“But you have rapid healing abilities. His second-degree burns should heal. Shouldn’t that count for something?” Theo asked, still groggy after coming to. He had been listening to the conversation with interest, but instinctively knew the metahumans were going to know more about taking care of their own—especially when it came to their metamorphosis. They always had. The only difference was that it was usually Evan making the medical calls.
“They’re not all second-degree burns. His left hand is very badly burned, but I can’t open his fingers to see how badly. Honestly, I don’t know what to tell you.” Sloan’s worried eyes appealed to Meg asking her to understand her helplessness.
“Meg, your change was brought on by being infected by the malarial virus,” Farrow offered, a deep blush beginning in her cheeks. She hated bringing up the past when she was so controlled by Williams. “Maybe the burns will just prompt Evan’s evolution, as it did with you?” she suggested hopefully.
“What is his temperature now?”
“A few moments ago it was 106.7.”
“What about brain damage?”
“If he were a human being, yes, I’d say we should worry about brain damage at 107.7, but he’s not human. I’ve recorded some very high temperatures in my time as a doctor at the Facility, mostly due to excessive heat exposure during training.”
Theo was deep in thought when he was startled by his cell phone ringing. The van got silent, listening this time to Theo.
“Margo? Where are you?”
He paused before repeating, “You’re somewhere over New Mexico,” for the rest of the van, as everyone was listening in.
“He has second degree burns over approximately twenty percent of his body—mostly on his left side, but I’m not as worried about his burns as I am for his fever.” He paused before saying, “It’s high, Margo. It’s 106.7.”
He held the phone away from his ear for a moment and everyone heard Margo’s screech.
“We’ve tried that. Yes, Margo, we tried that, too. No, we haven’t tried that because we’ve been driving all day trying to get home.”
Theo sat in silence for a good thirty seconds while he listened with a frown, but nodded nonetheless.
Finally he spoke, and when he did, he sounded as though all the wind had been punched out of him. “Yes. I was thinking that, too. We’ll stop at the first place we can find. Call me back in an hour or so and I’ll tell you how we’re doing.” He paused, then finished with a tired, “I love you, too.”
“Are we stopping?” Greg Burns muttered in a groggy voice. He was just coming to, having taken longer to recover from the assault than Theo.
“Yeah, Margo wants us to get Evan into a bathtub full of cool water to get his core temperature back down.”
“Well, you two are the doctors,” Burns tried to shrug, wincing at his stiffness. “Where do you suggest we stop?”
“What’s the next town?”
“Tucumcari,” Burns had pulled out his reading glasses and was peering down his nose through them to read the GPS on his phone. “Let’s keep our eyes open for a small ‘mom and pop’ type place where they’ll accept cash and not ask a lot of questions.”
Alik looked back at his little brother and grimaced. The intensely red and blistered skin looked painful, but he hoped that with Evan’s rapid healing, fresh skin would grow in a matter of weeks, not months or years like it would have taken a human.
He sighed deeply. It wasn’t the first time that he’d considered the risk/benefits of their metahuman-ity.
Chapter 28 Not Much Time
After driving past all the commercial, high-profile hotels and motels, they finally found a little, pet-friendly motel that didn’t ask a lot of questions when Greg Burns stood at the desk with more than enough cash to cover their one night stay in two adjoining rooms.
The family quietly unloaded the borrowed van on the “scenic side” of the establishment that boasted beautiful views of Tucumcari Lake, but even with their metahuman vision, they couldn’t see a drop of lake water from the window of their hotel room. It really didn’t matter because the curtains remained drawn except the occasional crack just wide enough to watch for pursuers.
“I’ll fill the tub,” Sloan walked directly toward the back of the room where the bathroom light had been left on by housekeeping.
Creed had carefully carried Evan from the van into the room. However gentle the jostling, Evan stirred, moaning in pain.
“Where should I—” he started but was interrupted by a series of coughs. Creed carefully set Evan down on the bed. The metahuman immediately curled into a ball—suffering another bout of body-shaking coughs punctuated by gasps.
“Shh, Evan,” Meg ran to her brother’s side and saw the blood red around his hazel eyes.
“What should I do?” Creed asked helplessly. Others filtered into the room and stood around looking lost.
“Bring in the supplies from the van,” Meg ordered. “Cole, gather towels.” Her small, powerful hand was carefully touching the uninjured side of her brother’s face. “Ready a bed for him,” she nodded toward Greg and Theo. “Alik, Farrow—take care of Maze and Danny.” Everyone seemed to hesitate for a moment longer than Meg’s temper could allow.
“Move!” she barked at the room.