bed beside Carisa, whispering who knows what to her. When he walked in she looked at him, her face was stained with tears but she was calmer. He felt slightly relieved, then looked at Bavyn.

"Where have you been?" Carisa asked, her voice raspy from all the crying.

"I was talking with Vasin, I see Bavyn has been good company, but he has to go now," Marnik told her, to which she smiled one last time at Bavyn.

Speaking in their tongue she bid him goodbye, "I'll see you another time Bavyn."

He grinned and hugged her before dropping to the ground and heading to the door. Bavyn's small hand waved goodbye to her before heading out. She caught a glimpse of Vasin walking past the room before she heard the door close. Marnik walked to stand beside her, looking down her.

"How are you feeling?"

Carisa's head fell, "I'm accepting reality...how long do you think I'll last?"

"A lifetime with me. We're finding the cure Carisa, I promise you." He sat beside her, "So you need to hold on for me."

She grabbed his hand, comparing them to hers for the first time, he didn't have nails, it was just some worth of claw-like hand he had. She'd wonder how easily he could break her apart, "I'm not scared Marnik, I'll hold on for as long as I can. I'll do my best, you'll stay right?"

"Always, always." He repeated pulling her in for a hug, "I'll take you to see Amite and you'll talk for hours, you'll feel great.