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CH. 2 PART 2: RESURGENCE
The medic took the woman into another room within his tiny home, which he had converted into a lab. His monitors lit up as he sat at his workstation.
"It's already a risk taking you here. The organization runs on fear, so it's not uncommon to have fights break out in the lab. Especially when test subjects are brought in. Some won't go down without a fight, and I end up helping the unfortunate ones like you by sneaking them here." His eyes returned his monitors.
She mulled over his words. He thinks I'm a test subject. It explained his sense of normalcy around her. He gestured for her to sit on the examination bed, wrapping a monitor around her arm. Several charts populated his computer screens. He did a double take at the woman's reading. Miss, you're not who I thought you were.
The medic's device had somehow bypassed the authentication of her Go-Card, granting him access to a few medical records from his facility's database. Her Go-Card had matched to a profile of "Yiuna Li", a sparse record on her that had been created some years back. He didn't think much of her name, but wondered if she really been a test subject for that long.
"I have reason to believe they activated the current experimental beta in your system. The injection they gave you affects your nervous system and begins at your spinal cord, leaving traces over your back. Please undress so I can take a look."
You have some bloody nerve, dragging me home for this, she thought, smiling tersely through her pain. She was irritated at her own helplessness. Yet she knew something was off; her heart was pulsing in her ears. Was it just her, or was it starting to hurt just to move her body? The pain was similar to what she felt when she had undergone experimentation some years ago. It manifested in a familiar yet unwelcome searing on her back, pulsing just under her skin. She thought she would never be reminded of those days again. A check-up was probably necessary, but she had disdain for losing any degree of self-reliance. It was how she had gotten by.
The woman removed her blouse. The medic waited until the sound of her rustling clothes died down before walking over to examine her. Suspicions confirmed, he beheld misery in her beauty. A faint glowing pattern could barely be made out on her delicate skin, through her shoulder blades and down the slender curve of her back. The marks resembled the delicate wiring of buses on a motherboard. The medic's suspicions heightened as he realized the pattern on her back didn't resemble those of the other test subjects. It may have been a reactivation of the virus on her record, but even that didn't tell him much about her. At the very least, he knew it wasn't the current beta.
"I was right," he said, feigning a lack of suspicion. He reached for a syringe and walked back over. "Hold still."
He barely drew in a breath before Yiuna stopped him. With a pivot of her hips, she turned to grab his wrist with one hand as the other held her shirt over her chest. She winced from the movement.
"What do you think you're doing?" she asked, voice gaining an edge. She broke into a cold sweat, body tensing as the recollection of forced injections beneath metal restraints reeled through her mind. She didn't know what his injection did, much less his intentions. She shoved her intruding past aside. How could I feel this way again without being injected? she thought. I recovered from those experiments years ago. Is it possible my deprecated strain got retriggered by being near the facility's activator? Her nausea grew stronger.
"Standard disinfection procedure. It will ease your pain," he explained. Caught in her ice grip, the medic's eyes reflected sadness as he felt her hand shaking. He had told her a necessary lie. Without a cure for the strain she had, the anesthetic was all he could do to help her. He knew many of the experimental Boost strains were lethal due to their imperfect nature. With the malicious virus attacking each test subject's nervous system, any additional physical or mental stressor would lower their chances of survival to the bio-malware. The physical and mental states were always tied, and he didn't want to worry her with the news.
"You're probably in more pain than you want to admit if the virus is already at this stage." You have some grit to resist my help, I've never had a test subject refuse me. Seeing her in pain triggered his guilt, and the medic couldn't bear to leave the woman in such destitution for much longer.
"Your hands are too cold. I'll be quick," he said. You're beautiful.
Yiuna's cheeks flushed at his sudden concern. His blatant sincerity made it hard for her to believe he had anything other than good intentions. The woman's body was telling her she would be risking much more if she didn't cure herself soon, yet she couldn't make herself release her grip on her past. She felt the medic's warm fingers lace between hers as he gently pried her hand off his wrist. Before she knew it, she felt a needle prick her skin.
Evening settled as the pair sat at the dining room table.
"The beta programs are still in the testing rounds. The cartel needs to have a workable virus before they start dealing a new Boost," the medic explained.
"When would that come out?" she asked. Yiuna was now wrapped in a thick scarf to make up for her lack of body heat. She had changed into something more comfortable for the fall. The medic had let her borrow the wardrobe of his late lover, as he figured she would be staying at his home for some time.
"The rumors say within six months." Or they'll have my head, he thought.
"And a doctor like you knows this much about Boost malware."
"Fear is going around due to the mafia's recent moves. With fear comes rumors that make their way around to me." he responded curtly. She wanted to question him further, but she was exhausted. She rested her head on her hand, running her fingers through her soft strands. She was too drained to think properly. Even in her lack of expression, the medic sensed her dis-ease.
"Apologies if you feel drowsy, it's due to the aftereffect of the injection," he said.
"It's nothing. Thank you."
"It's best you rest here for a while; it will take some time for the cure to take effect." He knew just how many times the injections had made a turn for the worse in other people, and needed to be able to monitor her condition. Yiuna obliged to his suggestion. Knowing he was willing to let her stay would make her job much easier.
"Your body will be extra sensitive for a while, and your core temperature will drop on occasion as you recover. I'll have to give you an injection every few days to keep you in recovery. You must tell me if your condition worsens in any way. And – " He couldn't help but admire her roughness fading away as she tightened the scarf around her. "I think you need the rest more than you're willing to admit."
The medic had given Yiuna the bed in his main room for the night, telling her he would use the bed in his lab. Yet due to his intensive research, he knew he wouldn't be sleeping much.
Yiuna waited for him to go to work the next morning before venturing into his lab. She gave a handheld white cube access to his computer through her Go-Card. With a touch of her finger, the device started glowing. His monitor lit up as a decryption program flashed, cracking his password to access his files. Gianni Castello...a neuroscientist? An ex-employee of MedSavior whose past research projects revolved around nanobiotechnology. He's never worked for a clinic.
The device glowed faintly as it parsed through his files. It pulled up research, records of experiments, and records of experimentees. A projection caught her eye. Castello's work is on a strain of a virus similar to one already in our database back in London. Our quarantine will mean nothing if a new beta is rolled out soon. The terminals projected from her device rapidly closed as she allowed it to restore his computer to its untouched state. Monitoring Gianni's progress regularly would be a critical measure.
