doomsday. [ yellowjackets ]

trente-huit.

xxx.

chapter trente-huit.
chapter thirty eight.

1996.

xxx.

It's early in the morning, a month after Javi's reappearance, and, whether anyone said it out loud or not, things had changed.

Together, Mari and Van were able to convince almost the entire group that Lottie and Taissa had both known Javi was alive, and found him, through abilities that could not be explained as everyday occurrences. This led to more belief and trust in the Wilderness, as it was really the only thing they had left, but for those that weren't so easily persuaded, it made them appear as outsiders to a seemingly close knit relationship.

That morning was a great example, as Tara stood at the window and stared out at the group that sat in a circle in the snow outside. The daily ritual consisted of Lottie as its leader, and Dana, Van, Misty, Crystal, Gen, Mari, Mel, Theo, and Travis as her listeners. That left Tara, Natalie, Alex, and Shauna to stare from outside with a dreadful feeling.

Laying on the cot that the girls had pulled into the living room, Alex groaned and shifted to lean over the side of it. Within a second, Shauna stopped folding her blanket to lift the bucket higher off the ground for her, turning her head away with a grimace as Alex wretched. Mari had joked that they could just share a throw up bin if Shauna continued to have nausea, which had earned her a glare from both the pregnant brunette and the sick one.

Alex leaned back against the pillow, covering her eyes with her arm, feeling how cold her skin was against her burning face. Since her run in with the Wilderness, Alex had been practically bedridden; she could barely get two steps in without her knees buckling or throwing up. They hadn't had much to eat since then either, so most of it was just the little bit of bile her body could sacrifice. Alex was weak, her entire being sore with any movement she tried to make, and the healing gash on her forehead gave her migraines every night.

          She was well aware that this was her body trying to rid itself of poison, one that had no physical bearing; she could throw up her guts and drain herself of all her blood but It would still remain, she would've been foolish to think otherwise. It was either going to kill her or make her wish she was dead, and she was leaning towards the second option. If It was going to kill her, why hasn't It done it by now?

        " You should lay back down. " Shauna advised flatly as she sat the bucket back down with a hint of disgust on her face while Alex pressed her hands into the cot and tried to sit up.

        The short haired girl rested her head against the wall and shifted her eyes towards Shauna, a dry expression on her clammy face, the color drained from it, making her look like..

       Like Jackie.

       " Shut up, Shipman. " Alex replied in a tired voice, but Shauna didn't take it with any vice as she watched her close her eyes before she went back to rolling up her blanket.

        Somehow, Shauna had ended up as one of Alex's caretakers, the others being primarily Theo and Lottie, and, on the occasions where Alex was too weak to fight it, Misty. However, surprisingly enough, Shauna was actually the one she enjoyed spending time with at the moment, even if they were both sort of forced to do it because of their respective situations. She was the only one of the four options that felt somewhat normal; Lottie was Lottie and Misty was Misty, and ever since that night, Theo had been acting stranger than ever.