When Jared did appear back at the shack once more, having his arm finally relinquished by their strange new protector, of sorts, the scene before him was gruesome, to say the least. There, on the ground in front of the shack they had called their home for nearly a year, a deathly pale Lili laid in a pool of blood that seemed to still be growing as she remained helpless, and in continued pain, seeming to struggle every second to even remain conscious, at all.
“Oh my god, Lili.” Jared gasped as he rushed to his knees to first check her pulse while trying to force some kind of calm enough to attain clear thought, despite the way seeing her like that tore at him.
As he found a pulse even weaker than Kyle’s had been the previous evening, Lili’s only response to either his words or his touch against her neck was a pained whimper. As Jared forced himself to move as quickly as possible to retrieve the nearest stash of medical supplies that they still had left, he caught sight of the other man beginning to turn away.
“No! Don’t you dare!” he warned the slightly older man with his voice hardened by his own terror for Lili’s well-being. Though the other man said nothing in return, he did turn slightly back toward where Jared had now claimed the box of medical supplies, while centering a questioning gaze on him at the sound of the command being issued by the most docile of all three of the males who had arrived there on his home so many months ago, “If you really want me to help her, then you have to tell me what the hell happened, now!” Jared repeated more firmly as he searched the box frantically.
The other man took a slight breath, trying to find the words he was obviously not all that familiar with, as Jared rushed to try and do anything he could to both ease Lili’s pain, and even more importantly, stop the incessant bleeding that was sure to kill her very quickly if he couldn’t do something about it.
“Baby started to come. Pain was too much. Killing her.” he attempted to begin, watching the slight flinch the words caused in Jared as he remembered Kyle’s warning about how truly bleak Lili’s thought had been months before this fateful day even came. Though Jared tried in vain to push those thoughts back down as he continued to tend to the massive bleeding after having quickly injected her with a small portion of the strongest painkiller that they had had in their belongings, the one he had always planned on saving for this very day. Another breath as the strange man continued, “Had to stop pain. Couldn’t stop blood.” he repeated the statement again as Jared swallowed hard.
“How, how did you stop the pain?” Jared managed raggedly as he continued tending to her, though shakily, “What did you give her?” he added.
“Give?”
“Yes, what did you give her to stop the pain? Was it those clams or whatever that you were collecting at the beach? What was it?” he asked again, his desperation hardening his tone.
“Gave nothing. Sent her away.” was the man’s simple answer, which then did cause Jared to look up from her for the briefest moment.
“What do you mean, sent her away?”
Another breath as he attempted to find any words in his limited knowledge of the English language to try and explain things which had no explanation that could be easily understood by another, “I can’t just move bodies.”
“What?” Jared exclaimed with a shake of his head as he continued to rush to try and physically stop the flow of blood as well as find some combination of the drugs, as well as the herbs he had been collecting in recent months that would slow or hopefully even stop her bleeding.
“I also can move….” he struggled to find the word, “souls.”
“Souls?” Jared returned in a raspy whisper, his movements once again momentarily stopped by the words the strange man offered.
“Not right word. I mean, brain, thinking, thought…can move it. Is that soul?”
Jared’s breath caught again as he tried to take in what it sounded like the other man was trying to explain and still keep his own thoughts on saving her. Finally, after another moment, Jared found words again, “You mean, like astral projection…something like that?”
The other man just shook his head, “Don’t understand those words. Just took her mind from her body. Too much pain to survive there. Only way to save both.”
“Both?” Jared asked, his eyes following the path of the other man’s to the crib that still waited inside the door of the shack. Jared swallowed again, not having time to try and fathom the rest of the situation right then, as he needed to make sure Lili would indeed survive at all, “But if you took her mind…out of her body…” he shook his head again, not even believing his own words at that point, “then how could she have even…” he just shook his head as he looked back down at Lili.
Though he didn’t have to finish his question as the other man moved closer and pushed the remains of Lili’s blood-soaked clothing aside to reveal the open gash across her stomach where at least a third of the blood had seemed to originate from, rather than from inside her, as seemed to be the source of the rest.
“You cut it out of her?” Jared whispered as he forced back his own pain long enough to tend to that wound as well as the more serious source of her loss of blood.
“Only way. She couldn’t do it alone. Too much pain. Had to take her away.” he repeated again, his voice almost sounding saddened by the statement as he moved back once again.
Jared’s breathing was more than a little ragged as he patched up the large gash across the pale skin of Lili’s abdomen and then went back to give her a further dose of the strongest sedative he could muster from what he had to work with, as well as another mixture he hoped would serve as enough of a coagulant to keep her alive long enough to try and stop the source of the bleeding once and for all. He was now very thankful that he had spent his last several months studying all he could about any kind of organic medicines that he could possibly create from the few resources that surrounded them there in this new home.
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Evening was nearly upon them again when Jared finally moved back from Lili’s side, having done all he could think to do to save her at that point, and now having to just wait until she would hopefully awake from the sedatives he had given her in order to go inside and try and stop that bleeding before it really was too late for her. Of course when she did come to, then he would have to determine the lasting effects the troubled pregnancy and even more troubled birth would have on her, both physically, and mentally.
He sighed softly as he wiped blood from his own hands and pondered what his next move should be. His silent companion had since moved to go about the task of dragging the now rotting carcass of the deer-like creature off to the river, starting the night’s fire, and now looking off at the woods, keeping vigilant of any animals that were attracted by the excess blood that still had not fully dried there on the ground where Lili remained unconscious, her breathing shallow as they awaited her return to consciousness.
That was when Jared was startled from his own vigilance of their companion by a soft cry coming from the crib behind him. He swallowed once more as he was quickly reminded that Lili may not be the only one in need of his medical attention that evening. He took another shaky breath and moved to the crib, where the child did seem to be doing a lot better than it’s mother, aside from being hungry and needing a new cloth wrapped around it to pose as a diaper.
He glanced back at Lili and sighed slightly at the fact that she was currently in no condition to feed the child. He then moved to try and locate some of the goat’s milk that they may have still had stored in the cooler. He took several minutes to attempt to feed the child by dipping his finger into the cup of milk and putting it to the tiny baby’s lips in some effort to mimic the way the child would normally have to feed, assuming Lili did return to consciousness and was even strong enough to provide for the child at all once she did.
After several minutes, the slightly older of the two men took a few steps toward where Jared had finally placed the child back in it’s crib and was now tending to the replacing of the makeshift diaper.
“Yours?” was the only word the man spoke.
“What?” Jared asked, his voice still hoarse from all the events of the last day.
“The child.” he attempted to clarify.
Jared swallowed again, “Not really sure.” he then looked down with a slight tinge of guilt, “But I don’t think so.” he added, glancing only briefly back at Lili, who still remained unaware of her surroundings, or his words.
“One of them?” he returned, glancing back in the direction of that far off ocean where Ian and Kyle had been left behind.
“Which is why you need to bring them here. Like you did with me.” Jared managed as he finished wrapping the baby in a new animal skin and placing it back in its crib.
“Why are they there and she here?”
“Why?”
“Yes, why. Why out there?” the man repeated.
Jared swallowed again as he pondered whether that was finally the end of the question that this man had begun to pose to him all those months ago, “We’re looking for something.”
“What?”
Jared looked down slightly before answering, “The place we came from. It was a ship.” he then dared to continue, “We think your parents came from one like it too. Before we ever did.”
The man looked up quickly at the sound of Jared’s words, “Ship?”
“Yes. A big floating city. Thousands of our people lived there. They sent us here to help find a new home for all of us. Then something happened. We couldn’t reach them anymore. Then I saw….” he shook his head, knowing that explaining his visions was hard enough when dealing with those fluent in his native tongue, and rethought his words, “The ship crashed. We need to find it, and all the supplies we had, and any people who might have survived. We wanted to before the baby came. That’s what they’re out there looking for.” he finally answered the other man’s question.
“No.”
“No, what?” Jared asked, a little thrown by that response.
“No ship.”
Jared was further confused by that statement, “Are you saying we shouldn’t try to find the ship? The ship is our best hope to survive, even if no one else did.” he added more quietly, “You can’t actually mean we shouldn’t try to find it.” he denied.
“Mean…no ship. No ship here.” he attempted to explain his previous statement to Jared.
Jared swallowed hard again, then continued his denial, “Well I know it’s not here.” he stated as he gestured to his immediate surroundings, “But it’s gotta be somewhere, and we need to find it.”
The other man sighed again, Jared’s disapproval of his words obvious, “No ship here. On this planet.” he managed more quietly.
Jared’s breath caught again at that damning statement before he managed to continue, “Well, you’re wrong.” he stated firmly causing the man to simply look back at him questioningly, “You may be able to teleport your ass all over this planet, but there’s some place you missed. Cause it’s gotta be here. I saw it.” he finally added firmly, which then did cause a crease in the other man’s brow, he now being the one thrown by Jared’s words.
“Saw a ship?” he asked quietly, “Where? How?”
Jared took a deep breath, “I’m like you. I can do things. Things that make no sense, but I can do them anyway.” another slight breath, “I see things. Faraway things, without actually being there. Places, people.” he had to add more quietly as he looked the other man up and down once again, “And I saw the ship. I know it crashed. I even know how it crashed. It’s just the where that I haven’t figured out yet. And that’s why we were out there, looking, trying to find that where. We have to.” he added the last bit in a near whisper as he looked once more between baby and mother.
The other man seemed more saddened than shocked by Jared’s statement and paused only another moment before repeating, “It’s not here.”
“You’re wrong.” Jared denied angrily as he looked away again, biting his lip hard to fight back any reaction he had to the idea that this man, who seemed to know so much about this place, and could travel it’s entire expanse easily and at will, could somehow be right after all. But Jared needed him to be wrong. They all needed him to be wrong.
The man shook his head sadly, “I’ve seen everywhere here. No ship here.” he whispered again.
“Stop fucking saying that.” Jared returned with continued anger mixed with despair as well, “Just go. Go and bring them back.” he ordered, “Lili might not even come out of this, and they should be here.”
“They should.” the man agreed, “That why I asked why, when first spoke to you. Didn’t know why you were away, out there. Nothing out there that you look for.”
“Stop saying that.” Jared repeated in a near growl.
“Sorry, but true.” he apologized once more.
Jared just shook his head again, closing his eyes tightly, “Just go get them, and bring them back here. Can you at least do that much, please?” he begged with the same continued mixture of anger and despair at the other man’s insistence that what they had spent all these months looking for, in turn endangering all of them, was not truly out there to be found at all. It had to be. It was their only hope, despite the fact that Jared had insisted to Lili over and over again that all was not hopeless. However, hearing that the most knowledgeable among all of them did not believe that hope was actually out there for them, after all, that was enough to make Jared severely doubt his own words. And even more problematic than that, if Jared had no hope left either, how could he ever convince Lili to have any of her own again?