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xp_logsAfter a restless night in the abandoned house, the group leaves in the large SUV they've managed to start up and provision. The faster the progress they make to Baltimore the better.
The SUV comfortably fit the group and all the supplies and makeshift weapons they'd managed to gather. Felicia was behind the wheel with Xavin in the passenger seat and Natasha peering through the gap between them from her spot in the second row of seats. It was slow going with all the other abandoned vehicles littering the streets along with the snow clogging the way. There was nothing they could do about their tracks. Speed would have to take precedence over stealth.
They'd folded down the very last row of seats and stuffed the area with all the blankets and pillows they could find so they could give Rahne more room. It wasn't a comfortable ride but Jean and Laurie needed to be close to Rahne and help her as best they could.
When it didn't feel like her body was on fire, it felt like she was being submerged into a bathtub of ice. Rahne was coherent but when the chills and the pain hit in waves, she almost wished she wasn't. She clutched her arm to her stomach and clenched her teeth, aware but unable to stop the soft growl that sometimes forced its way out of her mouth.
That smell of death she'd first smelled when they'd arrived - she could smell it on her skin. Not all the time but it was there.
She rocked her head back and breathed through another wave of pain. "Zombie movies always have the person zombie-fied by this point," she said, trying to keep the fear from her voice. "I'm still me, aye? Why?"
Jean offered Rahne a wet rag to put on her forehead. It had been cooled by the snow. If they had a pain reliever it might put a small dent in keeping her fever down but the fever was the body trying to fight the infection. She stayed close to Rahne to keep an eye on her--both medically and mentally. If she turned while in the close quarters of the SUV it would be extremely dangerous and Jean hoped she was fast enough to keep her contained.
"We'll do the best we can to try to figure something out," she said. They took an oath to first do no harm but they also had to be realistic. Truth be told, Jean had never dealt with zombies before, though.
Rahne had flinched away from the rag, the cold forcing a hiss from her, but she relented after a second, knowing it would help. "I should have moved back to Muir," she muttered. "Dr. Moira doesn't have zombies."
"I would be guessing, at best, without any way of truly testing any theory currently." Laurie murmured, placing a gentle hand on Rahne's wrist as she felt the girl's pulse. Elevated by the stress, and given this appeared to be a blood borne fungal contagion of some type, they needed to calm her down in order to arrest it's progress. "But if I had to say, I would presume the same healing function that protects you when you metamorphose into a four legged wolf as opposed to a two legged human is also keeping you from entirely succumbing to the infection currently. Given that it appears to be fungal in nature, I need to slow your heartbeat. Do you give me permission to use my powers?"
Rahne’s internal Kyle immediately said ‘oh HELL NO’ but then again, Kyle had never been bitten by a zombie. Or if he had, she didn’t know about it. So she nodded. “Aye, I do.”
Besides, Laurie’s explanation was the only thing now keeping her from sobbing hysterically.
"I promise this will only be enough to calm you," Laurie's voice had dropped to a soothing modulation, a shimmer of violet passing briefly across her fingertips where they touched Rahne's skin before sinking in. She needed to be gentle, any sort of strong arm tactic with her powers would simply put Rahne to sleep and they needed her awake and alert. "Have they taught you breathing exercises as part of your powers control?"
“Aye,” she said, eyes sliding halfway shut. But she didn’t fall asleep, she just felt the most relaxed she’d been in ages. “Ye smell like those wee peach candies when ye use yer powers...”
Jean glanced up to Laurie with a flash of dismay before putting on her doctor face as she turned to Natasha. With both Rahne and Natasha having been bitten their ragtag small group weren't doing as well as she'd hoped.
"How are we doing?" she said, offering a light smile.
"Mind if I check your bite?"
Natasha started and turned at her name. She'd been so intensely focused on the road. Her wound hadn't bothered her at all, unlike Rahne's, and she'd pushed it to the back of her mind. The fewer of them that were down for the count the better and if that meant holding on by sheer force of will then so be it. "Uh, yeah, sure."
She pushed her sleeve up to show the bandage that'd been hastily wrapped around her forearm. Aside from the initial sting and the annoyance of the bleeding, Natasha hadn't needed to deal with it. "I still feel fine? It just feels like a bad scrape more than anything."
"And you were bitten around the same time as Rahne..." Jean said contemplatively, carefully studying the bite and noticing it didn't look like Rahne's at all. "But you're not feverish?"
It was then she noticed the scarring on Natasha's other arm, just above the wrist. It looked just like....
"More bite marks. You were bitten before."
Natasha shook her head. "No, I feel fine. Nothing out of the ordinary for me."
She stared at Jean for a moment before looking at her other arm herself, tracing her fingers over the faded but still clear sign of a previous bite mark that'd healed. "What. The. Fuck. I thought no one survived a zombie bite unless they chose their own way out."
"There's a possibility that some people may be immune. It's rare but...it could happen," Jean said.
“Given the state of the zombies we’ve seen, this appears to be either fungal or bacterial in nature.”
Laurie continued to hold a hand against Rahne’s skin, at the level she was emitting, the half-life of her power was limited at best.
“Theoretically the pH level of your blood may be having an effect on the infection. I would need a lab, and a variety of samples to confirm anything however.”
"Wonder if the adrenaline/poison running in my bloodstream has anything to do with that," Natasha said. Or maybe it was the reason why she'd somehow ended up in this younger body but with all her memories intact. She had no explanation for that and there likely wasn't going to be one anytime soon. "Assuming that's still a thing right now." Her mutations hadn't manifested until much later in life but who knew what had been going on behind the scenes. "Is there any way we can do anything with it right now to help Rahne?"
"Hard to say," Jean admitted. "With Rahne's healing factor fighting off the infection, adding your blood might create an adverse effect. I'd be somewhat hesitant to experiment in the field." Ha. The field. With the state of this world there were likely little working medical facilities left.
Rahne opened her mouth to say something but she closed it along with her eyes. This was too much to process and her brain was busy trying to parse the pain and discomfort. And the fact that she might be facing the end. Her hand reached out to feel at her throat for her cross but it wasn't there and that brought a different stab of pain.
"Even if we could find a lab, and even if your base blood types were any sort of match given that you aren't related, there's still a dozen ways an infusion could kill her. It was a good thought but it just wouldn't work."
Laurie took her hand away from Rahne and wiped it down with a wet-wipe from the supply in her bag. They'd been one of the supplies she'd found on their hunt that she'd been most grateful for. Even without her power to manage, having sterile hands was a foundation stone of good medical practice. Laurie shook her head with a smile, Kyle would be telling her to stop monologuing if he could hear her thoughts...had he been here. She didn't know where any of the others were, and she was terrified that they were all that was left.
"That should hold for a few hours, I'll give you another dose then."
She had never thought she'd be grateful for Genosha for anything, but the change to her powers it had made was what would hopefully save Rahne now, and her given that she was the one who would be pushing things if this lasted more than a day or two.
Natasha nodded and looked at Rahne, who looked miserable in all sorts of ways. It wasn't something Natasha would wish on her worst enemy. In most cases anyway. Especially with the complications Rahne was having with her mutation. "Hopefully we'll find something to help her once we get to wherever we're supposed to be going."
Jean's gaze lingered on Rahne a few moments before she gave the younger woman a gentle smile and turned back to Natasha.
"Hopefully," she said, preparing some of the snow to boil so they would have fresh water to drink and use.
If they couldn't then they would just have to figure something else out.
The only thing they had left was hope.
The SUV comfortably fit the group and all the supplies and makeshift weapons they'd managed to gather. Felicia was behind the wheel with Xavin in the passenger seat and Natasha peering through the gap between them from her spot in the second row of seats. It was slow going with all the other abandoned vehicles littering the streets along with the snow clogging the way. There was nothing they could do about their tracks. Speed would have to take precedence over stealth.
They'd folded down the very last row of seats and stuffed the area with all the blankets and pillows they could find so they could give Rahne more room. It wasn't a comfortable ride but Jean and Laurie needed to be close to Rahne and help her as best they could.
When it didn't feel like her body was on fire, it felt like she was being submerged into a bathtub of ice. Rahne was coherent but when the chills and the pain hit in waves, she almost wished she wasn't. She clutched her arm to her stomach and clenched her teeth, aware but unable to stop the soft growl that sometimes forced its way out of her mouth.
That smell of death she'd first smelled when they'd arrived - she could smell it on her skin. Not all the time but it was there.
She rocked her head back and breathed through another wave of pain. "Zombie movies always have the person zombie-fied by this point," she said, trying to keep the fear from her voice. "I'm still me, aye? Why?"
Jean offered Rahne a wet rag to put on her forehead. It had been cooled by the snow. If they had a pain reliever it might put a small dent in keeping her fever down but the fever was the body trying to fight the infection. She stayed close to Rahne to keep an eye on her--both medically and mentally. If she turned while in the close quarters of the SUV it would be extremely dangerous and Jean hoped she was fast enough to keep her contained.
"We'll do the best we can to try to figure something out," she said. They took an oath to first do no harm but they also had to be realistic. Truth be told, Jean had never dealt with zombies before, though.
Rahne had flinched away from the rag, the cold forcing a hiss from her, but she relented after a second, knowing it would help. "I should have moved back to Muir," she muttered. "Dr. Moira doesn't have zombies."
"I would be guessing, at best, without any way of truly testing any theory currently." Laurie murmured, placing a gentle hand on Rahne's wrist as she felt the girl's pulse. Elevated by the stress, and given this appeared to be a blood borne fungal contagion of some type, they needed to calm her down in order to arrest it's progress. "But if I had to say, I would presume the same healing function that protects you when you metamorphose into a four legged wolf as opposed to a two legged human is also keeping you from entirely succumbing to the infection currently. Given that it appears to be fungal in nature, I need to slow your heartbeat. Do you give me permission to use my powers?"
Rahne’s internal Kyle immediately said ‘oh HELL NO’ but then again, Kyle had never been bitten by a zombie. Or if he had, she didn’t know about it. So she nodded. “Aye, I do.”
Besides, Laurie’s explanation was the only thing now keeping her from sobbing hysterically.
"I promise this will only be enough to calm you," Laurie's voice had dropped to a soothing modulation, a shimmer of violet passing briefly across her fingertips where they touched Rahne's skin before sinking in. She needed to be gentle, any sort of strong arm tactic with her powers would simply put Rahne to sleep and they needed her awake and alert. "Have they taught you breathing exercises as part of your powers control?"
“Aye,” she said, eyes sliding halfway shut. But she didn’t fall asleep, she just felt the most relaxed she’d been in ages. “Ye smell like those wee peach candies when ye use yer powers...”
Jean glanced up to Laurie with a flash of dismay before putting on her doctor face as she turned to Natasha. With both Rahne and Natasha having been bitten their ragtag small group weren't doing as well as she'd hoped.
"How are we doing?" she said, offering a light smile.
"Mind if I check your bite?"
Natasha started and turned at her name. She'd been so intensely focused on the road. Her wound hadn't bothered her at all, unlike Rahne's, and she'd pushed it to the back of her mind. The fewer of them that were down for the count the better and if that meant holding on by sheer force of will then so be it. "Uh, yeah, sure."
She pushed her sleeve up to show the bandage that'd been hastily wrapped around her forearm. Aside from the initial sting and the annoyance of the bleeding, Natasha hadn't needed to deal with it. "I still feel fine? It just feels like a bad scrape more than anything."
"And you were bitten around the same time as Rahne..." Jean said contemplatively, carefully studying the bite and noticing it didn't look like Rahne's at all. "But you're not feverish?"
It was then she noticed the scarring on Natasha's other arm, just above the wrist. It looked just like....
"More bite marks. You were bitten before."
Natasha shook her head. "No, I feel fine. Nothing out of the ordinary for me."
She stared at Jean for a moment before looking at her other arm herself, tracing her fingers over the faded but still clear sign of a previous bite mark that'd healed. "What. The. Fuck. I thought no one survived a zombie bite unless they chose their own way out."
"There's a possibility that some people may be immune. It's rare but...it could happen," Jean said.
“Given the state of the zombies we’ve seen, this appears to be either fungal or bacterial in nature.”
Laurie continued to hold a hand against Rahne’s skin, at the level she was emitting, the half-life of her power was limited at best.
“Theoretically the pH level of your blood may be having an effect on the infection. I would need a lab, and a variety of samples to confirm anything however.”
"Wonder if the adrenaline/poison running in my bloodstream has anything to do with that," Natasha said. Or maybe it was the reason why she'd somehow ended up in this younger body but with all her memories intact. She had no explanation for that and there likely wasn't going to be one anytime soon. "Assuming that's still a thing right now." Her mutations hadn't manifested until much later in life but who knew what had been going on behind the scenes. "Is there any way we can do anything with it right now to help Rahne?"
"Hard to say," Jean admitted. "With Rahne's healing factor fighting off the infection, adding your blood might create an adverse effect. I'd be somewhat hesitant to experiment in the field." Ha. The field. With the state of this world there were likely little working medical facilities left.
Rahne opened her mouth to say something but she closed it along with her eyes. This was too much to process and her brain was busy trying to parse the pain and discomfort. And the fact that she might be facing the end. Her hand reached out to feel at her throat for her cross but it wasn't there and that brought a different stab of pain.
"Even if we could find a lab, and even if your base blood types were any sort of match given that you aren't related, there's still a dozen ways an infusion could kill her. It was a good thought but it just wouldn't work."
Laurie took her hand away from Rahne and wiped it down with a wet-wipe from the supply in her bag. They'd been one of the supplies she'd found on their hunt that she'd been most grateful for. Even without her power to manage, having sterile hands was a foundation stone of good medical practice. Laurie shook her head with a smile, Kyle would be telling her to stop monologuing if he could hear her thoughts...had he been here. She didn't know where any of the others were, and she was terrified that they were all that was left.
"That should hold for a few hours, I'll give you another dose then."
She had never thought she'd be grateful for Genosha for anything, but the change to her powers it had made was what would hopefully save Rahne now, and her given that she was the one who would be pushing things if this lasted more than a day or two.
Natasha nodded and looked at Rahne, who looked miserable in all sorts of ways. It wasn't something Natasha would wish on her worst enemy. In most cases anyway. Especially with the complications Rahne was having with her mutation. "Hopefully we'll find something to help her once we get to wherever we're supposed to be going."
Jean's gaze lingered on Rahne a few moments before she gave the younger woman a gentle smile and turned back to Natasha.
"Hopefully," she said, preparing some of the snow to boil so they would have fresh water to drink and use.
If they couldn't then they would just have to figure something else out.
The only thing they had left was hope.
