Katherine's POV:

Abe and I get back to the hospital with Bacco, tying him up in a room, before heading back to the room we left Jamie and Mitch in. When we get in Mitch and Jamie are out of the room, holding it closest, their clothes soaked.

"What happened?"

Mitch takes a deep breath, "A leopard came for the cub and got into the room. I know it sounds crazy, but maybe that's what those birds were doing."

"Did we lost the mother cell?" I look from Mitch to Jamie, who nods. As she does I roll my eyes and put my hands on my head. "And the cure?"

Mitch holds up a test tube, "This is it. It's all we got. One shot, maybe two."

Abe takes a deep breath, "Okay. We found a dog and put him in one of the patient rooms."

"What if this doesn't work?" Jamie looks from Abe to Mitch

"There's only one way to find out." Mitch sighs.

I shake my head as we head to the patient room Abe and I put the dog in, "First, the birds. Now the leopards. It's no coincidence." We walk into the room and the dog begins barking and snarling.

"They're after the cub." Mitch says as he fills a syringe with the cure, handing the tube to Jamie, "All right, this is it. No room for mistakes. Ready? One two three" He sticks the dog in its flank with the needle and injects the cure.

"How long does it take to work?"

"I don't know."

We watch as the dog continues to bark and snarl at us. Jamie's phone goes off and the other three of us turn to her. As she answers the phone we step into the hall, we can still hear the dog barking in the room, "Hello? Who is this? Chloe, oh, my God. Are you okay? We're fine. We found a cub. We're at a hospital in Harare. We're actually testing the cure right now. Wait, where are you? Listen, Chloe, something happened. Jackson got hurt. He's going to be fine, but…" Jamie ends with that and Jamie looks down at the phone, "the call dropped."

We still hear the dog barking and snarling, as Mitch shakes his head and runs his fingers through his hair, "If it was gonna work, we'd have seen some evidence by now. Sorry, guys. This is all my fault."

I shake my head, "It's no one's fault."

"Yeah. I'm the one who told you all that the leopard cub was the answer. I'm the one who said the Mother Cell was the key to the cure."

"It was a theory."

"Not even a theory. Half a theory."

Abe steps up beside me, "Now's not the time for self-pity. It didn't work. Tell me why."

Mitch sighs and sits on the bench in the hall, looking up at Abe, "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?"

"Tell me why you failed today."

Jamie looks over to Abe shocked, "Easy, Abe. He tried."

"Stop. Let him speak. Tell me why you failed."

"I don't know. Why don't you tell me, genius? Maybe the Mother Cell was contaminated. But it's hard, organic substance. So that's highly unlikely. Maybe the cub's gene didn't mutate naturally like we thought it did, but there is no way that it traveled far enough to be exposed to Reiden, so that's a big fat no. If my hypothesis is sound, and none of the elements were contaminated, then I don't know, maybe it's the - Maybe it was the delivery system."

I look at Mitch confused, "The delivery system?"

"Yeah, the injection. The needle. Maybe the needle was contaminated. Or... Or what? Intramuscular injections usually disseminate quickly, but 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, that means it didn't get to the brain.

And maybe that's it. Maybe we need to introduce it orally."

We hear a leopard roar from down the hall, "Maybe we need to do that before the cub's pack finds us." I look back to Mitch, "Do we have enough left?"

"We're gonna find out. And, uh don't think I don't recognize what you just did there." Mitch looks up to Abe before we head back into the room. The dog is still barking and snarling, "Sorry, buddy. We need you one more time."

Abe and I get on opposite sides of the dog, holding him as still as we can, as Mitch prepares the syringe again, taking out the needle once he loads it. "You got him?"

Abe and I nod, "Yeah."

Mitch sprays the dog in the face and when he does Abe and I step back with Mitch and Jamie, looking at the dog, waiting for it to change. Jamie sighs and shakes her head, "Mitch, I don't know. I don't think it's working."

Mitch sighs and rubs his face. A few moments later the dog's tone changes. It goes from barking a bark of anger and threat to a friendly bark, even wagging his tail. Mitch slowly steps forward and pets the dog. "Good boy. Good boy."

I step forward and pet the dog as well, "We better find Jackson. We gotta get this stuff home."

Abe and I untie the dog and I take the dog with Mitch and Jamie, while Abe goes off to find Jackson. I wanted to go with him, but he wouldn't let me go with him. As Jamie, Mitch, and I rush through the lobby of the hospital to get to the truck, we are stopped upon seeing leopards in the doorway.

"Oh, my god."

Mitch holds a hand out to me, since I am a little way behind him and Jamie, "Don't move."

Jamie looks up to Mitch, "Do we run?"

"No. If we do, they'll take us down."

Just then we hear men shout from behind us, "Tranq them!" Then we hear the sound of tranq gunfire and we duck down, "Secure."

"Unit two secure! Extract! Lock it down."

"Secure this perimeter."

To my surprise, the men don't tranq the dog. Probably because he is just happy to see people. We are lead outside and wait among the army trucks. Before long the sun goes down and I look over to see a man coming out with the bag that Jamie had the cub in and it looks like he is carrying something as well. Behind him, Abe and Jackson come out. When they do I hand the leash to Mitch and run to Jackson.

"Jackson!" I run into him almost a little too hard. The two of us embrace and he kisses my head, "god, baby, you look like hell."

"Thanks." Jackson smiles at me before looking to one of the soldiers, "Hey, listen, up there with me, there were three kids."

The soldier nods, "Already on their way to Nyanga. We'll track down their parents."

I take a deep breath, "How'd you know we were here?"

"All I'm authorized to say is your location was provided by a French national. We're gonna get you to Johannesburg and from there on a flight to D.C."

Mitch and Jamie had walked over to us at this point and Abe takes the leash from Mitch, "I made a promise. Can you spare two men to take him back home?" Abe hands the leash to the soldier.

"You serious?" Abe nods to him, "yeah, okay." The soldier takes the leash. "Let's move."

Not an hour later we are on a plane on the way to D.C. I was snuggled up with Jackson in our seats next to Abe. "You know, Abe made a lot of promises to God in Zimbabwe."

Jackson chuckles, "You gonna keep them?"

Abe takes a deep breath, "I think all but one."

"Did it involve women?"

"No, it involved hamburger. And it was made in haste on your behalf. I think you'll be making your own promises from now on."

"As soon as we land, hamburger, three cold beers, not negotiable."

Jamie leans over the alley to us, "Please tell me that after everything we've been through, you guys aren't seriously gonna eat a hamburger."

Abe leans forward and smiles, "Oh, I'm eating the hamburger."

I smile and take a deep breath, looking over to Jamie, "How's the cub?"

"He ate half my dinner and fell asleep. Would you mind watching him for a sec?"

"Not at all."

With that Jamie gets up and heads to the back of the plane. I take a deep breath and snuggle back up with Jackson. Taking a few deep breaths, I know it sounds weird, but the smell of his cologne in relaxing and comforting. I am ready to go to sleep and then get back to D.C. so we can cure the animals.

Sadly, before we can the plane is taken down by a group of bats. When the plane lands in the water, we rush to get out. The last thing I remember is claiming onto a floating piece of wreckage and reaching out to Jackson, who was swimming over to me, then black.

When I come to I am in a hospital room. As I look around me I see a doctor in the room, but once I wake up the doctor leaves. Before long I hear the door open and see Chloe walk in.

"Chloe!"

"Kat!"

Chloe walks over to me and gives me what hug she can. I look down at my body and see that my lower leg is in a cast, I later learned that it had been broken.

"What happened?" I look up to Chloe.

"The plane you were on crashed."

"Is everyone okay?" Chloe takes a deep breath, "Chloe, is everyone okay?"

Chloe shakes her head, "They haven't been able to find Jamie or the leopard."