Chapter 17 - Unwell

The first few seconds after me waking up were complete and utter torture. The reason for this was because I was currently experiencing the conditions I had been in last night when I was lying in bed before I took a little walk around and then comforted Gracie, and I mean the exact same conditions, save for one thing. My throat was tight and throbbing and it had the equal amount of dryness to that of a desert. Not only was that what was taking up half of the room in my mind. I kept on struggling to breathe through my nose.

Granted, I was lying with my face sinking into my pillow and doing so was considered impossible, or at the very least difficult, but I was still straining nonetheless. To top that all off, despite the fact that my position was nothing short of relaxed, I felt as if someone was standing by my bedside and they were whacking me across the head with a shovel once every two seconds. That was how bad my conditions were. Every little part of my top half felt weak and stuffy. I had absolutely no intention of rising up out of my comfortable spot. I didn't want to move, which was just as well because it was as if I couldn't.

All I managed to do was shakily put a hand to my up to my head and let out a low, long lasting groan, which was stifled by my pillow. I kept on breathing in and out, in and out and I tried my hardest to let my body sink into the bed further, but even as I lay still with my duvet almost over my head, I still couldn't make myself feel better. Just then, a cold gust of the early morning wind blew over me, causing a few strands of my hair to billow out briefly and goosebumps shot down my arms.

I wriggled a little as the wind stroked my hair, attempting to lull me back to sleep and I had to say, it compensated for making me shiver all over. Becoming increasingly discomforted by how shivery I was, I let out another groan. It was not long after that when I heard footsteps dragging along the ground, then someone sitting next to me on my bed and then that someone gently stroking me on the shoulder.

"Ludwig, are you okay?" they asked.

I knew that voice instantly. It was one that I knew I could trust and it was one that was talking to me in a tone of kindness and comfort. Jack's. "I don't feel very well…" I croaked, still not lifting my head up off my pillow.

"Oh. That's not good." Jack said, continuing to gently rub my shoulder. "Does anything hurt or ache?"

"I've got a splitting headache, my throat's all sore and my nose feels all stuffy." I attempted to prop myself up on my elbows and look up at Jack. "I feel awful."

Jack bit his lip and nodded. "Well, to be fair, you don't look at all well. How do you think this all happened?"

I sniffled and turned over onto my back. "I don't know. I think I might've caught a cold off of someone on the plane, but it could be from someone else." Just then, I felt an annoying tingling sensation in my nose and let out a huge sneeze that caused my body to jerk forward. Jack stood up from my bed and backed away, but he sat back down again when I sighed and leant my forehead on my hand.

"It's all right." he said. "You really have got it bad, but don't worry. If you get nominated to do a trial, then you can just say that you need to get better." He put an arm round my neck, which I thought was sweet because it was like Jack didn't even care if he caught my cold. "And besides, if you do a trial in these conditions, it's guaranteed that you're going to get worse."

I nodded slowly in deep thought before darting my eyes over to some of the other beds situated around Camp and I noticed that their occupants were shifting slightly. Oh no. Had my inadvertent outburst woken them up? Crap. If one of those people had been Scarlet or any of her friends, then I was totally in for it now. I had already grinded her gears once during this experience and I had no intention of doing it again, especially due to the thought of her retaliation being much worse than her previous ones. Luckily, two of those people were Gracie and Lily, who, upon seeing me, propped themselves up on their beds and greeted my miserable face with smiles.

"Good morning, Ludwig." Gracie said, her voice a lot happier and content than that of last night, which was something that I had to be pleased about at least.

"Morning." I tried to reply with emphasis, but unfortunately, my voice was too weak to do so. Embarrassed at how deep and austere I sounded, I turned back over and leant into my pillow again.

"What's wrong with Ludwig?" Lily asked.

"It looks and sounds like he has a cold." Jack replied.

I suddenly heard a creak and I looked up, my weary eyes half closed. It was Gracie stumbling over to my bed. She sunk down and did the exact same thing that Jack did when he comforted me. "Oh…poor you." she said, her tone so empathetic that it actually relaxed me to the extent that I almost fell back into a slumber again. "Do you think you're feeling like this because I kept you up half the night?"

I coughed dryly before replying, "I don't think so. After all, you stayed up longer than me and you don't have a cold."

"That's true…" Gracie put a hand to her chin before standing up and stretching her legs. "Right. I think I should get started on breakfast. Don't worry, Ludwig. All you need to do is try and get better as soon as possible."

I nodded, sniffled and sat up in bed, watching while all my new friends fussed around the fire pit and as soon as the orange flames were in my sight, even from my bed, I felt a wave of thermal energy. Every last modicum of heat I soaked up, hoping that it would help me feel at least a little bit better. Yes, it made me feel all warm and comforted, but it did zero help to my immune system. Soon, Gracie had already put some rice on the fire for our breakfast and she also said she was going to get hold of some sugar to make it look and taste like rice pudding, which I was looking forward to since I wanted to know how good of a cook she actually was. By bad fortune though, I had to wait because Jack and Lily were beckoning me to get out of bed.

"Come on." Jack said. "We've got to go and brush our teeth now."

Reluctantly, I let out a raspy sigh, shifted over to the side of my bed and set my feet down on the floor. I rifled around for my toothbrush and toothpaste, which was lying at the bottom of my camouflage bag. I stood up and went to put on my slippers, but something stopped me. Something that prevented me from moving a muscle. My head throbbed and tiny black flickers appeared in front of my face. All the sounds around me became all distorted and quiet as I stood still, save for one. It was Gracie asking me, "Hey, are you okay? You've gone a bit pale…"

I tried to reply, but I couldn't due to what I was currently seeing and hearing.

The amount of black flickers increased…

I slowly began to wobble…

My legs buckled from underneath my body…

My eyes closed…

And I slumped to the floor…

…

Through the distant haze of my gaze, I saw about three or four faces staring back at me with panicked expressions. They were all chatting at different pitches and times and the first thought that came to my head was, what the hell happened? What was wrong with me? However, I didn't have enough time to consider it because like magic, the quality of my hearing and my vision was fixed back together again. In addition, even though my eyes were only half open, the amount of sights I was met with were fairly overwhelming for me, especially when I had just woken up from…I actually didn't know.

"W-What…happened?" I managed to say.

Firstly, it was Jack who spoke up. "You seriously don't remember?"

I weakly shook my head.

"You fainted," said an unfamiliar voice from an unknown area.

I gasped and sat up, and there, kneeling at my right was what looked like a medic. Jack must've noticed my fright because he put a hand on my shoulder. "It's okay. He's here to help you." He gestured over to the medic, who gave me a little mock wave.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" the medic asked. "You didn't bang your head, did you?"

Surprisingly, after the medic explicitly mentioned that I fainted, my brain cells immediately started working. Yes… I did remember after all. One minute, I was getting up to brush my teeth and the other minute, I was lying sprawled out on the floor, my head feet away from the fire. I counted my lucky stars that I didn't land in there instead. Well, to be fair, I think I would probably know instantly if I did. In answer to the medic's question, I replied, "No…but I think I banged my hip on the side of a fire log when I fell."

"Oh." the medic said, wincing as if thinking about it in my perspective. "That's not very good. Come and sit on your bed and show me."

My friends helped me to my feet slowly, I sat on my bed and pulled the left side of my shorts a little bit, revealing a pale red mark plastered onto my hip that was beginning to bruise already.

"It hurts." I said.

"It will do, mate." the medic replied. "Just keep on rubbing it and you'll be fine. Hey, speaking of which, you sound very nasal. Have you got a cold?"

Well, it doesn't take a genius to figure that out, I felt like replying, but I didn't. Instead, I said, "Yeah. I feel terrible."

"Well, you're going to need some medicine then." The medic said, and with that, he took off the bag he had round his waist and pulled out a medicine bottle and a spoon.

"What flavour is that?" I asked groggily.

"It's cherry flavoured, but most of the previous contestants have said that it tastes of bitter wine." The medic poured the dark purple liquid into the spoon and I opened my mouth and swallowed it down as fast as I could.

Strangely though, I didn't grimace or gag or anything, although I was expecting myself to, but I didn't react in any way. The medicine was completely and utterly bland. I must've looked so unperturbed by that fact because the medic looked shocked.

"Wow. That was quick. Some of those other contestants would've most likely spat it out all over the floor. Are you immune to that sort of taste or something?"

"I couldn't taste it." I simply replied.

The medic stared at me for a few seconds, which, for me felt like the longest couple of seconds of my life because I wasn't the biggest fan of being stared at like that, so I just kept my eyes down and fiddled with my fingers before the medic finally spoke up. "It looks like this is a further enhanced case of the common cold…" He then proceeded to rifle around in his bag and pulled out…a bar of soap? "Here, take a sniff of this and see if you can smell it."

I raised an eyebrow and considered what this was all tied to, and I soon realised that this was a test for an illness that was rather…unprofessional, but then again, how else would you do it? I shrugged and lifted the soap to my nose. I closed my eyes and concentrated hard, but I couldn't detect any flowery, sweet scent anywhere on it.

"Nope. Nothing." I said, shaking my head and sighing, feeling a scant sense of loss.

"Don't worry." the medic said. "You'll soon get your senses back up and running after a few days." He stood up, looking into my weak eyes. "Now, I bet all you want to do is sleep."

Jeez. It was like he was reading my mind like a magazine. I nodded and heaved another lethargic sigh.

"All right then." The medic put the medicine bottle and spoon on a stone slab near my bed and gained the attention of all my friends. "Make sure Ludwig takes that medicine regularly. Once in the morning, once at lunchtime, and once in the evening."

My friends all nodded and as the medic turned to go, I pulled back my covers and got into bed, nestling my head into my pillow and closing my eyes. However, just as I was about to wriggle and make myself comfortable, Gracie walked up to my bed and patted me on the shoulder, which was an action that caused my heart rate to increase to about a hundred beats a minute. For a moment, that worried me though, because I wasn't sure if I was going to get to sleep with my heart beating that fast. Luckily though, it felt as if my muscles were unclenching upon hearing her lovely voice speaking to me in a tone of conviviality and stalwartness.

"Don't worry, Ludwig. We'll get you all better." Gracie stood up, crouched down next to the fire and poked at the cooking rice. "Just you wait and see." She took one last look at me before smiling as I shut my eyes lightly, ready to let my body switch off and get better. "Have a nice rest."

I exhaled before mumbling back, "Thank you."