Chapter 33
Day 30
I have no idea what time it is, but my eyes finally open and see the daylight entering the room, determined to wake us up. I glance at the alarm clock by the bed and it reads 8:30 a.m. Wow, I’m tired. I really don’t want to get out of bed, but I am really curious about what is happening at the lab and want to get going. If I could change one thing about myself, that would be it. I don’t know how to relax. I do need to take a bath first. The doctor gave me this plastic bag thing to put over the cast so I can shower easier. I wish he would have given me another hand to wash my hair with. It is really hard to do with one hand, especially with hair as long as mine.
I manage somehow to get my hair clean and put up in a towel. I don’t wear much makeup, so doing that one-handed is easy. Now blow-drying and brushing my hair will be a challenge. At least I can hold the hair in place with my bum hand while I secure the barrette in place. I hear Derrick moving around in the other room and tell him I am almost done and then he can have the bathroom.
I come out of the bathroom and see that Derrick has fallen asleep again. I gently shake his shoulder and request that he get ready so we can go to the lab. I am curious about what is going on with the antidote. Derrick obliges me and gets out of bed and heads straight for the shower. Within 15 minutes, he emerges from the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist. Damn, that’s a good looking man! He heads straight for the closet and pulls his favorite jeans off the hanger, and a flannel shirt. He has this perfectly married pair of ostrich skin boots that look great with the jeans. He slips those on over his socks and stands up. He walks back in the bathroom and combs his hair out. He looks fantastic.
On the way to the lab, Derrick’s phone rings, and it is Henderson.
“Henderson, good morning. Are you on your way to the lab? Oh, I see. Hang on, I’ll let you talk to Kobi.”
“Good Morning Henderson. What’s going on?”
“Good morning, Kobi. The company wants me to come into the office today and meet with the accident investigation team this morning. There is a lot of paperwork that needs to be filled out with the insurance company too. They might even want a statement from you. May I give them your number, just in case they want to talk to you?”
“Sure, anything I can do to help. You aren’t worried about your job or anything like that are you?
“No. Standard procedure after an aircraft accident.”
“Okay, call me when you’re finished, and we will give you a tour of the lab.”
“That sounds like a plan.”
We are at the lab and very excited to hear about everything. As soon as we walk in the command post, Geoff jumps up and runs over to us. He shakes our hand and is so glad to see us. Dane is already here and enjoying a cup of coffee. We all sit down at the table and begin talking. Geoff wants to hear all about the plane crash and what happened afterwards, so we give him the play by play. He seems amazed that we survived.
Geoff goes on to say, “I was in contact with the rescue team, and they didn’t know your exact location. The Air Traffic Controlling Center gave your approximate last location, but it was a large search area. I guess the Emergency Transmitter on the plane wasn’t functioning, so your position wasn’t being transmitted. They found the wreckage two days ago. So, I knew you guys weren’t killed in the crash, but no one knew where you were.”
Derrick explains, “We decided after 24 hours that the transmitter was probably broken, because they would have been there already. So we made the decision to leave the crash site and seek shelter.”
“That’s what the rescue team figured. They knew you were alive because
there were no human remains in the ashes and there was a really nice fire pit constructed by the crash site. They figured that Dane would know to head toward the Northeast, so they started searching in that direction. They found another fire with some wrappers of some sort. They knew they were headed in the right direction at that point, but you were probably at the Aboriginal village by then.”
“Yeah, we surely were. What an experience that was,” I explain. I went ahead and told him about the little girl and how she died. He thought that was just awful.
“I’m so glad you’re okay. Now, let me fill you in on what happened here while you guys were out there roughing it. I think the last time we talked, I had told you about the Pravastatin and the effect it had on the parasite. We combined the Pravastatin with the Losartan and it worked. It completely killed the parasite. Stolz volunteered to be our guinea pig and took the first shot. Within 24 hours, all of the parasites in his blood were dead. We took several blood samples, and the results were the same. Cole begged us to give it to him next, so we did, and he is parasite free as well.”
Nicola and Trevor walk into the Command Post and are so glad to see us. “We thought you guys were gone for sure.” I notice that Trevor has his hand on Nicola’s waist and he looks like a totally different person. He is actually combing his hair now instead of letting it dry all messed up. I think they have fallen in love. I expected that because they have so much in common and understand how the other thinks. They are perfect for each other. They are telling us how they isolated the medicines and finally put the correct combination together to form the antidote. They found it a lot quicker than I thought they would, but with two great minds working around the clock, it was inevitable.
“I would like to go visit Stolz, Sevi, and Evan if it’s okay with you Geoff,” I say.
“Sure. Come on, I’ll take you,” Geoff offers with a smile. We get up from the table, and everyone decides to get up and come with us. We are walking down the long corridor to where the rooms are now. There is no need for them to be in quarantine since the parasite is dead. Stolz’s room is the first one on the left, so we stop there first.
“Hey Stolz. I hear you have mass quantities of dead bugs in you!” I announce as I enter his room.
“Hey there, little lady. Glad to see you’re alive and kicking. We were worried about you guys. Looks like you have a broken wing there.”
“Yeah, I do. I had an Aboriginal Chief fix it right up for me. How are you feeling?”
“Well, I feel good in my head, but my internal organs don’t want to cooperate. From the looks of the ultrasound, they are shot. Nicola says my heart has taken the hardest hit, and I need a new one. Too bad you can’t go to the local hardware store and buy a new ticker, huh? Also, the parasites ate up most of my red blood cells, so my organs are all messed up and dying. Even if they were to pump some good blood in me, it isn’t going to regrow the organs. But, surprisingly, I’m not in a lot of pain. I am on dialysis, and I have to carry around these bags to get rid of my waste, but my mind is still functioning. I guess there is a chance I will live, so I remain positive.”
“What is the extent of the heart damage?” I ask Nicola.
“We had a cardiologist come in a few days ago and do an echocardiogram and he found severe stenosis of the aortic valve and severe pulmonary hypertension. All completely understandable with the parasites killing the red blood cells. The stenosis is probably because the dead parasites are attached to the walls of most of his arteries. We haven’t figured out how to clear the blood of the dead parasites. Maybe over time, they will exit the body through the waste. We are testing for that with Cole.”
“So maybe if Stolz can get a new heart, he will survive, if the organs do not get any worse?”
Nicola’s responds, “Maybe??”
No wonder Stolz is remaining positive. He has a chance which is more than Evan or Sevi have. Trevor says that they are much worse than Stolz.
“You keep fighting, Stolz. I am going to visit Evan and Sevi.”
“Okay, Kobi. Glad to have you back and thanks for the visit.”
What an awesome person. He has death staring him in the face and he remains so positive. Probably his strong will to live is what’s keepin
g him alive. He is such a fighter. Evan and Sevi are not as fortunate as Stolz. There are heavily sedated because the pain is so intense. We are walking to the rear of the building where they have set up a make-shift intensive care unit (ICU). Evan and Sevi are side by side inside of a large, plastic oxygen tent. Their skin is a lot darker, like Marci’s was, and they have lost a lot of weight. I walk over to the tent, stand next to Evan, and immediately notice his breathing is shallow and labored. It is just a matter of time for the two of them. I am overcome with sadness as I leave the ICU because I know they aren’t going to live much longer. What a shame.
We are headed back to the command post, and as I round the corner, there is Cole coming up the hallway. “Hey, Kobi.”
“Hey, Cole, how ya doing today?” I give him a soft slug on the arm.
“Ouch!! I’m just teasing. I’m feeling great today. Have you seen Evan and Sevi yet?”
“Yeah, that’s where we were. Pretty bad situation.”
“I know. I feel so sorry for those guys. Stolz is a character, isn’t he? I
think he is going to make it because he is so determined.”
“I hope so! How’s Buddy?”
“Come see for yourself. I didn’t want to bring him in the ICU, so I put him in his cage, which doesn’t happen that often.”
I tell everyone walking with us that I’ll see them in a bit. I am going to visit Buddy. Geoff looks at me and shakes his head and reminds me that it is a rat. I know it’s a rat, that’s what I love about it. We walk into Cole’s room and he gets Buddy out of his cage. What a sweety. “Has your little girl met Buddy yet?”
“Yes. They were here a few days ago for the first time. They fell in love with Buddy just like I did. My daughter said that it was better than a hamster or a guinea pig because he doesn’t stink at all. They are coming back this afternoon. Are you, Derrick, and Dane planning on being here this afternoon?”
Oh yeah, we will be here all day. Can I hold Buddy for a minute?”
“Sure.” Cole hands Buddy to me and I put him on my shoulder. He starts sniffing my ear and licking the side of my face. He crawls off my shoulder and gets on my arm where he starts to nibble-groom. My little guy does that to me at home. I start rubbing his head and the side of his face where his jaw bone is and he just loves it. He tilts that little head to the side as if to say, Rub me more. Then he starts to grind his teeth indicating that he is really happy. Rats do this crazy thing called boggling where their eyeballs begin to pulse in and out of the socket. Just another sign of happiness.
I can’t get over how quickly Buddy and Cole have bonded. It’s just amazing to see this sweet, innocent creature so dependent on a human. Domesticated rats are a lot different than their crazy wild cousins.
“Hey Cole, do you know that there are still some places in the state of Illinois that will not allow domesticated rats in state owned facilities. I was visiting a friend in a nursing home last year and wanted to bring Buddee to see her. The facility allows dogs, cats, and other domesticated animals inside the facility, so I thought I would bring him in to brighten her day. I asked the administrator if it would be okay. He told me he was going to have to ask the state for permission since I don’t have veterinarian papers on him. The state said I couldn’t bring Buddee into the facility because of the plague and the disease that rats carry. Talk about medieval thinking.”
“That is ridiculous, Kobi.”
“I know! Even the administrator of the facility thought it was stupid.”
“Don’t they realize that the domesticated rats are cleaner than dogs or cats?”
“I guess not. Besides, even if Buddee was infested with the plague flea, I would have the plague, and the fleas would be on me too, so I would get the nursing home infected, right?”
“Exactly!”
“Well, they didn’t see it that way, so I couldn’t bring Buddee.”
“Well, I sure am glad you gave me a rat, because I know I will never be without one again. They are so affectionate and cute.”
Cole comes over to me and holds his hand out toward Buddy so he can climb on. Buddy immediately runs right up Cole’s arm and perches on his right shoulder.
“I’ll see you later Cole, I need to go talk to Geoff. I want to know when he is planning to return to Perth with the antidote.”