Flash: The Haunting of Barry Allen by Susan Griffith & Clay Griffith

Author:Susan Griffith & Clay Griffith [Griffith, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan
Published: 2016-11-29T05:00:00+00:00

23

Barry’s head dipped for the fourth time as he lifted the fork to his mouth. His body needed food, but he was too exhausted to eat. He rubbed at his face, feeling nothing but dried sweat and grit under his hands. Sighing, he attempted to stay focused on the simple act of eating.

It took effort to even chew.

Eight times he made it to his mouth before his eyelids started to droop again. He jerked awake as Caitlin entered the room and plopped a stack of research on the top of her desk a few feet away. For a moment he panicked, wondering if he had blurred. But she didn’t seem alarmed.

He tightened his grip on his fork.

“You haven’t eaten much,” she pointed out.

“I haven’t had time,” he replied. “Now I don’t have the energy. Since we missed Rathaway at the mayor’s office, he’s really ramped up the attacks. More fires. More floods. More chaos. We made him mad.” He glanced around. “Where’s Cisco? We need to talk about strategy.”

“He’s in the lab, working on a way to shut down the Pied Piper’s gauntlets. Don’t worry about him right now. You’ve been running full speed for two days. You’ve got nothing left in your system, Barry. Eat.”

“I will.” He looked at the pile of paperwork. “Are those my latest results?”

“Yes.”

He reached over to take the top report, but Caitlin pulled the stack out of his reach.

“Just keep eating,” she said firmly. “I’ll tell you what I’ve found.”

“I can speed read through them.”

“And use up the little bit of energy you’ve got left? Don’t be silly. You can look at them later, when you’ve gotten more zip back into you.”

“I am zipless,” he admitted. “It’ll pass.”

“Barry, it isn’t just the running around, saving people, and looking for meta-villains. Every time you blur, the plasma grows, and it’s not just co-opting red blood cells. It is spreading through other cells too, and it’s draining your speed force. The longer it goes on, the longer it will take you to replenish.”

“Guess I’ll just have to eat faster,” he said. “Either that, or give me pie intravenously.” He chuckled. Maybe it was the exhaustion making him a little lightheaded.

Caitlin actually paused and put a finger to her chin.

“I was kidding!” Barry exclaimed.

“I could give you some boosters—electrolytes, simple proteins. We could use protein shakes, for when you’re too tired to even eat.” She watched his head dip again. “Like now.”

“Look. I’m eating.” He lifted his fork to shove in another mouthful.

“I’m serious. You’re draining faster than you’re replenishing.” She rummaged through the folders in front of her. Finally she pulled out an X-ray. “This is the break in your arm from the fight on the bridge.” She slid it in front of him. “Taken this morning.”

Barry held it up to the light. To his surprise, he could still see a hint of the fracture line. “It’s not healed.”

“It’s healing, but far slower than it should. Under normal circumstances, your bones would have knit completely by now thanks to your metahuman physiology.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.