Emerging Compassions
Chapter 20: What's Wrong With Sheen?
(Carl's POV)
The girls retreated to do something else, but being the good friend that I was, I followed Jimmy and Sheen further into the cave because I was worried about Sheen. What's Jimmy gonna do to him? I asked myself, concerned.
I then hid behind a nearby boulder as I quietly watched my 2 good friends. One was sick from some sorta chemical mixture, and the other was gonna run tests on the first. What was gonna happen? I was about to find out.
"Sheen, take a seat in that chair and pull its lever, please," Jimmy instructed him firmly.
Sheen did as he instructed, then asked, "Now what are ya gonna do to me?"
"Just take it easy, Sheen," he informed him, strapping him in with built-in metal clasps and stepping away for a few moments. Then he came back to him with a face mask of some sort connected to a weird tank by a long tube, saying as he placed the mask on his face, "Now, take a deep breath of this and you'll be out in seconds. It will also keep you from experiencing any kind of pain."
Sheen took a deep breath, and within a minute, was knocked out cold. Once Jimmy saw this, he brought out a needle and carefully extracted a small blood sample from him. Then he placed it on a microscope slide and began examining it while Goddard used some sorta beam to heal Sheen's arm where he'd been pricked.
That's when I couldn't take it anymore. I ran out from behind the boulder and up to him while he worked. "Can I help you, Carl?" he warily asked of me.
"Is Sheen gonna be okay?" I wanted to know.
"I'm working on it, Carl!" Jimmy informed me, then continued with his work.
All that work of his seemed to take forever, so I went back to my bed and snuggled under the covers, then fell asleep in under 5 minutes. Great. Some of Sheen is rubbing off on me...
About a couple hours later, Jimmy shook me awake. I sat up, stretched, and rubbed my eyes with a yawn, saying, "Find anything out, Jim?"
"Hold on, Carl," he told me, then motioned for the others to come over, which they did. Then he told us, "Guys, this is serious. Sheen has caused himself to contract the dreaded ailment H1N1, or the swine flu."
"Oh, no! He's turning into a pig!" I exclaimed, horrified.
"No, Carl. It's a much deadlier version of the common flu," Jimmy explained, "This can last for weeks, or even months, and can eventually kill you if the vaccine for it isn't administered within 10 days of contracting the virus."
"Oh, great...," Libby muttered, "I had a feelin' he was sick!"
"Where are we gonna get the vaccine, Jimmy?" Cindy questioned, a bit concerned.
"I'm actually gonna create an antidote he can consume orally so he won't have to worry about any needles sticking into him. The ingredients for it are quite rare, and are only located in Indonesia, which is where we're at now, but on different islands. We have to get started right away in order to complete the antidote that'll get Sheen healed, so let's head out after I wake him up. My rocket's fixed enough to travel short distances of up to 200 miles at a time," he informed them, then went back to where Sheen was and splashed water on him to wake him up, then released him from the metal clasps that held him.
"So, what are we gonna do now?" Sheen asked, coughing a few times.
"We're gonna set out and find ingredients for an antidote that'll cure you, Sheen," Jimmy told him informatively as they made their way to the rocket, got in, and blasted off.