Part X - 1: Life Support

The day before Thanksgiving was a day some of us will never forget, but many will never remember.

Suzi and I were in our third hour class taking a test. Suddenly Joey sent me an urgent mental message.

"Tim! John's spazing out! He's... Shit. He just fell down. We gotta help him!"

I reached out and found Joey, then looked through his eyes. I saw John laying on the floor, twitching, his eyes rolled up into his head. People were panicking around him, including Joey. I tried to access John's head, but it made me feel sick.

"Shit!" I said out loud. People turned and looked at me, but I didn't care. There were more important things to worry about.

"Suzi, John's in trouble. I gotta go help him." I said very loudly as I dashed out of my seat and ran out of the room. The teacher was yelling to me, and everyone else started talking at once. I left it far behind me as I reached the stairwell to go to the second floor where John's and Joey's class was.

As I climbed the stairs, I notified the nurse exactly what had happened. She wasn't sure how she knew, but she didn't hesitate to grab her medical kit and hustle upstairs.

I reached the classroom finding all the students had formed a circle leaving an open area immediately around John. The teacher was trying to get John to respond to her, but as I probed him, I found he was fading fast. His heartbeat was very unsteady, his thoughts were completely confusing to me.

"Joey, share link, but just enough to let me share with John." I thought to him quickly. He did it, and as I made my way through the circle of students, I reached out to John and started to figure out what was wrong. I quickly was getting sick, and by the time I got to his side, I was feeling my breakfast wanting to come up.

"Trash can, quick!" I yelled and commanded across the room. Three people dived for the trash can but I had sense enough to cancel two before they started to struggle against each other. The teacher was insisting I go back from wherever I came from, so I also had to fix that. The trash can got to me just in time for me to puke into it. Then I realized I could have stopped it from happening altogether with a couple of quick commands.

I had to not only use those commands on myself then, but several others near me. The nurse arrived at that time, and she didn't seem surprised to see me. I tuned my mind onto John's, tracking down his problem while the nurse was checking his pulse and stuff.

"He took something... Some kind of pills... " I finally announced out loud. "His heart is going stop beating, and I can't get his stomach to puke it up!"

I was trying my hardest to make him throw up, but just as I thought I was getting something to work, his heart did stop.

"SHIT!" I said, as I tried to start it up again. I was having to share my own life energy with him, and I was feeling the drain.

"His heart stopped!" the nurse finally concluded nearly thirty seconds after it had.

I began sharing more and more of my own life force, laying down on my back with my eyes closed. Just as I started to get his heart pumping again, the nurse struck his chest with her fist.

"AAAACCCKKKKKK!" was all I could say, having felt the blow myself. I whispered, "Don't do that again." But only Joey heard it.

"He said don't do that," Joey told the nurse.

"What? I started his heart again. Don't tell me what to do. Get out! Everyone."

By that time, I wasn't able to sit up, much less follow her orders. I was trying to keep his nervous system working, for it was my only way of controlling the rest of his body. Somehow I needed to keep some kind of signal running to his brain. Then I accidentally ran across the source of the whole problem.

"Joey. John. The five way long time ago. Drugs. My fault. Damnit, heart stopped."

"His heart stopped!" Joey said to the nurse.

"What do... His heart has stopped!" the nurse said, raising her hand to strike again.

"No! Don't," Joey cried.

Her hand struck John's chest, then again, and again. Each time both John and I jerked, but less and less every time she did.

Joey grabbed her fist before she could do it a fourth time.

"GET HIM OUT OF HERE!" She cried to the teacher.

"DON'T HIT THEM AGAIN!" Joey said straight into her eyes.

I was starting to slip, finding myself unable to break away from John. His body was pulling my own into a coma. I managed to signal to Joey for help.

"SHIT!" he said as people started to try and pull him away. Joey had no choice. He began sharing his own life force.

"Stop! Let Joey go!" Higgs called from the doorway.

Joey, looking very pale, moaned, and laid down himself. Now the nurse had three people incapacitated in front of her, with only one of them conscious.

"Shit Tim. Don't kill yourself for him... Oh shit... " Joey moaned.

Joey closed his eyes, and felt the weight on his next breath increase many times. As he took in the next breath, Joey, John, and I all breathed in a deep breath, all our hearts beating as one.

There were gasps from many in the room, and then Suzi came in.

"Tim? Joey! What's going on?"

I was able to impress to Joey that something needed to be rubbed on both John and I to give our nerves something to send that was normal.

Joey thought fast. "Suzi. Rub Tim's chest. Like his mom does. Somebody rub John's."

"This is crazy! You can't expect me to follow the advice of a student?" the nurse said to Higgs.

Joey remembered his ring and raised it to Suzi and said "Linda, John's chest."

Suzi understood, and switched hands so her ring hand was free. She said "Linda, go rub John's chest like I'm doing Tim's."

"Huh? Why me?" Linda said, hesitating.

Suzi threw her ringed hand up for Linda to see and said, "Linda, go rub John's chest like I'm doing Tim's!"

This time, Linda got up and said, "Yes, Suzi." as she scrambled over others to get up to John. She knelt beside John and began making circles with her hand.

Seconds ticked by, John's heart was about to stop again. But the rubbing was helping me slow that down. I knew I was fighting a losing battle, but I was trapped to see it out to the end. I made sure Joey wouldn't be dragged into it too, making his link only a partial one.

"His heart is going to stop again," Joey whispered to Suzi.

"Joey said John's heart is going to stop again." she said loudly.

"How could he possibly know that!" the nurse sarcastically said.

Both John and I took two breaths, then stopped. Our hearts stopped three ticks later.

Higgs told the teacher to clear the rest of the students from the room.

Five seconds later, Suzi cried, "He stopped breathing!"

"His heart stopped again!" the nurse said raising her fist up again.

As her fist slammed into John's chest yet again, Joey, exclaimed, "AAAAAACCCCCCKKKKK!!" then a moment later sat up and said, "I said don't do th... OH SHIT!! I LOST THE LINK!!! YOU STUPID BITCH!"

Joey crawled up to me, started trying to force a link from his side. I wasn't able to respond, locked in a link with John that I couldn't break.

"I can't get in! Come On Timmy... LET ME IN GOD DAMN... SHIT... FUCK!" Joey said.

Suzi was rubbing very fast, trying to somehow add her own energy to mine. Joey had calmed himself, and began concentrating with all his might. But after thirty seconds, of rubbing without any responce, Suzi started to give up. Her hand finally withdrew, her eyes streaming with tears. The nurse and Higgs were giving CPR to John and I, but the link was preventing me from responding.