Trinisent

Threat

Everyone's been on the edge since today morning. I considered not telling the others what Judith said when she pointed at us. I'm the only one who heard it, with my advanced senses and all. But I ended up telling them anyway, they deserved to know.

We're waiting in the first floor lab right now. Judith told that she would tell us all about the outbreak in the afternoon. When we asked for proof that they had a cure, she said that we had to trust THEM and that they're doing their best to make a cure. We're their only hope to save humanity and life as we know it, etc. etc.

Tyler's sitting on the lab stool next to me, his hands absent-mindedly playing with my right hand. I hear the sound of the door opening and stand up to see who it is.

Three people, who look like they're in their early twenties enter the room wearing lab coats.

"We're here to help you understand what's going on." The guy who Judith called 'Zeke' in the morning says with a tight expression. "We'll be working together towards stopping the outbreak."

The man on the left, who introduces himself as Jeremiah, with his tanned skin ,hair combed back and a small scar on his left cheek, looks as if he's never smiled in his entire life. Lynn, the only woman of the three, looks like she's in charge. She gives us a smile, which almost reaches her green eyes.

"We don't have much time for questions,so let me brief you ". Lynn speaks softly and clearly,seating herself on one of the stools,"This outbreak is very different from the earlier one. There were several diseases spreading during the first one,all with varied symptoms. Some were viral, some bacterial. The current boost is engineered to keep our bodies immune to those diseases. But this disease, that's been spreading, it's nothing like the diseases before."

"Disease? Like only one?" Jenna voices our astonishment."Why is it so hard for you to improve the boost then?"

Jeremiah shakes his head,sitting down on a lab stool,"You don't understand. We've been researching, and we've never seen a disease like this before. We aren't even able to figure out what's causing it."

"Well, what are the symptoms of the affected people?"Tyler asks.

At his question, Lynn gives Zeke a furtive glance."Follow me",she says getting up.

We all follow her to the sanatorium,looking through the glass. The beds are occupied now, by two girls in their early twenties and a pre-teen boy. I look around. There are tubes everywhere, and the three of them are hooked to machines, which when I look closer, find that they monitor their blood pressure,heart rate as well as brain activity. One of the girls and the boy are even strapped to their beds.

Who are these people?

Why are they here?

What are you doing with them?

Why is that girl strapped to the bed?

We burst into a series of questions. What the hell is going on?

"I understand that you are confused. Give me a chance to explain." Lynn raises her voice.

"We're listening."Neeta replies calmly.

She takes a deep breath. "These three, they're affected." She says pointing towards them. "We've brought them here to help them. To try and find out the reason they've been affected."

She opens the door and ushers us inside, we walk towards the beds reluctantly.

"So you're trying to help them by strapping them to their beds?" Jenna says, her eyes on the boy.

"Yeah. If you're helping them then they should be okay with it." Tyler says, "But seeing that you've tied them to their beds, it doesn't look like you're doing something that they're okay with."

"They're affected...Tyler. " Jeremiah says looking at his clipboard. "They're in a very fragile state at the moment. Their blood pressure and heart rate are extremely high. They're not really in a condition for us to explain that we're trying to help them."

I walk towards the boy. His clothes are drenched in sweat and his hands are shaking. As soon as he sees me he starts screaming, with an expression of pure terror on his face. I jump away from the bed , covering my ears with my hands, trying to block out his blood-curdling screams.

Jeremiah immeditely runs to the table on the opposite side of the room , pulls out a syringe filled with a blue liquid and injects it.

"He's just sedated." He says when he notices our worried expressions.

Tyler puts his arm around me and rubs my shoulder . "You okay?"

I nod. "Just wasn't expecting it. Didn't think my face was that horrifying."

He chuckles and shakes his head. As I walk towards Neeta I think I hear him say "It isn't".

"As I said. They're in an extremely fragile condition." Jeremiah says

"The only signs of any distress are shaking limbs, mild headache and fever. We're not able to figure out why though." Zeke says.

"What I saw there, wasn't just a mild headache and fever. He looked like he was in extreme pain." I say.

"Are you saying that two thousand people in the Realm died due to a headache? No way. There has to be something else." Niklaus says.

"What do you mean you don't know why?" Po asks, stepping forward.

"We've not been able to find out what's inside them, and what the disease does to them during the last stage because-" Lynn says and gives Zeke a hesitant look before continuing.

"Because every single affected person who has died till now, um, didn't died due do a headache, increased blood pressure, or any of the other signs."

What does she mean?  Like the disease didn't kill them?

Jeremiah looks at Lynn and gives her a nod. "They killed themselves"

What.The.Hell.

"Whatever the disease is doing to them, its bad. Bad enough, that they'd rather kill themselves than go through it."

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