Quinn Landry (winjunkie) wrote in thefield, @ 2009-06-12 11:47:00 |
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Entry tags: | quinn, sophie, z - 1st tribe - day 24 |
One Man's Luck Finally Runs Out
Who: Sophie and Quinn
What: Off gathering herbs for Thorne and for cooking
When: Early morning on Day 24
Where: A little further away from camp than the spring.
Rating: PG-13
Quinn stepped around another massive pile of grazer waist with a wrinkled nose. "Careful, Soph," he said with casual care, shifting the basket he was holding and offering her a gentlemanly hand to hoist her past the foul mess unsoiled. "Ya alright?" he asked, double checking to be sure she'd landed on solid ground. He nodded to a rise where a thick clump of bushes were growing. "Maybe we'll have some luck over there. What is it Thorne has us looking for again?" He squinted at the petite girl at his side. She'd been shown all of these herbs and plants in Thorne's magical notebook. Quinn hadn't had the chance to look at it yet.
Sophie was one of the lucky few that was fine. She hadn't felt any of the symptoms that the others seemed to have suffered from. That was some pretty good luck. The petite girl had never had trouble walking so much as she had now. Grazer waists were kind of big and she was pretty short. At the warning, her head shot up, her mouth slightly open to respond, but she'd stumbled slightly, catching herself on the hand that Quinn offered. He was a nice guy and very helpful when he wanted to be. "I'm fine, thanks." She told him, offering him a small smile. Pushing her hair out of her face, Sophie looked up to the rise he indicated, nodding in agreement. "Jhyopie Weed is what he called it." She told him, remembering the name, but only vaguely. "It's purple, but not bright and on a vine." She told him. That was what she remembered from looking at that notebook. Hopefully it wasn't wrong.
Nodding at the strange sounding world. "So dull purple vine," he said thoughtfully, sharp brown eyes raking back and forth across the ground. He didn't mind spending the morning away from the camp. People were still feeling miserable this morning and after his brush with severe fever before in this place, he wasn't looking to repeat that same experience. "What does it do again?" he asked. Quinn was sure she'd know. Sophie seemed sharp on details like those.
A lot of the names of the things in the notebook were strange, but Sophie didn't complain. She was actually good at remembering some of them, not all, but important ones. The petite woman nodded, looking down at the ground to think if there had been anything else, but she couldn't remember any others. She was glad to be away from the others, though she didn't mind them. She didn't want to get sick. She hadn't been sick in quite some time. "It's...a fever reducer and pain killer, I think is what it said. Kind of like aspirin?" Sophie offered, hoping that she didn't sound like a complete idiot.
Quinn pushed a breath out past his compressed lips. "That would be a huge help right about now, huh? Did you see Helena this morning?" He shook his head gravely. The tiny Asian woman hadn't looked to hot last night but this morning she looked even worse. The big blonde guy was hanging about her though and Quinn didn't think it was a good idea to get too close. "Maybe we can find some good plants to help everyone get backto normal." He'd left his chess pieces back at camp for the entertainment of those who weren't moving around too much. He thought they could use them more than him.
"It really would, it's kind of bad seeing everyone like that." Sophie agreed. She hated seeing them suffering and sick. She knew that some of them were really bad off. "I don't think I saw Helena, though. Did you see...um...Angelica I think is her name? She's all sunburned and I don't think she's been trying to eat or drink anything. She looked miserable." Sophie added on, having just barely seen the redhead earlier. She wanted to find the stuff that would help people get better. "I hope I'm remembering the right plant." Sophie said, more to herself than him.
He smiled at Sophie reassuringly. "I'm sure Doc Baker fed her something. Water, at least. And it's not like he won't check to be sure we have the right plant before he feeds it to anyone." He flashed her a quick grin, brushing aside the branches of the nearest bush to explore down near it's roots. He wandered deeper. "Ok, so we'll spread out from here? If you find any, holler. I'll come running."
Sophie responded well to smiles and people being friendly. Quinn being reassuring was helping and she smiled back with a nod. "Yeah, he wouldn't want to risk anyone taking in anything bad." Sophie agreed and moved further away from him. She had her eyes peeled. She was looking for purple and similar colors, especially dull ones. It felt rather strange. She'd never thought that she'd end up doing this, but her memory did help them know what they were looking for. Sophie treaded carefully, bending down and pushing at different shrubs to see if she could catch a hint of purple.
They lapsed into mostly silence for nearly an hour, slowly working their way through the bushes, combing the ground for any signs of this strange, alien asperin. "Find any yet?" he called out for the fourth time, mostly just to hear if she was still within shouting range and ok. Heaving a sigh, he turned the opposite way from where he'd been searching and spotted the plant in question. Singular stalk, vine-like branches lying close to the ground, dull purple leaves. Drawing in a deep breath he caught that heavy hay mould scene. "Found some!" he called as he dropped to his scabby knees.
Sophie did well with silence, though sometimes the sound of someone's voice droning on and on was better. She hummed just under her breath as she looked, finding something that looked like it might have been the start of the plant, but it wasn't developed enough. She'd just bent to another bush and she was pretty sure she'd found it. "I found some!" She hollered, not hearing him ask if she had, truthfully. She had heard him announce he'd found some. She noted things around where she'd found her's and moved towards where she'd heard his voice. When she got close enough to see him, she announced in a chirp," I found some too."
"Oh, awesome," Quinn said over his shoulder as he heard her fighting her way through the dense bushes. "Now what do we do. Did he want like, the leaves or the stems or the roots?" Frowning, he looked at the plant. It seemed to be a good size but he wasn't sure if he could uproot it. Or even if he should, if they were going to stay here for a while. It was more important that he mentally mark the spot it was growing and just take as much as they needed from the plant.
Sophie moved over to Quinn, studying the same plant that she had found. Did he want the leaves or was it something else? Sophie was quiet for a few moments, her hand near her mouth as she thought. "The vines, I think it's something in the vines that is boiled to make the medicine. It's not the leaves. I'm almost positive, it's something inside it that he needs." Sophie said with a nod. She didn't want to risk trying to get the roots up, especially because of the fact that the might need it later, so they needed to be careful.
Quinn nodded and picked up one of the vines. "Ok, lets see how well they break." Twisting one of the vines near the middle, the woody branch proved difficult. It splinted, revealing a fiberous black inside, but it was stubbornly refusing to break all of the way. Like a fool, he'd left his carving knife back at the camp. "Soph, did you bring a knife?" The blackish juice of the plant was staining his fingers dark and he sighed in frustration.
Sophie waited, bent down slightly. She was studying the vine. She was pretty sure that was what Thorne had asked for. Her eyes were focused on Quinn's hands as he attempted to break it. Obviously it wasn't working. "No, I always leave that knife with the stuff used for cooking. And I don't have pockets in my jammies." She told him honestly. "Maybe we can find a sharp rock for the moment. He's going to boil it so that'll eliminate germs and all that?"
"Yeah," Quinn said, looking down at his hands. He rubbed his sticky fingers together. "Look for a rock of something." Was it just him, or was his finger tips starting to swell? They sure did feel funny. And...and itchy. "Um...did he say something about not touching the insides with your hands?" he called to her as he watched his fingertips puff up into grapes. A faint gasp passed his lips as the swelling noticably spread, preceeded by red dots that bloomed like flowers on the skin of his hands and forearms. "Ugh, Sophie...I think...I think I have a problem here."
Sophie was studying the plant more than she was paying attention to Quinn. When he told her to look for a rock she only nodded and walked away from him, looking and feeling around for a rock that might help. When she heard him speak again, Sophie turned, looking at him from over her shoulder. "Uh.....I don't think he said anything about not touching the insides...." Sophie turned to him as he gasped and quickly moved over to him. "Are you allergic to anything? Or.....that looks bad, oh my god..." Sophie said, her eyes wide.
Quinn's eyes also went wide as the blooms on his skin went even higher. Already they were spreading their burst-blood vessel petals over his collarbones and down across his chest. "Oh god, oh god, I don't know," he told her in response. A shudder passed down his spine as a deep sense of foreboding settled in his gut. His hands were itching something fierce and he deperately rubbed them against his thighs, hoping to get the plant juice off and soothe them.
Sophie was frozen for a second. She didn't know what to do, but she knew that something was wrong, that was enough. "Okay, don't...uh...don't panic." She told him and looked around before looking back at him. When he rubbed them against his thighs she winced. "Don't do that, you're getting the juice on you more and if that's it....that might be bad, we need to...uh....wash it off definitely and get you to the doctor....I can't think of anything else, but you should definitely wash it off because..." Sophie trailed off gesturing to him in a panic.
Quinn was barely listening to her because panicking was exactly what he was doing. His breathing was growing ragged and he thought something was trying to slowly strangle him. He staggered to his feet, the skin between the red raised bumps on his face, chest and back plunges into a sick white colour. "Doc Baker..." he said, feeling disjointed. His heart was racing faster than any adrenaline rush he'd ever experienced and a small, tiny and isolated part of his mind was actually enjoying it. The rest? Had surrended to anaphylactic shock. Before he'd even gotten himself turned around, his dark eyes rolled up into his head and he crashed heavily to the ground.
Sophie was really afraid. Tears were collecting in her eyes at the moment. She wanted to get moving, but her thoughts to try and get him closer to Thorn were a bit too late it seemed. She could hear his breathing problem at the moment and it was scary. Sophie didn't know what to do with someone that was having a reaction like this. She didn't even know how to deal with him like this. She didn't even act fast enough to help him from landing as hard. She'd heard the name he'd said before he'd passed out and honestly her first instinct was to run and get Thorne there. She didn't know what she was doing. She couldn't leave him there alone, though. What was she supposed to do? The small woman threw herself down next to Quinn, shaking. She was so afraid of hurting him or being the reason he died at the moment. She brought her hand to his neck, feeling around for a pulse. If his heart was okay and he continued to breathe, even if it was as labored she might have time to run and get the doctor. "Come on, Quinn, please....please....oh please be okay, please." She said, searching for the pulse point and finally finding it.
Quinn didn't give any indication that he'd heard her pleas. He didn't twitch so much as a muscle. His breath whistled out between lips that were swelling along with all of his body as the allergic reaction quickly filled his system with poison. The pulse under her fingers grew thready and uncertain. The wheeze of his breathing grew ever more shallow. Under his beard, Quinn's face passed from pale to ashy and his blood pressure dropped dangerously low.
Sophie felt the heart beating. It wasn't strong, but it wasn't gone yet. She knew that if she ran fast for all she was worth and dragged Thorne here without a lengthy conversation she might be able to keep him from dying, but she wasn't even sure of that. "Please, Quinn, hold on." Sophie said as she jumped up and took off running. She stumbled more than once, but pushed her small legs as much as possible heading directly towards the camp, she hoped that she found Thorne quickly. Quinn's life depended on it, she was pretty sure...