A few days had gone by and I was hard at work on the antidote in the holding lodge. I had grown anxious; I was down to only two ticks and I had just opened the first of the two to try out the latest version of the antidote. I knew I was close. I had finally gotten to the point where I could stop the virus from attacking the blood cells by applying the antidote to the samples in a petri dish, but I needed it to be stronger. I needed it to remove the virus not only from the cells, but also from the body completely. I kept increasing the dosage, but it still wasn’t enough. It was missing something. I needed to add something else to it, but what?
I heard a low growl; I was distracted by Ramon snarling at me through the bars of his cell. Ever since the day he shifted in the lab, he’d remained in the same state of mind. He would randomly shift and maintain his bear form longer every time it happened. He would roar and bang on the cell bars, pounding on the walls—luckily, Knox had brought me sound proof headphones for moments like those. I felt terrible tuning Ramon out, but I had to, for his sake; I couldn’t concentrate with his bear making a ruckus. I knew it wasn’t his fault, but I always felt guilty, as I had in that moment, when I slipped them on over my ears.
Trent and Knox had some protocols to go over for the new safety project Acadia was implementing, so I had told them I would be okay working by myself. I knew Ramon couldn’t hurt me from within the cell, so I wasn’t too worried. In the next cell over, Cassidy never spoke a word to anyone either, and seemed to have accepted her fate. Either way, I wouldn’t have shown her an ounce of sympathy; that bitch was ready to throw me under the bus.
When Ramon would shift back into a human, his body was always so exhausted that he would just lie there on the floor, not moving a muscle; in times like that, I would go over to the cell and attempt to speak with him. I thought it highly unlikely that he could hear me or understand me at this point; with how quickly the infection was setting in, once he was incoherent, I knew most of his brain had been taken over by the virus.
But it was his heart that I was worried about. Once the virus would infiltrate that, he would surely die.
I had no idea how much time I had left. It was hard to gauge based on their experience with the rogue shifter, since Cassidy couldn’t remember when she infected him. So, we were playing a game of chance.
I had to be extremely careful with that particular round of testing; I needed to be sure I could test the last tick with the final iteration of the antidote.
Just then, I was distracted by something waving in front of me.
A sandwich?
I looked up to see two women standing in front of me. One was average height with a slim, fit build and the other was short, plump and pear-shaped. Their lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear a word they were saying.
I removed the headphones from my ears. “Excuse me?”
“Oh, sorry; I didn’t realize you couldn’t hear us. We thought you’d be hungry, so we brought you a bite to eat. We’ve been sending things along with Knox and Trent, but we wanted to stop by and say hello ourselves.” The slender woman smiled at me and handed me the Ziploc bag with the sandwich inside. “Do you like peanut butter and jelly? We also brought you some water and snacks. We heard you’re eating for two, so we wanted to make sure you were taken care of.”
The woman was talking to my belly with the last bit. It took me a moment to realize who they were.
“Oh, you two must be Hannah and Blanca.”
“Sorry, we should have at least introduced ourselves!” The shorter of the two laughed. “I’m Blanca and this is Hannah. I’m Trent’s girlfriend, and she’s Knox’s.”
“Pleased to meet you both.” I smiled, trying to be happy for the company. A part of me was, but mostly, I just wanted to get back to working on the antidote. I looked over to Ramon’s cell to see him lying on the floor again, in naked human form. I tried to push it from my mind as I turned back to Blanca and Hannah.
“How are you holding up, hun? Any cravings yet? Morning sickness?” Hannah asked me, looking concerned.
“My, uh, breasts, have been a bit swollen, but that’s all,” I answered, nervously tucking my hair behind my ear. This seemed a bit personal for a first-time conversation, but I knew they were just trying to check in on me and I didn’t want to be rude and send them away.
“I don’t really think we can help with that, but cravings? We’ve got you, girl.” Blanca gave me a thumbs up.
They both looked to Ramon’s cell.
“How is he?” They almost seemed to regret asking.
“Worse. I’m honestly not sure if he has much time, so I’m working as hard as I can.”
“Well, the work you’re doing here is nothing short of amazing.” Blanca was the one who spoke, but Hannah nodded in agreement. “If you ever need a hand with anything or want to chat, don’t hesitate to reach out.”
“Yeah, us girls have to stick together, you know?” Hannah smiled.
“Thank you; I appreciate that. And I am grateful for all the food and water you’ve been sending; you both have been such life savers. I honestly probably wouldn’t eat if you hadn’t been passing it along. I’ve just been so focused on the antidote. If my eyes didn’t need sleep, I probably wouldn’t go to bed at all, either.” I chuckled lightly, hoping that I seemed likeable. I wanted us all to be friends—and women with shifter boyfriends seemed exactly like the friends I needed right then.
Now if only I could keep mine alive long enough to still have a boyfriend.
“Well, you’re very welcome. We’re more than glad to help,” Blanca said. “We also heard about her.”
Hannah and Blanca were glaring at Cassidy in her cell. Cassidy returned the gesture, but didn’t say anything, as usual.
“Anyway, we’re heading into town to grab a few things, but we wanted to stop by and check on you first. Is there anything we can pick up for you while we’re out?” Hannah asked.
“Someone to help me with this antidote would be nice, but I doubt you’d be able to find someone who can,” I laughed.
“How far along are you with your findings?” Blanca seemed slightly interested. Trent had told me that she was the one who filed the FBI report on Danielle Peterson.
“I have gotten the virus to stop spreading, but that isn’t enough. If I gave this version to Ramon now, the symptoms alone would kill him. The virus is keeping his body strong because it is strong. But once it overtakes his heart, he will die. I need the antidote to completely wipe out the virus and replenish the affected cells. Right now, it’s just enough to protect cells that haven’t been touched by the virus.”
“So, you’ve created sort of a vaccine?” Hannah looked impressed.
“Yes, but that isn’t what we need. It would protect everyone else from getting infected, though, and I have set aside a few vials of it in case the government decides to release the ticks themselves without me or Cassidy. I’m not sure if the batch they gave me was all they had; at this point, I highly doubt it.”
“You’re probably right,” Blanca said. “Let me think here…My grandmother actually helped with the first trials of penicillin back in the forties. One of the things they did was try to use different viruses against each other, seeing if they could cancel each other out. Maybe you could try that with this virus? Or somehow break it down on a molecular level so that you can harness its strength and pair it with the vaccine that you have already created?”
“Hey…you might actually be on to something. I’ll have to play around with it, but I’m fairly certain I could get that to work. I was actually going to try the virus vs. virus approach, but I think breaking down the mutated virus on a molecular level would give us a much better shot. Thank you so much for the idea!”
I was so happy they had come to visit, because honestly, I don’t think I would have thought of that approach until it was too late. But, now that I had a new course of action, I was eager to get back to work. I started preparing the chemicals for breaking down the virus, feeling positive for the first time in weeks.
“Well, we’ll let you get back to work,” Hannah offered, and after they each gave me a hug, they waved goodbye and left the lab.