UNDERGROUND: OOM PRT 5
The front door opened and Preston bereft of any sort of dignity staggered into his apartment.
Dropping his keycard on the side table, he shuffled down the hallway into the living room where he slipped off his jacket and dropped it on the floor as he staggers to the sofa and collapses.
The fight shouldn't have worn him out that much. She was so strong-there'd been moments he felt sure she'd break through his armor. They were just like monsters, with that set of flashing teeth and those eyes
It was funny. He'd never looked at women before. Since Vivianna died, he had forgotten all about them. With Mary's Death however, and upon arriving in Xylyx, he'd become-more aware of them. Even in doing battle with a rebel and the woman who killed Jurgen, who'd killed him-
Preston's hand clenched into a fist and dropped to his side. What the hell is wrong with me? He'd tried to help her. She pushed him off and ran away, leaving him covered with her blood and gore-sitting in a puddle of nothing as he contemplated how a human being could still be alive after loosing that much blood...
He was getting dizzy. The fight should definately not have worn him out this much. Resolving to go to bed, he braced himself on the sofa's edge and ordered his legs to stand.
The movement of suddenly going vertical was far too much for him to handle. Bile rose in his his throat and he dropped to his knees, vomiting up what little lunch he'd had.
Subjects experiencing the early stages of infection by Hemophagia experience the following symptoms: disorientation that results in nausea,
No. It wasn't Hemophagia. It couldn't be. Not. Possible.
Grimacing, he ordered himself up again. His vision blurred, the apartment vanishing in a haze of colors and shapes.
As the disease re-writes genetic markers, subjects will experience blurred vision-
The lights went out and John Preston cursed Father, The Tetragrammaton, and everyone he'd ever met in vivid pre-librian style.
Followed by blindness.
Everything felt swollen. Achy and feverish, Preston turned over on his side and vomited again. The darkness was gone now, light rising in the distance. Funny. He thought, It looks like the sun's rising
Subjects will then lose consciousness.
John Preston, Cleric of the Tetragrammaton, father, friend, lover, family man, and savior of libria, turned over on his side before his heart beat, and he died.
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Subjects infected with Hemophagia experience three distinct stages before they enter the comatose state that hemophages compare to a state of "living death". During that state the infected individual is, in essence, dead. All vital organs will stop functioning and all vital systems will remain in a state of suspended animation.
The virus's codones re-write the infect individual's DNA usually within a span of 24 hours. In that time, the subject will display all of the classical traits of a hemophage, including increased heartrate, metabolism, and muscle mass; along with incrased calcium in their bones. Hemophage temperatures range from 107 to 109 degrees, and they can be distinguished by the elongated canines grown from over-developed calcium deposits.
-Andrew Williams, MD. "Diseases of 2291."
Preston bolts awake before hitting his head on the sink.
"-Ah-what?." How in the world did he wind up on his bathroom floor between the tub and the toilet? He sat up again, careful not to hit his head again as his hands hit the floor-
TOUCH.
Sensation vibrated through his skin cells and ran up his arms, registering that the floor was cold. Cold and hard, with tiny imperfections. He could have told anyone where they were and how deep and-
[You made an uh oh!]
The Vaccu Bot slid out of the wall, [Uh Oh! uh Oh! I fix!] It detached itself from it's powercord and slid across the bathroom to where a puddle of vomit that looked depressingly black had splattered itself against the stone.
[Uh Oh! Uh Oh! I fix! I fi-DANGER. DANGER.]
Something on the bot began to beep, [DETECTING HIGH LEVELS OF INFECTIOUS MATERIALS. DANGER. DANG-]
Preston brought his foot down on the thing, aware of the air moving up and down his leg, and the muscular force used to bring it down on the bot still spouting danger.
[Uh Oh, Danger! Uh-ooooOooo-]
The thing sputtered and lay still. Crushed.
Impossible.
That did not happen.
Something opened across the apartment, and Preston jerked. A door. Where? Who? He tensed, muscles coiled and ready to spring. The crushed Vacu bot remained, a reminder of his temper-
He had to act natural.
Find your center. The place you go when everything goes wrong, find it- He breathed deep. Like he'd done in the cells. When He took down father and faced off against wells-
Each step brought new sensations. The vibrations in the floor, the feeling of his hand running along the wall-
It was like being off prosium for the first time. Again. Getting to his feet, he blinked, rubbing fatigue out of his eyes.
Everything was amplified. He Felt. The sensations of running his hand along the wall for the first time without his gloves came back to him, the first time he saw the sun, witnessing everything, really seeing it-
Only this-this was a million times more powerful. A million times more Vivid. He sees with acute detail, noticing every little line in the tile, every little crack in the wall-
The mirror. His face.
Something was off. Was he always this pale? Was he-
The SUN.
It ripped into him, the pain blinding him momentarily before he dropped to his knees, biting back tears. He could feel each ray hitting his skull and running through it again. The pain disoriented him, leaving him screaming on the floor of their quarters, completely oblivious to his surroundings. Something crashed, the reverb hitting his head like music at a concert.
Oh god. Oh god.
Instinct, pure raw instinct, gripped him, and he shut his eyes tight and crawled like a child for the closet. It took a thumb print to open the door, but he wasn't sure he could manage to lift himself up to press his skin to the keypad-
He tried. One swift motion, the pain of the sun still boring into him like a drill.
[Thank you for using me.]
Ironic that. So very Ironic-
Preston hugged the darkness, curling up at the foot of the closet amid his son's shoes and his daughter's jackets. Darkness. No sun. No nothing..
Except what he knew he'd find.
Raising a hand to his mouth he ran a finger delicately along his teeth, tracing across their top until he hit an edge that sliced through the top layer of skin as he ran a finger down it's length.
The Hemophages are not human. They are monsters.
Librians weren't afraid to cry even in the most dire of circumstances. Their emotions, they'd learned, were what made them strong.
His chest heaved.
And he remembered Robbie.
Robbie and Lisa. His son and his daughter. Despair overtook him when he thought of Lisa's smile and his son's dark eyes. His children.
He would not be there to be home for them when they arrived.
He might never be home for them again. Never see them smile again. Would they want to see him?
They're mutant freaks
His chest heaved and he reached for the door, his eyes closed tight. His hand hovered in front of the release before drawing downward again.
What did they say? The average hemophage lived ten years if he was lucky. Less. Far less in Xylyx. He'd be dead when he walked out of the room. Perhaps out of the closet.
He wouldn't see his children have children of their own. He would never touch them again. He couldn't touch them again.
If he did they were dead.
The virus spread too easily.
His chest heaved one final time and he let out a choked sob as he curled himself into a ball, the portrusions that had been his teeth sinking into his tongue and sending a thin trickle of blood down his throat.
---------
"...These reports are correct?"
The Senior Cardinal for the Arch Ministry of Medical Affairs hung his head, "I'm afraid they are ma'am. Events have forced us to make a regular sweep of the ventilation systems. There's no doubt that John Preston is infected with Hemophagia.
Jessica Estepp examined another file, "What does this mark mean? Here?"
"Unknown contagion." The cardinal murmured, "We don't know what's responsible. Perhaps he carried it unknown for several days before it manifested."
"It can do that?"
"It' s devestating." The cardinal lowered his head, "Ma'am."
She looked pained, "...Nothing can be done to save him? Or his..."
The cardinal drew in a shaky breath, "Ma'am...If he's infected, then his simple presence means that the children are already at risk." He sighed, "It grieves me to say this-if they're found to be uninfected we will do all that we can for them."
"...And your policy-"
"The only cure." The cardinal said, "For a Hemophage is extermination." His voice grew hard, "We cannot risk the disease spreading across the coasts when we've just contained it here. An outbreak in Libria, as you begin to rise like a phoenix, would be devastating." He folded his hands behind him, "I can't tell you how sorry I am ma'am."
"...So am I Senior Cardinal." Councilwoman estepp shook her head, "What do you need from me?"
"The form." The Cardinal said, "Should be on your desk. Simply give up your right to extradite them in case of harm and disavow their citizenship. We will be quick. Mr. Preston will be better off for it."
"...I hope so." the Senior Councilwoman, "I truly do. You can help him...make it quick?"
"Oh yes." Senior Cardinal Dupont of the Medical Arch Ministry murmured. He watched her scrawl her name across the documents, "Yes. We're very good at what we do. We've had lots of practice."