Wither With Me

CHAPTER 6 - MISTAKE

Pain. A lot of pain. He couldn't tell what was going on. He tried opening his eyes, but didn't perceive anything but a dark, blurry mess. The terrible headache was severely impairing his capacity to think or make sense of anything. Where the hell was he? What was he doing? His memory was hazy.

William groaned in discomfort. As he slowly regained consciousness, he tried to rub his eyes, but his arms felt weak. With a lot of effort, he managed to reach his face. It felt cold to the touch. It seemed like he was laying on the ground, but the apparent darkness made it impossible to get anything out of his surroundings.

As he unsuccessfully attempted to sit up, a faint light suddenly manifested to his left. It probably wasn't too bright, but given his state of confusion, it seemed blinding. He also heard some sort of distant mumbling. It was a soft sound, almost like a voice trying to communicate with him.

"...am... Will... ...wake...? ...an you he... ...me?"

The sound went on for a couple of seconds, and he felt a slight tugging on his body, like someone trying to shake him awake without disturbing him too much. The shaking seemed to work, as the voice gradually became clearer and clearer.

"William... can you hear me...? William...?"

As his sight came back to him, he could finally identify the source of the voice. Nora was kneeling down by his side, faintly illuminated by the light of a candle. She looked tired, very tired. He was unsure of the circumstances, but he could notice her ripped, dirty clothes and the blood on her right arm.

"Nora... Ugh, shit–" just speaking caused stinging pain on the back of his head. "What happened...?"

"You were knocked out, they got you from behind..."

Upon hearing that, William remembered. About coming to the other shore of the river looking for the solar panel, getting ambushed by those men in the dark corridors, and then... nothing. He felt like he was forgetting some important piece of information. Who were they, and why did it feel like he knew them?

"I see... Damn it, it fucking hurts..." he kept complaining, as he tried to sit up again.

"Careful, I think you were hit pretty badly..." Nora tried to help him get up as gently as she could, until he was finally resting up against the wall behind him.

A couple of minutes went by. William kept is eyes closed for a while, while his acute headache waned.

"Um..." Nora muttered under her breath. William opened his eyes and looked at her. She was staring at the floor and throwing short glances over to something in the darkness, beyond the range of the candle light.

"What is it...? Just spit it out..." even though he appreciated her being there with him, he was pissed. Not at her, but at their luck. It was common sense to try and keep looting trips as uneventful as possible. And that day was pretty damn full of events. He wasn't in a good mood.

"I... I got some things while you were unconscious..."

"What...?"

Nora reached over and grabbed her backpack from within the darkness. He could tell she had to make a certain degree of effort to drag it, it looked heavy. She opened the zipper on the top, and pushed the bag really close to William, so he could properly see what was inside. His eyes widened up.

The bag contained several cans of food, along some packages of dehydrated beans and pasta, among other various things. Finally, some good news. The revelation actually seemed to help him regain the strength he was missing on his arms, encouraging him to slouch over the bag and rummage a little bit through its contents.