An hour later, Daily came out of the operating room. Yassmay, Denise, Vulay, and Eugene had arrived. They were waiting in the corridor.
‘She’s alive,’ said Daily. ‘She’s so strong, but her heart and lungs have been badly damaged. Her condition is critical.’
‘So, she’ll be okay?’ asked Vulay. ‘She’ll recover, right?’
‘She’s on life support,’ said Daily. ‘It’s looking very bad.’
‘Just tell us straight,’ insisted Vulay. ‘Is she going to recover?’
‘I’ve called Hamish,’ said Daily. ‘Polly is bringing over the seaweed cure.’
‘They’re just going to give it to us,’ said Denise.
‘No, I’ve agreed to all their conditions,’ replied Daily.
‘So those bastards held us to ransom even now,’ shouted Vulay.
‘I don’t care,’ shouted Daily. ‘I’m not letting her die. We need it now.’
‘Enough,’ shouted Yassmay. ‘Stop the stupid, petty negotiating. We need the cure now.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Vulay as she tried to put her arm around Yassmay.
Yassmay pushed her away.
Polly hovered down the corridor carrying several vials of the cure.
‘That’s fast. Thank you so much,’ said Daily as he took the vials off her.
He rushed into the operating room to attend to Orcilla.
Ten minutes later, Daily came out.
‘Okay, all we can do is wait,’ said Daily. ‘If this cure is as good as we hope it is, she should pull through.’
Everyone sighed in relief.
‘Everyone should go and rest now,’ said Daily. ‘I’ll provide an update in a few hours.’
After the others had gone to another room to wait and rest, Vulay and Eugene approached Daily.
‘What happened?’ asked Vulay. ‘How did she become so badly injured?’
‘She was stabbed in the heart,’ said Daily.
‘I have a good idea who’s behind this, and I’m going to make sure they pay,’ said Vulay as her intensity filled her voice.
‘No need to speculate,’ said Eugene. ‘My cameras would have picked up something.’
‘Let’s get the evidence and bring them down,’ said Vulay as she put her arms on Eugene’s shoulders.
Suddenly, the power went out.
‘No, no,’ said Daily in a desperate tone. He rushed in to check on Orcilla. The life support machine was operating off the backup battery.
Daily rushed back out to Vulay and Eugene. ‘We need to restore power as soon as possible,’ he said in a frantic tone. ‘The machine’s backup battery is really old.’
Yassmay ran out into the corridor. She was holding a torchlight. ‘I’ll help get the power back up,’ she shouted.
‘So will I!’ said Denise, who ran out behind Yassmay.
They both sprinted down to the basement. The door was locked. They both began to kick the door as hard as possible. After several hard kicks, the door burst open.
Denise shone the torchlight at the transformer. It had been badly damaged.
‘We’re not going to be able to fix this,’ shouted Yassmay. ‘Someone sabotaged it.’
Yassmay and Denise rushed back upstairs to speak with Daily.
‘We can’t get the power back,’ shouted Yassmay.
‘Damn it!’ said Daily in a frantic tone. ‘What now? We can’t even get her out of the building. How are we going to transfer her to the main medical centre?’
‘We just need a portable generator to keep the machine going,’ said Denise.
‘The Hotel Prison has one,’ said Eugene. ‘I have a vehicle outside; we can use it to bring it back.’
Yassmay, Denise, and Eugene rushed out of the laboratory. They quickly jumped into Eugene’s vehicle.
After a short drive, they rushed into the Hotel Prison. ‘It’s in here,’ called out Eugene as he pointed to a door.
The three of them and two enforcers stationed at the Hotel Prison rushed into the room Eugene believed the generator to be in. He was right; there was a generator in the corner of the room.
‘Let’s go,’ called out Eugene. ‘Heave-ho, heave-ho.’
The five of them grabbed the generator. They rushed outside the hotel and loaded it into the vehicle. All five of them jumped into the vehicle. They sped off to the laboratory. Within minutes, they arrived.
Four of them pulled the generator out of the vehicle. One of the enforcers grabbed a fuel can from inside the vehicle. They rushed into the laboratory. They climbed a flight of stairs. They burst through the door that Orcilla was kept in. Daily and Vulay were sitting by Orcilla’s side. They looked dejected and defeated.
‘The battery ran out while you were gone,’ sobbed Daily.
‘The generator will keep the machine going,’ said Yassmay. ‘Come on!’
Eugene topped up the generator with fuel, and Yassmay connected it to the life support machine.
‘What’s the point?’ said Daily. ‘We can’t bring her back.’
‘We will not give up,’ shouted Yassmay. ‘She’d never give up on any of us.’
The others bowed their heads and looked at the ground.
‘Let’s do a whole blood transfusion,’ said Yassmay as she looked intensely at Daily. ‘We’re clones. The only difference is that my blood can heal.’
Daily looked at Yassmay and frowned.
‘Just do it, trust me,’ shouted Yassmay. ‘We don’t have much time.’
‘We have to try,’ said Denise. ‘It couldn’t make things worse.’
‘It’ll put Yassmay at risk,’ replied Daily with a concerned look on his face.
‘I don’t care!’ shouted Yassmay. ‘We’re running out of time.’
Daily nodded. Vulay, Denise, and Daily rushed out of the room to get the blood transfusion machine, and Eugene and Yassmay rushed to grab another bed.
Before long, they were ready to go. Yassmay’s blood was pumped into Orcilla as rapidly as they could.
‘How are you feeling?’ asked Daily.
‘I’m fine,’ said Yassmay. ‘Focus on Orcilla.’
‘I’ll get her sister,’ said Eugene to Daily.
Daily nodded.
Twenty minutes later, a team from the main medical centre arrived with another life support machine.
‘Get it ready just in case we need it for Yassmay,’ Daily told them.
‘So dramatic,’ said Yassmay in a soft tone.
‘Is it working?’ asked Denise.
‘Nothing has changed,’ said Daily. ‘Yassmay has given a lot of blood now.’
‘I’ll keep giving until she comes back,’ said Yassmay.
Denise held Yassmay’s hand.
Another ten minutes passed. Denise felt Yassmay release her grip.
‘Yassmay!’ said Denise as she squeezed and shook her hand. ‘Daily! She’s out. She needs help.’
Daily looked over at Orcilla. ‘Nothing’s changed,’ he replied.
‘How far are you going to take this?’ asked Denise as her face filled with fear.
‘I will respect Yassmay’s wishes,’ replied Daily. ‘Let’s put her on life support as well,’ he said as he turned to the medical team from the main medical centre.
‘This is madness,’ said Denise as she got to her feet.
‘Let him continue,’ said Vulay. ‘Yassmay can survive this.’
Another ten minutes passed.
‘You need to stop,’ said Denise as tears rolled down her face. ‘You’ll kill both of them.’
‘We’re over four litres now,’ said Daily. ‘We must be close.’
‘I’ll be no part of this,’ said Denise as she walked out of the room.
‘She’ll soon be completely out of blood,’ said Vulay. ‘Even Yassmay can’t survive that.’
Daily sighed as he stopped the transfusion.
Daily got down onto his knees. He pressed his head against Orcilla’s hand.
Eugene and Yassme entered the room.
‘What’s going on here?’ asked Yassme in shock as she looked at her sister.
‘She risked her life to save Orcilla,’ said Vulay.
Yassme ran over to Yassmay. She grabbed her and shook her hard. ‘No! No! Wake up! Wake up!’ she shouted.
Yassme looked at the life support machine, and then she looked at Vulay. ‘You killed my sister in an attempt to save someone who’s already dead,’ shouted Yassme.
‘It’s what she wanted,’ said Vulay. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘You have no idea how sorry you’ll be,’ said Yassme as she held her sister’s hand. ‘Now get out! I want to be left alone with my sister.’
Vulay and Eugene left the room.
Yassme looked over at Daily, who was still kneeling beside Orcilla.
Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time is the sequel to the book Sapien Loop: End of an Era. Sapien Loop: End of an Era is available on Amazon, in collection series on my 
