Chapter 42: Feeding The Fire
The air in this Wyrmwood’s advanced medical Wing was very different and it was not smelling like the regular dry herbs in the academy infirmary. This one was smelling like chemicals.
This medical facility has more advanced equipment compared to the academy infirmary. This advanced facility was where they brought the more serious cases, the cases the academy body did not want the student body to see. Just like this case now.
"Clear the corridor quickly, ned three is crashing!"
The big glass doors was cracked open as a gurney was pushed through and into the room. The gurney was more than one as every first year rider cadets were pushed into the room.
Gwyn who was disinfecting a tray of surgical tools froze as she turn to see the gurneys being pushed inside. Just then, she saw a figure, the same brown hair tie to the back, that face and he was in the next stretch. Gwyn gasped as her heart plummeted into her stomach.
"Reynold?" Gwyn’s murmured but her voice came out as a choked gasp. She dropped the forceps she was holding as it sounded on the tray, the echo sounding in the room.
Gwyn rushed to the side of Reynold’s bed.
Reynold’s face was pale, and was looking like grey and his veins was even standing out against his neck like blackened spiderwebs. He was not breathing, but his body was just vibrating.
"Move, Cadet!" a senior medic yelled at her as she shoved Gwyn aside. "Get the Vital-Sync Array from the vault! Go now!"
Gwyn did not wait to be told twice and she and one other first year magic user student rushed ti bring the equipment. By the time they were back with the humming emitters back into the ward, the room was already filled with more white coats.
More doctors were already in the ward. This doctors were more higher tier doctors and specialists who deals with the matter of volatile biology.
They were not checking the pulses of the cadets but they were injecting high-grade stimulants directly into their carotid arteries to keep their heart beating...
"Keep injecting them with the stimulants!" Dr. Aris, the head of the facility, shouted. "If the heart stops, the necrosis goes systemic. Flood them with it!"
Gwyn just stood at the corner and was watching, her hands were already shaking.
Her eyes were just on Reynold as she clean small sweat from her cheek with the back of her hand.
Soon, seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hour and before they know it, it wad already night.
The other first year magic user cadet with Gwyn had already left the ward and back to the dorm room but Gwyn was still there and not ready to leave.
She was sitting close Reynold’s bed.
"You are still here."
Gwyn jumped up from where she was sitting. Dr. Aris was standing in the doorway, his glasses were hanging from one of his ear and he was looking like he had aged ten years since noon.
"He is my friend, sir," Gwyn said, her voice voice. "Please. Let me stay the night. I will not get in the way."
Aris looked at Gwyn, then at the unconscious Reynold. He sighed. "Fine.."
"Thank you.."
Aris grabbed a data pad and went back to the lab. Gwyn dragged a chair to Reynold’s bedside and took his hand as she sat. His hand was burning a little hot. Her face fell and then she rested her head on the edge of the mattress, her fingers smoothing Reynold’s hand.
She was just like that and she did not know when she slept off.
The next morning!
Gwyn was still asleep when low voices wake her.
Gwyn did not move, she kept her eyes shut snd was listening to the voices.
"The rate of decay is getting worse and accelerating." A voice said. It was Professor Valerius. He was there with Nymeria.
"It is making no sense," Dr. Aris murmured. Gwyn heard the sound of a fist slamming into a metal console. "We have run the sequencing three times. There is no viral DNA, and there is no bacterial cell wall but the tissue is liquefying." He paused and then added "It is like their hearts are simply... giving up."
Gwyn quickly opened her eyes. The three of them had walked into the glass-walled observation lab overlooking the beds. She stood up quietly, as she walked there.
Through the transparent door, she could see the 3D bio-scans projected in the air and glowing wireframes of human hearts.
The vitals on the monitors were more like a jagged red lines. Every few seconds, a rhythmic thump sound echoed from the ventilators.
Unfortunately it was the only thing keeping the cadets’ lungs from collapsing.
Gwyn stepped closer to the glass. She was not looking at the data charts but her attention were only on some images. The 3D report she was looking at was Reynold’s report.. His heart appeared every time the pulse-monitor beeped.
Gwyn frowned as she look at it closely. Damn it! The frequency...
She wanted to rushed into the lab and told them her theories but then again she might be wrong.
Gwyn’s eyes shifted to Reynold’s bed and then back to the 3D report. "Fuck this!" She murmured and then pushed the the door open.
"It is not giving up," Gwyn said.
Dr. Aris turn around, his face also turning into a frowm. "Cadet, this is a Level-Four containment zone. I know he is your friend, but I need you to be silent or leave."
Professor Valerius held up one of his hand, stopping the doctor. He looked at Gwyn, then back at the 3D scan. "You see something we don’t, Cadet?"
Gwyn stepped forward, her eyes fixed on the glowing projection. "Look at the frequency. You are looking for a biological signature that looks like virus or a poison. But what if it doesn’t look like virus. Just look at the Mana-resonance. The toxin is not a pathogen but I think it is a parasitic echo."
Aris scoffed. "An echo? That is theoretical folklore, girl."
"Look!" Gwyn insisted. She reached out, her fingers flying across the touch-console. She bypassed the Biological filter and toggled the display to Ethereal.
The image changed immediately and the back image vanished and it was replaced by thousands of tiny and jagged crystalline teeth.
They were vibrating in perfect synchronization with the artificial heartbeat the stimulants were providing.
Seeing it, everyone in the room was silent.
"Look, they are Cinder-Spores," Gwyn said, her face going pale. "They do not want to kill the host instead they are just trying to bond with the heart as if it were a dragon’s core. And they are trying to ignite it. But these are humans not actual dragon core, their hearts can not take the heat. It is literally cooking them from the inside out."
Aris looked at the screen. "If your theory is right... then every time we give them stimulants to keep their hearts beating..."
"You are feeding the fire," Gwyn finished and quickly added again. "The faster the heart beats, the more the spores vibrate. The more they vibrate, the hotter they get."
"Then you have to stop the stimulants," Nymeria murmured.
"No," Gwyn snapped. "If you stop, their hearts fail, If you continue, they burn. We have to trick them instead." She started typing. "We can not kill the spores yet because it they die all at once, they will shatter and shred the valves like glass shards. But if we can flood the bloodstream with Liquid Silver Nitrite and a localized Stasis Charm..."
"A Stasis Charm on a living heart?" Aris shook his head. "That is madness. You have have to synchronize the magic with the millisecond rhythm of the machine. One slip and you freeze the muscle permanently."
Gwyn turned, her gaze meeting the doctor’s. "I can do it. Whoever created this toxin wants them to die slowly. And my friend is among the affected ones. I won’t let that happen to him."
Suddenly, the monitors started to make a high-pitched wailing sound.
Warning: Cardiac Overload. Temperature Critical.
A nurse screamed from the floor for the doctor to come have a look.
Aris looked at the jagged red lines, then at the Gwyn. He took a breath and pointed at the Silver Nitrite canisters.
"Okay." Aris murmured. "let’s do it."
****
"I am loading the liquid silver nitrite now into the IV manifold!" Dr. Aris shouted. "Gwyn, get to the primary terminal. If your timing is off by even a heartbeat, the silver will solidify into needles and pierce his ventricles. Do you understand?"
"You can do this. For Reynold." Gwyn sighed as she rubbed her hands together trying to calm herself. She then stepped up to the central console. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a split second to find the center of her focus.
"Initiating the Nitrite flood," Nymeria announced from her own end, her hands were glowing with a blue light as she stabilized the chemical flow.
"Do it now, Gwyn!" Valerius yelled.
Gwyn quickly placed her hands on the glass surface of the terminal and it immediately started humming under her palms.
On the screen, the silver fluid entered Reynold’s bloodstream and was appearing like a rushing white tide on the 3D scan.
Thump-hiss.
"I can see them," Gwyn murmured. The Cinder-Spores were now reacting to the power core.
Sensing the silver, the jagged crystals started to glow red. They thought they were being attacked and they were preparing to detonate.
"The temperature is climbing now!" Aris yelled. "He is going to seize!"
"Wait for it," Gwyn murmured, her eyes tracking the rhythmic pulse of the ventilator.
Thump-hiss. Thump-hiss.
"Gwyn!" Nymeria warned.
"Now!"
Gwyn slammed her intent into the machine and a flash of frost-white light erupted from the Vital-Sync Array.
For a moment it look like the world seemed to stop.
On the monitor, the rushing silver fluid suddenly coated the vibrating spores. It was turning the jagged red teeth into smooth and grey pearls. The Stasis Charm had locked the silver into a protective shell and was tricking the parasites into dormancy.
The screaming alarms cut to a low, steady drone.
"Vitals are now stabilizing," Aris breathed out a sigh of relieved, his voice trembling as he leaned over the monitor. "Core temperature is now dropping too." He paused and then added. "Thank the flame, the necrosis has stopped."
Gwyn fell slightly against the console as her forehead was resting on the glass and her hands were shaking.
"Good job Gwyn," Valerius said, placing a heavy hand on her shoulder. "You were great.."
Gwyn looked through the glass at Reynold. He was still unconscious and his face was still pale, but the vibration had stopped. He looked like he was sleeping.
"It is only a temporary fix.." Aris reminded them. "We should do the same to the rest of the cadets. The silver will hold for forty-eight hours but it will be enough to begin the neutralizing synthesis."
Gwyn pushed herself away from the desk. She walked out of the lab and back to Reynold’s bedside.
She sat back down in the plastic chair and reached for his hand. It was no longer burning.
"please hang in there, Reynold," she murmured, her voice very low
Author’s note!
I have no knowledge in anything related to medicine or science so sorry to my professionals with knowledge in medicine/ science if I messed up some medical words. Some of the terms are fictional and totally made up, while few are not.
Thanks again for giving my story a chance.