"What do you mean he's dying?" Isaiah demanded as Doc too walked out of the med bay.
"his body is in a constant state of flux" Doc explained. "his nervous system is breaking down and repairing itself constantly"
"do we know why?" Katie asked Doc; terrified of what Tom's death meant for Doc.
"we're guessing he has some hereditary nervous system disorder" Paloma explained "the enhancement we've made to his body have boosted both the disorder as well as the recovery processes"
"what can we do?" Isaiah questioned Doc and Paloma; sweat covering his brows.
"nothing" Doc sighed "all we can do is wait"
"this is bullshit" Isaiah angrily turned around, stomping away.
"Fuck" Katie's head was in turmoil as well as she too walked away. The people dispersed, each struggling to come to terms with the fact that Tom Cassidy could die.
XXXXXXX
Paloma entered the gym to see Katie furiously punching the sandbag.
Wham! Wham! Wham!
Katie just kept punching the sandbag, until it tore open. "FUCK!" she pushed the bag away from herself. "FUCK!!!"
"Katie" Paloma hesitantly approached the other girl "you're scaring me"
"I'm sorry" Katie pinched the bridge of her nose "I'm sorry, it's just so... so..."
"I know" Paloma patted Katie's back before pulling her in a half hug "it feels downright shitty!"
"Yeah" Katie pulled out her gloves and threw them onto the ground "yeah, it does"
"I just wish we could do something" Katie patched up the sandbag with the roll of tape she kept at the side "instead of sitting around like headless chicken"
"I don't think that's the right term" Paloma muttered but Katie ignored her, choosing to restart her assault on the sandbag.
"W...what does this mean for us?" Paloma finally asked the question she wanted to. "will the project be shut down?"
Katie turned around, staring at Paloma as if seeing her for the first time. "how can you even think about our goddamn project while our friends are dying right now?"
"Friends?" Paloma wondered but decided that Katie had a slip of tongue. "I am a doctor Katie" Paloma defended herself "ever since I've joined this project, I've had far more people die on my table than, anyone should have to see; so, I decided to ignore; ignore that pit in my stomach as I fail to save life after life after life, because if I don't.... I cannot go on, not just in the project, but in this world"
"I... I'm sorry" Katie approached Paloma "I didn't realize it's been so hard for you"
"It's all a part of being a doctor" Paloma gave Katie a bitter smile. "we can't do anything to help Tom, but we must keep it together, and we can only do it by helping each other"
"You're right" Katie hugged her friend who tightly hugged her back. "you check up on Isaiah, I'll make sure the Doc doesn't drink himself to death" not waiting for a reply Katie left the gym, leaving Paloma alone as her mind caught up with reality.
"Whatever you say Kate" Paloma dryly addressed the air.
XXXXXXX
Doc downed his third whiskey neat, in one gulp, and then poured himself another one when Katie barged into his office.
"Go away" doc told her curtly "I'm not in the mood for any social interaction"
"In the mood of killing yourself faster I see" Katie calmly sat down opposite him.
"Why delay the inevitable?" Doc questioned "why prolong my suffering?"
"We still have time" Katie patted Doc's knees "we'll find another way, the serum was a success once, we could definitely find another subject who can survive it and..."
"Another subject?" Doc gave a bitter chuckle "we don't have a single subject who has survived it, Tom Cassidy is almost dead"
"We have the readings from him, we'll definitely find another guy" Katie tried to snap Doc out of his downward spiral.
"It's pointless" Doc chuckled, throwing his hands in the air "just pointless!"
"Doc..." Katie was at a loss for words. She had never seen doc like this before. It scared her; the broken and desolate sight of the man who was like a father to her.
"If Tom cannot survive this ordeal then we shall cease our operations" Doc spoke with finality "if he dies, I don't want to waste what precious little time I have left running against death; I would much rather spend my last remaining days in peace and tranquility"
Tears welled up in Katie eyes. She wanted to speak, to say anything but the words wouldn't come out of her mouth. That's when one of the screens on Doc's desk lit up and Paloma's voice came through, breaking the oppressive silence that hung between Doc and Katie.
"Doc. Katie, quickly come to Isaiah's work station, I think I've found a way to save Tom's life"
(Ten Minutes Ago)
Isaiah furiously pounded onto his keyboard, typing out code after code after code.
"hey.... Isaiah" Paloma came to Isaiah's side, stretching out the 'hey' "how're you holding up?"
"fine" Isaiah muttered. "it's not my first time seeing a friend die right before my eyes" Paloma didn't know how to respond, she knew that Isaiah had grown up in the hood, but he never really liked to talk about it.
"so... what are you doing?" Paloma continued trying to initiate conversation, not liking how Isaiah was dealing with his grief.
"what's up with you?" Isaiah questioned Paloma "you seem weirdly off"
"ugh... I tried to be there for Katie, and she totally pushed me away and suggested I keep an eye on you, so that's what I'm doing here" Paloma admitted.
"oh... yeah... there's something I need to tell you" Isaiah turned around to face paloma, his face a mixture of guilt, sadness and awkwardness. "Katie is straight"
Paloma deflated where she stood "that makes sense" she sat down on one of the chairs. "but for some reason I just couldn't see it until you pointed it out"
"loves makes fools out of all of us" Isaiah explained sagely
"no more than infatuation" Paloma laughed self deprecatingly. "but seriously, what are you working on?"
"I'm creating a final simulation test for my latest project" Isaiah gestured towards the computers "it's a neural nano-processing device that can be attached to the human nervous system, it has a 4Tb hard drive an...."
"WHAT?" Paloma shot to her feet. "neural devices?"
"um... yeah" Isaiah was taken aback by Paloma's reaction.
"these neural devices would require artificially designed nerve like tissues to connect to the human nervous system?" Paloma's face was an inch away from Isaiah
"yes..."
"how many pieces do you have ready?"
"twenty seven"
Paloma immediately opened one of the computers beside Isaiah's workstation, tapping in a couple of commands she declared "Doc. Katie, quickly come to Isaiah's work station, I think I've found a way to save Tom's life"
XXXXXXX
"explain to me what exactly you have in mind!" Doc asked Paloma when the four of them finally gathered at Isaiah's workstation.
"Isaiah has a set of neural transmitters that work with synthetic nerve tissues to connect to the human body, we can use these synthetic nervous tissues along Tom's nervous system to stabilize it. Once we have partial stability, the healing factor will be easily able to stabilize the rest of the nervous system" Paloma explained
"it's a one in a billion shot" Doc objected
"better than our one in a trillion shot of twiddling our thumbs and hoping for the best" Paloma retorted.
"how come you guys didn't think of getting synthetic nervous tissue before?" Katie questioned.
"synthetic nervous tissue isn't something that can be prepared, in a day, or a week or even a month" Isaiah interjected "it took me two years to prepare twenty seven of these"
"and twenty seven will be enough?" Doc questioned Paloma
"just" Paloma admitted
"but these devices haven't been tested?" Katie turned to Isaiah
"No, they haven't" Isaiah agreed "and there isn't any time to test them as well"
"it's risky" Katie pointed out
"and also our only shot" doc countered, "how long until the devices are ready to be implanted?" he turned to Isaiah
"twelve hours" Isaiah replied after running a couple of mental calculations "more or less"
"alright" Doc got up "that gives me enough time to sober up and clear my mind of all distractions"
"fantastic" Paloma nodded "we'll meet again in twelve hours"
As Isaiah finished some final touches on his latest devices, Doc drank a lot of water, took a nap, meditated, and did some light stretching. "alright" Doc nodded, appearing at the medical bay after twelve hours had passed. "I am ready"
"so am I" Paloma agreed
"as are these" Isaiah handed a metallic container to Doc "good luck guys"
"thank you" Doc gave Isaiah and Katie a nod "we'll be done before you even know it" saying this, Doc and Paloma entered the medical bay for one last time.