“Nick! Come on! You have to wake up!” Lizz urged in a half-whisper, afraid to make any loud noises as if it would cause the bridge to start to unravel. Feeling weight added at the opposite end of the bridge, she turned to see Kevin trying to inch his way towards them, his face showing the nervousness he was feeling.
“Sit tight, I’m coming,” Kevin stated, the uncertainty in his voice crept in. As he inched his way closer to them, the bridge groaned in protest.
“God, Kevin, I don’t think you should come any closer. I just need Nick to wake up, then we can get over to the edge where it’s safe.”
“I don’t think that bridge can hold for much longer,” Kevin decided out loud as he watched a board break loose and flutter down towards the bottom of the cavern.
Trying to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat, Lizz felt a surge of adrenaline and grabbed Nick’s arms and started dragging him, inch by inch towards the other side, away from Kevin. As she was pulling Nick, Kevin was inching his way back towards his side of the bridge. Suddenly Nick’s body stiffened as another series of seizures struck.
“Oh shit, not this, not now,” Lizz cried out.
“AJ, tell me again, just slow down before you speak,” Howie stated as he watched his band mate pace the dirt floor of the cave.
“It just doesn’t make any sense at all. They bring Lizz into the tent to see Brian, make the rest of us leave. I should be in there too!”
Howie looked out the doorway in the direction that AJ was staring off into.
“Well, maybe it was a little too crowded,” Howie offered.
“Crowded my ass,” AJ sputtered. “I just don’t trust them at all.”
Howie clamped a hand on AJ’s shoulder. “Well, I’m sure with Lizz in there
now, Brian will be getting better and they’ll probably be bringing him
down here in a little while.”
AJ spun around and faced Howie. “You just don’t get it, do you?” Brian is
dying, he wants to die!”
Howie rolled his eyes. “Oh come on---”
Aj grabbed Howie’s shoulders, looking him squarely in the face. “No, he
said it D, he said he wanted to die.”
Howie’s face took on a shocked expression as AJ’s words finally
registered. He slumped against the wall and slowly slid down to the floor.
Lelani stared at Brian. She felt helpless in this situation, none of her charges had ever died before and now this man was slipping away before her eyes. His body was soaked in sweat, his face was pale and his labored breaths were interrupted only by the coughing fits he would have every so often. He had taken the medicines that the girl companion had offered so Lelani wondered why he hadn’t gotten any better.
She knelt down beside Brian and placed the cloth she had rewetted with cool water back onto his forehead. Brian stirred, his eyes fluttered open. Lelani took a quick breath when she looked into his crystal clear blue eyes.
Brian looked at the young girl for a moment, trying to decide if he knew her or not. “Where’s Nick?” he asked in a hoarse voice.
“He’s out working,” Lelani replied, not offering any more details. Brian’s eyes shifted back and forth as he was letting the information register. He certainly was attached to the man named Nick.
“What day is this?”
“S-h-h-h,” Lelani softly admonished. “You ask too many questions.”
“How long have I been here?”
Before Lelani could answer Brian’s question, he broke out into another one of his coughing spells. She could hear the fluid moving in his lungs as he coughed. She was certain that pneumonia had settled in.
Quickly jumping to her feet, Lelani rushed over to the cabinet that held all of her medicinal herbs and tree roots. Doing a mental recipie in her head, she grabbed the items she would need to blend a formula to take the cough and hopefully the fever and pneumonia away.
Brian drifted in and out of consciousness while she mixed the potion, sometimes he would call out for the man called Nick and there were calls for someone named Tyke which puzzled Lelani.
Lelani knelt next to Brian again once the formula was blended. Holding a wooden mug, she placed it next to his lips. “Brian, you have to drink this for me please.”
Brian did as she asked, but when the dark liquid entered his mouth, he started coughing and then clamped his mouth shut.
“Please, Brian you must drink the medicine to get better.”
Brian kept his mouth drawn shut.
Out of despiration, Lelani came up with an idea. “Brian, if you drink all of this for me, I will have Nick come and see you.”
With that comment, Brian readily accepted the mixture and drank the entire mug.
