“I don’t want to set the world on fire,
I just want to start a flame in your heart…”
“You have some nice taste of music,” Doctor Riley said and rotated its armoured head around, “how did you manage to find this song? I am pretty sure this song is from the 1940s. Hello? You still there?”
There was a new passenger in the AFV, yet, its gigantic form even surpasses the F Doctor.
“Alright,” Riley turned back to the windscreen, “get some good sleep, you had been through a lot.”
Many hours ago…
Doctor Riley closed its visor detector and sighed heavily like a whale, “I am very sorry to inform you, but, you are the only infection case in this Isolation Camp.”
Eleanor collapsed to the bed and sat motionlessly for a long while, but once her consciousness recovers she looked up to doctor Riley quickly, “Where’s the pill, and can you please check those people who have close connections with me? You can ask the governor for the data.”
The doctor produced the green pill and put it into Eleanor’s gloved palms carefully, “I am sorry.”
“Sir?” Eleanor spoke up suddenly, “May I ask you for something?”
“Can you please shoot me with your pistol?” asked Eleanor as she turned her attention to the Finale Doctor’s gigantic revolver, “I want to know how fast you can draw your gun.”
“Why?” the F doctor laughed mechanically, and pulled out its pistol slowly, “I cannot always guarantee a clean headshot every time. There was once when I was approached by five guys, and I missed my final shot: the bullet went into his neck and the expansion caused the person’s head to be ripped off.”
“Oof!” replied Eleanor, “That’s not good, I remember you can maintain your consciousness for more than eleven seconds with only your head…”
“I have a question for you too,” Riley interrupted suddenly and withdrew its pistol, “from what I have seen so far, you are not the type of person who’ll give up living so easily, in other words, you have so much to lose. If you want to die instantly, you’ll go for a pill. So, what are your real intentions?”
“You are right,” Eleanor nodded and put the pill into her pocket, “I have started so many projects, learnt so much knowledge, thought so many plans, it’ll be a real shame for them to be wiped out in an instant.”
“Girl,” Riley said with slight annoyance, “if you want me to do something, just say it.”
“We both know that there is a way to keep outside of the isolation chamber,” said Eleanor, “but I am not the person who’ll ask you directly to do that for me.”
Riley said nothing, it just remained its gaze at Eleanor for a long time, which made her uneasy and turned her face away.
“Fine,” Riley finally said, “I will try.”
Eleanor suddenly woke up by a buzzing sound on the door of her isolation chamber, a smile of relief appeared across her face, “Thank you.”
A bright, hot, molten line appeared on the self-sealing door towards the isolation chamber. It slowly cut across the thick metal door, forming an entrance.
BAM!
The destroyed door fell onto the ground, its burnt side still burnt bright red, and Riley’s robotic voice sounded through, “sorry for the long wait, had to set up an airtight seal outside the isolation chamber.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Riley, who had installed a plastic cover around its armour entered the chamber with a trolley.
“What did the governor say?” asked Eleanor.
“He let me have it instantly when I mentioned that you are the one who needed it,” Riley unlocked the green plastic suitcase, “seems like you are much loved by locals here.” Riley a brass electrode from the suitcase and tied it firmly to its right arm. Then it took out another smaller blast-proof box from the suitcase, “As I am preparing to set up, I want you to think about the tradeoffs to your decision. If you follow this path, you’ll never be able to go back.”
“Yes I know,” Eleanor smiled and laid onto the bed, “but didn’t you make a similar decision too?”
“…” Riley didn’t reply, instead, it unlocked the box and revealed the brand new surgery tools inside it, “Alright, where is chloride solution? Oh there. Just wait for a few more minutes and I’ll be ready for operation.”
Eleanor watched patiently as the metal doctor poured the antiseptic fluid into the toolbox. Then Riley got itself a chemical thrower and blasted the room with antiseptic vapour. Finally, it brought in a large surgical lamp that had a tracking mechanism that allows it to follow where the hand of the operator.
“Okay,” Riley looked at Eleanor, “you ready?”
“Yes,” Eleanor replied, “but can you do partial analgesic please?”
“What?!” Riley stared at the girl with its vision sensor, “you might suffer from…”
“I know all the consequences,” Eleanor said, “but I never watched a live mechanical organ transplant and this will be the perfect opportunity.”
“Fine,” Riley noticed Eleanor’s determination through her eyes and reduced the amount of analgesic fluid in the injector, “but I cannot guarantee that you won’t feel any pain through the whole surgery, so tell me if you can no longer handle so I can replenish the amount of analgesic in your blood.”
“No problem doctor Riley.”
“Ooh!” Eleanor watched excited at the reflection in the mirror placed on the roof by Riley before the surgery, “that’s a lot of blood. Is that my liver?”
“Yep,” Riley confidently sliced through Eleanor’s smooth skin with its razor-sharp surgery knife, at the same time, a sucker located on its hand sucked the outpouring blood from the veins so its vision won’t be blocked.
“Are you removing my liver?” Eleanor asked, “can you cut open it, I want to see the effects of the virus inside it.”
Riley clutched the liver with a plastic clamp and removed with the surgery knife, and placed the blood dripping organ onto a clean stainless-steel plate, “you want to see the ‘live flowers’? Let’s see if you have any…There they are. Gosh! You must have been infected for quite a while.”
Inside the liver, black branch-like marks scattered across the cross-section made by the doctor. These are the dead cells after being killed by the virus. The branches followed along with the blood vessels patterns inside the liver.
“Wow!” Eleanor gasped at her organ, “That’s a lot.”
“Done seeing?” Riley returned to its dissection, “I need to remove your stomach and intestines next so there will be some strong smells.”
“I’m fine with those,” Eleanor claimed, but as soon as Riley sliced off her long intestines, the stinking smell flooded her nose, “never mind, should have eaten more vegetables.”
Carefully Riley put the jelly-like organs and removed flesh together with the liver, “well, most of the digestion organs are removed, now I’ll go into the hard part. Stay very still, because I’ll be removing the flesh around the CNS (central neuron system).” After stating its mission Riley swapped its medical knife with a pen-like object with a needle-like tip.
“Is it the neuron detector?” asked Eleanor, “What is the configuration of yours?”
“You are right,” Riley laughed and used the detector’s needle to extract the neuron from the flesh, “mine has a precision of 0.1 micrometres. I’ll just get your spinal cord out and connect to the suit’s artificial neurons.”
“Ugh!” Eleanor cried in pain suddenly.
“Not enough analgesic fluid?” Riley said worriedly.
“I’m fine,” Eleanor replied while clutching her teeth, “tell me when you are attaching the artificial neuron sensor.
“Okay,” Riley said and carried on its task.
After about five minutes, Riley reached for something located on a nearby table, “Eleanor, you still there? I’m attaching the sensor!”
“Really?!” Eleanor flipped open her eyes rapidly, “show me show me!”
It was a long object shaped like a lobster, with thin, flexible semi-conductor claws on one end and thick copper ports on the other end. As Riley pressed a button on it, the claws started to vibrate in air, “alright, I have never asked someone how they feel when the connection is established, so tell me how it feels.” Riley placed the lobster onto the exposed spinal cord, and the moment one of the claws contacted the spine, all the other claws extended and reached for the spine automatically.
“Oh!” Eleanor’s entire upper body vibrated a little as the entire lobster held on tightly to her spine, “I could feel my legs, but somehow I can’t lift them.”
“Yea,” Riley replied and got itself a large transparent jar made with bulletproof glass, “I’ll need to attach you to the rest of FN195 before you can move your lower body freely. Anyway, I’ll need to finish installing the blood storage and nutrient converter before introducing you to your new body.”
Thump! Thump!
The Finale Doctor walked out of the seal surrounding the isolation chamber. It had removed its surgery uniform and back to its usual armoured form.
“Is the surgery successful?” the governor, along with several dozen people waiting outside asked eagerly.
“Very,” Riley replied, “again, thank you…”
“No need to thank me,” said the governor, “doctor Eleanor had done so much for this isolation camp, and I do think that there are much more we still owe her.”
“Don’t say that,” Eleanor’s voice appeared from behind of Riley, “I cannot imagine being the user of the only FN195 in the camp.” However, her voice seemed to come out from a sealed container…
Standing behind doctor Riley was a gigantic mechanical structure that was about half-meter taller than Riley. Compared to Riley, the FN195 suit was armoured to a great extent. It was wrapped by layers and layers of different materials which are used to counter different harms.
Eleanor raised her arm slowly, the motors powering her armour roared and the black smoke came out of the gas pipes located on her back.
“Is it you Eleanor?” the governor asked.
“It is me!” Eleanor said happily behind the hemispherical helmet that looked like a beetle’s head., “Look! I am so much taller now.”
“Glad that you like it,” the governor replied, holding back his tears, “as discussed with doctor Riley, you’ll be serving as doctor Riley’s assistant.”
“I know,” Eleanor said and saluted, but accidentally hit her helmet with her iron fist, “ouch!”
“You’ll get used to it sooner or later,” laughed Riley, “thank you again, governor, of Isolation Camp 1669(M), now, I shall Eleanor with me on my never-ending journey.”
Report: Isolation Camp 1669(M) was in perfect conditions with fully functioning mask production lines. However, it was a real shame that the FN195 production line wasn’t constructed due to lack of materials. There was only one infection case in the early period, the patient was put under containment in a functioning FN195.