Genesis (ONC2022)

Day seven Part Two

Words →_→900 words

Emilia eyed the doctor suspiciously. She didn't know if she could trust him. What could he possibly be doing here?

"May I please come in?" he politely asked.

"Why? Why are you here?" she asked.

She was being royally rude considering the man had not shown any of Doctor Rudolph's usual cockiness but she could not help herself. This man was his partner. There was no way they could work on such an important project together if they didn't have at least one thing in common.

"There is something on my mind, something I need to share with someone." he began slowly, avoiding eye contact.

"Why not talk to your partner?" she asked curiously with a raised eyebrow.

"About that.. I..." he hesitated before going on and this made Emilia all the more suspicious.

What the hell is going on?

"The truth is, Miss Larsson, I came here to talk to you because I find myself unable to trust my partner." he went on. "Everyone here pretty much works for him. I'm simply a part of this project because of my brain and wit for cracking formulas. He's the main man of the project as you may have guessed."

"So I've noted. You may come in and maybe I'll listen to your story." Emilia said with a sigh as she pushed her door open to let him in.

Closing the door behind them, Emilia motioned for Doctor Eli to take a seat whilst she sat on the bed.

"So, Doctor Bossing, what do you wish to talk about?" Emilia asked. She was still skeptical about this whole visit and didn't hide it.

"The cure, CovX2, we made a mistake. It's not ready." He said with a grim expression.

"Yeah, I know that. Isn't that the whole point of the clinical trial?" Emilia asked.

"No, you don't understand. It's not ready to be clinically tested at all!" He went on, his voice hinting at panic.

"It's a little too late for that." Emilia sweat dropped.

"I know. It's my fault. During the first trial we were using an ape. I noted an anomaly in the ape's red blood cells a few days into the trial. I showed Daniel the sample but he simply shrugged it off as a minor reaction." He explained. "I couldn't stay to prove him wrong or right that day because I had to go visit my granddaughter. When I came back, the sample was the first thing I checked to see the progression of the virus..."

"Virus?" Emilia asked, her interest suddenly piqued.

In fact, her interest had been piqued the moment Doctor Eli mentioned an anomaly. Could it be possible that this man actually knew what they were dealing with?

"Yes, I identified the anomaly to be a new sort of virus that I believed was streaming from the drug. Only when I checked my sample it had disappeared and the red blood cells appeared healthy once again so I thought naught of it except that Daniel had been right." Eli explained. "I now have reason to believe that he may have tempered with my sample to keep me from stalling the trials."

"Why do you think that?" She as, barely able to breathe.

"A colleague of mine called me, from the blood works he sent to me, it appears that the virus had spread to another. I'm sure you've probably heard of the rehabilitation home's unfortunate circumstance." Doctor Eli replied.

"Yeah, rabid apes?" Emilia said, recalling the news bulletin she had seen. "Wait, you don't think that's got anything to do with all of this?"

"Miss Larsson, I believe that our lab rat infected the other animals at his rehabilitation home who arenow spreading this virus to human beings." Eli said with a defeated sigh. "I don't know if I can prevent the virus developing in our current subject, however."

"It's a little too late for that." Emilia said softly. "He already has it."

☣️☣️☣️

Hungry. So hungry.

He curled himself into a ball as he tried to ease the pain that had woken him from his slumber. It felt as if a metal claw was tearing his insides to shreds. His stomach contracted painfully as he experienced the most excruciating hunger pangs. They made it difficult for him to breathe.

He was suffocating.

Sitting up, he ripped the IV tubes from his arms and stumbled off the bed to find someone - anyone, who could make the pain go away.

He tried to balance himself on the wall but suddenly found himself falling. He landed on solid rocky ground.

He wasn't in his room anymore. In fact, he wasn't in the lab anymore. He was outside and the sun had just set. Part of him would have freaked out over this strange occurrence if he was not writhing in agony.

"Hey!" He heard someone call out. It was a middle aged security guard who was patrolling the ground. "Who the hell are you? There's no trespassers..."

The man suddenly stopped when he saw him.

"Oh wait, you're that kid. What are you doing out here?" The man asked as he tried to help him up.

"I..." Alex began but he felt his throat constrict as his senses were suddenly flooded by a strange sweet smell. "I just need..."

He felt a strange sensation, a calm, as the darkness took over.