Chapter 1 'Not today radiation, not today'
She was at the brink of death.
Her skin looked like it had been taken out of the oven too late.
Cracks filled with white fluid ran all across her skin.
The radiation had destroyed almost all of it.
Jasper looked at her.
He saw her chest rise and fall very slowly, almost unnoticeable.
She was saved, but at what cost?
What was life worth at this point?
He couldn't even imagine in how much pain she was right now.
He loved her, more than anything in the world.
When it happened in mount weather, he could only think of one thing:
Saving her life.
But know, he almost regretted it.
'She shouldn't be in so much pain' he said.
'You did the right thing Jasper' Monty said.
'What if she won't wake up again?' Jasper asked out loud.
'I don't know' Monty said, sighing.
'I will always be grateful that you helped me' Jasper said to Monty.
'That's what friends do' Monty answered.
Abigail entered the room.
'Oh god' she said when she saw Maya lying unconscious in the blue suit on bed.
'Can you save her?' Jasper said when he stood up right.
'Jasper I..I' Abigail stuttered.
'Please! You have to save her!' Jasper cried.
'We don't have the medical supplies to help her' Abigail bowed her head.
'She is too far gone'
'NO!' Jasper said almost screaming, grabbing one of the syringes with morphine.
'Jasper!' Abigail tried to prevent Jasper from grabbing the syringe.
'Now this is how we do it.' Jasper looked very deeply into Abigail's eyes.
'If she dies, so do I' Jasper said sweating.
'But Jasper we can't save her, there is nothing to do for a radiation victim so far gone' Abigail said, trying.
'If so, you'll have to bury two bodies' Jasper answered.
'But jasper, please listen, we can't help her anymore, we can't even open the suit to help her, it will kill her' Abigail said, trying even more.
'There is one place we can help her, small space between what used to be the door to space in the ark' Monty said.
'You are a genius!' Jasper said.
'There is no time to lose.' Abigail began to push the bed Maya was laying on.
It took almost twelve minutes to get to the door, everyone was either running or was laying wounded on the floor.
'Open the door' Abigail said.
Jasper pushed the button and it opened.
They rushed Maya inside and closed it immediately.
'Room de-radiationized' Monty said.
'Open the suit!' Abigail said, sweating.
Jasper teared the suit apart with his bare hands.
Maya was still unconscious.
Abigail took Maya's temperature, and sighed.
'There is only one thing we can do' she said.
'The only thing that we can do is to make the passing painless'
'There is another way' Jasper exposed his right arm.
'What do you mean?' Abigail asked.
'Use my body to clean her blood, it's what they did in mount Weather to radiation victims' Jasper answered.
Abigail looked at him.
'You know you can die right?' she asked.
'It doesn't matter now' Jasper looked at Maya's burned body.
'We have to try it' he said.
Suddenly Maya began to shake violently.
'She's having a seizure! Hold her!' Abigail responded, and she started to search in one of her pockets.
'Oh god' Jasper said while holding Maya down.
Abigail held one syringe in her left hand, and grabbed Maya's right hand.
'Hold her arm Monty!' she said while removing the syringes cap.
'Arty nowhere to be found' she said while searching Maya's arm.
Abigail jumped on top of Maya, and opened her shirt.
Her chest was the only part of the body that wasn't badly burned.
'Please help' Abie said while she almost stabbed Maya with the needle.
The shaking continued for a couple more seconds, it took some time for the medicine to reach her brain.
But eventually it stopped.
Maya again laid completely still, with white foam covering her mouth.
'We don't have much time anymore, if we don't start with cleaning her blood, she dies today' Abie said while climbing of Maya.
'DO IT' Jasper said angrily.
'Need to get the machine, this can take a moment' Abie answered, and she left the room.
'She will make it Jasper, I know' Monty said, and he put a hand on Jasper's shoulder.
'I don't know if we should have saved her, she is in a lot of pain' Jasper answered.
A couple of minutes later, Abie re-entered the room, with the machine, and an extra bed.
'Lay on it Jasper, the procedure will make you extremely nauseous.' Abie said.
'There is no time to lose.' Jasper jumped on the bed, and took off his shirt.
'Please Abie, don't do it for me, do it for her' Jasper said.
Abie nodded and began to unwrap the machine's wires.
She took two wires with needles, and pushed one of them into Maya's left arm.
The other went into her neck.
'Are you ready?' Abie asked to Jasper when she approached him with the other end of the wires.
'Just do it!' he said.
Jasper didn't react when the needles entered his arm and neck, the only thing that mattered was saving Maya.
'Now only time will tell what happens' Abie said, and she started the machine.
Jaspers blood started to flow from his arm, like long, red fingers.
Jasper watched as the blood approached Maya's arm.
He sighed when he saw it entering her arm.
It took almost a minute for the blood the leave Maya's body through the neck.
Immediately when Jasper felt the blood re-entering his body, he could feel it.
'You feel alright Jasper?' Abie said.
'Perfect' Jasper answered.
In the next half hour Jasper felt more and more nauseous.
Maya's breathing became more deep.
She even started to move.
'Need to puke' Jasper said.
The next moment Maya woke up, screaming in pain.
'Oh god' Jasper reacted, and he jumped, almost removing the needle in his neck.
'Just lie still' Abie said to Maya.
'It hurts, it hurts so much, please make it stop' Maya screamed in pain.
'Give her some morphine' Monty said.
'Help her!' Jasper said while still lying on the bed.
'Ssshh it's okay' said Abie, and she emptied one syringe of morphine into Maya's arm.
Immediately after the first, Abie used a second one.
'Sleeping aid, if she's awake during the whole procedure, it will be too much' she explained.
Maya's red eyes rolled back, and she was again asleep.
It hurt Jasper to see Maya suffering so much.
But he couldn't live without her, so he swallowed his tears.
'What now?' Jasper asked.
'I will have you connected for two hours tops, tomorrow morning next session' said Abie.
'You don't want to overstress it, and she's already out of immediate danger' she continued.
Jasper smiled, this was the first good news of today.
'But seriously, I need the puking bag' Jasper said laughing.
One hour later Jasper started to feel really ill.
It was like he was in a car, that turned at a hundred miles an hour.
His stomach felt like it was being poked with hot iron knifes.
But he continued anyway.
All the times he looked at Maya, it felt like she gave him strength to continue.
It also seemed that the longer this continued, the better Maya began to look.
Some of the spots on her skin began to clear up.
'You need to sleep now Jasper' Abie said when she re-entered the room.
'How is she doing?' he asked back.
Abie walked towards Maya, and looked at her carefully.
'Very remarkable, it's like your blood is filtering the radiation out of her body, and is also repairing damage.' Abie said.
'We continue at dawn' Jasper said.
'Sleep now Jasper, you've earned it' Abie nodded to me, and left the room.
'Jasper, wake up sleeping beauty' someone in the room said.
Jasper woke up, trying to get the sleep out of his eyes.
Monty sat in the corner of the room on a chair, laughing.
'You awake already?' Jasper asked.
'Yes, for a couple of hours already at least, you've been sleeping a lot mate' Monty said.
'I think I'll need to puke a lot today' Jasper said, his voice low and slow.
The next moment, the lights in Jaspers eyes went out.
'We've brought him back' Jasper heard Abie say.
'What happened?' Jasper asked, still half unconscious.
'You had a seizure, it was quite difficult to stop it.' Abie said.
'My head hurts like hell' Jasper said while rubbing his head.
'I've already given you a dose of painkillers, should be working in a couple of minutes, but Jasper' Abie asked.
'Yes'
'You need to stop, for a day at least, if you continue, this one won't be your last.' Abie warned him.
'Look at me.' Jasper asked, while he grabbed Abie's hand.
'I will still do what I said, if you don't save her' he said.
'You are crazy are you?' Abie asked.
'Nope, just in love' Jasper said.
'Same things' Abie said, and she sighed.
Suddenly Jasper felt a someone touching his arm, very softly, almost like silk.
'Jasper' the voice said.
He recognized that voice out of thousands.
He turned his head and looked at Maya.
She was awake, and looked much better compared to when he fell asleep.
Her skin was no longer looking like something had been in the oven to longer, it was still very dark, but it had improved vastly.
The hard cracks in her skin were mostly gone, the ones that remained were shallow.
'You have saved my life' Maya said, smiling at him, or at least trying to.
Jaspers heart rate jumped to light speed.
'I am just glad I could help' Jasper said.
'You've stayed exactly the same' Maya said, again trying to smile.
A few hours after Jasper woke up, the second session began.
'If you even feel your conditioning worsening in the slightest, I will stop' Abie said while looking at him.
'I'm not important here' Jasper said.
'Men always trying to prove they are badasses' Abie said and sighed.
'You're doing too much Jasper' Maya said.
'Not at all' he said, and the second session began.
Two hours later.
'I feel so sick' Jasper said as Abie turned the machine off.
'I will not let you do it again Jasper' Maya said.
'Maya, you still need' Jasper tried to say.
'No, you've done more than enough, and I don't want to lose you' Maya said.
'I don't want to lose you either' he said.
'I was so afraid to lose you' Jasper said.
Maya held her breath for a moment.
'But why did you save me?' she asked.
'If I didn't, my life would be over' Jasper said.
'I'm sad my dad can't meet you, I know he would love to have met you' Maya said.
In the next couple of days Maya's condition continued to improve.
By day 3, she took her first steps out of bed.
'We have a problem Jasper' Abie said.
'What is going on?' Jasper asked.
'Maya can't leave this room, the radiation outside will kill her, her immune system is also very weak' she said.
'I guess we'll have to go over to plan B' Jasper said and looked at Maya.
'No, you will not do this' Maya refused.
'There is no other way' Jasper said sadly.
Maya grabbed Jaspers arm.
'You have already done too much' she said.
'I will not let you stay your whole live in this room, cornered like an animal in a cage' Jasper said.
'I wish it could be different' he said afterwards.
'Abie, can you leave us?' Maya asked.
'Of course' Abie said, and she left the room.
Maya looked Jasper right in the eyes and said:
'No one should be in pain because of me'
'Seeing you alive has made the pain I had more than a thousand times repaid' Jasper said.
He could see small tears starting to form in Maya's eyes.
'I want you to enjoy life as much as I do, but that requires sacrifices' Jasper said.
One tear started to roll down on Maya's cheek.
'I would go through a thousand fires to save you' he said.
'I don't want to go on this journey without you' Maya said, crying.
The next moment they kissed, deeply and passionately.