"BORROWED TIME". (3.0)

BY: MAURICIO ESCOBAR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.0.        RECOVERY

Harper, hands on his head, walked from right to left and back to right, like a lion trapped in a cage. Then, he exploded: 

-       Just what in the fuck is that?! –Harper yelled, irate, pointing at the silver suitcase. -I could’ve been killed! Jesus Christ, Gershon could’ve got killed! –he yelled again, now pointing at The Vault.

Meyer was speechless. The wet body lied stiff on the metallic floor.

-       Is he dead? –Meyer murmured.

Harper headed to the computer panels.

-       Goddamn! –he exclaimed after watching the screen.

-       What?

Harper rushed back and kneeled down next to the pale man; then, suddenly the alarms jumped off again.

-       Shit, shit, shit! No, no, no!

-       What?

-       The medical kit! –ordered Harper. –Quick!

Meyer ran back to the platform. The haste of his hurried footsteps was muffled by the chorus of sirens wailing in all kinds of endless repetitive patterns; the improbability of the events he had just witnessed revolved with the chaos of a swarm of bees inside his head. A man that had just disappeared and another one that had just appeared…

There was water still pouring out of The Vault and it had formed a huge pond next to it. Harper had been able to retrieve the subject at the very last moment of the procedure. Now something else was coming out wrong. Meyer’s heart was pounding furiously behind his chest. He grabbed the kit box and ran back to the Sergeant, panting.

-       Sheez! What’s wrong?

-       The hell if there’s something wrong! –said Harper.

-       Is he dead? –Asked Meyer again.

-       We need to revive him.

The Sergeant looked up at him and handed a small bottle broke in half. The label was still intact. Meyer read it.

-       Insulin? Where did you find it? –asked Meyer.

-       It was in his pocket –said Harper.

-       What did he do?

-       Come on, turn it on! –ordered.

Meyer switched on the small box which immediately started beeping. Harper exposed the chest of the man lying on the floor and glued the terminals around his heart. The suction pads rapidly adhered to the skin forming a ring of red skin around their circumference.

The body was flat, wet, stiff and pale. Meyer couldn’t help shuddering.

Harper acted swiftly and accurately with the mechanic and sound movements of those who have the training and the experience.

Sergeant Dylan Harper had served the last ten years of his life in the Military, where he had won his degree in Medicine and had worked as chief of the medical division of the Marines for the last five years. Meyer remained silent as the doctor prepared the body for the jolt.

-       I’ve seen it before –said the medic.

-        What?

He pressed his fingers against Martin’s jugular and then observed the display in the machine. There was no pulse. Harper continued:

-       The ReLoc sees the death is imminent. They don’t want to suffer.

-       What do you mean…?

-       He gave himself an overdose of Insulin. Wouldn’t you do it if you knew you would die?

The chronometer on the defibrillator started its countdown. The silence of the room was periodically broken by the unbearable intervallic whines coming off of The Chamber and the fuzzy thoughts running wild in Meyer’s head.

Meyer looked back at The Chamber and thought of Major Gershon. One minute ago he was in The Vault. Now he was gone, projected out of existence…

Unlike The Vault, The Chamber was a big coffin-shaped, metallic-colored sarcophagus that resembled those used by the Egyptians to keep the mummies; it was right next to The Vault. It was lit like a Christmas tree, all emergency red leds twinkling all around its surface. Gershon was in it.

Meyer observed the bracelet clipped to the subject’s right hand and saw the led wasn’t still red, but it was green and twinkling.

-       Not a good sign –said Harper when he noted Meyer’s gaze. –Gershon’s in trouble.

-       Shit! –Meyer gasped.

-       Cap… This doesn’t look good –the doctor murmured.

-       You can’t give up, doc…

The defibrillator screamed in a continuous beep.

-       Step aside!

Meyer pressed the red button. They both moved away from the corpse. The machine transmitted the electrical charge and the body arced up and the muscles contracted in a sudden, violent jolt; just for a second Harper thought the big black man was going to open his eyes, stand up and scream; instead, the body just fell heavily on his back, laying flat and unmoving, like a big doll.

Harper remained still, almost as a mannequin, observing the body. The alarms kept howling and the leds of the bracelet flickering. The defibrillator still emitted a continuous beep and showed a flat line in the display. Harper consulted his watch.

-       Charge! Twenty-fifty!

Meyer prepared the new charge with trembling hands. Harper approached the body and started the cardiac massage.

The box beeped again.

-       It’s ready!

-       Clear!

The body arced up again, this time with more violence. Meyer tightened his teeth. The machine still squealed in a single tone and the line on the display was still horizontal. Harper observed the bracelet and its green led twinkling, now more rapidly.

-       Shit! There’s no much time. Three hundred Joules! –he ordered.

Meyer obeyed.

Harper resumed the resuscitation procedures franticly. The seconds that the defibrillator took to recharge itself were charged. Meyer bit his lower lip in tension.

Everything depended on that man being brought back to life.

The defib wailed.

-       Clear!

The body was jolted one more time.

The line was still flat.

TO BE CONTINUED...