Chapter 43: Cure

Drake flew toward the Rencia Biological Research Laboratory, where he knew Dr. Lazzie’s team worked.

A few minutes ago, General Rein had told the soldiers that had been restraining him to let him go. He’d mysteriously changed his mind after hearing Drake talk, and decided to give Drake a chance to save Steve.

“In the meanwhile, the Defense Force shall fight off Steve without touching or killing it,” Rein said as he turned to face the monster. “I must say, this will be one heck of a job.”

Jord handed Drake some equipment to change into.

“You’d better find the cure and bring it back fast. Don’t make me regret this,” Rein said without turning around.

“You won’t, General. I’ll do whatever it takes to save Steve. You can count on it.”

After Drake put on his jetpack and weapons and departed, Rein sighed. I really let my emotions get the better of me, don’t I, Arthur.

* * *

Now, Drake was flying over the remains of apartment buildings with the hope that Lazzie’s team would be at their lab with the cure.

Below, on the streets, was chaos. People were scrambling for their life. It was like a replay of the Night of the Apocalypse. Most people knew what they had to do this time, having experience in Apocalypse survival on their resume, and a few seemed to have given up, unwilling to relive their nightmare. The panicked crowd ran around, generally away from the behemoth, but others tried to find their families or friends. The streets were filled with debris, blood, and screams.

As Drake watched the people below, he heard one of them calling out:

“Drake!”

Drake followed the voice to a man standing amid the confused crowd: it was his father.

“Dad!” Drake flew down to him.

“Thank goodness you’re okay.” Bill hugged him. “I knew you were going to Steve’s apartment, and it was in the same area…”

“Listen, Dad, I’m busy. That Mayhem is Steve.”

“What!? Then he’s—”

“—an alien, yes.”

Bill seemed to piece things together from seeing the creature’s inhuman form.

“Right now, I’m headed to doctor Lazzie’s lab to see if they have the cure to the Blucteryhem yet, in any form.”

“Huh? But now we don’t know if she’s an alien. We can’t stop suspecting her just because we know Steve is an alien. Those two could be spies working together, for all we know.”

“I know, but we have to try. Even accounting for her being evil or something, the worst she can do is run away. She doesn’t have any other vials of potent Blucteryhem, and weapons aren’t allowed in the lab. The only risk here is time.” Drake hadn’t thought of how to convince an evil alien to hand over the cure. Maybe she’d be willing to save her partner once he explained the situation, unless they were on different teams altogether.

“Okay. It sounds like you’re in a rush, so I don’t want to delay you. I have faith you’ll do well in negotiations, but just keep in mind that you need a bit of trust to take a step forward; a leap of faith, if you will.”

With that, Drake left the scene, unsure of what to make of the advice.

* * *

“I need to see Doctor Lazzie.”

A boy appeared before two security guards standing at the doorway of the Rencia Biological Research Laboratory.

“Do you have an appointment?” One of the guards, Lazar Williams, said.

The boy made a face as if saying, what is this, a clinic?

“No, but this is urgent. Can you take me to her or tell me where she is?”

“Sorry, but if you don’t have an ID or an appointment, we can’t let you in.”

The other guard, George Whissel, yawned.

The kid seemed irritated. “Look, I’m with the Defense Force. This is a matter that concerns the lives of many people in Rencia. I need to speak to Dr. Lazzie as soon as possible. I assure you that she’ll allow it and you won’t get in trouble for anything.”

“Listen, kid. I don’t care if the world’s gonna end, for God’s sake. If you don’t have valid credentials, we cannot allow you in.”

At this point, the boy snapped. He grabbed Lazar by the collar. “This building is facing the opposite direction, so you may not have noticed it, but are you two deaf!?! Do you not know that there’s a giant Mayhem inside the Walls right now, and the military is fighting it off?! I need to speak to Lazzie to save… I mean, stop him!”

Lazar looked shaken.

“Um,” George chimed in, “Do you have your military ID card?”

“Er… no, I forgot it,” the boy said quietly as he let go. He then spoke up. “But do I need one? Do you find an exoskeleton, jetpack, or sword among civilians?!”

“Ah… well, I get what you mean,” George said, “but our jobs will be at serious risk if—”

Lazar gasped all of a sudden. He was staring at the boy.

“Hmm? Something wrong, Lazar?”

“I-I just recognized this kid. I remember reading about him in the news. I saw a picture.”

George looked confused. Lazar turned to him with a shocked expression.

“He’s Drake, the hero who saved Rencia from that Gorilla Mayhem.”

Hearing this, George’s eyes widened.

“Oh…” he turned back toward the kid, beginning to sweat. “In that case… we’re sorry for stopping you. The doctor is on the fifth floor, lab 5-1.”

“Finally!” Drake said. He immediately entered the building, passing by the two frozen guards.

“Um…” Lazar tried to speak. “Mr. Drake, sir, weapons aren’t allowed inside. Would you please leave your…?”

“No.”

“Fair enough…”

* * *

Drake traveled up the clear elevator and ran down the hall.

Lab 5-4, 5-3, 5-2… Drake counted.

The rooms were all equal in dimensions and seemed spacious enough to contain dozens of scientists and still have room for them to work freely. It was now that Drake was easily spotting the many clues about the true history of Rencia as a planned city that was later converted to an Apocalypse shelter. There were subtle discrepancies between how the city was planned and what would actually be beneficial for an Apocalypse shelter. He had seen this with how the city had more apartments than the number of people it could support, and now, another example was with there being many labs but no need or support for so many researchers.

Finally, Drake reached lab 5-1. With no time for politeness, he barged into the room, which was unlocked.

The inside was well-lit but smaller than expected. There was standard biology equipment lying around on the tables. In the middle was standing Dr. Jillian Lazzie, wearing her usual blazer-style lab coat and protective goggles that appeared like ordinary Scientific Glasses, and carrying in her hand a book.

“Hmm?” she looked up. “I recognize you. Drake, isn’t it? What brings you to my lab?”

“Doctor Lazzie, please listen very carefully. We need your help with something very important,” Drake conveyed his urgency.

“Very well, I’m listening.” She smiled. “As long as it’s within my power, I shall help.”

* * *

“I’m not sure if you’ve heard,” Drake wasn’t going to assume this time, “but outside, near the edge of the city, a member of your team, Steve, used your man-made, more potent Blucteryhem to mutate himself into a Mayhem.”

“What!?!” Lazzie exclaimed. “How did he get ahold of it?! It should be locked away. The only people who know how to password to the lock to the vault are me and… oh… Catherine gave it away, didn’t she?”

“Look, the bigger problem is that his transformation didn’t happen normally. For some reason, Steve grew giant. Like, as-tall-as-the-Walls giant.”

“That’s crazy! We didn’t test it out on humans, but it should work normally.”

“That’s the thing. He’s not human. He’s an alien.”

Dr. Lazzie’s brain was having a hard time keeping up. “Alien…? Hold on, this is all too much…”

Drake had to explain to her the theory of aliens causing the meteorite and also told her that she was currently under suspicion of being one.

“Me?!? What did I do that’s suspicious?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t explain that right now. What I came here for is your help in converting Steve back into a human. Earlier today, in the Smummr, you said that your team was working on a cure to the Blucteryhem.” Drake, being his usual self, hadn’t paid attention to that explanation. He now regretted it. “Is it ready?” He was hoping for anything at all.

“Ah. About that… we are still in the early stages of developing it. We have an idea and started implementing it, but we haven’t tested it yet, not to mention it wasn’t designed to be used against the more potent Blucteryhem. I know the situation out there must be tough, and I want to help, so I can give you whatever we have, but I can’t guarantee the result.”

Drake bit his lip. It sounded like there would be little chance of it working. The fear of what would happen if it didn’t work crept up his back.

“I understand. However, I want to try it anyway.”

“Of course.” Dr. Lazzie picked a seemingly random vial from a nearby rack. “Here you go.” She held it out.

“Er… are you sure that’s the one?”

“I’m positive.”

“…”

“It should revert the changes made in the DNA by the Blucteryhem virus. You should inject it beneath the skin…” she started giving instructions as Drake approached her.

Hold on. That was too quick, Drake started having suspicions. If it were the old him, he would have quickly taken the vial and flew off to try it. But now, with the weight of responsibility, he was thinking twice.

What if Lazzie was an alien? What would she do in this situation? Trying to think like Steve, he came to several conclusions depending on whether Lazzie and Steve were working together or not. Concentrating on the worst cases, if the destruction of Rencia would be favorable to her, then she had the incentive to ensure Steve remained in his current state.

Drake stared at the vial. For all he knew, the fluid inside had the potential to make Mayhems stronger or bigger, adding to the problem. At this point, with the complete annihilation of Rencia, Lazzie wouldn’t need to hold her cover anymore.

“Oops.”

As she was handing it over, Jillian Lazzie accidentally dropped the vial to the floor. Drake instinctively took a step back. The glass shattered. The liquid spread out and soon started eating the floor. Before long, there was a large hole in its place, allowing one to see the concrete that made up the building.

“Ack! Are you trying to kill me, or what?” Drake shouted.

Sheesh, that was close! Coming to think of it, it would be pretty effective to kill one of humanity’s best warriors.

“Sorry! I must have grabbed the wrong vial—they look the same,” Lazzie tried to explain. “Let’s get a fresh one.”

She took him to a crate full of similarly colored fluid vials. She then demonstrated that those ones were different by emptying one onto her hand.

Drake was still doubtful and didn’t know what to do. He was in quite the dilemma and was running out of time. This was why he hated thinking too much about things and always went with the flow.

It was then that he remembered his father’s advice: ‘you need a bit of trust to take a step forward; a leap of faith, if you will’.

If Drake didn’t trust Lazzie based on some suspicions, then Rencia would be destroyed anyway. Compared to the stakes, the gamble of taking the Cure was relatively small.

“Aargh!” Drake grabbed the vial and ran toward the hallway again. “This’d better work!”