This isreallynot the time to be noticing this guy’s rockin’ bod,she scolded herself, as she lowered her hand to press the cotton onto the bullet wound in his shoulder – and then stopped short.
What the hell?
Stopping short, Maisie stared down at the wound. She’d thought it was just a standard bullet wound, but now she could see there was something… odd about it.
And that smell…
She’d never smelled anything like it before. It was almost chemical – and it definitely burned up the inside of her nostrils when she sniffed it.
And what isthat?
Now that she was getting a better look, Maisie could see somethinggreeninside the wound – green and viscous, almost like the green slime she’d sometimes played with as a kid when she and her cousins had been given a play chemistry set that had let them make their own goopy creations for fun.
But I don’t think this is that,Maisie thought, as she glanced at the man’s face. It was a mask of sweat and pain, his breathcoming in quick, short rasps.And I don’t think this guy is reacting to just being in pain from being shot.
She’d seen shooting victims before. And this was different.
“Hey,” she said, setting the cotton pad aside for the moment until she knew more about what she was dealing with. She gently patted the man’s cheek with her gloved hand, trying to get him to focus. “Can you tell me any more about what happened to you? Do you know if…”
But Maisie found she wasn’t sure how to formulate the question.Do you know if the people who shot you happened to be messing around with a child’s fake chemistry set at the time?seemed like the stupidest question she could possibly ask.
But whatever the case, the man seemed to understand, and he shook his head violently.
“Don’t touch it,” he rasped out. “Deadly – venom –”
Wellthatwas clear enough, Maisie thought, but she’d never seen any kind of venom that looked like green goo. And it didn’t explain why it was in a bullet wound. And there was definitely no kind of snake that could inflict a bite that could possibly be mistaken for one.
Whatever the case, it was clear that this waswaybeyond what she could treat here at home.
“I’m calling you an ambulance,” she said. “If you’ve been… bitten by something, we need to get some antivenom into you right now.”
“The hospital won’t have the antivenom.” The man struggled to sit up. He seemed to have recovered a little – though that was relative. He was still clearly woozy and struggling to move. “I have to get out of here.”
“You’re in no fit state to go anywhere,” Maisie told him in her mostI am a nurse and I know what’s best for youvoice. “Walking around will only make the venom move faster through your bloodstream. You need to stay still.”
It was pretty clear he wasn’t listening, however. He struggled upward again, shrugging off Maisie’s hands like they were nothing even as she tried to urge him back down onto the bed.
With the movement, more blood and green goo trickled out of his wound.
Whatisthat stuff?Maisie wondered. She reached out, swiping at the rivulet of it that ran down his chest with her gloved hand.
“No!”
Once again, the man’s hand was around her wrist, his grip just as crushing. Maisie stared at him, about to tell him to take his hands off herright now, but then, she realized, to her shock, that she could feel a burning sensation on the tip of her finger.
Glancing back at her hand, she sucked in a shocked breath as she realized –
That goo – it’s burning right through my glove?!
“No.No.”
The man was muttering only semi-coherently, his pupils dilated. He stared down at her hand, a look of horror on his face. Maisie felt a cold sensation settling in the pit of her gut.
What the hellisthat stuff?!
“Wait –” Maisie started to say, as the guy lifted his other hand. But before she could finish the sentence, he’d already ripped the glove from her hand and tossed it across the room.
Now that the fingertip of the glove, coated in goo, was no longer against her skin, the burning sensation lessened a little, but Maisie could still see her skin was reddened where it had made contact.
