When Given a Lemon

Part 26

I slept and slept and slept and when I woke I wished to sleep some more.

Only finally rousing myself when my bladder was too full to ignore anymore and someone had to help me relieve myself. I hate having to get help. It feels degrading having someone assist during my more vulnerable moments and I am secretly glad that it is neither Obert or Merryl. The latter of which I had yet to see though I knew they often helped here.

When I was done, I was helped back onto my uncomfortable wedge that forces me to lean in a sideward position on my cot. My body aches from not getting to stretch out properly but even the slightest touch against my back makes me wince.

For a while afterward I lay there staring ahead of me but the view is anything but pretty. A mound of discarded soiled rags thrown into a bin until it overflowed, filling a good portion of my view.

I close my eyes.

Better to try to ignore my back and my surroundings until someone comes to visit or I doze.

I have yet to be told exactly how I was injured. When S-Saiya’s body impacted with mine… it felt like I had collided with a boulder rather than a spritely human. Perhaps I was also hit with a big mound of earth or rock along with her?

A moan whispers across the room before fading, reminding me how lucky I am. I have little room to complain when viewed against what had happened to the others. If it's even a fraction as bad as it looks, I doubt Bill will ever walk again. Had Saiya somehow lived, she definitely wouldn't have.

My thoughts are spinning down a dark path so I try to force them back to the here and now. I have yet to understand the full story of what had happened to us; to understand why the monstrosity had left instead of ending me along with them. Denyel too. Lemon told me that he had also somehow made it undercover without more than superficial scratches, though I had yet to see him. The others I've barely seen other than Lemon. They gave me updates when they came to visit.

More groans emanated from the heavily wrapped body across the room from me. Little could be discerned from the many layers they were shrouded in. They were propped up at a slight angle but even their face was covered other than slits to breathe through. An unknowing person might think it was a pile of linens if the patient didn’t make occasional noises. I tried not to look too long at the wrapped limbs. Even in their binding some were abnormal in appearance, either too small or too thin or not positioned quite right compared with the other half of their body belying the damage below.

It wasn’t long before Lemon came to sit with me, far too thrilled to see that I was awake and alert. They filled the time talking about nonsense happenings around the camp. Simple things like someone putting too much salt in the porridge or a few soldiers getting into a scuffle over a card game. Apparently Denyel leaves every morning with different groups to go hunt and scavenge, no matter the target; food, monsters, supplies. As Lemon gabbed they were careful to avoid any discussion about what had happened, changing the topic when I tried to ask, even when I argued that I was feeling well enough and that I deserved to know.

Now that the danger has passed, I'm ready, and feel like I deserve to be told.

Instead they chattered about another buzzball nest being found and explored by a few of the squads. The story was too long and boring for me to stay awake. I soon found myself nodding off midway and waking again to find Merryl had joined Lemon sitting next to me.

“Good morning Keenah,” Obert’s voice spoke from the other side of me. I can’t see him because I'm facing the other way due to these stupid wedges. I can feel their cold hands as they press here and there carefully checking parts of my back. “Just checking your bandages.”