May I Enjoy My Life: Entry 2

Entry 4 - Day 20

Well. Now I’m not the only one who’s going to die. This is a complete cluster fuck. Why is Terra such a damn mess?! It isn’t enough that I’m going to die a horrible and painful death, now I’m killing other people too!? 

Maybe I’m being too dramatic.  But here’s what happened. 

We ditched the car in a run-down warehouse in the bad part of town, or at least I assumed that by all the garbage piled up and the shanties made out of cardboard and plywood. I won’t lie, I wasn’t really paying attention to what was going on. My mind was sort of arrested on the “I am going to die of super cancer now” part. 

I mean…I guess I had, in a way, known this was going to happen. Like I had said from the get go, I was on Terra, and I was going to fucking die. If I were going to make a list of fictional worlds I would want to live on, Hogwarts would be near the top of that list. You know what’s on the fucking bottom?

Well, OK, it’s Warhammer, but SECOND from the bottom is Terra! I mean I don’t read every bit of text, but just the endings in IS gave me the impression that there’s like, at least four or five global apocaypses that range from “endless hordes of demons in the north trying to eat everyone” to “giant sea monsters trying to Orange Goop everyone.” 

And then, there is the Super Cancer. Which I now had. 

Which I had given to myself. Fuck. 

I wanted to crash out, to spiral into an intense depression and just…end it. I mean, I’m not really someone who usually struggles with anxiety and all that shit. A lot of the people I went to medical school with did struggle with that, and I saw a few who had the potential to be great doctors drop out when the mental pressure just got to be too much. I never did that. 

Then, as we were hiding the car behind the warehouses’ rusted metal shutters, I looked over at Andrey. Keep in mind, kid wasn’t human. Or, well, he was by Terran definitions, but he wasn’t the same species as me. He had fuzzy brown ears, and was wearing blue scrubs with hospital slippers on his feet. He had a stub tail poking out between his shirt and trousers. So, you know, what’s the Japanese word? Kemo something. Anyway, he was a furry. 

But…he was holding my hand. I could feel the warmth in his fingers. When he looked up at me and smiled, I saw the light and life in his eyes. Shit, this was why I had become a doctor. Because I wanted kids like him to be able to get up out of their hospital beds, and be kids again. I wanted to go into neurology because the pay was excellent, yes, but also because I wanted to be able to treat conditions like epilepsy and cerebral palsy. Not because there’s some sob story in my background, but because, well, I remember seeing kids in wheelchairs and thinking, “Why can’t they come play with us?” 

And damn it, even if Andrey WAS a bear-person…he was still a person. He was a kid, just like any other. I wasn’t planning on going into pediatrics specifically, I’ve always preferred working with adult patients as a general rule, but you show me a doctor that won’t bend over to help a sick child and I’ll show you a twisted bastard who’s lost every reason he had to go into medicine. 

If I was being brutally honest with myself, I had known what I was doing when I sucked the oripathy out of Andrey and into myself. I don’t mean that on a technical level, I have no idea how the fuck that worked or how I did it, but I do mean that I sort of understood that I was taking the disease out of him, and putting it in me. 

Yeah, yeah, “Physician, heal thyself” and all that. But Andrey had been dying. Based on the little I know about oripathy, the kid had weeks at best to live, and that existence would have been a pain-wracked, hellish existence. Ursus was NOT kind to the infected. Andrey wouldn’t have been put on a morphine drip as a mercy. He would have been bundled away to the gulag and left to rot in his own feces until he exploded into crystal dust in a hole in the ground. 

Well fuck that. Shit, if the only thing I do in this life that has any meaning or value will be that I saved this kid from that, then my life was worth living. Then I did something that mattered, and fuck it, I was a damn good doctor to boot. 

Now I just had to make sure that he got to enjoy that life. Somehow. 

“Alright, come on, we got some supplies stashed not far from here,” Gavial said, turning away from her handiwork. “See, Lucia? I told you a backup plan was a good idea!” 

“Yes, yes, you’re very smart, Doctor Gavial,” Sussurro said with a heavy sigh. “I’m not exactly a FNG here myself.”

“Heh! Right this way, you two!” 

Gavial led us further into the warehouse, where she uncovered what looked like a pile of trash, but turned out to contain a couple of dufflebags with Rhodes Island markings. 

“Hmm, Lucia’s stuff should fit Andrey, but I’m not too sure about you, McCoy. You’re a tall bastard, aren’t you?” she said, holding up a jacket. She shrugged. “Eh, it’s better than nothing. Here, try these on.”

The jacket and clothes turned out to be a bit small on me, but there were a pair of sweat pants that though they stopped at my ankles, fit me alright. I blushed a bit at undressing infront of two of some of the more beautiful women I had ever seen. Alligator tail and fuffy fox ears aside, Gavial and Sussurro are both smokin’ hot. Maybe not even aside, really. Fuck, I’m not a furry, I swear! 

Except for Waai Fu. That woman would change anyone’s mind. 

Anyway, I figured they were just colleges at this point, and I’d had to change in front of nurses and other doctors before, so I pulled the clothes on. Turns out, my feet are about the same size as Gavial’s, as the pair of combat boots the bag contained fit me alright. She’s not that tall, but I guess her feet are extra huge to kick ass, though I’m only a size 10 1/2. 

The other thing the bag contained were weapons. Sussurro picked out a small crossbow, while Gavial hoisted a fire axe and a machete. 

“What, no giant chain axe?” I asked her.

“Nope! Had to leave Health and Wellness elsewhere. They’re too bulky to smuggle into a city like this. But a couple of ordinary tools didn’t draw too much attention,” Gavial said with a wide grin. 

“Is the axe Health, or Wellness?” I asked, grinning slightly. I knew she’d be the type to give her weapons dopey names.

“My axe is Health, Wellness is the chainsaw. I have to say, though, I was surprised when you called me Doctor Gavial earlier. Most people just assume I’m dumb muscle,” Gavial said, frowning at me. 

“He recognized me as well. Are you actually a medical intern I somehow forgot about? Warfarin didn’t know anything about you either when we called her,” Sussurro said, looking up from helping Andrey change. Her clothes were just a little bit big on the kid, but she’d rolled up his pant legs and used a safety pin to hold it in place. 

“Uh, I did my research on Rhodes Island,” I said, which was true. Ish. “Me being a medical intern there was more…aspirational? So I’m familiar with most of the more prominent members of the Medical Department, and some of your leadership.” Though the real question was where in the hell on the timeline I was. Was the Old Well still around, or had she been replaced by Monst3r already? That hadn’t happened in EN yet, but I had seen some spoilers to that effect. 

“Huh, well, you’re lucky you’re kinda cute, kid,” Gavial said, leaning against the wall. “But you got some explaining to do. You too, Lucia. Why the hell did you have me charging in with security hot on your heels? Is it just because you’re infected? But you acted like you didn’t know.”

“I’d like an explanation for what I saw as well,” Sussurro said. “But make it fast. Two infected escaping from the hospital with Rhodes Island’s help is not going to go over well with the city's authorities. Nor will the Grand Theft Auto. They’ll turn out the Infected Patrol in force.”

“W-was it my fault?” Andrey asked, his voice small. 

All three adults turned to him, and I knelt down in front of him. “No, Andrey. You didn’t do anything wrong. You were just infected.”

“D-does that mean…am I going to die?” Andrey asked, tears filling his eyes. “T-they’ll take me away from ma’am, a-and lock me in the gulag! B-but I was good! I-I shouldn’t have been-”

“No, Andrey,” Sussurro said, giving the boy a hug. “We’re going to take you to Rhodes Island. We have treatments for Oripathy there. Being infected doesn’t make you bad or evil. It’s alright. In fact, I don’t see any signs of infection at this point, so whatever Doctor McCoy did, it lessened your symptoms. But I need to know what it is he did.”

“I don’t rightly know myself,” I admitted, opening my right hand and looking down at the black crystals embedded in the skin there. They ached slightly, like scar tissue, only worse. “When I examined Andrey, I could feel the Oripathy in him.”

“Feel it?” Sussurro said, her ears twitching slightly as she turned to look at me, Andrey clutched to her chest. The boy was almost as tall as she was, but he regarded me with wide, curious eyes. 

“Yeah, it was like…here.” I extended my hand to her, and she let Andrey go, though he and Gavial both hovered near me. “Do you mind?”

“No, go ahead,” she said, lowering her collar to reveal more crystal scaring along her right clavicle. 

I ran my hand over that and over her chest, ignoring the fact that she was a woman for a moment, and treating her like a patient. “Yeah, I can…feel this as well. Your infection it’s not progressed as far as Andrey’s. Stage One?” 

“My last exam showed 2% cell integration, and my BOD is 0.3u/L. I got treatment right away, my infection is controlled,” Sussurro confirmed. 

I stood, and nodded to Gavial. “May I?” 

She nodded, lifting her shirt to show black crystals on her own abdomen. I ran my hand over her belly, nodding to myself. “Hmm, higher cell integration, but I’m not sensing as much internally. I’d guess…about .25u/L, and say…15% cell integration?” 

I was actually guessing. I know those stats are in the operator files on my phone, but I can’t boot up the game, and I never read that shit. I didn’t play Arknights for the depressing medical lore, I did it for cute waifus and the excellent gameplay. 

“Close! It’s .27u/L and 15.3% integration, but the fact that you got that close off of rubbing my belly is impressive. If he can do that, I know why you wanted him, Lucia!” 

“That’s not why. I walked into a room full of blood and screams, with your hands glowing and Andrey dead on the table,” Sussurro said, folding her arms and frowning at me. “What, exactly, did you do?”

Andrey whimpered, and I turned to the kid. “I drew the infection out. I could feel it inside of him. Andrey, come here a minute?” 

He hesitantly came forward, but he let me run my hand over his arm and then lift his shirt to feel his abdomen. “I can’t sense any crystals here now. I remember…I drew the crystals out, but then I had to re-knit his organs.”

“Re-knit his organs? You’re that good with arts?” Gavial said, looking astounded. 

“No, can’t use arts at all. Unless I-” On a whim, I put my hands on Sussurro again, and she let me, her eyes slightly wide. I could definitely feel the pulsing crystal there.  “Mind if I try again?”

“Let…let me take off my shirt first,” she stammered. “Gavial, if you would?” 

“Sure, sure,” she took Andrey, and Sussurro removed her shirt. She had on a standard bra underneath, so she was modest, and I hastily got some gauze from the medical bags. I had Sussurro sit, and knelt by her. “Ok, I’ll try not to make too much of a mess.”

“Just…try. I want to see if-” She screamed as I yanked. Once more, I could feel the power, and reknit her wounds as I removed the crystal. I made to move on to her organs, but she grabbed my hand.

“Stop. Stop. That’s…that’s enough. Let me see your hand.”

There was still blood, though not as much, as there hadn’t been as much to remove, and I’d been quicker on healing it this time. I held out my palm, and Sussurro used her fingers to measure. 

“They’ve grown. Gavial! Come here, examine me,” Sussurro ordered. 

Gavial came over and knelt down, examining Sussurro’s clavicle, then swore. “Tails of my foremothers, it’s gone! Holy shit, did he just yank the originium right out of you? But, you can do that surgically; it just makes things worse. How…”

“We’ll need a full examination back at the landship,” Sussurro said, quickly redressing. “But whatever he’s doing, it’s no arts I’ve ever seen before. Not even from either of the Old Hags.”

I snorted despite myself. Warfarin and Kal’tsit were never going to escape those memes. 

There was a crash behind us, and Gavial snarled, leaping to her feet, the machete and axe appearing in her hands as if from nowhere. Sussurro had her crossbow in her hands in a moment, and I grabbed Andrey, who started crying. 

“Please, no, I-I was just, I didn’t hear anything!” a man’s voice babbled. 

“Ah, shit. Get over here, you three,” Gavial sighed, standing up from the bundle of rags she’d tackled. It turned out to be a middle-aged homeless guy, with a jaundiced face and the paunch and reddened palms of a longtime heavy drinker. This guy was going to die of cirrhosis, and soon. 

Sussurro sighed on seeing the frantic man. “Well, what do we do?”

“Get him to quit drinking,” I said, nudging a bottle of vodka that had slipped from his jacket. “I don’t think we need a biopsy, but I’m willing to bet a quick blood screener and some imaging would show severe liver damage.”

Gavial actually laughed at that one, while Sussurro gave me a pained look. “I meant, what do we do with him now that he’s overheard our conversation, Dr. McCoy.”

“Oh, uh…” I blinked, then felt sick. “We can’t just kill him! What happened to ‘First, Do No Harm?!’” 

The man started blubbering, and it only got worse when Gavial mused aloud, “I was never very good at that part. But, nah, don’t worry, kid. We’re not going to just axe this guy. Now, what did you hear?”

“Nothing, I heard and I saw nothing!” the man whined, and Gavial grimaced and shifted away from him as an ammonia-scented puddle began to form. 

“Well, keep it that way. Tell you what, you go sleep off whatever ails you in that nice warm car there, OK?” Gavial said, nodding to the cab. 

The man blinked, then scrambled over and got into the car, slamming the door behind him. I think I heard a faint click as he locked the door. Not that something so flimsy would help against Gavial. 

“He’s going to tell the whole town what he heard for a bottle of booze, isn’t he?” I said, shaking my head. 

“Yep,” Gavial said, sounding exhausted. “But there’s no good way to shut him up. However…”

She walked over and banged on the window. “Now listen here, you pathetic flea-bag! If you breathe so much of a WORD about even SEEING us to ANYONE, I will PERSONALLY hunt you down and skin you for a totem! You hear me?!”

There was the sound of faint weeping, and Gavial turned around and walked over, dropping her voice and shrugging. “He’ll at least stay hidden for a few minutes after we leave. Come on, let’s make like a bread truck and get the hell out of here.”

“Don’t you mean…haul buns?” I asked as I picked up the duffle bags and slung them over my shoulder. 

“Eh, I’m not so good with idioms in Ursi. Either way we need to make ourselves scarce. Gotta get somewhere we can radio for extraction. This was just supposed to be an easy pick up, and I don’t think we’ll make it back to our vehicle.”

“What were you doing in Shiraziberg, anyway?” I asked as we hurried out the back of the warehouse and into an alleyway. 

“We were in Dzwonek, down in Kazimierz, finishing up setting up a clinic there. We heard the call about a lost intern of ours, and Gavial decided it sounded interesting enough for two infected to risk going into Ursus,” Sussurro said, glancing up at her taller companion as we jogged through the alley, Andrey doing a manful job of keeping up. 

“As I recall, you were the bleeding heart who refused to leave anyone behind. We thought we’d lost everyone on that caravan to get infected out of Ursus when it ran into an unexpected Catastrophe,” Gavial commented, and Sussurro shrugged, not arguing with the allegations. 

“We’re both bleeding hearts. But, I take it you weren’t on that expedition at all, were you?” Sussurro said, glancing at me. 

I winced. “Uh, no, I wasn’t.”

“La mia anziana nonna, this is a wild goose chase,” Sussurro sighed. Interesting. Babel fish didn’t pick that one up. Guess it just did Bear-Russian? “Well, it doesn’t matter now. Whoever you are, you’re coming back to Rhodes Island with us.”

“I’ll break your legs and haul you in myself, or as an alternative, you can remain ambulatory and walk in under your own power!” Gavial said cheerfully. 

“I was sort of planning on that?” I said, frowning down at Andrey.

He giggled, then said in a loud whisper, “Don’t worry, she looks scary, but she’s only mean if you don’t eat your vegetables!” 

“Ha-ha! I knew I liked you two!” Gavial said cheerfully. “So, know any good high-powered comms towers we could borrow to radio for extraction?” 

“Not really,” I admitted, then paused. “But…I might know someone who would help us…”

It took a bit of time to make our way back across town, so even though this had all started in the early morning, we did manage to find our way back to the Medvedev residence. I would have just stumbled up to the door and knocked, but Sussurro grabbed me and sat me down. 

“We watch, first. They might have this place staked out since you stayed here,” Sussurro said. “For at least ten minutes.”

We were all footsore and exhausted, so we sat down in the alleyway cross from the townhouse and watched for a bit from behind a dumpster. Andrey was so exhausted that he passed out, leaning up against me and snoring softly. The kid hadn’t complained much all day, he was a tough guy, though Gavial and I had needed to take turns carrying him throughout the journey. 

“You do stakeouts often?” I whispered to Sussurro as she peered at the house. 

“Not really. I rarely go on away missions, I usually work treating patients on Rhodes Island,” Sussurro said, her eyes still fixed on the house. “Gavial is the one with field expertise.”

“Eh, gets boring waiting around on the landship,” Gavial said around a mouthful of ration bar. I’d had a couple earlier, and while tasty was not the way to describe them, they weren’t that bad. Not what I’d pick for an after workout snack, but they did the job. “Besides, you were the one who asked me to come on this one.”

“Director Kal’tsit wanted me to get the clinic set up, take on more of a leadership role, and you’ve the most field experience in the medical department, so I asked you to help,” Sussurro said with a shrug.

“How long have the two of you been with Rhodes Island?” I asked out of curiosity. 

“Both of us for four years, we joined about the same time,” Sussurro said. “Though Gavial is the more experienced doctor. I’ve just barely completed my residency.”

“Eh, debatable. I worked as a merc after getting my medical license in Shar-Agade. Trust me, they weren’t nearly as rigorous as a Siracusan medical school. Or Rhodes Island. I don’t really consider what I did before I came on board proper doctoring.”

“I’ve still learned a lot from you,” Sussurro said, turning her head and smiling. “I’m glad you came. I’d be completely lost trying to do this on my own.”

“Well, you’re a real doctor now, and since you work for Rhodes Island, that means you need field seasoning!” Gavial chuckled. She tossed her wrapper aside and wiped her mouth, standing. “Alright, enough moping. I’ve been watching the place. No suspicious vehicles, no nothing. So let’s give this a shot.”

 I picked up the still-sleeping Andrey, and together, we snuck across the street. I hastily knocked on the door. There was a light still on, so I figured Sergei and Ivanka were still up.

There was a patter of footsteps, and the door swung open. “Sergei?! Sergei is it- Oh! James?!” Ivanka looked at me, then my companions, then hastily stepped aside, motioning us in. “Quickly, inside, they may come back!” 

We all hurried in, and Ivanka looked around, then shut the door behind us. “James, what happened?! Oh, never mind, you all look exhausted, and I have an idea. You must be those doctors from Rhodes Island. In here, quickly, I’ve got hot soup on the stove.”

The house was a mess, and I could tell something was seriously wrong. Ivanka kept an immaculate home, but paintings hung askew, closets had piles of things in front of them, and there were broken shards in corners. She led us into the kitchen and seated us at the dining room table, with Andrey blinking sleepily and sitting up as Ivanka ladled up big bowls of hot soup, along with big hunks of black bread. 

“Thank you, Mrs. Medvedev. Has something happened to Dr. Medvedev?” I asked quietly as she sat down with us. 

Tears entered her eyes, and she had to dab at them with a napkin. None of us touched the soup. “They…they took Sergei, James. I never thought…the Infected Patrol, they came. Said he was sheltering the infected. They searched the whole house, I haven’t even cleaned the whole place yet. I don’t know how they learned that we’ve hidden Infected before, but-”

“Wait, you’ve sheltered Infected?!” I gasped, shocked. 

She gave me a pained look. “I thought you were one of them, at first. That’s how Sergei knew to contact Rhodes Island. Sometimes, when he finds a patient who’s Infected, and he can keep it quiet, he brings them home and hides them. We contact Rhodes Island, and they come and pick up the Infected and smuggle them out.”

“That’s one reason we were willing to come so far out of our way to pick you up. As a favor to Dr. Medvedev,” Sussurro clarified. “It’s always gone smoothly before, from what I’ve heard at least.”

“Haven’t done a hand off myself before, but yet. There’s more than one kind doc or priest who’ll give us a shout if they find an Infected soul before the Special Patrol does,” Gavial said with a nod. “If he said he found an interesting potential medical intern who was in trouble, well, we’re willing to try to help him out.”

I felt numb. I’d just thought Sergei was a mostly harmless old coot who’d been kind to a fellow professional. But it turned out he was operating some kind of underground railroad for the infected.

“They didn’t find anything, of course, you weren’t here, and the last one we had, a nice young woman named Yelaniza, she left more than a month ago. So I was hoping they’d just let Sergei go,” Ivanka said, dabbing at her eyes. 

“Palnakayo,” Gavial grunted. She grimaced and glanced at Andre. “Don’t repeat that. Right. So, now we’ve got to get Sergei out too.”

“No! You must leave, the Infected Patrol will be looking for you! Sergei and I knew what risks we ran when we started this,” Ivanka said urgently. “I see the boy now, he’s the infected one?”

“Something like that,” Sussurro agreed. “We’ve got to get him out, and McCoy out as well. But we’ll see what we can do for your husband. You have a radio set here?”

“We did, they found it and took it,” Ivanka said, looking morose. Then she brightened. “But I do have a friend, Igor Vladimirovich. He has a powerful radio set he would let me borrow.”

“The Patrol know about him?” Gavial asked, and Ivanka shook her head. 

“No, no. He’s a member of our little group. We helped get his nephew out when he was infected. He’s helped us from time to time. He would gladly risk it to send a radio message, especially to help Sergei.”

“Alright. I’ll write out a coded message for him to send and the frequency. It’ll be days or weeks before we can get evac’d. In fact, if we can stay with this Igor, that might be for the best. We’ll try and get you and your husband out, Ivanka,” Gavial said. Then she picked up her bowl of soup in her hands, lifted it to her lips, and drained it dry. “Ah! Eat up, everyone! We’re going to need our strength for what comes next!” 

We all guzzled our soup, then Ivanka wrote out a note and directions for us. She would go to stay with friends and lay low, while we ran to Igor’s house. It was a bit risky going out at night, but it was even riskier to stay put. 

Igor turned out to be a gruff old bear of a man, and I mean that in a literal sense. He was another one who looked more like a furry, appearing to be a grizzled old bear with spectacles. 

“Why you knocking so late?” he growled at us around a chain. “I would not be opening the door if not for seeing the boy. What is this about?” 

Sussurro passed him the note, and he shut the door. A few moments later, he opened it again. “Inside, quickly. Infected Patrol has not come to see me yet, and I would like to be keeping it that way, yes?” 

We followed him inside. “Kataya, we are having guests. I will be down in the basement,” he called. He had a thick accent that didn’t sound like the others I’d heard. Rural upbringing, maybe?

A beautiful middle-aged woman with not bear ears, but cat ones, poked her head out of a bedroom, clutching a nightgown. “Oh, hello! I will make some tea.”

Igor lit a lantern and led us down into a cellar, pulling out some blankets. “We have been having guests before. So. They got the doctor, did they?” 

For a brief moment, my exhaustion made me think he was talking about the Ghost of Babel himself, but then I shook my head. “Yeah. They took Dr. Medvedev. He covered for me to escape with Andrey here.”

“No names. I do not want to be knowing your names. Better that way if they find me,” Igor said. He smiled at Andrey, though. “Be brave. These are good people. They will make you better, keep you safe, little cub. Do not fear.”

“Yes, uncle,” Andrey said with a sleepy nod. 

“Good. I will be making this radio call tomorrow. Not tonight. They are being suspicious if they pick me up broadcasting at this hour. But during the day? No one is noticing. This I have done many times before. You are staying here, in this basement. No leaving. Hopefully, no one is seeing you come in. People in this neighborhood, they are good at not seeing things. Many of them, they work in the factories, yes? Accidents happen. People get Infected. But the doctor…he is helping them. Like my niece Olga and her husband. Good people. So, you are staying here, yes?”

“Yes, thank you, Mr. Vladimirovich. You’ve been more than kind,” Sussurro said. 

Igor grunted. “Just you be saving the good doctor. He is not deserving what the Special Patrol will be doing to him. No one is.”

He left the lantern, then climbed back up the stairs. A few minutes later, Kataya came down with tea, her long tail swishing behind her. “Here, to keep you warm before bed, and some milk for the child.”

“I’m…oh. No names?” Andrey said, looking crestfallen. 

Kataya rubbed his head between his ears and smiled sadly. “No names, little one. It is safer that way. I can’t tell them what I don’t know. And if they got Dr. Medvedev… they can get anyone. He was so careful…”

She stood, holding her tray to her chest, tears in her eyes. “I will bring down breakfast. It won’t be much, but-”

“Hey, here,” Gavial said, digging out a wad of Lungmen Credits. “Take ‘em. Don’t think of it as payment, but as an investment. You helped us, you can help others. Sorry, don’t have rubles, but I bet a smart lady like you knows how to trade these.”

“I…yes. Thank you,” Kataya made the credits vanish. “Good night. Don’t worry, my Igor is brusque, but he is tenderhearted. He will call your friends.”

Then she went up the stairs and closed the trapdoor behind her. 

After that, we were all so tired, it was time for bed. We all conked out pretty fast, or at least I did once the lantern was put out. When I woke up the next day, there wasn’t much to do, so I typed this up. Igor came down a bit ago and said he sent the message, so now all there is to do is wait for backup. 

Fuck. My hand hurts. I can feel that oripathy in my system. Gavial and Sussurro gave me and Andrey a more thorough exam with their field kits. Get your minds out of the gutter, it was completely professional. Verdict is…kind of incredible. My levels are clearly infected: 0.34u/L and obvious lesions. Andrey’s though? Kid’s is 0.05u/L. And the field test has a margin of error of 0.075/L. 

“McCoy, you may very well have actually cured him of Oripathy,” Sussurro said quietly to me as Gavial played cards with Andrey using a pack Kataya had given us.

“What?! That’s impossible. No one can cure oripathy, not even Rhodes Island,” I hissed back. “And I’m a damn doctor, so I should know!” 

“We tested my levels as well. I’m down to .19 u/L. That’s barely infected,” she said, shaking her head slightly. “Whatever you did to me…it worked better than the very best medical techniques Rhodes Island has to offer.”

“That’s great! Should I finish doing it, see if I can-”

“No! Absolutely not!” Sussurro hissed at me, her ears perking up and tail standing on end. “McCoy, we don’t know WHAT you did. If it does work. We DO know that not only did it give you oripathy, doing it again exacerbated your condition. Until we get to a lab, you are under no conditions to use that ability again, do you hear me?”

“Look, I didn’t know what it would do, or that it would give me oripathy! So no, I don’t plan on ever using it again,” I lied. A few images flashed in my head. Lisa, and her bright smile, that deserved all the headpats in the world. Eyjafjalla, and the world slowly dimming for her as she lost her sight and hearing. Ifrit, that crazy pyro who was just a kid, but if I remembered right was the most infected operator, and close to death. 

And then there was Amiya, Blaze, Specter, Ceobe…the list just goes on and on. Shit, if I could cure them of oripathy? Even if it meant my own death…

I’ve got a lot to think about. 

But I’m pretty sure I’m going to fucking die. I just hope I live long enough to do it on my own terms.