//------------------------------// // Chapter Nineteen: Save a life 101 // Story: We don't go to Sub-Level Five // by RadBunny //------------------------------// The mare began to sway on her feet, Astral immediately at her side. A calm immediately injected itself into his mind, everything else fading as Sassi spoke. “Astral, listen to me c-closely,” she said, coughing up a bit of blood. “I’m not going to be able to move soon. My medical kit. Leave armor on. Purple syringe in my chest port first, then green, then pull t-this out,” she said, starting to shiver and sway on her hooves. “Then use the foam deep into the wound. Purple. Green. Pull. Foam. Soon. Safe first. Then p-purple. G-green….” Helping her stagger along, Astral heard the elevator shaft start to echo with angry shrieks. He briefly had an idea- dashing over to the elevators next to the open shaft and slamming a bunch of the buttons to have the empty cars sent up and down to distract the Skitters. He then returned to Sassi’s side as she wobbled against a wall. “S-smart,” she coughed with blood-flecked lips, the two making their way down the main hallway and taking a left. A few more twists and turns, and the Thestrals were deep into SL-Twelve, far behind the research modules and in the storage and maintenance areas. Feeling Sassi start to sag against his side, Astral made the call to stop. Hoping the room labeled ‘supplies’ had exactly that, Astral opened the door. It was small, but it had a desk, water, and some large metal cabinets with boxes. Half-dragging Sassi inside, Astral barricaded the door, the mare now starting to violently shiver. “Purple. Green. Pull. Foam,” he repeated to himself. The medical training classes came flooding back; both for the Guard and outside of it. Her helmet visor still up, Sassi looked at him, the mare starting to go unconscious. At the moment their eyes met, Astral saw something he should have expected, yet it was startling all the same. There was a simple pleading in Sassi’s violet eyes, along with genuine fear as her body refused to respond. “Hang on, Sassi,” he whispered, the mare’s head sagging to the side as her eyes closed. Yanking off her medical kit, Astral noted how there were indeed a few prominent items. They had gone over it briefly before leaving, but only in terms of general application of how to use them. But they certainly hadn’t covered anything this serious. This qualified as full-blown surgery. There were two self-injecting syringes with an odd, jello-like liquid inside. Green and purple respectively, along with what appeared to be a shaving-cream can with a long nozzle. He left her armor on, noting how the claw had dodged the metal portions and dug into the tough fiber around the sturdy breastplate. For what he was doing, the stallion found himself remarkably calm, fear simply absent as he recalled Sassi’s instructions. “Purple,” he said, taking the hoof-long syringe and shoving it into a small, previously unnoticed port on Sassi’s breastplate. The fact the mare didn’t respond just made Astral more nervous. “Green.” The next syringe injected itself, Astral putting the two aside. Now the bad part. It was probably good Sassi was out cold. Smoothly pulling out the claw, Astral was mortified to see it had buried itself at least half a forelimb-length into her. Shoving the foam canister (and long, funnel-like applicator) immediately into the wound, Astral depressed the large tab, a loud hissing noise emanating from it. To his surprise, the foam billowed out from underneath Sassi’s armor, the canister clearly having more force and volume than its size indicated. The fact there was no more blood, and that the foam was beginning to harden into a semi-solid indicated its purpose. A clotting agent perhaps? Probably magic-enhanced. Sassi seemed to be breathing easier, even though now her breaths had flecks of foam on every exhale. Apparently a lung had been punctured, so how in the world was she still alive? Even with the ‘enhanced’ features, surely that would be a fatal wound? Or perhaps this med-foam was a lot more potent than Astral realized. Another item in the medical case was a small screen with a needle. He didn’t use it, but the title of ‘Blood Contaminant Level Analysis Spectrometer’ gave Astral a general idea as to what it might be. Making sure Sassi was in a reasonably comfortable position, Astral sat down with a slump, numbly reloading his weapon. His eyes drifted over to the mare, and now that the moment had passed, a pang echoed through his chest. The hyper-focused state he had been in faded, the calm within his mind condensing into an emotional lump in Astral’s throat. Hang in there, Sassi. A few hot tears now stung his eyes, the Thestral hanging his head in shame. This is all because of me. Unfortunately, Sassi’s only response was her regular breathing. Astral passed the hours by exploring the storage room multiple times. In all of the cosmic garbage they had been on the end of, a saving grace was that there was a small bathroom connected to the area. Nothing fancy, but there was still water and a way to wash off some of the grime from the armor. His armor and fur a tad damp, Astral pushed aside a pile of boxes. Mostly office supplies but there were some interesting odds and ends. Nothing immediately useful aside from duct tape and some poorly-stowed flammable liquids. Sassi’s armor was bare, Astral having put the weapon over to the side with the emergency rations and remaining medical kit. To that end, the firearm she had arrived with had him staring. A belt-fed, miniature grenade launcher with flechette rounds. A bunch of words that sound beautiful together. On reading the foam canister, Astral’s initial guess had been fairly correct. Some sort of magically-enhanced booster. It sounded like the end-all treatment to traumatic injuries. Stopping even a fatal arterial bleed and boosting natural healing. The lack of any warnings, however, led the stallion to believe there were side effects. Then again, such things were rather moot (to a point), if it was a fatal wound that could be healed. Sassi let out a groan, the mare shifting as Astral trotted over. He double-checked to make sure both the barricade against the door was secure, and that nothing was lurking outside. “Hey, Sassi? You back?” he asked softly, the mare letting out a soft, incoherent murmur. Her eyes snapped open, darting over the room before settling on Astral. She tried to speak, but all that came out was a whisper. “I guess that venom makes it so you can’t talk?” he suggested, “not sure how long it will take to wear off. You’ve been out for a few hours. Three I think.” As her eyes darted over the room, it was clear while Sassi had plenty to say, her body refused to respond. “We’re barricaded in a small supply room. But hey, at least it has a bathroom, so I consider it five-star accommodations,” Astral said, the mare managing a soft, amused huff at that. “I haven’t heard anything outside for about an hour, so we’re probably in the clear. We’re not going anywhere until you can walk. There’s not a lot of airflow, so the Skitters haven’t smelled us. Or we got lucky.” “Hel…met,” Sassi said slowly, Astral taking the hint and pulling the armored piece off. The mare nodded in approval, slowly working her jaw back and forth as Astral took his own off. “Can talk. Will get better,” she added, flopping her head against a wall, “this stinks.” “Well, it beats being dead,” Astral replied, “if I had to guess, that claw punctured a lung. I have no idea how you’re still alive.” “Foam.” “Ok, aside from the magic foam. That stuff is amazing. I guess you’ll still need stitches or something afterward.” “Nah, just some bandages, and I’ll heal right up,” Sassi said, voice quickly returning to normal, “ah, that’s better. Voice is usually the first thing back. Rest of me, not so much.” “The poison? Paralyzing to a great degree?” “Yep. And considering I had multiple bites, I’d be dead if not for the antigen you shoved in me,” Sassi said, “the poison paralyzes the victim with one bite, but more than that, it stops your heart and diaphragm. Unfortunately, it’s a weird paralyzing agent, not numbing. So, I can feel my limbs, and everything; I just can’t move them.” Her eyes widened as Astral took a shaky breath, his gaze lowering to focus on the floor. “I’m sorry, Sassi,” he whispered, “you being nearly killed, us being stuck here, that’s my fault.” “Well, yeah,” the mare replied dismissively, “but why is that a bad thing?” He looked up at her in utter shock, Sassi letting out a choked laugh. “Seriously. I’m alive right now. I’m not invincible, Astral. I was going to get hit by those creatures sooner or later. The only difference now is that you were here and able to save my life. So, thank you. I’m just happy I got hurt saving somepony instead of me being stupid and letting my guard down.” The stallion was speechless for a moment, finally managing a “you’re welcome.” “Didn’t think about it like that, huh?” Shaking his head in response, Astral shrugged his wings. “How could I not?” “Well, it wasn’t the plan to get separated. You may have frozen again, but your guns were empty. So, either way, you needed help,” she added, “I just happened to get there in time.” “The freezing. That’s a mess I need to sort out,” he said, ears flattening in defeat. “That’s a conversation for when we’re back in the apartment. That said, while I don’t blame you for our situation, this hurts, so I want plenty of smoothies.” A weak smile slid onto Astral’s face at that. “I can do that,” he paused, “so, what now?” “Now? We wait until I can walk again. I’m still on the antigen upswing. I’ll probably need more of that stuff. There should be a booster in your kit,” she paused, “I’m surprised the Skitters haven’t found us. Perhaps we overestimated how many of them have a good sense of smell in general. That’d be a nice surprise.” Rummaging around in the kit, Astral found that sure enough, there was another foam canister along with two colored syringes. “For now, we wait. I’ll probably crash a few times which is going to be horrific, but as long as I have regular injections, I should be fine. That little box with a needle can tell you if I need another shot,” Sassi explained, “if the percentage goes up? Time for a shot. If it goes down or stays stable, no shot. So go ahead and stick it in my arm.” “It’s a good thing you’re not afraid of needles,” Astral said, gesturing to the box. “Please. I’ve been poked so many times I’ve lost count.” Astral tried. He really did. But stress and exhaustion had worn his mental filter down to a thread. Sassi must have seen the look in his eyes before rolling her own with a slight grin. “I probably could have phrased that better.” “To be fair, I tried. Not nice to laugh at something like that around a lady.” At that, Sassi did laugh. “Oh, yeah, I’m quite a prim and proper lady here. I’m a security guard, basically a soldier for more than a decade and some change. You’ve been a guard in training at least. Our senses of humor, or at least tolerances, are to the point of making a normal pony implode from shame.” “Ok, that’s fair. But I can still try to be a gentlecolt regardless.” “…as you poke me.” Astral stared in absolute shock, Sassi laughing until there were tears in her eyes. “I’m s-sorry! I couldn’t r-resist! He couldn’t help but now laugh softly, shaking his head back and forth. “You are quite the mare, Sassi,” Astral chuckled, now pushing the needles into her forearm, noting a slight pink on her cheeks. “Blood contamination at six percent,” he relayed. “Not too bad. That’s not a literal reading, more of a generalized summary of severity,” she explained, “six percent of my blood being poison would make me very, very dead.” Astral nodded, the unit apparently self-cleaning the needles as he set it aside. “So, we wait?” “We wait.” Fear then blossomed into Sassi’s gaze as some familiar heavy breathing sounded outside the door, a creature slowly walking down the hallway. The mare looked over, immediately seeing Astral aiming the gun barrels at the door without so much as a flinch. To her surprise, there was no hesitation in his eyes. Not that she’d admit it, but the raw determination and focus in Astral’s green gaze made her heart flutter rebelliously. Thankfully, the sound passed, Astral letting out a tired breath as he engaged the safeties, then having an idea. After rummaging through the supplies, the stallion busied himself with some spare duct tape and towels. Carefully laying them against the door on the floor seam, the stallion duct-taped them in place. He then added strips of the stuff on the other seams of the door, giving each a good two or three layers of the stuff before finally sitting down. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that before. That should muffle things and help dampen any smells if that is an issue,” he whispered, Sassi nodding in agreement. While the door was one of the thicker models, the seams would definitely be a weak point for sound. Another bonus of being a bat-pony; they could whisper softer than most other creatures and still hear each other crystal clear. Despite the tension, Sassi once again had just the thing to say to make Astral nearly laugh out loud. “Well, may as well get to know each other. …. Hmmm…What color is your toothbrush?”