Radioactive - Book 1: Birth 🪼

Eighteen

I dial the number that A gave me and wait.
"Hello?" a young girl says.
"Uh, hi, can I speak to Dr. White?"
"Who's calling for her? My mom's not a doctor anymore."
I make a face. "Can you tell her Nalak is on the phone?"
"Nalak? As in, the kid that got my mom fired from the school?"
"Who is this?" I hiss.
"Diamond."
"Oh, Jesus, get off the phone and give the phone to your mother."
"You can't tell me what to do."
"Dia, who's on the phone?"
"That Nalak kid."
"Give it to me." I hear the phone being transferred. "Nalak, why are you calling my house? How did you get my number?"
"I got it from A."
There is a slight pause and she sighs. "What do you want?"
"R's really sick. We're here in the city because he's taking me to the Badlands. We're in a hotel but he's vomiting all the time and has diarrhea, he is pouring sweat and he keeps holding his stomach in pain. He also has a high fever and is coughing. I called his dad to ask what was happening and he said it may have to do with his swell since he didn't get everything taken out for his surgery-"
I stop when I see R fly off of the couch and run to the bathroom. He forgets to close the door and I can hear him using the bathroom; he's crying.
"Please, Dr. White, he's... I'm worried. You're the only one we can trust."
Dr. White sighs. "Alright. Just tell me what hotel you're at and I'll come."
I tell her where we are and then hang up.
I go to the bathroom and find R crying on the toilet. It really smells but I hold my breath a little.
"R?"
"Get out... "
"Ramey-"
"Please, get out." He croaks, rocking back and forth.
I watch him for a second and lick my lips a little.
"R... can you even get up?"
He sniffles and leans on his knees. "No..."
"Do you-"
"No! I just... Give me a moment... Get out! It's embarrassing already."
I nod and get out, closing the door. I wait for a second when I hear a thud and open the door back up. R is on the ground, balled up in a fetal position but it looks like he has his pants on. I subconsciously look in the toilet and even though I flush it immediately, I see blood in the toilet. I help R up and he leans on me, lazily.
"I want to go home." He says softly.
"I wish I could take you home... I mean, I guess you could. I can take you back and just go to the Badlands by myself."
"No... I can't let that happen. That would be... that would be rude."
I laugh. "Really?"
"You smell nice, Nalak."
"You smell good too."
"But I don't want to eat you."
"Right now, I don't want to eat you either. We're even today."
He laughs for a second and I pick up his legs, carrying him back to the couch and laying him down. He looks pretty delirious and smiles at me a little.
"Don't worry, Matty, everything will be okay."
Matt? I frown and kneel next to the couch.
"R, it's me, Nalak."
"Don't cry, Matt... Please don't cry..."
I frown deeper but he's already passed out before I can even ask any questions. I just sit on the floor, watching over him when I get a knock on the door. I go to the door and look in the peep hole and see that it's Dr. White. I open it up and she smiles sadly at me.
"Well, I guess it's been a while since I saw you last... You look very different from last I saw you."
I run my fingers through my white hair and move to let her in. R lets out a moan and we both look over at him as he turns in to the couch.
"Tell me what's been going on."
"He's had a fever... well, I think it's a fever. Everyone feels feverish to me now but.. uh..."
"Mom, let me in." I hear someone say, banging on the door.
I frown as Dr. White looks at me and walks over to the door, opening it. Diamond walks in, holding her back with her small baby bump showing.
"You left me." She grumbles.
"Sorry, sweetie."
Diamond looks at me and blinks a little as I glare at her and then at Dr. White.
"Why is she here?"
"She was bored and wanted to come with me. She won't say anything... about you." Dr. White leans into me. "She doesn't know about R." she whispers.
"Hmm..."
"Just don't tell A."
I lift an eyebrow at her but point back to R. "As I was saying, I think he actually does have a fever but he sweats profusely, he's had vomiting and diarrhea off and on, his lips are dry, he cradles his stomach like it hurts him, he's got a bad cough and sniffles, and now he's delirious."
"Delirious?"
"Yeah, he just called me is brother."
"Which reminds me, I haven't seen Matt in a while." Diamond says, looking at my open brats. "So... you eat these raw?"
"Yeah. Get out of them." I hiss.
Dr. White walks over to R and puts the stethoscope in her ears, pulling out the bell and listening to R's chest. He coughs and Dr. White goes to put the bell on his back and gasps.
"What in the world..."
"Oh, yeah, that... It's not related to this." I say, trying to brush it off.
"Then what happened?"
"Things happened."
"Like what, Nalak?"
"I... got mad at him and smacked him and when I did I sent him... through the sliding glass door."
Diamond and Dr. White stare at me.
"You sent him through the sliding glass door?"
"Yeah. I don't want to talk about it... What's wrong with him? A said that it might have to do with the surgery he had and it being close to his swell?"
"Hmm, it seems like it may be the case." She says, taking out a thermometer. She puts it in his mouth and also pulls out a blood pressure cuff, wrapping it around his arm. "How have you been, Nalak?"
"I've been better." I said, looking at Diamond, who was rudely raiding the fridge. "Do you mind?"
"I'm hungry."
"Well, go to the vending machine."
"Diamond, you're the one that wanted to come along. Sit down and stop being rude." Dr. White says as she takes the thermometer from R's mouth.
Diamond frowns and sits at the bar, scratching her belly.
I walk over to Dr. White as she takes the cuff off of R's arm and rolls it back up. R moans and clutches his stomach.
"So?"
"Tell me his symptoms again."
"Fever, delirious, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps, cough, sweating..."
Dr. White looked at R for a moment as if she were at a loss.
"The only way to be sure if my theory is right is to take some blood and see how it reacts to radiation but um... I can't just take it."
"Why not? I'm sure R would rather you help him than worry about a little prick for some blood."
"It's not that... Can I use your other room to make a phone call?"
"Yeah..." I said, watching as she left the room and then looked at Diamond. "Your mom is weird."
"No weirder than you and Empty-boy over there... When did you two get so chummy? Is it natural for Empties to coagulate together like a blood clot?"
"No. He was nice to me when everyone wasn't and it's... it's different. You wouldn't understand. You're too shallow."
"Because I need to study it and be sure!" we heard Dr. White yell from the other room.
I turned my head and then turned my ear to the room, concentrating really, really hard on the inside of it to listen to what Dr. White had to say.