The cat looked at the professors wounds again, testing them again as he changed the bandages using the supplies on his belt. He was keeping the pieces on his person and the device itself had been placed on the roof as per Kane’s request.
Helio hadn’t awakened and had just tossed fitfully enough he had thrown himself to the floor twitching periodically. The cries from the asylum, and the other strange noises from above made it hard to concentrate.
Arnold wondered vaguely if coffee would help, but he already messed up with morphine. And the two doctors he had called upon had not yet arrived.
He worked in silence for a time, but then looked down at the professor and sighed, “I don’t know if you can hear me, I’ll just be talking to you while I work.”
There was no reaction, but he kept going as he took out his scissors and cut the bandages along each finger to see if they had improved any. “Things have gone badly….about as bad as they could go in fact without Dr. Dinosaur attacking again…so he might not be aware that we have his device.
His hands had recovered very little in that week, but there was no infection. He began to clean them again, rinsing each finger delicately with a wet cloth, “But the asylum is running out of room…many are crying out about a horse…“ Heliotrope Lionheart might show a glimpse of a smile, or perhaps a grimace. He should have known he’d like that on some level.
Not wanting to lose the minor communication he continued, “Dr. Maddox is on her way here-“ There was a slight groan, very distant as he said that. “It’s worse than that though…last night was your anniversary…“ He told him how she had been delayed and that he had seen Henri out he was sure. Heliotrope groaned again and twitched again.
Finally Helio, tapping his hoof against the floorboard made an irregular rhythm on the ground with his hoof. Arnold was confused, and checked his pulse, although he knew that wouldn’t be likely to tell him anything. Heliotrope must have mustered the energy and focus to repeat the tapping again…and finally he understood.
Heliotrope apparently also spoke Beep.
***
Arnold didn’t know morse code, but he took as accurate a writing as he could before the horse collapsed into a completely comatose state.
The cat frowned as he saw the professor slump, and then he sighed and made his way over to the window to make sure his hasty note of dashes and dots were legible.
Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and he looked up and saw at least twelve metallic raptors heading towards the asylum. They had seen him and were now moving slightly faster.
He stood there dumbfounded, giggling slightly, unable to accept that he could really be that unlucky…but when they smashed through the front door below he turned to the Professor laying there defenseless and knew he had to make a choice, while he screamed in frustration about his luck.
Oh dear.