FSE

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IMPORTANT NOTE: Before starting please read the story in order, starting here: Not Dead Yet: I. Atomic Heat

Hello dear reader to the start of my newest short series. First of all let me apologize for the time between chapter one and two. I'll be honest here: chapters one, two, and three were written on the same day, but I only got around to editing one. I procrastinated editing this chapter, but finally just settled on a quick pass so I could stop delaying this post. I'm going to post chapter three hopefully within a week or two, but that chapter needs some real elbow grease editing at this time. Feel free to harass me if you want me to work faster and upload in a timely manner.

A special thanks goes out to KJwulf for his 'first impressions' read which has already influenced the later chapters.

~Stay Crispy

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Not Dead Yet

II. Whole-body Exposure

"So you are sure you guys didn't do anything?" A doubtful voice rang into the hyena's ear.

"Sis! I mean we were pretty drunk, but when I woke up my pants and belt were still on." Kasmer's defense sounded pitiful, but not unbelievable.

"What happened to your shirt?" His sister's doubt voice came over the phone again.

"Well... that's the weird part. It looks like it was torn apart by some wild animal." The hyena winced as he touched his tender chest, "And maybe tore me up a little..."

"Mhmm. Little bro if you are going to do something like that again... well you're the nuclear engineer. Use some sort of protection." There was more irony in Erika's words than Kasmer could understand at seven o'clock in the morning.

"Yeah, will do." He touched a few more sensitive parts of his chest.

"But I'm happy for you anyway. You still there? Like right now?"

"Yeah, I'm just calling you from her restroom. Its full of girly soaps and that kind of stuff."

"Please tell me you aren't using the toilet right now."

"I'm not."

"Anyway, you've got to bring this Alyce girl home with you this weekend." His sister sounded pretty excited over the phone.

"I'll ask her, actually-" He paused for a second, "I think I heard her get up. Talk to you later sis. Love you."

"Love you to. Be safe."

"Always am."

"No you're not." Erika sounded like she was laughing before he hung up.

"Whatever," Kasmer said to the empty bathroom around him.

He slipped his phone into his pocket and tossed what was left of his shirt in the bathroom's trash can. The hyena cautiously opened the door and walked quietly around the house. Kasmer nearly made it all the way back to the living room where he had left Alyce sleeping when he heard a noise behind him.

"Going somewhere?" He tried to turn toward the voice.

"Eeep!" Was all the time Kasmer had before he was tackled from behind.

"Didn't think so." For a dainty girl, Alyce could take him down anytime. She positioned herself so she was sitting on his rump, but she was holding his arms behind his back police officer style.

"I was uh- just coming to give you your morning kiss." Kasmer said weakly.

"Mhmm a likely story." She planted a soft kiss on the back of his neck before continuing her interrogation, "Were you talking to someone?"

"M-my sister on the phone." He had winced reflexively at her kiss, but now he melted in them. She had a weird way of making him prey and lover at the same time.

"Sister huh? I think I'll meet her." She gave his ear a nibble, "You talk to her often?"

"Almost every day."

"How sweet." She gave his ear a lick to emphasize her point, "How does breakfast sound?"

"G-good?"

"Then give me a hand." She laughed as she got off him and started leaving the room.

He sat on the floor and and dusted himself. Kasmer got his first glace at his date since last night. Before she had been wearing a black curvy dress that made her look nude, but now she was wearing what looked like nothing but his long jacket coat. He made a mental note to bring more jacket coats as she was heart stopping in his. After a moment, he recovered his wits and got up to follow his date.

"You can start with the pancakes, I'll make us some real orange juice." Alyce barely looked back at him as she started cutting oranges in her barely dressed state.

"Yeah... pancakes." Kasmer started working from memory. He really didn't know anything about making breakfast so he racked his brain for anything that might help. He would have a much easier time remembering if there wasn't a nearly nude jackal working right next to him.

He was pouring mix into a pan when Alyce playfully bumped him with her hip. Nearly spilling, he smiled and bumped her back with his hip.

"You want this orange juice stained on your coat or something?" She gave him a mischievous grin.

"Me? You started it." He laughed. He had been feeling relaxed around her the more time they spent together. "Besides, if it was stained you would have to wash it."

"Wash this thing? Nah, I think I'd just keep it instead."

"Good, it looks better on you anyway."

"Ok mister smooth talker. Erhm- you are making a mess of my counters."

"Whoops, I'll clean that." Kasmer realized he had spent the last minute pouring batter across the stove.

"It can wait." She put her orange juice aside and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"But the pancakes... They'll burn."

"Let them burn." She whispered into his ear before they were lost in a frenzy of kissing on the kitchen floor.

"So uh- did we umm... Do anything last night?"

"Oh yes, everything. You were great!"

"W-what? Did we use protection?"

"Of course. I had a hazmat suit on and everything," She joked. He still wasn't sure what happened that night.

About five minutes later the smoke alarm went off and forced them to stop. Kasmer had been lying on his back on ground when Alyce finally got off his lap. Another ten minutes and they scarfed down their meal of half-full orange juice glasses and extra crispy pancakes. It was the best meal he had ever eaten.

"We both have work in about an hour." She said between crunches of pancake, "You should probably shower up and find a new shirt."

"Oh crap yeah... I totally forgot."

"Or."

"Or... Or what?" He scratched his head in confusion.

"We could call in sick. Food poisoning maybe?" She crunched her pancakes for emphasis. The idea of his near poisoning experience the night before was still fresh in his head. He tossed the thought aside easily.

"Sounds like plan. I'll call the plant right now," He pulled out his phone and started calling his boss, "Hello Mr. Lee, I'm calling to say-"

"Kasmer? Thank god, we were just about to call you. We need you here now! Code red, we are calling everyone in right now. Be here in fifteen minutes. Shit, Jerry start dumping coolant-" The call cut out abruptly. He went silent and held the phone limply in his paw.

"Kasmer? Sweetie? Is something-" Alyce was cut off by the sound of her own phone ringing. She put her paw on his as she answered it, "Yes? Mr. Lee I- Yes, I understand. Yes... Right away sir."

She hung up and gave his paw a squeeze. He weakly squeezed her paw back. She got up and gave him an encouraging hug. He kissed her forehead before speaking.

"Lets go." He declared. In less than three minutes they were fully dressed and on the road. Alyce had found Kasmer a plain tee shirt to wear. Even in an emergency, it would be odd to run into the power plant without a shirt.

Numerous police and emergency vehicles started flying across the road while civilians packed the roads fleeing the other direction. Evacuation was the last thing Kasmer wanted to see. Things must be very serious so they sped on. One cop tried to pull them over for speeding, but Kasmer pressed their nuclear power plant badges to the window and they were waved on with an escort in front of them. With their police cruiser spearing traffic in front of them, they were at the plant in a record six minutes. Too slow according to Kasmer.

They rushed into the hectic control room to their different positions. People were running both every direction around the plant. Kasmer sat at his desk and quickly assessed the situation. It seemed that some cooling system had fried its self and they were doing emergency shut down. Their boss Mr. Lee was shouting orders over various radio channels and to people in the room.

"What do you mean the motherboard is fried and isn't compatible? Can't you replace the cooling pad six with cooling pad seven's hardware? Its too new? Son of a- People get this thing offline in thirty minutes or we all evacuate past the fifty mile radius!"

An idea starting bubbling into Kasmer's mind as the fried circuitry problem threatened to meltdown the whole plant. His sister and mom lived within the danger zone and he could imagine if... suddenly he was hit with inspiration. He might have the extra card he was working on in his-

"Sir I have an idea!"

"Go Kasmer, you have thirty seconds!"

"I was working on a prototype motherboard for older reactor three. Its not a new pattern like seven and I bet I could refit and mount it in ten minutes."

"You've got seven minutes. Barrons you keep working the coolant angle. If Kasmer can't fix this, you have my permission to dump this place below sea level. I need a team of volunteers to go with Kasmer!"

Engle and Stead raised their paws before Alyce could even move a muscle and they were shooed off to get Kasmer's prototype. He had lied about it being a prototype, really it was more of a hobby project, but he knew his job better than anyone. He would bet his own life it would last them longer than any of the existing ones. As he left, he felt an odd pat on his butt or back as he passed Alyce.

Five minutes later he was in full environmental hazard suit and led his team to the reactor cooling panels. They worked quickly and spoke briefly under the thick lead body suits and started the long process of dismantling an old motherboard for a retrofitted one. While the suit would limit their exposure by a significant factor, they were constantly bombarded with alpha, beta, and gamma rays that made their Geiger counters go haywire.

"Kasmer its not safe any more. It was a good shot, but we have to leave." Stead said under his thick suit.

"I have family too close to here. I'm staying, you can go back if you want." Kasmer's reply was brisk as he worked tirelessly shuffling heavy of cabling around.

"I'm with Kasmer on this one. My kids go to school ten miles from here. Head back if you want, no one will blame you." Spoke his other volunteer, Engle.

"I had to get stuck with you two. Lets get this thing done or we're dead."

"We are not dead yet." Kasmer gritted his teeth as he yanked a few yards of fifty year-old cable. "Speaking of... that's the dead chip. Damn its long gone."

They worked under the worsening conditions. Kasmer's stomach started to crawl as he imagined the horrors entering his body and the damage they could be doing to him at a sub atomic level. Unlike his dinner fears, these were not things of only his imagination.

"Nearly there... and finally." He spoke into his radio, "Control its installed."

"Copy that Kasmer, this is Mr. Lee. I'll be damned, your motherboard worked and cooling has resumed. We nearly melted down while we waited. Good work, get up here for decontamination."

A group of cheers went up from the control room and was echoed by the three volunteers. They walked cheerfully in their suits back to the main room. They received a chorus of cheers when they arrived at the changing room until someone shrieked and pointed out to them.

"Oh shit." A few people started to gape as the savior team emerged from the reactor level.

"W-whats up?" Kasmer's brow sweated heavily as he removed his environmental helmet.

"Shit, Kasmer your- your guys' film badges..." Next to him, Engle collapsed and threw up on the floor.

Kasmer looked at the bright scarlet ID card pinned to his chest. It felt as though it dug its self straight through his bleeding heart. He fell to his knees and stared at the radioactive sensitive card. He had never seen it red before. His nose was suddenly running and when he wiped it his glove was stained as scarlet as his badge.

"Decom team here stat! Everybody stand clear!" Someone shouted orders around him, but Kasmer had already slipped to the floor and vomited next to his prone teammates. He thought he heard his Alyce's voice before he slipped unconscious.

He had nightmares before. Nightmares about imaginary terrors that threatened his family and friends. He had created some horrific monstrosities with his mind and let them roam free before. He had come up with numerous ways to die horrific deaths, but he never imagined radiation poisoning. It occurred to him that it was odd for a nuclear engineer to not be afraid of radiation, but he always thought he was good at his job. He was wrong. He was the best, but sometimes even the best pass out in a pile of their own half digested burnt pancakes.

He half awoke from his sleep to find himself in a hospital bed and gown. He blearily looked around and saw the other two volunteers in the same room. He attempted to sit up but only managed to dry heave until he coughed up blood.

"Thats... this... doesn't happen to me." He held his head in his bloody paws. He held onto his last good memory. He tried to imagine he was holding his phone again talking to his sister about staying safe. He wished the soiled paws holding himself were Alyce's again and she was patting him on the back or butt again. He cried so hard he found traces of blood in his tears, which only made him cry more.

"Hey Kasmer..." A weak voice called next to him. "Y-your awake... that's good man. That's good."

"E-e-engle?" He tried to calm himself between outbreaks of tears, "We fucked up didn't we? I fucking killed us."

"No... no man. We are freaking super heroes man." Engle laughed weakly to himself, "M-m-my kids think- heck know we saved the world. Like the comic books... like comic..."

"E-e-engle? E-engle? Wake up man! Doctor! Nurse! Someone get in here!"

An entire time of medical professionals assaulted the room and started working. Engle was pronounced dead within a few minutes. Extreme rapid tumor growth they told him. The doctor took a seat on the foot of his bed.

"I-I'm sorry about your friend." He didn't make eye contact with him, "but he was the worst out of all of you. Your other friend Stead has suffered some radiation burns, but you... this is some good news, but you are least exposed somehow. We theorized that the motherboard you were carrying provided some shielding."

"G-good news... Doctor... Just tell me. How long?"

"Well if we had to guess, you have six to twelve months. We've already conducted tests and surgery to remove any preliminary tumors."

"I-I had t-tumors?"

"Yes, but we've extended your life greatly and with regular check ups you could maybe reach a few years. Your family is here to see you." The doctor sat up and waved them in before leaving.

"Sis, mom. I... I-"

"Its okay dear, its okay." Despite her words, his mom squeezed his paw and buried her weeping face against his chest.

"Little bro... I- We love you." His older sister took his other paw and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

"Sis, I didn't listen." Kasmer's face grew serious.

"W-what?" She looked at him with concern.

"I wasn't safe," He coughed, "Alyce said I only used a hazmat suit for protection."

He laughed weakly at his own ironic joke as his sister tried her best to smile. He was spent from all his laughing and felt his nightmares take him again. He was lost, lost in a sea. Trying to find... the sun. His dreams were disturbed by a pair of voices near him.

"Go ahead an visit him. He hasn't been awake in over twenty hours." She sounded like a nurse he had heard in his nightmares a few times.

"Thank you, thank you so much." Spoke the smell of cinnamon. Cinnamon, there was something about that smell which was... happy. "Its Alyce sweetie, can you hear me?"

"Y-yeah. I hear you..." Came his weak reply. She was silent for the longest time. He tried to open his eyes to see if she was still there, but he couldn't muster the energy.

"I-I w-was so worried when they said someone had died." She placed her head against his chest before continuing, "I've only just found you... and I don't want to lose you."

"Nah, I can't die here. Besides how would I help you make breakfast tomorrow." He felt warm tears coming down his own face. He didn't feel like he would ever stand again, let alone make breakfast or make love with Alyce. A tender lick woke him from his stupor.

"I- never got a chance to tell you I had the longest crush on you. I can't believe I waited until your birthday to invited you over... so dumb."

"I should have been a man and just asked you out years ago when we first met. Do you remember? Remember how we..." He started snoring peacefully as his thoughts wandered happier times.

There was something about a friend setting him up with a date. Did he have a different name for some reason? Maybe he was dreaming, but the dream was so real. He brought chocolates or whatever to this date... or was it sunflowers... There was something about beer and pizza also. He couldn't remember. He awoke later and reasoned it had just been a dream, he had never been on a blind date before. He remembered Engle telling him a story like that about meeting his wife.

Two long arduous weeks later and he had relearned how to walk, eat, and be well enough to be discharged. His sister, mom, and Alyce met him as he walked out his room. Stead waved him goodbye as he recovered much more slowly in his bed.

"Dear are you okay?" His mom spoke up.

"Yeah just saying saying goodbye." Kasmer's voice has mostly recovered. His mom looked over his shoulder.

"I'll be sure to invite him over for next thanksgiving." His mom spoke cheerfully and he did his best to return a smile. Kasmer had heard the doctors talking about coworker and it sounded almost as bad as Niklos Engle had it.

Kasmer's all female escort helped him home and stayed for countless hours. He was hardly left alone for the first few weeks as they took shifts to keep an eye on him. He loved his family endlessly, but his favorite times were when Alyce was watching him. Or rather he was watching her as she ran his house in various states of clothing.

They even got to make breakfast a few times together. They only burnt the pancakes every once and a while. He felt himself grow more attached to her every day even though they only ever got to spend a few hours a day together.

Despite the little time they spent, he would sometimes imagine he had rubbed some of his male scent off on her. His sister or mom would often joke that they should just move in together and make it easier. Kasmer thought it was a great idea, but Alyce would always laugh the joke off and move onto some other topic.

He recovered much better than the doctors could have predicted. He felt the extra love he was receiving was helping him fight off the worst of the radiation's effects and he was almost back to one hundred percent. He tried to help the girls help him out with as much love in return as he could. The thought occurred to him that he was returning a different- no special kind of love to Alyce. Kasmer had wasted too much of his life not asking Alyce out on date already. About four months after the incident he worked up the courage to talk to her seriously.

"Alyce dear, there is something I need to tell you..."

"Y-yes sweetie?" She was unusually off guard, her predatory personality long replaced for her care-taking one.

"I've been meaning to say something for a while now. We spend so much time together and I feel... this is hard to say... but I think... no I know-" He stopped as tears filled her eyes.

"You know? ...why I have to leave all the time and why we can't live together." She looked like she was fighting her tears back fiercely.

"W-what?" His blood ran cold and suddenly he could feel the debilitating effects of his cancer run through his veins. Could it even be possible that she was cheating on him? Well they weren't officially dating but-

"I-I'm sorry..."

"Who- who is this other male you spend all your time with?" He thought he could smell a male scent on her sometimes.

"I didn't want to tell you before-" She was crying now. He was right, she was cheating. He could feel the cancer spreading into his brain and now he almost willed it to kill him instantly.

"B-b-but... I love-"

"How did you find out about my son?"

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Thank you kind reader for visiting and I hope you enjoyed the story. If you did or didn't, I appreciate any and all feedback, but I treasure comments especially. If you like my style or just want to read something else by me feel free to check out Cripsen's Overflow where I post all my one-off stories. Again feel free to harass me through PMs or whatever to motivate me to work on chapter three's editing.

~Stay Crispy