They’d managed to transfer Virgil to the medbay forty-five minutes after the initial bite. Gordon had been hyper-aware of any movement on his skin, freezing several times as his brain imagined the prickle of spiders walking up and down his back, his arms, his legs. Even in the medbay, Gordon could feel them crawling over his skin and he shuddered. Gordon sat by his side, holding his hand and squeezing it every couple of minutes to check his brother’s responsiveness. His other arm was in sling, the initial bandage replaced with a broad pressure bandage that was hopefully slowing the spread of the poison.
“How’s he doing?” asked Furnier, who Gordon noticed had discarded his tinfoil blanket. Well, bully for him, he had higher priority patients now.
“He’s in a lot of pain,” he said, staring at determinedly at Virgil’s face. “His heart rate is still at 135 bpm and last I checked, his LogMAR vision acuity was at 0.80.”
His heart clenched as Virgil let out another gasping moan beside him.
“I’m still here, Virg,” he whispered, squeezing the hand again. He could feel the faint pressure of Virgil’s response and breathed slightly easier for it.
“That’s not good then?”
“Gotta be real honest, Doc, it’s not amazing.”
Furnier nodded, looking troubled. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more,” he said quietly. “After all you did for me too.”
“Hey, no,” said Gordon in a steady voice. He looked up at Furnier, who looked almost sick with anxiety. “We do this job eyes open, we know the risks. I know no matter what happens, Virgil would be so happy that you’re safe.”
Gordon always found it hard to talk to people about the reality of their job. He didn’t thrive on the danger and adrenaline like Scott did, couldn’t see every situation as a challenge like Virgil. People didn’t want to hear about the sadness, the terror, and the sacrifice that came with the life he had chosen, only the tales of courage and adventure escaping death with a laugh on his face. Gordon was struggling to tell those stories now, his own near-death experience too fresh in his mind and in his body to charm people as he used to. And now, even worse, he knew exactly what it felt on the other side, to watch a brother slowly slipping away, powerless to prevent his pain.
“Will he be alright?”
Gordon shrugged helplessly and bent down to clean the drool that was sliding past his brother’s chin. His eyes were screwed up tightly as he fought through another wave of pain.
“Where is it now, Virg?”
“Still my arm,” he gasped. “Feels kind of tight too.” Gordon could see the way his hand was swelling beneath the bandages and grimly added another check to the list of symptoms he had pulled up next to him.
“He’s still only presenting local symptoms, that’s one good thing. He’s heavy, that’s another,” he said, poking Virgil in the shoulder. He yelped as Virgil screwed up his face and his hand was suddenly caught in a vice grip. “Shut up Virg, you know it’s true.”
“Anyway,” he said, turning back to Furnier. “His mass is working in his favour. It would take more of the venom to kill him than it would any of the rest of us. If that thing had bitten me, I’d probably be dead already.”
“We need the antivenom then?”
“The antivenom will take care of the symptoms in a much shorter time than his body can. It can bind with the venom, stop it from messing with his cells and putting his body so much stress that it can’t repair itself. We need that antivenom all right.”
“She’ll get there right?”
“Course she will,” said Gordon softly, blinking back tears as he looked over at the screen showing Kayo’s position. “And anyway, she’s not alone.” A new signal had popped up, hovering above the Dragonfly, a signal that brought a wistful smile to Gordon’s face. Although he was grateful Kayo had help in her task, he just wanted his big brother to be here.
***
Kayo heard Scott before she saw him and chewed on her lip as she looked up anxiously at the sky. Gordon had given her a heads up that Scott was on his way, and she wasn’t surprised that he had decided to help her instead of rushing to Virgil’s side. It was the same reason that she had volunteered to leave the group, the desperate need to do something, anything, of significance to help the situation at hand. Scott needed to help, was driven into action by the fear of tragedy. He wouldn’t bear to face his brothers with no solution to their cry for help. And so Scott was here.
She unlocked the exterior doors to the Dragonfly and Scott flew inside. She didn’t go back to meet him, not wanting to see where Virgil had lain, arm muscles beginning to spasm and sweat pouring down his face as the venom worked its way through his system, attacking his nerve endings. More terrifying was the way he had hardly uttered a sound, holding in his cries as best he could in an effort to spare her and Gordon the worry. It hadn’t worked.
“Good to see you Scott,” she said when he entered the cockpit, laying his jetpack to one side.
“How is he?”
Kayo shook her head. “We have to move fast.”
“Is there any chance he’ll make it without the antivenom?”
Kayo hesitated. Scott’s voice was small, but more than that he looked small too. She had never known Scott as a child before, but suddenly she could picture the way he must had approached his Dad, his Mom even, to ask them about the scary monsters in the world. She wondered if that had been where he’d first learnt to fight them.
“It’s bad enough that he needs the antivenom,” she said eventually. “That already makes this a medical emergency. But even without it, there’d be a small chance. The problem is we don’t know how much venom was injected into his bloodstream. And we don’t know how his body will react in the long run.” She turned back to hunting for the little red drone Dr Furnier had described to her. “We’ll find it.”
They were both silent as they combed the rainforest, edging closer and closer to the last known coordinates.
“Well, spiders might top my ‘Least Favourite Bugs’ list now,” said Kayo, with a half-smile.
“Yeah, mine too,” said Scott fervently. “Wait, what was on top before?”
“I’ll never tell,” said Kayo with a shudder.
“Seriously?” said Scott, looking at her frankly. “You’re really scared by bugs?”
“Not scared just… creeped out. And it’s not all of them.”
“Kayo I’ve seen you jump out of aeroplanes and take down someone built like a freight train running straight towards you like it was nothing.”
“Virgil’s ticklish, that doesn’t count.”
At the mention of Virgil’s name, Scott fell silent and she cursed herself internally.
“He’ll be okay Scott,” she said quietly, laying a hand on his shoulder.
“You don’t know that, what if he’s not?” he said desperately. Kayo glanced over and at the sight of his glistening eyes, bit back her immediate reply.
“What if…” he said softly. “What if after everything, we get Dad back and I have to tell him that Virgil was…. That he…”
Scott straightened in his chair, the tears in his eyes turning to ice. “I’m responsible for all of them, Kayo. I have to be the one to look Dad in the eye and tell him I kept them safe. No matter the cost.”
Kayo said nothing, only checked the coordinates displayed on the map between them.
“This is it,” she said. “It should be around here.”
Scott made no reply, striding from the cockpit without a backwards glance.
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