Participants:
| Scene Title | Not Yet |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Not yet in the Last Chance Saloon - an exchange of updates, but precious little cheer. |
| Date | February 17 2011 |
The day crawls on, measured in bursts of coherent misery interspersed with exhausted, doped blurs of indeterminate length. The sense of wrongness hasn't faded from the fresh injury to her arm, and Ygraine is too tired to fight the urge to hunch around it, though it's still strapped immobile to her body to reduce the hindrance it offers.
Now she sits on a rickety old chair atop a roof, bathed in the pale, dimmed glow of the weak Winter light filtering through the Dome. Her phone is held in her good hand, a snaking cable linking it to the crank-powered charger that rests on one thigh. After a while staring groggily at it, she sighs, clears her head as best she can, then sets the little device to dialling Director Elisabeth Harrison's number.
The phone rings five times before it's picked up, highly unusual for Elisabeth. Usually she's pretty fast on the draw with the phone. "'lo?" comes the groggy response. The blonde is sacked out in a bunk at the base, her boots still on even, having taken a painkiller after the drill attempt.
Clearing her throat, Ygraine struggles to remember how she'd planned to open this conversation. "Are… are you okay? Ummm. I'm assuming that's Lis. Heck, even if it's not, are you all right?"
Further worried babbling is cut off when she bites her lower lip.
On her end, Elisabeth pries blue eyes open to blink at the ceiling. What time is it? She feels a bit on the dopey side. "Yeah, it's me. 'mokay. Just had a massive migraine. What's going on?" She shifts around in the bunk, turning to lay on her back and reaching up to shove her hand into loose blonde hair. Dear God, please let Ygraine say she's just checking in — Liz doesn't want to have to get up yet.
"I…." Ygraine's voice trails off, her eyes closing as she tries to wrestle her thoughts into order. "I'm so tired. Sorry about this. It's the drugs, partly. My thoughts aren't really working well. I… I was trying to negotiate with some guys who'd staked out a supermarket. They shot me. Then it turned into a riot…."
"Fffffuuuuck," Elisabeth sighs. "You all right?" She's more alert now herself. "You need to get some sleep out there too. Hard, I know." Believe her, she knows.
"I have a hole right through me. By most definitions that's not all right at all", Ygraine points out - though she does manage a weak laugh along with her words. "I'm… I think I screwed up figuring out my rations initially. Made sure not to eat too much, to cut back on the exercise I took. Didn't think to factor in using my ability. And it's had a good work out a fair bit of the time. Then… I think I'm in shock. And low on blood. And drugged. And just tired and stressed and scared anyway…."
Closing her eyes once more, she hisses as she momentarily attempts to move her bad arm to bring her hand up to her face. "I'm sorry. This was meant to be an update. It's hard keeping my thoughts on-track at the moment."
Elisabeth is sympathetic. "Ygraine? Things will get better." They have to. "You gotta hang tight. Just… try to keep the gunshot clean." She's got a few of those herself. "What can I do for you?" From out here, that is.
"Jaiden helped treat it initially. Went to the Center for an X-ray to check for any… problems he couldn't see. Seems to be okay. As far as having a hole blasted through you goes…."
Another sigh, and Ygraine blinks, glad that this conversation isn't face to face. She doesn't even have a hand free right now to wipe her eyes. "It's… if this keeps getting worse, can you shoot whichever bastard decided to ignore that request I made to recognise some kind of civil authority in here? It wouldn't have solved everything, but even just buying us a couple of days would have been welcome. And at least they'd have tried…."
"Nnngh. Sorry. That's unfair of me, to moan at you about that. Ummm. The light-show today. D'you know what that was? I didn't have the energy to go to investigate."
"Yeah," Elisabeth replies wearily. "That was us trying to get through the damn thing. Failed." She sighs. "They're back to the drawing board."
"What'd you try?", Ygraine asks, managing to muster a little bit of her usual interest in anything strange and unsolved. "Have you confirmed anything more about its nature?"
"Well we've definitely confirmed what we already knew — that no powers go through the damn thing. We tried to use what amounted to frequency interference to attempt to get a physical drill through the barrier." Elisabeth shakes her head a little on the pillow, though obviously Ygraine can't see that. Rubbing her eyes, she murmurs, "I keep this shit up and I might blow out the ability permanently. That'd kinda suck when I'm just really getting it back."
"Don't", Ygraine cautions immediately. "Please. I don't want even a… share of the responsibility for crippling you on my conscience." A smile is just about audible in her voice. "Things… aren't wholly desperate yet. We're not quite in the Last Chance Saloon at the moment."
"Not yet," Elisabeth agrees softly.
A slight pause, then Ygraine lets out an almost natural-sounding laugh. "Aren't you Americans meant to always be cheerful and certain that things'll turn out well?", she asks. "But… Last Chance Saloon has more options than many might think. I've got some ideas for fall-back options. I can cheat. And so can Jaiden. If we have to we can keep a small group alive for a long time. But… only a small one."
"Sorry," Elisabeth apologizes. "I don't have a lot of cheerful in me right now." She sighs and closes her eyes on her end. "Let me know about the fallback. We'll keep working on this end. Tell Jaiden…. I said hello. But I'm keeping hope, Ygraine."
"I'd rather not give anything away at the moment", Ygraine says apologetically. "Kind of scared I'll jinx it, or that someone'll overhear. But you're aware of what myself and Jaiden can do. Those give us quite a lot of options to cheat like crazy when we have to. We're… hard to corner and kill."
"I'm counting on it," Elisabeth replies. "Be careful, Ygraine." There's a long pause and then she rouses enough to say, "I'm sorry. The painkiller is knocking me out again. I have the phone if you need me, but I'm not going to be able to fight it much longer."
"Sorry, sorry", Ygraine responds, instantly apologetic, her tone guilty. "I… hope you're okay. And try not to break yourselves on our account, all right? Even when perforated, we're none too easy to kill." Well, she hopes so at least.
Elisabeth smiles slightly. "No worries. A bit of sleep and I'll be fine and dandy, Ygraine. It's the first real break I've taken."
Ygraine winces quite audibly at that. "Christ. I'm really sorry for waking you. I… I hope that you manage to recover. And quickly. Is… is there anything you want me to try to chase up in here?"
"Not at the moment, no," Elisabeth says quietly. "Wait….. there is one thing that you need to let some people know. I got word through a source… of an outbreak of H5N10. It's…. it's a lethal strain, Ygraine. Especially in close quarters." She hopes the other woman takes her meaning. "You guys… do what you can in there to maintain some hygiene too, though, okay?"
"I… merde", Ygraine says tiredly, closing her eyes. "I've not seen any sign of that as yet. I'm… waiting for the cholera and typhoid, however. Hundreds of people - some injured - waded through water that had had corpses rotting in it for a fortnight. But with Jaiden here, we have clean water - for drinking and washing. Not as much as we'd like, but… it makes a huge difference."
Sighing heavily, the Briton shakes her head at the phone. "You take care of yourself, okay? It sounds like you might be in about as much danger as me."
Elisabeth reply is a huff of bitter amusement. "No.. not really. Because they'll fucking well vaccinate the lot of us. Assuming the vaccine isn't worse than the damn disease." As it was for some last time. "Just… be careful. Talk to you soon." She disconnects on her end and looks up at the ceiling, offering a silent prayer for her friends.
On the other end of the severed connection, Ygraine worriedly eyes her phone for a few moments longer, then presses the little button to set it to powering down, saving some of its precious electricity. Tucking it and the charger away once more, she dries her eyes, groans, and pushes to her feet.
Somehow, as rest breaks go, that wasn't the most reassuring or relaxing. Perhaps that's why she too lifts her gaze, tear-blurred vision letting her more easily pretend the Dome's not there at all as she adds a silent prayer of her own.