voice, “Settle down Kat. If we go in there now we’re as good as toast. Just look at those scorch marks.”
“But what if that’s Jack? He’s in pain and we got the medicine to help.”
“We’re here now, and we don’t know just yet. I could walk though it, but I don’t know if the injector would survive the heat. Plus I don’t feel like being naked right now.”
Kat gives him a look, “Aww, why not?”
Gravan smiles. “Later, promise.”
Kat thinks to herself, you’re damn right later .
Fire blasts forth from the door like a flamethrower followed by a scream. The heat was intense. It went from a somewhat cool space to what felt like the inside of an oven. Kat reaches into her pocket for the injectable, and pulls it out. Gravan takes it out of her hand gently. It doesn’t take long, and as the fire dies down, so does the screaming. Gravan rushes in, and Kat follows.
Gravan gets through the door first and says, “Jack, it is you!”
Kat turns the corner of the still red hot hallway, which she feels radiating through her clothes, to see Gravan’s friend Jack laying on the ground. His clothes were gone, and he is riddled with cuts, bruises, and burn marks. Blood is matted throughout his brown hair, and when his brown eyes look her way, they are sunken in with black rings around them.
He says, “Thank God you’re here.”
Gravan kneels down beside his friend and presses the injectable on what Kat sees is the least damaged part of his thigh and presses the button. Jack grunts, and takes in a sharp breath. He lets it out in relief, and relaxes on the ground.
He says, “Thank you. I’m glad you two got delayed. There were too many of them to fight, and Hanna didn’t want you two to get mixed up in all this.”
Gravan says, “It’s ok Jack, stay quite and save your strength.”
“But we need to go after Hanna.”
Kat says, “We will, promise. Just worry about yourself right now. She would want to see you alive, right?”
“So you must be the famous Katrice Wylde, tamer of the Devourer. You aren’t as good looking as I thought you would be, no offense. It’s just the way Gravan describes you I was expecting a goddess.” He laughs and twinges in pain.
Kat gives Gravan her you’re going to hear about his later look, and he just shrugs.
Gravan says, “Enough of that Jack. Lets get you to the ship, and patch you up.”
6
Gravan lays his friend down on the germ resistant steel table in the middle of the medical bay. Jack wasn’t moving, and had been that way since the walk over to the Felicity. Kat goes into one of the storage lockers inside the room and gets some blankets, walking them over to Jack, to cover him. Gravan rummages through the medical cabinet looking for another dose of the anti-toxin.
He says, “Kat I thought the extra shots were right here?”
“I gave them over to the medical arms. Whisper is going to be giving him the next ones anyway.”
“Right. Then I guess I will just wait here.”
Kat hadn’t seen Gravan so nervous before. They had been in bad situations before, like a few weeks ago escaping from the planet Hexen, but he wasn’t anywhere near this rattled. Seeing his friend in this condition must be shaking up his insides.
She asks, “Whisper how’s Jack doing?”
“He’s alive, for now. His meaty bits went though quite a large amount of trauma, and it will take some time for him to heal. I’m impressed with his resilience, I didn’t know that meat could be so malleable.”
Gravan asks, “How long should we wait, if at all. The Guild will be coming for us at any moment.”
Whisper says, “Let me get him stable first. I don’t want him igniting while we’re in space. It would be bad for the two apes I care about.”
Kat says, “Aww.”
“I can amend that very quickly if I need to, but Kat you need to get me into the ship. I could work on him without being wired-in but I would rather not.”
“Alright, I’m on my way.”
An hour passes
Frankie Blue
john thompson
Alaina Stanford
Alexandra Ivy, Laura Wright
C.W. Gortner
Helena Newbury
Jessica Jarman
Shanna Clayton
Barbara Elsborg
James Howard Kunstler