Chp. 49 “Desperate Times, Desperate Measures”
“We’ve located and matched the hormone.”
I gazed at Henson while feeling a bit confused as he continued trying to explain to me what was going on. I nodded, “Ok, so that’s good news right?”
He smiled, “Yes Andy, it is, and everything’s going to be much easier, but it might be a timely process.” His voice trailed off as if he was referring to Avery, who was now back in her room and asleep after eating breakfast and taking her usual sleeping pill.
I shook my head in denial, “It can’t be, Avery’s dying, Henson. I can’t let her die.”
He tapped his pen against his notepad, as if he was thinking of something but wasn’t sure if he could tell me. His expression was laced with worry, and I could tell he was unsure about something, but it was just him and I in this room. Why would he feel that way?
He scooted his chair closer to me, setting down his pen, “You have a gland in your brain Andy, it produces hormones that heal your body when you’re sick, hurt, or you just feel bad. Everyone has it, animals have it, but you have a special piece in your gland now, just like Blaine. That’s how you’re able to heal so fast without dying, literally making you immortal.”
I nodded, “Ok? So what does that have to do with anything?”
“Just listen to me,” he stood, tracing his finger behind my ear and through my hair that was in a ponytail. It felt weird, but I wasn’t stopping him, then he spoke, “The important gland is located right here,” his finger pressed against the back, right side of my head, “And your normal gland is about the size of a quarter, but the Healing gland is about the size of a penny.”
He sat back down, and I stared at him while I waited for him to continue with this story that seemed to be a waste of time. I nodded, “Ok.”
“When you get hurt, sick, or some into contact with a deadly disease, your gland automatically responds, producing thousands of healing hormones in a second. It also happens when something in your body dies, any cell, vein, or even something as simple as a hair follicle. It’s why you’re considered immortal now, because nothing in your body can die.”
I tried seeing the point, “So, when I get hurt, that gland produces the hormones that you guys need for a cure?”
He nodded eagerly, “Yes, but they disappear just as fast as they come depending on the wound.”
I was trying to see what he was getting at but was coming up short. What was he trying to propose exactly? That he intentionally hurt me just to locate and trap the needed hormones easier than draining my body of blood?
That actually didn’t sound like a bad theory.
I know if sounded medieval but desperate times call for desperate measures, right?
Henson continued, “The more severe the wound, the more hormones that are produced and rushed to the part of the body. So what I propose is that-”
“You cut my leg off and collect the blood?”
My response seemed to catch him off guard, although I didn’t think he would take me so literal. He shook his head, “I wouldn’t agree with the extremity, but yes, that’s the idea.”
I nodded, “Ok, I see what you’re getting at. So when do you want to test this out?”
“I was thinking in about ten minutes?”
This caught me off guard, and suddenly I was nervous and afraid that I would regret this. I mean, I would have to feel pain, and possibly a lot of it just so they could collect hormones. I couldn’t disagree though, because this is what I had signed up for, so I was just going to have to suck it up.
Just keep thinking about Avery, and other people who are dying because of this disease…
“Well, let’s get to work then.”
~ ~ ~ ~
“Ah!” I cringed in pain as I took another deep laceration to my arm, watching the blood ooze out as the doctors hurried to collect it before the wound healed. I was hoping that this procedure would produce massive amounts of progress, or this pain would be all for nothing. The burning sensation increased with every cut they delivered, and although it seemed medieval, what Henson had informed me of made complete sense. This was a faster way of collected the hormones that were needed for a cure.
It had been hours since I had started doing this, and the pain was completely exhausting me. I knew we were nearly done though, and I would be able to report back to Avery. I wasn’t going to tell her everything I was going through because that would only enrage her, so I would only tell her the stuff Henson told me about my Healing gland.
And maybe go find Max and Gage.
“Just one more Andy, then it’s over.”
I nodded, feeling light headed from all the pain that I was taking. I was trying my best to block it out but it was hard when you had metal slicing right through your skin leaving inch-deep cuts and having your body heal again.
Then came the last cut and I flinched, “Fuck!” I bowed my head and rested it against the cold wall, feeling the wound begin to heal once last time. I had grown used to the burn, tingling feeling that always happened when my skin was cut. I turned to Henson and looked at all the blood that was taken out of me, realizing maybe that’s why I was lightheaded.
He picked up the metal tray, “Andy, you have no idea how big of a help this will be. We have billions of Healing hormones right in this very tray, all thanks to you.”
I smiled weakly, feeling my heart attempting to pump more blood back into my body. I nodded, “Good, because we need to start making some serious progress.”
He nodded, agreeing with me instantly, “We’re going to save your friend.”
Then before he walked out the conversation I had eavesdropped on came to mind, and I wanted to ask him about it. I started, “Henson-,” but he was already out the door and back into the Lab to start looking and separating the hormones.
I rested my head back on the wall, realizing that I hadn’t seem Max or Gage in a while, knowing they usually came by Avery’s room or wherever I was to talk. I remembered the conversation Max and I had the other day and I smiled. I wondered why he had opened up to suddenly, almost out of nowhere about his father. It pained me to know he was still kind of suffering, but how could someone completely heal from that? I know if I lost my parents I wouldn’t know how to cope with it, but I figured it was possible because people did it all the time.
I just didn’t want to have to do it.
I needed to stop this disease, and I knew it wouldn’t be much longer till someone that was infected came into contact with the people I loved, including my other mom Teal. I still felt as if all the weight was on my shoulders, and that it was somehow my fault people were still suffering and dying from this disease.
Then I heard a knock on the door, and I looked up to see Roger’s familiar face that was now clean shaven. He looked a lot better than the last time I saw him, and I smiled, “Long time no see?”
He sat on the other side of the room in a chair, shaking his head while, “Andy, Max is something else you know. How do you deal with him?”
I laughed, “You’ve been with Max?”
“And Gage,” he stretched back, allowing me to take in his usual slacks, tie and button down. “I’ve been having them go through some brutal training, physically and mentally, you should start joining them.”
I looked down at my arm that had been tortured for the last two hours, seeing a hint of dried blood still there. I wiped it off and shrugged, “I’ve been a little busy.”
He tilted his head, “We’re going to need your help soon, after we find a cure.”
I looked at him curiously, “Help for what?”
“We’re going to take down the Feds.”
For some reason the mention of this place enraged me, and I was sure it was because of the death of my father, Fred. They were bad people, and there was a bad seed in that place corrupting the entire population, and we needed to find them, and eliminate them. I scratched the back of my head, “What can I do? They’re trying to kill me, they’ll recognize me from a hundred miles away.”
He laughed then, causing more confusion to overtake me, “You can’t die, Andy. Although, they’re probably not going to try to kill you, but kidnap you next time they see you.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because, you were shot six times, healed from every wound, all right in front of one of the most important Agents they have in the F.P.S.”
This caught my attention, because not only did Roger see the man who shot me, but he recognized him. I crossed my arms out of instinct, “Ok, so you know him?”
He sighed, leaning back in his chair as if he was trying to muster up the correct words. “That man was partners with the man who killed Fred, Andrea. I was there that night we rescued Brock.”
“Who’s Brock?”
“Sorry, I meant Blaine. His name used to be Brock Ghosh, ten years ago when your father and I had rescued him from the government. That man that shot you, his name is Nick Walker; he was partners with Carson Mendoza, the man who gunned down your real father.”
I couldn’t’ believe what I was hearing. It all kind of made sense now that I thought about it, and now it wasn’t a mystery why that man had tracked me down and tried to kill me. I knew I had recognized that Dodge, and it was the same one that had tried following us out of Louisiana. He was the one sitting across the street from Teal’s house.
He knew Fred and Teal had a daughter, and he knew my face now.
I looked at Roger, “That doesn’t really explain why he tried to kill me.”
He shrugged, “You’re Fred Mason’s biological daughter, and your father didn’t particularly die on good terms with the government. Besides, they most likely knew your true power, which is why they tried to kill you. Little did they know you ran into a Healer, completely catching them off guard.”
I shook my head, “But how would they know for sure I had inherited Fred’s power? It’s supposed to skip like, five generations, which is why it’s so rare.”
“Technology Andrea, they can spy on conversations, tap into your phones, read your messages. Shit, and if you’re really bad they can watch you from satellites and street cameras. It’s the government, there are no restrictions if they convince people you’re a threat to humanity.”
I pointed my finger at him, “You’re of government affiliation, this entire place it.”
“We’re the good cops, they’re the bad cops.”
I shook my head; not believing that every single person in that place believed what they were trying to do was good. And even if they did disagree with some of the decisions it’s not like they could explicitly disagree. I mean, if a hundred plus people believed genuinely that creating Super Soldiers would solve our world’s problems then we were biting off a lot more than we could chew.
So how were we going to take them down?