“I’m glad you came.” I mouth so Kai can read my lips. Seeing him again makes me feel warm inside. I want to say more; even Kai seems to have a lot to say. He continues to mouth words that I don’t understand and the longer I try the more frustrated he becomes. But I can’t stay long enough to find out. Time is precious and everyone is watching, waiting for me to bring the cure. I wave one last time and swim back toward the anemone patch.
This is just like practice. At least that is what I try to convince myself, but when I see the black suckers at the end of each anemone I know this will be different.
I swim to the center of the anemone patch to the egg nest in its center. The anemones sense my live tissue and don’t retract around the eggs to protect them. They can also taste the jigger scent I have been exposed to during my visit to the city. I am not a threat. I reach into my bag for human DNA mix. The small electrical stings of the anemones brushing my skin feel much like the simulations I have gone through and it doesn’t hurt as much as I anticipated. The anemones treat me like they would a jigger, only the jigger is immune to anemone poison and their thick scales protect them from the suckers. When the first anemone latches onto my leg and starts to inject its’ poison, my whole body jerks as sharp tingles travel along my nerves.
I sprinkle some the contents on the jigger eggs and wait for the powder to settle. I count thirty seconds off in my head like I have been taught and take out an empty, three inch deep container. While I am waiting I feel three more anemones attach to my skin. The moment I think ‘thirty’ I scope the container full of eggs, leaving enough eggs to grow to maturity, and seal the container before I put it back in my bag. Once I am certain the container and bag are secure, I push off the aquarium floor and the anemone suckers are ripped off my legs. It takes me ten minutes to do the same with the other anemone patches in this section.
All I have to do is swim to the underwater gate, open the gate and swim though. It is either this or rise to the surface, climb over the partition and swim back down to the ground level which would take more time and wear me out. I open the door and swim through to the closest anemone patch. When the anemones attach themselves to my skin I have to grit my teeth, chunks of ice and coals of fire alternate up and down my veins. Still, I manage to pour the rest of this bottle’s DNA over the eggs. My hands shake a bit when I scoop up the eggs, but then I am moving on to the next patch.
My head starts to feel light and I figure I have either been under for over thirty minutes, or the affects of the poison are taking over faster than I anticipated. By the time I finish collecting the third section I am having a hard time focusing and I know I need air. I swim to the surface, yet breathing the air does little to help my focus return. I am a hundred yards away from the stands and with my slightly blurred vision I can barely see the roof covering all the people watching me. Since I am at the surface, I pull myself over the next divider and dive to the patches in the fourth section. This time all my actions require more effort.
At the fifth section, I find myself swimming diagonally toward the next patch instead of aiming straight there. I pour from the second bottle and start counting. One...two...three.... But when I reach twenty-three I can’t remember what number should come next. I hover above the eggs staring at them. I know the count has to be close to being done. My eyes glaze over as I stare through the water. My arms jerk as more anemones latch on. I blink and see the eggs again. It has to be time already. I scoop some up and swim sluggishly away toward the gate for the sixth.
Getting the gate open takes longer than I would like; the control box is rusty and I have to tug on it several times before the gate swishes open, but it doesn’t fully rise, stopping an inch from the top. I want to close my eyes, I feel like I need more air. I start to swim through the gate and then I’m jerked back. I try to swim through again, and again I am refused. Something holds me back, but I can’t turn around to see what it is.
I reach behind me and feel that the bag’s strap is pulled away from my back. I can almost reach where it is connected to the gate, but my fingers slip off the strap before I can feel where it is stuck. The strap digs into my neck every time I try to free myself and the desire to close my eyes becomes stronger.
I should pull the strap over my head and back up so I can see the gate properly, but thinking that through hurts. Even wondering how long I thought about that hurts. I want to sleep.