Akeldama | lrh

seven - veins

Ivy sits beside him, her hand on his shoulder, while Calum dips a finger in the disgusting stuff and holds it close to his face. He seems more concerned with the substance itself than the condition of the boy in front of him.

"What's wrong?" I ask, sinking down beside him. "What's happening?"

Ivy's head snaps up at the sound of my voice. "Alex-"

"If you tell me I shouldn't be in here, I'll explode." I glare at her. "Tell me what the hell is going on."

"Stop." Zay coughs, his voice barely there. Blackish green drips from his chapped mouth. "Just stop."

"Zay." A sigh of relief leaves me, and I put my hand on his other shoulder, the one with the bandage and blood. "How do you feel?"

He looks up at me, and the relief disappears in a flaming ball of smoke. His pupils are nearly a blood red. "You need to get out of here. Now."

"Nobody's leaving, Xavier." Ivy mutters, studying his face with wide eyes. "Not yet."

Zay grabs her wrist, his knuckles white with strain. "Ivy, please. Take everybody and leave."

The girl swallows hard. "Why?"

Xavier closes his eyes, still shaking all over. His fingers twitch where they lay spread out on the ground in front of him. He looks scary. He looks... inhuman. "Because-" He starts, coughing up even more vomit. "Because, I can feel it happening. I can feel myself changing." He meets her eyes, his tone low. "Ivy, I can hear the blood pumping in your veins, and I want it."

Ivy's expression shuts like a screen door, and she immediately looks to Calum. "Cal, Alex, outside. Now."

The way she says it is so authoritative that I obey, stepping out of the tent with shaking legs. My hand is still soaked with Zay's blood, and I stare at it, trying to block out the horror threatening to take over my brain.

Ivy steps out of the tent and closes it, her face still expressionless. She walks over to Luke, and whispers something in his ear. He shakes his head, and she nods.

"What's wrong with him?" I find myself asking, loud and clear. "No bullshit. Really."

Ivy actually looks kind of sympathetic, but it's Luke that answers my question. "Your friend has been infected by radiation poisoning through, as our best guess, blood-to-blood contact. He'll be feral within hours."

It's as if my heart literally stops in my chest. Xavier. Poisoned. Mutation. No.

Luke voice contains absolutely zero empathy. As if he's just stating a fact.

"No." Jess mutters, stepping out of the crowd. I can't speak. "There has to be something we can do. We have to cure him."

"There's not a cure." Calum states. His hands are still dripping black from the vomit. "His blood cells are almost completely mutated. He might as well have stage four brain cancer."

"Then how the hell are all of you still fine?" I find myself saying, almost in an angry tone. The exasperation is getting to me. "I know damn well at least half of you people got blood to blood contact during that fight. How come you aren't going all amityville on us?"