After instructing him this much, Willow hurried through their bags and grabbed the necessary supplies before rushing up the steps. It was only a few moments after a brief explanation to the surprised mother that Akira hurried up into the room.
Seeing the cat, the mother was confused, especially when Willow mixed together some medicine together before having the mother consume it. She was a little hesitant at first, but the pain in her head finally made her give in as she finally drank a liquid version Willow created with the accumulated knowledge of herbs and western medicine, which she had Akira brew for her with his flames downstairs through his complaints.
To him, he needs to make it clear that, as a creature and a living being with conscious, he has his rights. In less than a week, he's been demoted from a wandering carefree god's servant to a slave and now an instant stovetop!
To make things worse, he can't even take his anger out on a stupid clay pot of medicine because Willow forced him to maintain the temperature of the heat for the pot! He doesn't even know if he should laugh or cry...
It was true to say that, though Willow had experience with operations, Li Fei certainly doesn't. Because of this, after the mother had taken the medication and successfully fallen into her deep slumber, Willow had to spend twice as much time searching for the worms in the tangled-looking structure of the brain while trying her best not to place any injury or damage the brain more so than it already has by the worm.
During the entire time, Willow had Akira supervise over the condition of the patient. Yet, the fox continues to report to her that the patient's skull is damaged with brain exposed every five minutes into the operation.
As for the bed, she's certain everyone was wondering, she already moved her onto the desk with her feet on the bed. Not a comfortable way to operate nor the safest, but it was the best they could manage.
With Belen guarding the children inside the house, she didn't have to worry about the children or the place for the time being. However, it just wasn't so for the outside situation. She knew that her barrier isn't infinite so she needs to hurry but not be in a panic that would cost the life of her patient. She already went ahead and assumed that the barrier might last till tonight as a precautionary measure when she could feel that it may last till the next night instead.
By the time three hours had passed, Willow was already bandaging the head firmly and sending Aki burn away the hair that had been shaved for this operation. She looked to the worm still squirming in the plate.
Finally, a live one!
She smiled upon seeing the live parasite in the dish.
After all, the previous ones all shriveled up into a husk after half an hour to two hours outside of the organ. With this in mind, she finally got to work figuring out how the thing works. After putting together what she could figure out about the likes of the worm and the solution that would kill this thing.
Despite this, Akira shuddered upon seeing the smile on her face despite knowing the meaning behind it.
In fact, what Willow had yet to mention to Akira was that while Willow had already discovered that the worm crawls up from the stomach. There was some dead worms from the stomach of the victims telling her that it still had a brawl before the last one would end up climbing up for its target.
Putting together the vaccination three hours after the operation, she managed the finish the vaccine she had been studying since discovering the worm the day before and quickly vaccinated the mother with the new equipment she found remaining from the tent.
To check and see if it worked, she waited for half an hour just as the mother was about to wake up. Willow placed the worm near her ear to see that the worm squirm in till five minutes later when the Li Yun could hardly bear it anymore just as it fell out and wiggle next to her face that was in confusion. Willow breathed a sigh of relief after seeing this and slumped back down on the ground. She was tired. The mother, who couldn't move her head, froze in horror till Willow could return to her work again as they were running on a strict time limit in her head.
"Wh-What happened?" Li Yun looked to her in bewilderment as she spoke in Chinese.
"The vaccination worked." She answered bluntly before handing the equipment to the dumbfounded Akira to disinfect away from the mother's eyes as Akira snuck out of the room with the tiny equipment.
"It worked?" Li Yun said in bewilderment before smiling in relief, "Now, the kids will be safe."
Seeing that Akira had successfully rushed out from the bed to the door, Willow sighed, "I'd go through more testing and safety procedures, but we don't have the time and I have high hopes for this. I just hope this is the answer for all of this problem. I swear, if they do something else similar, I'm grabbing the stupid insect of theirs and shoving it down their throats."
As she grumbled her last sentence in English to the mother's confusion, Willow continued to write a small note on her notebook and instructed the mother to relax and let them carry her as they would escape back to her shelter tonight. As the mother returned to her temporary rest, Willow proceeded to bring out the children and vaccinated them with the remainder vaccination amounts she's made for the rest of them. As per usual, the children didn't bawl their eyes out as Willow had when she was their age.
.....
That night, Willow strapped a helmet on the mother before she quickly began their return back to her original shelter. Thankfully, Belen didn't complain much as he helped her carry the mother on his back. The night was cold but the sky was clear with a new moon making it a little easier for her to wander through the dark. She had a kitchen knife in hand and the children next to her as she kept the kids between the two demigods. The kids have covered themselves with a black cloak as they rushed away with them. However, it hadn't been long before Willow saw a dark shadow darting past a few of the intersection they had passed through. Willow frowned under her mask and grabbed a hold of the brother and whispered, "Hold your sister tight and stay close. I'm going to start doing something. Do you hear me?"
The boy nodded and reached out to the sister's hand. Willow reached into her pocket and pulled out a white paper ball the size of her fist and threw it on the ground. Suddenly, there was a loud crack as the entire area was soon covered in a white powdery mist.
"What?!" Belen called out in bewilderment.
"Shush!" Willow scolded him and pulled him aside as the children followed.
Willow then took out her chalk and quickly began drawing out a large pattern on a nearby trash can in the back alley. After doing so, she grabbed ahold of the children and Belen as they rushed out of the abandoned alleyway. Following the map in her mind and her magic in work, Willow weaved through the maze structure she partially created of mist and buildings. Before they found themselves behind the wide brick wall of the abandoned hotel where she rushed in through the back door with a key. It wasn't long before they rushed in and Willow had turned on the lights to the Lobby that the sister seemed to be on the verge of tears. She wasn't the only one as the mother said nervously, "Is it over?"
"I don't know yet, but it should be for now." Willow responded and led the children up some stairs, "Follow me."
"What was that ball just now?" Belen said in confusion as they got up the abandoned stair case to a long hall with dusty red carpet.
"It's something similar to tear gas." she answered as she took the mother to her room where she would have the mother stay for some time.
"Where are we?" The mother questioned in confusion.
"My shelter."
"This looks like a hotel." Belen noted as he examined the halls.
"Yeah." Willow nodded, "I checked the area and its not too bad. Let's talk about something else."
Belen turned to her shortly after seeing the mother was on the bed.
Ready to leave out of the room, Willow and Belen was about to enter the halls when the sister grabbed a hold of her jacket much to Willow's surprise. She got done to the child, "Is something the matter?"
"There are a lot of lights around." Li Yan said.
"Little Yan?" The mother called out to her with a nervous frown before bringing the child to her side.
Willow raised a brow and asked, "Where did you see it?"
The mother looked to her in confusion, but Willow didn't mind. The girl pointed to the window, "Out there."
"What do they look like?" Willow asked having gotten a pretty good idea of what was going on here.
"One of them was a tall pretty woman and a little dog. The other was a man in a suit like second uncle from our big house when he goes to work."
"I understand." Willow nodded with a frown, "Did you see anything weird about them?"
"The man is talking about his papers and the woman is crying. The dog is crying too."
"Can you talk to them?"
The girl shook her head and whimpered hugging her mother tight, "They're scary."
"What's going on?" Belen asked in confusion having not been able to understand their tongue.
"Why do they scare you?" Willow continued to question the little girl with the black pigtails.
The girl shook her head unwilling to share more. With an idea in mind, Willow raised a brow, "How long have you seen white lights? A month? A year?"
"I've always seen them." Li Yun responded honestly, "There's only more now then before."
"Do they ever approached you before?"
The girl nodded her head hesitantly, "They're always trying to take me somewhere fun, but, when I asked father, father got angry and hit me."
"Can you tell me why?"
"He said I was lying. He said he checked the courtyard, but he said there was nobody there and I can't lie to him because he's my dad."
Knowing that the guy was such a person too, Willow nodded to the girl with a small smile, "If they scare you, don't talk to them and don't follow them. Thank you for telling me."
Li Yan nodded her head nervously. Willow looked to the mother, "Has she told this to you yet?"
Bewildered and stunned, the mother shook her head withholding her tears, "Never. I never even knew my cousin could hit his own child for such a reason."
Willow nodded and said with a sigh, "Violent or not, she was smart to have asked first. I bet, if she left, she probably wouldn't have returned. Li Yan, never leave your mother and your brother."
As the child nodded, Willow reassured her and her brother of the situation before leaving them in the room with their mother after giving the adults instructions to just rest.
In the halls, Willow turned to Belen and answered, "She can see light in the outlines of people. Those people looked scared, according to her. A man in a suit and a tall woman with a dog."
"People?" Belen raised a brow, "But this place is practically an apocalypse sight. It'd be useless wearing a suit during an apocalypse. We haven't seen any humans around aside from that pursuer back there just before you threw the gas tear."
"That's my thought as well." Willow responded in English, "I don't know if she's lying, but I believe the likely chance of her lying is a lot less because she's really young and she was raised in a harsh environment."
"She won't lie?" Belen watched her in confusion.