Antibodies 3

© Copyright to BG Taff.

Characters.
Nana Bev Interplanetary prospector.
Jamie Bev’s younger prospecting Partner.
Dennis Potter Freight manager and old friend of Beverly’s.
Jack Godfrey Yard foreman and walking boss.

After the trap was set I went into my modest apartment in the gay village in the heart of the city. At least I was relatively safe there. Once home, I checked my mail then popped down to my regular little café to finish my dinner before calling into my regular night-club.
It was always good to touch bases with regular friends and I was relaxing with them when I was slightly surprised to see Jamie appear. She was asking the doorman something and he pointed up towards the little mezzanine balcony where I was sat with my friends.
Jamie looked up and smiled so I waved her up then watched as she stopped at the bar to buy a drink before ascending the stairs. As she took her seat at the table she spoke quietly.

“They caught him.” She informed me.

“Was it Bull?” I asked.

“Yes. It was hidden in the tool locker behind the cab of his pickup.”

“Did he connect you to his capture. I hope you weren’t watching or something.”

“No, I was just getting my bike from the bike-shed when the police were bringing him back to Mt Potter’s office. He was taken up to the office as I was riding out of the gates same as I do every night.”
“So no association then.”

“No. The theft was common knowledge all around the depot and the police were stopping every car. Bull’s just a dumb bully. He was stupid to try and sneak it out that same evening and bingo!”

“He must have got a buyer for it.” I opined.

“The police are probably following up that angle, but I just kept out of it and cycled home. Are you coming down to dance?”

Several of my friends decided to join us and we bundled down onto the dance floor. That night she so enjoyed herself that she missed the last bus home. Consequently, she slept over with me.

As Dennis had opined; Jamie proved to be quite a bright kid and that night was to be the start of a long friendship that culminated in her resigning from her warehouse job and becoming my ‘girl Friday’ cum first mate as my prospecting endeavours took off.

That’s basically a potted history of our long friendship. Now back to the pandemic.

ooo000ooo

We had decided to keep our suspected immunity to the virus a secret. The asteroid dust that had been shed by the asteroid had eventually filtered down to earth where it had mutated via various stages and agencies to become severely infections and lethal. When we returned that day we had to undergo some severe health checks before they allowed us to step through the newly intensified immigration procedures.

As visitors returning to Earth from space, we were deemed to not have been exposed to the earthbound virus so the checks were minimal and we stepped through immigration after simply filling a questionnaire while having our temperatures checked. They didn’t even check our bloods. We were given a face mask and an advisory booklet telling us it was compulsory to get ourselves checked if we suspected any sort of infection.

After clearing health and immigration, Jamie and I went home to what was now a comfortable luxury apartment in the gay quarter. Tired from the voyage we had simply crashed out in each other’s arms like grand-mother and grand-daughter in our luxury bed.

The following morning we got our first experience of the lock-down rules as we wend shopping to restock our larder.

“Bloody hell Babe’s!” Jamie giggled. “We should be wearing our space suites. Just look at it.”

And look at it we did. People were religiously keeping their distances as they shopped, while everybody was wearing some version of a ‘bio-hazard’ suit that reflected their wealth. All shops required evidence of recent testing and we were forced to take a test that very morning before venturing into any public indoor space.

Reluctantly, we presented ourselves at a testing station where the testers asked a string of questions. Fortunately our newly arrived status exempted us from a blood test but Jamie and I both knew that at some time we were going to be caught. After a fixed number of tests and so many days of public exposure, everybody was required to present themselves for blood testing.

That evening we put on our newly purchased hazard suits and ventured down to the village.

Every venue had a haz-test station at the door and we had to present our mobile phones to be checked. Naturally, we had chosen our favourite club and we were relieved to find some of our friends sitting at our favoured table but still keeping the regulation distance apart. After buying our drinks separately, Jamie and I soon joined them.
It became quickly apparent that some of our friends had already succumbed to the virus. The mood around the table was not good.

“You’d be better off staying on Mars,” Betty suggested.

“You may be right.” I was forced to agree. “But we’d go crazy living in a space suite every time we go out. These haz suites are irksome enough and as for going to the loo, well!” I expostulated.

“Where are Charlotte and Lucy?” Jamie asked fearfully.

“You just missed them,” Betty replied. “They tested positive last night and they’re in the isolation area down the south side of town. They’ll have a couple of weeks then that’s it.”

“Are we allowed to visit them?” Jamie asked hopefully.

“Visit them!!” Betty almost shrieked. “If you’re contemplating suicide babe’s then yes go ahead! You might be allowed to say hello through the fence.”

Jamie’s face paled more from despondency than fear then; after a couple of drinks, she wandered out onto a very lonely dance floor. I watched her going through a couple of desultory motions but it was nothing like the effervescent ‘jack-in-a-box’ that usually crackled around the floor. She returned to sit with us then pleaded to go home.

Back at our apartment she pleaded with me.

“Will you come with me to the isolation area?”

“What good will it do?”

“I want to see them. Before they die.”

“That doesn’t do any good.” I argued. “I think I’ve got a better idea.”

“What?” Jamie wondered.

“I think we should donate some of our blood to them, - secretly mind.”

“How. The doctors would have a fit.”

“If I can swing it as a spaceship captain, I should be able to obtain some medical equipment to re-equip our medical cabinet onboard ‘Digger’

(Digger was the name of our spaceship. Somewhat prosaic I’ll confess, but self-explanatory.)

The following morning I dropped by the ship chandlery and we soon had what I thought I would need.

“Are you sure this will work? Jamie asked nervously.

“I’ve given emergency blood transfusions love. I had to do Space-captain’s medical course.”

“Will it hurt?”

“A bit. I’ll give you a local anaesthetic.”

“So doing, I soon had a good half pint of Jamie’s blood then I mixed it with the medical plasma to make a sufficiently viscous to flow down a wide hypodermic needle.”

“What’s that for?” Jamie asked.

“We can find out if our blood really does work as an antidote. If we can get Charlotte and Lucy to accept this blood they might be cured and we get to know if it works without the authorities learning of us. Betty told me it’s pretty much chaos down on the lines. The authorities try to maintain separation but they’re overwhelmed.”

“But if it does work, Charlotte and Lucy will know and they’ll be forced to blab.”

“I’m hoping by then, we’ll be out in space and I’ll have some sort of plan; - or you will.”

“Don’t look at me Babes.” Jamie shrugged. “That still puts us at risk. They might not be able to make a serum or vaccine from our blood, then what?”

“I don’t know Jamie. I honestly don’t know. This is ‘seat-of-pants’ stuff. I still don’t know if the blood works.” Charlotte and Lucy are simply stage one.”

“Okay. Shall we go there now?”

“Sooner the better.” I agreed. “I’ve no idea how long the blood keeps.”

ooo000ooo

Within the hour, we had reached the huge suburb that had been ring-fenced as the isolation area for the city. Once we reached the security gates I spoke to the guard over the intercom. After giving Charlotte and Lucy’s names and as much information as we knew the guard eventually located them and asked us.

“What have you got for them?”

“Food mainly, some changes of clothes and stuff.”

“Okay. The access ports are down that corridor just place the stuff on the trays and your friends can collect it.”

“What about those bio-hazard suites with the air supplies.” Jamie asked.

“If you are prepared to wait a few weeks, you can buy one. Or you can use the ordinary hazard suits. They’re fairly effective if you’re careful!”

“We’ll take those, Jamie declared.

“Very well missy. There’s two sterilised suits in that cubicle. If you get changed, we’ll dowse you in disinfectant and call your friends to access port twenty-seven.”

Having cleared the first security hurdle, Jamie and I got changed and took our food parcel to section twenty-seven. There we waited until Charlotte and Lucy appeared red eyed and frightened.

“Who are you?” Lucy asked because they could not recognise us inside our bio suits.

“It’s Jamie and Nana Bev. We’ve got some stuff for you. Food and stuff.”

“Oh thanks. The stuff in here’s bloody awful.”

“Yeah, well shut up and listen. Nana here’ might have something better than food. We might even help you get better.”

“Oh stop that bullshit!” Charlette cursed. “There’s no cure yet. We’re fucking done for!!”

Jamie got equally angry.

“Listen dickhead! We’ve risked fucking everything to get this blood so far. We can’t promise you anything but at least fucking try!”

“Blood? Who’s blood?”

“My fucking blood." Jamie revealed then explained. "You know Nana and I are monogamous and we don't share body fluids; so give it a fucking try.”

“Is this safe Nana?” Charlotte asked me.

“I don’t know kid. But you’re dead anyway if this doesn’t work. There’s no known cure.”

Tears came to Charlotte’s eyes and I couldn’t help but feel for her, but I didn’t have much time. Firstly I removed the clumsy gloves and disinfected my hands thoroughly before slipping on some surgical gloves that Jamie was holding open for me. The disinfectant jell made the surgical glove slip on quickly and I grabbed Charlotte’s arm.

“This might hurt a bit but don’t move your arm.” I instructed as Jamie clamped on Charlotte’s arm.

Quickly I inserted the needle into a prominent vein and carefully injected about fifty cc of blood plasma mix. Charlotte stared mesmerised while Lucy fussed unnecessarily. Jamie told her to be still and not to attract attention.

Within five minutes, I had transfused fifty cc of blood plasma mix into both our friends and I hurriedly cleaned up while Jamie dressed their puncture wounds.

“Is this really going to work?” Charlotte asked.

“We don’t know.” Jamie replied honestly but look at this.”

She pricked her finger and her blood still carried a slightly greenish brown hue.

“See! Our blood’s been like this for nearly six months. According to the virus rules, Nana and I should be long dead, but we’re not. Ask yourselves why!”

“When will you be coming again? We’ve got two other trans friends in here.”

“We can’t say. We’ve got an urgent cargo for Lunar base Delta. We won’t be back for about four days. Most importantly, don’t say a fucking word to anybody. Just tell your friends to turn up when we come back. It’ll possibly be Thursday or Friday.”

Finally Jamie added the last word.

“If you feel sick just go and lie down. Don’t go to any doctors. When Nan and I got walloped we were ill for a couple of days so expect to feel lousy for a couple of days. Cheerio and say fuck all to anybody.”

With these meagre words of comfort. Jamie and I left them our food parcel and skedaddled. That evening we were lunar-bound.”

ooo000ooo