Chapter 25~Lost&Found
Natalie coughed, suddenly inhaling a lot of dust, and tried to sit up. She hit her head on something and dropped heavily back onto the floor, so rolled over to try and empty her lungs of the same amount of dirt that she found under her closet the last time she'd spring-cleaned her room. She felt strong arms around her waist that helped her to sit up without banging her head again, and a plastic bottle was placed in her hand.
"Drink this," Lou's voice came from just behind her shoulder and she gratefully downed the water. It was warm, and there wasn't very much of it, but it was better than nothing and it cleared her dry throat.
"Where are we?" she croaked, shifting so that she could sit up without Lou's aid.
"No idea. All I know is that the last batteries of my torch died about ten minutes ago and Danny is in a really bad way,"
"What happened?" Natalie felt Lou shrug.
"Again, no idea. We hit something. Actually I think that something hit us and I woke up here something like an hour ago. You're the first to wake up."
"And Danny?"
"He was standing on the back of the pickup, Nat. He's broken both his arms, a leg and from what I can tell at least three ribs, but that's all i could get just by looking at it. I don't want to go any deeper until he's conscious." Lou sighed and Natalie herd him rub his chin. "What about you? Anything broken?"
"I don't think so. Nothing hurts besides my head, but that's to be expected I guess. How're you doing?"
"I'm fine. Here, hold still," Natalie stiffened as she felt Lou's fingers gently run over her forehead, across her face and through her hair. She pulled her ponytail out and he checked over her head, making sure her headache wasn't due to a gushing wound.
"Yeah, you're good," he decided. His fingers lingered on her cheek for longer than was strictly necessary and she tried to stifle a shiver. His touch always made her do that, but he was the last person she wanted to know about it. She had enough to get through at the moment without Lou knowing her feelings for him. She thought she heard him sigh but was distracted by someone coughing to her left, and Lou rummaged around in a rucksack and crawled towards it. It was Becker.
"Alison..?" he muttered.
"She's okay. What about you? You've got a nasty cut on your wrist and a few bruises but did I miss anything?" there was more rustling as Becker sat up.
"I don't think so. What happened to your torch?"
"Batteries died. Is there one in your rucksack? I would have looked but you were lying on it and I didn't want to move you," There was more rustles before Lou told Natalie to shut her eyes and flicked on the torch, providing just enough light to reveal the immediate area and that was about it. Opening her eyes, Natalie saw Abby and Connor in the opposite corner, Alison was lying just next to her brother, and Danny was in the middle of the room. Just from a glance Natalie could see that he was in a really bad way. He had bandages and plasters pretty much all over him and his breath was coming in short gasps. The room itself wasn't helping. There was more dust layering the floor than Natalie had ever seen in her life, and was lined with shelving units that dropped more dust onto the floor every time someone moved. Natalie guessed that was what she had hit her head on earlier.
She turned her gaze back to Lou, who had fixed Becker's torch on a shelf just above head height so that he could still see but wouldn't blind anyone, and was helping Becker sit up and drink from another bottle of water. Now that she could see him, Lou looked haggard, weary and just plain tired. She wasn't surprised, seeing as they had just been in a car accident and all.
"I don't suppose either of you have a clue what happened, do you?" Becker eventually asked after draining his water bottle.
"Nope. I figured that something hit us but I have no idea what."
"It wasn't another car; there weren't any turn-off roads anywhere near us." The conversation halted as Alison stirred and raised a hand against the torch's light. Becker and Lou instantly reacted, Lou finding some more water while Becker helped his sister to sit up. It only took a split second, but Natalie saw Becker try and lean on his left arm, the one Lou had bandaged earlier, but it nearly gave out under his weight so he switched to his other one. Realisation that Becker's arm had more than 'a nasty cut' on it speared through Natalie instantly, but she didn't say anything. She shared her aunt's uncanny ability to notice the minute details, but Maria never pointed such things out. Natalie figured that there was probably a reason so kept quiet. She would mention it quietly to Lou later.
Alison started up the 'what-the-heck-happened' conversation again and Natalie, who had nothing else to contribute to it, tuned out, instead looking around at the three members of the team still unconscious. Danny hadn't changed at all, which worried Natalie even further, but Connor and Abby were both looking around the room. They were obviously in a less dusty corner than everyone else. Lou noticed her looking at them and crawled over, pulling more water bottles out of his bag as he did so. Natalie wondered how many they had left.
Ignoring the sounds of Lou checking up on Abby and Connor, Natalie curled in on herself and let her thoughts wonder. She wanted to think that someone would be out looking for them, but the more rational side of her brain was telling her that there was a huge chance no one even knew anything was wrong. She wondered what her dad would do when Maria told him she had gone out on a mission. He would probably get really angry, hit something, and storm out of the room, only to come back in again and have the world's biggest shouting match with his sister. The scenario played out quite nicely in her head; probably due to the fact that she had seen it happening so many times; and it made her smile.
Natalie didn't know how long they were down there in that room, but during that time Danny woke up, three more torches ran out of batteries and they used up the last of the water. Everyone who was able to helped out Lou in taking care of Danny; Natalie, Alison and Becker all had their hands full. Connor and Abby had seven broken bones between them so Lou just made them sit still and checked up on them every now and again, but the other four only stopped to get a few moments of sleep. Natalie didn't think that Lou even stopped for that. She also received more inklings that Becker's arm was troubling him more than he let on. Every time Lou told him he had to change the bandages he refused, saying that Danny needed them more than he did, and when Alison asked him about it he just shrugged her off. Every time this happened, Natalie wished that Maria was there. Then, of course, came the truth that if Maria was there, they would be back at the ARC already, and that only made her feel even worse.
For the first time in an age, Lou sat heavily in the dust next to her and let out a long, exhausted sigh.
"You need to sleep," Natalie told him, attempting to leave no room for argument. Lou just grinned, his eyes shut.
"You sound just like Maria when you say that,"
"And if she was the one telling you, you wouldn't argue,"
"You're right, I wouldn't, but she isn't here, which means that if i do stop and rest no one else would be able to keep an eye. So I'm not going to."
"I don't think anyone will die if you sleep for an hour or two," Natalie retorted. Lou merely grinned again and stuck an arm into the MedKit that hadn't left his side the entire time. He frowned, rummaged deeper, and swore.
"What?"
"We are officially out of bandages," he informed her, quiet enough so that no one else would hear him. Natalie could tell by his tone of voice that he was panicking inside but trying to hide it. He needn't have bothered. She knew exactly how huge a problem having no bandages left was. And as if she could sense that the biggest bummer of all bummers had just exploded in the room, Alison called to Lou from where she was crouching beside her brother. Taking a deep breath, Lou made his way over.
"He's burning up. I don't know what's wrong with him," Concern was written in capitols all over Alison's face as Lou pressed the back of his hand against Becker's forehead.
"Jesus, you could boil an egg on that," he muttered. His gaze dropped to Becker's arm and he sat down heavily, despair creeping into his eyes. "Please, don't be what I think it is," he slowly unwrapped the bandage that he had put there all that time ago, and heard Alison gasp at what had once been a perfectly harmless scratch.
"But you can do something, right, I mean, he's not going to die or anything?" Lou knew he couldn't give Alison the answer she wanted. There was no escaping it this time.
"I don't know. If I still had water and clean bandages then maybe but I have neither of those things." he held her gaze as two tears leaked out of her eyes. "I genuinely don't know, Alison." Lou looked down again as Alison tried and failed to hold back sobs. Natalie inched closer to him and slid her hand into his, trying to give him some reassurance that there was something he could do, he just hadn't thought of it yet. He shook his head; it was amazing how the smallest of movements could bring on the strongest emotions. Natalie felt tears forming in her own eyes but blinked them back. She wasn't going to cry, not while there could still be a chance. She could see Lou frantically racking his brain for anything, even the most dangerous idea of what he could to but came up with nothing. Everyone at MedSchool had said that blood poisoning from infected wounds was easily solved with the most basic equipment, but they had never covered what to do if you don't even have that. He thought about using the sleeve of his shirt as a bandage but ruled it out instantly. That would undoubtedly make it even worse. Natalie was about to say something when he heard, or thought he heard anyway, something banging on the ceiling. He put a finger to his lips and stood up, ignoring his screaming muscles telling him that he had been sitting down for way too long. The banging came again, and again, and the next thing he knew a shaft of blinding sunlight was streaming through the ceiling from some kind of trapdoor.
"Guys, I've found them," Relief and sheer joy washed through Lou as he recognised Maria's voice, and someone dropped down through the roof into the room. Lou stepped back out of the light to try and get his eyes to focus, and saw Natalie gripping Maria in a hug tighter than he thought she could manage. Untangling herself from her niece, Maria turned to him.
"I don't suppose we can save the pleasantries for later. We have a bit of a problem down here," Lou cut off whatever it was she was about to say, and the playful look in her eyes instantly vanished.
"What happened?"
"It's Becker. He had a wound on his arm when we were first brought down here, and it was fine at the time but he refused to let me change the bandages. It's infected and I ran out of anything to clear it up with ages ago." Maria nodded and spoke into her com system.
"Anton, get down here. Valerie, you and Sam stay up there and go find a ladder or something," Another person immediately dropped into the room and Maria turned to him.
"Give Lou a hand getting everyone ready to move," she ordered. Anton nodded and Lou began filling him in on who had a broken whatever and who was pretty much fine. Maria went over to Becker, where Alison had stopped crying and was kneeling over him again.
"How long has he been like this?"
"I don't know. About fifteen minutes ago I woke up and he was really, really hot but I don't know how long I was asleep for. I think it's been like this for a while though," Maria nodded, more to herself than to Alison, and examined Becker's arm. The cut itself was red and swollen and was clogged up with bits of dust that had gotten in through the bandage. The skin around it was bright red and very hot. Maria sucked a breath in through her teeth, cursing Becker's stubbornness and hoping that she would be able to fix it. If she didn't, he would die. It was as simple as that.
"Alison, talk to him, get him awake and keep him there," Maria only half-listened to Alison's frantic chatter as she mixed disinfectant cream with some water and rubbed it into Becker's wound, causing him to flinch and tighten the muscles in his arm. As he did so, dirty blood began flowing out of it.
"Hey, I know this hurts, but you need to relax, okay?" Alison beat Maria to the punch and Becker nodded, his arm loosening. For the next ten minutes, Maria worked to try and clean up the wound, causing Becker to tense every single muscle in his body except his arm in an attempt to make her job easier. She hated that she was causing him so much pain but at the same time she knew that if she didn't, he would suffer long and hard before eventually dying. It was one of those inescapable situations that her mother had been so fond of talking about.
Finally, after what had felt like hours, Maria was satisfied that she could do no more until she got him to a proper medical bay. Now all she had to do was stitch it up, which wouldn't be any fun for either of them.
"Ryan listen," his gaze flicked to her, and she saw a lot more awareness in it than had been there earlier. Her soul ached at the realisation that he would feel every single thing she was about to do. "I need to stitch this up, ok, and it's going to hurt. I don't have any anaesthetics and I can't wait to get you back to the ARC. Just try not to tense your arm," He nodded and Alison threaded her fingers through his while Maria found a needle and thread.
"Ready?" he nodded again and Maria pushed her needle through his skin. The sound he made as she did so made tears spring to her eyes but she blinked them away and focused on nothing but the task at hand. Shaking hands would only worsen his pain, she told herself.
The cut seemed to get longer and longer as Maria stitched. Each time she pierced the angry skin around it, he gave her some uncontrollable sign that she was causing him a lot of pain, and each time another piece of her soul died. Alison had also stopped talking, which meant that Becker's undivided attention was on Maria and the pain that shot through his arm at regular intervals. She had never found any part of her job as hard as this was, and began to wonder if anything ever would be.
Eventually Maria finished. Nobody even bothered to hide their relief at the fact, and Becker relaxed so much that he ended up lying on the floor instead of sitting against the wall. Maria tied a bandage around it and pulled him to his feet.
"How're you feeling?"
"I'm a little dizzy but I'll live," he teased. Maria hit him in the shoulder before pulling him into a tight hug.
"Next time Lou tells you to do something you do it," she ordered, letting her concern flow into her voice.
"Yes ma'am," she could hear that he was still smiling and for some reason this annoyed her.
"I mean it," she pulled away and stared him in the face. "If I had been ten minutes later..."
"But you weren't," he put a finger to her lips and cut her off midsentence. "So don't start what-iffing again," Maria sighed and leaned against him.
"Am I the only one who gives a damn about your wellbeing?"
"Yes, and I'm the only one who gives a damn about yours, so I guess we're even,"
"I hate to interrupt but we're all ready to go over here," Lou called from underneath the trapdoor. A ladder stood behind him and the rest of the team, minus Danny who couldn't actually stand up, were gathered around him. Maria straightened up and nodded, and Lou scrambled up the ladder into the rapidly fading light above them.
"Please hurry," Valerie called down. "We do not want to be out here at night," Abby, Connor, Natalie and Alison followed Lou up and Anton passed Danny up before following himself, leaving Maria and Becker alone in the room. She turned to tell him to go up first but as soon as she did, his lips were on hers, leaving her breathless.
"Thank you," he whispered, stroking her face with the back of two fingers. She wanted to kiss him again but knew Lou or someone would come investigating if they stayed down there any longer so decided against it, much to her head's approval but her heart's annoyance. Instead she motioned up the ladder and he climbed, leading her up into the daylight. Once up, she softly dropped the trapdoor and nodded to Sam Johnson who was standing a little way away from the rest of the group, and followed him back through the ruined city towards the anomaly home.