Ace in a Hole|Chemical X Trilogy (Book II)

Breaking Ice and Curses

Alex

I was still shaking when Shelby opened the door to the tank.

I felt good. In fact, I felt great even if unsteady in the limbs like I suppose a person feels after a tough message. I sure hadn't felt good just seconds before, though. I had felt so sick I'd almost puked. I'd felt so shaken that it was like being struck by lightning. Like a battle just surged in a final duel to the death through my heart. I think my heart literally skipped a few beats and it was sure making up for lost time now, pounding crazily in my ears. I was staring wildly into the wall, and panting like a dog. My hands still clutched my chest.

"Ace!" cried Shelby.

She was so freaked by my show that she'd let the usual old name get loose. I almost forgot I told anyone my real name as I looked at her in some brain-dead way. I blinked. I gulped. The shaking was subsiding but only slowly.

"I..." I started; then clamped my mouth shut.

"Are you okay?" Shelby demanded.

Beside me in a panic she forgot all about the "no touch" rule. She didn't have gloves on. It was really only if I broke through anyone's skin anyway that I was really contagious, but you know when people feel they need to take precautions. I shoved her back before I could stop myself, anyway, but it wasn't all that hard, and she didn't take offence.

"I'm..." I breathed like for the first time since I was born as I took in my new condition. "Perfect."

"No. No, you're not!" Shelby scolded— just like a mother, I caught my mind hinting, and inwardly I just laughed. "Let me get a doctor. You look so flushed. You look... not yellow?"

She blinked.

I blinked back at her.

Those must have been some vitamins, huh? Utonium had been acting like there was some wrench in the works with my curing. He also acted like he had some secret ingredient to the mix of that drink. Was something as simple as a few more minerals enough to boost my own strength against the S? Probably not, but I didn't care how I was better if I really was better.

"Am I... cured?" I asked.

You know I could have been hallucinated too. But Shelby looked like she was wondering the same thing, so I doubted it.

"We can check how you're doing," said Shelby quietly. "Just a sec."

She looked over my gage outside the tank. She double-checked. Then she left and came back with a pulse reader and some other quick medical things to look in my mouth and in my eyes. I had no real choice in the procedure. She was doing everything, and I was too stupefied myself to stop her now. She wiped my spit off the inside of my mouth with a Q-tip and had it in a scanner before I knew what she was doing with it.

"I don't believe it!" she said to herself, not me. "There is no sign Chemical S. What happened overnight?"

Meanwhile, I was rubbing my tongue along the spot where she gouged the inside of my cheek.

"Le Pwlofeltho?" I suggested in some sort of pseudo-French.

"Of course," she laughed, and swung to me real jittered now; then stopped. "Your father!"

"What?"

"He's waiting for you!"

"Oh, yeah," I laughed, almost unwilling after this sudden change to go see him right away.

I hadn't recovered from my cure myself much less ready for my dad to see it, but Shelby already was urging me along.

For the last time I exited that tank.