Day 5
#7 of Days
More? YOU WANT MORE??
K
I woke groggily, whatever they were giving me was definitely good stuff.
There was a doctor beside my bed, about to inject something into the drip that led to my arm.
"What, who are you? Where's Doctor Ellis?" I asked, effects of the sedatives slowly wearing off.
"I am your end demon." The man said, driving the syringe home.
"Help!" A yell was all I managed, he had started to press down the plunger though and I was feeling a coldness begin to burn in my arm.
A man with the UN logo on his shoulder pushed in at that point and raised his shotgun. It went unnoticed though, all I could do was look at my arm, nasty black lines were snaking up from where the drip entered on the back of my hand. A small part of me noted that they were a little hard to see, the fur on my arm was much thicker now.
A huge noise sounded and the man beside me collapsed to the floor.
"Got him!" The soldier called and Karen came running in.
She yanked the drip from my hand and used the length of hose to make a tourniquet around my arm just above my elbow.
She lowered her mouth down to my hand, put her lips to it and started sucking hard. Pain lanced up my arm, it made the gun shots seem like a scratch. Her lips were bloody and my arm a pale white by the time she was done, but the nasty lines along my veins had faded.
The soldier was holding a med kit up for her and she removed some bandages from it. Tightly applying those to the area where the drip had been, she slowly released the tourniquet, this time I couldn't hold it in, and screamed loudly.
My good hand leapt to the site of its own volition and would have ripped the bandage off if not for Karen catching it in her own and returning my crushing grip, the touch keeping my mind grounded enough not to lose all control.
After a minute of rough panting the pain had subsided enough to be able to speak.
"Thlak" I coughed and almost choked, my tongue was feeling huge and my mouth and lips all very different. The change it seemed had progressed further during my down-time.
Instead, I just looked into her eyes, and I think she knew what I was trying to say, she squeezed my hand tight again, leaned forward and stole a peck on my nose.
Her laughter as I went cross-eyed trying to follow her to my, now, very pronounced muzzle was the best thing I had heard so far in my life.
"Jerome, here, asked me if I had assigned you a new doctor, when I replied negative, he returned to where his partner was supposed to be detaining him, we found the soldier on the ground. We backtracked here and found him injecting, what we will need to find that out, into you, you know the rest." She said.
Jerome piped in, "Just doing my job ma'am." He was now being very business like with the shotgun checking the areas outside.
"Well, thanks, I owe my life to you both." I managed, the new vocal apparatus was a little to get used to, but it seemed to do the job. The trick was not thinking about it, just try and talk and let it do its job.
"Well, I have some more good news for you David, the virus seems to no longer be contagious in you..." She revealed, I could sense the 'but' though.
"What's the bad news?" I had to know, how bad was it.
"Well, we have found that animals do carry the virus, it just doesn't affect them, it seems that it should run its course in most animals in about a seven days. It's also now estimated that over four fifths of the world is infected."
"How... How much of that drug have you got? How many can survive this?" I begged.
"We have the companies making it on alert, they are making as much as they can, and are keeping enough themselves to treat their staff and their families," I nodded, that was sensible, if those people don't keep making it there is no future, "estimates are that if we are careful with deployment and only start people on it when they are getting close to death themselves, we may be able to save about one in every thousand."
In shock I drew her close by our linked arms and we hugged, "Don't leave me, please, I... I"
"You saved the human race, if it wasn't for knowing to treat the symptom and not the cause, like the rest of the team tried, we would not have been able to save even that many." She said soothingly into my ear.
We stayed there a while, then I let her go, I had to. "They need you still?" I asked.
"Not really, Doctor Willins is overseeing the distribution of azathioprine, its all down to logistics now. There is one interesting facet here, until the virus attacked cells successfully combine with an animals DNA, the virus won't stop. So I have a choice, what do I want to see when I look in the mirror for the rest of my life." She grinned, and I realised that in a few days I would never see that smile, quite the same, ever again.
Tears threatened, but she continued and her voice alone kept them at bay, "I was thinking a fox, it does look very cute, and I think it would be a good look on me, but I think some kind of cat. I have called in a favour and a friends friend is bringing a sample for me." She had lowered her eyes at the last part, but brought them back up to my face, "What would you like me as?"
My heart was beating a million miles an hour, and I knew it was now or never to say it.
"I would love you no matter how you looked." I replied.
-
He said it! He actually said it! I was blushing I know, but so was he.
It was then David pointed out something, "Hey, you have light red fur on your face, what kind of cat DNA was it you were using?"
Stunned I managed to stammer, "I, I mean, it hasn't arrived yet!"
Of course it hit me seconds later, "Our kiss, our first kiss. I must have gotten the fox DNA codes from you then. Well, how about it, do you think you could love me as your little vixen?"
"Of course!" he replied, and moved in for another kiss, just as reinforcements arrived.
"Dr Ellis, what's going on here?" Dr Willins was behind me in the door.
I turned to him, "One of the medical staff here seemed to think that David here was possessed and tried to 'exercise' him with some sort of lethal cocktail. The security guard here intervened and we managed to avert any permanent damage. Also some tests have shown that the DNA 'packets' given off by one host undergoing animal DNA assimilation can be passed on to other cells in a second host." I supplied, almost loosing to a giggle with the 'discovery'.
"Well, see that he is better secured, we owe this young man quite a lot." And with that he turned and left.
I turned back to David and he was staring at me blankly, "Holy shit, I knew I was forgetting something, those guys said at the end of the trail of airports was a key to a container full of that drug, if we could find that, it would mean more people saved right?" He said.
"YES, but, you said they only gave the next destination and key at each airport, so we would need to do this as fast as possible..." I grabbed for my phone, hitting a speed dial, "Harry? Yeah its Karen, can you get the jet prepared, we are going to need to make a few flights. Yeah, see you then." I hung up and turned back to David, who was struggling out of his bed.
"How long till its ready to fly?" He asked.
"Pilot said give him ten minutes to yell at someone ranked high enough at the airport and we can leave." I replied, "We need to get the key and next destination though, we can grab them on the way, uh?" I was at a loss, the struggle had left his hospital gown ripped and he was, for all intents and purposes, rather naked. "We can get you a change of clothes on the plane, grab that doctors pants and lets go!"
-
I tied the pants up roughly, they were way too large but I stuck a claw through the belt where I wanted it and had them held up at least. "All done, how do I look?" I said with a grin.
"Sexy, come on damn it!" And she was out the door, laughing I followed.
Eight minutes later we were on the tarmac and climbing into the jet.
"The Doc says you got the com on this one Karen, said whatever you ask, do. So I am doing, get strapped in and we are out of here... uh, where to though?" The pilot, Harry, said.
"We are heading to Mexico City, from there, well, I don't know, but we will have a new destination for you." she replied, "Oh, and this is David, don't mind how he looks, in a week it will be all the rage."
The pilot shook his head, "Just get back there and strapped in."
We complied, when done I yelled, "We all good here."
"Got ya!" Was the pilots reply, as the engines of the jet slammed us back into our seats.
The take off was a hard one, Harry had obviously caught on that time was a factor and was throwing the jet into its task with a gusto that would normally not be required of it.
When the plane levelled out, we unbuckled and I caught Karen in a hug, "That's for being the best damn doctor on the planet." I told her.
"A girl could get used to this." She replied, letting the hug finish.
"Ok you two. This is your pilot speaking, the flight time to reach Mexico City from here would normally be around fourteen hours, I think we can make it in ten. Auto-pilot is set, I have a good book, you two can get up to whatever you want, just, don't make a mess on my plane." Came over the intercom.
"Well, do you know anything we could do to pass the time?" Karen said innocently to me.
"I may know something..." I replied, looking for something soft we could pile up.