“That’s what I was afraid of.” Margo reached to the drawer containing the blood drawing equipment. Theo sat holding his son’s hand, eyes reddened, head hanging in anguish.
Evan slipped gloves over his sterilized hands and hurried to Farrow. By the time Paulie stood beside him, scrubbed in and ready for surgery, Evan had already started an I.V. Margo only left Cole’s side long enough to help Evan by discretely removing the female metasoldier’s clothing and draped her with a surgical cloth before returning to Theo and Cole.
“Someone want to tell me what’s going on?” Paulie mumbled to Evan as he began helping to cleanup Farrow’s gunshot wound.
Evan glanced at Cole’s feverish-looking face just a few yards away and whispered, “Looks like Cole injected himself with the meta serum I made, and he doesn’t seem to be reacting too well from it.”
Paulie glanced over to the boy who had become like family to him since they first arrived from Kansas all those months ago, and sadly shook his head. “‘Envy and wrath shorten the life,’” he quoted quietly and resumed his efforts to clean Farrow’s abdomen.
Creed was on hand to donate blood, and though he did so without question, he wondered if these people knew what they were getting into trying to save Dr. Williams’ personal assistant. Once the transfusion was complete, and Farrow seemed to be resting comfortably, everyone focused their attentions on Cole.
“What are his stats, mom?” Evan asked as Paulie prepared the blood sample on a slide for the microscope.
“His pulse-ox is now one-hundred percent. It was ninety-two before we started oxygen therapy twenty-two minutes ago,” Margo said, reading the chart in her hands. “His temperature is still hovering around 101, blood pressure is normal, he’s taken half a bag of I.V. fluids, and he’s still unresponsive.”
“Do you think it’s safe to give him acetaminophen to try to get the fever down?” Theo asked the room in a small voice.
“Honestly Dr. Andrews, I worry about introducing any chemical to his system. He already had some residual pain killers from his wound and then the serum,” Evan stood shaking his head slowly. “I think we try cool cloths and keep vigil.”
“I have to agree with Evan,” Paulie added. “We don’t know what’s happening inside his body right now. The fever may be important to the process of his human body changing to meta.”
“What does his blood look like, Paulie?” Margo asked nodding to the microscope, primed and ready for viewing.
“Let’s take a look.” The doctor, who specialized in biochemistry, swiveled his stool back to the scope, peered into the eyepieces and adjusted the focus. The room was quiet waiting for him to speak. “Well, at first glance, I see a slight increase of white bloods cells. I’ll have to do some calculations to be sure.” His face stayed planted, looking into the eyepieces as he spoke.
“Meta blood has an increase of plasma and white blood cells. That’s normal for us,” Evan mused. “But an increase in white blood cells in humans means infection.” He glanced at the sullen profile of Cole’s father. “We’ll have to take samples periodically and compare them.”
The room was quiet for a moment, except for the beeping sounds from Cole and Farrow’s heart monitors. Everyone was worrying about what would happen next.
Chapter 2 Rabid Dogs
Gasp
Meg woke from a dreamless sleep with a scream still echoing off the walls of her room.
Her hands clutched her chest as though trying to calm a racing heart. Maze sat up, too. He was alert and growling; ready for a fight with whatever it was that scared her. Meg reached out to touch his thick, silver fur, more to soothe herself than him. The door to her room burst open and a hulking figure of a man stood silhouetted against the hallway light.
“Meg! Are you okay?” Creed’s voice growled protectively. He reached out and flipped on the light switch.
Meg held her arm up to shield her eyes from the sudden brightness. She blinked rapidly, trying to adjust. Maze whined and snuck closer beside her.
“I feel...I know Cole’s hurt. He was so angry—so jealous. He wanted the pain to go away. And Williams—Oh, God, Creed. Williams is on his way right now! He’s—he’s,” Meg stammered trying to find the right words to express what she sensed was happening, “Williams has lost all humanity. He’s amassed a group of metas, and he’s coming for us!” Meg started to hyperventilate even as she jumped out of bed, bolting toward the door.