Page 103 of Treasure of the Abyss

“I do not know whatdisinfectmeans.”

She laughed, despite her obvious pain, and lifted a hand to his cheek. “Then look for something to seal the wounds. Might look like a small gun. Or…a needle and thread. Check thecabinets.”

Jax nodded, though his body refused, at first, to move away fromher.

“Go on. I’ll be right here.” She returned her hand to herleg.

He opened the nearest cabinet and ran his eyes over its contents — dozens of bottles, glass jars, and plastic pouches and boxes. Each item had human symbols on its face, and some possessed the same crossed lines that were on the sign beside thedoor.

“What happened?” Arkon asked from theentry.

“We need to…disinfecther wounds,” Jax said without turning away, “and seal them. Do you know anything of this?” There was so much in this cabinet alone, and most of it looked the same apart from thesymbols.

“I have seen a device in some of the holograms that appeared to be used to seal wounds.” The sound of Arkon crossing the room was pronounced in his haste. “It looked like a heat gun, but it was smaller, with a long, cylindrical protrusion at therear.”

The two searched the cabinets frantically; Jax brushed objects aside to see behind them and opened the little boxes to pour out their contents, creating a clamor. But he found nothing like what Arkon and Macy haddescribed.

Moving backward, he swept his gaze across the room; there had to be something, somewhere, to help her. His hearts thundered against his ribs. He’d seen a few kraken bleed out during hunts, when the severity of their injuries outpaced their ability toheal.

Time was againstMacy.

Jax hurried to the long counter against the wall and searched its drawers rapidly. Most were full of tools he had no name for. One of the upper drawers was larger than the rest; he tugged itopen.

It contained something familiar to him, though its scale was smaller — a charging rack, like the one where the heat guns were stored. This one had four guns docked within, each with a long protrusion extending behind its narrowgrips.

Jax pulled one out and turned to Arkon. “Is thisit?”

Arkon nodded, and the two moved toMacy.

What little color had remained in her face was gone now. She lay with her eyes closed, her lips caught between her teeth. The cloth on her leg was so saturated that blood slowly dripped fromit.

“We found something to seal the wounds, Macy,” Jaxsaid.

“Okay. Need to take off thebandage.”

Jax wasted no time; he passed the gun into a tentacle and tore the knot apart with his claw. Macy grunted through gritted teeth, squeezing her eye shut, as he peeled off thefabric.

Arkon wiped away the freshly welling blood with another cloth. There were several jagged tears in her skin, the worst of which was as long as Jax’s finger. The shredded material of the suit lay across thewounds.

“We need to cut away the suit,” Arkonsaid.

Jax slipped his claws beneath the fabric and tugged up; it stretched, but did not tear. When he exerted more pressure, Macy hissed through her teeth; his knuckles were digging into herleg.

“We need to take it off,” Jaxsaid.

He touched the plastic piece on her chest and slid his fingertips around the edges, releasing the seal along the back. Despite his care when he tilted her onto her side, Macy cried out in pain. With Arkon’s help, Jax pulled the suit down, rolling it off her arms. They lifted her lower half to pull it past her waist. She bent her uninjured leg to help remove it from thesuit.

There was no way to remove the suit from her injured leg without causing pain, so Jax did it as quickly as possible. Macy writhed on the bed, limbs trembling, and clutched one of his arms. Her fingers bit into hisflesh.

Once the suit was off, she eased back onto the bed, breathing heavily. Jax tossed the suit aside as Arkon draped a sheet over her torso andthighs.

Jax picked up the gun and stared at Macy’s ravaged leg. It didn’t look nearly as bad as the razorback’s head, but that counted fornothing.

“How do I useit?”

Arkon held his hand out. “I’ve seen it inuse.”

Without hesitation, Jax handed the gun to Arkon. “Quickly.”

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