[center][h3]Aralii Astaline[/h3][/center]
[sub]02:14 13/02/2014[/sub]
[i]It had been a terrible week. A week of exhaustion, pain, and just generally not knowing if he was going to die or not.
The tiny girl laid on the dirty asphalt, too exhausted to move; having given literally every drop of energy of her body into trying to beat the virus that was trying to kill her brother.
She thought he wasn’t going to make it. The fever had been too high at the beginning; he’d been having fits and convulsing.
Which is why it was such a surprise to her when he opened his eyes and sat up, seemingly lucid.
“Aesandr. Oh my god. Oh my god.” Aralii scrambled on the asphalt, trying to sit up and crawl to him.
He just stared at her, his eyes… empty. Pure white and empty.
“Aesandr?”
Still staring. And then… He lunged for her, pointed teeth snapping at her neck.
In her mind she could hear his thoughts, almost foreign. All Deminutians have telepathy within their species; but Aesandr’s thoughts… they were like those of an animal. Thoughts of lust, of hunger and thirst, but no more.
With a cry she flung up her arms, trying to keep his snapping teeth away from her neck. Around them some of the other Deminutians started standing up, growling at each other, snapping and snarling. Like dogs, like… feral dogs.
Still the two struggled on the ground, Aralii barely avoiding getting her head bitten off. With tears in her eyes she begged Aesandr to stop, to stop and be normal.
He didn’t hear her.
She was still crying as she let him fall on her, as she did the only thing she could think of: she bit him in the throat and tore his jugular. The black blood sprayed her, choking her, filling her throat and splattering all over her, burning her like acid.
She cried and cried even as he stopped twitching, even as the blood stopped flowing.
Even as she lunged to her feet and ran, the black blood and her own tears still dripped off of her.[/i]
[sub]04:04[/sub]
Aralii awoke with a start, jamming her hand into her mouth to avoid crying out, her sharp canines piercing the skin of her palm.

It took her a second to remember where she was. Right. In the SWORD barracks. Waiting for an assignment.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and rolled, blinking. It was Eliira. The only other Deminutian from her traveling party who had escaped the N008s.

“Mercy, sorry to wake you, but...” Eliira spoke. Codenames. That meant business.
Ari sighed. “No, it’s fine, Flutter. What is it?”
The other Deminutian girl sighed. “They want you at the treatment area.”
Ari groaned internally. “Alright. Thank you.” She motioned for the green-eyed girl to leave, and as soon as she did, got up and put on a tunic and leggings, then set out at a jog for the rather-haphazardly-set-up medical area.
She swiped her access card to the one semi-secure area, where they kept N008s for attempted treatment. Usually locked down with wrist and ankle cuffs on a table, for the treatments to be tested on.
The nurse on call was waiting for her. “Mercy, good, you got here fast. Zero-Zero-Eight-dash-One-Five is… not doing well. Could you…?”
The girl sighed internally. She’d been exhausted for weeks and now… “Of course.” She walked past the nurse, swiping her way into the biohaz dressing room, then into the holding area.

Her nose was assaulted by the scent of decay and filth; well of course, the N008 patients were hardly docile enough to be cleaned. She made her way to the 15th holding chamber.
She’d spent hours and a huge amount of energy on this one. Trying to help his body fight off the virus, to minimal good effect. Nonetheless…

She jumped up onto the table, to which the patient was strapped. His skin was a patchwork of black, decaying flesh, red, raw muscle where he’d worn the skin away, and his normal skin tone. The once-human looked at her with solid gray eyes, not seeming to see her, and let out a cry that sounded like an animal being tortured; she could see the muscles in his arms tensing, his hands jerking against the solid steel cuffs that bound him to the table. Even from where she was, a few inches away from him, she could feel the heat radiating from the feverish patient.

Gritting her teeth, she touched his arm, wincing as the creature [i]screamed[/i]. She tried to force the thoughts out of her mind and burn the infection out of him; starting with his blood. That would be how the infection was spreading; if he was to have any hope his blood had to be clear.

She tried to burn the infection out of his brain, next, but she had minimal strength left to do this before she found herself back in her own body, pain shooting through her. Of course. This virus… it took it out of her like nothing else she’d ever treated.
[sub]05:12[/sub]
The girl half-jumped, half-fell to the floor. The pain in her head and the rest of her body made it hard to concentrate, but she got out of the room, going and getting her suit sterilized, and then stripping out of it and half-stumbling back to the barracks. She barely had the strength to haul herself up onto her bunk before she fell asleep. Or unconscious, she wasn’t really sure. She knew that she had to soak up as much sleep as she could before she had to start the day. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like trying to fight the virus if she herself had it, not when just trying to cure other people took so much out of her.
[sub]05:30[/sub]
Aralii’s alarm went off with a buzz, and she groaned as she sat up and watched the world spin around her. The girl smacked at the alarm, needing a few tries to hit the button, because her depth perception was so off. God, she was even more groggy than usual… and still feeling feverish.
She prayed that it was just exhaustion affecting her and not something more.

Despite feeling like total crap, she dragged herself to her feet and to the bathrooms, to try and clean and freshen up before the meeting.
[sub]09:50[/sub]
Ari found herself in the city square, standing on Eliira’s shoulder; given her short height she would be trampled in a minute if she was left on the ground. She listened with as much attention as she could; the bit of news about the Free section was both wonderful and horrible. Because some of her people…

There had been a group of about two hundred that had been brought to the city by some anonymous patron. Ari had confirmed the death—had caused the death—of thirty-two of them. As far as she knew, she and Eliira were the only two who had made it out of the Free section… there might have been some in Advanced, or in the Nation section; she wasn’t sure. But in all probability there were still at least fifty of her former friends and relatives roaming the Free section as feral beasts.

She shook her head slightly, clearing the thoughts; she had to focus. The meeting was already drawing to a close… had she really zoned out that badly?
[sub]10:00[/sub]
Ari waited for most of the people to leave, scanning the departing crowd for a certain face. There.
Eliira saw where she was looking and laughed. “Could have just mentioned it and I’d have brought you over, Ari.”
“Yeah, but it’s more fun this way.” She jumped down from Ellie’s shoulders and grabbed her other “friend” by the leg: Edoric Thatch.
“What did you think of the speech, Echoes?” she asked. She let go of Edoric’s leg with one hand to wave to Eliira, who vanished into the crowd that was heading back to the residence areas, probably headed to get suited up for a mission. "You think we'll be sent out there?"