The laboratory was really quiet. It smelled like ozone and old chemicals. There was also a smell that was not nice. It was the smell of the plague. Maines hands were shaking really badly as he cleaned up his desk. He pushed all the papers aside. Pulled out a big metal box from under the desk. The box made a noise when it hit the floor.
Maine did not look at me. He was very sad. It made him very determined. When he opened the box the room felt smaller. Inside the box there was a bottle of colorful liquid. It looked like something from space. The light from the lanterns made the liquid look scary and pretty at the same time.
Maine whispered to me, straight up through my ear.
"I have been working on this for a time. It a cure from the disease that was spreading on Town Allure a lot lately."
His voice was more dramatic. It sounded like he was going to cry.
"I wanted to believe that all the bad things that happened were not for nothing. I thought if I could find a cure it would make sense that I survived when others did not."
I went closer to him. My heart was beating fast. I looked at the bottle. I knew I did not need to touch it to know what it was. I used my Inspect skill to see the bottle's contents.
Ebanga (ansuvimab-zykl)
Destroys all cells including the disease.
Survival rate: 1%
"Plasma, what is the meaning of this?" I said to my thoughts
"Roxy, this vial was made of pure poison. It's not a cure, it's straight up poison. One drop of this shit will get the people killed."
The inspection was no joke, It told me a lot of things. The liquid was very bad. It was like a bomb waiting to go off. If we used it properly, people would die.
I looked at Maine. He had a lot of hope in his eyes. It was like I could see through him. I had to tell him the truth.
"Maine, look at me. This is not a cure. It is poison. If you give it to people you will not be saving them. You will be killing them faster."
I said. My voice was very quiet.
Maine looked very sad. He seemed like he had given up. He said quietly.
"I am useless. I have tried everything. I still cannot find a cure."
I told him and replied to Maine straight to his eyes.
"You are not useless. You have done a lot of work. You just need to try something"
Then I did something that surprised him. I took a bottle from his desk and I drank a flask containing the disease, and without hesitation. I chugged the flask in one go.
"Roxy, what have you done? That is going to kill you." Maine said in a shocked expression
Maine was very scared. He grabbed my shoulders. He said to me in a peculiar tone.
I just stood there. I felt the sickness going into my body.. I was not scared. My body is different. It can fight off any poison. Ever since I overcame my fourth evolution, I was immune to all poisons. I will use my body to create a cure.
I have always been like this. It has made me feel like I do not fit in with others.. Now it was a good thing.
I closed my eyes. I told my body to fight the sickness. I felt my blood getting hotter. I was making a cure.
My plan is that I will use my immune system to create a cure. Paired with my immunity from any kinds of poison.
The silence in the laboratory got thicker as I made my decision. Maine did not understand. He could not. To him the vial was a death sentence. To me it was the blueprint for something new.
I did not just take the pathogen, I let it in.
I had to do a dangerous thing with my own body. I went inside myself where my immune system was waiting like a strong guard. I had to use all my willpower to stop my body from fighting the pathogen. I had to open myself up. The disease could take hold.
This was a risk that went against everything my body wanted to do to stay safe. I looked at Maine's face and saw how scared and shocked he was. I held my breath as the liquid went down my throat.
Away I felt something happening. It was not like being burned by poison, it was like a cold slow feeling of something foreign trying to change my cells. It wanted to take over to make more of itself to tear me apart from the inside.
I was ready for this.
As the pathogen went into my bloodstream I changed my focus. I did not panic. I made my body into a controlled place to test things. The virus was fast. But, my body was faster. I felt the pathogen attach to my cells and at the time my immune system fought back.
I felt a war happening inside my body. It was hot and cold at the time. I watched, almost like I was outside my body as my immune system fought the disease. It broke down the virus, found its weaknesses and figured out how it hurt people.
I was not just myself anymore. I was the key to unlocking a cure.
By letting the disease inside me I had trapped it. My body, which had always kept me separate from others, was now the thing that would bring us together. I was finding the cure in the place it could really work: inside my body, where death could not get in.
As the war inside me slowed down and became steady I knew I had made the choice. The disease had not beaten me, it had given me what I needed to find a cure. I was ready to make the cure a reality.
When I opened my eyes I took the bottle and I cut my hand. I let my blood drip into the bottle. It was glowing. It had life in it.
"I am immune to everything. I always have been. I have been hiding this. I did not like it.. Now it is the only thing that matters." I told Maine about my poison immunity.
The room was completely quiet except for the sound of glass and my own breathing.
I had thirty flasks in front of me. That was the number that Maine said I needed for a full treatment.. Each flask had a big cost that I had to pay.
I was stuck in a cycle. I had to drink the stuff, let my body fight it and then take out the good stuff.
Every time I drank the stuff my body felt like it was on fire. I had to let my body get weak so the bad stuff could get in. Then my body would fight it and make it go away. This was a fight that happened really fast. I felt my body get hot like I had a fever as it tried to get stronger and fight the stuff. The bad stuff was turning into a cure.
Then I had to take out the stuff.
I would take a small scalpel at Maine's desk. Cut my hand and the bad stuff would come out and turn into good stuff. I would watch as the liquid changed from black and ugly to red and healthy.
I had to be careful. My body could only take much. I had to watch myself and make sure I did not get too weak. If I took out much my body would not be able to get better in time. I was playing a game with my life.
One. Two. Three.
I kept going even when everything started to get blurry. My dress was. Heavy with all the work I had done.
By the time I got to the flask my hands were shaking really hard. I looked at all thirty flasks and they were, like little signs of hope. They were not medicine, they were a sign of how strong I was.
I looked at the flasks. Then at my stained hands and it finally hit me. I had made it through. Maybe that meant everyone else would too.
Maine was shocked. He did not know what to say. He watched as I filled up thirty bottles with my blood. By the end I was very tired.. I knew I had done something good.
"We need to take these to the Bureau." I said
As I turned to leave I saw myself in the window. My dress was stained with blood. It was a reminder of what I had done. I felt very tired. I wanted to wash the blood off. I started walking to the bathhouse. Every step was hard. I knew I was the one who could survive the cure.