: An MRI Life Gamble
"What method?" Su Jin’s eyes sharpened, his exhaustion vanishing in an instant.
"An MRI... that parasite isn't small. An MRI will definitely spot it. We pinpoint its location, and kill it with a single strike!" Sun Ya threw a hard punch into the empty air.
The desperate hope in Su Jin’s eyes immediately guttered out.
"Don't be an idiot, Old Sun! Where the hell are we going to find an MRI?" Wei De roared, the effort straining his paralyzed vocal cords. "Don't waste time! The blueprints are what matters! Do you want me to die for nothing?"
Sun Ya opened his mouth to argue, but Su Jin’s grave voice cut him off. "Elder Sun... I know you're desperate to save him, but using an MRI is flat-out impossible. The grid is dead. It’s been dead for way too long. Even if I dragged a machine out of a hospital, would it even turn on? Not to mention, the hospitals are absolute ground zero for the infection right now."
"No... you're wrong! I'm desperate, yes, but I'm not so senile that I've forgotten basic reality." Sun Ya’s eyes gleamed with a manic edge. "A hospital won't work, but there is one place that absolutely will!"
"Where?!" Su Jin demanded.
"Longlin Skyscraper! The tallest building in the city! The top three floors aren't for the general public. Floor ninety-nine is residential, ninety-eight is medical, and ninety-seven is logistics," Sun Ya explained rapidly. "The ninety-eighth floor houses a medical bay that rivals the best in the world. The MRI machine up there is a custom build."
"What?!" Su Jin balked, his mind racing. "But the power has been out for weeks! Even under perfect conditions, cold-starting an MRI takes at least a week or two! The machine needs to be flushed with liquid helium, and we have absolutely zero access to that right now."
"Oh? You know your stuff," Sun Ya remarked, blinking in mild surprise.
"I used to sling medical equipment for a living. I know the basics. Just get to the point, Elder Sun," Su Jin pressed, grinding his teeth.
Sun Ya nodded. "That MRI at Longlin Skyscraper is a bespoke model. I personally calibrated it. Its thermal containment shielding far exceeds military specifications. The machine features an automatic failsafe, dual helium reservoirs, and an off-grid thermal stabilization system. Combined with the meticulous upkeep from their elite medical staff before the collapse, that machine is pristine. There is a massive probability that the magnet is still in a state of superconductivity."
"After the COLD VAULT MISSILE SYSTEM detonated, the outside temperature plummeted well past negative fifty-eight degrees Fahrenheit. The ambient temperature at the summit of Longlin Skyscraper has to be even colder. That extreme freezing slows the helium boil-off to a crawl. But the absolute kicker? The building has its own local liquid helium reserves and an independent backup power grid."
"Under these ideal conditions, we only need three hours to restart that MRI!" Sun Ya’s voice dropped to a gravelly register. "We can operate right there. A major surgery is a pipe dream, but Old Wei's constitution must have mutated and strengthened significantly by now. Otherwise, with a foreign object that massive lodged in his spine, his nervous system would have completely crashed."
"We find the parasite, drive a surgical needle straight through it... and Old Wei just might survive."
"Jesus Christ..." Su Jin breathed, staring at the old man. "Who the hell lives up there? What kind of billionaire oligarchs are we talking about?"
Sun Ya looked at him, one bushy eyebrow twitching upward. "Billionaires? Oligarchs? Please. Money is nothing. That place was built for true royalty."
"How royal?"
"The absolute peak of the food chain."
"Fine!" Su Jin abruptly sprang to his feet, a feral energy radiating from his tense muscles. "Then what the hell are we waiting for? Let's do it! We have no idea what that parasite is doing inside Elder Wei, so the clock is ticking. I'll take a car out to scout the route and kite the zombies off the main streets. Once it's clear, I'll circle back, pick you two up, and we make a hard push for Longlin Skyscraper."
"You two are absolutely out of your goddamn minds!" Wei De screamed, his face flushed with impotent rage. "Do you have any idea what's out there? Stop wasting time on me! You can't bet everyone's lives on 'ideal conditions'! What if it's a dead end?"
"Old Wei... do you still not understand Little Li?" Sun Ya sighed heavily. "Even if you refuse to cooperate, he's not going to just let you die. Just live, okay? You're still somewhat useful to us."
Turning away from his old friend, Sun Ya looked back at Su Jin. "Little Li, we've all seen what you can do. Scouting the route is priority one, but you need to infiltrate Longlin Skyscraper before we bring Wei De. We can use the fire escape to bypass the lower levels, and the top three floors should be locked down, but I'm estimating a skeleton crew of around twenty maintenance staff were up there. If they've turned into zombies, you need to clear the board before we arrive."
"Understood. I'm moving out." Su Jin threw open the door and vanished into the corridor.
Down in the first-floor lobby, the heavy snores of exhausted survivors filled the air. Fu Hu, flanked by a few armed men, was standing a tense vigil.
Seeing Su Jin tear down the stairs like a bat out of hell, Fu Hu immediately sensed trouble and jogged over. "Director, what's wrong?"
"Elder Wei woke up. We're moving him to Longlin Skyscraper for surgery; they have a sterile medical bay up there. I'm heading out solo to kite the hordes off our path, then I'll loop back. Scrounge up every working megaphone you can find, and get me a few jerrycans of gasoline," Su Jin ordered, not even breaking his stride as he marched toward the main doors.
"Boss, it's pitch black out there! The second you flip on your headlights, every zombie in a ten-mile radius is going to swarm you. What good are megaphones going to do?" Fu Hu asked, panicking slightly.
Su Jin had already reached his vehicle. He ripped open the driver-side door and glanced back over his shoulder. "I have night vision now. I won't be using headlights."
"Once I've corralled the zombies away from our route, I'll be right back to pick up the two elders. I have to keep them alive while dragging them up ninety-eight flights of stairs, so I'm bringing Cheng Du for muscle. Have them packed and waiting in the lobby. I'm leaving the defense of this base entirely in your hands. It's just a few hours. Do not let this place fall apart."
"By the time we finish the surgery, the sun should be coming up. We might be delayed. The immediate perimeter is already clear, so stage the convoy out on the street and keep the engines warm. This is the final hurdle before we establish our new home. We are all going to reach the military district in one piece!"
Fu Hu licked his dry lips and gave a hard, resolute nod. "Right! Got it! Give me two minutes, I'll go rip down those megaphones... wait, what do you need the gasoline for?"
"Don't worry about it, just move!"
...
"Old Sun, you're genuinely insane, completely unhinged... how is this any different from rolling the dice in a casino?" Wei De muttered weakly, staring at the ceiling. "It's not worth it, it's just not worth it... Even if I drop dead right now, I have zero regrets. But if this harebrained scheme fails and gets that boy killed, I'll take that shame with me to the grave."
Sun Ya replied with stony calm, "As long as you can still spark and generate heat, you stay alive. Those blueprints you jotted down don't even have complete firing protocols. What happens when the current munitions run dry? You want these kids to just raid a library and teach themselves advanced ballistics?"
"You understand military manufacturing. You know the supply chains. When we rebuild and restart the foundries, you are irreplaceable. I'm lightyears behind you when it comes to mass production. That is why you are not allowed to die."
Wei De fell silent. Sun Ya pushed forward, his voice softening just a fraction. "We're both dinosaurs, Wei. Our families have been wiped off the face of the earth... dying is the easy part. You just kick the bucket and go to sleep. But what about the next generation?"
"Look at Little Li. The man crossed literal lightyears to land on our ruined rock. He’s an extraterrestrial! He has zero ulterior motives, yet he guards our pathetic lives as if they were his own. What kind of sheer, unadulterated nobility is that?"
"He is throwing himself into the meat grinder to save you, and you want to just roll over and die? How could you ever look him in the eye?"
"Listen to me closely. The most productive thing you can do right now is shut your mouth and stop sabotaging the operation."
Wei De's expression twisted, cycling through a series of complex emotions before settling into a bitter, hollow chuckle. "An alien... he really is a goddamn alien. We actually got saved by a little green man."
"Exactly. I can tell you right now, everything he said was the absolute truth. Even he doesn't know how he crash-landed here. Call it divine intervention... maybe he truly is the savior of humanity."
"Heh heh heh, if he isn't, no one is!" Wei De's rigid features finally relaxed. He rolled his eyes toward Sun Ya. "Old Sun, I was checked out earlier. Tell me the whole story from the top."
"I was just getting to that. So, on his homeworld, they actually managed to split the atom. Built nuclear bombs, too—dozens of nations had them stacked up... but get this, they never developed a meteorological weapon like the COLD VAULT MISSILE SYSTEM. It seems the political climate back on his Earth was radically different from ours."
"Incredible! Wait, what about Fu Qingdai? Did Fu Hu seriously get cuckolded by our alien friend? And his erectile dysfunction—did the alien zap him with a ray gun or something?"
"Motherfucker..." Sun Ya groaned, rubbing his temples. "You dirty old bastard... you really do deserve to die!"