Under My Skin

Under My Skin - Part 19

"Louis, the pyloric sphincter, grab it quick."

Looking up towards the sphincter, Louis saw the glint of the canister sticking out of a tight fold of muscle. "Damn it!"

He tried climbing up slick incline of the stomach wall toward the elevated entrance to the small intestine, but he kept sliding down. It was too steep, and the lubricant residue on the rubber grips of his gloves, socks, and jumpsuit didn't help matters either. Will's heart rate had sped up, making the chamber loud.

"Will, lay flat and tilt to your right," Louis instructed through the Sprecht.

The chamber shifted and Louis slid, the puddle moving with him. Just as he reached the tight, muscled entrance, the canister followed the water and sunk in beyond his sight.

"Shit!"

Not giving a damn about gentle, Louis jammed his hand in up to the shoulder reaching for the virus canister.

***

Slapping his hand over his mouth, Will whimpered. The sickening, pinching, burning... he couldn't define the sensation, but it hurt like a knife in the gut. Something, Louis's hand, he imagined, was pushing deeper inside him, stretching something that wasn't supposed to be stretched. He drew his knees up, curling around his middle as his breath shortened to shaky pants. Sweat beaded on his forehead and back, making his undershirt cling to him.

"Damn!" cursed Louis over the SkySprecht. "Get back here."

Will could think of a few words stronger than "damn" when he felt the stretching increase, as Louis's second hand joined the first. The fire in his center could not be muffled, and he keened to the vibrating walls of the BT-10, pressing his side into the mattress.

***

Rachel bit her lip. In one screen Will struggled in the chamber, on the other the faint, internal outline scan of Louis reaching for the virus; every fraction he reached pushing Will further into agony.

"I shouldn't have told him to go back in."

"You didn't know the virus would move so soon," comforted Cetz.

Will choked out a grunt of pain over the speakers, making Rachel start.

"It's hurting them both."

"They can handle it," said Cetz, but even he sounded uncertain. He focused on the screen where he saw a thermal image of a tiny Louis. "C'mon, get the damn thing."

***

Both hands reaching through the fleshy opening, it took Louis a moment to realize what the moaning in his ear was coming from. "Will, what's going on?"

"Just get the damn virus!" yelled Will over the SkySprecht.

With a snarl Louis dug deeper. He could swear he had brushed the canister with his fingertips repeatedly, but every time he touched it, it seemed to wiggle deeper into the flesh. If he could only reach it; if only it would stop moving.

He'd have to take a gamble that he didn't like at all. He braced his legs on both sides of the tunnel of muscle and let his arms be dragged further down, drawing his head and upper chest into the slick ring of muscle. The tight walls nearly drove him screaming, and it definitely made Will scream; he could hear it through the SkySprecht, and around him. He was being suffocated again, and the juices around him didn't help matters.

Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross!

However, his efforts helped. The tip of his middle finger grazed the top of the canister and he managed to hook it through the top ring. A little wiggling of his fingers and he had the virus gripped in his right hand.

"Gotcha!"

***

Cetz sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Thank God."

Rachel still leaned forward, flipping through view tabs of the BT. "They're not out of the red yet."

***

"Will and Louis have two halves to a mystical amulet?" asked Beni as she and her partner numbly flipped through their paperwork, filling it in on autopilot.

"No," said Reese.

"They're both afraid of bats?"

"No."

"They found out both of them actually dye their hair."

"No."

"How would you know they don't dye their hair?"

"I—" Reese was taken aback as a red light flickered in the corner of his computer screen. Was there an announcement? Then he saw a tall man in a suit and tie and hair slicked back walk into the Tech Area with two guards flanking him, and approach Grant. Everyone went quiet; they could tell when a higher up had walked in the room.

"What's going on?" whispered Reese.

"I don't know," replied Beni.

The two agents saw Grant pull his hands in agitation as the tall stranger pointed to the power control panel, gesturing firmly. The head Tech seemed at his wit's end.

Beni sucked in a breath. "Will is carrying Louis's baby?"

"No!" exclaimed Reese.

Everyone in the Tech room, including the three strangers looked in his direction.

"Sorry," said Reese holding up his hands. "I'll keep it down."

The safecracker hunched over his desk, continuing his paperwork. He stuck out his tongue at Beni as she smiled in satisfaction. She loved to get a rise out of him.

Will and Louis owe me big time. Dunkin' Donuts for a month, at least.

***

Louis tried to pull his upper body up, back into the safe confines of Will's stomach. Tried, and failed. The muscles were too tight, as if swelling and inflamed. If anything, they were drawing him deeper. He pulled until his lower back burned.

"Fuck... I can't get out!"

He was stuck, in a tight space, crushing the air out of him. It was his nightmare all over again, being strangled by wet bed sheets, except this time it was wet flesh of his own partner.

***

Cetz and Rachel both hissed. "Shit."