The World I Knew [Discontinued]

Sick

This time, waking up was more pleasant than before, because Peter's body wasn't going into overdrive because of a fever--even if the fever was still present, and he was fully dressed again in a soft hoodie and his sweats from before. Granted, his back still ached, but it wasn't as bad as before. The bandages made a soft hissing noise against each other when he moved a little, and rubbed against his skin when he moved to sit up.

His fingers brushed against some sort of divot in the metal, and he looked down. There, in a very defined shape, lay his hand print, the metal completely crushed. Peter breathed a sigh of relief that it was just the metal, and not Hope's hand, as he remembered her holding his hand for support.

Peter's head spun as he swung his legs over the edge of the table, but he shook it off, and stood, much to the disagreement of his wounds.

Using the table for support, Peter walked around to a door he hadn't seen before, and it opened before he could touch it. It revealed Hope, Bruce, and an Iron Legion soldier. The three turned to face him, and Hope burst into a smile.

"Peter!" she said, enveloping him in a hug before he'd even realized she'd crossed the cockpit in one stride. "How're you feeling? I'm surprised you didn't make one sound during that whole thing before you passed out. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he replied, vaguely confused as to why she was hugging him, but deciding it was a question for later. For now, he was happy to return it.

At least it helped him with balance.

He wasn't sure why that was a problem though. It would probably go away, but for now, it was fine. "What's going on?"

"Nothing, really. We've mainly been waiting for you to wake up."

Peter frowned. "How long was I out?"

"Two days--and a half."

"Two--" A wave of dizziness washed over him, and he cut himself off to groan, letting Hope shift them to support him and take his weight on herself.

"You're really heavy," she grunted.

"Sorry," he mumbled, head drooping a little. Man, he was tired.

"Yeah, I wouldn't get myself worked up, if I were you," Bruce said. "The infection affected your blood pressure and made it drop, so you'll probably have to keep it pretty chill, since we don't have a lot of the proper things to keep it up and balance it out. When your wounds have finished healing, your body functions should go back to normal. You may have fainting spells anyway, though."

"That's good to know," Peter sighed as the Iron Legion suit came over, and took Peter from Hope so that he had to shift his weight from one side to another to lean on the robot instead of Hope, though she hesitated to let the robot take him. The metal was cool through his hoodie, and he couldn't help but rest his head on it.

He thought he smelled the faintest whiff of Tony, but maybe that was his imagination.

"Was it really two days?" he asked, trying to make his voice stronger than he felt.

Their nods were the only confirmation he got. That was all he needed.

"So where are we?"

"New Jersey," Hope supplied. "Remember how we talked about what our plan should be, how we should send and receive any signals going in or out?"

"Uh... yeah?" No, not really. Geez, that seemed like an eternity ago.

"Well, we got one from somewhere around here. We were just waiting for you to wake up before we searched for it."

"Did we find any more survivors on the way over here?"

"No. Looks like the entire east coast has been taken over. Zombies don't need food or sleep, and they're inhumanly fast, so they've been moving quickly. I'm pretty sure half of the US has been taken over already."