“Mabel Corrine. Patient is a female elf, approximately 18 years of age.”
Oh gorram hell, she ended up in the hospital again. Which one of those gorram guards ratted her out this time?
“Patient has presented with a terminal case of Mana-induced Pulmonary fibrosis. She has been under my care for the past year following an emergency room visit in which she was referred to me for further diagnostic treatment.”
Of course he was gonna be all right about documenting the case. Elves with scaver’s lung just didn’t happen because elves usually weren’t trusted as scavers, and even if they were the safety equipment for the profession just wasn’t available.
“Patient has admitted to not using proper safety equipment in corrupted areas that need it, due to racial restrictions on purchasing said equipment. Despite this, she has tried to use a medical filter mask to little effect.”
Mabel finally tried to move and her body was too sore for it. Gorram mana conversion trucks really needed to turn off their gorram collection mechanisms.
“The disease progression has been rapid-patient has reached terminal stage within eight months of showing symptoms as compared to the normal ten to twenty years. The best hope for treatment would be a lung transplant, but due to the lack members of her species, there is no compatible donor in the area. Attempts to find other donors in the hospital network has been unsuccessful.”
Mabel finally got her eyes open. Yup, she was hooked up to the oxygen again. Had a full on mask this time instead of just that nose plug. Yup, there were two bags of IVs this time. One was smaller than the other. Must be that stuff they’ve been giving her to calm down the pain and give her a little more time.
“Current treatment plan is to make the patient comfortable.”
Her doctor was a man of science and it was kinda nice because he didn’t waste time being gentle about what she was facin. Doctor Scott looked at her and sighed.
“You told me you were going to be back three days ago, Miss Corrine.”
“Well, Had to keep stoppin because I couldn’t breathe. Also took me a bit to find herbs I needed to help calm it down.”
He sighed again, putting down the recorder he was using on a table. “I keep asking you to not mix your medications with bush medicine.”
“It ain’t that I don’t respect you, Doctor Scott. It really ain’t. But I keep usin too much of it and hospital won’t refill so I gotta do somethin.”
Doctor Scott crossed his arms. “That’s the maximum I’m allowed to legally give you, Miss Corrine. It might be time to consider other options.”
“We ain’t got any other options,” Mabel replied.
She got herself sittin up because she felt it was rude to be laying around when company was around, even if she was strugglin. She took a few seconds to catch her breath.
“You said their ain’t no lungs available for donation or for reconstructing.”
“I know,” Scott replied. “That’s not precisely what I meant. I meant more options for keeping you comfortable.”
Mabel frowned. “We dun been over this, Doctor. I can’t stop scaving.”
“Miss Corrine, you’ve got at best six months.” He frowned. “And that’s if you managed to avoid more damage out on your last run. I know for a fact you’ve put away a good bit of what you earned.”
Mabel looked down at her hands. “I just don’t want to sit around idle and waiting to die, Doctor. I ain’t one of those people.”
He walked over, uncrossing his arms. “Miss Corrine, you are one of the hardest working people I have ever met in my life. If it weren’t for your lungs, you’d also be one of the healthiest.”
“You got a point?” Mabel asked, crossing her arms.
“I do, yes.” Doctor Scott looked to the door, then to her. “It’s a known fact that the health of an area is reflected in the health of the elves that live there.”
“Well, why do you think I don’t eat half the things that the rest of the city does?”
“Miss Corrine, it might be about time for you to think about relocating to a restored zone.” He frowned. “It might buy you at least another six months, if not more.”
“There ain’t a clean zone for at least fifty miles,” she replied. “I won’t make that.”
“We can arrange something to get you out there. I can write a perscription and make it happen.” Scott was still frowning, gorramit. “You’re only eighteen years old, Miss Corrine.”
“I know how old I am!” She frowned. “Besides, most restored zones just got humans in them. They’ll lynch me as soon as look at me.”
He looked down and sighed. “…I know that you’re scared of what my backwards species is going to do to you. Hell, you have daily examples in the form of your brethern.”
“Yer right I do.”
“It’s just that I’ve exhausted everything else. I can either get you into a clean zone, or you’re going to be hooked up to oxygen for the rest of your life. There won’t be any more scavenging, or bicycle riding, or gardening.”
Mabel looked down at her hands. “I can’t just… leave everythin.”
“Look, your Father was a Bush Doctor, right?”
Mabel huffed. “My daddy was a Shaman, thank you very much.”
“Forget the terminology a moment.” He waved his hand. “The point I’m trying to make is that you live in a shaman’s wagon. It’s mobile. Do you know how to drive it?”
“My daddy taught me with onna the guard trucks. Think he was fixin to train me up as a shaman too.” Mabel raised an eyebrow at him. “The thin here though is that I don’t even know if that thing is gonna start.”
“Look, you’ll lose your scavenging license, but in a Shaman’s wagon people aren’t going to bother you. It’s taboo to anger or harm a Shaman, no matter the race.”
“That might be the case but that don’t stop most folks,” Mabel replied. “Didn’t stop them from having my daddy stick his hands in machines to get’em unjammed. Besides, I ain’t a shaman. I only know enough to get me inta trouble.”
“I am sorry about that, Miss Corrine. I am. But that’s not the point I’m trying to make.”
MAbel sighed and looked down. “…I know. You’re tellin me to get while I still got the strength to get.”
He nodded. “It’s the only real treatment option you’ve got right now, short of trying to find a shaman who specializes in organ repair.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“I thought you didn’ like sendin people to shamans.”
“I usually don’t. But shamans can usually do organ work while the organ is still in the body. We can do a better job in the hospital but it’ll require longer than you have to do even one lung.”
Mabel nodded, and tilted her head up toward him. “Can I think on it a bit? I’m plannin to be stayin put for a little bit anyhow.”
“Of course,” he replied. “It’s a big decision to make.”
She sighed, then asked, “Where in the world is my dog? She ain’t runnin around is she? She’s pregnant and don’t need to be doin that.”
“Chunk’s curled up in the chair,” He replied. He pointed to where the fat headed dog was laying, ears perked up at the mention of her name. “Has been beside you the whole time. I admit that I’m a little jealous. She’s the sweetest, most loyal dog that I’ve ever met in my life.”
“Useless as a guard dog though I’ll tell you what,” Mabel replied with a snort. “Ain’t the point though. I needed somethin after my daddy died to keep me company.”
“As for your other belongings, we made sure that everything got to where it was going and your belongings are at your house now. One of the guards told me to tell you that your derailleurs were broken, so he’s replacing them.”
Mabel sighed. “They gotta stop doin that stuff.”
“I agree.” He crossed his arms again. “Because the more we do for you, the much more resentment grows between you and the few other elves in the city.”
Mabel sighed. “Yeah, we don’ get along so good. Ain’t never. They were scared of my daddy, and they’re scared of me. Last time I saw onna them he punched me in the gut and called me a human-pleasin traitor to my kind.”
“Well that’s harsh.”
“I don’t see what’s so wrong with just tryin to help people. Don’t think they’d talk to me at all if I didn’ have what herbs and all I did.”
“I would think that they’d be a little more cautious around a shaman’s daughter.” The doctor turned to turn off the recorder and picked up her chart. “SInce you’re stable, I can release you into your own care. I’ve the feeling that you would prefer it anyway.”
“I would.” She rolled her head. “How long was I out?”
“About 24 hours,” he replied. “Also noted was some minor bruising. Collection truck again?”
“Gorram thing put me into a ditch!”
“I see that racism is alive and well in other parts of the dominion,” he muttered. “Take it easy on the work and the cycling. I’d like to see you back tomorrow evening, so try to have an answer for me so we can put something into motion for you.”
Mabel sat there, brain racing for a little bit. She finally said, “You wouldn’ be making this recommendation without a reason. What’re you hiding?”
He sighed. “There’s more damage, Miss Corrine. It wasn’t your fault this time—It was the mana reclimation truck. They were mining near an industrial corruption. We found evidence of textile corruption in your lungs.”
“If they were that close to a corruption, they shouldn’ be using that mana in the gorram city.”
“I don’t know what’s gotten into them,” He replied. “One of these days, coming back with tainted Manna’s going to—”
The whole building rocked. The lights went out and Chunk was up yelping a storm. She jumped up to the bed and right up against Mabel, still carrying on like the world had just ended. All the machines were off, and the doctor had to try and steady himself on the wall. The yelping was drowned out by a roar that sounded like the very fabric of reality tear itself to shreds.
And in a few moments it was over and the lights came back on that much dimmer. The generators. Outside of the room, people were acting like fools. Probably mostly the patients, but with something that big she suspected that the staff wasn’t so cool yet.
“What in the gorram hell was that?!”
The doctor looked to the door. “I don’t know, I’m going to go find out.”
He took a few moments to straighten himself up, and took the short walk to the door like it was a dyin emergency. He opened it to see doctors and nurses rushing around, probably to go check on patients that had machines breathing for them. He stopped one of them and asked, “Status?”
“The plant exploded,” the nurse replied. She was shakin, Mabel could see it from there. “They told us to get filtration going because it’s bad.”
“How bad?”
“They don’t know what exploded but it took out the entire building, some of the houses nearby. Got a bunch dead. We’re waiting to see if there’s an injured that didn’t corrupt immediately.”
“Sounds like a mana conversion error,” he replied. He looked back to Mabel, the asked, “How long until the Elf Beaters get here?”
“The two in charge of Miss Mabel are downstairs. They’ll be up in a few minutes once they pull rank and get past the front desk.”
He nodded. “Get me status on the rest of my patients and I’ll see to them as soon as I can. Make sure that they’re wearing the filtration masks rated for textiles.”
The nurse nodded. He turned and closed the door with a deep breath. He was quiet a few moments before he said, “I’m sorry, Miss Corrine.”
Mabel nodded. She knew what was gonna happen. Who was gonna be blamed. It didn’t stop the sinking feeling in her chest. There were six other elves in the city. All of them were fathers or husbands, working at the textile factory for the same reason her daddy did, to support their families.
They didn’ like her or her daddy, but she knew about their families, how many of them were left, who had children just about her age though the subject of marriage didn’t come up no more. With an explosion that big, even she was going to be lucky to get out of what was coming.
“I’ll do my best,” he said. “But…”
“I know.” She nodded and composed herself. “I can be quick in makin my peace with myself.”
“Anything I can do if they do execute you?”
“Take care of Chunk for me,” she replied as the dog curled up beside her in a quivering ball. She pet the dog’s head. “She’s real close to term, maybe another week or two if the corruption don’t mess it up and we don’t get a litter of dog corruptions. I figure that you could use a dog in your life.”
“And your home?”
“Try to get it to another Shaman, I s‘pose.” She took a deep breath. “It’s what my daddy woulda wanted.”
He nodded as there was a gentle knock on the door. She barely heard it with all the commotion going on outside.
“ESLE,” said a voice outside. It was a female voice and it was one of the officers that checked in with her almost daily when she was at home. Not for anythin that Mabel was doing wrong, just to have something to eat or some tea. “May we come in, Doctor?”
“You may enter,” he replied. He nodded to mabel as he finished writing down what she’d told him.
The door opened in a slow manner, as if they knew better than to just go barging into hospital rooms. The young ladies tipped their hats to them and closed the door after them. They stood out in a crowd, what with their bright red uniforms that usually didn’t see any dirt or anything. She was on nodding terms with most of the others, but these two would have been friends, if they weren’t in the job of makin sure she wasn’t breaking any of the so-called safety laws.
“Good evening, Doctor, Miss Mabel,” the first said, taking off her hat. “Heard about you collapsing but the hospital wouldn’t let us in to see you. Said something about possible intensive care.”
“That’s right,” the doctor replied. “She’s been under my care for the past 24 hours, under a sedative since she doesn’t stop moving when she’s awake.”
“I don’t doubt it,” the second replied. “But we gotta check. Its our job when something like this happens.”
“You’re not about to drag my patient out of here, are you?” The doctor turned.
“No! No, of course not,” the first said. “We know that Miss Mabel would never do such a damn thing in her life.”
“But we need some proof of where she’s been for the past twenty-four hours. Got confirmation from the offices that she was out on a scaving run for the past two weeks. Just missing the last 24 hours.”
“Indeed.” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “I can get you such. Miss Mabel will have to authorize it however.”
“I know they ain’t gonna do nothin to the files,” she replied, nodding at them. “THey’re good kids.”
“With all due respect, Miss Mabel, we got at least five years on ya.” The second took off her hat and fiddled with it.
“Ya seem nervous,” Mabel said. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, they were insistent that you elves did it. None of the other have an alibi. We’re being pressured to bring you in too.” The first took off her hat to wipe her forehead. “Keep tellin them you got a spotless record.”
“Mass hysteria has no bounds,” the doctor replied. “If I go with you, they’ll be angry at me instead of you two. You’re going to have to wait until I check on my other patients.”
“That’s fine Doctor,” they replied. “Until then, we gotta stand guard at the door.”
“That’s fine just so long as you stay out of the way,” he said. “And you give her the peace and quiet she’s going to need.”
Both nodded, putting their hats back on. “Yes sir.”
“Now out, both of you,” he said. He looked back at Mabel. “I’ll be back to see to you either way. Please rest.”
He ushered them out of the room and shut the door behind him. It was quieter now, at least in the room. It was lookin like things were calming down out there too. Despite that, Mabel felt her heart still racing. That wasn’t a context she’d wanted to see either of them in.
SIx months. And there was Thread in her lungs and that was certainly going to strangle out any remaining healthy lung she had left. She was wondering what else he wasn’t telling her. It was the first time a clean area had come up in their discussions about treatment plans. Usually they were gated and didn’t let elves in. SHe didn’t think there were any that were elf dominated. Humans would have forced them on out. She was wondering if that was the only way she was going to get that six months.
But it might not matter anyway. She could be dying in a couple of hours. And Mabel found herself wanting that. Cause it was going to be quick. It wasn’t going to have her struggling for every breath and certainly wasn’t going to be as painful as this was.
That lump in her chest rose, and she started crying. She was scared. So scared that it was overwhelming her right at the moment. Chunk put her head in Mabel’s lap and Mabel leaned down. It was hard to breathe again and the mask was irritating her and she pulled it off. Maybe that was a bad thing, but she didn’t care. It got in the way of the cryin and she needed that.