Oh my goodness. This has been hidden away in my head for so long, that it's almost alarming to see it out.
Thank you, everyone who has read, favorited, and especially to those who reviewed.
Thx Maria Rene, great feedback and thanks for helping me wrestle that last sentence into something that's respectable. 1Shadow-kun and Steampunk-archer, thanks for taking the time to comment!
Pete caught Artie's arm and helped him up the last of the steps. The old man was huffing and breathing alarmingly heavy, but he kept moving, driven by willpower and guilt. Artie pushed his weight against the double front doors, throwing them open and stumbling out into the street.
His cherry red jag was parked across the street from the lab but Artie's eyes went to the pale and bloodied face that was half hidden behind an oxygen mask. Paramedics were hurriedly loading Claudia, strapped onto a stretcher, into the back of an ambulance.
Guilt crashed over Artie at seeing Claudia so hurt. His face crumpled, barely holding back tears in favor of rushing to her.
Joshua pulled himself into the ambulance to ride with his sister. One of the paramedics yanked the door closed, not hearing Pete's yell. Pete beat on the door, reaching it a second before Artie, who doubled over and gasped for breath.
"Hey, Wait!" Pete yelled. He beat a fist on the door and grabbed Artie's brown shirt with his other hand to keep him standing.
Just when they both thought that the ambulance would pull away, the door clicked open. A young man in a white paramedic's shirt leaned out. "Sir, I can't-"
"Professor!" Joshua put his hand on the paramedic. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I just wanted Claud-" He stopped and turned to the medic. "He was caught in the same experiment that she was."
The young medic looked at Artie. Blood from his nose had started to drip onto his shirt again. "Get him in." the paramedic said.
Josh and the medic grabbed Artie and, with Pete pushing from behind, they managed to heave the portly, gasping Warehouse supervisor into the ambulance.
"We'll meet you at the hospital!" Pete said as the doors closed.
Artie was grabbed and seated against the side wall of the ambulance. A second medic slapped the front wall and a second later the truck was in motion.
Artie gasped and sucked in air, but nothing helped. He had to tell them how to help Claudia. "It's iron…." His voice was hardly above a whisper in between his breaths. "Josh- Joshua."
"Just breathe normally sir." A paramedic deftly put an oxygen mask over Artie's face, overcoming his weak protests.
"Nn.. no. Joshua." Artie mumbled but his voice was lost in the mask.
Joshua had tears down his cheeks as he brushed a sweaty strand of hair away from his sister's face. Claudia was chalk white and her mask barely fogged up when she lightly exhaled into it. A medic wedged gauze under the mask to allow the blood from her nose drain out. The two men rushed to hook her up to life giving fluids. A machine clamped to her finger sounded an alarm until it was silenced. The numbers that it displayed about Claudia's condition were dismal.
Artie nearly choked on the responsibility that he felt. He put them all into this situation by his actions 12 years ago. Claudia wouldn't be dying in front of him if only he had not been so reckless.
He ripped the mask off his face. "Iron!" He gasped out, getting everyone's attention. "She needs iron. More oxygen won't help her without it. Claudia was right. It was the minerals from… from the compass. They've been pulled out of her." He had to stop to gasp for breath.
Joshua pieced it together. "Teleportation… the reaction! She fueled it? You both did." He added. The intelligent young man thought as he said, "Without iron… her blood can't carry oxygen." Artie nodded wordlessly, not able to spare the energy to speak.
Joshua turned to the medics. "She needs iron, now! Do you have supplements? Zinc, and magnesium too…" Joshua directed the medics who started searching their supplies, armed with the new information.
Artie leaned his head back once his message was delivered, but he had to tilt his head forward again to let his nose drip onto his shirt. He finally understood that his heart was racing in an attempt to give his body oxygen that his blood couldn't deliver. His blood pressure had skyrocketed, giving him and Claudia the continual nose bleeds.
The old man lifted his head just enough to look at Claudia. She was twice as bad off as he was, lying there with her life slipping away. The three men rushed around her, trying desperately to save her. Artie's eyes moistened seeing her tiny frame so fragile and vulnerable, showing signs of the woman she was to become, but still very much the child that he held the hand of years ago. Feelings of guilt and responsibility threatened to bury him and he willingly let them. "I tried to save them both, but I only traded Claudia's life for Joshua's. He made it out, and now she's lying there dying! I failed!" His deep brown eyes displayed his suffering if anyone were to look. Artie's chest rose and fell as his emotions didn't help to calm his breathing.
He thought, "Her life was ruined because of what I did years ago and she's paying the price for my mistakes." Artie cursed his agent instinct, always having to follow the clue. "I put her life in danger because I was arrogant enough to think that I could bring them both back alive. What if we couldn't figure out the secret compartment? Or the riddle? I can risk my own life, but who am I to sacrifice Claudia? She had- HAS- such a quick and determined mind, and I make her suffer for my mistakes." The old man gasped and huffed. "She has to live. Claudia has to live!"
He weezed out, "Claudia…" But the red head didn't react to his call. She showed no signs of life, not responding to even Joshua's attempts to revive her. A new alarm went off in the ambulance, make one medic curse. He yelled a complicated word that meant nothing to Artie, but the frantic way that he moved and talked into a radio confirmed Artie's fears. He watched her lifeless face, hoping with everything in him and she would be ok; regretting his part in putting her there.
Everything went fuzzy as Artie's body succumbed to the stress it was under. His lungs worked over time, but they couldn't function while he was stripped of vital minerals. Artie's eyes were on Claudia's face when they closed and his head fell to his chest.
"Sir? Sir!?" A medic saw Artie pass out and quickly put the oxygen mask back on him.
Blood dripped to the bottom of the mask on Artie's still frame, a contrast to the hectic activity of the medics around Claudia's motionless body.