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

[lighthearted]

If Soma was no longer bleeding, then that was definitely an improvement, but Sora could only imagine how sore she still was. It was easy enough to ignore that kind of thing with everything else was going on, maybe, but that didn't always work. Their bodies could only take so much.

As for last night, Sora had to admit that all signs seemed to be pointing in one direction. Some of the responses on the bulletin board had much him less certain, but it seemed like the grand majority of people were in agreement. "I didn't see what happened when those other people x-rayed someone, but I guess whatever they saw, it only made them more sure that there's something inside us. Plus, my stomach's been hurting today..."

Was that the same for everyone? It was hard to tell with someone like Soma because she was always so composed.

[madeinthehrl]

Truth be told, Soma wasn't used to sitting around and waiting. She'd never been severely injured before her arrival here, and even when she had been hurt, she'd always healed in time for the next mission. Having to spend so much time out of commission was testing her patience more than she liked to admit, and she had never really been known for her patience to begin with.

She frowned a little. "If that message really was from the resistance, you'd think they would have given us some more supplies. Even scalpels are readily obtainable around here. And a little anesthesia would go a long way."

Her frown deepened. "My stomach's been hurting, too. I thought it was just me, but if you're saying yours hurts too..."

[lighthearted]

While Sora hadn't really confirmed it until now, he'd had a feeling that the stomach cramps were bothering all of them. It was a pretty bad omen, and while he didn't know how many sick people were around altogether, the idea of any number of them all turning into monsters on the same night seemed like a pretty horrible possibility.

"Yeah, it doesn't seem like anyone's going to have the time to get supplies now. Unless a few people had stuff stocked up..." But just trying to coordinate that much was hard, with how limited they were in their movements here.

There was no real way of knowing how much longer they had, but Sora was working on the assumption that it wasn't a lot of time that they were dealing with. So what were they supposed to do? How were they going to work this all out before the clock hit zero?

"What do you think you're gonna do?" he asked Soma with some uncertainty.

[madeinthehrl]

"Lingormr's collected a pretty significant number of supplies," Soma said hesitantly. It was probably a bad idea to bring his name up right now, but he'd seemed eager to make up for last night. If there was anyone they could get supplies from, it would probably be him.

She paused for a moment at Sora's question, frowning a little as she thought. Truth be told, she wasn't sure. It seemed like a drastic step to take, especially given how mild her symptoms had seemed up until now. But she was feeling worse with every passing day, and she knew they were capable of turning people into monsters here. She'd been there with Utena that night.

"I don't know," she said at last, folding her hands in her lap. "It'd be easier to make a decision if we knew a surgeon, or someone who could heal well enough for us to try it ourselves. But at the same time, I don't want to just sit by and let it happen."

[lighthearted]

Lingormr had supplies? It seemed like he was always involved in something, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Sora could have been wary of the man, especially after last night, but he knew how Special Counseling worked and what it could make a person do, so he wasn't going to hold back for that reason. Besides, it wasn't as if he was in any position to be picky right now.

"I wonder if he'd be willing to lend some of them out," Sora said after a pause. "I mean, I don't think he's sick, so..." If he really had that many supplies, it wouldn't be a big deal for him to distribute them, would it? This was the exact sort of situation where those were really needed, after all.

"And we wouldn't need someone that skilled if we had a good enough healer, but I don't know that there are enough healers to go around for everyone." It would help if they could get a concrete number on how many sick people were around, but Sora doubted that would happen. A lot of people were scared of being targeted, and he couldn't completely blame them.

[madeinthehrl]

"I can talk to him," Soma said immediately. "Or I can try, at any rate. It's a little late in the day, but if I can't get him tonight, I'll try for tomorrow."

She doubted they'd be able to assemble everything they needed tonight, anyway. And part of her wanted to wait just a little while longer. If this was the only message the resistance could get to them last night, then maybe there might be more details forthcoming tonight.

"I doubt there are," she said, frowning a little at the thought. "What do you plan on doing tonight, then?"

[lighthearted]

It felt like time kept getting away from him. Sora appreciated the fact that Soma was willing to do work for him when she was sick herself, but he couldn't help but wonder if putting something off to tomorrow would mean that it was too late. He didn't feel like he'd be turning into anything any time soon. His symptoms were getting worse, but they didn't surpass a normal cold in any real way.

Knowing that there was something in his stomach that was doing this to him was harder, though, and every hour that went by with it still in there made him more anxious.

He glanced up when Soma asked a question. "Me? Well, I guess I'll try to look around for some supplies, too. And try to stay out of people's way." Both he and Soma had planned to rest last night, but that hadn't worked out, so Sora wasn't going to try and pretend he'd do that tonight. "Oh, and... thanks in advance, for asking him," he added with a brief smile.