CLIW

Just One Bite II

Mattie turned away, but did not leave. It was getting too dark anyway to see where to go. And there was nowhere to go anyway. Right now it felt like she'd be able to hear that sick little girl's voice from miles away, and she shuddered. She set the other bottle near Nick in case the first set didn't work. That was unlikely, of course. Prescription sleeping pills in addition to her tiny body? Her liver would be overwhelmed easily. She didn't want to think about it.

And then there was the question of the body. There was still the possibility that she'd get up and attack them, and it wasn't exactly hygienic to have a corpse laying around. They'd probably have to burn it.

Like his mother.

Mattie got up, wandered to the entrance and vomited outside, shivering.

Just One Bite II

The excitement, the hope in Nick's voice made Mattie's spirit sink farther. She wondered how to explain to him without getting kicked out that she wanted to give his sister a halfway merciful death. Of course, she didn't even need to ponder a way to break the news without also breaking his heart–– that just wasn't possible. But it would be kinder than taking one of the guns he had around here and shooting Alissa like an ailing farm animal.

"Get out some water," she said softly. She took his hand and put one of the bottles in it, closing his fingers around it. "They'll... they'll make her go to sleep. It's the easiest way. It's–– the kindest way." She was glad it was dark. That'd make it harder to see his expression. But for goodness' sake! It was better than slitting her throat with that dirty knife, wasn't it? Even if something like that would come when she was knocked out. When she couldn't feel anything anymore.

She swallowed, but her throat was dry. "We can only do one thing for her. Make it a peaceful end."

Just One Bite II

To tell the truth, she'd never dealt directly with someone she'd known becoming infected. All of the ones she'd killed so far had been strangers to her, people she'd never met when they were alive and healthy. And so she'd never felt much emotion when taking care of the problems they caused by killing them. This was different, and it wasn't something she was emotionally equipped for at all.

Every practical part of her, all the logic in her being came together and screamed at her to get rid of the girl. There was nothing they could do. She spelled trouble and possibly death. Every moment they waited was another moment the disease could be transmitted, and she could become aggressive at any second.

But she was Nick's sister. She had a name. She was still a person.

"I'll be back in a sec," Mattie said. She got up abruptly and headed for the in-store pharmacy. Although she wasn't hopeful she'd find what she was looking for amid all the chaos in the looted section, a few minutes of digging around produced a couple bottles of sleeping pills. They'd do. She came back quietly. Now the dark was truly settling, and her eyes were struggling to keep up and adapt to the decreasing light levels.

The Kingdom of Sayyar

Rosemund stopped being surprised. She was pretty numb at this point to being told "I'll see what I can do" in some way, shape or form, and then waiting for a while to see if they could do anything, and weeks later coming to the fairly-stable conclusion that she'd either been forgotten or disregarded (despite whoever it was claiming they cared, of course they cared!). The last time she'd spoken with anyone about changing policies was, what... Eight years ago? Her mother had let her, mostly she suspected now so that she could feel like she'd tried. And indeed her twelve-year-old self had felt proud.

Finally, she noticed that Aire was looking at her a little funny. This was strange as usually she picked up on non-verbal cues before processing people's words, and she was starting to wish she hadn't seen at all. She'd had this look once or twice before. It tended to come from people who would fire her if she failed to acknowledge them. Needless to say, it made her nervous, although glad that they were in public. At least for the moment.

"Is there anything else you'd like to discuss?" the prince asked, presenting an ideal opportunity to change the subject.

And Rosemund, of course, did a horrible job at it. "Another drink, sir?" she offered. She mentally punched herself in the gut. Idiot.

Just One Bite II

Mattie gave a sharp nod, and then followed it up with a "Yes, of course," because she figured that there might not be enough light for him to see her. Wishing there were more light, she turned her back on Nick and squinted down at his sister. What was her name? Alissa, that was it. Normally she would have gained a good deal of information from the look of her; was she pale? Had she lost weight? There was also the thing she didn't want to admit.

Her run-in with death had left her a bit of a germophobe. She found herself reluctant to touch the little girl. Perhaps part of it was that the poor kid wasn't related to her–– survival of the fittest, the selfish gene, yadda yadda. But she already liked Nick too much to refuse that request. Plus, she wasn't all too keen on being seen as more of a dickhead than she already was.

She took a deep breath and took the girl's wrist gently. She didn't really want to wake her up, but she could at least check her pulse and temperature. She pressed her fingers to the radial artery and waited. A feeble beat registered on her fingertips. She moved on to Alissa's forehead, touching the back of her hand to it.

"She's hot," she mumbled softly. It wasn't looking good.

Just One Bite II

Mattie went a little cold when Nick asked her story. She turned her head away for fear of betraying the raw emotions, even though it was in all likelihood too dark for him to see her–– she couldn't see the tear that ran down his face, and barely saw the hand that cape up to wipe it. She made no comment. She'd just listened to his story with the silent solemnity of attending a funeral, picked at the skin on her fingertips, and gazed at the weakening orange light that not long ago had been a burning body.

"My story," she started in a hoarse whisper. She wanted to tell him it didn't matter. She wanted to say it was none of his business. But it didn't seem fair to listen through his story, something so personal as that, and then not give him anything. So she cleared her throat and went on.

"We were able to hoard enough supplies and barricade ourselves in the house," she said with a downward glance at pitch-blackness. "Some of 'em tried to break in. Infected and looters. But we managed to chase them away. Surprisingly. And then for a couple weeks nothing happened. We stayed in mostly. Made the best of it. But then we ran out of water, and I... I went out. Collected more. I had tablets for it but they weren't left in long enough." She shivered, but made no move to take back the jacket she'd given Nick. After all, it wasn't the cold that was making her shudder.

"It made us all sick, all of us. Cholera I think. No plumbing, almost no cleaning fluid...you know that stuff will spread no matter how hard you try to contain it. I don't know how I survived." She finished by slapping a mosquito off of her neck and wondering if it carried West Nile or something. She didn't want to test her luck, that was for sure. "So, um, there's a life lesson. Always wait half an hour for the iodine to work."

Just One Bite II

"Do you think we'll survive this?" Nick had asked. It was quite out of the blue, and although Mattie wanted to comfort him, she really hadn't ever been the type to sugarcoat things. Especially when he asked if things would just blow over and return to normal. As if they could. Well, maybe they would eventually. Maybe the infection could be combated. Even so, she doubted that they would live to see the day that a social collapse of this magnitude would be reversed.

But she didn't want to say that to Nick. He was probably feeling crushed enough right now what with his sister dying and his mother dead. There wasn't any way of knowing for sure whether a "Maybe two hundred years down the road" would drive him over the edge and earn her several holes in her chest. (She doubted this would happen, but the probability was somewhere above zero.)

So instead she sighed and said, "We're going to just have to take things one day at a time."

The Kingdom of Sayyar

"Oh. Um..." She hadn't realized how drunk the heir had gotten until now, when her eye came to rest on the empty wine glass. Yep, this was something to be regretted. But she couldn't just walk away now, for it would not only be a risk to her job and possibly her life, but it might be seen as rude. What would she like changed? She'd always thought about it, and she had plenty of ideas, but no one had ever really asked Rosemund. Not about the whole kingdom, let alone her whole life. Plus, she had some thoughts that might not be appreciated by someone in such power as Aire was in.

The hesitance was clear as she tried to come up with a response. What could she say that would be truthful, but wouldn't be interpreted as threatening?

"Aha," she said. "More health care, I suppose."

The Kingdom of Sayyar

Aire looked pretty rough, especially for a prince, thought Rosemund. She actually felt a little guilty for her snark toward him as she made her way away from the table. Now that was some rare emotion. She was slightly disgusted with herself, especially later when she made her way toward the throne–– what was she doing and what if someone saw her? But no one else seemed to be bothered with Aire's offer to visit him after the speech, and so she carefully approached. After all, the help were allowed. Right? Perhaps only nominally. Perhaps this was a mistake.

"Your Highness," she greeted with a curtsy, although a bit of an awkward one. Now that she was here, she didn't really know what to say to him. She thought fast. Again. "I have curiosities as to what your policies will be once the throne is yours." She kept her head bowed; she'd been defiant enough today and she had a nervous feeling that it had put her on thin ice. That, of course, was probably just being in the presence of the Queen. It always made her a little afraid.

Just One Bite II

Mattie couldn't bear to watch Nick's mother burn. It reminded too much of the fresh memory of pouring out gasoline all over the house, of stepping outside and tossing the lit match over her shoulder and just leaving, leaving like she didn't care about her family and all the suffering they'd done in their last hours. It had been like she'd just burned every trace of their lives together and walked away like it didn't matter. It hurt to think about it.

She watched Nick settle down with a sad gaze. Both of them knew that he wasn't going to be able to sleep tonight, not with what had happened. It made her wish that she'd taken some melatonin pills with her. Melatonin...hah. Horse tranquilizer would be more appropriate to get the job done. Shuddering from the light of the flames and the smell they produced, Mattie took off her jacket and quietly put it over Nick.

"I know it'll be hard," she whispered to him. "Just try to think of your breathing or some shit."