Because we just can’t get enough.
A month has passed on Skye. Some have gone, some have arrived. Nothing is certain, except that some people are indeed going to hell in a little over a week.
Dahlia stood outside on the grass, not far from the Infirmary. It felt good to have a moment where she could just stand there and enjoy the quiet. In fact, it felt good to just stand. She was confined to her bed for a good week before Daniel let her get up. Yes, she was in an incredible amount of pain, but she had perfected the art of ignoring it.
The wind lightly made the trees sway as the cold air hit the leaves. The cold felt good, and she smiled to herself. Cold reminded her of home. Dahlia is probably the only person in the camp wishing for it to snow, it would make her feel more comfortable about her newly chosen home.
She had been standing there for a while now. It was strange, usually she would hear the cry of “Doctor!” or “I need a medic!” after a minute. Not this time. At least, not in this moment. For now, she wasn’t a Doctor, she was just a young woman standing and admiring nature. No demons. No zombies. No one bleeding patients. No bodies. Nothing.
Behind the curtain that separates the Taverna’s back room from the main area, Esther lies very, very still on the mountain of cushions. The position she’s chosen isn’t terribly comfortable, though that’s probably only because she doesn’t dare move from it now that Harriet’s finally asleep. She hopes.
Squinting through the darkness, she establishes that, yes, her daughter is breathing evenly, eyes closed, expression peaceful. She closes her own eyes, relieved. Ever so carefully, Esther shifts into a more comfortable position, praying that she won’t disturb the sleeping infant- If she’s especially lucky, Harriet will sleep for two or three hours, which means she can sleep for two or three hours.
She hasn’t had a full night’s sleep in days. Harriet will grow out of it, she’s told, but she’s too exhausted to do much with this information (or all of the other advice that everyone who’s so much as ever had passing contact with a baby seems to feel qualified to give her) but to nod blankly and reign in the impulse to tell whatever local busybody it is to fuck off. She focuses on trying not to breathe too loudly, but as the moments pass by with no sign of Harriet stirring, she relaxes and begins to drift off.
Five minutes later, Harriet begins screaming.
Striding purposefully across the grassy plot between the ablution block and the building that housed the infirmary and taverna, Daniel spotting the figure of his colleague turned on his heel and headed towards where she stood.
“Good morning Doctor,” he smiled weakly at her, the noticeable dark circles under his eyes at odds with his words. “How’s the back feeling today?” He’d learned over that first week to stop asking about her hand and arm, that was something to be dealt with another time.
“You’re not over doing it are you?”
Margaret was in the infirmary, rolling up bandages, when she heard the all-too-familiar cry of Harriet. She frowned, and finished the wrapping she was on, and began making her way to where she knew Esther would have retreated. The building was quiet, it was still fairly early, and all the infirmary patients were relatively content at the moment. She was glad that Doctor Swanhilde had managed to take some time out, and she caught a glimpse of the doctor’s bright hair through a window as she moved through the building.
She poked her head around the corner of the back of the tavern, and spotted her friend. “Esther?” She moved closer and crouched down by the cushions. “I can take Harriet out for a walk. You need the rest.”
[quote=“Bryn”]
“Good morning Doctor,” [/quote]
Dahlia sighed a little, she was rather enjoying her silence. But company was always welcomed, especially from a friend
[quote=“Bryn”] “How’s the back feeling today?”
“You’re not over doing it are you?”[/quote]
“Góðan daginn to you too, Doctor. No, I think I am having a much deserved stand outside the Infirmary for once. The back as you can imagine is agonizing but that is something I have learned to deal with”
She looked at her colleague with a worried expression “You have obviously seen better days. Not sleeping?”
“Hmmm.” He murmured at her question, “Just a few late nights trying to work through some things.” His brow furrowed some what.
“It’s this trip I suppose, dangerous business and I’m not certain… Well I’m not certain about a number of aspects of it to be honest.” He gathered his thoughts for a few seconds. “I have a number of brave people volunteering to come along, but I’m worried they’re not focussed on the matter at hand. So to speak.”
He sighed, his shoulders slumping a little.
[quote=“Bryn”]“Hmmm.” He murmured at her question, “Just a few late nights trying to work through some things.” His brow furrowed some what.
“It’s this trip I suppose, dangerous business and I’m not certain… Well I’m not certain about a number of aspects of it to be honest.” He gathered his thoughts for a few seconds. “I have a number of brave people volunteering to come along, but I’m worried they’re not focussed on the matter at hand. So to speak.”
He sighed, his shoulders slumping a little.[/quote]
“How could they not be focused? I thought everyone would be with such a dangerous trip like this”
She put her hand reassuringly on his shoulder “There are fine people going with you, what has caused this worry exactly?”
Young Miss Petrov-North sounded unhappy. Poor Miss North probably felt worse. #74 saw Miss Blake disappear into the back of the taverna, and decided that everything was well under control. Still, the crying was starting to grate on her nerves (#74 reminded herself again that poor Miss. North probably felt worse) so she went outside, taking her paperwork. She lit a cigarette, and sat down on the porch. Doctors Ashdown and Swanhilde (younger) were having a huddled conference. The trip to Hell, no doubt. #74 hadn’t even bothered to start the paperwork for that one. The small part of herself that permitted criticism of humans thought it was a fool’s errand.
She wondered where The Cat was.
[quote=“BlackDahlia”]“How could they not be focused? I thought everyone would be with such a dangerous trip like this”
She put her hand reassuringly on his shoulder “There are fine people going with you, what has caused this worry exactly?”[/quote]
“They’re all fine people, brave too, but perhaps I don’t know, foolhardy?”
“I mean we’re going to the underworld.” He sighed again,“I can’t imagine anywhere more dangerous, anything more likely to corrupt our resolve never mind our sanity. We’re going there because it’s the only place we can find what we need to take the next step in closing the doors to Hell.” He paused.
“And yet for some they’re more interested in finding a lump of Hell-silver to forge Mr Flaherty a shiny new appendage.” Daniel took a deep breath.
“Loyalty to a friend, now that’s something I can admire, but I’m concerned they’re not focussing on what really matters. We’re on the edge of dying out as a species, we finally have the chance to do something about it. One damn chance, they’re not expecting us, but if it goes wrong and they work out why we were there, you can bet we won’t get another go.”
His shoulders slumped further still, “Yet people are being distracted by something relatively unimportant. However,” and he took another deep breath to reign himself in," the truly frustrating part is that you and I have already offered to replace the darn thing with a graft from his quadricep."
“On top of that I can bluster and shout as much as I like about the importance of the mission, anyone who puts other peoples lives at risk with fools errands gets left behind.” His brows crumpled even further, “but the truth of the matter is I couldn’t even if I wanted too. Never leave a man behind, so I’ll end up putting other peoples lives at risk to rescue them.”
“Maybe we’ll stumble across a silver candlestick holder or some such and we can discuss the risks of attaching a piece of metal infused with demonic essence when we get back.” He shook his head again. “I had a dream last night that we were there and one of them was busily hacking a lump out silver from an obscene mural. Every time they hit the damn thing it rang like a gong!”
“If that wasn’t bad enough asides from Jack, those that are going aren’t our strongest at fighting. Should we find ourselves in a pitched battle we’re likely to be severely out classed so to speak. We have some of the finest minds of our age going, should we need to think our way out we should be just fine. I worry what happens should things get a little more, physical.”
“Look Dahlia, like I said I couldn’t ask for braver or more loyal people. No one should be in any doubt of just how dangerous the place we’re going will be and I just want to guarantee them the best chance of getting out alive.”
Jane stared into the mirror, and her sister’s face stared back.
Due to the disconnected time-steams you couldn’t predict when you would return from hell, it was unfortunate, but contingencies had been put in place. One of them was this room. It had an emergency button linked to the ICT which let the Post-Bunker know someone had returned, a stock of food, decent medical supplies, cleaning facilities, a nice large mirror and a painting which was changed regularly so that you would know it wasn’t your memory.
Jane had already showered, wasn’t hungry, knew this was real and hadn’t hit the button to let them know she was alive. Instead she stared in the mirror with a complicated expression. That would fade, she knew, as the dullness of the earthly plane dragged her back down. She’d soon be reduced to back to simple feelings and simple thoughts. Each time she returned it took longer for the buzz to fade.
She reached for the medical kit and pulled out the scalpel.This was stupid really, it probably didn’t matter, too many people knew. But still…
She slashed down one cheek, trying not to wince. In the mirror she watched the flesh close over behind the blade. She slashed again and this time it healed slower, leaving a fine white line. Five times on each side she cut, until finally she leaned over the sink and splashed her blood from her face. She carefully rinsed the blood from the sink, sterilized the scalpel and put it away before looking up.
Jane stared into the mirror, and her own face stared back.
[quote=“mandersnz”]
She poked her head around the corner of the back of the tavern, and spotted her friend. “Esther?” She moved closer and crouched down by the cushions. “I can take Harriet out for a walk. You need the rest.”[/quote]
Esther rolled over to pick up Harriet and began rocking her, kissing the top of her head and whispering, “Mama’s here, poppet, Mama’s here,” before responding to Margaret over her daughter’s wails.
“You don’t have to.” Harriet screamed again, and Esther winced. “But if you’re offering…” She hesitated.
“Don’t take her near Dr. Ashdown, please?”
Zek clambered off the back of the wagon and dusted himself off, leaving a few bloody streaks on the front of his shirt from where his hands hadn’t yet dried. He went up to the driver, scribbling a message on a scrap of paper he pulled from his pocket. He passed it over, and then shook the driver’s hand.
“Y’be careful, Mr. Flaherty,” the man said, pushing his cloth cap up to scratch at his forehead. “Yeh good with a knife, I’ll give yeh that, but you wanna be careful around here. They say summat’s comin’ off the sea.”
Zek smiled and shook his head. ‘I wouldn’t worry,’ he scribbled. ‘Any more to do?’
“Ay, Turner’s got a few pigs, maybe a dozen. They won’t be ready until Thursday, though.”
Zek nodded, shook the man’s hand again, and then wandered around the back of the lab buildings to scrub his hands. He could hear Harriet’s faint cries from the taverna. That kid… he loved her to bits, but it was impossible to get any work done. If someone just took her to Portree for the day, productivity would shoot up, he reckoned. He dried off his hands and wandered into the engineering room, slinging his sword onto one of the tables and unhooking his knife from his belt.
[quote=“siximpossiblethings”]“You don’t have to.” Harriet screamed again, and Esther winced. “But if you’re offering…” She hesitated.
“Don’t take her near Dr. Ashdown, please?”[/quote]
A frown crossed Margaret’s face briefly, before she took the little girl in her arms. “I still don’t completely understand why you dislike each other so much, Esther.” She stroked Harriet’s cheek, bouncing the baby a little. “But if it means that much to you, I’ll not go near him with her. You should know though that I’m not going to avoid him should he come and talk to me.” She smiled down at the crying girl in her arms. “Besides, there’s really plenty other people that we can go talk to, isn’t there sweetheart?”
She glanced up at Esther. “Sleep as long as you want to. There’s a lot of people who can look after Harriet for you, I hope you know that. She’ll settle soon, I promise.”
Margaret ducked out and stepped through the taverna, beginning to gently hum a lullaby to Harriet. A thought occurred to her, and she began making her way through the building to exit out the door by the infirmary. Her first priority was letting her friend get some rest for once, and by proxy that might mean the rest of the camp too, so the small courtyard was out of the question. It was too close to everyone’s sleeping quarters.
A nod to the doctors, but she was aware they were deep in conversation and didn’t want to interrupt. Besides, Harriet was still crying.
She took Harriet a little ways away from the main building, although made sure she still stayed in sight of the patrols and anyone else who cared to look. A happy smile floated onto her face as she closed her eyes and her hummed lullaby became soft singing. It wasn’t long before Harriet had settled down, although Margaret continued softly singing to her. She realised she was also doing a slow waltz on the grass.
Dahlia rubbed Daniel’s back. She had never been the most comforting sort. Did he need a hug? Was this the right time? Was he like her and did not appreciate hugs from people you barely know? Perhaps this was not the time, she thought as she stood in awkward silence for a moment.
“I understand.” She sighed “father discussed this at length with me a week ago”
“I think foolhardy is an accurate description, but that doesn’t mean stupid. Maybe have a little faith, I’ve known them for a little longer than you, I trust them to make the right choices”
She paused before adding “is there anything I can do for you, at all?”
Zek stretched a little, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck to ease out some of the knots. A full day’s work yesterday, deep into the night, had wreaked havoc on his arms and shoulders too. He didn’t mind the work, to be honest. He was a city boy, not really one for slaughter or manual labour, but every time there was a new job to take care of, Zek was jumping at it.
He knew how it looked. “Oh, there goes the Flaherty boy again, poor man. Gone a bit soft in the head, ever since that demon… you know.” “Dreadful shame, but that’s what you get.” And then they look at each other meaningfully and then draw straws to determine whose life they’ll meddle in next.
Zek saw Margaret through the window, cradling Harriet. They both seemed a little lost, caught up in a private world. Zek wandered through the facility, idly poking his head in. Lewy was still off in Ireland. Jasper wasn’t in engineering, Jane was somewhere else, nobody was in the infirmary… where was everyone else?
He walked out of the trading post, into the wind, and blinked as he felt the rush of cold air. Snow soon, he should imagine. That was why they were rushing to get the animals slaughtered. Still, some more food for Hanover, and everybody else had their science to deal with. Still, despite the smile on his face, Zek’s thoughts kept playing back to the one question that still gave him pause; the reason why he was working so hard and learning every skill he could.
It was as though her own brain had turned against her. Now that there was no small child whose demands for attention impeded her ability to get any uninterrupted rest, Esther couldn’t sleep.
Well. No point in wasting time, then.
Esther had given up on committing to anything resembling a normal sleep cycle. Since being awake at 3:00 in the morning had become a fairly regular occurrence, so had 3:00 AM visits to the lab, where Lewy or Orpha could usually be found. They often appreciated the distraction, particularly if she showed up with coffee, and if they didn’t, they didn’t mind her sitting at a table with Harriet in her sling and one of her growing collections of books about mythology and her notes spread in front of her. She’d left her notebook there the previous night, though she had very little memory of what she’d actually written in it, or whether it even made sense.
If she couldn’t sleep, she might as well do something potentially useful, and she was almost finished with a particularly irksome Latin translation…
It was on her way there that she encountered Zek, tired and covered in blood, a sight which barely phased her anymore. She nodded in greeting, then indicated her destination.
[quote=“BlackDahlia”]“I understand.” She sighed “father discussed this at length with me a week ago”
“I think foolhardy is an accurate description, but that doesn’t mean stupid. Maybe have a little faith, I’ve known them for a little longer than you, I trust them to make the right choices”
She paused before adding “is there anything I can do for you, at all?”[/quote]
“I hope you’re right Dahlia, if we recover what we’re after it’ll be worth the risk, perhaps a smaller number of people will mean we can get in and out more easily.” Daniel began nodding, as if trying to convince himself.
He straightened his back and lost the slump in his shoulders, “Ms Flowers was saying the biggest threat was getting lost in each others thoughts, less of us means less chance of that right?” He smiled at the other doctor, his stoic demeanour returning a little.
“As to what you can do for me? I hear you’re off on an expedition of your own? Back to the homelands, or close enough.” He pondered her question, “try not to get injured again, oh and if you can try and make sure the others get back too.”
I always seem to escape when odds are against me. I’ll ensure the others remain as safe as possible" she smiled
"And yes, I suppose homeland is a good way of putting it. As much as I enjoy living on her majesty’s territory, it is nice to return to more familiar soil"
Dahlia paused for a moment as she looked rather strangely happy up at her colleague
"imagine going years without being around your own people or culture. It might not seem bad, but the homesickness is unbelievable" she sighed.
“it’ll be nice to see things in a language other than english…no offense”. Dahlia laughed and was in a surprisingly good mood, the first she’d been in for a while.
“Oh this afternoon I shall prepare some more morphine so you have enough prepared for the trip, once my father wakes up of course. My opium supplies are running low but I have enough for a decent sized batch to last us. I trust that you alone will administer it? Would hate to have someone accidentally overdose…”
Sarah pounced on the mouse and held it there as it wriggled. It had been fun while she was chasing it, but now she had caught it it was too obviously not a tiny human. She lifted her paw and the mouse made a break for it, but she caught it before it got far.
She could hear the humans were discussing their trip again. She’s reported it, for as much good it did. Even the humans weren’t sure where they would end up, so it wasn’t like her master could prepare a response. Assuming that he cared, which Sarah suspected he didn’t.
Sarah scooped up the mouse in her mouth, planning to leave it somewhere easily stepped on. Debating the merits of putting it under some of the pillows in the tavervna vrs dropping it near someones bed during the night, Sarah was just wriggling out from under the deck when she caught a whiff of smoke. That would be #74.
Jumping onto the deck she trotted over to say hello, the mouses tail still hanging out of her mouth.