Aberrant: Dead Rising - Chapter 12b: The Tower

[Dawn OOC]

"I meant we'll stop by on our way down," Felicia answered her softly. "Besides, then your lab should be done and you can do a shit-ton of tests on me in that time." It was putting off the poking and prodding, but Felicia was okay with that. Maybe she'd get really lucky and would die before they got there. Then Myf could do an autopsy and Felicia wouldn't have to be around for it.

Cassie looked after Ira, her expression worried. She started to follow, then stopped. She didn't know whether to follow him or not. Then she broke into a run and trailed after him, slowing when she got to his side. His girl smiled at him, trying to be supportive with just her smile and eyes.

[Ira Sagebrush]

Ira glanced over at Cassandra, then looked over his shoulder at the Doctor and Felicia, "She might want a ride home before I get back, Baby."

Cass glanced back, then looked at Ira, "My Knight makes no sacrifice to the night?"

Ira cocked an eyebrow, "Um...no? I'm doing what I said, I'm going to go look for food,"

Don't say it

"...do I need to talk slower for you?"

Ira cringed slightly mentally.

That was too far. Fuck it, whatever.

The tic passed, and his face hardened again. Ira was deep in a ditch of stubborness and he didn't care (at least openly) who or what he hurt.

Cassandra stopped and she looked at him with shock, her mouth agape, but unable to form the words she wanted to hurl at him. The surprise passed, and her face drew down in anger. She took two quick steps to gain the ground that separated them and let loose with all her might, swinging a leg to shatter the family jewels.

Ira had already calculated the possible outcomes of his verbal faux pas, and hearing her approach on the gravel at the speed she was, he sidestepped at just the right moment. Her foot missed hot dog valley, but Cass' body instinctively adjusted in the time between seconds where thoughts are left behind and connected with Ira's knee in an unreal display of flexibility with a sharp crack. His leg immediately crumpled beneath him, his knee bent at a horribly wrong angle.

Ira screamed as cartlidge, ligaments and tendons stretched and tore, but then almost immediately, the pain receded as shock took over and endorphines flooded his brain. His breaths came in rapid short bursts as he clutched at his leg, already feeling parts begin to move back and cinch up.

Fearing what would happen with a misaligned leg, Ira clenched his teeth, shut his eyes and wrenched his leg straight just as Cassie knelt beside him, tears welling in her eyes from the unintended injury. "I am Brutus," she sobbed, "I am Brutus."

"I deserved it, Baby." Ira said, waving her off. "Go take care of whatever needs done. I'm fine."

No you're not. You're in a slow downward spiral descent into darkness, the depths of which could only be plumbed by the most heinous of creatures.

Thanks for the peptalk.

No problem.

Ira picked up his shotgun from where it lay on the ground and used it to brace himself as he hopped up, favoring his no-longer-injured leg. He tested his weight on his knee, and then hopped a couple times.

"No blood, no foul." Ira said, trying to appease a guilty looking Cass. "For what its worth, sorry 'bout what I said."

He raised a hand and waved at Felicia and Myf, who had started to approach at Ira's scream, "I'm okay...its okay...I'm okay."

She nodded, wiping away the last of the tears as she stood.

"Now go, get things settled and come find me. I have some stuff Kyle said that I should tell you before I forget."

[SalmonMax]

"All right," Myfwany sighed. "But you didn't teleport me out here just to decide to walk to my place. Let me try a couple of things before I head back out."

She pressed her palm to Felicia's forehead. "At least I may be able to relieve some symptoms, or buy some time..." Yellow-gold light outlined her hand, and there was a warm breeze that stirred, carrying scents of grass and trees and growing things.

"There...any better? Also, if you have any syringes here, I could take a blood sample with me. Then I'd have some results ready for you by the time you got to me."

[Dawn OOC]

Myf was being ignored, she realized. Felicia was staring after the bickering couple, her dark eyes concerned. As Cassie approached them, wiping her eyes, Felicia turned to Myf, "Huh? Oh, uh... yeah. I feel better after you... uh, touched me. There really is no good way to say that without it sounding kinda sexual. Cassie, you okay?"

"We cross the Bifrost now," Cassie said, grabbing Myf's hand. There was a pop and they were gone. "Uh... what's going on?!" Felicia shouted, but her only answer was Cassie returning to grab her and make her disappear too - right into the Refuge's clinic. "What the fuck, Cass?!"

"Julius needs time to close his mouths," Cassie said, looking sad.

"What?" Felicia asked, her expression confused. When Cassie didn't - or couldn't - answer, she turned to Myfwanny. "Since we're here... I guess I'm all yours."

[SalmonMax]

Myfwany took a second to re-orient, then took a pair of sterile gloves and gestured at a stool. "Have a seat," she invited. "This won't take long at all."

She gave Felicia what was essentially a stripped-down physical. She took some blood, did a culture swab on the inside of her cheek, and tested eye response and reflexes. Heartbeat and temperature measured, and she listened to her breathing, looking for signs of congestion or obstruction. It wasn't ideal, but since Cassie had never been to Jon's old place, and it wasn't quite ready for patients yet anyway, it was the best she could do.

When the data was written in her pad, and the samples safely refrigerated, Myfwany took a moment to go over them before telling Felicia she could go.

Maybe there was something there...something that would make sense in light of what she'd seen with her subtler senses.

(Reviewing results...though she hasn't had time to check the blood or tissue samples yet clearly.)

[Dawn OOC]

Myf only had two hours or so to start the analysis.. From what she could see, it seemed that Felicia was immune to the Z. She had all the normal markers of the disease but wasn't succumbing. The cost had been a degradation of her immune system, as if staving off the Z had almost been too much for the normally resilient system. Myf felt a shiver of excitement as she realized that these samples might hold antibodies to the Z.

She was deep in her initial studies when she heard a familiar pop. Turning, the doctor blinked to see Felicia and Cassie in her office again. Both of them looked really upset; Felicia was near tears and Cassie was crying. Myf was even more surprised when the Oracle shoved Felicia away and popped away again.

"What is going on?" Myfwanny asked, rising and approaching Felicia.

"Apparently, Ira is an asshole and I'm getting abandoned," the woman said, her pale body shaking with anger. "We went back and he was gone. Cassie and I looked for him... but he's just gone. And she left me here. So I guess you get saddled with the invalid now."

[SalmonMax]

"Felicia, first of all, you're not an invalid. Sit down." Myf patted a chair and got up to get a cup of water for the hurt young woman.

"From what I gathered, it's harder for Cassandra to teleport when she has to bring someone else with her. I'm sure she'll come back once she's found him."

[Dawn OOC]

Felicia sat down with a sigh. "He took the car. I don't know how she'll find him," the woman said softly. She rubbed at her eyes as if they itched, but Myf saw the extra moisture and heard the thickening of her throat. "After their fight... I've never seen it like that before."

The woman sighed. "Is your group open to new arrivals? I don't have anything - Cass teleported me out of there before I could even get my clothing. I was a soldier before, but unless you have desk duty, I'm not sure I'm good for that anymore." She was hurt, terribly hurt at the loss of her family, but the young woman was trying to hold herself together.

[SalmonMax]

"Of course you can stay here," Myfwany assured her. "And we'll find something you can do to contribute, don't worry." She smiled her best 'reassuring doctor's' smile.

"In fact, since you're here...would you tell me, in as much detail as can, what happened when you were given this 'vaccine' shot? Did you experience any side effects? Symptoms? Anything unusual within the first day or two of taking it?"

[Dawn OOC]

“It was like I had the flu,” Felicia sighed, looking sad. She kept her eyes down on the floor as she added, “I was under the weather for a couple of days but then I was fine. They monitored me for about two weeks, then exposed me to Z. I got sick in the usual amount of time, but I didn’t die. I just… lingered.

“Then while we were at the Kampsite, I just passed out for a while, but was a little better when I woke up. A little stronger,” Felicia sighed. She seemed closer to tears as she spoke. “That’s all I remember, really.”