The Diseased Heart

Chapter 17

Nearly the moment the helicopter I stood in had fully landed, and we were cleared to exit, I ran toward the two that lay ahead. My colleagues followed behind me, but at a walk instead.

As much as I wished to go check on the wounded Crawler, I knew I had to make sure the other child was alright. With that amount of blood, something awful jad to have happened, and I prayed we had not caused further damage. I didn't even know if she lived, or if we were retrieving a corpse.

I ran to her and kneeled beside her. She had a large wound on her back, just below her shoulder and under her arm. Several ribs were visible, and she had been soaked in her own blood. I was amazed to see - as little as it was - her ribs were moving as she breathed. I picked her up quickly, but careful to not touch the wound despite wearing thick gloves. I ran to the sirens of the oncoming emergency responders, these ones did not belong to the hospital, however.

The vehicle had dark teal colored designs instead of red like the typical ambulance. This one belonged to our lab, or rather the sector that dealt with potentially biohazardous injuries or bodies found. I carried the girl there, where they almost immediately set to helping her, realizing she was still alive. Binding the wound, giving her blood that she desperately needed. And blood that held a certain medicine we had been creating over the last month, hopefully it would save her, though her chances were slim, given her current state.

One of the masked paremedics walked up to me,"We will bring her back to the lab to do any further bloodwork to confirm she was not infected by the Crawler. I believe it would be a good idea for you to check up on your half of this...situation."

I turned my head to look over my shoulder at the small team examining the Crawler. The doctor and I nodded to eachother, and soon he pulled the emergency vehicle kf the parking lot and began driving back to the lab, sirens blaring. We couldn't risk bringing her to the hospital, this was a potentially infectious situation, and that was our job. The lab specialized in such things, whereas the hospital here was barely equipped to handle them.

I turned back to the main focus of this overly chaotic day, and ran back to her and the crew. Looking her over, I saw she had several gunshot wounds in her torso, bruises on her face, a broken Crawler leg, and of course, the dart I had shot into her back. Everyone else here would believe I had shot her with a type of necrotic poison, the one we had perfected to eradicate the Crawler virus by killing its cells faster than it could regenerate, therefore killing her.

None of them knew I had only used a high powered tranquilizer that reacted in a similar way. She was perfectly fine, and would wake up once I injected the antidote to the tranquilizers, or in a few days once the massive ammount of drugs had worn off on its own. I didn't want to risk it not being potent enough, and we all knew there was no way a Crawler could overdose on such things.

One of my crew members walked up to me, a frightened but relieved expression, "So, it's finally dead?"

I nodded to her, subtly gritting my teeth at how she referred to her as an it, "Yes, the poison will soon kill off the virus, and in turn destroying a good chunk of their brain tissue. Even if their heart keeps beating for a while, it won't be able to stay like that for long. Without the virus, the body will die in time."

The woman nodded, even more relived sounding than before, "Good, we don't want to start the apocalypse all over again. Sad that girl was unfortunate enough to be caught by this monster. There's no chance of her survival, is there?"

I shook my head, "If she was infected, and the virus already reached her brain, there is nearly no chance of her surviving. However, we have developed the ability to eradicate the virus, as shown by this poison. As long as it hasn't ingrained itself into her brain, she would be able to be cured as long as we got to her fast enough. There is also the chance she was never infected in the first place, but given the circumstances, that is sadly unlikely."

They nodded, and looked at Riley, "What should we do with it? We could try burning it to kill off the viru-"

"Absolutely not!" I exclaimed, "We can use the body to study the Crawlers further! We are not going to destroy them! Besides, the virus is either already dead or currently dying off, there is no reason to destroy them!"

They raised their hands slightly, and turned to walk to the oncoming vehicle we would be using to transport Riley to the lab.

It slowly pulled up, and two men in protective gear walked out. They had air-tight body armour and thick gloves to protect them from any possible infections. The two grabbed her and dragged her off the wreckage of the crushed car, and into the truck before closing the door with an echoing rattle.

I sighed heavily as a few more cars pulled up to the scene, this was going to be quite the headache to deal with. I climbed in the black SUV and closed the door. Rolling the window down, I rested my elbow on the frame and placed my chin in my hand as we began to drive off. The driver was an old friend of mine, I met her one of the first days I had moved here to continue my studies over five years ago now.

Julie glanced at me, "You sure you're alright, Clem? I mean, you do know they never blamed you for her coming to life and running out, right? There's no way they could blame you for this, hell, you saved everyone."

I sighed, "But did I? Jules, I lied. You know that. You are the only other person who knows that wasn't the antidote I had shot into her...what if I was wrong?"

Jules raised an eyebrow, giving me a sideways glance. I put my elbows on my knees and held my head, "What if she isn't really Sane? After all, she had her head removed and she was frozen for three centuries. Maybe in that time the virus took over? Maybe she really did attack that girl, and they really were infected!"

"Woah, woah, woah! Calm down, Clementine. You've studied this non stop for months! You even took DNA samples from both the Crawlers and compared it to what little we had found of a feral Crawler from that one dig site. At this point, we know she is the same person as from that old book.

"You know you didn't screw up on this. Hell, if they were a nutso Crawler, why were they bringing that girl to a hospital and not just eating her?"

"Possibly because it was day, maybe Crawlers didn't eat during the day, and she was looking for a place to hideout? She would be used to cities being abandoned and filled with possible hideouts!"

"This is true, we don't know much about their eating habits. But, what we do know is they will avoid densely populated areas, because that usually means people with weapons. Maria whatever-her-last-name-was-"

"Krale..." I jutted in.

Jules continued, "Right, Maria Krale proved that herself! Riley wouldn't have brought that girl here unless she was trying to get her help. The wound on that girl's back was not of a Crawler, there would be slashes and missing ribs if it had been. You know that."

I had to admit, she made a compelling argument. It reminded me of her persuasive skills, like how she had convinced me to cut my hair short a few years back. Neither of us expected me to adopt the look and stay like this, to the point that some people at the lab called me Sir on the regular.

"Sometimes, Jules, I'm glad I have you as my ego booster."

She smiled and shrugged, "What can I say? I try."