Talker – Chapter Sixteen: A Little Left of Nothing
Author's Note: You reviews are all very appriciated. And Psilontech, you did indeed call it. Curse you, you have earned a Jolly Rancher. Shakes fist dramatically
"He's sleeping." Ana answered, knowing the question even before anyone dared to ask it as she re-entered the group. Sitting near the fire, she put a hand to her head. "He's sort of out of it right now."
"I'll say." Kenneth shook his head and prodded the fire with a stick, causing it to spit up a mouthful of embers up into the sky. "Damn glad the guy made it back."
"He's lucky." Terry agreed.
"He's more than that." Ana countered, before then adding quietly, "But I'm sure he doesn't feel that way."
"It's fucking unbelievable." Terry rubbed a hand over his hair roughly, processing the turn of events as best he could. "I mean, you're right; lucky doesn't even begin to describe it. What did he do? Why the hell didn't they kill him?"
"The same reason we didn't." Ana said darkly. The group was visibly mortified at that. So both sides, infected and living, saw Tyler as one of them. The idea had stunned them into silence for a few moments.
"Is he gonna be alright?" Kenneth questioned, a little softer.
Ana threw out one hand. "I don't know. I guess. He's scratched up, nothing major that I can tell."
Terry waited a long while with a certain thought in his head, glancing off to the side. About twenty feet away from them, Tyler lay in the sand, out cold. He wasn't sure if it was the right time to be bringing it up, but at least it would prevent another silence from coming on. "It was stupid." He stated sternly.
At this, a tense air lifted from the group, each looking to him inquisitively. They all knew what he was talking about, but a mixed kind of emotion came off of that. "You're right." Ana agreed with a rather unhappy laugh.
"We shouldn't've taken the risk." He continued as he picked up a stick and aimlessly began to trace patterns with it in the sand.
"I don't know about that." Kenneth took a long look at the group gathered around him. "If they hadn't attacked the resort, we'd still've been better off. And we were, until things went bad."
"Yeah well that's the point, isn't it Ken?" Ana's voice was unsually cold. "It did happen. It did go bad. It's just like I said—now we're even worse off than we were before. You still think we should've done it? Why don't you tell that to Tyler?"
He paused, not sure how to approach her accusation of ignorance. "Look, you're takin' it wrong, okay? I was just sayin' that a risk is worth taking. I'm sorry it went wrong, I'm not sorry we did it. There was no way we could've known they would attack there just like there was no way we coulda known they were on this island in the first place."
"We should've known both." Ana disagreed. "Look at the shit that's happened to us every time we take a 'risk'."
It was not the first time Ana and Kenneth did not see eye-to-eye, but Terry changed the direction of the conversation all the same with his next quandry. "So do you think they could follow us back here?"
None of them wanted to think about that. "They could follow us anywhere." Kenneth leveled. "It's their island, after all."
"They didn't find us before." Ana sighed. "I guess the only thing we can do is hope that they don't find us again."
"But where does that leave us?" Nicole asked as she looked up. "Are we gonna spend the rest of our lives here?"
"We've gotta spend it somewhere." Kenneth jabbed dryly.
"I'm serious." Nicole had a sort of scowling pout.
"Well we didn't wanna spend it at Crossroads and we don't wanna spend it here…we're gonna have to look at the fact that right now, nowhere's that safe. Nowhere's that free." He rephrased himself.
"Amen to that…" Ana mumbled, resting her chin on a palm.
"I don't want to die like some caged animal." Nicole fought back. "I don't want to give up."
"No one's giving up, Nicole." Terry said quietly, putting a hand on her leg. "We're surviving. We're gonna keep on surviving."
"Sure. Surviving." She put her hand on his and looked away. "Well that's fine. We're surviving. What about living, Terry?"
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end settled for just gripping her hand.
"It would be a miracle if they all just…starved to death." Ana said in a moment of spoken thought.
Kenneth nodded, sharing her hopes. "Sure hope they can. Their food's runnin' out a hell of a lot faster than ours."
"I wouldn't pretend it's the smartest thing to hope for. Those things sat outside the mall for weeks with nothing to eat. Without even weakening." Ana said, cutting off her previous mention.
"Well they can't live forever. They aren't even living now. They'll just rot to pieces eventually, won't they?" Terry seemed to direct this question at Ana, who, obviously, had the most knowledge with the human body.
"One would assume." She shrugged. "It would be impossible for them to just…exist…forever."
"Sure as hell hope not." Kenneth said, rubbing his knuckles against his knee.
"But this infection…" she took in a breath. "Well I don't know what the hell it is. Nothing like this has ever been seen before. It makes the plague look like a flu outbreak—the common cold. I have no idea what it does, or why it does it. I don't even care anymore."
"I guess it's not really-" Terry looked up suddenly, something catching his eye. "Ana," he gestured in concern over her shoulder.
She turned her head immediately to Tyler, reeling at what she saw. He was far from being as unconscious as he'd been left—jerking, making spasmatic motions like someone was shaking the life out of him as he lay there helpless. "Oh shit!" she growled, climbing hurriedly to her feet and rushing to him.
"Ana, don't!" Kenneth reached out for her, but she was already down at his side.
"Fuck, Kenneth, he's not turning!" she cried, tilting Tyler's head back and holding it in her lap. "He has untreated head trauma, he's having a seizure!" it was difficult to tend to him with his erratic tremors, but if nothing else was in their favor, Ana knew what she was doing. A wave of horrendious panic hit the others like a hurricane, the fear and assumption stuck in their heads that they were watching someone die before them yet again, and this time there was absolutely nothing to do but watch. There was nothing to defend him from, nothing to make it stop. Kenneth took to Tyler's side, making a move to push him down. "Don't!" Ana ordered. "Don't hold him back."
"Well what the hell are we supposed to-" he started, but she cut him off.
"Just leave him! Leave him…" she waited, suddenly aware that Tyler's muscles were calming and he was starting to gasp for breath. The spasms came to a jittering halt.
She shoved him over onto his side and he threw up, heaving a great deal of watery vomit out into the sand next to him before falling still, save for a kind of nervous shivering. Ana paused, making sure that he was indeed breathing before her tenseness faded.
"It's okay, it's okay…Relax, Tyler, you're okay now…" she said, stroking the side of his head gently. His breath was coming out in shallow sweeps, eyes glazed over and limbs limp against the ground. Dazed and pained from the acid churning in his chest, it seemed that even his small trembling was a great effort. "Could you get some water, Kenneth?" she said quietly, not looking at him.
"Yeah." He obeyed, beginning his search quickly eager to do anything that would help the situation.
There were a few moments of strained breathing before Tyler coughed once and sighed, planting his face into his palm and groaning. "Ana…?"
"It's alright. Don't talk. Just take it easy." She hushed him, feeling his forehead. Much to her relief, and surely furthermore to his, somewhere along the line his fever had dissapated.
He closed his eyes and started to shiver again, letting his hand fall back into the sand as though he were surrendering. Ana looked down upon him for a long while, touching the wound in his head lightly and wondering…in the back of her mind, just how many more of those shallow breaths he would take. She wouldn't be able to bear the sight of another death under her hands…