Resident Evil
by Snow Tigra and Chibi Shi-Chan
Part 13
Sally set the ship on auto-pilot and walked to the
back of the ship where her comrades were resting.
Their wounds had been patched up and they were well on
the way to recovery, at least Wufei, Quatre and Trowa
were. But it was Heero and Duo she was worried about.
Duo lay in the bed in the back of this ship, Heero
sitting next to him with hazy eyes. After Duo had
been talked into lying down Heero had taken the chair
next to the bed, refusing to leave his side. Both
were obviously sick, though Duo was doing much worse.
Quatre did his best to explain what had happened to
them and probably how they got infected but he was
only able to explain Duo. He wasn't sure how Heero
had gotten the virus and how the rest of them hadn't.
Sally shook her head sadly after she examined both
boys. "I honestly don't know what to do. I've never
seen anything like this and I don't have the equipment
on this ship to do much more then the simple stuff."
She leaned back against the wall and eyed the boys
standing on the other side of the room with Noin and
Zechs.
"From what you told me, its obvious Duo is suffering
from the same thing that those creatures were
suffering from. But without a definite sample I can't
be a hundred percent sure it's the same thing. It
could be a mutated form or something completely
different. I do know, however, that Heero seems to
have the same thing. The symptoms are similar, his
just aren't as strong."
The others turned to Duo, watching him with worry.
His eyes were shut and his face twisted in pain. He
was still conscious but hadn't seemed to hear a word
of what they said. Sally had given him some medicine
to keep him awake, afraid of what would happen if he
slipped off into unconsciousness again, but other then
that she was at a loss. The green tint in his skin
was getting worse and he was now sweating up a storm,
clearly in the worse stages. He frequently rolled
over in pain, clutching his stomach and coughing up
blood onto the white sheets.
"Is he going to change into one of those things?" Quatre whispered in fear.
Noin and Zechs nodded, already knowing the answer
before Sally did.
Sally sighed heavily "I'm sorry, whatever
this...virus is I can't figure out a cure for it."
She felt so frustrated about not being able to do
anything, and she hated the thought of losing one of
her closest friends. Wufei stepped up beside her and
wrapped his arms around her in a motion of comfort.
Meanwhile Heero stood up and took his hand from Duo's.
Walking to the cabinet of medical tools he pulled out
a syringe and needle. Without even tying off his arm
he stuck the needle through his arm and withdrew a
small amount of blood.
Sally's eyes widened. "Heero, what are you doing?"
"Check my blood." He murmured, emptying the blood onto
a dish and putting a cover over it. Walking over to
the computer he slid in the sample and brought up the
magnification on the screen.
Sally pulled away from Wufei and walked up to the
magnification. She eyed the blood and virus cells for
a while then frowned. Grabbing a new needle she
handed it to Heero. "Would you get a sample from Duo?
We can at least compare them to learn more. You're
right that we shouldn't just be standing here waiting
for the next stage."
The room fell silent, all eyes on Heero as he walked
slowly back over to Duo and took a sample of blood
from the moaning boy. Duo's eyes flickered when the
needle punctured his skin but otherwise he didn't seem
to notice. Heero placed the blood sample in another
dish and slid it into the computer next to his own,
commanding it to show both samples on screen.
Sally's eyes widened as she looked at both samples.
Compared to Duo's blood, Heero's was practically clean
and right before their eyes they could see Heero's
blood cells attacking the virus, while the virus ate
away at Duo's. The doctor turned wide eyes to Heero.
"Your body is fighting back against it, but his isn't,
why? It's almost as if you've already been vaccinated
and your body is killing off the virus as we speak."
Heero nodded. "I thought about that, when I first saw
that Duo had been attacked. There were only so many
things that could have created monsters like that and
they still resembled humans so I figured it might be a
virus." He paused and glanced back at Duo, his face
growing slightly red, but not from being sick. "I'll
admit its part of the reason why you found us
kissing."
Trowa flashed a light smile. "You purposely tried to
contract the virus because you knew your body might be
able to fight it."
Heero nodded.
Wufei smirked from behind them. "So what was the
other reason you kissed him?" He teased quietly.
Quatre snickered but Heero responded with a glare and
returned to his seat next to Duo.
Because I love the baka, he admitted to himself
silently.
Sally was still looking at the blood cells, hitting a
few commands into the computer when Duo suddenly gave
a sharp cry. He twisted in the bed, rolling on to the
floor and into a small ball on the floor. He clutched
his head in pain and cried out, coughing blood to the
floor. Heero rushed to his side in worry. His skin
was growing dry, the green turning to a sickly brown.
Heero quickly unwrapped one of the wounds on his arm
and swallowed as he found the skin deeply infected and
starting to swell. Brown and green dead flesh lined
each of the wounds, pealing away rather then knitting
back together.
"Duo!" Quatre cried out in surprise, but no one moved
toward them, too afraid of getting infected and not
sure what to do.
Heero approached Duo cautiously as the boy writhed on
the floor. Just as he began to kneel down Duo's eyes
snapped open and he looked right at Heero. His violet
eyes had become a very dull shade, the pupils dilated,
his expression blank. Heero froze.
"Duo?" He whispered.
Duo didn't answer, instead he moved far too fast for
most of them to see. Without warning his arm darted
forward, heading straight for Heero's neck, the
fingers curled like claws. Heero gasped and caught
the hand before it reached him and then quickly pinned
Duo to the floor before he could attack again. Duo
growled in frustration, spit flying from his mouth.
"Duo, listen to me." Heero struggled to keep the boy
pinned to the floor but was forced to straddle him to
do so. Duo writhed in his grip, thrashing about
angrily and Heero was still weak so it didn't help.
He wasn't sure how much longer he could hold the boy
down. "Everything will be fine, just hold out a
little longer."
Sally rushed to their sides and immediately injected
Duo with a sedative, right in the base of his neck.
The reaction was almost instantaneous as Duo's jerks
became less powerful and his eyes slid shut. Soon he
was lying still as Heero pinned him to the floor, his
breathing taking on a fairly steady rhythm. Heero
slowly pulled away and dropped to the floor next to
him, resting.
"Help me get him back onto the bed," Sally said to the
others. "Noin, Zechs, will you roll the other cot
closer for Heero?"
Trowa and Wufei helped lift Duo back into the bed
while Noin and Zechs wheeled the other bed closer.
Then the two lifted Heero up into the other bed while
Quatre helped Sally with the set up for the blood
transfusion. The easiest way to get Duo's body to
fight the virus was to give him large amounts of
Heero's blood, which they were incredibly lucky was
the same type. Hooking the two up they started the
process.
Hours passed by in silence as the two laid there. The
beds were close enough that Heero was able to reach
across and hold Duo's hand as the blood was pumped
between their bodies. He squeezed the unconscious
boy's hand, whispering terms of endearment and
encouragement to hold on as the rest stood in silence.
The wait was the hardest thing. Eventually they had
taken as much blood from Heero as they dared and had
to stop. Heero resumed his spot in the chair next to
Duo's bed and waited, squeezing the boy's head as he
smoothed out his frayed braid. A damp cloth was
placed over Duo's forehead and now all they could do
was wait, wait to see if it worked.
Forever seemed to pass with little result. The others
filtered in and out of the room, increasingly uneasy
and finding a need to be doing something somewhere
else to take their minds away from the horrible
possibilities. Eventually only Heero was left in the
room. He watched quietly as Duo's skin seemed to fade
back to a sickly pale white, but at least it wasn't
green and brown anymore. Still, the skin changing
back didn't say much. For all they knew he could
still be mutating.
Heero closed his eyes and laid his head down next to
Duo's watching the boy's sleeping expression. He
didn't want to think about Duo not getting better. He
didn't want Duo to change into one of those things.
He knew he wouldn't be able to deal with it if Duo
did. But there was something else he wasn't sure
about.
He wasn't sure if he could deliver the final blow.
Not to Duo.
Not to the one he loved.
Not to the one person who loved him back. He didn't
think he could do it.
But he would have to. He knew Duo wouldn't want to
live like that if he changed. So the only other
resort was to kill him if this blood transfusion
didn't work. But the thought of killing Duo brought
Heero close to tears. He knew he wouldn't be able to
do it.
"Come on... my little baka. You have to pull through
this." Heero whispered sadly. He removed the cloth
to give Duo a soft kiss. Even in this state of pain
and unrestfulness, Duo still looked absolutely
beautiful.
"Please Duo, I...I love you too much to lose you." He
held his hand in his, gently kissing the back of it
and resting it on his cheek. He savored the feel of
Duo's cold hand on his face as his eyes drifted shut
and he fell into a light sleep.
It was several hours later before Heero woke up again.
He blinked his eyes open to find someone had shut off
the lights in the room around them. But more
importantly he noticed that his eyes weren't the only
one's open. Duo's were open as well and he was
glancing around the room. Heero sat up quickly and
blinked away his sleepy state. He smiled, a small
tear slipping down his face.
"Hey, handsome," Duo rasped out with a smirk
"You're ok," he whispered quietly.
Duo nodded and squeezed Heero's hand in his. "Where are we?" He asked, looking around the room once more.
"Sally's ship."
Duo smiled and relaxed letting his eyes close for a
moment; he was still very tired. A second later he
spoke without opening his eyes. "You kept your
promise."
Heero blinked. "Nani?"
Duo opened his eyes and smiled. "You said we'd make
it out alive and well. You said you'd protect
us... protect me. And.... you did."
Heero smiled happily and crawled into the bed next to
Duo, wrapping his arms around the boy in a tight
embrace. He had kept his promise, and both of them
were going to live.
**
Heero helped Duo sit up in bed as the others moved
into the room. All of them stood around the bed while
Noin and Zechs took chairs and all prepared to listen.
Meanwhile Sally brought in a mug of a warm drink for
Duo, who held it gratefully in his hands and slowly
sipped at the drink. He and Heero were doing much
better now and well along the road to recovery. It
would take a few weeks, if not a month for them to
recover completely, but it was now certain they would.
So now all sat down to listen.
Trowa was the first to speak up. "So where did the virus come from?"
Noin frowned. "As much as we can figure it was a
freak accident, a result of attempting to replant
alien plants in a world that didn't know how to deal
with them. The virus started by effecting the plants,
and went on from there, so we're pretty sure that's
where it originated."
Zechs continued for her. "The first things we noticed
were plants that moved and grew faster then others,
showing signs of intelligence and intent. We brought
one of the plants into the compound to be studied and
that's when the technicians began to get sick. It was
much like how you described Duo's condition, but in a
slower form. People would become bedridden, sick to
their stomachs. After a day or two they would
complain about being hungry but could never keep the
food down. Not too long after they attacked the
people who were taking care of them. Then the virus
spread from there."
Quatre shuddered. "So all those things we faced, the
zombies, the things with the tongues, and the bid bald
thing were all human at one time?"
Noin and Zechs nodded.
"It would appear that the virus has an amazing rate of
mutation, then. So how did you two avoid being
infected?"
"That part was easy," Noin said. "We weren't there
for the beginning of it. Most of our jobs took place
away from the compound. At the time we were out
searching the surrounding areas for a place suitable
for another compound and a second project. When we
got back we found the place infected and practically
deserted, that's when we sent the distress signal and
were attacked. We were, however, able to look into
the compound's logs and pinpoint where the problem
started."
"I have only one thing to say," Duo murmured, taking
another sip of his steaming drink. "Thank the gods we
are finally off that hellhole of a planet."
The entire room nodded in agreement.
The conversation wound down, small questions scattered
on related subjects until eventually Duo and Heero
were left alone to sleep and the rest of the crew went
to their own bunks. Sally was the only who remained
awake, leaning over the dim light of a computer screen
and eight different blood samples.
She'd taken samples from everyone on the ship to
examine for the virus. She had to make sure it was
dead before they could land on earth, she didn't want
to risk leaking it onto earth's population.
Wufei stepped into the small lab room behind her and
placed his hands on her shoulders lightly. "You're
worried?"
Sally nodded, not taking her eyes from the screen.
"No one else is infected, but the rate of mutation of
this thing bugs me."
Wufei scanned the samples on the screen. "Are Duo and
Heero still contagious?"
She shook her head.
"Then, we are safe for now. We'll submit the report
as soon as we get back and wait for permission to
land. We'll probably have to spend some time in
quarantine just to make sure, but beyond that there
shouldn't be any worries."
Sally relaxed and leaned back against him. "You're
right."
Wufei leaned down and kissed her lightly on the
forehead. "Get some sleep, you'll need it for when we
land."
The doctor nodded and shut off the computer, putting
away the blood samples. Still, she didn't completely
relax. Crawling into her cot a thought crossed her
mind, one that caused her several nightmares that
night.
What if the virus became airborne?
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