Relative Strangers (Book 2) No Man Is An Island

33. Anomaly Beacon

As E fell to the floor, all of the team immediately ran to her aid.
Her eyes rolled back in her head as she lost consciousness and her body began to spasm.
"E! E, can you hear me? What's wrong with her?" Questioned Matt as he dropped to his knees.
"She seems to be having some kind of seizure, hold her head to the side so that she doesn't hurt herself or bite down on her tongue" answered Abby, as she knelt by Matt's side.
"But why? What's causing this?" Asked Emily.
"She hit her head earlier, you don't think it caused a bleed in her brain do you?" Quizzed Matt.
Abby checked the cut on E's head, "I don't think so, it doesn't appear to be that deep. Besides, she's used to getting knocked about, as she always seems to have some kind of head wound, so I doubt it's that".

"Connor, put that thing away and help us" ordered Matt, as Connor was still holding the device he had been taking anomaly readings on.
"You guys need to see this" Connor said quietly.
"We've got more pressing things on our mind right now, than anomaly readings" snapped Matt.
"No, you don't understand, these readings are coming from E".
"Don't be stupid, E isn't an anomaly" replied Becker.
"He's right, you're probably still getting readings from that anomaly there" admitted Abby.
"No, these readings are different to the ones I was getting earlier. See for yourself, these ones are coming from her" insisted Connor.

Matt handed E's head over to Abby, and pulled the device from Connor's hand before staring at the numbers on the screen.
"He's right. This radiation levels are coming from E" revealed Matt.
"But that's impossible" replied Becker.
"It's not as impossible as you think" Matt said quietly.
"Matt, what aren't you tell us?" Questioned Abby.
"That's between me and E. But I don't see how these radiation levels are causing this seizure. And I don't know why the levels are so high. They're not normally this high, and she hasn't been through an anomaly in weeks, apart from the one today, because she's been working in this time zone, and hasn't been jumping back and forth. So I don't know why they are this high" admitted Matt.

"Well, we need to find a way to stop this seizure soon, before she does any serious damage to herself" said Abby.
"We can't stop it until we know what's causing it" reminded Matt.
"Let's think then, what was happening before she collapsed?" Asked Abby.
"Nothing, we were just talking about the anomaly. And she said she hadn't been this close to it in a while..."
"Do you think this anomaly is causing her seizure? You did say the anomaly was giving off some very strange readings"
"I don't know".

"If that were the case, then why hasn't the anomaly affected anyone else? Why is she the only one having a seizure" Asked Becker.
"Because E isn't like the rest of us, and the radiation levels in her body are way higher than ours" revealed Matt.
"If this anomaly is effecting her, then we should try moving her away from it, to see it makes any difference" suggested Abby.
"Alright, let's do it" agreed Matt.

"Becker, carry her as carefully as you can out of the area-" Abby stopped talking as an anomaly suddenly opened beside them, causing them to jump back, in case anything came out of it.
"It's giving off some very strange readings" admitted Matt as he pointed Connor's device at the new anomaly.
No sooner had he finished talking, an another anomaly appeared several feet away from the first.
"What is happening?" Questioned Connor, as another 5 anomalies appeared around E.
"It's like they are attracted to her body" Abby said quietly.
"Are you seriously suggesting that E is creating these anomalies?" Asked Becker.
"Not consciously, no. But whatever is going on with her body might be drawing these anomalies to her" suggested Abby.

"We need to move her, now" announced Matt.
"Becker" instructed Abby, as she pointed to E.
Becker nodded and bent down to pick E's body up.
"Be careful with her" said Emily.
"I'm trying, but it's not easy since she won't stop fitting" replied Becker, as he began to walk away from the anomaly.
Once they were outside of the broken fence that Becker had destroyed on their way in, Becker placed E onto the ground.
"It worked, the anomalies are fading" shouted Connor, who had remained by the new anomalies, to watch them and measure there readings.
When the last anomaly faded, E's seizure's stopped, and Connor made his way back over to the group.

"The radiation levels inside her have begun to decrease, but what happens now?" Questioned Matt.
"Matt..." mumbled E, as her eyes flicked open.
"E! Are you alright?" Asked Matt.
"Wha- what happened?"
"You collapsed, and then had some kind of seizure"
"I don't remember... I feel funny... My body hurts... I'm scared"
"It's alright, I'm here. You're going to be O.K, I promise. We're going to take you back to the ARC, and you are going to be fine".

"But Matt, we don't know how to open an anomaly, and it could take us hours to get back to the ARC" reminded Emily.
"We don't need to create a new one. Is the one Lester sent those extra soldiers through still open?" Matt asked Becker.
"I believe so, yes. Because no one seemed to know how to close it" answered Becker.
"Well then, we take her back that way" announced Matt.
He looked back to E, who's eyes had closed once more, and he kissed her head softly.
"You're going to be O.K" he whispered.