Death Is Legion - The End?

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

Kyle, Logan and Wade manage to survive the virus long enough to get back to the surface where the anti-virals are. Too bad there's not better news.

Trigger warning: Body horror.



The door behind them cycled close, and at that moment, a muffled thump echoed around them, shaking the ground. Below them, the concrete hollow that held the main lab was engulfed in the exploding reactor and collapsed in on itself. They were separated by ten feet of concrete which very soon would be all that remained intact in the facility. As they turned, they were confronted by a sheet of translucent plastic that was bonded and sealed to the wall.

"Looks like someone's been busy," Logan said, aiming for normal. The feel of growths bulging into existence and receding all over his body was nauseating. There was also the ooze of blood and infection that was straining his healing factor. He glanced at Wade and Kyle who were probably having a harder time of it than he was. Gar and North had better have tracked down something to take care of this shit before someone lost it or they started an outbreak.

Wade braced himself against the wall near the door they'd just come through and bent double, pus continuing to ooze from the lesions that had opened along his forearms. "As long as they were busy enough to get rid of this without skinning me alive. Though at this point, that might be the best option."

Kyle leaned against the wall, wheezing. "I'd like to not have to re-grow my lungs. That'd be great." He buckled at the knees, but caught himself before hitting the ground. "Screaming mushrooms. Pretty sure they're in my face." Well, the mushrooms hadn't screamed at him, but his nose had been full of the smell of rotting fungus for what felt like hours, or days, or a pretty big chunk of forever.

"What're we standin' around for then? Let's get you two lugs through the decontamination." Warm blood trickled from various wounds, mixing with pus and weirdly colored discharge. He might've a couple broken ribs if the way his breath hitched was anything to go by, and he didn't think his healing factor had touched any of that. Whatever the hell they'd breathed in was doing it in. Something slick and wet burst in a lung and breathing suddenly sucked. He coughed to get some air but that only sent pain rocketing through him. Logan swore viciously then moved toward Wade, his words wheezing out between the whistles of a death rattle. "C'mon, assholes, lets get movin' before I have to carry both of your carcasses out of here."

Swiping his palm under the hem of his shirt along his stomach, Wade came away with a handful of still-growing grime and goo that he flung to the cement beside him. Right as Logan got within reach, though, a coughing fit hit the mercenary hard. He hacked up something bloody and spat it out, then pointed at it as he attempted to push himself up. "That. That is an actual piece of my lung. I will bet you fifty two dollars and three cents."

"Guys, there's a box of needles at your feet. Take a blood sample and put them into the transfer slot in the corner of the sheet. The Doc is going to analyze your blood to produce the neutralizing agent." Kane's voice came through the plastic, muffled and slightly indistinct.

Kyle fumbled with the box, and the plastic cover on the needle, and the needle itself. Fingers that had broken and healed and were slick with sweat and blood didn't grip well. He got the needle into a vein on the third try. It took another two to pull the plunger, and he nearly dropped it before he could get the plastic tube that held the blood separated from the needle.

Then he sat down boneless and woozy on the ground, panting and dizzy, and leaned his head against his knees.

The three of them were a sorry sight. "Worry 'bout regrowin' your lung later." Logan grabbed Wade by the arm to help him up. The closer they were to that hole in the wall the better especially once whatever doc Kane had on the other side got to work. He grunted as every movement throbbed with pain, muscle and tendon fought against the density of his skeleton, and signalled how much further his healing factor was failing.

He deposited Wade next to the box then grabbed a needle. A quick slide of the needle into a vein collected plenty for a sample that he then capped and set back into the box. Blood continued to seep from the injection site, which wasn't reassuring in the least bit.

Once he was close enough to pick up the box, Wade took a needle out for himself and did what he'd seen countless doctors do to his arm. Only the doctors hadn't been dealing with painful, oozing lesions or pus, but whatever. He took a blood sample and slid it into the slot like Kane'd said to. "Holy fuck," he grated, sitting on the ground near Kyle and attempting to make himself breathe through the pain. His adrenalin levels had dropped once they were out of immediate danger and now... now everything hurt like a motherfucker. "Doc'd better hurry up," he said, unsure whether the people outside the plastic would even be able to hear him.

There was a long pause, as North and Kane quietly transferred the box to the mini-lab that Huxley had setup. He took each syringe and inserted it into a screening slot, designed to isolate specific vectors in the blood. The computer started to run a complex series of programs, pushing the blood through a spectrograph, creating markers as they appeared in the blood chemistry.

"This makes a specialized antidote?"

"No." He shook his head. "We actually had several counteragents developed. However, they are specific to how the virus mutates in the blood. If you apply the wrong one, it's instant death."

"So, you're saying don't mix up the labels." Kane said slowly.

The comment made North’s lips twitch in amusement. “We know which vial of blood came from each of the three of them,” he said. “Assuming we do not drop them and they do not do something monumentally stupid, it should work out.” Whether it was happy coincidence or not, it was a good thing he was not in that tent.

“How much longer, Doctor?”

"Just waiting on... there. There's the vector." He reached into the small medical case at his feet and selected a series of ampules. He fit them into a complicated looking delivery gun and then added the remaining blood work. He quickly stacked up three guns, each with a digital display of the men's names. Kane collected them and walked back, dropping them back into the slot.

"This should cure you guys totally. Or, you know, kill you outright. So, um- enjoy, eh?"

"This trip's just been full of fun things," Logan said as he pulled the guns out of the slot and passed Kyle and Wade the ones with their names. He held his in his hand and looked it over. The thing looked like something from the labs in his nightmares more than something that was supposed to save their lives.

"Kane, this better not be some fucked up form of payback or some X-Force research mission on how to incapacitate mutants with healin' factors, North." He pressed the delivery gun to his arm and squeezed. A soft hiss signaled the release of the antidote into his system. He dropped the gun back into the slot and sat back against the wall. He wasn't feeling any different. "Sittin' and waitin'. My favorite."

Despite his earlier fumbles with the blood draw syringes, Kyle's hands were steady as his pressed the gun to his arm. The tremors resumed moments later. "I'll drink to that." He said, and then rested his head against his knees wearily. "I am fucking done with today."

"Ditto," Wade said, pushing the tip of the gun against a relatively unscathed bit of his inner elbow and depressed the trigger, dropping it the moment the counteragent concoction emptied from its compartment. He groaned low in his throat, letting his head knock back against the wall nearest him.

Several long moments later, the mercenary felt a little less like his skin was trying to crawl off his bones.

"Hope so. Don't wanna shit out my lungs in front of anyone." Kyle grunted. Which - he looked towards the plastic where he could see moving shadows. "Gar? My folks were mixed up in this. Have you guys...I mean...shit. Has anyone heard from them?"

"Your stepdad is out by the car." Kane sighed. "But Arkady took your mother hostage to escape."

Kyle was out of anything to say. He let his forehead hit his knees and wrapped both arms around his head. "I don't know what to do now."

"We wait until the antidote takes effect. I've already called local state troopers and they're on the lookout for the car." Garrison looked at his phone. "And I'm seeing what kind of federal help I can pull in quietly."

North grunted. He had already sent out several initial feelers on his phone. “Once we get out of here, I will see what I can do to track them down.” Between Kane and himself, he was confident that they would be able to get a handle on her location. “In the meantime, your stepfather might need a little reassuring as well.”

"Tell him I'm alive? Or, I dunno, he's used to that. Um. Tell him we're good at this shit and we'll find her?" Kyle still hadn't raised his head, and his voice didn't carry any conviction in his words. "He's my -dad-. I'm not supposed to be the one helping him. He's the one telling me no, I'm not a dumbass and I won't flunk out of college. What the fuck am I supposed to tell him?"

"Exactly that. That you are okay, and that we will do our best to find your mother." North's voice was firm and unsympathetic, but he squatted by the delivery hole and rapped his knuckles against it. "You are a big boy. Time you realised your parents are human too, and that you are capable of providing them help when they need it. But first, has the antidote worked?"

"My skin's not falling off anymore," Wade rasped. It wasn't exactly healing, either, but then that was what it always did. This was going to be disgusting. "And the stuff attempting to wiggle it's way out of my throat's stopped wiggling. I'll count that as a win."

"It's gettin' there." Things were starting to feel like they were healing. Breathing was a lot easier than it had been for a while and he no longer felt like his skin was trying to crawl away. Logan rubbed a hand against his side and the pustules there seemed to be disappearing and staying gone. "Whoever you got workin' with you over there probably just saved our damn lives."

"Same. Might need a few more minutes but I don't think any of us are gonna turn into zombies. I don't feel like the walking undead anymore." Kyle stretched out his legs, and started to try to collect his balance. "Dunno how long we'll be contagious for though. The dude that was down here said it was pretty wicked virulent."

"Dr. Huxley says he's monitoring it. Should be soon." Kane said, and his voice dropped. "We'll get your mom back, Kyle. I promise."