Neil Cohen felt a prodding in his side, and he curled up in a ball on the floor. He really didn't want to wake up. But considering his dreams, maybe it wasn't a bad thing. He felt the sensation in his side again and groaned slightly.

"Quit it, Jax. I'll be up in a minute…"

He reached up to run at his eyes when he felt the rough texture of the gauze bandage along his forehead. And then it all came back to him – it wasn't a dream. He remembered hopelessly battling the creatures on his way to the rescue shuttle. He remembered collapsing the roof on the two necromorphs pursuing him and the engineer woman. But he didn't remember how he had gotten here. For that matter, where was here?

Cohen sat up to get a better view of his surroundings, but stopped when an unexpected wave of nausea hit him. He reached out for something to balance himself with; his hands only grasped at air. He yelped slightly and was about to fall back down when a hand gripped his wrist and held him up.

Finally, he was able to get a good look at his savior. It was the woman, the one he had gone back for. The only thing he had been able to make out then was her engineer's suit – now, he was able to make a quick study of her features. She was vaguely Asian (Japanese maybe?), with dark eyes and short black hair that was gathered into a meager-looking pony-tail.

"Thanks," he mumbled. Gently, she put her other hand on his waist. He flinched a little at her touch, but let her guide him into a sitting position regardless. As he leaned his head against the wall, he sighed.

"How long was I sleepin'?"

"Twelve and a half hours." She sat down directly across from him, crossing her legs in an Indian position.

"Ugh, really?"

"Well, nothing's really happened, and you slept even after the medicine wore off, so I figured you must have been exhausted."

"'kay." He shifted a little as he looked around. "Where are we?"

"The security room." She must have noticed his look of apprehension, because she quickly added, "Don't worry, everything's been sealed off."

"How'd we get here?"

"I dragged you here after you got knocked unconscious, Sergeant."

He blinked. "How'd ya know that?"

"Know what?"

"Who I am!"

"Oh. I recognized your voice." She hesitated. "And I looked through your things while you were out."

Cohen figured he couldn't fault her for that. He probably would've done the exact same thing. But wait…She said she had recognized his voice. Now that she mentioned that, she did sound familiar.

"Saya!" He exclaimed loudly, looking at her.

"…That is my name, yes."

"You're the woman from the radio! You did make it!" He was unable to stop himself from cracking a grin, even though he felt positively abysmal.

"I never did get the chance to thank you, Sergeant."

"It's alright," he said, reaching up to examine the bandages on his head, "But please don't call me 'Sergeant.' My name is Neil. Neil Cohen." He tried to smile at her again, but gave up when she didn't react. "And you don't have to thank me…I don't think anyone would want to be out there alone." When he touched the side of his head too firmly, it hurt. With a wince, he let his hand fall back into his lap.

She was silent for a moment, and then reached for the bag at her side. "I don't know how you feel, so I found some pills for migraines, nausea, and dizziness."

"I'll take some of the ones for my stomach, and maybe a couple for my head. It really hurts."

Wordlessly, Saya examined the small pile of bottles. She selected two bottles, read the labels, and poured the appropriate dosage in her hand.

"Here," she said, passing them over to him after a moment's deliberation.

He took them and looked at her expectantly, only to find she was giving him a very similar look.

"Is there any water?" he asked awkwardly.

"Oh. Yes, hold on."

He waited, suppressing a shiver. She had stripped him to his boxers and a new, clean white t-shirt, and although the blankets she covered him with had been warm when he was sleeping, he wasn't in them anymore.

Saya came back with a bottle of water and handed it to him as she crouched at his side. Cohen reached to swallow the pills, and was about to down it with the water when she spoke again.

"So who's Jax?"

Despite the water, he started and the pills caught in his throat. His eyes teared up in pain and he quickly took another swallow.

"He's, uh, just a friend," he said after he recovered. "Someone from my squad before…before everything went to hell."

She merely raised an eyebrow in response, but whether it was at his words or his choking he couldn't quite decipher. He felt his cheeks redden, and at a loss of what to say, just told her the first thing to come to mind.

"There were others, too. Shirley, Bill, and Josef. We were a decent team, as far as this colony was concerned. We stopped a robbery once."

Saya remained mute, and it was hard to stop himself from continuing.

"When this all started, we tried to stick together, but the outbreak caught everyone unaware. We were spread too thin and…and I don't know, we just never found each other." His already upset stomach twisted even more at the possibilities of his friends' fates. "Wherever they are, I hope they're safe. So how'd I get knocked out?" He added the last question when he realized he was beginning to ramble. And he did legitimately want to know.

"Part of the ceiling you blew up fell on your head." Saya had apparently lost her immediate interest in him. She stood and walked back to the small pile of electronics she had set up near him.

"Oh, okay." He paused, furrowing his eyebrows at the floor in thought. "Where are we again?"

"The security r-"

"No, I mean, which one?"

"The safe house in the security office in the commercial district." She stopped, and after a moment, added, "I couldn't bring you that far by myself."

"Okay. Have ya heard from anyone else?" Now that he had taken the medicine, Cohen felt a little better. Or he thought he did, anyways.

"No. I've been working on our comm devices to see if I can improve the range, but…" Saya didn't finish the sentence, instead sighing in frustration.

"All this time? Did you get any sleep yourself?"

"Yeah, I had a small nap once everything was secure. I wasn't quite as tired as you, though. Like I said, you slept even after the medicine was supposed to have worn off."

Cohen paused. His memories were still a little muddled right now, but he did remember that ever since the initial outbreak had occurred, there hadn't been much time for anything, much less rest.

"You're right. I think sleep was the last thing on anyone's mind. I mean, it just happened so fast. No one saw it coming."

She made a small "hmm" sound and continued to do whatever it is she was doing. He didn't bother asking her to explain – he had always been fairly useless with electronics and machinery.

"What about you? I…I remember guiding you out of some med center." Cohen shifted, testing to see if the medication had kicked in yet. "What were you doing there?"

"I'll let you know when I figure that out myself." Her tone was slightly bitter.

"You mean you still don't know anything?"

"No."

He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. She wasn't going to tell him anything, at least not right now.

"Is there any food?"

"Can you handle it?"

"I think so."

Saya turned to study him before looking down and grabbing something out of her pocket. "There's more if you can keep this down."

Cohen took the wrapped protein bar with a grateful nod and tore it open. In the absence of conversation, the crinkle of the wrapper seemed especially loud. It tasted good, though, and he had to force himself to eat it slowly enough to not upset his stomach further.

He crumpled the wrapper in his hand and looked around for a trash receptacle. There was one on the other side of the room, but he wasn't going to ask her to do that for him either.

Hesitantly, he pushed on hand against the wall. With great effort he brought himself to a standing position. Saya turned her head and raised her eyebrow, but otherwise, said nothing.

His stomach lurched and his vision blurred, but he just took a deep breath and tried to keep his food down.

"Do you…?"

"No, I got it," he breathed. Leaning against the wall, he just relaxed long enough to gain his bearings. And then he crossed the room, gaining confident and stability with every step. By the time he arrived at his destination, he had gone from unstable staggering to only slightly shaky pacing.

"See?" He grinned triumphantly, to which Saya did absolutely nothing. She turned to her work again.

I wish she would at least try and be friendly…Not that I can really blame her, I guess.

Now that he was functional, Cohen looked around the room. There was still much to do - they had to figure out a plan, gather supplies, and find out the current state of the colony.

Right now, though? He thought, looking at his heart-patterned boxers. Pants would be nice.