Waking Up Sick Who: Helena and Delilah When: mid-morning Where: camp Rating: G
Delilah? Didn't feel so hot. In fact, she felt more or less like stepped-on crap. She couldn't even really remember who she'd lain with that night, only that she didn't feel like she could get warm at all. And so far the morning hadn't been any different. She had her pillow, yes, but that wasn't the same as a blanket. Gods, why hadn't she kept her apartment colder and just piled blankets up on top of herself? What she wouldn't give for a down comforter. And even though the sun was up, she didn't seem to be absorbing any of it. Someone had made a fire in the middle of camp for breakfast, and even though it had gotten low, the Ukranian shuffled her way over to it, shoulders hunched. She sat down in front of it and pulled her legs up to her chest, tugging her t-shirt down over them like a kid, so she was just a little ball.
She was so disoriented, with the move. Her feet hurt, her sunburn ached, she felt cold and sweaty at the same time. Delilah wondered dully if she was getting some alien disease. Maybe she wouldn't last long here. She propped her chin on one knee and tried not to look too pitiful. Maybe once she warmed up, she'd go find something useful to do. Just a few more minutes ...
Helena was trying to pretend that she was useful that morning. She'd wandered off and returned with half a basket of clams to be baked at the edge of the fire pit before tossed into a pot for more of Sophie's clam and bloodfruit soup. There were no shortages of chattering teeth and bleary red eyes this morning. Everyone was moving slowly. Helena herself had a bit of a headache throbbing in her temples and lancing back and forth behind her eyes. It was all she could manage to stay busy enough to ignore it.
Late in morning though it was, there were plenty of humped forms of people sleeping near the campfire. Most notable was....Delia? Denise? Danica? She thought she was way off. Normally she was pretty good with names but the frenzy of arrival and camp set up was enough to boggle her brains. Not to mention there was the dire information that Kenneth had given her about Angelica's gun and poor Carlita's mysterious disappearance. "Hey," she said as she set down her basket of clams. "Are you ok?" Helena's voice felt raspy. Like there was rust on her voicebox.
Delilah had just about dozed off when someone arrived. She blinked awake and looked at Helena, startled. She thought they'd met briefly when the group of them had arrived, but there were so many names to learn that she'd lost the pretty Asian woman's. Her blue eyes ticked down to the basket with ... clams? They looked like clams. Then back up to Helena's face. "Yes, just ... " Delilah cleared her scratchy throat. "Just trying to wake up. Not feeling the best." She in fact wasn't even thinking about breakfast, something that told her she was definitely getting sick.
Helena smiled, wiped her hand on her somewhat dingy looking blue and yellow striped pj boxers. It was a chilly morning as they all seemed to be these days and slowing down had her shivering and breaking out in a rash of goosebumps. "It's cold this morning. Grab my blanket there, I think the kids ran off after Ken as soon as the sun came up." She flashed a smile as she gestured to a rather bright geometrically pattered comforter in hot pink, orange and red. "Might as well bundle up." She turned to eye the other lumps with concern. "Seems like a few people are sleeping in today," she said, lowering her voice.
She knew she should probably politely decline, as the woman wasn't wearing much more than she was, but Delilah grabbed for the comforter when the offer was made, and scooted around to drape it over herself, her head included. It was just as cold as she was, but it would be warming up and keeping in the precious heat. "Thank you," she told the woman sincerely. Then gave a cough that surprised her. It didn't sound too deep, thank the gods, but it hurt her throat. "I think we are all somewhat drained," she said about the other people, glancing around herself. She wondered vaguely how Aaron had done with his sleeping-bag residents.
Helena nodded. "It's tough here," she said gently and not without sympathy. She herself had spent most of a month here now. She'd been the first member of this happy little tribe. It was that seniority that had people flocking to her to make decisions and trusting her ill-equipped judgment. "It'll get easier, though..." She frowned as she looked at the face of the woman huddled in her colourful comforter. "I'm terribly sorry but I think I've forgotten your name." She turned to drop another of the fast burning bundled of sticks into the firepit. They truely were going to have to find more firewood if the weather kept up the way it was. "I'm Helena Chu, formerly of New York." She flashed a quick smile as she retrieved the metal bucket they used to cook in.
Delilah brightened as much as possible in her bad-feeling state. Another New Yorker. "I'm Delilah Pasternak," she told her, not minding at all that her name had been forgotten. She'd returned the favor, after all. "Also formerly of New York, it's a pleasure to meet you." And she would've shaken hands, but she was busy holding the warming blanket in place over her. "Have you been here very long?" she asked, which was becoming one of those standard questions. Poor Ryan had been there a long time, and she wanted to learn as much as she could from the long-timers. If her brain was going to cooperate with her, which was questionable today.
Helena summoned up a tired yet still rather wry smile. "Today is the twenty third day for me." She'd been counting, like she had from the beginning. They had already pretty much agreed that days and nights felt longer in this place. Like there were more hours in a day. If there were more hours in a day then maybe there were more days per week or more weeks per year. They had no way to measure time here, other than from a starting point. Helena was that starting point. "How long for you?" she asked. Helena had been away from the groupe since the fourteenth day. Plenty had happened during that period of seperation.
"Three days," she answered, a little line between her eyebrows. "Maybe four now." Weirdly, it was hard for her to tell. It seemed like everything had passed in a blur since she'd arrived. "I got here the day before we left." She knew that for sure, at least. Delilah shifted a bit, huddling down even further into Helena's blanket. Ugh, everything ached, so awfully. And this poor woman had been there longer than Ryan, even. "Twenty three days, I can't even imagine," she murmured, looking oddly sympathetic. She didn't really want to imagine. But she supposed unless something changed drastically, then she would be imagining it in nineteen or twenty days.
Helena nodded. "It was pretty scary at first," she said as she focused her attention on shelling the clams into the bucket. "But then Rowan arrived and I wasn't alone here anymore." Those first three days all on her own had been...well, the stuff of nightmares, really. Everything else they'd faced since then just seemed like hurdles that had to be climbed over. She glanced at Delilah again, a slightly frown creasing her brow. The other woman was still shivering despite the thick comforter. Leaning forward, Helena tossed another bundle of sticks into the fire. "Are you feeling alright?" she asked. Something about the glassiness of her fellow camp resident's eyes had her worried.
Alone here? Hadn't someone mentioned that? Was it Ryan? She couldn't remember. It was difficult to think clearly. The heat was building up nicely, but she still didn't feel warm. "I don't believe so, no," she answered the question. Delilah pulled one hand out to feel her own forehead, and it felt ice-cold. And came away wet with sweat. Frowning, she wiped it on her shirt and tucked her arm back in. "I feel feverish," she said, which she thought was probably obvious. It was just something to say. She felt somehow like she should apologize, seeing as how she was sitting there and not helping at all, but she just felt so bad.
Helena dropped the clam she was trying to pry open back into the basket and stood again. "Let me get you some water. Do you think you can drink anything?" Hydration was important. If Delilah was feverish, she would need to speak to Thorne. Pacing back toward the nearest cart, she retracted one of the plastic one liter bottles that she and Cross had found. It was still half full of clear spring water and she brought it back to the camp fire. Unscrewing the cap, she poured a few healthy sips into one of the scrubbed clean leftover clam shells that they used as cutlery and cup alike. "Here you go, Delilah," she said as she handed over the shell. She set the bottle a safe distance from the fire and screwed the cap back on. "A little water might help you feel better."
Though she wasn't hungry, water did sound heavenly, and Delilah waited with anticipation while Helena went and got it. One hand emerged again to accept the shell, her expression grateful. "Thank you very much," she said, and drank some of it down. It hurt to swallow, but the water was clear and delicious. "I apologize, generally I am in better shape than this," she told the other woman with a sheepish little chuckle. When her head didn't feel like it was full of sand, and everything else was achey. She drank the rest of the water and offered the clam shell back.
"Want some more?" Helena asked with a notably motherly smile. She wasn't feeling entirely well herself but it wasn't slowing her down yet. She poised near the water bottle, awaiting the answer. "We also have a doctor with us. Not sure if you've met him yet. His name is Thorne Baker. He's a homeopathic doctor which is sort of a mercy. If we'd been stuck with a doctor of the more conventional modern medicines, we might have been in trouble." Thorne, while at a loss with the alien plants, at least knew a little about making and applying poultices. He'd been using a mash of citruscress from the spring and bloodfruit to try to keep Jasper's deep laugher bites from becoming infected. So far, that seemed to be working. "Maybe he has a recomendation for fevers." Her tone was a little bit hopeful. All Helena knew about treating fevers was tylenol and pedialite.
"Yes please," Delilah said first. Once the water was back in her hands, she sipped on it slower, aware that it should probably be conserved. She at least wasn't going to send Helena out to fetch more or anything, and the cold felt good on her throat. She shook her head at the mention of the doctor's name; she hadn't met him. Or didn't think she had, anyway, not to the point that she was going to remember his name. It wasn't as though they all had come dressed in work clothes, after all, and nobody really screamed 'doctor' to her. "Maybe he does, it would be worth asking," she said with a slight nod. "If you could point him out ...?" She weirdly hoped she wasn't the only one sick, she didn't want to cause any fuss. But then again, if it was some weird alien disease, she didn't want everyone to have it.
Helena smiled. "I'm sure he'll be back soon to check on Jasper's wounds." She nodded to the single completed lean-to, the one she and Cross had built as shelter when they'd chosen this beach for the camp. There was a notable lump inside it's shadows, the wilderness racer snoring gently. She had no idea where Thorne actually was at this moment. Maybe she ought to go look for him. "I could try to find him if you like?" She didn't mind trying to spot him from higher ground.
Oh yes. The poor girl who'd gotten attacked the night before. That had been rather terrifying, to put it mildly. And Delilah still hadn't exactly gotten the gist of where the children had come from. Maybe her foggy-brain had started earlier than she'd realized. "No, that's not necessary," she told Helena, with a little wave of the clam shell. She took another sip. " ... but if he happens by? Would you point him in my direction? I think I could maybe sleep for another while ..." Possibly hours. She was warmer than she'd started out, and it was making her drowsy.
Noting the slightly droopy lids, Helena smiled and nodded. "I'll certainly let him know that he should look in on you, when he comes back to camp." She squatted down a few feet away to continue her work with the clam shells. "Go on and lie back down. I'll be right near by if you need anything." And she would. With Jasper down and now Delilah sick, there needed to be someone here tending the fire, making sure there was hot food and also keeping an eye out for any more symptoms cropping up. It looked as though she was going to be a home body for the day, which didn't bother her so much. She reached up to rub away the throb in her left temple.
"Thank you," Delilah murmured again. She felt a sudden wave of homesickness. Her mother, when she was sick as a child, had always tended to her so lovingly. It was something she'd missed in New York, and something she missed even more now. "Do you mind if I hang on to the blanket?" she asked, a touch sheepishly. She really really didn't want to take it off now, not that it was warmed up to her body temperature.
Helena smiled as she gently coaxed a clam open with Cross's pocket knife. "I don't mind. If you find two small bodies crawling in with you, that's just Ashwin and Corbin. They're locals," she said with a bit of emphasis. It wasn't entirely true. Ashwin had told her that she was born on earth but she didn't remember it. Her mother had given birth of Corbin here. Looking at the boy he had to be close to three years old. Helena found it hard to imagine a woman on her own with two small children in this place. "They're harmless, though."
That was just all too much for Delilah to think about at the moment. She would likely have questions for the children later, but at the moment all she wanted to do was sleep. She gave Helena a faint smile and a nod, then got herself to her feet. She made her way back to where people were sleeping and found an empty spot, settling down with the blanket and trying to make herself as small and huddled together as possible. If she hadn't been wiped out already, the fever might've kept her awake, but as it was, she was out within minutes.