Chapter 51: Now or Never
Early the next morning, Eugene entered the resource building. He headed down to Colin’s office in the basement. When he opened the door, he saw Colin updating his resource board.
‘Where were you last night, friend?’ asked Eugene as he leaned forward on Colin’s desk.
‘I was at the party,’ replied Colin as he glanced across at Eugene. ‘It was spectacular.’
‘I thought so too,’ said Eugene as he raised an eyebrow. ‘But now we need to put that behind us. I have an urgent task. I need cameras! I need all the cameras you have.’
‘Let me guess, you’re off on holiday and you want to catch some great snaps,’ replied Colin.
‘Close, but no,’ said Eugene. ‘I received some critical intel regarding multiple suspicious characters and fanatics.’
‘So you want to take their photos?’ asked Colin.
‘Yes, but in a discreet manner,’ replied Eugene. ‘These cameras will be hidden across the region. They’ll be my eyes and ears when I’m not around.’
‘I’ll see what I can do, friend,’ said Colin as he sat down at his computer. After clicking on several folders, Colin looked up at Eugene and said, ‘Looks like we have several hundred different types of cameras.’
‘I’ll take the whole lot,’ said Eugene as he raised his eyebrows in excitement.
‘Okay, I’ll select all,’ said Colin as he gazed at his computer screen. ‘I’d like you to sign off digitally.’
‘Not a problem,’ replied Eugene as he signed on a small screen.
‘I’ll send the collection ticket to your phone,’ said Colin as he smiled.
‘Good work, friend,’ said Eugene as he rubbed Colin’s hair. ‘I’ll send my enforcers to pick them up.’
Eugene rushed out of Colin’s office, and Colin began to comb his hair.
Orcilla and Yassmay were back in the laboratory room. They had resumed work on developing a serum using X’s DNA.
‘I really think I have something that might work,’ said Yassmay as she turned to Orcilla.
‘You need to be really confident,’ replied Orcilla. ‘Otherwise it’s just too dangerous.’
‘What about those who are dying?’ said Yassmay. ‘They couldn’t be in any more danger than they are now.’
Orcilla paused, and then she looked at Yassmay. ‘Just run a few more tests here,’ said Orcilla in a concerned tone. ‘Tomorrow, you can visit the main medical centre. Look for the most badly affected. Very carefully explain the risks. If anyone consents, you can go ahead.’
‘Thank you,’ replied Yassmay.
‘Don’t thank me,’ said Orcilla. ‘This is your initiative. You need to be mentally prepared if the serum does not have the desired effect.’
‘We’re at the point we need to take risks,’ replied Yassmay.
Orcilla sighed.
Orcilla and Yassmay continued running tests for the rest of the day.
Late that day, the flying vehicle returned from Location 10. It landed in the town square. Vulay and Eugene rushed over to welcome them. The door opened, and all of them climbed out. Vulay hugged Denise, and Eugene hugged Freddy. Daily looked around to see if Orcilla was with them.
Demadrian and Miro approached Hermon. Miro shook his hand, and Demadrian patted him on the back. Then Orcilla emerged from around a corner. She sprinted towards him. Just as she was about to reach him, she stopped running.
‘I take it you’re happy to see me,’ said Daily with a smile.
‘I’m here to bring you back to work,’ said Orcilla. ‘We really need a few extra hands. We have a serum that might be good to go.’
Daily began to chuckle. Orcilla grabbed him hard and kissed him on the lips.
The next day, Orcilla, Yassmay, and Daily went to the medical centre. It was busy as usual. The waiting room was full. Most were sitting down, and several others were lying on gurneys in the corridors. Orcilla approached the duty medical attendant.
‘I have a list of medical supplies that will be arriving soon,’ said Orcilla as she handed the medical attendant a list.
‘Oh, that’s wonderful,’ replied the medical attendant as she clapped her hands.
‘It’ll help with your minor cases,’ said Orcilla. ‘We have decided to take a more drastic approach to the more serious ones.’
‘Whatever you think is the best approach,’ replied the medical attendant.
‘Are the sickest still kept in Ward E?’ Ocilla asked the medical attendant.
‘Yes,’ replied the medical attendant. ‘We have some in Ward F as well, and we have moved the sickest children into Ward A.’
‘Sorry, I haven’t been around in a while,’ said Orcilla in a sad tone.
‘We understand you need to dedicate all your time to finding cures,’ replied the medical attendant.
‘Okay, we’ll go to Ward F,’ said Orcilla.
Ward F was a large open ward with over a hundred beds running parallel to each other along opposite walls.
‘Okay, let’s look for a good candidate,’ said Orcilla to Yassmay.
Yassmay greeted and talked to Sapiens on the left side of the room, and Orcilla did the same on the right. After around an hour, they both met up at the other end of the ward.
‘How did it go?’ Orcilla asked Yassmay.
‘It’s awful,’ replied Yassmay, shaking her head. ‘I know some of them. They’re so nice, and now it’s going to be over for them.’
‘We can’t let our emotions cloud our judgement,’ said Orcilla firmly. ‘We need to select the best candidates based on their condition.’
‘So we choose who lives and who dies,’ said Yassmay.
‘Ultimately, the choice sits with whoever we ask,’ replied Orcilla.
‘Yeah, but we choose who we ask,’ said Yassmay.
‘I have five possible candidates,’ said Orcilla. ‘How about you?’
‘If we have positive results from our candidates, can we give the serum to all the others?’ asked Yassmay.
‘I don’t want to rush things,’ said Orcilla. ‘Sometimes initial results can be misleading.’
‘Some of them have less than a week left,’ said Yassmay, sounding angry. ‘If we don’t act, they will die. What could be worse than that?’
‘Well, we better get moving,’ replied Orcilla.
Orcilla and Yassmay asked the candidates selected by Orcilla. They explained the possible risks of failure. However, all five of them agreed to take the serum. After that, they asked five candidates that Yassmay had selected. All five of them agreed as well.
All ten candidates were transferred to the medical centre at the laboratory. They were hooked up to several machines that would monitor their condition. Yassmay injected all of them with the serum. This caused them to pass out.
‘Now we just wait,’ said Orcilla as she put her arm around Yassmay.
While they were unconscious, their conditions remained stable. Late afternoon the next day, they began to wake up. At the time, Daily was monitoring them. He rushed out of the medical centre to inform Orcilla and Yassmay. A few minutes later, Orcilla and Yassmay ran in. Three of them were awake, and two of them had propped themselves up in their beds.
‘How are you feeling?’ Orcilla asked one of the candidates who had sat up.
‘I’m feeling well,’ she joyfully replied. ‘I don’t feel the pain anymore.’
Yassmay got the same response from the one she asked as well.
‘It’s working,’ said Yassmay in excitement. ‘We’re going to save them all.’
‘Calm down!’ said Orcilla as she held her hands up. ‘First we need to run some tests, and then we still need to observe them for a while.’
Yassmay was very excited as several more of them began to wake up.
Orcilla and Yassmay took blood samples from all ten of them. They ran multiple tests on the blood.
‘This is amazing!’ said Orcilla. ‘It seems like they are cured of everything. Disease has gone.’
Yassmay threw her arms around Orcilla.
‘Calm down!’ said Orcilla. ‘We still need to observe them. There could be unexpected complications.’
Demadrian entered the laboratory room.
‘We think we have a cure,’ said Orcilla as she gestured for him to look at the computer screen. ‘Look at the test results from this candidate from three days ago and look at them now.’
‘Looks like you have unlocked X’s self-healing ability,’ said Demadrian, sounding impressed. ‘Congratulations! That’s an amazing achievement.’
‘We should give it to all of them,’ said Yassmay excitedly.
‘I feel we need to wait,’ said Orcilla. ‘We don’t know what will happen next.’
‘You should wait,’ replied Demadrian. ‘There are still plenty of risks.’
‘They can self-heal, right?’ said Yassmay.
‘Did all of them have heart disease?’ asked Demadrian.
‘Yes, that has cleared up in all of them,’ said Orcilla.
‘Are they growing?’ asked Demadrian.
‘Of course not. I removed the growth genes,’ said Yassmay, sounding frustrated. ‘Besides, it wouldn’t affect them at this age.’
‘Take their blood pressure,’ said Demadrian.
‘Okay,’ said Yassmay. ‘What are you expecting to see?’
‘Normal, I hope,’ said Demadrian.
Orcilla, Yassmay, and Demadrian returned to the medical centre to check the candidate’s blood pressure.
‘It’s elevated,’ said Yassmay. ‘But their heartbeats are very strong.’
Orcilla looked up at Demadrian. She could see the concern on his face.
She turned to Yassmay and said, ‘Let’s give them all a body scan.’
They scanned each candidate and found the exact same thing.
‘Their hearts have grown,’ said Orcilla in a sad tone. ‘It looks like they will continue to grow.’
‘Okay, so what do we do now?’ asked Yassmay as her eyes darted backwards and forwards between Orcilla and Demadrian.
‘We have some medication we can give them to reduce heart inflammation,’ said Orcilla as she looked at Demadrian.
‘That won’t work,’ said Demadrian as he shook his head. ‘The best thing you can do is make them comfortable when the time draws near.’
‘No, we’re not like you!’ shouted Yassmay. ‘We don’t just quit. We find a way. We don’t hide in caves or tunnels.’
‘Their hearts will continue to grow,’ said Demadrian as he looked down. ‘Eventually they’ll be so big they’ll destroy their insides. They’ll die slowly and painfully.’
Yassmay screamed and pushed Demadrian over. Then she ran out of the scan room.
‘At the rate their hearts are growing, they have only a matter of days,’ said Orcilla.
‘It’s best you keep her away from them,’ said Demadrian. ‘I think it’ll be bad. Their bodies might keep healing, but nothing can stop them ultimately dying.’
Orcilla tried to persuade Yassmay to take some time off, but she refused. She completely dedicated the next few days to providing treatment to the candidates. They were confused by her urgency because they felt well.
After spending three more days with them, some of them began feeling severe chest pains and had difficulty breathing. It was not long before all of them were in extreme pain. Yassmay, Orcilla, and Demadrian gave them painkillers, but this did little to help them.
Blood began to ooze from their mouths, noses, and eyes. Some of them experienced broken ribs. Their ribs punctured their lungs and then healed in place. Yassmay refused to leave them. She tried everything to save them.
Orcilla decided to give them anaesthesia to spare them the immense pain they were suffering. By the end of the day, all ten of them had died.
Yassmay lay on the floor in the middle of the room in exhaustion as tears rolled down her face. Orcilla returned to her office. She curled up in a ball under her desk. Daily entered her office. He went under her desk and hugged her. She looked at him. Tears rolled down her cheeks as a few drops of blood dripped from her nose. Daily wiped her face and kissed her forehead.
Demadrian returned to his apartment. He plonked himself down on the sofa. Duffo sat next to him.
‘Everything okay?’ asked Duffo.
Demadrian looked at Duffo. He said ten names to him and then repeated them.
‘I don’t know what all of that means,’ said Duffo with a perplexed look on his face.
‘Every one of their lives matters,’ said Demadrian. ‘We must do whatever we can to save them.’
‘Okay,’ replied Duffo as he looked at his hands.
An hour later, Duffo met Miro at the park behind the hotel.
‘He’s somehow been taken in by this place,’ said Duffo to Miro.
‘That is not good, but I’m not surprised,’ replied Miro. ‘Don’t worry, we’ve found Hamish. He’s on his way. It appears he brings gifts.’
Sapien Loop: End of an Era
Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time is the sequel to the book Sapien Loop: End of an Era. Sapien Loop: End of an Era is available on Amazon, in collection series on my @spectrumecons account, and in individual chapters in my @captainhive account.
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