Lloyd stared dumbly upon hearing his request. “What?” he asked, dazedly.

“Your hand. We don’t have much time to waste,” Heinrich repeated. Hearing the words ‘we don’t have much time to waste’, Lloyd flinched like a feral cat and immediately offered his right arm to the youth.

“Take ma blood. Take how much ever ya need and then some more! Please just save my friend,” Lloyd begged.

Heinrich did not reply but simply nodded his head. Taking Lloyd’s right arm into his hands, he felt it around for a suitable vein. A few seconds of searching yielded him a suitable target, finding which Heinrich immediately acted.

Using the crude needle-like object that he had scrounged out from within his pouch, Heinrich inserted it into Lloyd’s veins with a smooth motion. An intense burst of pain assaulted Lloyds’ mind but he gritted his teeth and kept himself from shouting.

The instant the crude needle was inserted into Lloyd’s arm, Heinrich bent down and placed his mouth on the exposed end of the needle. Holding the other end with his mouth, he then sucked, drawing out the blood from Lloyd’s body.

The needle insertion seemed to be successful as the youth immediately tasted a copper-metallic flavor within his mouth. Removing his mouth from the needle’s end, he then grabbed the other pre-prepared object, a long string-like item with its other end attached to another similar needle used on Lloyd. Grabbing the string’s free end, Heinrich brought it towards the needle on Lloyd’s arm and expertly affixed it. He then grabbed onto the other end of the string and inserted it into Gunter’s arm.

After finishing the insertion and ensuring the connections and the like, Gunter quietly sat next to the duo and watched the transfusion process unfold.

Blood unceasingly poured out of the needle on Llyod’s arm, entered the string-like device connecting him and the injured Gunter, traveled through it, and exited from the other end and into the latter’s body.

“What’s this?” In a bid to distract himself from the long, continuous pain, Lloyd asked Heinrich while pointing to the string-like device.

“Animal gut,” Heinrich blandly replied.

“This?” He asked, pointing to the needle.

“A needle with a hole going through its center,” the youth replied.

“Did ya make this?”

Heinrich nodded his head, causing Lloyd to be surprised. “How old are ya?” He pressed on with another question.

“Nineteen,” the boy replied.

“Where did ya learn to do all of this?” Lloyd’s hatred for the boy seemed to have significantly lessened after realizing that he truly meant no harm to his best friend. Like Foreman Jason, Lloyd concluded that Heinrich only seemed dodgy because the youth was unable to properly express himself.

After seeing everything that he did to help him and his best friend, Lloyd came to trust Heinrich and no longer denounced him. Of course, the boy’s skill played a huge part in his change of mind.

With his hatred gone, Lloyd felt naturally curious about the boy.

Hearing the older man’s question, Heinrich frowned and lowered his head. After staring at his feet for a few moments, he opened his mouth and said, “I learned them myself.” He then quietened.

Sensing that the youth was unwilling to talk about this topic, Lloyd asked him another question.

“Who are yer mom and pops? What do they do?”

“My father is a butcher. He ran away when the Baron announced the order to vacate the barony. I did not want to go with him so I snuck out and followed the Baron to this place.” Heinrich answered giving his most detailed answer yet. “My mother… My mother died when I was young. I don’t know much about her.”

“Oh, ah, I’m… sorry,” Lloyd awkwardly replied, his face sporting an uncomfortable expression. “I’m terribly sorry. I didn’t think yer mum…”

“It’s fine,” Heinrich stopped him and the two sunk into silence.

After passing a few minutes in uncomfortable silence, Lloyd started to speak.

“Me and this old guy here ‘ave been best pals for a long time. We came from the same village, played and grew up together, and even fell in love and married our wives at similar times. I know just about ever’thin about him. Seein’ him like this… I guess, somethin’ just blew up inside me.”

He then looked at Heinrich with an apologetic expression and apologized, “I’m really sorry ‘bout hitting ya.”

“It’s okay,” the youth calmly replied. That being said, he was reminded of the minor injury on his head and acted to treat it, while continuing to listen to Llyod’s story.

“Ya know a secret? I might look like this,” he pointed to his large, muscular body, “but I’m act’lly a coward. I’m terrified by the littlest of things!”

“This old guy, however, is the opposite. He’s very brave. He’s the one that convinced me and ma family to come here, ya know?” Lloyd stared at Gunter’s face with a proud smile. “I’ve n’ver seen him dreading the future, n’ver seen him afraid of tomorrow. This bastard is always so positive and sure to an annoyin’ degree.”

“But that’s what makes him so amazin’, I guess. That’s why I respect him so much.”

He continued to quietly stare at Gunter. After a few minutes, he looked up at Heinrich and said.

“Thank you.” His words were filled to the brim with gratitude and sincerity. There was not a trace of deceit or a shadow of pretense.

Lloyd’s words of thanks were as honest and bright as the man himself.

“I– uh… yes,” Heinrich replied. His body squirmed from discomfort while his face, for the first time since their meeting, showed an expression of awkwardness. He was unprepared to meet with such gratitude and was unsure about how to deal with it.

In the end, he settled for silence. Lloyd, however, knew that the boy had accepted his gratitude.

The two, three if the unconscious Gunter was to be included, stayed together for nearly twenty more minutes at which point Heinrich stopped the transfusion and removed the crude devices. He then checked up on Gunter one final time before declaring the results of the treatment.

“Fortunately, your friend seems to have taken well to your blood. He should survive,” Heinrich concluded.

“He’ll live?” Lloyd asked, hope and excitement shining within his eyes.

Heinrich nodded his head.

“HE’LL LIVE!!” Lloyd burst out, exclaiming with excitement. His excited scream drew the attention of other people inside the Treatment Zone once again causing them to gather around.

After seeing and hearing that the procedure was a success, they collectively wished Lloyd while praising Heinrich to the high heavens. The youth –left to fend for himself– reacted with intense discomfort and awkwardness. He tried to get away but failed due to being surrounded by the crowd.

A few minutes later, Foreman Jason arrived at the scene once again and saw the situation. After appreciating Heinrich for his excellent work, he turned serious and asked.

“Tell me, lad. Can ya check up on the others that suffered similar injuries and save them?”

“I’ll need to see them first,” Heinrich flatly replied. “But I will be able to keep them from dying if their injuries are less severe than this.”

“That’s better than anything I hoped for,” Jason replied and led the way. “Come with me. Let’s get ya somethin’ to eat before we start working ya.”

As such, Heinrich got to work around the Treatment Zone after shoving down a bowl of soup. He efficiently and expertly went around checking up on the people and did his best to help them. His self-made pills, herbal remedies that he had invented himself, were especially effective in dealing with the patients. Not only did the pills dull their sense of pain, lessening their suffering and making the injuries more bearable, but they also helped stabilize their heart rate and reduce their blood pressure.

Fortunately, none of the other patients within the Treatment Zone were affected with injuries that were as serious as Gunter’s. Most only suffered from tears and small bites that did not warrant treatment beyond disinfection and bandaging.

There was one case where a man suddenly started to cough and choke mysteriously. Heinrich, however, was able to quickly spot the problem, fluid filling up his chest, and treated the man on the spot by inserting his crude needle into the man’s chest cavity and drawing out the fluids.

This act further elevated his reputation amongst the miners’ hearts and melted away any remaining feelings of dissatisfaction or revulsion towards the youth. A few of the elders even started calling him the ‘Second Miracle’ referring to how he was the second person to mysteriously appear and save the townspeople from harm.

Meanwhile, time continued to trudge onwards, bringing forward Day 7. The good news was that the night had finally passed and the unnamed town hadn’t lost a single one of its people. The bad news was that the sky outside remained dark and… the rain had still not let up.

The sky continued to pour its fury on the earth.