Page 12 of Ice Princess

Chapter 8 ~Blade

Blade walks back to the isolation room holding the tranquilizer gun over his shoulder. He hates that he has to do this to a friend of Raven’s, but she will harm herself if they don’t stop her. It is impossible to treat someone in this state.

He walks up to the room and he can see the terror and sadness in her eyes.

“I am sorry Raven if there was any other way.”

“I know just do it.” She says standing at the window, folding her arms in front of her.

“Ok, you know the drill guys when she goes back for another strike pop the door, I will shoot the tranq, and then we wait.”

He holds his breath as Maggie staggers back for another run at the door. There is a large hiss as the airlock is unsealed. He takes aim and fires the dart. He hits her in the neck, and she screams, reaching to pull the dart out.

The life goes out of her eyes as she slumps to the floor. He takes a deep breath and then enters the room picking her up and laying her back in the bed.

“We need a nurse in here to hook her back up to the IV’s and then run a drip of whatever heavy sedative you think is most appropriate.”

“Push 2mg Haldol once an hour,” Raven says and then walks back down the hallway.

She turns and looks at Blade.

“Give it to me straight I need to know the timeline of how the disease progresses.”

He sighs this is the one thing he didn’t want to tell her.

“Phase one is the low-grade fever, Phase two is the sores that we saw, Phase three confusion and agitation.” He pauses, and she glares at him.

“Then what Blade I am not a baby I can handle it what comes after phase three.”

He looks her straight in the eye his voice emotionless, “Phase four bleeding from orifices, and follicles basically any spot the body can bleed from, organs liquefy, and death.”

“How long do we have?”

“At most 3 days if we can’t find something to slow the virus.”

“Then we need to get back into the lab and find a serum.”

She turns on her heel and walks swiftly down the hall to the lab. What he didn’t tell her is based on the legions and the severe aggression Maggie was too far gone to save.

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“It has to do something with the proteins I just wish I could figure it out.” She paces in front of him as he turns from his own microscope.

“That is what Dr. Owens, and I speculated but there doesn’t seem to be a way to get past that part. Whoever created this knew what they were doing.”

“I feel like it is right there staring me in the face, if I try hard enough, I can reach out and grasp it but each time I try it floats away.”

“That’s because you are exhausted you need rest; we both need rest. Take a couple of hours down and then we will go at this again.”

“No, I can’t Maggie is dying, Elizabeth is dying I need to figure this out so I can save them.”

He takes her by the shoulders and gives her a little shake, “It is not going to matter if you are so tired you can’t think straight. Taking a little rest is the best thing you can do for them, Raven. Trying to fight through the tired isn’t helping anyone.”

She glares up at him, and he matches her stare. He is not going to let her work herself into the ground. It isn’t just that he cares about her, but they need her sharp to help figure this out. He has the sneaky feeling that the terrorist they caught wasn’t the only one. It doesn’t make sense. They would have used more than one person planted them in other large cities to make sure they had success.

“You are going to rest. I am going to rest. It is not only about these people here, Raven, but we also have no idea if this has spread or if there were other terrorists. We need to find a cure and soon.”

She sticks her chin out and gives him a mulish look. At any other time, he would think it was adorable. He is used to people obeying his orders without question, and she is not complying.

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