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Post by Suji on Aug 13, 2009 5:33:46 GMT -5
"We made it! Suji, wake up, we made it."
Someone was yelling. Suji didn't understand the words. Her eyes barely cracked open, enough to see the stars dotted the dark. They were pretty. It was as simple as that. The the west the sun must have been setting, because a warm glow coated half the sky.
Suji felt herself moving, in choppy strides, though she wasn't directing herself. Maybe she was finally coming to the end. Maybe this was what leaving your body felt like. Only she'd already exited her own dying body once, and this wasn't very much like that. This was more like being carried.
She didn't have the power to lift her head, and only barely summoned the energy to open her eyes wide enough to look at the face of the person carrying her. Andre? So then. Just another hallucination. Andre couldn't be here. She closed her eyes again, saying in a tiny voice that was more an exhausted whisper than anything else:
"Oh, that's nice."
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Post by Drake on Aug 15, 2009 1:32:25 GMT -5
Drake was out soaring in the light of the setting sun. He was trying once again to clear his cluttered head. He had managed to get by well enough just suppressing everything, but he knew if he did that for too long, his thoughts would begin to fester. The only thing was, every time he tried to sort out his thoughts, he would let himself get overwhelmed by all he and his faction had lost. It would cause him to spiral down in a bought of grief and depression. This had to be the first problem he had been unable to shrug off. That is why he was flying right now. It was difficult to feel bad when even thin air could keep you afloat. It didn't get rid of Drake's problems, but it helped him carry the burden. It was when he was trying to figure out what to do or where to go next that he noticed the people on the ground. It looked like one was carrying the other. It seemed a bit odd so Drake decided he had better get a closer look. He started a slow spiral downward, letting the breeze bring him further south toward where they were. He was about a thousand feet up and a quarter mile away when the realization began to creep up in the back of his mind. <<Wait a minute. That looks like... No Drake, it can't be. You're going crazy. It's just people who look like them. They're dead. Dead.>> But still, the nagging voice wouldn't leave his head. The closer he got, the more certain he became. It was Andre and Suji. Or what he thought was Andre and Suji. Something in his brain must have snapped because Drake was seeing people that he knew were dead. He had seen both of them, or at least an image of them, post mortum. There was no way this could be happening. But still... <<If you are going to be insane, you might as well commit to it,>> Drake said, still talking to himself. He then broadened his mental voice to include the ones on the ground. <<Aren't you two supposed to be, you know, not alive?>> |
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Post by gabriel on Aug 15, 2009 1:52:10 GMT -5
 His arms and shoulders were burning now but he didn't care, the Vegas base was in sight. After everything they'd been through they'd made it. The trip from Dallas to Vegas had only taken a few days but it'd seemed like the longest few days of his life. He couldn't wait to take a bath, drink some water, maybe, just maybe, eat something. He was surprised to realize how much he couldn't wait to see the others. Aubrey, Sophie, Drake and Aida. But as he had that thought he realized they may not have made it. What would he do, what would they do, if they got to Vegas only to find out the others had died in Dallas? He didn't want to think about it. Suji had been beating herself up over leaving the others behind to go on her rescue mission as it was. If she found out the others had died while she'd been gone there would simply be no convincing her that it wasn't her fault. And if that happened he was afraid she'd death will herself. He hadn't thought it was possible to death will yourself but these last few days had turned him into a believer. So the relief he felt when he heard Drake's thoughtspeak voice in his head was unimaginable. It would be ok. Drake was here, they were all safe, they were going home, finally going home. And Drake would take care of Suji, she wouldn't die now and he no longer had to do it, no longer had to feel like he was failing. He almost dropped her when the shadow of a bird passed over him and Drake asked them about being dead. A few tears did start to run down his face and dropped onto Suji's head. "God, it's so good to hear your voice," he said looking up as if he were praying. "Please, help me. She's not doing so hot, she needs help." |
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Post by Drake on Aug 15, 2009 2:08:42 GMT -5
Even though he was expecting it, Drake was surprised when he heard Andre's voice. It was Andre alright. That deep voice was all too recognizable. And the emotions on his face. They were so convincing. If Drake weren't so sure this was impossible he would have sworn this was really happening.
<<Of course I'll help.>> Drake meant to say it sarcastically, but his conscience wouldn't let him. Instead he just landed silently on the ground and began to demorph. Once human, Drake concentrated on his buffalo morph. It was the closest thing he had to a morph someone could ride.
<<This should help us get back to the base quicker. You can set her on my back, or you can both ride if you think you can manage. Either way, we'll get you both to the medical ward and me to the psych ward as soon as we reach the base.>>
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Post by gabriel on Aug 15, 2009 2:15:54 GMT -5
"Oh god, don't tell me you've gone crazy too," he said as he walked over to Drake and gently put Suji on his back. "I better walk and steady her, or she'll fall off," he said after realizing she wasn't gripping at all. God, this all felt awfully familiar. "She hasn't eaten or drunken anything in the past three or four days and we walked a lot of the way here. Well we drove most of the distance but we walked for a long time. And she hasn't morphed and then she got sick and she wouldn't take any medicine and she took some Tylenol eventually so the fever's gone but-" he was babbling. The stress of the last few days was finally getting to him now that he didn't have to keep going alone. Other people were here to help him now and he didn't have to be strong anymore so he found he wanted to collapse. But telling the small bit of what had happened to them made him realize that everyone would have questions and Suji was in no condition to answer any of them. He put one hand on Drake's hairy shoulder and just leaned over for a moment and got his composure back. When he stood up he caught sight of his hand and remembered what Drake had said when he'd seen them. <<Aren't you two supposed to be, you know, not alive?>> and he realized what it must mean. "Oh god, Andre...Andre's dead?" |
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Post by Drake on Aug 16, 2009 1:08:57 GMT -5
Drake stopped mid-stride. It actually took a bit of effort when you had the mass of a grown buffalo, but Drake did it anyway. What Andre just said confused him. <<Yeeeah...? You, Andre, are dead. The virus, remember? It killed people. It killed you. You couldn't morph to heal yourself and Sootman wouldn't give up the antidote, so you died. Just like everyone else in Dallas...>>
Drake began moving again. He quickened his pace a bit to make up for lost time. Not that it actually mattered. When you carry someone on your back who doesn't actually exist, it doesn't really matter if you reach your destination. But still, something was nagging at the back of Drake's mind. A piece of a puzzle that wasn't fitting quite right.
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Post by gabriel on Aug 16, 2009 1:33:26 GMT -5
 "This is all fucked up," he said, stopping and letting Drake trot a few feet ahead of him. He saw Suji begin to sway and he rushed to catch her and steadied her before looking down at Drake. "Obviously we've both missed some details." <<Starting with who I am,>> he said in thoughtspeak so that it would be his voice that Drake heard instead of Andre's. He slowly began to demorph, not wanting to rush and risk falling over as his weight and center of balance changed. He was more worried about Suji than he was about himself. If he fell he might make her fall as well.  "Here's what I know. I'm alive, Fin, Glorfindle Larson, is alive. So is Suji. Not gonna lie, it was a close thing, but we're here. I know they blew Dallas out of existence. I know there was a forcefield around the city but I didn't know why. I'm assuming it has something to do with a virus now, maybe the virus we went in to investigate?" he made the last part of the sentence a question but then kept on talking, not waiting for Drake's answer. "Mostly I know that my feet hurt, I haven't had a drink of water in over a day, I've been morphing non stop for the past 24 hours, I'm tired, I'm hungry and I just want to see some friendly faces. And if that is true of me it is about a hundred times as true for Suji, both the good and the bad. So maybe we should get back to this base first and then we can swap stories."  |
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Post by Drake on Aug 16, 2009 1:51:11 GMT -5
If Drake's mind did a back flip when he first spotted Andre and Suji, it was doing an entire floor routine right now. Fin was alive? Andre was still dead? Drake wasn't crazy? Fin was Andre? Fin and Suji didn't get blown up? Suji was alive? But he saw her body on the hologram projector, and there was no way she was alive in the state she was in. But they were here now, and Fin was Fin, and Suji sure felt real slumped over his back...
It was a miracle that Drake's legs continued to walk as his brain felt like it was threatening to shut down. Drake stayed silent for what must have been an awkwardly long amount of time. The reached the air force base before he managed to come up with anything to say in response. And even then what he said was nothing too extraordinary.
<<Huh. This makes no sense... But for what it's worth, I'm glad you made it out of there alive. We should probably get her onto a bed or something, I suppose.>>
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Post by gabriel on Aug 16, 2009 2:54:59 GMT -5
 "Thanks Drake. You have no idea how glad I am that you're alive too. I mean, for Suji's sake because you have no idea what she's been putting herself through, but also just for mine. I don't think I could have made it either if we'd gotten here and you guys had been dead...well, Andre" Fin sighed, and slumped against Drake's shoulder a little. "No one else right? Aubrey, Sophie...Aida? Aida's here right?" he asked, his voice fearful and hopeful all at once. 
 Luce was lying down on the roof of one of the barracks, her arms crossed behind her head as she looked up at the stars. She had never been a very social person but these past fews days she'd done her best to avoid everyone and still be as helpful as possible. Whenever Stevert asked her to do something, she did it as quickly as possible before finding a place to hole up in. She was hiding. She knew it but she didn't try to stop herself because she knew she needed the time away from everyone else. There was no one here she felt comfortable talking to about what was going on in her head and heart. She could hardly explain her feelings to herself, how could she hope to explain them to a stranger? Too much had happened too quickly and Luce was playing emotional catch up. Suji's death was only now really starting to set in. The more she found herself wishing she had someone to confide in, the more she would remember that Suji as gone. They had hardly ever been in the same place at the same time but knowing that she'd been out there had been enough. Looking at the stars now reminded Luce of the night on the beach in Mexico. As often happened Luce found herself on the verge of tears but these days she just let them come. Maybe it was self pity. Suji was out of the war now. There would be no more nights spent agonizing over their battles, no more hard choices to haunt her. So Luce was almost happy for her. She remembered how worried she'd been that night, listening to her talk about Chicago. She had wondered if Suji would make it through this ok, if any of them would make it through this ok. But now Suji was gone and Luce liked to believe she was at peace, somewhere. It just hurt too much to think anything else. But, even believing that, she couldn't help but cry for herself. She had lost so many people already. Her family was gone, controllers each and every one of them. Maybe she could free them one day but the world never seemed to hand you opportunities like that. And now her best friend was gone. Even Ember was gone, off to Boston. Rian was dead. And Sedra...she was still Sedra, with all of the problems that came along with that. Luce wondered now if maybe she had made a mistake by leaving. At the time she'd felt she'd been motivated by disgust, not for Sedra, but for the war in general, and anyone that helped perpetuate it. But maybe it had been out of anger. Maybe she'd just been angry with the world for putting her in the middle of this war and then stripping her of all of her support and everything she had fought for. So you throw your last support away? It seemed stupid now. But maybe that was just her heartache justifying her desire to go back. She'd made the right choice right? What would Suji have done? Why did she even ask herself that question? Was a dead Suji somehow more wise than a living one? Why did people do that? Turn to the dead to solve all their problems, making them out to be perfect human beings? Was it an act of love to erase so much of what had made them human? "Nothing but questions tonight," she said softly to herself. She sighed and sat up, draping an arm over her knee and looked down at the darkened base. She wasn't sure what time it was and she had to relieve Drake from patrol duty at some point soon, so she decided she should probably check. She began to slide down the side of the roof and stopped when she saw dark forms outside of the base gates. One of them was definitely human but the other was a large, four footed animal. If Luce hadn't been an animorph she would have found it odd to see something that looked a hell of a lot like a buffalo standing in the middle of the southwestern desert. But she was an animorph and she knew Drake had a morph like that. But who was with him? Luce slid down the roof and dropped lightly to the ground. She stood up and walked over to the gate, opening the gate itself instead of the booth so that Drake's large buffalo could get in. She had to go into the booth to do it though, so she didn't see who was with Drake until she came back out and when she did see him she didn't recognize him anyway. "A little late for visitors," she said, coming around the corner of the booth and into the small pool of light cast by one, solitary bulb on the top corner of the guard booth. As she did so she had to stop dead in her tracks. Her eyes flared a bit in surprise as she took in who exactly was lying on Drake's back. She looked from Drake to the stranger and then back to the person who seemed like they were unconscious and finally focused on the last. She walked forward and put a hand out. She was actually surprised when it touched Suji's arm and she pulled it back a little. Until that moment she'd been half convinced she was hallucinating. "Drake?" she looked down at him, his name containing all the questions she couldn't bring herself to ask. Is she real? What happened? How did she get here? Is she actually alive? |
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Post by Drake on Aug 16, 2009 3:45:33 GMT -5
"Drake?" It was Luce's voice. That one word said so much. First off it let Drake know for sure that he really wasn't imagining this. Secondly, it told him everything Luce was thinking, feeling, and wondering. <<Yeah. This is the real deal, Luce.>> That was all the attention he could manage to give to Luce at the moment. She was far from the forefront of his mind at the moment. He already knew that Luce had survived the day Dallas died for a long time now. Instead he focused on bringing Suji to the med station door and answering Fin's Aida question. <<Aida... She survived. Last time I saw her she was perfectly healthy, but I guess she headed for New York. At least that's what Zane told me that she told him. And Aubry and Sophie are here somewhere as well.>> Drake got down on all four knees so that Suji would be easier to get off his back. Once she was, he could then demorph and see things with his own two eyes once again. |
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Post by gabriel on Aug 16, 2009 4:04:51 GMT -5
Both Luce and Fin followed along beside Drake as he walked to the med center. Fin found that he'd been displaced at Suji's side by the woman who had opened the gate but by the attentive way she steadied Suji he knew he didn't have to worry about her. When they got to the infirmary Luce gently lifted Suji off of Drake's back, unconsciously mimicking the way Fin had carried her here, and stepped inside the darkened building. Despite what Drake had said there was a large part of her that still didn't believe this was real. Even with Suji's weight reassuringly pulling against her arms, she was having a hard time believing it. She was holding her friend as gently, and as possessively, as a fragile gift she was afraid was going to be taken back. "What's wrong with her," Luce asked quietly, taking in Suji's condition. It may have shocked her to see her friend so sick and weak looking before. But after seeing her quite, quite dead, Luce would have said she looked good if she had mud and leaves in her hair. In fact she had a few leaves in her hair. Luce could care less. "Dehydration mostly. She didn't drink anything our whole way here," Fin said from his position on the ground outside the infirmary doors. He'd sat down after hearing about Aida, partially in relief and partially in distress. He wanted to crawl into a bed next to Aida and just hold her and go to sleep. But she wasn't here. At least she was alive and maybe he'd see her again if he was allowed to stick around that was. Now that he was back among the animorphs it was as if the real world were returning. When he'd been out in the desert with Suji it had just been them and Suji was in no position to judge him for any of his crimes. But now? Would they let him stay if they found out what he'd done? "She had a fever earlier but we broke it with Tylenol. Still, she needs water and she hasn't eaten anything either," Fin said to his knees, his voice full of exhaustion. He looked up at Luce and Drake. "You can help her right?" he asked. "Yeah, I'm not letting her die again, not when I can do something about it," Luce said, her voice threaded with determination and a little fear. When Suji had died the first time she'd felt powerless. Now the world had given her a second chance. She wasn't about to let her die from dehydration of all things. She turned and took Suji inside and laid her on one of the empty beds, moving quietly so that she wouldn't wake up Chloe. Fin watched the two women disappear into the infirmary for a moment, before looking back at Drake. "So I guess I tell you what happened now uh?" |
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Post by Aubrey on Aug 18, 2009 3:42:40 GMT -5
Aubrey stared up at the ceiling, stretched out on a bed in the barracks. The scratchy blanket was draped across her hips, and her arms were folded across her chest. On her first night here, Aubrey had collapsed into one of these beds--after a nice shower--and fallen asleep for an entire day. Sleeping since then had gotten harder and she found herself lying wide-awake, gazing at nothing, unable to sleep. All the terrible things that had happened in Dallas kept replaying in her mind, detail by detail.
Sighing, Aubrey sat up, hunching over and rubbing her dry eyes. Then she kicked off the blanket, and slid off of the cot. Her feet touched the cold floor, but it barely registered. She needed to get out, she needed some air. Once she exited the barracks, she paused long enough to shift into her owl morph. The dark evening began much clearer with the owl's vision, and Aubrey flapped her wings hard to launch into the night air.
It felt incredibly good to just fly. The owl circled around the base a couple times before Aubrey picked up the sounds of people talking near the infirmary. It wasn't the fact that people were awake that surprised her--It was the sound of a voice that belonged to somebody who shouldn't be in Las Vegas. Who, in all probability, had been made a controller or killed by a giant explosion. Slightly dazed, Aubrey tilted her wings and circled down lower until she was able to land on the top of the infirmary. Drake was there. And standing next to him, talking, was Fin.
Maybe she'd actually fallen asleep, and was dreaming. It didn't make sense. Aubrey listened to the tail end of their conversation, silent and not sure how to react. Cautious? Happy? Was she crazy? Shuffling her feathers, Aubrey stared down at the two. <<Fin...?>>
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Post by gabriel on Aug 18, 2009 4:26:44 GMT -5
 Fin looked around for a minute, trying to find Aubrey and then gave up. Who cared where she was, she was alive and so was he and that was all that mattered. "Aubrey," he said with a tired smile on his face as he leaned against the infirmary wall. "Aubrey...Drake..." he said the names to himself even though he knew the two people were standing close by and could hear him. He just said each one, savoring the sound of it and the reality they represented. Those people were alive, and they were right here. They weren't miles away, they weren't part of some fantasy or some hopeful dream. They were real and here and he was here and, and, it was all real. He sat down again, his legs too weak to really hold him up. On their trip here Suji had been pretty out of it and towards the end she'd started having hallucinations. It was weird, he hadn't realized until now how much that had affected his own mental state. He'd started to feel like he was walking around in a dream world. Reality had felt paper thin, as if the world would just change at any moment, turning into something he'd hardly recognized. And he'd hoped to get back to a place where reality felt real again but sometimes that hope had seemed awfully foolish and far fetched. "Is Sophie awake too," he asked hopefully. "If I'm going to tell this story I might as well tell it all at once." 
 Luce heard the murmur of the voices outside and caught a few words now again that caught her interest. Names mostly and something about telling a story. A part of her wanted to get up and go listen to how Suji and Fin had ended up here. But it was a very small part. She didn't care why Suji was here or even how, she was just glad she was here and she wasn't going to leave her until she was out of danger. Luce had managed to get Suji into one of the empty rooms so that she could turn on a light without risking waking Chloe. She probably should wake the girl up but Luce wanted to take care of her friend herself. That way if anything went wrong she would be the only one to blame. So she tip toed around the infirmary, getting the things she'd need. She didn't want to wake Suji up to drink anything and she wasn't sure if she'd be able to get anything down anyway. 50 years of medical dramas told Luce she needed an IV but that was about all it told her. She wasn't even sure what types of fluids came in IV bags. Common sense told her their were different kinds but maybe not. The fluid always seemed clear. Was it water? And did it matter? Did they even have any in this infirmary. She looked through cabinets and drawers and found plenty of things she wasn't sure how to use. Needles, alcohol swabs, cotton swabs, bandages of various sizes and weaves, brown bottles full of fluids, ointments and creams and pretty much anything else they may need to treat small injuries. Instead of trying to choose what she may need she closed the drawer she'd been looking at and decided to try a book instead, missing the days when Google could have given her the answers. She looked up dehydration first but it only told her what she could have figured out by herself. Dehydration was the loss of fluid, it needed to be reversed by replacing the fluid the patient had lost. Here are some of the symptoms; if your patient is too confused or weak to speak they may be suffering from severe dehydration. Eventually they may slip into a coma. Suji was somewhere between not being able to speak/walk and being in a coma, at least Luce hoped so. She next looked up IVs. The instructions listed for how to insert an IV intimidated her. They didn't seem too complicated but the way they were methodically laid out and listed made her more nervous about screwing up. But at least she had a guide now. She opened the drawers and cabinets with purpose this time, looking for the supplies she'd need. The first thing she went looking for was the IV bag itself since this would all be pointless if they didn't have any. Once she found that she quickly picked up the needles, tape, tubes and alcohol she'd need. She put it all on the small table that was in each room and hung the bag on the IV stand. She carefully connected the tube to it, looking down at the book every couple of seconds to make sure what she was doing matched the diagram and the instructions. Once that was set up she looked at Suji and said a small prayer to someone, she wasn't even sure who, before tying a band around her upper arm. It took her a while to find a vein that would work but when she did she used alcohol to clean the area before inserting the needle into her arm. She taped the whole thing down and then sat down on the bed, relieved that she'd gotten through the process a nurse thought of as routine. "Should have trained to be a nurse," she muttered to herself before standing up and throwing away the used alcohol pads and wrappers. When she was done she sat down on a low couch in the room with the medical journal, flipped to the beginning and settled in to wait.  |
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Post by stevert on Aug 18, 2009 8:55:05 GMT -5
Steve snorted as he pulled his head out from under a bed. He was trying to find the comic book he had been reading the night before but even with the amazing canine snout, it was still lost because of the treacherous dust that had rapidly accumulated in his barracks since he had been spending all waking moments in Rian's old office.
It was then he heard voices outside. They weren't too loud, but he heard them. He picked out Luce's voice and he heard Drake's name mentioned a few times so he guessed everything was okay. But then Robert reminded him of Luce's history with yeerks. The brothers didn't want to seem distrustful or anything, but Rob decided that they should go find out what was happening.
Steve trotted towards his door and grabbed the knob with his teeth and twisted his neck. Then he pushed the door outwards with his paws and stepped out into the darkening base. Luce was gone, but he smelled where she went, a difficult task since her scent trails were all over the base. Then he appraoched the group, but stayed a bit of a way away from them. <<Greetings, visitors. To whom do we owe the honor of greeting?>>
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Post by Drake on Aug 18, 2009 13:30:50 GMT -5
As Drake focused on demorphing, a few more people showed up. He was happy to find that one of them was Aubrey. She would have to be at least as happy to see Fin alive as Drake was. And Steve... Well he was the faction leader of Las Vegas, so it was good that he was here as well. But then Drake realized he probably didn't even know who Fin was!
Now fully down to human size and shape, Drake decided some introduction were in order. Drake could barely control his confused and anxious glee as he introduced the two. "Fin, that's Steve. The faction leader here in Las Vegas. Steve, this is Fin. It turns out him and Suji survived!" He pointed toward the room where Suji now rested as he said her name.
Then Drake's brow furrowed. He still couldn't even begin to fathom how this was possible. "But I still don't get it Fin. How is it even possible that you two got out of Dallas without getting incinerated? What are we missing?"
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