by E S Richards
“Here, let me show you this,” Zahyra heard her father say to Professor Welbeck and stiffened. This was her chance. Praying with all her might that whatever Emerson was showing the professor was facing away from the door Zahyra rose and pressed the button on the wall. The mechanism beginning to work seemed to take longer than before and Zahyra stood perfectly still, knowing that if either of the people in the room turned an inch she would be discovered. Finally, as soon as the crack in the door was wide enough she slipped through, safely finding herself back in Professor Welbeck’s lab.
Damon was still absent so she moved swiftly to the room she had been in before and climbed back onto the bed. Her heart was pounding in her chest from the adrenaline rush and she took deep breaths to try and calm herself down. That had been closer than she had liked and to make matters worse she hadn’t been able to find anything out about Asher.
She furrowed her brow. Perhaps she could try again that afternoon, now that she knew her father was in there she at least knew it was the right place. It felt weird knowing he was just next door and she wondered what him and Professor Welbeck had been discussing. Just at that moment the woman’s face appeared around the door of Zahyra’s room.
“Ah, you’re awake,” she remarked casually. “We had better continue then.”
Chapter 14
Zahyra breathed a huge sigh of relief at Professor Welbeck’s unawareness to her little escapade and followed her out of the room. Damon was still nowhere to be seen as the professor led Zahyra to a different area of the lab. It housed a bed similar to the one she’d just evacuated pushed up against the wall and a whole host of technical equipment Zahyra didn’t understand.
The professor said nothing about the temperature trial from earlier; despite Zahyra knowing something had gone wrong from what she’d overheard her saying to her father. Instead she left Zahyra waiting awkwardly, while she pulled up some files on a screen and fiddled with them.
“This next procedure,” Professor Welbeck started speaking, and Zahyra detected a hint of maliciousness in her tone. “Is a little more intrusive than what you’ve had to endure so far. We need to harvest some of your bone marrow, for very similar reasons that we took your blood for a few days back.”
Zahyra stared at the woman. She didn’t understand what she had said but already disliked the sound of her harvesting any of her body. Bone marrow as well sounded odd, surely bones were designed to stay inside the body, not be removed. But then, she had thought the same thing about her blood being taken a few days back, so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
“It’s quite simple really,” the professor continued. “But it will take a couple of hours. Also it might hurt. Bigger needle, harder area to access, that kind of thing.”
The way she spoke made the procedure sound very mundane, but Zahyra knew better than to underestimate anything within the safe haven. Still she climbed onto the bed at Professor Welbeck’s instruction and lay down, watching as the woman began gathering implements from various cabinets. The needle she withdrew was huge and caused Zahyra to flinch slightly at the sight of it. She could have almost sworn Professor Welbeck smirked at her reaction, but she turned away too quickly for Zahyra to properly notice.
At that point Damon re-entered the lab from wherever he had been and Professor Welbeck informed Zahyra he would be doing some quick routine checks before she began the bone marrow procedure.
Damon removed a strange device that hung around his neck and Zahyra remembered she had seen Grant wearing one the day before in the medical area as well. Two of the ends he inserted into his ears, the third had a round disc on it and he moved towards Zahyra, pulling down the neck of her top slightly and pressing it against her chest. The metal was cold on her bare skin but nothing else happened. Damon just listened for a moment and then removed it with a nod of his head.
“What was that?” Zahyra asked questioningly. The device seemed slightly out of place in the experimentation lab. Everything else looked very professional and fancy, what Damon had just used was just a few pieces of tubing by the look of it.
“It lets me listen to your heart,” Damon replied simply, “want to try?”
“Uh, sure,” Zahyra replied nervously, accepting the device from Damon.
“Put those ends in your ears,” he pointed, “and hold the other bit over your heart.”
Zahyra followed his instructions and listened closely. Then she heard it: her heart beat. It was incredible. She’d obviously felt it before, pounding in her chest but through that device it was so clear. Her heart was also racing, probably in anticipation of what was about to come.
“Cool,” she said after a moment, removing it from her ears, “thanks.”
Damon smiled and accepted it from Zahyra, placing it on a table and picking up something else.
“This does the same thing,” he said before Zahyra could ask the question, “but tells me how many beats per minute your heart is doing. As well as checking your blood pressure and a few other things. Raise your arm please. Actually, you might as well take off your shirt.”
Zahyra followed Damon’s instructions and sheepishly removed her top, raising the arm nearest to him. He slid the material circle over her arm and rested it on her bicep. Then he pushed a button on a remote he held in his hand and the material began to tighten around Zahyra’s arm. Her eyes widened in response.
“That’s normal,” Damon said calmly from where he watched the remote.
Zahyra tried to relax. The material began to get tighter and tighter, until she could feel her pulse racing in her arm. It didn’t hurt, but it wasn’t an enjoyable experience and she was relived when Damon’s remote beeped and the material loosened, letting her arm relax beneath it.
Damon moved over to Professor Welbeck’s screen and inputted some numbers from the remote before moving to Zahyra and sliding the material off her arm.
“All done,” he said to the professor who looked up from some papers she’d been reading.
“Wonderful. Zahyra, lie on your stomach please.”
Again Zahyra followed the instructions given to her and rolled over. Grateful at least that lying on her front meant her chest was no longer on show. She felt some cold gel being rubbed onto her lower back near her hips and shivered as it was applied.
“You might still feel a small pinch,” Professor Welbeck said moving away from Zahyra’s body for a moment. Out of the corner of her eye Zahyra saw her picking up the large needle again and brandishing it menacingly towards Zahyra. This is it; she thought and squeezed her eyes shut waiting for something to happen.
The sensation that then overcame Zahyra was not painful, just uncomfortable, much like the material Damon had fastened around her arm earlier. It felt like someone was pushing something inside of her body and Zahyra shuddered when she remembered that was exactly what was happening. Knowing that made the whole procedure even more uncomfortable and Zahyra struggled to remain still as she felt Professor Welbeck pressing on her back in various places.
She tried to focus on something else, anything else, but the feeling of pressure on her back kept bringing her back to what was happening. Professor Welbeck and Damon didn’t talk much, just the occasional word between them that Zahyra assumed related to the procedure.
About five minutes had passed when Zahyra felt a sharp pain in her hip and twitched violently as a result.
“What was that?” She asked nervously, trying to twist her head round to look at the professor.
“It’s nothing,” she heard Damon say but then another sharp pain stabbed her in her abdomen.
“Is it supposed to hurt?”
“You may feel some minor discomfort,” Professor Welbeck spoke with a sigh.
Minor discomfort was not how Zahyra would describe how she was feeling. She didn’t know why but something didn’t feel right and she couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever Professor Welbeck was doing wasn’t what was supposed to happen.
“How much longer is –” Zahyra cut
off her own question with a loud scream. It felt like she was being stabbed and she couldn’t lie there any longer.
“Get it out!” Damon suddenly shouted at Professor Welbeck, moving his gaze from the screen he’d been watching to the professor. Zahyra felt what she could only describe as a scraping sensation inside of her as Professor Welbeck pulled the needle out of her back. She gritted her teeth together to stop her from crying out again.
“Dammit I was almost there!” Professor Welbeck cursed at Damon and threw the needle onto a metal tray on the table.
“Just look,” Damon replied to her urgently and out of the corner of her eye Zahyra saw the professor move over to the screen Damon had been watching. Zahyra started to roll over to get a closer look at the two of them when immeasurable pain began to course through her body, starting and ending with where the incision point was on her back.
“Stay still,” Damon said seriously to her and for once Zahyra listened. There was another tone to his voice that made everything suddenly seem more real. In an instant Zahyra was afraid.
“What’s going on?”
“We need to get her to a medic.” Damon continued to speak. “Now!”
In her peripheral vision Zahyra could just see Professor Welbeck. Damon was out of view but his words continued to instil fear in her. Zahyra could have sworn she saw the professor roll her eyes before nodding her head to where Zahyra assumed Damon was standing. Then she heard footsteps and Damon’s voice coming from somewhere across the room.
“Professor Welbeck’s lab. We need a medic, now. Internal bleeding, possible rupture.”
His words carried clearly to Zahyra even from wherever he had moved to. Internal bleeding? Possible rupture? Neither of those phrases sounded good to Zahyra and she began to feel panic take over her body, wrapping its tendrils around her thoughts.
“What’s going on?” She asked again more urgently, begging someone to reply to her.
“There’s been a complication,” Professor Welbeck replied to her in a tone of voice that made her sound more irritated than concerned. “A medic is on their way.”
“What’s going to happen?”
“You’ll be fine,” she heard Damon’s voice again, closer than it had been a second before. “Just lie still.”
Zahyra did her best to remain still, her breathing hitched and anxious. She was grateful for Damon’s presence at that moment and silently thanked him for returning to the lab from wherever he had gone earlier.
Professor Welbeck didn’t seem to care about what happened to her and Zahyra wondered why she suddenly received such a cruel demeanour from the woman. It couldn’t be solely because of Zahyra breaking onto her screen; that was no reason for giving up hope for someone else’s life.
Abruptly two new voices came into the room and Zahyra recognised one of them as Grant’s, the young medic she had been with the day before. She didn’t recognise the other one but stopped herself trying to move in order to see who was there. Damon’s words ringing out in her head.
“We need to move her upstairs,” someone said, she thought it was Grant.
“You can’t,” Professor Welbeck replied, “she’s not cleared to ascend that way.”
“Well we can’t bloody carry her up the stairs can we?” Grant replied, “We’re going to have to take her up. Unless you want her to die down here?”
Zahyra took in a sharp intake of breath at the medic’s words, missing what was said afterwards. But then the bed she was on started to move and her small view of the lab changed as she was wheeled towards one of the doors.
“What’s going on?” She asked for a third time, the changing environment and Grant’s words of her death lingering in her mind.
“Zahyra,” Grant spoke, “it’s Grant here. We’re going to take you upstairs to the medical area. You’ll be fine, just lie still.”
“But you said –”
Zahyra’s words were lost in the sound of footsteps as her bed began to move at a faster pace. Some doors opened and she was pushed through, recognising her father’s lab as they tore through it. She didn’t see any sign of him, or anyone, but wondered whether he could be standing just out of her view. They paused then and Zahyra assumed they were waiting for another door to open, then they immediately picked up pace.
The pain in her back had subsided from a stabbing pain to a dull ache now, but Zahyra was still very aware of its presence. She didn’t dare move in case she made it worse somehow but struggled to keep her arms and legs still as her bed was pushed through the labs at breakneck speed. They passed through another lab, identical once again to Professor Welbeck’s and her fathers and Zahyra wondered how many of them they were going to have to travel through when they came to an abrupt halt.
“This may feel weird,” she heard Grant say behind her and was about to object when the ground seemed to drop out from underneath her and suddenly she was soaring upwards through the air. Her stomach whirled; feeling like it dropped down to her kneecaps then rose up to her neck before settling in place again. Her eyes grew wide as she stared at the wall to the side of her. It was whizzing past and she was definitely moving upwards.
The sensation of flying lasted no more than thirty seconds before Grant and whoever he was with began pushing her bed again, tearing through the upper level of the safe haven. They travelled quickly though the main atrium, people scattering in all directions to make way and then skidded to a halt in the medical area of the facility.
“Move her onto one of our beds,” Grant shouted at someone, “carefully!” And then two pairs of arms grabbed her, hoisting her from the bed where she lay and onto a new one. It was of the same design but from Zahyra’s eye line she could see small wires poking out of the edge of it. She didn’t dare open her mouth to ask what was about to happen, just took several deep breaths and tried to somehow prepare herself.
“We need to operate,” Zahyra heard someone in the room say.
“How long ago did it happen?”
“No more than ten minutes.”
“Good, we should be in plenty of time then.”
“What was that woman doing?”
“I don’t know, you know what she’s like.”
“It’s insane.”
“It’s science.”
“Someone pass me a scalpel.”
“Are we going to put her under?”
“Of course – can someone get the gas?”
“I just need to scrub up.”
“Make it fast. Where’s that scalpel?”
Zahyra listened nervously to the voices around her. They were going to operate on her, of that much she was sure, but to what extent? What had gone wrong and what were they trying to put right? Zahyra squeezed her eyes shut and thought of her brother. She wondered whether he had been in one of the labs she was wheeled through, whether he had seen her in this state.
Had her father been in there too? If he had been Zahyra was sure he would have tried to follow them, and from what she could tell he wasn’t one of the voices in the room with her – something she was at least grateful for.
“Zahyra?” Grant’s voice brought her back to reality and she tried to move her head slightly to see where he stood.
“It’s okay, don’t move,” he spoke softly. “I’m going to put something over your head to go over your mouth and nose. Just breathe normally: it’ll put you to sleep so we can operate. Just breathe,” he repeated as he lowered some kind of mask onto Zahyra’s face, “everything is going to be fine.”
Zahyra felt the roughness of the mask against her skin and she struggled to control her breathing. In and out, she told herself, just in and out. The words in her head began to feel groggy as she tried to process them. In and out. In and out. Everything is going to be fine. Just breathe. In and out. In and out. In and out.
Chapter 15
The next thing Zahyra became aware of was a steady beeping noise. She slowly peeled open her eyes to reveal she was still in the medical area, now lying on her back lo
oking up at the pristine white ceiling above her. She tried to move her head to look around but was struck with a wave of dizziness, causing her to clamp her eyes shut again. After counting to ten she opened them slowly, being careful not to perform any sudden movements.
There was a pillow underneath her back on the left hand side and Zahyra carefully reached around her body to feel a thick bandage fastened there as well. She didn’t understand how what Professor Welbeck had described as such a routine procedure had gone so terribly wrong. But she was still alive and that was really all that mattered.
Zahyra wriggled her toes and bent her legs to make sure that nothing else had happened to her. Remarkably her body felt fine, but noticing a clear tube poking out of her right hand she realised she was probably being given something to make her feel that way. Then her eyes began to feel heavy again, drooping closed without her control as she gave way to unconsciousness once more.
“Vitals all look good.”
Zahyra kept her eyes closed when she heard the voice. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed since she’d last been awake, her head feeling groggy and confused. She tried to regulate her breathing as she focused on the voice, realising that it was the young medic, Grant and feeling slightly comforted that he was by her side.
“I think she’ll be out for another hour though.”
She zoned back in on Grant’s voice. He had to be talking about her. She almost opened her eyes then to let him know she was lucid but something made her resist, giving in once again to the unconsciousness that tugged at her.
Shouting roused Zahyra for the third time, this time causing her eyes to snap open and bring her immediately back into the present. Her head felt much clearer finally and as she looked around for the source of the noise there was hardly any dizziness to accompany her movements.
She noticed then that a curtain had been drawn around her bed, shielding her view of whatever was happening on the other side. It also meant, she realised, that no one knew she was awake and she smiled. Even though the medics in the safe haven had undoubtedly saved her life, it had also been the safe haven that had put her in danger. Even if it was just for a moment, she was glad no one was there to watch her.
