☣ ʟᴀꜱᴛ ꜰᴀɪʟᴜʀᴇ ☣ - [ⁱ. ˢᵉʳʳᵃ ᴺᵉᵛᵉˢ]

CHAPTER 4 - THEO , IS SHE OKAY?

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Day 66

Theo turned in bed, he seemed to be consumed by something, a nightmare, perhaps something bigger than that. He still hadn't sleep more than an half hour, but the discomfort didn't let him sleep more , some limbs of his body went numb at times, causing tingling sensations, it was as if a million ants were taking their afternoon walk on his arm. .

Furthermore, the house's refrigeration was failing and it was almost impossible to sleep. Matteo wondered in the depths of his mind if the rest of the people in the house were also melting in sweat. With all that apocalyptic scenario, it was possible that air conditioning and refrigeration would fail. But that made everything worse, it was probably over 98,6 Fº  inside that room, even if that didn't compare to the outside . It wasn't nothing new to know that ummer was geting hotter each year. 

He looked for his clothes somewhere in the room, spread out along with Vinnie's and, after getting dressed, he left as quickly as he could. In reality , he slept for three hours, his body was heavy with exhaustion, but he still couldn't stop the urge to just feel the wind of the hot night.

Theo took a deep breath, inhaling the exaggeratedly thick air. He walked down the stairs silently and took a cigarette out of the pack he brought with him to place it between his lips. However, he snorted when he realized he had forgotten the lighter.

He put the cigarette back inside the package and sat on the stairs, reflecting for seconds.

Then he realized there was an unconscious woman there. He crouched down next to her, Matteo went into shock as soon as he noticed the blood surrounding her.

He dared to touch her and move her, to observe the severity of her injuries. When he did, a rush of adrenaline coursed through his veins.

She was very strange , a young woman , clearly younger than him. He had injuries and looked like he had come from another planet, she didn't belong there, maybe not even within the nearest 50 kilometers. He was wearing an old, brown, short-sleeved shirt and very baggy shorts that hadn't been made for her skinny body.

The wound on her forehead was worrying him . It had clotted a long time ago, but remarkable was the amount of blood she had lost. It looked like it had been opened hours ago, the clots on the  wound had a kind of dark shell.

Her bruised and bloody skin, very pale, contrasted with the long strands of light brown hair that stuck to the thick red liquid, as well as a strange fluff clinging to some parts of her tattered clothing. Her lips were cracked and dry, they had a strange appearance, as if she had been dehydrated for hours. She had a purplish, dry and cracked appearance. Her face, devoid of color and apparently smooth, was scratched and equally dirty, as was much of her thin body. Her eyes remained closed, protected by eyelids covered in long, shiny lashes, adorned by straight eyebrows, not too thick, but full.

How many hours had she been unconscious? She couldn't be dead. Could she? Maybe she had hit her head, or someone had hit her. Theo was altruistic, at least I, in the midst of the scenario where they were living now, pretended to be. He looked at his body again to better assess the situation. 

He then noticed that the pulse was stable. Good sign. It was likely that she hadn't been unconscious for long, or at least, Matteo wanted to hope that. With a heavy conscience, he knew that the right thing to do was to help that girl, even if could make everyone in the house sick. Or at least that's what he thought. 

In an act of selfishness, without thinking much and thinking even less about the lives of his friends who lived with him, Theo picked up the body carefully, avoiding touching the injuries. He didn't expect to be able to lift her off the ground, but he did. He cradled her in his arms and brought the woman into his house.

Theo carefully placed her on the sofa, but Vincent noticed his presence outside the room.

-Theo?- His brother whispered, sleepily. Vinnie lazily shuffled his feet closer to Matteo, walking with his eyes almost closed. As if he would fall asleep at any moment.- Why are you walking?! What are you doing?? Oh....

Vincent opened his eyes appropriately to discuss with his brother, after all it was still early in the morning. But as soon as he finished the sentence he noticed the body on the sofa, still half covered in blood. - What is this??

Theo didn't respond, he was looking for some sign of life in the girl, no matter how small, it didn't matter. He thought about calling emergency services but no one would probably answer. There's chaos out there, no one cares about young damsels in distress.

-Theo, is she okay? Does she breathe? Matteo! - Vinnie begged for any answer. Paying attention to the girl while Matteo crouched down next to her, on the floor next to the sofa. The room was starting to heat up.

Theo touched her cold neck, trying to see if there was any kind of pulse or something similar. Surprisingly, the pulsar existed, it was stable and repetitive but particularly fragile and weak.

-Who is she, Theo? You were sleeping when I went to the bathroom and suddenly boom! A body on the sofa at home with my brother next to it. - Vincent continued. 

-I found her now, outside, right at the door.

-Is she dead? Here at the door? You're kidding, bro. What great luck to have at 4:00 in the morning. - The curly haired man scratched his nose and swallowed, not necessarily desperate but anxious.

-Vinnie, call 292... - Theo stared at the open wound on the girl's forehead. It shouldn't be that difficult to treat. They couldn't let her die there. They were not prepared to see death so close.

Nobody was.

The brother contacted the emergency number but even after 7 times, no one answered.

-Theo, with this decease scene it was a little obvious that no one was going to answer my call ,  there aren't even enough doctors, there's no mention of the police.

-Go get a first aid kit. Anything . This girl has an ocean of blood on her forehead. I still don't know how she didn't die. - Matteo Aspen was already beginning to sweat with despair. He turned on the air conditioning to try to help cool the room.

-Shouldn't we call back? She could be infected... we could be too. And in that case she will die in less than two weeks. . . We shouldn't take any chances, that is if we aren't already infected... - Vincent, unlike Theo, kept a "safe distance", as if he were afraid of the girl.

-Vincent! - Theo mutters, not too loudly so as not to wake up the rest of his friends who were in other rooms. As soon as Vinnie complains inaudibly and goes to get her suitcase, they start checking her for a fever and cleaning her velvety white skin. They covered the wounds as best they could. They were sweating cold because of their nerves, but they managed to do it without dying of despair.

They tried everything to get her to wake up, but the hours passed and passed and passed and nothing, it was as if she was in a medically induced coma.

 There was no signal or stimulus that would make her wake up. Maybe there was something, they just didn't know what. 

Why ? Why did they have to be the ones to find the body?

 Specifically Matteo. . . He had no idea of ​​the reason or cause of all that, but he knew that the only concern at the moment was to watch the girl and make sure that even if she didn't wake up, she didn't die there , with they.