Chapter 4

"Player, is something the matter?"

"Huh, wha..?" Player shook his head, "Sorry. I've been thinking about Gareth. The guy collapsed two blocks away from your house, Tammy. I watched Bill take him to a place where he'd get some help. I can't get him off my mind."

"Can we go visit him? I wanna see what he's like."

"Well...I don't know..."

"Please?"

"I'm not sure he's even awake by now. Oh, alright. Let's find Kia first, then head over to visit Gareth." Player smiled down at the girl, "After all, I can't have Kia worrying about you. She doesn't usually let me take others out by myself."

"She said it's because you act like a pet sometimes. Is it true?"

"Well...Yeah. It's true. C'mon, let's find Kia."

Kia was, at that moment, laying down in bed. Pik was in beside her, and they had just finished making love to each other. Pik smiled, "Why don't I ever want to stop when I'm with you, Kia? How come we are always ready, no matter what?"

"Stop talking unless you--oh, nevermind. Can we keep going?"

After about three more times, someone knocked on her apartment door. She grumbled a bit as she got dressed again, "That had better not be you, Player. We agreed that I wouldn't be disturbed while you were at the park." Kia peeked through the peephole in her door, "Player!!!" She was about to shout at him to go away when she saw the other figure standing next to him, "Of course. You brought Tammy. Well, just wait, Player. I'll get even when you least expect it." She opened the door, smiling down at Tammy as she did so, "What brings you here?"

Tammy smiled and said, "Player was going to take me to see Gareth. You gonna come?"

"Oh, I'd love to, Tammy, but I have some plans made..." She glared up as Player laughed, "Which is why Player is going to stay behind and try to explain to my plans why I left and am taking you."

Player sputtered, "B--but--but I--"

"We had a deal today, remember?"

"But, Kia!"

"You go ahead and explain to Pik why I left. He's still waiting back there you know." She smiled back at Tammy, "Shall we go?"

"Kia, Gareth's not at his--"

"Bye, Player!" Kia shut the door in his face. Outside, Kia asked, "So where are we going, Tammy?"

"Player said that a guy named Bill took him."

"Bill, eh? Okay, I know just where to go."

"Well, he seems better." Babe said as he watched Gareth on the treadmill, "He hasn't collapsed so far. In fact, I think he's doing better than before!"

"Well, we don't know." Sarrah said, "His blood is like acid now, remember? What is that gonna do to him?"

"We'll see." Babe stopped for a moment. Presence detected. Presence Identified. "Sarrah, Kia's coming. She brought someone with her." There was a light tap on the door as Sarrah went to answer it.

"Hi, Kia. You come to see Gareth?"

"Yeah. Tammy here told me what happened while Player had been with him. Is he doing better?"

"See for yourself." Sarrah turned to the exercise room, "Gareth! You've got visitors!" On the other side of the window, Gareth looked up. He smiled and waved when He recognized Kia, then came out of the room.

"Kia! Why didn't you say you were coming? I would have cleaned myself up a bit."

"I have someone who wanted to meet you, Gareth." She pushed Tammy forward, "Tammy, meet Gareth Brik. Gareth, this is Tammy." Babe watched, amused, as Tammy inched forward toward Gareth. Gareth smiled as he looked down at her.

"Hello, Tammy. Sorry if I smell. I wasn't warned in time to get ready for company. We would've met earlier, but..."

"Player told me. You don't look sick."

"I don't feel sick anymore either. I've had some excellent care here."

Tammy started getting excited, "Could you tell me how you got here? I've always wondered what's on the other side of the mist."

Gareth tried to smile, then sighed, "It isn't as good out there as it is here, Tammy. Here, no matter what, almost everyone treats you nicely, as if you were an old friend. Out there, most people are shunned just because their skin is a different color. They have wars and men so bad that this place is paradise compared."

"Really?" Tammy didn't look so excited now.

"I'm afraid so. But that's the bad stuff. There are good things there as well."

"Like what?"

"Well...come on, I'll tell you more in a different room." He looked up, "You're welcome to come too, if you want, Kia."

"I'll be fine. I've been wanting to catch up a bit with these two."

Gareth took Tammy into another room, talking about something called an airplane. When they couldn't hear mumbled words anymore, Babe spoke up, "Okay, Kia. What did you want to talk about?"

"I'm worried about him. How bad is he really?"

Sarrah cut in before Babe could answer, "He won't tell anyone, but he's always exhausted right after the first minute on so far everything in there. His blood has become a sort of acid, which could be eating away at his blood vessels right now. We didn't tell him that part."

"What about Bill?"

"Bill is busy trying to get a blood sample under a microscope. It eats away at everything so far except for the test tubes we put it in earlier."

"Are you sure it wasn't something in the tubes that turned it to acid?"

"Yes. The blood stays blood and not acid unless it is moved. When it's moved, it burns through everything. I--"

"SARRAH!!!!" Bill shouted from the floor above, "BABE!!!! Both of you get up here now!!!"

Kia, Babe, and Sarrah all ran up the stairs to see what was wrong. When they got there, Bill was huddled in a corner, pulling himself into a tighter and tighter ball as the floor gave away around him. Babe activated his wings, and picked Bill up right before the floor completely collapsed. With the floor gone they could see Gareth and Tammy watching from another room. Gareth was trying to open the door to get out, but a large desk that had fallen from the second floor stopped him from opening it more than a small crack.

"Damn! Did they see me?" Babe thought when he realized he had shown his metalic wings to two more people, "Now they know who I am!" His wings slid back into his back, and he watched the two figures below, hoping against hope that neither had seen him. Tammy was watching Gareth, encouraging him while he continued to try forcing the door open, "Maybe they didn't. I might still be secret to them."

Gareth slammed against the door one more time. It just wouldn't budge! He tried to smile at Tammy, but his heavy breathing kept forcing him to turn away, "I can't let her know how weak I am! C'mon you stupid door! Let us out!"

There was some noise outside for a moment that sounded like furniture being moved. Gareth looked through the crack in the door to see Kia and Bill pulling at the desk. He silently thanked them and stopped holding the door open, "Looks like we're getting out, Tammy. Bill and Kia are moving the desk for us."

Tammy ran up and hugged him, "You did your best. I think you would have gotten us out soon."

Gareth was finally able to smile, "Thank you, Tammy. I hope everybody I meet is like you." There was a large noise, followed by Kia's voice.

"You can come out now. The desk is out of the way."

Gareth opened the door. Tammy jumped into Kia's arms the moment she was clear of the desk. Gareth waited until his breathing slowed a bit, then turned to Bill, "Bill, can we talk?"

"Certainly, Gareth. What's on your mind?"

Bill walked into the room behind the desk. Gareth closed the door, "How bad is it really? You've been hiding things from me, I'm sure of it."

Bill sighed, "You're right, of course. Yes, we've hidden some of the worse things from you, but you've been hiding some thngs from us."

"Such as?"

"You've been getting tired much too soon on the machines; it hurt when you pushed against the door, not when you slammed against it."

Gareth scowled, "Alright, fine. So now you know. What else is wrong with me?"

"Your blood, Gareth. As far as we know, It is eating away at you as we speak. You could be near death already and no one would know it until you fell over. The blood in your body is so acidic, it was the cause of the floor coming down."

"Wouldn't you need a lot of my blood to make it dissolve the whole floor?"

"That's right. Normally I would need more of your blood than you have in your body, but this time, I had less than half a cup. Probably only a teaspoon. It ate through the syringe when I pulled it out of the test tube, then spread when it hit the floor! It was the last bit of your blood samples that I had..."

"So...I'm a death trap if someone cuts me?"

"Basically. For you, and anyone else close to you."

"Excuse me? Gareth, are you gonna be alright?" Tammy had opened the door a little when she asked her question.

Gareth walked over to her, "I don't know Tammy. I don't know."

Gareth spent the night at the lab. The next day, Gareth asked if he would be allowed to go into town. Bill kindly said yes, so Gareth left right then. He did not notice the shining figure that followed him in the sky. Gareth walked through the forest, whistling to hear some music. He reached the last hill before the city, and stared at it with wonder, "This is incredible. In a week I've made more friends in one place than three human cities combined. I'm friends with one of the most popular groups on this island! What's more, I found my dream in this place! Dragons and griffins are everywhere here! I--" Gareth felt a small headache start up again. He turned and started running back to the lab, but he collapsed before he could make it, "My head...ohhhh..." Gareth blacked out.

Babe watched from his high altitude, "Gareth collapsed!" He began to dive down toward the human, but stopped when Gareth screamed. His sensors started going wild. Warning! Mass levels of radiation detected! Increase in air temperature detected. Sudden decrease imminent. Warning! Radiation increase detected! Babe watched the words pass over his eyes, "I need to land! If the radiation keeps raising, it might make me malfunction!" Babe landed as far away as he could while still watching Gareth. Gareth was writhing on the ground. It looked as though he was in immense pain. Babe sent out a distress signal where he stood, hoping he wasn't putting his friends in danger while he did so.

Gareth woke with pain lancing through his entire body. If he tried to move anything, that section of his body would become increasingly more painful until he stopped trying. The pain started to center in three places on his back, then moved to his feet. He couldn't cry from the pain, for that would just bring more. It felt as though hours passed with every second he had to endure. Something intensely warm lodged itself in the back of his throat. He opened his mouth against the pain. The heat left his throat and traveled out of his mouth. The pain seemed to leave with it. Gareth blacked out once more.