"X!" One of the worms came rushing up as soon as the group spotted X, leading George and Rose into headquarters. "Did you find a doctor?"
"No, I just kidnapped two people for the fun of it. Of course I found a doctor!" X shouted. What in the world was wrong now? He could tell from the expression on the worms' face that something serious was going on. A cold chill rushed over him. What if Kay was... "What happened?"
"He had another seizure." Frank said as he came trotting up. "Are you sure that you don't know anything about getting these suits cleaned? I'll bet there will be a lot of babes at the..."
"No, no need to clean the suit." a worm said as they pounced, and clamped long fingers around the dog's mouth to keep him from saying the word funeral. What if Aileen could hear? Or what if Kay heard and it made him worse?
"We did just what your cousin told you to do." another worm said.
"He isn't getting better, though. You can fix him, can't you?" the fourth worm said as he looked up at George reading the name tag that identified him as the doctor X had collected.
"What in the world is going on here? Why aren't these people in a hospital?" George demanded as he looked around the room, somehow forcing his mind to block out the aliens. This many people, ill or injured was more than enough for him to cope with without having to deal with the sudden reality that aliens were on the planet after all.
"Because they were all poisoned with an alien toxin. A human hospital wouldn't have a clue how to deal with it." X went over to Kay and knelt down, picked up the scanner and pointed it at him for a minute before biting off a curse in his language at the readings. The worms were right. This was bad. He pulled himself to his feet and hurried over to the two humans. "We've got help on the way, but we've got a little problem and who knows how long of a wait until they get here."
"I'd say you have more than a little problem." Rose said as she looked around the room. All of those poor people. It looked like that railyard scene from Gone with the Wind.
"I'm trying to be optimistic." X grumbled as he snagged George by the arm and drug him over to Kay. "This seems to be our main problem. My cousin walked me through an antidote." And the antidote seemed like it was working. The twins were looking better anyway, and some of the humans who had been moaning were quiet, and hopefully sleeping the effects of the poison off. "But for some reason, he isn't doing well. Zara thinks it's just taking awhile but he's already had two seizures."
"Seizures?" George looked up at him for a moment before dropping down by his new patient. He had his penlight, anyway, about the only medical equipment that he had on him when he and his wife were unceremoniously snatched from the hospital sidewalk. He got it out, and carefully pushed Kay's eyes back, flashing it to check the pupil response. "When did the seizures start?" he asked as he looked up for a moment before continuing his exam as best he could. The pupils were reacting, but the pulse was way too rapid, and the man was gasping for breath, his lips starting to take on a bluish tone.
"The first one, maybe an hour or so ago. Worms, when was the other one?" X demanded.
"A vanilla almond." one said.
"Yeah, maybe fifteen minutes ago." a second worm chimed in. "It lasted forever. We just tried to keep the pillows around him so he didn't hurt himself. That was what we were supposed to do, right?"
"Is he going to be okay?" a third worm added with a worried look at the doctor working over the MIB's top agent.
"He needs to be in a hospital." George said just as he spotted the scanner X had used, the vital signs still visible. He frowned as he saw the heart rhythm. This wasn't good, and he wasn't sure, even if he had a top of the line ICU right there if the man was savable or not. "I suppose you're going to say that's not possible, though."
"Possible, but probably not the best idea." X said. If there was no other choice though, he would do it. And Zed was close to Kay. How angry could he get, if risking a human hospital saved the senior agent's life? "My cousin's hopefully going to be here soon." Who knows, if they risked letting Zara fly the ship, he could probably expect her at any time. "She knows all about this sort of thing, and I'm sure she's bringing a bunch of other people that know how to deal with it too. Isn't there something you can do, to at least try to buy a little time until they get here?"
"Maybe. Bring that cart over here, would you?" George murmured as he went over the readings again. Heart rate was though the ceiling and the breathing was too, but the poor man wasn't getting enough oxygen. The rhythm was shaky enough that he could arrest at any moment, and his blood pressure was heading for stroke level. They probably wouldn't even have time to get him to the hospital, in this condition. If something wasn't done fast, he was going to die, and he didn't even want to think about what might happen if there was another seizure. As soon as the cart was pulled over, he started to pull open drawers, and gather the supplies he could recognize. "Is there a translation program for some of this?" he demanded after looking at the drugs. He could recognize one or two, but as for the others, he wasn't sure enough to risk it.
"Right here." one of the worms said, as he scooped up the scanner and hit a few buttons before handing it back to George. "Can we help?"
"Yeah, we want to help!" the other three repeated.
"I need oxygen, and see if you can find some sort of pole to get this hooked on." George told them as he started getting an IV line worked into place in Kay's arm. Honestly, the man probably needed to be on a ventilator if not full life support, but under the circumstances, with no more help than he had, he wasn't going to risk that unless it was a matter of life and death. And there were several drugs that were similar to the medications that he was familiar with, and would use for similar problems. There might be a chance that he could pull him out of this. He didn't want to think of what the odds were. As soon as he had the IV in place, he pulled out one of the injectors, and after a moment to figure out how to use it, injected the contents into the line as soon as X had it hooked up to some sort of makeshift pole.
"Make sure that thing's steady." George ordered the alien as the worms came hurrying back from the medical lab with the oxygen hook- ups and any other equipment that they thought might be useful. "Bring that over here." he ordered them as he sorted through the supplies, trying to get things organized in the way he preferred. If the man he was working on went into cardiac arrest like he was expecting, he wanted to have things where he could get to them. He looked at the scanner again, and then selected another injector, this time pressing the business end to Kay's neck, to push the drug in faster. Why in the world wasn't he reacting the way he should be?
While George worked, and poor X panicked, Rose wandered around the room, trying to think of something that she could do to help. All of these people, lying there so sick, surely she could do something. Suddenly, she stopped, her hand flying to her mouth as she dropped to the floor beside one of the blanket-covered heaps. "Laurie?