---Esme’s perspective---

---Sunday, 31st of December, 2682 Terran Calendar---

---Interior Sahul---

OK, Esme… Don’t think about the muscular arm wrapped around your shoulders! Don’t think about the muscular chest pressed into your side! Don’t think about the muscular, sweaty back that you have your arm around!

Even if this weren’t a serious, potentially life threatening, situation, now would still not be an appropriate time to be getting excited!

You just made up with this guy after nearly two months of being a petty bitch to him for what, in hindsight, was no reason at all!

“Stop… stop…” he says, weakly “…I’m gonna vomit…”

I release him and he goes to the ground, retching.

I look away as he gives me all the antiaphrodisiac I need for the moment, spewing out his guts onto the sand…

After a bit of dry heaving, he stands back up and looks to me… his sweaty, sharp featured face sunken and sallow.

“I think I might be OK to walk myself, now.”

“No, you’re not! This isn’t like alcohol poisoning! Vomiting won’t do anything! If you faint without someone to break the fall, you’re gonna get a head injury!” I say, firmly, getting under his arm to support him before he has the chance to argue.

“Reid… I think we need to call an evac… this is bad!” says Taylor, his deep voice reverberating against my side.

“Alright… so call it then.”

He freezes and looks down at me

“What do you mean, Reid…?”

Confused, I answer “You said we should call an evac… so, call an evac.”

“You have the beacon, Reid… I left the beacon for you… Please tell me you have the beacon!”

“What?! I thought you had it! I didn’t see anything on the table besides a knife, a canteen, a compass and a keyring!”

“The keyring, Reid!… That was the beacon! Did you not read the manual at all!?… Please tell me you have it!”

My stomach sinking, I answer “I… don’t, Taylor… I’m sorry! I left it there ’cause I thought someone had dropped it by mistake!”

Looking more resigned than angry, he says “So… we’re going to have to survive five days with a man down and no medical treatment then…?”

“Looks like it, yes… I’m sorry, Taylor… Maybe we could try walking to the agricultural band?”

“We’d never make it… It’s hundreds of kilometres… even if we were both healthy, we wouldn’t get there before the capsule came to collect us!” he asserts.

“I’m so sorry, Taylor!”

He gives a feeble wave of his left arm and says “It’s done now… let’s just get to the cliff…”

I nod and keep walking, supporting the massive man.

We come up the rocky slope at the foot of the cliff.

Mercifully, we’re in the shade here, as the sun is fucking fierce!

We spot a cavemouth and head for it.

“Leave me here…*huff*… and check for snakes…*huff*… I don’t want to…*huff*… get bitten again…” he instructs, breathlessly.

I bend down to lie him on the ground and hurry into the shallow cave.

I check the ceiling, the floor and every crevice I can see for snakes, spiders, scorpions or anything else that a massively envenomed person might not want nearby.

I find nothing.

When I turn around, I see Taylor sat up on the ground, drinking from his flask.

“I thought you wanted to distil that first?”

“Fuck that!” he says, swearing for the first time I’ve heard “I’m going to die…*huff*… of thirst before enough water…*huff*… goes through a…*huff*… solar still…*huff*… to be useful…*huff*… Needs…*huff*… must!” before taking another glug.

I look out across the landscape.

The little oasis where we collected the water is still visible, despite the amount of time it’s taken us to get here!

I suppose it makes sense… I originally pointed out this cliff from near there…

It just feels like we’ve gone miles and miles!

I suppose, progress is slow when you’ve got an envenomed person slung over your shoulders!

“Let’s get you inside, Taylor. The cave's clean.”

---Oskar’s perspective---

I took off my sweat drenched clothes a while ago, laying them out on the rock, beside me.

Reid is off, gathering firewood and hunting for anything we might eat tonight now that the sun is lower in the sky.

I would definitely not recommend intentional envenoming as a means of avoiding work to any considering it!

I am weak, I am sweaty, I am dizzy and nauseated and, all in all, if someone gave me the choice between feeling like this and doing a bit of gathering, they wouldn’t be able to finish their sentence before I bit their hand off for the latter option!

“I’m baaack, Taylor… how’re you holding-ohgoodgodyou’renaked!”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I look up at the flush faced girl and blearily say “And… you’re sunburned, Reid… How did that happen…?” the sun should have been low enough by the time I said to go out that, even with her pale skin, she should have been fine.

Not answering my question she turns to face away from me.

“I… uhm… err… I got a tonne of deadwood for the fire… dry plantmatter for kindling too… and look…” she thrusts a sharpened stick with an enormous anuran creature skewered onto its end into the air “…eating frog’s not gonna be my finest moment but it’ll beat starving!… The daft bugger just sat there and let me spear him!”

“That’s a cane toad…” I say, drowsily.

“Alright, eating cane toad won’t be my finest moment but…”

“They’re an invasive species, introduced to Australia in the early 20th Century as a means of controlling pests. They’re rare on the continent, these days, because of centuries of consistent eradication efforts…”

“Why have we worked so hard to get rid of them?” she asks, not turning to look at me.

“Because of how incredibly poisonous they are to the local fauna… Anything not specifically evolved to deal with their toxins is quite likely to die if it eats them.”

“Oh…” she says, dejectedly “…don’t suppose we’re a creature evolved to deal with them, are we?”

“We’re not, no… There is some part of them that’s not toxic but… I can’t remember if it’s the liver or the kidneys, I don’t trust either of us to identify their liver or kidneys… aaand there’s a nonzero chance that I’ve misremembered that and it’s only their liver and/or kidneys that are toxic… not worth risking for the amount of nutrition we’d get.”

“So, I might as well not have killed this thing, then?”

“Nooo… You’re contributing to removing them from the ecosystem…”

“Great comfort that’ll be when we’ve not eaten for five days(!)” she observes, miserably.

“We’ll eat… you’ll find something tomorrow…”

“Look at you…” she says, still not looking at me “…half dead and still able to give an ecology lecture and words of encouragement!”

“You aren’t looking at me, Reid… why aren’t you looking at me?”

“Because…!” she flusters “…you’re… naked!”

I chuckle, weakly “You Christians and your prudishness! Here I am, ‘half dead’ in your words, and you’re worried about seeing my penis…?”

“I’m not a Christian anymore, thank you very much!… Been an atheist since I was 14!”

“You act like a Christian, Reid…” I smile.

Angrily, she turns around, her face beet red (in a way I now realise isn’t from the sun) and her eyes wide, she makes a point of staring intently, up and down the length of my body.

“‘Look at me(!) I’m a Pagan and totally comfortable with nudity!’” she says, doing an unflattering impression of me.

“I’m not a Pagan, as I’ve said before… I am totally comfortable with nudity.”

“So you’d be totes cool with me stripping off, then(!)” she asks in defiant accusation.

“Totes(!)… Actually, it’s probably a good idea… It’ll get cold at night and you’ll freeze if you’re sweaty!”

She looks at me, calculating.

“I’m gonna get the fire going…” she says, truculently “…that’ll keep us warm and dry!”

With that, she picks up a stick, pulls out her knife and begins carving a V-notch into it.

---Esme’s perspective---

Look at the fire! Look at the fire! Look at the fire!

Don’t look at the penis! Don’t look at the abs! Don’t look at the pecs!

Normally, I’d say it was bad practice to focus on how hungry you are in a survival situation but, right now, that’s about the only thing that has a chance of keeping my mind off the nude man I’m sharing the cave with!

This is so embarrassing!

“Erm… err… how’re you feeling?” I ask, not looking at him.

“A bit better, thank you… Less nauseated than I was earlier… I might be well enough to go out to gather, tomorrow…”

“If you were advising another pair, in the same situation as us, on whether to let the snakebit one go out and work the day after he’d received a snakebite, what would you say?”

He hesitates for a moment before answering honestly “…I would tell them it’s probably a bad idea and that the compromised one should probably regain his strength first.”

“Then what are you gonna do tomorrow?”

He sighs “I’m… going to rest here… and let you take care of the work.”

“Daaamn right!”

He reaches for where his clothes are, feeling them for dampness.

Having establish their dryness to his satisfaction, he begins clumsily trying to dress himself.

“…*sigh*…Here, give it to me.” I say, finally, holding out my hand for the t-shirt his venom addled fingers have been guddling about with for a full minute.

I meet his eyes and see the sallowness of his face.

Somehow, he manages to put a cocky expression on his pallid, clammy face and ask “You’re going to dress me, are you?”

“Don’t make it weird!… You’re wasting energy you don’t have struggling! Let me help!… That’s all there is to this!”

He gives a little shrug and hands me the garment.

I figure out how to orient it and then approach him from behind.

“Arms up, lad.”

He brings his arms above his head.

It seems like the venom has only affected his fine and not his gross motor skills. That’s… encouraging?

I pull the t-shirt over his thick arms, trying to view this as an entirely mechanical endeavour and not to pay attention to any of the contours of his irritatingly perfect body.

“Pants…” I say, holding out my hand.

He clumsily grabs his boxer briefs and presents them about 30cm away from where my hand actually is.

I take them and come round to his front, pulling his feet off the ledge he’s sitting on.

I arrange the undergarment on the floor and bring his feet to the leg holes.

I hold out my hand “Trousers…”

“Scalpel… forceps…(!)” he quips, clumsily handing me his trousers.

Ignoring him, I lay them out, the way I did with the pants, and bring his feet through the holes.

“Can you stand?” I ask, looking up at his face (taking a side detour around his crotch).

“I… think so…”

I stand up and hold out my hands for him.

He takes them and gets up, shakily.

I grab his thick arms to steady him.

“Alright… I’m gonna let go now… Just say ‘falling’ if you need me to catch you, OK?”

He nods.

I let go and quickly dive down to the floor, grab his pants and trousers and yank them up over his lower half, rendering him decent again, finally.

Good thing for my soaring pulse!

He chuckles “I really don’t remember the last time I needed someone to dress me…! That was sort of nice…”

“Oh… awakened something, have I?” I ask, flippantly, as I lower him back to the ledge “Too bad! That’s the last time I’m dressing you unless you get bitten by another snake!”

“Are you trying to encourage me to get myself bitten on purpose?!”

“You get yourself bitten on purpose, I’m leaving you for the crows(!)”

“Fair enough!” he laughs.

We sit and watch the fire for a while.

“It’s been a long day… Feels like it’s about midnight… Happy New Year, Taylor…” I say.

In answer he starts gently singing.

pp♫ Happy Birthday to me

Happy Birthday to me

Happy Biiirthday dear Oskar

Happy Birthday to me♫pp

Moderately concerned that the venom may be having an effect on his cognition, I ask “You alright, Taylor? Who are you singing for?”

“Myself… weren’t you listening?” he says in a way that does not reassure me of his presence of mind!

“That’s… erm… that’s not how birthdays work, buddy! It’s New Year today…”

“It is how birthdays work when your birthday is on the 1st of January!” he smirks, blearily.

“Your birthday’s on the 1st of January?”

“Yup…” he nods.

“So, you’re 18, now?”

“Indeed… or I will be, whenever it actually turns midnight. Difficult to know without a clock.”

“Well shit, man! You should’ve just told me that! I’d’ve sung it for you!”

“It wouldn’t have felt right, asking that… When you’ve been looking after me all day…*yawn*… I’d’ve been embarrassed having such a beautiful girl be the only one singing for me, too…” he says, closing his eyes and lying down.

Flabbergasted, I ask “You… you think I’m beautiful?!”

“You’re one of the most beautiful girls I’ve ever seen…” he says, his tone of voice suggesting that he’s already halfway to slumberland.

I don’t think I’d’ve got that out of him if not for the venom and the sleep deprivation!

My heart is pounding in my chest, my pulse is racing and my breathing is rapid from the information I’ve just come by!

I can’t believe the difference this day has made!