Miri would have loved to have peppered her grandfather with questions. Why was he calling a meeting of the elders? Did he agree with her? She didn't know. But after relaying the message to Seth, a member of the council, she returned to the lab.
The two doctors were in the lab, deep in discussion.
"There has to be some other way to test it that just picking random patients!" Marcus said exasperated. "I'm not willing to risk..."
"They're already dieing!" insisted Byrin. "Have you thought about asking them? Let them decide whether the risk is worth it?"
"I won't have you raising their hopes and then seeing them dashed if it doesn't work!"
"It's not yours to decide that!"
"I've been their doctor here since before you had even entered medical school!"
Miri decided to give them another option. They didn't pay any attention to her as they were engrossed in their argument. She crossed the room quietly and gracefully. Among the vials on the table, she found her most recent blood donation. This one had been stored overnight, so the virus cells were active; that was one thing they hadn't figured out yet, why the virus activated itself in blood drawn from the body. They might never figure that out. She prepared a hypo, no longer listening to the doctors. They didn't understand. They were just doctors. These were her people...this was her family...her life. And she was scared to lose it...but she was more afraid of seeing everyone she knew die as well. There were many still living. She wanted to save as many as she could.
Taking a deeo breath, praying that she wasn't relying on what Marcus called false hope...pressed the hypo's end to her skin...and injected herself with her own virus infected blood...
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