Page 35 - The Muse 2021

“Would you like me to help you, doctor?”
“No, no, it’s alright you have paperwork of your own to finish. Plus, this is my responsibility and I can’t be pushing it on your shoulders,” he took a short pause “I already rely on you and Bianca too much so don’t worry about it!” “... If you say so, but if you need me, I will be over by my desk, so just shout and I’ll be here,” responded Usalina
with a soft kind smile.
A few days later Bianca was sitting at her desk trying to complete as much of her paperwork as possible after
another boring day. It seemed like her work was only increasing and never seemed to dwindle. Plus, with all her school work on top, she had been working non-stop for a few days and she was starting to feel the repercussions of her actions. She was very tired and started to notice that she was slowing down. She was not working as fast or as diligently as she normally would. Usalina and the Doctor were also busy, and Bianca’s pride would not allow her to ask for help. The number of patients at the clinic had been increasing and none of the members could keep up with all the work they had. They were all exhausted and at their limits. At this point it was late and Bianca was getting ready to close up the clinic. Just as she is about to do this a family runs in.
The father was carrying his son on his back. They looked exhausted and sweat was running down their faces as they stopped to take a breath inside the clinic after trampling Bianca at the entrance. They all had very distraught looks on their faces like they had stared death right in the eyes before running away. The son on the dad’s back was unconscious. A very deadly mutation had started to contaminate his body and tear it apart from the inside. If the mutation was not taken care of, he would die a slow, painful death of having all his organs slowly tear before his heart exploded and the mutation moved on to its next victim. These mutations were extremely tricky because not only did you have to remove them, but you had to contain them to make sure it would not find someone else to host it. The son looked like he did not have much time left. From just his outside appearance Bianca could tell that some of his organs had already been affected and that the mutation was working quickly. Bianca hurried to her feet and ran over to the patient. The doctor and Usalina heard the family-run in and had come to see what was happening.
“Help! It’s my son something is happening to him! You have to save him!” yelled the father at the Doctor with a shaky voice. He was crying and so were the rest of them. They looked tired and worn out almost as if they ran from the other side of the eighth ring just to get to the clinic.
“We will do what we can sir but I am going to need you to calm down,” responded the Doctor calmly “Usalina, help these people calm down, and when you are done come to the operating room! Bianca, you are with me!”
“Yes, Doctor!”
“Understood!”
Bianca took the son off of the dad’s shoulders and brought him to the operation room. Usalina started to calm
down the worried family and got them some chairs and water before going to the operating room.
“He looks to be about 15, race Human, gender Male, heigh 152cm., weight 78lb., no allergies to report! He has a
very low percentage of fat and not much muscle. His blood pressure is quite unstable. He seems malnourished. The mutation is about 76% complete with its process. Around 20 minutes remaining before he is gone,” said Bianca to the doctor analyzing the patient.
He was very small and frail for a boy his age. His skin was almost as pale as Bianca’s and his hair was almost as golden as the doctors. He was very bony and had barely enough fat and muscle to get by. He was breathing heavily, and it looked like he was struggling. He was sweating profusely and his whole body was shaking. His stomach was caved in from the mutation to the point that all of his sweat made a small puddle on top as he lay on his back on the operating table. The mutation had latched on to him through his mouth. It came in while he was eating some food. Bianca could see the black tint left behind on his small pale lips. It reminded her of an old painting she saw when she was young. The painting was just a simple white canvas the size of a small billboard and in the center, there was one word writing in black ink. However, the ink had bled around the word making it become smeared and resembled a small ink spill. This painting had always confused Bianca. She never found out what that word was or what it meant but she knew it was the most important thing her family-owned. Bianca’s mom told her that the painting was the motto her family lived by but she never said what that motto was. Bianca wondered why this remained her of that painting. She had forgotten it long ago when she left her house. However, looking at this boy finally made her realize what that painting meant.
“Usalina you keep the boy’s vitals as stable as you can. Bianca, I need you to help me operate and remove the mutation,” said the doctor snapping Bianca back out of her world of thoughts.
“I will try my hardest, but he is very unstable, and we do not have much time,” responded Usalina.
“Doctor we won’t have time to do such a complicated operation in such little time! We need to think of something else,” said Bianca, “like the flower we collected if we give it to him, he could make it!”
“The flower isn’t ready yet! It has to sit in a special room to remove all of its hallucinogens before it can be used for medicine!”
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