"Looks like we're ten miles from the hospital." Jamie said after Mitch switched places with Abraham. Abraham was keeping pressure on Jackson's wounds while Jamie was tending to me.
"How are they doing?" Mitch asked from the front seat. Jackson gasped and groaned next to me. My breathing was becoming shallow but I kept fighting to stay alive. For him. I was fighting to stay alive for Mitch. I can't lose him now.
"Not so good." Abraham said as Jamie applied more pressure to my wounds and I let out a whimper. "We're close, my friend." Jackson groaned weakly. "The blood. . . the blood is coming through the shirt."
"On who?"
"Both of them."
"Keep pressure on it—nice and even. Don't let them pass out." Mitch ordered as Jackson coughed.
"Maybe we should pull over." Jamie said.
"Lot of things I can handle in a pinch. Kind of surgery they need—not one of 'em." The leopard cub began to growl.
"The cub is impatient, Rafiki." Abraham told Jackson as he gasped and coughed. "You need to give him a name. Maybe a musical name, considering how much noise he makes. Perhaps Bono or Bowie?"
"What do you think, Callana?" Jamie asked me. I whined loudly and growled. "I don't speak wolf."
"Wolves die alone." Mitch informed her. "She's going to be grumpy. She thinks she's dying but not if I can help it."
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Abraham helped Mitch drag me out of the car and onto a stretcher, my paws slightly hanging off the edge. Abraham went back to help Jackson out while Jamie grabbed the electroporator and the leopard and Mitch wheeled me to the front doors of the hospital with Abraham and Jackson behind us. The doors were locked.
"Open the door!" Abraham yelled through the glass. "It's an emergency. My friend needs a doctor!" One of the doors opened and a doctor poked his head out.
"The hospital is closed." The doctor said. Abraham pushed past the doctor and guided Jackson inside and over to a stretcher. Mitch pushed me in and wheeled me over to Jackson. "Did you hear what I said? We are abandoning the hospital."
"We don't have time." Mitch said. "This man's been shot and this wolf has been attacked by leopards."
"I can't help. I suggest you drive him to Nyanga."
"That's four hours at least!" Abraham yelled.
"I have lost a dozen colleagues and more patients than I can count. I am sorry, but I cannot help you."
"You will help him! You understand me?"
"The last ambulance leaves in an hour. I will do the surgery, but beyond that, you are on your own."
"Thank you."
"Jamie, come with me." Mitch said. "I'm going to need extra hands with Calla. Can I get a pair of scrubs too?"
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"The hematology lab should have what we need to extract this little guy's stem cells, formulate a cure." Mitch said after he coaxed me into phasing again and helping me into the scrubs that the doctor gave him. "Along with supplies to get Calla back to health."
"Hurry, Mitch." Jamie said. "I think he's getting scared." Abraham came back in my blurry vision.
"We're heading to hematology. Come on."
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The elevator bell rang and I groaned. I raised my head to the throbbing pain that was growing.
"Mitch," I groaned. His hand ran down the side of my face.
"Stay behind me." Abraham ordered as the elevator doors opened and Mitch pushed the stretcher through the doors.
"I'm going to need some O-Negative blood for her." Mitch said. "She's lost a lot." We finally got to the hematology lab and Mitch pushed the stretcher to the side of the room. "Abe, go see if you can find me some anesthesia and blood." I didn't even feel the needle going into my arm as Mitch hooked an IV up to me.
"Here, Mitch."
"Okay, um. . . Hey, Calla, can you open your eyes for me?"
"Can you stop asking that?" I croaked.
"I'm sorry. Your eyes are beautiful. Can't get enough of them." I opened my eyes and looked at him to see him looking around the room before walking over to the cub. "Okay, pal, I'm gonna need one of your teeth, so I can extract some stem cells. Uh. . . Hand me that rubber heart over there."
"Why?" Jamie asked as she did as she was told.
"Because. No need to hurt him if we don't have to. So. . . I'll just take this. . . rub little flavor on it. Here you go." He gave the cub the heart and it began chewing on it.
"Ah, I see." Abraham said as Mitch went over to the sink and began scrubbing his hands clean. "You're going to let the cub remove its own tooth."
"Exactly. So, uh. . . assuming I can formulate a cure, we're gonna need an animal we test it on."
"Why not test it on Callana?" Jamie asked
"Calla is in no condition to be tested on right now."
"Even if the cure works, wild animals still act wild. We're going to need a domesticated one."
"That way we'll have a clear behavioral baseline. I. . ."
"Okay, so. . . don't open this door until I return."
"What?" Jamie exclaimed as Mitch pulled on blue rubber gloves. "No, you. . . Abe!"
"I'm going to be okay."
"Be careful." Mitch came walking over to my side.
"Okay, you ready, Calla?" Mitch asked me.
"Is this surgery even worth it?" I shot back at him. "Am I going to make it?"
"Of course, you are. Come on, wolf form."
"Why make me shift to human if I have to go back to wolf?"
"Because it's really not a good image for a wolf being carted around a hospital when animals are the number enemy in the world right now."
"Point taken." I closed my eyes and sighed as I tried to summon my wolf. Come on, come on. If you don't come out, then you're going to die. So, please, just this once, come out when I ask you to. My bones shifted and my lungs grew and the sudden increase of air intake was refreshing.
"Perfect." He placed the anesthesia mask over my muzzle. "See you when you wake up." I dozed off to nothing.
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I stirred awake and blinked my eyes several times before my eyes landed on Mitch who was across the room peering into a microscope.
"Mitch, she's awake." Jamie said and Mitch was out of his seat in a second and over to my side. He covered me with a blanket and I shifted. Hopefully I would stay in this form for a while. My skin was getting tired from stretching.
"How are you feeling, Calla?" He asked me as he ran his fingers through my hair.
"Sore more than anything." I answered honestly. "Dr. Morgan, may I sit up?" He squinted his eyes at me but smiled at my manners.
"As long as you don't try saving anyone's life anytime soon." He handed me a pair of scrubs and took the blanket off me and held it up so it acted like a curtain so I could get dressed. I moved slowly and gingerly as I slipped my legs into the pants and threw the shirt over my head. He dropped the blanket and leaned down, cupped my cheeks and kissed my forehead. "I told you that you would make it." I gripped his biceps and closed my eyes, taking in his presence and how happy I was from him being so close to me. I pulled slightly away from him and looked up at him.
"How's the cure coming along?" He straightened up after giving me another kiss on the forehead and stuffing his hands into his front pockets. "Good news, we have viable stem cells here. So, our little friend has done his part."
"He's crying so much." I muttered, scooting off the bed. My feet touched the ground and my legs automatically buckled underneath me but Mitch was quick enough to catch me. "I'm fine. I'm fine." Mitch held onto my arm until I got balance again and I slowly made my way over to the cub who was mewling loudly in the bag. I touched its soft golden fur and scratched its head.
"You don't think it's a call, do you?" Jamie asked.
"No. A call would be more high pitch and constant. This is more like an agitated mewl."
"Why don't you try closing the bag?" Mitch said. "Maybe he shares my aversion to hospitals." I rolled my eyes and handed the cub to Jamie.
"Entertain him." I walked to the other side of the room as Mitch messed around with microscope some more.
"Is that why you dropped out of med school?" Jamie asked.
"No." Mitch answered. "I never liked hospitals. But I think it was the patients that finally did me in. Calla, will you hand me one of those cuvettes over there?" I reached over and grabbed a square tube and winced as my stomach wound stretched. "I should have asked Jamie. Sorry, Calla."
"I'm fine. I can help, Mitch." I said.
"I didn't hate the patients. I just. . . hated their pain. Their tears. And their families' tears. You shut down your emotions for long enough, you don't want to spend all day with somebody else's."
"Does it both you when I talk about my mother?" Jamie inquired. Mitch sighed as he thought about it.
"It did. When we first met. But. . . I'm okay with it now." Mitch got up and fired the electroporator and it whirred and beeped. Jamie went back to playing with the cub and Mitch walked over to me while he let the electroporator do its work. "So, there's something I got to say. And I better say it now, before this whole thing goes south. I want to thank you for giving me the courage to save my daughter. And for reminding me that. . . that it's okay to feel and. . . I know that you're always trying to save me but, truth is, you already saved me. Callana Rhycho, I am madly in love you. I know we only met a few months ago but you have a way of making me fall head over heels for you every time I see you." I stared blankly up at him as my chest felt like it was caving in on itself. How do I respond to that? The electroporator beeping saved me as Mitch walked over to it. "All right. Well, here we go. This is it. Hope to God we were right." Something caught my sense of hearing and I straightened perking my ears up as I listened to the noise out in the hallway.
"I have to find Jackson." Jamie said and she walked over to the door and reached for the doorknob.
"Jamie, wait!" I yelled to her but it was too late. The door swung open and a leopard roared at Jamie. She gasped and stumbled back and around the table. I charged forward but Mitch put up his arm and kept me behind him as he grabbed the cure from the electroporator and started backing up as the leopard prowled into the room. The leopard growled at Jamie as she grabbed the bag with the cub in it. Mitch reached for the fire alarm.
"Mitch, wait, the Mother Cell."
"Forget it." Mitch said as the alarm wailed and the water sprinklers came on, distracting the leopard for a split second but a split second was all we needed. We turned and raced for the door, closing the door behind us and locking the leopard inside. I leaned up against a wall, panting for breath as I clutched my chest, sharp pains rippling through me. "Are you okay?" I nodded.
"I just need to catch my breath." Abraham came around the corner.
"What's happened?" He asked.
"The leopards." Mitch explained. "They came after the cub."
"Abe, we lost the Mother Cell." Jamie said.
"And the cure?" Abraham inquired and Mitch held it up for him to see.
"This is it." Mitch said. "It's all we got. One shot, maybe two."
"Okay. I found a dog, and I put him in one of the patient rooms."
"If this doesn't work. . ." I began to speak.
"There's only one way to find out."
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"First, the birds." Abraham said as the mutt barked at us and tried to lunge at us as we stood around him. "Now the leopards. It's no coincidence. They're after the cub."
"All right, this is it." Mitch said as he prepared the serum. "No room for mistakes." The dog continued to bark and snarl at us. "Ready?" Jamie and Abraham held the chains steady while Mitch came up from behind the dog and injected the serum into his hindquarters. The dog whimpered and then continued to bark, trying to turn around to get to Mitch.
"How long does it take to work?" Jamie asked. The dog still barked.
"I don't know." The mutt snarled, trying his best to get a bite out of at least one of us. Jamie's phone began ringing and she answered it.
"Hello? Who is this?. . . Chloe, oh, my God. Are you okay?. . . Uh, we're—we're fine. We—we found a cub. . . Uh, we're at a hospital in Harare. We're—we're actually testing the cure right now. Wait, where are you?. . . Listen, Chloe, um, something happened. Callana and Jackson got hurt. They're going to be fine, but—but. . ." Jamie put down the phone. "She hung up."
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Mitch and I stood side by side outside the room looking through the door glass at the still snarling dog.
"Something should be happening by now." I muttered.
"Yeah, if it was gonna work, we'd have seen some evidence by now." Mitch agreed, disappointment and agitation coating his tone and he sighed. "Sorry, guys. This is all my fault." I turned my head and glared at him. How dare he throw himself a pity party?
"It's no one's fault." Abraham said.
"Yeah, I. . . I'm the one who told you all that the leopard cub was the—the answer. I'm the one who said the Mother Cell was the key to the cure. It was just a theory. Not even a theory. Half a theory." Abraham stared at him for a moment.
"Now's not the time for self-pity."
"It didn't work."
"Tell me why."
"Okay. Should I start with the fact that I'm not a geneticist? Or should I start with the fact that somehow I got it into my brain that a completely discredited scientist by the name of Robert Oz was anything other than certifiably insane?"
"Ancient history." Abraham got up and started walking over to Mitch and I let out a growl but immediately had to steady myself against the wall as the rush of wolf made me light headed. "Relax, Callana, I promise I'm not going to do anything. Tell me why you failed today."
"Easy, Abe." I snapped. "He tried."
"Stop. Let him speak. Tell me why you failed."
"I don't know." Mitch said impatiently. "Why don't you tell me, genius? Maybe the Mother Cell was contaminated. But it's—it's—it's hard, organic substance. So that's highly unlikely. Maybe the—the. . . cub's gene didn't mutate naturally like we thought it did, but there is no way that it traveled far enough to—to be exposed to Reiden, so that's a big fat no. If my hypothesis is sound, a—and none of the elements were contaminated, then I don't know, maybe it's the—the. . . maybe it was the delivery system."
"The delivery system?" Mitch stopped speaking as he thought about it for a moment and I saw his eyes light up as it clicked in his mind.
"Yeah. The. . . the injection. The—the. . . the needle, maybe the needle was contaminated. The. . . or. . ."
"Or what?" Jamie inquired and Mitch sighed.
"Intramuscular injections usually disseminate quickly, but. . . but it's—it's possible that. . . it's possible it never even made it out of the dog's flank. And if it didn't make it out of its flank, then that means it didn't get to the brain, and maybe that's it, maybe. . ."
"Maybe we need to introduce it orally." I finished for him and he nodded in agreement.
"Maybe we need to do that before the cub's pack finds us." Abraham suggested.
"Do we have enough left?" Jamie questioned Mitch and he sighed.
"We're gonna find out." Mitch declared. "And, uh. . . don't think I don't recognize what you just did there."
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"Sorry, buddy." Mitch said to the dog as he stood in front of the snarling dog. "We need you one more time. Got him?" Jamie and Abraham both nodded as Mitch crouched down in front of the dog. When the dog lunged at Mitch, he squirted the serum into his mouth and backed away. The dog continued to bark and snarl at us.
"Mitch, I don't know." Jamie said. "I don't think it's working." The dog gave a few more barks before he whined quietly and sat back on his haunches and started panting. Jamie and Abraham had to sit down in shock as the dog whined again. He whined as Mitch slowly walked over him and pet his head. The dog licked Mitch's hand, happy for the affection.
"Good boy. Good boy. You better find Jackson. We gotta get this stuff home."
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I limped down the hallway, clutching my stomach and using the wall as my support. Mitch turned around and then handed the leopard to Jamie. He walked over to me and swept me off my feet and into his arms. I flinched as my stomach wound was pressed together but I settled into the comfort of Mitch's arms.
"You're surprisingly lighter than I expected." Mitch chuckled as we continued our way down the hallway.
"You calling me fat?" I said, punching him playfully in the chest and he just let out his deep chuckle. But the happy moment was short lived as a ferocious growled echoed through the hallway and a leopard appeared in front of us. I struggled to get down from Mitch's arms but I was too weak right now to push out of his hold. "I can take her."
"Calla, you just got out of surgery. You're not doing a damn thing."
"Do you have any other idea?" Another leopard appeared behind us.
"Jamie, don't move."
"Do we run?" Jamie whispered to us and I shook my head, eyeing the leopards.
"They'll pounce on you before you even take one step." I whispered back to her. The leopards roared and growled at us as they stalked towards us. Glass shattered and gunshots sounded and Mitch immediately dropped to the ground and covered me with his body. Soldiers came rushing into the hospital and shot the leopards with tranq darts.
"Secure!" One of the soldiers yelled and I buried my head into Mitch's soldier in relief.
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"Not that we're incredibly grateful, but where the hell did you guys come from?" Mitch asked one of the soldiers as he set me gently on my feet outside the hospital. Clung to his arm for support, not ready to trust myself on my own yet.
"We're the 74th Special Tactic Squadron." The soldier replied. "Our orders are to get you out of here."
"Jackson!" Jamie yelled and I looked up to see him behind one of the military cars with Abraham. We met up with them halfway.
"How are you feeling, Callana?" Jackson inquired.
"Like I've mauled by a leopard." I answered. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I've been shot." We shared a laugh before Jackson turned to the soldier. "How'd you know that we were here?"
"All I'm authorized to say is your location was provided by a French national." The solider told him. "But we're gonna get you to Johannesburg, and from there on a flight to DC."
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I walked down the aisle of the plane to the back where Mitch was pouring himself a drink. He chugged it and then looked guilty over at me and I couldn't help but laugh as he looked like a kid that just got caught red handed for sticking his hand in the cookie jar.
"Hi." He said.
"Hi." I greeted him, my smile still plastered on my face.
"I was just pilfering some of these. . . adorable little bottles that haven't grown up yet. Would you like one?"
"Absolutely." He opened a small bottle for me and handed it to me and I took a large swig from it welcoming the burning sensation in the back of my throat. Mitch opened his mouth to speak but I stood up on my tiptoes and pressed my lips to his. He set his bottle down on the counter and grabbed my face with both hands, deepening the kiss. He pulled back and I rocked back down on my heels and he leaned down to press his forehead to mine.
"God, I love you, Calla." I smiled and closed my eyes.
"I love you too."
"Marry me." My eyes snapped open and I looked up at him. I tried to look for signs of it being a joke but he looked serious.
"Mitch,"
"Please, Calla, make me the happiest man in the world and marry me. I couldn't imagine the point of living without you. So, marry me." I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out. My mind was going a hundred miles an hour. Marry Mitchell Morgan? I loved him and I didn't want to lose him. But marry him? Logically,. . . No, don't think logically. For once don't think logically. For the past months, I had protected Mitch from any harm and I did it without a second thought and if that wasn't love then I don't know what is.
"Yes."
"Yes? Calla, don't mess with me on this."
"Yes, I'll marry you, Mitchell Morgan."
"God, I don't know what I did to deserve you."
"I could say the same." The plane made a loud rattle and thump as it shook violently. I turned around and looked back down the aisle.
"Uh, ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain." The captain said over the speakers. "We've been informed that due to some unusual migratory behavior, this airspace has been closed. We've been diverted to. . ."
"What migratory behavior?" Mitch wondered behind me and as I turned around to face him, the shook again more violently and a cold air filled the plane. I was knocked off my feet and my head thumped against the hard floor, knocking me unconscious.