Phew… Saved by Aiken again. Alex thought; before suddenly feeling a force tugging him upwards.
Aiken carefully propped him up. 'Are you alright, Alex?'
"I… I'm fine. I can take care of myself."
Aiken knew how stubborn his brother had always been, so he didn't say much. He was relieved to see Alex standing up.
Aiken pressed onto the blade of his machete, and the sixty-centimetre-long blade unfastened itself. It automatically stacked itself into a three-level twenty-centimetre blade, then retracted into the handle.
Suddenly, a chilling breeze blew as if it reminded the pair that they hadn't finished their quest. Aiken followed the direction of the wind as he walked until he caught a glimpse of a house with wisps of smoke coming out from its chimney.
From afar, the brothers saw a shabby, little wooden hut on the hillside. The path up the hill was very steep, where few had trod their way here. Apart from this shack, there were barely any other houses in the area.
"Aiken, is that the house?"
"Yeah. You're right. It should be there."
"It looks a little creepy. Why would anyone be living in such a dangerous place?"
As Alex had said before, most people from Venaheim had already moved to the city, and few stayed to live in run-down houses like this one, let alone living near the woods. Fenrir wolves would easily attack them at night.
"They probably built their house here to guard against those wolves at any time, I guess?" Aiken answered while he and Alex started to mount the steep slope.
Alex climbed the hill carefully. He didn't want his hands to be pricked by the sharp rocks. "Who in the world are they?"
"I'm not sure either. There isn't much written about them in the letter of request. They could be refugees from Helier or some ordinary folks from the hills."
"What? You accepted the quest when you don't even know who our clients are?"
Having said that, Alex had already been used to Aiken's way of doing things. This wasn't the first time Aiken had done this, nor the last.
"No matter who our patients are, we doctors have the same duty to 'treat patients with conscience and professionalism, devote ourselves to humanitarianism, and bring patients out of their misery and suffering'. Wasn't this written in the Doctor's oath?"
"I'm afraid you're the only one who treats the oath seriously, brother!" Alex said while walking. He had no idea when he had caught up with Aiken, went past him, and climbed the slope.
"What are you on about today, Alex?"
"Nothing… it's just baffling for me to see you accept these weird quests. And it's all your fault that we're facing danger…."
"This request was already posted on the Notre Dame Guild's bulletin board for two days, yet nobody paid attention. How can we turn a blind eye and leave someone to sink or swim?"
"Everyone knew that the quest's too dangerous. Besides, the money isn't much. Who would be willing to go through the Forêt de Mort just for a bit of cash?"
"But I'm not here for the money! I came to help those in need."
At last, the two finished climbing up the hill and arrived at a small plain. This plain was nothing special, but what shocked them was the rocky abyss at its edge.
It was impossible to see the bottom of the pit, which was not far from the hut. Let your mind wander for a while, and you would fall into it, especially at night, when everything was pitch-black. You couldn't even tell the direction, so it would be tough to get inside the house. The slope they had just mounted was nothing compared to finding the way back to the hut.
Aiken and Alex stood afar as they gazed at the house. The house was surrounded by wooden fences, mended and strengthened with wooden boards, all of which were probably used to resist the beasts' raid. Yet, there weren't any traces of the creatures' attacks on the fence. It seemed that they were not interested in this house.
Knock, knock, knock. Aiken knocked on the door and asked, "Hello? Is anyone here?"
The lights in the house suddenly went on.
"Who are you? Are you the Doctor?" The pair heard a woman's voice.
"Hello! We are doctors from the Nationale des Grands Médecins! The Black Dukes from the Notre Dame Guild. We received your quest, and we have checked your surroundings and ensured your safety. Would you mind opening the door for us, please?"
Hearing that they were from the Nationale des Grands Médecins, the door flew open. The person behind cried intensely, "Doctor! Doctor! You finally came! We've been waiting for so long!"
Aiken examined the owner of the hut. She was panicking, as seen by her anxious eyes. "Excuse me," he asked, "are you Mrs Wesley who sent us the letter?"
Aiken took out a letter from his breast pocket as he spoke. It was printed with the emblem of the Nationale des Grands Médecins. Its envelope was sealed with the association's stamp press. The messy handwriting on the envelope wrote "Mrs Wesley" as the attorney.
"Yes, I am," said Mrs Wesley. She was a gaunt woman in her fifties. She seemed poor, as her clothes were old and torn.
Yet, Aiken wasn't repulsed by her. Instead, he politely introduced himself to her. "Good evening, Mrs Wesley! I am Dr Aiken Gray, and this is my younger brother, Dr Alex Gray. Would you please show us the way to the patient?"
"He's in the house. Please do come in," Mrs Wesley said, leading them into the house.
There was a rotten smell the moment the brothers stepped into the room. The hygiene was deplorable, and there were blood-soaked towels and clothes everywhere.
Aiken and Alex exchanged looks. Something wrong was happening.
Mrs Welsey led them into the bedroom, only to find a twelve-year-old boy lying limply on the bed, completely weak. With glassy eyes and slow breathing, he was in a deep coma.
"He's my son, Andrew." Distress and despair filled Mrs Wesley's eyes.
Aiken knew that things were not good as he looked at the dying boy. He went to the front of the bed, lifted the sheets and checked his pulse. Then, he took out a stethoscope and listened to the boy's heartbeat. Andrew had a very faint pulse. His heartbeat was slow. He didn't even have the energy to breathe.
Next, with Alex's help, Aiken stripped Andrew out of his clothes to examine his entire body.
Aiken found rashes of different shapes and sizes covering the boy's body. Some even had blood and pus seeping out of them. Apart from the rashes, some bloodstains were at the corner of his mouth, probably formed after he coughed out blood. From the blood-soaked clothes and bloodstains, it was very likely that Andrew had coughed out a large amount of blood, amounting to a fifth of the total blood volume in his body.
"When did he start coughing up blood?" Aiken asked Mrs Wesley.
Mrs Wesley thought long and hard, trying to remember. "It probably started last night."
"How much blood did he cough up each time? What colour was the blood?"
"It was different every time. It was as much as a bowl could hold last night. This morning it was as much as a cup. The blood was bright red."
Aiken was deep in thought while he listened to Mrs Wesley.
"Your son is gravely ill. Why didn't you take him to see the Doctor sooner?" Alex, who was in charge of taking notes, asked her impatiently. Yet, he wasn't telling her off. Seeing a critically ill child, he couldn't help but feel anxious. He thought to himself, If only Andrew had been sent to the hospital earlier, he could have been treated sooner. At least his condition wouldn't have become this worse.
"I know his condition is serious, but I don't have the money for a doctor. My only choice was to turn to the Nationale des Grands Médecins for help. But they said the money I offered was too little, and we live far away, so no doctors were willing to come here. Apart from the two of you, of course."
Aiken tried to change the topic by asking, "Mrs Wesley, have you noticed your son's rashes on his body?"
"Yes."
"When did they appear?"
"I think it was three days ago!"
"Three days ago?" Aiken took out a box of matches from his pocket. He lit up one of them, then proceeded to prop Andrew's eyes open with his other hand. After carefully checking his pupillary light reflex, Aiken asked another question.
"Did he have a fever?"
"Yes."
Aiken touched the boy's forehead. Realising his body temperature was very high, he asked, "When did the fever start? Was it after the rashes appeared?"
"Yes, he started having a high fever probably two days ago."
Alex handed Aiken a thermometer. After applying some lubricant, Aiken put it under Andrew's armpit.
"Oh right, Mrs Wesley, have you seen any macaques around this area?"
"Um, yes." Mrs Wesley gave a puzzled look. She didn't understand what macaques had to do with her son's condition.
After a while, Aiken gently drew out the thermometer from Andrew's underarm. The thermometer's mercury showed his body temperature was 41 degrees Celsius. Aiken looked at Mrs Wesley sternly and said, "Mrs Wesley, your son has Kamer fever. It's an acute infectious disease caused by the Kamer virus transmitted by macaques."
"Kamer fever? I've never heard of this disease before."
"Kamer fever is a rare disease caused by the Kamer virus, similar to herpes. People infected with the virus will experience a high fever, rash, paralysis and encephalitis. It is an acute disease."
"Dr Gray, how can it be treated?" Mrs Wesley asked.
"The death rate for this disease is very high. Besides, we'll need a lot of medicine and medicinal herbs for our treatment, so we cannot carry out the treatment here. We must escort him to the Notre Dame Hospital in the city."
"Understood. Please get him there right now!" answered Mrs Wesley. She had put all her hope on the Gray Brothers.
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