Courage

by Angela B. Macala-Guajardo

  The double doors swung open. He looked up.

  Three medical professionals, two men and a woman, let go of their red emergency aid bags. The bags stayed suspended in midair at waist-level but, unlike the gurney, jostled around as they reached in for supplies. Each of them donned a pair of latex gloves on their purple hands. Aerigo clasped Roxie’s left hand and silently willed her to survive. Her hand was hot and sweaty, and so devoid of life.

  “Sir, please have a seat,” Capera said to Aerigo, gesturing to a sleek wheel chair that had what looked like a palm-sized computer clipped to one handle. He shook his head and turned back to Rox.

  A black-haired man in his forties, who had a friendly complexion accented by character lines, took Roxie’s injured hand and examined it. “There aren’t any puncture marks on the other side of her hand. It doesn’t look like an animal bite.” He looked up. “My name is Donai Vernidelli. I’m the lead poison specialist. What has she been poisoned with?”

  Aerigo tore his eyes from Rox, cursing himself for not having the wit to tell anyone sooner, and laboriously reached for his back pocket and pulled out the darts. His throat felt incapable of speech. He carefully handed them over.

  Donai gingerly held the darts and inspected them. Only then did Aerigo notice the dragons etched into the glass cartridges, along with the fact that the needles were made out of diamond. Diamond had the least trouble piercing an Aigis’ tough skin. Donai twisted off the needle end of one dart and wafted up a scent. He held the dart away and wrinkled his nose. “Ugh! Dragon venom.”

  Aerigo caught a whiff of sulfur and acid. Oh, gods. They might as well give up on her now. No wonder the assassins hadn’t bothered charging in to secure the kill. Why bother ruining a blade on an Aigis when poison worked so much better? Aerigo had survived many hits from bullets, receiving nothing more than bruises from lower caliber guns. Armor piercing rounds were powerful enough to make him bleed, as he’d learned the hard way. A well-aimed armor piercing round could kill an Aigis. The damage sustained from explosives depended on how close and what type, but were generally best to run from. Poisons depended on their potency and the size of the dose. Even dragon venom was survivable. But the amount Rox had taken? Aerigo bowed his head and squeezed Roxie’s hand.

  “Skitt,” Donai said, “page poison control for a whole case of dragon antivenin.” He reassembled the dart and handed it to the female doctor, who pulled out a plastic biohazard bag from her emergency aid bag and tucked the packaged darts in it.

  Skitt, a young man with short bristly brown hair, pale eyes said, “Which species?”

  “Black. It smells too acidic to be anything but Black.” He fished out a clear plastic IV bag and hung it on the steel pole attached to the hover gurney. “And tell them to send it to room one o’ two.”

  “You got it, chief.” Skitt touched his ear bud and began talking to some far off person.

  Donai helped the female doctor hook Rox up to an IV as they noted all of her symptoms and vitals. Her skin resisted the needle before allowing it jab through to a vein. Hopefully the trace of their tough hides in her was a good sign. However, her blood pressure was dangerously low, even for an Aigis. Donai shouldered his bag once the IV was set up, then positioned himself at the head of the bed. “Ready, Jenna?”

  Jenna, a tall, slender woman with a fair complexion, accented by her purple features, and chestnut hair tied into a ponytail, nodded. She still looked very feminine in her teal scrubs.

  “Hey! Why are they getting attention first?” some lady yelled. Aerigo looked towards the reception desk and saw a short, rotund woman with messy dark hair glaring at him. “My husband and I have been waiting for two hours in your stupid, posh waiting room.”

  Donai ignored the intrusion and nodded to Jenna. They started moving down the hall, Aerigo with them and Roxie’s limp hand still in his.

  Capera intercepted the unhappy guest and spoke firmly. “Ma’am, please calm down.”

  “No! This is discrimination!”

  Capera’s voice drew closer. “Ma’am, your husband isn’t dying; the woman is.”

  Aerigo lacked the empathy to care about anyone’s plight at the moment. His universe was imploding; however, two pudgy hands yank his right arm. Fearing an attack, he spun on his assailant with a raised fist. At the same time, he realized he was about to punch a human. The almost violent reaction sent a wave a fear through him. His eyes responded to his emotion.

  The short lady only managed to say “How dare you--?” by the time she noticed Aerigo’s glowing eyes. She let out a gasp and her mouth flew wide open and ran back to the waiting room.

  Aerigo bowed his head and covered his eyes as he groped for the hover gurney, leaning against it until the wave of fear passed.

  “Oh wow, his eyes glow,” Donai exclaimed. “Where have I heard of people like that before?”

  “I’ve never heard of such people,” Jenna said. “Let’s go.”

  Donai gently placed a hand on Aerigo’s arm. “Sir, we need to move.”

  Aerigo removed his hand from his face and looked at him. The doctor gazed back with open wonder. At least this person wasn’t afraid of him. Aerigo straightened up and stepped back. As much as he wanted to stay in contact with Rox, he would only get in the way and slow the doctors down. It was his fault Roxie was in this condition. The last thing he wanted was for it to be his fault for not letting the doctors do their job.

  “Skitt, grab those.” Donai nodded to the backpacks on the floor. Donai and Jenna guided Roxie’s gurney down the hall, with Aerigo and a laden Skitt in tow.

  Along the top of the walls ran three tracks of a delivery system with cubical objects zipping back and forth along them. The cubes had rounded edges, most were transparent, and a few kept their contents confidential as they veered off one track or another and into a hole like a rabbit scurrying into its burrow. Aerigo hoped the cube containing Roxie’s dragon antivenin would show up quickly.

  A left at the end of the hall and a quick right through the second doorway brought everyone into emergency room 102. Donai dropped all the bags in a far corner of the smallish room, and pulled out a clipboard and what looked like two square metal sticks clipped together. “Sir, what’s your name?” An acorn-shaped robot the size of a head pushed away from the wall and flew to Donai.

  Aerigo told him, but his voice came out so thick and hoarse that he had to repeat himself twice.

  “Where do you want me to bring Aerigo?” Jenna asked. She tapped a few buttons that beeped along with her prodding, and the gurney made a loud click.

  “Nowhere. He’s probably going to be our next patient real soon. His voice sounds like he’s suffering from air poisoning.”

  “Yeah, but this is an ER.”

  “Just trust me on this one.” Donai handed her the clipboard, then pulled apart the metal sticks. A colorful screen flickered to life in the eight-inch space between them. “Swab me a sample from the poisoning site. Skitt, get two EKG’s and cans of oxygen hooked up.” Both aides did as ordered. Aerigo turned down his own EKG clip but held the oxygen mask to his face. Of course he had air poisoning. He’d spent way too much time in Kismet’s foul air. And despite his growing dizziness, he refused to sit down.

  Jenna stuck the cotton swab in one of the screen’s metal sticks. A loading bar took three agonizing seconds to fill up, and then a mixture of sickly green, brown and black appeared in a rectangle in one corner. “That is some potent stuff,” Donai said, a hint of worry in his voice.

  A metallic clack by the doorway caused everyone to turn. A flap popped down and a rounded cube with a cardboard box inside slid into view. Skitt finished taping Roxie’s EKG to a finger on her good hand and collected the box of antivenin.

  “Skitt, give her... four doses, one in each shoulder and two through the IV. That’s probably not enough, but I need to see what that’ll do first.”

  Jenna sterilized Roxie’s shoulders as Skitt delivered the first two doses through the IV port, then the othe
r two in each shoulder. Jenna collected the spent needles and discarded them. Donai held his screen over Roxie’s bad hand. Something like an x-ray image formed on it, the outline of her hand a psychedelic pink, and the palm all black with swirls of green and brown all throughout her fingers. Donai scanned up her right arm, which was all black, brown and green, passed across her collar bone and sternum, which had less black, but abundant brown and green, and then scanned down her left arm. Aerigo didn’t have to be a doctor to know that what they were seeing wasn’t good.

  “Okay, give her two more apiece in each shoulder. The first four aren’t showing up anywhere.”

  As soon as Skitt reached back into the antivenin box, Roxie’s EKG flat lined. Aerigo froze and his eyes heated with a fearful yellow. He ached to rush to Roxie’s side and perform some sort of magic that would get her heart going again. But he stayed put. His magic, his hands, were that of a fighter, a killer. The flat line wail almost sounded like Sandra’s voice the night she’d screamed his name right after the fiery boulder hit their home. The green line on the EKG was a spear aimed at his heart, ready to deal a fatal blow as soon as the doctors pronounced Roxie dead.

  Donai dropped the scanner on the foot of the gurney. “Jenna, the AED!” He barked orders to the robot and it snatched an alcohol swab packet and some scissors out of a drawer, then handed them to the doctor, who cut Roxie’s tank top open and sterilized a patch of skin over her heart. “Skitt, don’t bother with more into the shoulders. Just hand them to me one by one.” Donai took one look at Aerigo and told him to leave. Aerigo shook his head. He couldn’t bear to watch, but couldn’t close his eyes. All he managed was two steps backwards.

  The lead doctor shook his head, then delivered another four doses of antivenin straight into Roxie’s heart. The flat line toned blared away. Donai taped gauzed over the puncture marks, then climbed onto the gurney and kneeled over Roxie’s chest. He strategically placed his hands over Roxie’s sternum and began administering CPR. Jenna straightened Roxie’s neck and watched Donai rapidly pump Roxie’s chest, putting all his weight into each push.

  Aerigo watched helplessly as Donai mumbled through counting the number of times he pumped Roxie’s chest. Aerigo tried to count with him, but his awareness of the flat line overwhelmed everything else he heard. Not her, too. Please not her, too. The moment he’d tried to administer CPR to Sandra rose to consciousness, the feel of the jigsaw puzzle collection that was her sternum and ribs. Aerigo backed up another step, expecting the doctor to recoil from Roxie.

  Donai continued CPR.

  Aerigo looked at the floor, unable to watch Roxie die right in front of him. He sorely wished he had the power to save her, but all he had was destructive powers. He wanted Nexus dead for all this. His rage inched closer. He clenched his fists, shattering the oxygen mask in his grip.

  “Skitt, get Aerigo out of the room.”

  “On it.”

  Aerigo felt a hand try to guide him by his upper arm. He stayed put. He couldn’t leave. He had to find a way to stop Rox from dying. Maybe if he took Jenna’s place, removed the face mask, and breathed passionate life in Roxie, she would live. Half of him wanted to, but the other half of him couldn’t forget that this wasn’t some fairytale where love conquered all, even death. A second hand wrapped around his biceps and pulled harder, yet his arm barely moved.

  “What the hell? I can’t move him.” Skitt touched a hand to the device in his ear. “Capera, I need orderlies in ER 102.”

  Soon, a second pair of hands grabbed his other arm, and together they pulled him off balance. Aerigo caught himself and braced against their efforts.

  “Wow, he’s strong,” Skitt said. “Donai, I think he’s got some powers that make him really strong.”

  “Hurry up and get him out of this room!” Donai snapped over the flat line tone. He commenced a third round of CPR.

  The instant Donai fell silent, the wail of the flat line hit Aerigo’s ears like a thunderclap. He flinched and his eyes stung with tears. The flat line’s wail sounded like Sandra crying out his name, her voice stuck on the “o.” Rox had been clinically dead for almost a minute now. Things couldn’t end this way. He wouldn’t allow it.

  He felt the energy that had filled him when he’d struggled to world hop to Kismet. It arose within him again and he braced himself to fend it off. This was like what happened in Drio. He couldn’t let the power out. Not here. There was nothing but doctors and patients to kill, innocent people helpless against his wrath.

  Giving up on CPR and getting off the gurney, Donai grabbed a floating medical tray and set the AED on it. He cut up Roxie’s bra and tank top, and peeled them aside to reveal breasts that looked sunburnt and bloated with rigor mortis. Aerigo wanted to cover them back up. They looked horrible. Donai gelled the pads and switched it on. “Clear!” He pressed the electrodes to Roxie’s chest and shocked her. Her entire body jolted, then flopped back into place. One hand slid off the gurney. The EKG beeped out two heartbeats before flat lining again.

  Aerigo swallowed. The way her torso jolted into the air, the lifeless flop, and then getting teased with hearing two heartbeats drew his wrath to just below the surface as tears rolled down his cheeks. This felt just like when Rahnjar had told him that the Balvadiers were attacking. He was ready to let himself snap, let out a scream, and then raze everything in sight. But this time he couldn’t forget how mortified he’d felt that night in Drio. Rox was just as dead as Sandra, and that other power was doing its best to push him to snap. He stayed put, eyes aglow and tears flowing.

  “Clear!” Donai shocked Rox again.

  Jenna returned with two more women wearing scrubs, and together the four of them (including Skitt) tried to push him down into the wheelchair they’d positioned behind him. Aerigo resisted the urge to pick up the wheelchair and throw it at the nearest wall, willing himself to stand still.

  The EKG beeped a handful of times before flat lining a third time.

  ‘Release your Mana, the first half of your power.’

  Mana. So the power had a name.

  Aerigo closed his eyes and bowed his head, catching the scream in his throat. The power pushed at his mental barriers, and he found himself slipping. He was so tired of fighting it. Part of him wanted to just give in and let the power have its way, but he didn’t want to go through all that again. However, the dead Aigis’s whispering broke his concentration and he found himself reaching for his Mana power.

  The explosive release sent all four doctors reeling backwards, and he staggered and tripped over the wheelchair. The air around him began to swirl, just like it always did. He scrambled to pull the power back inside, not wanting to hurt anyone, and especially not wanting to interfere with Donai’s efforts, but all he could do was compact it in a sphere around him.

  And then he heard a dead Aigis say, ‘Please listen!’

  “No,” Aerigo whispered, reflexively tuning the voice out as it continued speaking. He didn’t care what it had to say right now. He’d already released his Mana without wanting to. “I can’t. Not more power.” He felt himself losing. The power pushed outward so hard that it felt like he’d been thrown under a gravitational force almost too strong for him to tolerate.

  “Everyone back away from Aerigo,” Jenna said. “Something doesn’t feel right about him.”

  More garbled words, followed by, ‘You need to harness your Frava power!’

  “No. Please. I’ll be a monster again. Please no.” Aerigo’s barrier weakened and the energy snaked its way in and seeped into him, one little bit at a time. It felt as awesomely vast as before, and just as intimidating. “Stop!” He yelled, and punched the floor. He tasted bile in his mouth.

  The voice let out a resigned sigh. ‘So be it then.’

  The vast power disappeared, leaving just the Mana power to deal with. He opened his eyes and saw a two-foot-wide crater at his feet.

  His stomach stabbed him with a sharp pain. Clutching his stomach, he ran out of the hospital at supe
rhuman speed. He tried to pull the Mana power back in but it was like trying to hold water with a sieve. He pushed open the sliding glass doors and darted into the middle of an intersection, then sucked in a breath and directed his Mana skyward with a thrust of both arms. The Mana surged upwards and outwards, shattering nearby windows and sending cars flying. Aerigo staggered and fell as the last drop of power left him, feeling empty and powerless, then pushed himself to his feet once more and trudged back inside. He wanted to run but he was down to just caloric energy fueling his aching limbs. All three doctors glanced at him when he reentered the ER.

  “Skitt, her heartbeats keep lasting a little longer after every time I shock her. Clear!” Aerigo heard Roxie’s body lurch. He gritted his teeth as tears fell in time with Roxie’s heartbeat. “I think the antivenin is catching up. We’ll give her more once her heart stays beating.”

  Aerigo’s whole body began to shiver with stress overload. Arms around his aching stomach, he took a few wobbly steps to Roxie’s gurney. “I didn’t hurt any of you, did I?” he asked weakly. Roxie’s EKG was still beeping.

  “You just startled us more than anything,” Jenna said with a wan smile.

  Donai stood with the AED hovering over Roxie’s naked chest as he watched the EKG measure out the young woman’s heartbeats. After about fifteen seconds, she flat lined again. Donai shocked her and Jenna administered CPR. The two doctors repeated the process for what felt like ages to Aerigo, but must have been maybe five minutes. He winced and looked away every time they shocked her.