I hug Frank tightly."I can't believe you're finally awake," he says, pulling away. "Gee, you gave me a heart attack just now," he giggles. "But I don't really care. You know, Luke is a great drive and all but I prefer you."
"How have the missions gone?" I ask.
"Well, they aren't long ones. We go out for two to three days then come back. It's all just patrol and occasional raid. Kind of boring. We were short two members so Luke and Melanie worked with us. They had a team of three but they lost Bob in the facility."
"He treating Kemia good?" I chuckle.
"He used to have a van so the speed is definitely a new thing for him. He went about 80 mph tops once but that was in a chase," he says. "I miss you driving. Well, more like I missed you."
"I'm glad I'm awake now," I say. "Frank, what's going to happen to happen to those two when I return?" I ask.
"Well, they need a team to be a part of. And we also need another member."
Woody is gone. We're one killjoy short. The others have been a team of three for some while, I don't think we have to get a fourth member. I don't want to replace Woody. It seems wrong and if we're going to do that, Frank should be the one to decide. "How are you on that?" I ask.
He looks down. "It still hurts. I'm going to be frank with you," he giggles, looking up at me with a little smirk. I sigh as he finds room for his puns. "Um, it's been hell these last seven months without him. And these last six without you. Not a day goes by where I don't feel sad over his death. Not a night goes by where my mind doesn't replay what happened in that facility. But when you were getting sick, it distracted me from his death. Time passed by and it naturally started to heal me slowly. When we came back, we were racing against the clock with mere seconds as your heart slowed down. I thought we were late because while the medicine was working its way through your system, your heart actually stopped for 3 minutes. I've had a messed up life and been through hell and back more than once but that was the worst 3 minutes I've ever been through. I was so numb and hollow, thinking you were gone. Mikey and Ray were so broken. I swear, I that was the worst feeling I ever had, hearing you flat line. Bonnie and Connors were working with it, and they brought you back." That's a little terrifying. I died at some point during all this. "After the medicine got through, you were healing but still not waking up. The doctor realized you were going into a coma and Bonnie switched the machines. You weren't as bad as I was, but still. With you gone for so long, Woody's death hit me again and I relapsed in that depression. I was quite miserable without you and so were the others. Two days ago, when you came out of your coma, things changed. You were just asleep. I stayed with you for as long as I could, but an hour ago, the base was under attack. I had to leave you."
"You don't need to worry about these things. What matters is that you, the others, and I are all well and alive. For now, we don't need to worry about anyone, we can do our best to keep fighting."
Frank give a half smile. "Connors said that you should be cleared in a week. Alec talked to us and we go on our next mission after you're cleared and it's your call. Also, Ray and I talked about how we are short a Killjoy," Frank says he trails off. He takes a deep breath and exhales. "How would you feel with Mikey on our team?" he asks.
"Mikey on the team? I never thought of that," I say, a smile creeps on my face. "Did you talk about it with him?" I ask.
"Eh, no. Not yet. Ray and I were just thinking. Didn't know if you would want that," he says.
"No, that would be great. Let's go ask him." We leave the room together and head over to the hospital to find Mikey.
Mikey walks out with a bandage on his head. "Hey, guys," he says. "You both okay?"
"Yeah, we're good," Frank replies. "Mikey, would you be interested in filling the slot on our team?"
Mikey's small smile drops on his face. "Wait, are you asking me to join you guys?" he asks.
"Yeah, that something that you want to do?" I ask.
His eyes widen with glee. He leaps forward and wraps his arms around both Frank and I. We all laugh. "That would be the greatest thing! I would be honored," he says gleaming. He pulls away. "Not that I don't like being a guard. It's kind of a boring job when you guys are on your missions. It was different when Addison and Cole were here."
"I know, and I'll tell you that I never wanted to leave you here," I tell him. He nods. "Mikey, have you heard from your friends since they left?"
He pulls away and scratches his head. "Well, they're scouts. They're out in the zones and if there's more than they can handle, they call it in. They don't just come back. If they do, it's because they've been hurt," he says. "I don't think I'll hear from them."
I make a stop at my locker and grab a pair of skinny jeans and a hoodie. I'm sick of this hospital attire. The three of us head up to the diner. Ray and Melanie help set everything back up and we find Luke removing the white suits from the diner. "Hey, Ray," Frank calls out. "Mikey accepted."
"That's fantastic!" he says. He hugs Mikey, closing his eyes. When he opens them, he sees me and stiffens. "Gerard!" he cries out. He lets go of Mikey and walks over to me, wrapping his arms around my shoulder. "Gerard, you're-"
"Alive in the flesh," I chuckle. After catching up with everything, it seems that I didn't miss that much. The others haven't really encountered much besides a few Dracs here and there. The base has only been under attack once, and that was just now. Not many casualties. Things have gone slow, which is good I guess if it means no death.
I sit on the edge of the table waiting to be cleared. I didn't wait the full week but 6 days is close enough. I don't think I could recover any more than I already have. Connors comes back in. "I half expected you to run off before I finished again. Glad to see you've stuck around this time, Way," he says.
"Yeah, I have no reason to go wandering off," I laugh.
Connors fills out a paper and shakes his head without looking up at me. "You're clear to leave," he says.
I head up to the diner and the others are sitting at a booth. I slide in next to Frank and we exchange small smiles. "Doctor said I'm all good," I announce. The others start cheering. Mikey slides a water bottle over to me. "So I'm cleared and you guys got permission. What are we waiting for?" I ask smiling.
"We should take the Kemia out, start heading in the zones?" Ray asks. We get up and go over to the garage.
Luke hands Mason the tools he needs and sees us. "You guys leaving?" he asks.
"Yeah, we'll be heading out there," Ray says, shaking his hand. "It's Mikey's first ride out so probably come back in a week or something."
"Yeah, well, I'm sure he'll do just fine out here. I've seen the way he fights," Luke laughs, he shakes Mikey's hand.
"Thank you for driving them," I say.
"Yeah? No problem, Gerard. It's a sweet ride. Little too fast for my taste." I shake hands with him. "Take care."
I get in Kemia and turn on the engine as Mason starts opening the garage door. Yes, let the walls come down and the engine roar. I pull out of the driveway and start heading down the little ramp. The dust spins up in the tires and I floor it, the engine accelerating and my back pressed firmly against the seat. Ray let Mikey sit up front with me. He looks a bit concerned but there's a smirk on his face that shows he's enjoying himself. I'm glad he is with us.
Deep in the zones and far from the base, I pull over and we hike around, the sun directly overhead. I search the area for a direction that promises adventure but not death.
"Hey, Gee!" Frank calls out to me. "Alec said there's a chase going on in Zone 16. If we go east right now, we can catch them in Zone 20 in almost two hours. You interested?"
"Hell yeah," I cheer. "Tell Alec we're taking this mission and I'll make it in one hour." I run down the small mound and jump over the hood of Kemia, sliding over the top, I make it to the driver's side. Ray opens the door and gets in the back. Mikey joins him, taking the other seat. Frank looks at me and I give a shrug. Frank gets in the passenger seat and I take off. I slam on the accelerator and the engines rev. The tires find traction and take off flying. My hair is too short to whip around my face, which is a new thing for me. I hope this isn't too long of a mission because I want to go to a store and raid it for the dye. In stores, they stock packages of highly concentrated dye as an indicator. BL/ind keeps everything white and black, there's no color but they do have an indicator in very small packages out in the zones. I'm not entirely sure what they have it or why. The society is so against art but they package it makes no sense. They use it for marking the zones. They have all the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. They all have a different meaning, I'm not sure what. The indicators are highly concentrated so when they break the package, it stains the dirt and when it rains, the dye trails downhill, leading to BL/ind supposedly. The theory is so they can figure out what's going on but logically, it doesn't make any sense but then again, it makes no sense to suppress art. The good thing about it is there's always indicator and all the many different colors so we can dye our clothes, hair, get tattoos, paint, draw, color the cars, blasters, and the base. It's our source of color and it doesn't wash out or fade in any way. Painting is a luxury but if we have the freedom to do it, then we should use it. The citizens of the Society live under harsh rule. There's barely anything documented in the records about the citizens but one of the few things stated is that the indicators are not distributed to the public and it's classified to them. The children born there grow up without having art. It's almost sad to think about. The little things we have like singing, dancing, creative writing, and coloring are illegal in the Society because of BL/ind. It's sad and what we know is the bare minimum about the citizen's lives. What they are actually living like is something we don't know a lot about. There's no way to know the extent of how bad it is. The few Killjoys that made it out and were able to tell us didn't know that much. But they all escaped before the lack of freedom really hit. Now that things are extreme, we haven't found any refugees in years.
In the distance, I see a motorcycle and a cruiser racing across the zones. I start driving towards the two vehicles and see a kid on the bike, wearing a completely white suit, excluding the dirt and grass stains, and a jet black helmet with a BL/ind symbol. The Draculoids in the cruiser follows right behind the kid. There was definitely something peculiar going on here but I wasn't sure what. I am aware the aftermath is secondary but precaution may be better advised. "Hey, boys," I say. "Let's not kill anyone. Shoot the tires and their knees but keep them alive. They may do us good if they can talk."
Frank wraps his shoulder over the seat belt. "Sure thing but don't get your hopes up that it'll be different, Party," he says, as he leans out of the window and sits on the edge of the door frame. Ray stands through the back window and they both start firing. This draws the attention of the cruiser and the passenger Draculoid returns fire.
I near the other two vehicles and a gun show goes down. The Draculoid firing at us has a hard time with the blaster, which is only a good thing for us. I grab my blaster with my left hand and start firing out my window, driving with the other hand. I naturally learned how to use both hands for everything, making my life easier in situations like these and also me ambidextrous. Apparently, this is not something everyone can just teach themselves to do, making me a little better than average. I fire a few rounds and the third shot hits the front tire of the motorcycle. The kid flips over the hand bars and crashes hard into the ground. Frank and Ray continue to shoot and they take out the wheels on the cruiser. The car skids and the driver turns it around. It comes to a halt and the two Draculoids inside start shooting their way out. I turn Kemia and hit the breaks. We duck down as the blasts fly through the windows or hit the door. I slide lower down the seat and motion Mikey and Frank to get out on their side, not facing the shooting. The open the door and they army crawl out. Ray and I follow after them.
I slither out of the car and onto the dirt ground. The other three crouch low. I flatten myself against the dust and stick my blaster underneath the car. I fire at the passenger Draculoid's feet. The passenger falls on the ground after getting hit and the driver notices and climbs back inside the car. I hear him scream out, clutching his singed leg. Frank gets on the ground with me and Ray starts shooting at the driver but can't hit him.
I get off the ground and dive behind a large bolder. A blast skims my jacket as I roll to cover but it just misses me. I turn around and see the biker try to drag himself off the ground but he took a hard fall. I hear him moaning out in pain trying to get up but only hurting himself more. I don't need to worry about him. The passenger lies on the ground trying to shoot us. The biggest concern is the driver. He shoots from inside the car. Unlike his companion, he knows how to shoot damn straight. It hasn't yet occurred to him to shoot the tires of our car, which is good for us.
We need to get close enough to them so they stop shooting altogether. The kid has a blaster in his hand but he's not firing it. I lift my head higher over the boulder. The kid sees me clearly but he doesn't take a shot. I see the driver aim at me and I duck down as a blast flies over where my head was a second ago. I look at Ray. Ray holds up a finger for me to wait a moment. He already conjured up a plan? He whispers something to Frank and they nod in agreement.
Ray stands up and fires at the cruiser. He then starts sprinting away, running parallel with the car but he's completely in the open. "Jetstar!" I scream out. "Get down!" He's going to get killed. What is he doing?
The Draculoids concentrate their fire at him. Frank peeks his head over the hood of Kemia and fires at the engine. Hissing and black smoke arise. The driver knows what he did and he leaps out of the seat, however, the passenger is unable to run. The hood of the car explodes and the two Dracs go flying. There is no way the passenger made it; he was right in front. His body flies into the air ablaze and tumbles back. The driver skids across the dirt, his blaster falls out of his hand. I look at the others. I gesture for them to take out the driver. I run over to the biker.
The kid sees me and starts backing away or tries to. He falls on his side trying to get away from me. "Please, don't hurt me," he mutters. Like hell.
"How old are you?" I spit at him. BL/ind is now sending children to do their work.
"I'm 10," he stutters. There is something different about him. He's scared? He's afraid, afraid of me. He has an emotion. The other Dracs might as well be droids. I have always tried to get information out of a Drac. On my first mission, if there weren't armed, I did my best but they had lacked personality. It's all been wiped out of them all. This boy was different. He was scared and had self-preservation. "My name is Caleb," he whispers.
I can't help my choke a little. "What?" I ask.
"I-I said my name is Caleb," he repeats. He moves his hands off the ground and I aim my blaster at him. "No, no. Don't shoot me," he cries out. "I'm just taking off my helmet." He pulls the black helmet off and he sets it on the ground. He clearly was a kid. Young face and scared eyes.
"You actually have a name. I call you Caleb?" I ask him. In all the missions, not once have they said a name. They give me a number instead. Even having a name was too much originally. Too much meaning behind it. The numbers wiped away that problem. Maybe this kid isn't authority but a runaway.
I hear the shouts from behind. No time to check, just go. I grab the kids arm and drag him as I sprint to the others. He lets out an agonizing wail as he's arm is yanked at an awkward angle. I don't have time to comfort him. I don't know if I can trust him so I can't let him out of my sight.
The driver has a blaster and fires at the others. I'm 15 feet away when Mikey jumps off the incline and tackles him to the ground. They start fighting but the Drac knows combat. This is one of the Dracs meant to be out in the Zones. They know how to fight. Frank and Ray try to shoot but they can't without risk hitting Mikey.
Caleb yells out. "Stop it! Stop!" he screeches. He fights to get free but I don't let him go.
The Drac fires the gun and it hits Ray. He flies back and his blaster explodes into the air, creating a blinding and painfully bright flash. He lands on the ground in shock, looking for the wound but he's okay. Miraculously, only his blaster was hit and not him. The pieces of what is left of his gun scatter around him. He is stunned from the explosion of the blaster and lies dazed on the ground confused. I throw the kid to the ground and make sure Ray's okay.
Mikey knocks the gun out of the Draculoid's hands and swings a punch. He ducks out of the way and kicks Mikey in the chest. Mikey catches their ankles and drags him to the ground. The wrestle more. Frank stares watching the two, still aiming the gun but scared to fire.
Frank falls forward and smashes into the ground. Caleb pins him down but Frank easily rolls him off. Caleb fights for Frank's blaster. "Don't shoot! Please!" he begs. "Stop fighting!" he calls out. Mikey gets the upper hand on the Drac. He pins the driver to the ground with his knees and starts punching him in the face. Caleb screams out bloody murder and Frank pries his hands off of him. He hisses something that doesn't make sense. "SISSSS!" he hisses like a snake.
The Drac lies flat on his back pinned to the ground. Mikey kneels over them punching his face repeatedly Caleb goes berserk trying to run towards them but he doesn't get free. After the fifth blow Mikey lands, he knocks the mask off the Drac. The vampire mask goes flying back and long black hair flows out onto the dirt. A young girl lies on the ground, her fair and pale skin swollen and starting to bruise. Her lips and hair glistening with blood and more trickles from her nose. Caleb now makes sense. He was trying to say, sister. He was calling for his sister. Mikey stops for a minute, a little taken aback by the girl. We all freeze staring at her. Mikey hesitates to do anything. For a moment, he freezes up, but a moment too long. The girl uses this time to reach for Mikey's upholstery and grab blaster. By the time Mikey realizes what she did, the Drac holds it in her hands, aiming the barrel of the gun at his chest. Before he can make a sound, she pulls back the trigger.
As the gun flashes and the distinctive sound of a blast echoes across the zones, I find myself screaming. My eyes readjust from the bright light and I see Mikey fly backward off of her, his head whipping back and his back colliding with the ground. Numbness consumes me and I call out for my baby brother, but I'm not the only one shouting. Caleb and I scream out at the same time. Both of us shriek out siblings names.
"MIKEY!"
"HELENA!"
My anger screams to kill the girl and get my revenge paid. But I can't focus on her the whole time, not until I help Mikey. I rip the blaster out of her hands and bang it down on her temple. She falls over to the side and I dive on the ground to Mikey.
Lying flat on his back taking short breaths, Mikey lifts him his head and looks down at himself. His jacket is zipped up to the collar and the red leather has a huge singed streak going up alongside the zipper. The streak has small traces of smoke rising from the burnt leather and there a shallow gaze going up the side of his face trickling with fresh blood. I unzip his jacket and his yellow shirt underneath remains clean without blood. I tremble, letting out a huge sigh of relief, realizing he leaned back in the nick of time, barely getting hit. As he threw himself on the ground, the blast just skimmed over his jacket, not harming him whatsoever. His training taught his reflexes well but it doesn't matter. She nearly killed him and gave me a heart attack while doing so.
Helena looks at me blankly as I rise to my full height. I kick her in the face and she falls back in the dirt. I pick her up and throw her back on the ground. She rolls in the dirt, her white suit now a grungy beige. I keep kicking her and she coughs out. Caleb grabs my wrist and yanks me back. I stumble over the uneven ground but I catch myself. I push the kid down and turn back to the girl. Her face is blank. Something about her catches me off guard. I snap out of it just in time as Caleb throws himself at me again.
"Please, don't hurt her," he begs. "Please, Helena. Stop."
The Drac looks at him. "You are petty for using names. We identify as numbers," she says. Her voice is so vacant it doesn't seem human. "You are a runaway and I am here to retrieve you. You must come back to the Society or there will be consequences."
"Helena, please. Stop."
"I do not have a name. I identify as 8-5-12-5-14-1. I am here to retrieve you and bring you back to the Society."
I'm tempted to just shoot her and get this over with but it's a lot harder to do that when she isn't wearing the mask. She's a person. She has a brother. Her mind has been programmed to be a robot but there's something I just can't get over. I look at the others as the siblings bicker. Ray stares hard at the Drac in shock. Frank looks at me not sure of what to do either. Mikey doesn't even know what just happen. Part of me wants to kill her. She wouldn't have hesitated to shoot us. She didn't flinch while fighting. She meant to kill us and didn't think twice about shooting at Mikey. But her brother would be devastated. He would try to attack us and we'd end up having to kill him too. He isn't a bad kid. He is a runaway. If he escaped the Society, he must be really important. He got out, which is something not many people can do. They either catch you before you leave the gates or they shoot you if you made it out. He is quite far and in good condition, minus the injuries from flipping off his bike. He would be of so much value if we could get him back to the base. He would know so much information. The last citizen to escape was Frank Sr. and that was over a decade ago. All the new information about them would help us so much. But if we kill his sister, we lose any chance of him helping us. If we bring her with, she's just going to kill us. She is no fool. She knows how to fight and shoot. She's very resourceful. The way Caleb talks to her, it sounds like he's trying to bring her back, her old self. If we could do, she would also be a great asset. She's a Drac. She could tell us even more.
"Guys," I whisper. "I don't think we should kill them."
"Yeah, that's a brilliant idea, Party. We might as well go waltzing in BL/ind without blasters because we're going to die anyway," Frank says. He stares at me hard.
"Think about it. Caleb is a citizen of the Society. She is a Drac from BL/ind. If we could bring them back to the base and fix them, you know how much we could learn?"
Ray considers this. "Party Poison, it's a good idea but not realistic. Hypothetically, if we even manage to bring her back, the other Killjoys would hate us and end up killing her," he explains.
"Back it up," Frank says. "We're not going to be able to bring them to the base if we are killed by her."
"Maybe he's onto something. The kid is talking to her like he knew her as if before she was a Drac. They might have brainwashed her into becoming that. Maybe we can undo it," Mikey says.
The others think about this. "Maybe," Frank says. "But it doesn't mean I'm going to trust her." He starts tampering with his blaster. He takes out a screwdriver and starts tweaking something.
"What are you doing?" Mikey and I ask at the same time.
"Bonnie was telling me about this one setting she was trying to work on. She added the setting to mine so I'm just activating it." He reloads his blaster and shoots Helena in the chest. She collapses to the ground. Caleb screams out at her and we all look at Frank.
"What the hell did you just do?!" Ray says, grabbing his gun.
"Ghoul, what are you thinking?!" I shout, disbelieving of what he just did. "We just talked about this."
"HEY! Relax! I switched to stun!" he shouts, taking his blaster back. We all move away from him. "I was telling you about that. Bonnie modified my gun and I switched it to stun. Notice how there's no blood and her body is still together?"
He's right. She is unharmed and looks asleep. "That's a good way for us to bring her back," Ray admits. "Stun her then bring her into our facility and turn her into one of us when she wakes up."
I pull up to the base and the others get out. It's quite cramped here. We ended up sticking the Drac in the trunk of the car. "Ray," I call out. "You might want to take off her jacket so it's a little less obvious."
"Yeah, I was thinking about that," he says. He lifts her out of the car and yanks off her jacket. It's quite dirty. Her tank top remained clean white underneath. He throws the jacket back in the trunk and closes the door. He carries her inside with Mikey. I pull the car up to the garage.
Mason works on a van and sees us. "Looks like the famous Party Poison has returned from the zones without a scratch," he jokes. He sees Caleb get out of the car. "And who is that you have brought with?"
"This is Caleb," I say. "We found him in the zones. He escaped the society."
Mason gets serious and puts down the wrench. He squats down to Caleb's height. "You're going to be okay," he reassures Caleb.
We take him into the base and lead him through the dinner. Mitch sits on the counter. Great, last thing I want to deal with is this jackass. "Well, Gerard. Looks like you found yourself a friend?" he chuckles, eating an apple.
"Get on with yourself, Mitch," I spit.
"You know," he continues, hopping off the counter and walking over to us, "your brains and fighter came in here with this one chick. Haven't seen her around before but she was out. Was that your fault too, Gerard?" I don't say anything. I just stare at him. Aside from hating him, there was something eerie about him. He used to have long platinum bangs but he all his hair a lot shorter, similar to my length. I can see his face clearly and he looks a lot like me. The color of his eyes and the features of his face resembled mine a lot. The only difference between us to is his hair color is white and my skin is lighter. Mitch smiles at me. "Man, it's a shame you got her messed up too," he mutters.
"Excuse me?" I ask.
"Ya know. The famous Party Poison. Oh- I'm sorry. Fabulous. Everyone here at the base loves you. Yeah, they always say how you are the great Killjoy. You are a hot shot driver like your mum and an excellent shooter like your dad. They think you're so great but they don't see it."
"See what?" Caleb chimes in.
Mitch looks down at him. "They can't see that Gerard here gets people hurt. His last missions, he almost killed Frank. Left him in an explosion. The time after that, Frank got his hands burned but he also left one of his teammates in the building. He left him there to die. There was another guy, Bob, he got shot. Oh, Party Poison is so wonderful and great. The only thing he's great at is getting people hurt."
"You know Mitch, your ass must be jealous of your mouth with all the shit that comes out of it," Frank blurts out.
Mitch glares at Frank smugly. "You think you're so tough and yet you are the size of a child." Frank just stares at him hard not blinking. "Oh whatever," Mitch scolds, seeing that he can't get under Frank's skin. "I'm better than you all."
"Keep telling yourself that. Whatever helps you sleep at night," Frank spits.
"Iero, I am better than you. I'm not working with Gerard. Although you can do me one good thing. Tell me about that chick you brought in here."
"I ain't telling you anything about her," I cut in. I know Mitch would lose it on me and create a huge scene if he found out she was a Drac. That would not be good.
"Oh please. Losers like you are losers for a reason. No girl in their right mind would care about you so it's not like either of you ever stood a chance with her."
I do everything in my power to not smirk. Frank and I subtly exchange glances. He too forces himself to remain serious. I can tell he's straining not to laugh. Yeah, like either of us were interested, to begin with. He says with his eyes. We look away from each other. I stare hard at Mitch. "Your ignorance mocks me," I say. Mitch hesitates and genuinely looks confused for a moment. Frank and I quickly walk past him before we break and start laughing. Caleb follows after us confused.
Downstairs, Steve is at the radio station. In the hospital, a doctor looks over Helena. Ray and Mikey stand next to Alec talking. The three of us walk in and the others see us. "Is that her brother?" Alec asks.
"Yeah," Mikey answers.
Alec looks at him and back at the Drac. "I don't think this is something we should do. I don't even know if it's something we can do," he says.
"If the Society and BL/ind are able to do it, why can't we?" Ray asks.
"Because-it... Because they have the technological advancements to do it. We may have an operating base but this is a whole different thing. I mean, we have no idea what to do first."
Ray lowers his voice. "Then figure it out on them. I mean, you want us to shoot them anyway. What difference does it make how they die? We might as well learn something from it." Mikey stares at him hard, almost in disbelief. "What? Look, I know what I said. It's cruel. It's wrong, but they have done it to us."
Alec looks at the doctor. "Fine, but it's up to Dr. McDougall." We all look at the doctor.
She looks at the girl and sighs. "I'll do what I can but if things don't work, then they don't work. I won't be the one to end a life either. I am a doctor. I save lives."
"Thank you," Ray says.
"Oh, another thing," she says. "We keep this privet. I don't want people bothering me about it or threatening me."
"Deal," Alec says.