Day 65: 3rd Shift: Courtyard

[redcladidealist]

[From here.]

It was chilly out in the courtyard, making Lloyd glad for the odd but relatively warm clothing he'd found himself in when he woke up. He could have stay inside the building, he knows. His nurse had told him he had a choice of several rooms he could eat his lunch in, if he wanted. The cold felt good, though, and the tree he was sitting against felt solid and comfortable. He still felt lost, but trying to get straight answers from the nurse was frustrating. The man had retreated to let him eat in peace, promising to come back when Lloyd was finished and he'd had a chance to "clear his head." The teen was just fine with that.

Lunch itself was actually pretty good. He'd gotten a chicken sandwich, and his spirits lifted a little when he saw that there was a brownie with it. It had taken him a minute to figure out the box with juice inside, having never encountered anything like that before, but after that it was easy to just settle down and enjoy his food.

Well, for the most part. Worry for his Dad still ate at him, and he had no idea where any of his friends were. He still felt a little off, too, like some intangible part of him was missing or weakened, but he chalked that up to leftover side effects of whatever it was Yuan had done to him. He was confident that would disappear soon enough, once he finished recovering. He already felt well enough that as soon as he was done eating, he was determined to leave. If his doctor had his things, he'd ask for them first, and maybe he could talk to some of the other people here, see if they knew anything that could help, but one way or another, he needed to find his friends and make sure his Dad was all right.


[To here.]

Comments

[nobleman]

As it turned out, Anise was the one who walked up to him first. It was impossible to miss how bad she looked, between the rash that was covering the majority of her arm and the slight sheen of perspiration on her skin. More than that, she just looked worn down. Claude hadn't looked much better, of course, but at least Guy had been given the chance to properly reassure him. Could he do that with Anise?

"I did," he said after a pause, moving over on the bench so that Anise could sit on the opposite side. He didn't want her to stand any more than she needed to, after all. No matter what happened tonight, it was probably going to be physically taxing in some way, and so Anise needed to save up as much energy as she could.

Before Guy could start (and he didn't even know how to do that), Luke showed up, looking much healthier in comparison. That was one relief, but Guy had no idea if his friend was in the loop on this or not. "Hey," he said in return. "Have you... been caught up on what's been going on?" Guy glanced to Anise then, well aware that it was up to her as far as how much she wanted to tell Luke.

[gald_digger]

Guy's gesture was appreciated, and Anise was quick to take the offered seat, keeping a fair amount of space between herself and Guy.

It wasn't long before Luke joined them, and almost instinctively, Anise placed her lunch bag over her rash-covered hand. She knew even as she did it that it was useless to try and hide her illness at this point. The look that Guy was giving her told her it was time to come clean, and it was soon clear to Anise that she didn't have much choice.

Anise looked to Luke, hesitating before speaking. "The truth is... I'm sick." There was talk about the illness all over the bulletin. He had to know what she meant. "We're looking for a cure, and we found a lead, but... we don't really know what's going to happen."

[dispersive]

"Oh, uhmm," Whatever Guy was referring to didn't immediately come to mind and he tried hard to grab at something useful. Thankfully, Anise's admission gave him a better direction. "Right, the illness that's going around!" He vaguely remembered Landel mentioning it a day or two ago, but his victory was short-lived the longer he listened to Anise ramble on about a cure and hunting for leads. The pleasant smile on his face slowly turned into a bemused gape.

"Wait, wait--A cure for the illness? Are you saying it's not a normal cold?" His wide eyes moved back to Guy for an explanation. "Guess I've missed more than I thought..."

[nobleman]

As it turned out, Anise's explanation didn't earn the kind of reaction that it should have. While Guy was used to Luke being behind when it came to understanding certain things, as it had so often been that way in Auldrant, he would have hoped that he'd paid a bit more attention here. Maybe he'd been caught up in other things.

"Not at all," Guy said after a pause. "From what I can tell, the symptoms have been getting worse each day, and Landel's said that when things come to a head, anyone who's infected will be turning into some kind of monster." It was still hard to talk about, but there was no point in beating around the bush now.

"We followed a clue last night, but what it implied was... not very good," he continued, choosing to stop there and leave the rest of it to Anise. The sooner they caught Luke up on this, the better. Even if Luke wasn't sick, he still deserved to be in on the loop with this.

[gald_digger]

Anise couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Wha... you haven't been paying attention at all!" she sputtered, bewildered. Considering how often the Head Doctor and the people on the bulletin talked about it, he had to at least have a clue!

She calmed down a bit as Guy began the explanation, but soon he was passing the baton to her. "It... looks like there's something weird in our stomachs - those of us who are sick, I mean. We might be able to get rid of it with surgery, but we don't exactly have a trained surgeon we can call on here." She sighed and rubbed her arm idly, trying not to think too hard on all the ways she could end up dead in the next few days. "It's going to be risky no matter what we do."

[dispersive]

"It's not like that! I've been paying attention, I just... I haven't..." Luke didn't want to admit the reason why he was so oblivious. It was as bad a sign as this illness apparently. The replica glanced back to Guy for support since the man at least knew about the potential troubles he had been having lately. "... You know, been awake a lot lately. So I'm sorry, but I will help if I can!" He asserted to them both, pressing his hand against his chest in earnest conviction. If his friends were tackling such tough issues, he couldn't and wouldn't let them do it on their own!

He had certainly been failing them lately, but that was going to end right now! "Is there no way Tear can help heal it?"

[nobleman]

Guy had discussed Luke's problems before, where he seemed to be sleeping just as often or even more than the time he spent awake, but he hadn't realized that it had been continuing through the past few days. It explained why he hadn't seen as much of his friend as would be expected, though. Normally they were close to inseparable, and that hadn't exactly been the case here.

Luke clearly felt bad about the whole situation, though, and it was hard to judge him harshly when it wasn't even something he could control. Guy was relieved when Tear was brought up, because that was exactly where his own train of thought had been going. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly good news for them. "I thought of her too," he admitted, "but none of us have seen her today, have we?" She hadn't responded to the bulletin either. Normally someone being missing for a day wasn't a huge problem, but right now they were very short on time. They couldn't really rely on Tear to show up, which meant finding someone else who could heal. And who was there?

[gald_digger]

Luke was oversleeping? As frustrating as it was, Anise couldn’t really blame him for that, since it wasn’t his fault. It was kind of worrying, even.

The mention of Tear made Anise feel a little guilty – she’d been hiding her illness from her, too. Now that Luke knew, Tear was the only one still out of the loop. Anise shook her head at Guy’s words, confirming that she hadn’t seen their friend either. “I haven’t been looking around much, though,” she admitted, hoping she’d just missed the other girl. They talked just yesterday, after all.

“I guess a healer could help…” she went on to say, mulling over the idea in her head. “I don’t think they could cure what’s wrong, but if it comes to surgery, they could make sure everything heals properly.” Some people on the bulletin had been saying something to that effect, too. It was still kind of risky, but it was possibly the best option they had.

[dispersive]

"Huh, that's strange. I wonder where she is, I need to talk with her..." An anxious hand rubbed at his neck, unsure of what else to do to find Tear. The replica had put up a post just for them and she hadn't answered. Although Anise hadn't answered either and she was fine.

"Does anyone else have a better solution? We aren't the only ones looking for answers, right? Maybe... Maybe there's a doctor on our side somewhere!" As he continued to press, Luke's words became more harried the longer he spoke. There were too many questions and not enough answers. If only he hadn't slept so late the last few days! What a waste of support and another pair of searching eyes!

[nobleman]

The fact that none of them had seen Tear, despite at least a few of them looking, was something to worry about. Tear was hardly unreliable, so if she'd been around, she would have shown herself by now. That meant she was either sick, sleeping, or gone, and Guy didn't like any of those options.

"In other words, we're going to need to find someone who would be able to cut you guys open without maiming you, and then someone to heal you up afterward." That was a lot to get together in just a few days, and in reality they had no idea how much time they were working with. It was honestly a bit overwhelming.

Still, he wasn't about to give up now. "If we split up the work, we might be able to do this, though. Anise, you have some medical supplies stored away, don't you? Do you think we'll need more if we go through with this?" It was hard to talk about it as a reality, but Guy didn't think they could ignore it at this point. They were going to have to do something.

[gald_digger]

Anise had been hoping for a doctor too, but it didn't sound like Claude knew any, and with no one offering up names, it looked like the present company didn't, either.

So they needed someone to operate. Anise wasn’t sure she liked her options. Out of the people who knew she was sick, there was Guy, who could barely get near her without shaking, Claude, who needed to be treated himself, and Luke, who… well, was Luke. Maybe beggars couldn’t be choosers, and maybe they’d find someone else. Maybe Tear would show up soon, and they could at least have one less thing to worry about.

She really missed the Colonel right then.

As for supplies... "I've got medicine, bandages, and disinfectants. If we use one of the operating rooms here, we can probably find the rest of what we need." Actually, she could think of several places that were probably equipped for operations. The biggest hurdle was going to be finding a pair of steady hands.

[dispersive]

"Alright--" Even if he wasn't really on board with this whole idea, the replica had none of his own to contribute. For now, he would go along until another solution presented itself. He seriously hoped it did. "--if Anise knows where to find more supplies, I can back her up.

"And, Guy, you've been here longer, so you must know a lot of people. Think you can find someone with some medical experience? We've got a healer..." Unless Tear continued to remain elusive. "I saw some people looking for healers and doctors on the bulletin board earlier, though I don't know if they found any..."

[nobleman]

Talking this all out was at least helping Guy to get his thoughts in order. While it also made it clear just how limited they were when it came to resources, some of it was in their control, such as finding supplies. But that didn't solve the problem of who would operate and who would then be able to heal things up afterward.

Still, they had to start somewhere, and Luke was offering out ideas. Guy latched onto that. "If we head for the medical wing, we can divide our efforts. Some of us could go search for more supplies -- the sort of stuff needed for surgery -- and also a place to do this." It was becoming more and more of a reality, but Guy didn't know how else to handle the situation.

"And I know Claude thought we should try the x-ray machine one more time, so maybe one of us could go with him to run another test. And we can all keep an eye on the bulletin board for any healers or doctors, right?" It gave them a few starting points, at least.

Guy realized that they might not be able to find a professional and that it might be up to him and Luke to remove whatever was in Anise and Claude's stomachs. He didn't know if he was really prepared for something like that, but they might reach a point where he had no choice. Would Luke be capable of it? Guy eyed his friend as he thought it over.