"I need to have a new pair of lenses made for a prescription, the last set was broken ... and I need them soon.""How soon?" She kept herself calm and casual, trying not to show her annoyance towards Caine’s attitude.
"By tomorrow." Caine decided to play her game, relaxing a bit, but still keeping his foot stuck out into the elevator door. He reached into his pocket, pulling out a small handkerchief wrapped into a small bundle. "I have the pieces of the old pair if that will help."
Ash stood and crossed to him, holding out her hand. "Let me see." He dropped the bundle into her hand and she gingerly unwrapped it, being careful not to cut herself on the edges of the smoothly curved lenses which lay in numerous pieces.
"I’ll need a name." She said, examining the broken spectacles.
"Caine." The man replied, raising a brow ever so slightly.
"Well Caine, come back tomorrow and I’ll se what I can do." With that she pushed by him into the elevator a bit annoyed.
"Yer’ lucky it just grazed ya’." Mera said at she dabbed at the wound which had already begun to fester from gangrene and infection with a strong antiseptic. "A couple inches the other way and you wouldn’t be worrying about memories of blood on your hands." She ran the antiseptic soaked gauze over the wound one last time before placing a large blindingly white bandage over it. "Well, I’ll just put a clean bandage on this and get Mira to write you up a prescription for some antibiotics and you’ll be on your way." She smiled to the man reassuringly. "If you want you can lie down here for a while until you feel less dizzy."
The man began to get up, shaking his head before the room began to swim around him, randomly swinging left and right. "Actually, I think that might be nice." He said to her as he shut his eyes and lay back.
She turned to the waste basket and stripped off her gloves, throwing them and the packaging that had been around the bandages in before she turned to address him again "When was the last time you had some water?"
He thought for a moment before shaking his head. "I’m not sure."
"Well then , I’ll be right back, you just rest here for a moment."
Flame burst forth from a lighter, finding it’s way up to a small bundle of dried leaves wrapped tightly into a piece of paper as the man with one eye slowly drew air through the stick, bringing forth a small, firebug of light to the tip. The small point of light struggled to destroy the thick shadows that seemed to be painted onto the walls of the Hospital that seemed to grow up out of the alley in front of him. He stepped forward to enter the ambulance bay doors, pulling air through the small ember that hung delicately onto the end of the cigarette. He let the stinging, sweet air swirl inside him before exhaling slowly into the cool, damp air around him, letting the bluish, gray smoke swirl about his head and dissipate into the night around him. Quietly, intently he drew another breath of the harsh air, letting it bite deep into his chest before slowly letting it out, watching in two dimensions as it slipped away, faded out into the night around him, grinning inwardly at the complex, infinite possibilities and intricacies of the smoke as it fled from sight into the atmosphere. He blinked his eye a bit as he adjusted to the lights inside the Hospital, he shook the rain off of what seemed to be a mandatory clothing item in the ruins, a long coat, and listened as his boots squeaked against the slick tile of the Hospital. He made his way into the Hospital’s main lobby just before Mera, catching her smaller, decidedly feminine form out of the corner of his eye.
Mera was on her way to the cafeteria, heading through the lobby when she saw the syrynykk stagger through the main doors. Mera slowed her pace a bit, regarding the large creature with concern, she decided the lizard was alright and continued back down the hallway to the cafeteria, turning the corner just as the other woman collapsed to the smooth tile of the Hospital floor. The lizard looked up at another man who had come into the Hospital just behind her. Ed Archer leaned down on one knee next to her, showing a genuine concern.
"Are you alright?" The syrynykk made a sound resembling two rough stones being rubbed across each other, trying desperately to make her way to her feet. Ed abandoned lay a hand on her shoulder, speaking in fluent syrynykk. "What happened?"
The woman made another desperate attempt to get to her feet as blood freely spilled out from a wound on her side, pooling slowly onto the tile beneath her, she made another hissing growl, unable to think clearly or form words.
Just then Mera came back into the lobby holding two glasses, one full of water and one full of a synthesized juice. She looked down to the collapsed syrynykk and motioned to a nurse with strikingly red hair who was moving to help her.
"Nancee." The nurse turned, moving her light blue eyes over towards Mera and flashing Mera an unnervingly calm smile. "Take these to the patient in Cubicle A and apologize that I couldn’t bring them to him. Tell him another emergency arrived." She moved quickly, handing the glasses to Nancee who headed off down the hallway towards the ER with the liquids. Mera pushed her way past Shad had who had come over to examine the syrynykk’s wounds. "Are you alright?" She said as she kneeled down next to Ed who was trying to comfort the syrynykk. Finally the woman gathered the strength to speak.
"Spearr ... lossst." Her eyes concentrated on Ed as she talked, trying to tell what had happened.
Ed looked up from the injured woman a moment at Shad who had been looking closely at the wound which had been made in the woman’s scales. "Leave the wounds for the doctors."
"T-t-triiied ... t-tooo k-k-kil-l-l-l m-m-mee." The syrynykk stammered out, which again attracted Ed’s attention. "W-w-hy-y-y? Hu-huh-h-u-u-mu-u-n-s-s-s?" With that her head fell back and her eyes rolled up into their sockets, her head fell back into Ed’s hand as she fell into unconsciousness.
Ed looked over at Shad and Mera with an anger and compassion that threatened to spill out around him. "It’s always huumunns." Then in syrynykk he muttered, almost to himself. "This is no place for anyone. No place for syrynykk." Shad nodded, understanding Ed’s words both in language and in meaning. "Help me get her into cubicle B." Mera said, suddenly all business.
The man with one eye sat in the relative calm of the Hospital’s cafeteria, simply enjoying the thin soup that the Hospital liked to pretend was stew, listening to the gentle ‘clink’ of his spoon against the delicate bowl that the Hospital used to serve their fantasy stew. He looked up at the hall as two men rushed by holding the loose, lifeless body of a syrynykk. He watched with a mild amusement as Mera held open the door to the ER and directed them to the proper cubicle. He turned his head to the table next to him where Caine sat haggling over price with Bliss on some business deal.
"I’m already fighting for a fantastic price on this Bliss."
"Of which you want to give me the short end of the stick."
"I am doing all of the work on this though."
"But I have the goods."
"And I have the buyer, who without you have nothing."
"Without me though Caine, neither do you."
"Bliss, all you have to do is show up and lie there. He isn’t paying us for a whole act. A few minutes of lying there and you’re done."
"The more I hear of this the more I feel like I’m getting taken in more ways than one."
The man with only one eye brought another spoonful of the broth to his mouth, gently slipping it past his lips and forcing it down his throat with as little thought to the taste and texture as possible. This was merely fuel for his body. Low octane fuel, but fuel none the less. His gaze shifted to the hallway again as he saw the buzzcut that adorned the head of Mirandahh Asche Drachenn gently bob past the door towards the ER.
Ash stood in front of the man holding her penlight as she looked over the notes Mera had left for her on the man’s condition. "Other than the wound, how are you feeling?" She shone the light into the man’s eyes as he answered, testing the reaction of his pupils.
"Well, my memories a little fuzzy, and I think I’m dehydrated, but other than that I’m doing okay."
"Follow the light with your eyes. How long you been without water?"
He shrugged and followed the light with his eyes. "I don’t know. The last month, or two?" He shook his head in annoyance. "They’ve been a blur."
She returned the penlight to her pocket and scribbled hastily on his chart. "I’d say you’re pretty dehydrated. Why don’t we get some more water in you. Can you walk?"
"Think so." He said, hopping down off of the table and testing his legs.
"Great then I’ll show you where the cafeteria is. You can get some food in you and have some more water." She led the way to the cafeteria, pointing out the fantasy stew and the water cooler that sat out on the serving line. "Just, take it slow, your system needs time to adjust."
"Alright, but before you go." He dug down into his pants pocket, producing a small patch of fabric bearing the emblem of The Church of the Nuclear Messiah, holding it out for her to examine. "I’ve been out of the loop for a while and I was wondering if you have any idea what this means."
Mera winced as she saw the wound that adorned the woman’s side and pointed at a drawer in the cabinet along the edge of the cubicle. "Ed, in that drawer there is some gauze, could you fetch it for me?"
"Yeah, sure thing Mera." He quickly opened the drawer and just as Mera said found the gauze bandages, pulling them out and tossing them to Mera. "Whatever, just, fix her, please."
Mera spoke absently, not really to the two men in the room or the hallucinating syrynykk who lay in the midst of a nightmare brought on by her wounds on the examination table, but to herself as she began to clean and bandage the woman’s wounds. "Could you two please help hold her still? She’s going to injure herself even more."
The two men moved to hold down the woman, looking on in disbelief and wonder as Mera went about her work, injecting an anesthetic near the wound. The lizard yelped in a pain she had already experienced, from a wound that she had already received as the three huumunns worked to repair the damage that their people had done to this beautiful creature.
Shad spoke to the woman in a soft, archaic version of her tongue, trying to calm her through her dreams. "Hang in there." He hissed. Ed looked over at him, a bit surprised to find another huumunn who knew the syrynykk language. Mera redoubled her efforts, praying that the sedative would take effect soon, the other woman had already woken up once in horror and fear and taken a nice slice out of Shad’s arm before she slipped back into her delusions, she didn’t want to risk anything worse happening to any of them before she could get this wound dealt with.
The man with a bad eye snapped out of sleep’s gentle embrace with a start, his eye narrowing, scanning the room. Again he gazed over towards Bliss and Caine, using his tongue to clean the small pieces of jerky still stuck between his teeth.
"Bliss, listen to me, negotiations are just part of business, you’re getting all worked up over nothing." He tried to smile friendly, reassuringly. "I’m not trying to cheat you out of your fair share here." He shrugged slightly, trying to appear sincere. "I’m just trying to cover my butt."
Bliss became silent, looking at him with a deep fire in her eyes. "It’s a part of me you’re talking about selling, pardon me for getting upset over a mere thirty percent."
"I did offer forty percent."
"Oh yeah, that makes it better."
Caine leaned forwards, steepling his fingers as he gazed across the table at her. "I am willing to make you another offer, of fifty-fifty, under one condition."
"And that is?"
He stayed completely businesslike, his voice under complete control. "I get you first."
Mera stood over the syrynykk woman, a cauterizing tool in hand, working on the woman with care, sealing off the open blood vessels that were spilling the thick liquid onto the examination table. She dabbed at the wound with a sterile gauze pad, sweeping away the last bits of blood, smiling slightly to herself seeing that the wound was closed.
"I took that off of the corpse of the guy who shot me." The nameless man explained.
"It’s the symbol of the Church."
"The who?"
"The Church of the Nuclear Messiah." She said without much emotion.
The man gave her a confused look. "The What of the What?"
"The Church of the Nuclear Messiah." She repeated, arching her brows a bit. "You know: ‘Salvation via Radiation.’"
"Yeah, the guy was saying something about my salvation or damnation, but..." He shrugged, unable to complete the thought.
Ash’s brow knitted in scrutiny of the man, searching for some clue, something that might give her a clue to this man’s apparent ignorance of one of the single largest influences on present day Sabatt. "Where you from?"
He shook his head. "All over. I’ve just been wandering the wastes for years, but my memory ... has all these holes in it."
"You get hit in the head?"
"I don’t think I did."
She shrugged to him. "Well, I guess you’re lucky then, some people would give their right arm to forget." She paused for a moment before continuing. "But, I’ve got an inventory to complete, why don’t you get some food in your stomach and I’ll check on you later." She gave him a small smile, holding out the small swatch of fabric bearing the emblem of an atom.
Mera shook her head at the resiliency of the lizard-skinned race of syrynykks, as she sat next to the fully awake and functioning form of the woman who had collapsed in the main lobby, suturing her wound. The woman was not looking down at the doctor who worked with a fair degree of difficulty to stitch the wound closed. Instead the woman looked up at Ed and Shad who were speaking to her in her own tongue. Never before had she come across one of the softer-skinned huumuns that could speak syrynykk, yet now her she lay, near two. She regarded them with equal amounts caution and wonder. Ed was introducing them now, pointing first to himself, then to Shad and Mera, from what Meralynn could understand he was telling her that everything was going to be alright. She smiled as the woman’s eyes flitted to her own, trying to hide the trouble she was having getting the needle through the woman’s scaly, leather-like skin.
"There ya’ go." She said, smiling finally, knowing full well that her patient couldn’t understand her. "Just don’t move around too much, you don’t want to reopen it." She waited for Ed to translate to the woman. She looked to him with a serious look. "Tell her to try and stay out of battles until the wound is completely healed. Otherwise she could do some serious damage." Again Ed translated to the woman who responded in her native language, snarling in pain from her side.
"She says she’ll try, but from what she told me it wasn’t her fault in the first place." Shad smiled at them, relieved that he could no longer feel the woman’s anguish with as much intensity, now that the wound was beginning to heal.
And yet the one-eyed man sat, and listened, and watched the world in two dimensions.