Sorry for the late post - we had no power all day.
SPOILERS - It's up to the captive to ensure their own survival and Marissa prepares for the Ball.
...
David spent a sleepless night by Bianca's bedside monitoring her fever and struggling to work out what else he could do to help her. He had arranged for Dr Norrell to take bloods and had outlined the tests they needed to do to verify if it was the fever or the serum that had caused Bianca's hallucinations. It wasn't good news either way, but reversing the Orpheus serum was much harder than treating her infection.
At least Bianca was sleeping now, although her dreams seemed fitful, she groaned and muttered in her sleep.
…
Morning came without fanfare. The light from the stark light bulb that had been lit all night was replaced by the weak sunlight from the window. Bianca's fever still hadn't broken and David was stiff from sitting all night on the rickety and uncomfortable chair by her bed side. Erica hadn't slept much either. They had talked quietly together all night long. They occupied themselves with remembrances of the past, Bianca's childhood illnesses, Erica and David's brief unsuccessful affair, their more recent unhappy history when David had taken advantage of Erica's kidnapping in the worse possible way.
"And then you stabbed me." David muttered.
"And you deserved it." countered Erica.
David told her he was sorry and Erica assured him if they got out of this alive she would forgive him.
There was clunk of the door unlocking and Mr Campbell entered with Mr Salt in tow.
"Let's see the patient them!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands in childish excitement. Mr Salt grabbed David and pulled him away from Bianca's beside. He looked down at Bianca prone on the bed.
"Why isn't she better?" Mr Campbell asked.
"Get your ape to let go of me and I might tell you!" David exclaimed angrily.
Mr Salt tightened his grip at the insult, but Mr Campbell indicated for David to be released.
"Well?" Mr Campbell asked briskly.
"I told you she was too ill for the treatment." David said.
Mr Campbell scoffed at this.
"This formula brings the dead back to life if you past medical miracles are to be believed, how can she be 'too ill'?"
"The formula deals with injury, nerve damage and minor brain damage. This kind of infection can do nothing but complicate the treatment. Orpheus is delivered like a virus. It enters the blood stream and then is, in theory, engineered to treat only where the damage is. The side effect is that the body can react to this treatment, fight back like it is a real virus. That is fine if you are treating one ailment but her body is already fighting a battle, by adding Orpheus we are simply giving it a second front to assault."
"So she is useless to me." Mr Campbell scowled. "You are useless to me! We should have done as Mr Norrell suggested right from the start and get what we needed from her autopsy."
"No!" exclaimed Erica standing protectively in front of her daughter.
David too took a stand between Mr Campbell and Bianca.
"You are not going to hurt her." David exclaimed.
Mr Campbell simply smirked.
"Are you going to stop me?"
David looked cowed for a moment but it was just a front. The anger over their treatment over the past weeks had reached near boiling point. He grabbed the chair by the bed and swung it angrily at his tormentor.
"You bet I'm going to stop you!" he yelled.
Mr Salt charged in to protect his boss and took the brunt of the blow. The rickety chair shattered in David's hands and bits of wood flew all over the room.
Mr Salt was quick to lash back, punching David and knocking him to the ground before grabbing him in a head lock and squeezing hard. David struggled in his grip but Mr Salt was too strong, he was choking him.
"He's killing him!" Erica exclaimed. "You've got to stop him!"
Mr Campbell, still in shock from David's assault was brushing imagined dirt from his jacket where the chair had barely grazed him.
"And why would I do that? That man tried to kill me!"
"You need him." begged Erica. "You need his formula."
Mr Campbell, gave a resigned sigh,
"That true." he signalled to Mr Salt and the thug unhappily released his grip.
David sat back trying to catch his breath.
Mr Campbell was glaring at Erica and Bianca now, looking to release his anger somehow.
"But you two," he said, "Are a complication I don't need."
"No," cried Erica, "We can still be valuable!"
"How?" Mr Campbell snapped, "You daughter is clearly too weak to be of any use…"
"Then use me!" exclaimed Erica. "I was allergic to your old formula but it didn't happen when David treated me with his serum. Test your new formula on me!"
Mr Campbell eyed Erica up in a new, greedy way.
"Fine, we need to show the board something by tonight."
He walked over and kicked David's boot to get his attention.
"Get up. I've decided you are going to give Erica our marvellous new Lazarus formula. And you are going to do it right now."
Erica gave David a small almost unperceivable nod to show she would go along with it. David struggled to his feet, but he didn't look very happy.
"I can't just leave Bianca."
"You can and you will." said Mr Campbell. "I wasn't lying about the fact she would currently be more use to us dead than alive. This way there is a chance she'll still be breathing when you get back. Disagree with me once more and I'll see you personally supervising over her autopsy! Now move."
Erica and David shared a look of concern as they were escorted from the room leaving a feverish Bianca still sleeping in her bed. Erica's sacrifice had brought them more time… but they were running out of chances.
…
As they were ushered out of the room no one noticed as the door slammed behind them that a piece of wood from the splintered chair was jammed against the door frame. After a moment the door swung open just a crack.
…