“Hun…grr…yyy,” he growled. “Hungry,” he said again, something between a plea and a cry. The sound was so pitiful that it hurt my heart. He jutted his chin forward and opened his mouth like a baby bird wanting to be fed as the tendons in his neck pulled taut. When none of us moved toward him, he tilted his head in a curious way. “Baa, baa, little lamb,” he cooed, “baa, baa.”
“Fuck,” Macon said. He ran both his hands through his short hair and tugged on the ends.
“This is not good,” Artemis said, and for the first time since I’d met her, she looked scared.
“He was burning up with a fever, but he wouldn’t take the pills. He doesn’t know who I am or who he is,” I told them.
“Fuck,” Macon said again.
“He’s Rabid,” Artemis said. “That happened so fast. Damnit.” She sat down in the armchair I’d slept in.
“What’s that he keeps saying?” Macon asked.
“He called me little lamb. He’s trying to get me to come closer so he can bite me. He almost did already.” Even in his current state, Cipher was still hyper aware, which made him all the more dangerous.
“I’m so sorry, Kitten,” Artemis said.
I was all cried out, emotionally drained as I was, and falling apart wasn’t going to help Cipher.
“So, what’s the plan?” Macon asked.
“We can’t keep him here like this. It’s not safe. And I don’t want to put him in a cage either. I don’t know what Rabids eat, except for humans. I wouldn’t even know how to care for him…” I said in a rush.
Macon laid a hand on my shoulder. “Deep breaths, buddy. Let’s take this one problem at a time.”
“Has anyone gotten a hold of Captain Crenshaw?” I asked.
“No, nothing yet,” Artemis said.
But their base had a hospital with doctors who specialized in Rabbit Fever.Breakthroughs are happening all the time,Crenshaw had told me.
“I think we should sedate him, load him into the Humvee, and take him to the base,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. I’d been entrusted by the group to make decisions on Cipher’s behalf. I couldn’t properly care for him here, and we couldn’t risk our family’s safety. I was in over my head.
“I thought we told them there was no vehicle,” Macon said.
“I’ll figure something out, or I’ll tell them the truth, I don’t know. One problem at a time, okay?”
Macon nodded. “I’ll go wake the boys and have them fill up the Humvee. We’ll have it ready and waiting for you outside. I’ll be back to help you move him, and I’ll go with you to the base.”
“Thank you. Artemis, can you keep an eye on him while I get the drugs?”
“Yeah,” she said, still sitting there frozen with a vacant look in her eyes, staring at Cipher as if he were a stranger. I didn’t have the energy to ask her what she was thinking, probably some mixture of terror, shock, and sadness, same as me.
I went into the bathroom where I kept my medical kit and lit an oil lamp so I could see what I was doing. I couldn’t risk putting my hands near his mouth, and he’d probably spit out whatever pills I tried to give him anyway. I’d have to inject him with a sedative. Trying to steady my trembling hands, I filled a syringe with two cc’s of a barbiturate that I hoped had the same effect on Rabids as it did on humans. As I re-entered the bedroom, Cipher’s head snapped in my direction, and he started baaing and clucking his tongue, beckoning me closer with hishands, wrists still bound to the bed. His foot was the only area of his body I felt comfortable approaching, the only place where he couldn’t grab or snap at me.
I took hold of his ankle, and he immediately tried to yank it back, rocking so violently on the bed that the headboard dented the wall. Artemis sprang into action, leaning on his shin with both hands to hold him still. I plunged the needle of the syringe between his first two toes, aiming for the dorsal vein. Artemis and I stood there in tense silence as we watched Cipher’s struggle slowly come to an end. His eyelids drooped and his body slumped against the pillows. I nudged him a few times, then squeezed his side where I knew he was ticklish. I checked his heartbeat, slow but steady. Taking advantage, I wiped his face with a damp cloth, clearing away the frothy spit from around his mouth. Almost immediately more gathered, pooling and dripping from his lips. I braced the back of his head and tried pouring a little water into his mouth to hydrate him, but most of it dribbled out the side. It had been an effort to get my mother to drink water or eat food when she was sick. How long could he survive without water?
Meanwhile, Artemis circled the bed, checking his restraints, pausing to take a closer look at the bite on his neck. The pockets of pus had grown, gooey and green with infection. The veins surrounding the wound were swollen and black with rot. I didn’t know how fast a body in this condition could metabolize the sedative, which meant we needed to move quickly.
“We need to bind his wrists together and remove his leg,” I told her. I hated to incapacitate him like that, but we couldn’t risk him waking up while in transit and attacking one of us.
“I’ll help,” she said, so I gave her a set of gloves and a mask and we worked together to secure him. I placed a mask on Cipher as well. “How are you staying so calm?” she asked me.
“I’m not. I’m terrified that we’re making a mistake. I don’t know what’s going to happen to him once we get to the base, and part of me still doesn’t believe that he’s sick, but we have to keep moving forward, right? I’m not giving up until we’ve tried absolutely everything.”
“You’re right. He’s lucky to have you, Kitten.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. Seemed like I was breaking my promises to him, left and right. “Yeah, we’ll see.”
