Rick glanced around the shabby looking lift room. The screens were completely off and there was a lot of loose material hanging around, but he wasn't familiar with the area, so he didn't know what would lead them where. Craig's mind seemed to work a lot faster than Rick's was allowing; Craig had already ripped apart a piece of the wall with a grunt. He waved over to Rick quickly and disappeared inside the small space.
Rick followed slowly behind. He was still recovering, but he heard the turret's alarm sound, so he knew he didn't have too many seconds to waste. He crawled into the hole in the wall that Craig made, trying to keep up as best he could. Craig was making a pretty good effort for making it look like he knew where he was going, but he really had no clue. He finally turned a corner and found another of those strange off-the-path storage rooms. He scrambled inside and scanned the room, looking for an exit, or supplies, anything that would help them!
Rick stumbled into the room just after Craig, surprised he'd found one of these so quickly. Craig was in the corner, pulling some things out of the vent. Rick leaned against one of the walls and slowly slid down to the floor. It was only then that he realized he was shivering from the cold water that had nearly killed him; the dead, unmoving air in this room didn't help either. Rick tried to wrap his arms around himself, but it only made him feel colder. Craig came back with some cans and put them on the floor before he noticed that Rick was starting to suffer from hypothermia. Oh no, the last time Craig worried about this…
"Are you… are you alright?" Craig asked tentatively.
"Jus' cold, angel," Rick mumbled, feeling tired all of a sudden.
"No!" Craig cried as Rick's eyes began to droop, "Stay awake, don't you fall asleep!"
Rick's eyes snapped open when Craig yelled at him, but Craig had already left his side. He was feeling a bit delirious now that the adrenaline was wearing off. He wanted to fall asleep now, for a very long time, but Craig came back with something Rick couldn't make out.
"Take off your jumpsuit," Craig commanded.
"Well, damn. You want to be that blunt about it," Rick laughed weakly.
Craig reddened, "Now isn't the time, now hurry up!"
Rick tried to raise one hand to the zipper on his jumpsuit, but he didn't make it. He was too tired for that, why would he get naked now? Craig sighed in exasperation and unzipped Rick's jumpsuit for him. He had a hard time pushing his arms though the sleeves, but he finally got the jumpsuit off of him, pulled off his boots, and wrapped the blanket he found around his body. This wasn't the ideal spot to try to help him recuperate, but it was all they had. Craig sat for a moment, waiting with apprehension for Rick to stop shivering. That time didn't come.
Craig ran through all the facts that survived his human mind about hypothermia. He knew that seals and whales were immune to it, because they had a thick layer of mayonnaise under their skin, but that wasn't helpful at all. He knew that most common earthworms were thermaphrodites; though that had nothing to do with this situation. This was a life-or-death situation and he wasn't entirely sure what to do!
Craig got up and shook Rick's shoulders. If anyone knew what to do about this, it was probably him. Rick didn't stir for a moment, so Craig full on slapped him in the face. Rick woozily opened his eyes at the stinging pain in his face.
"Whazzat?" he asked.
"What does an adventurer do for hypothermia?" Craig demanded quickly.
"You get the victim naked," Rick said, which Craig had already done, "Lay 'em close to the fire you built and then you get naked and share body heat, yehsee?"
That was not the answer Craig was hoping for. He one, didn't have a fire, and two had no desire to be naked right now. Instead of a fire, he was sure one of the vents in this storage room would expel heat, so he got Rick to move over to that vent. The hard part was getting up the courage to do the second part. He would do alright without that, wouldn't he? Craig observed his hypothermia patient and found that he was still shivering. Dammit, Craig thought, there really wasn't any other way.
After carefully placing Rick's wet jumpsuit next to the heated vent, Craig took his own jumpsuit and boots off and folded it neatly beside the wet one. He huffed with a little bit of nervous apprehension and climbed under the blanket with Rick, getting quite a shock from touching Rick's cold skin. Being on a metal floor didn't help him, but this was the best Craig could do. He'd already risked life and limb trying to save this so-called adventurer; he might as well see it through. With that thought, he lay down and waited for Rick to hopefully recover.
