Page 38 of Brax

“No. It’s much harder for me to get up and down. I’ll just wait for him.”

“I’m sorry about how I reacted earlier. I-I’ve just never seen anyone with your condition.”

“Yes. My condition,” she muttered. “It’s rare.”

“Here you are,” said the doctor, handing her a brown paper bag. “I put two vials of morphine in there and about twenty syringes. Are you familiar with the dosage?”

“Intimately,” she said. “Thank you.”

“I wish – I wish I were a better doctor and could help you,” he said sincerely.

“I’m sure you’re a fine doctor,” she said to him. “At this point, I’m not sure anyone can help me.”

“Good luck to you.”

She nodded at him, moving painfully slowly out the door to her car again. The sun was rising, the rain drifting away, and she still had miles to go.

“What is wrong with her?” asked the receptionist.

“So much I don’t even know where to begin.”

The moment she got in the car, she gave herself a healthy dose of the morphine. She’d become so immune to its effects she wasn’t worried about driving. Once medicated, she pulled a large sunhat down over her face and went through the drive-thru of the local fast-food restaurant, ordering a drink and something for breakfast.

It was another thing that caused her pain. Just the simple act of chewing caused excruciating pain in her jaw and head. Ensuring that she could at least get some food on her stomach, she ordered something soft and easily managed.

When the morphine started to kick in, she began to feel that she had enough energy to head in the direction she’d last seen the girl. If she could just convince her to allow her to retract some sample tissue from her, blood and bone marrow, she might be able to at least slow the progression of her disease.

“I just have to get there,” she said to herself. “I can feel it. I just have to get there.”

“Do we have her?” asked Cam.

“We have her. She stopped at a clinic and came out about twenty minutes later with a bag. I was able to focus in and could see that she injected herself with something. Cruz said it was most likely morphine.”

“Geez, this is horrible,” said Cam. “We want to protect Stephanie, but we also want to help this woman.”

“We just have to convince her of that,” said Hiro.

“What’s wrong? Something else is wrong,” said Cam. Hiro shook his head.

“Nothing like what you think,” said Hiro. Cam sat beside the younger man, gripping his arm. “I’ve seen, we’ve all seen, horrible things in our lives, Cam. We’ve witnessed limbs being blown off, hell, entire bodies being blown to bits. We’ve seen men come home not themselves, their heads not in the right place.”

“All of that’s true,” whispered Cam.

“But that,” said Hiro, pointing to the woman on the screen, “that is the cruelest, most awful, horrible thing I’ve ever seen done to a human. And what makes it worse is that it was done intentionally.”

“I know, brother,” he nodded, “I know. We all saw Winter when she arrived. Hell, we could point to anyone here and remember their scars and wounds. I’ve never in my life seen anything like that woman.”

“I wish Rubenstein were alive so we could kill him,” said Hiro, wiping his eyes.

“I agree with that,” nodded Cam as he stood to leave. “Are you going to be okay? Do you want me to have AJ take over?”

“No. He’s helping with the roadblock. We’ve found a way that will interfere with her car’s electronic system. Once we flip the switch, the car will stall. She’ll be stuck.”

“If you need a break, you call someone.”

“I won’t need a break,” said Hiro, looking at his friend. “I’m like all of you. I want to help that woman, but I’m not sure what I can do.”

“I hear compassion is tops on the list of things we need to provide,” he said with a sad smile. “That’s where I’ll be starting.”

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