Irradiated

Chapter 14: Blinded

Three more hours was all it took for Derrick's saffron drug to wear off to the point where he could stop rambling on about pointless things. There was always Mr. Snuffles, where he would literally follow Mac around the house all high on a food spice.

We took turns keeping watch over him while the remaining others continued to prepare for the continuing trip towards Belgium. When Naomi took the post over Derrick, he was speaking in a completely different language, probably an Irish of some sort. Hearing him scream out things in the Irish accent was actually pretty entertaining and gave us a good time while packing up.

When Angeli was up there, it was strangely silent. I feared the worst, but I figured out what was happening. Derrick kept nodding off and going into a state where he was half-awake and half-asleep. She would tell us that he was tired and needed to sleep, but at the same time, the drugs wouldn't let him and forced him awake.

When my turn finally came, it was the strangest of the situations we had encountered. Instead of being all relaxed and talkative, he seriously was having problems staying awake. I would prod him gently, making sure he wouldn't fall asleep on us. If he did fall asleep, then it was possible that he would never wake up.

"Derrick, stay with me, buddy. Don't fall asleep." I shook his shoulder as his head rolled off to the side of his opposite shoulder. "Hey." I shook him again. No response. "Derrick?" Once more, an eerie silence. "Oh no..." I mumbled, rushing down the stairs and into the living room.

"Mathias? What are you-" Naomi was about to ask me something, but I quickly cut her off.

"Derrick's not waking up. I tried shaking him awake, but he won't wake up." I said calmly, not trying to go out in a fit of panic.

"How could you let him fall asleep?!" Mac had wide eyes, outraged by this sudden information.

"Don't worry, guys. This must be one of the effects." Angeli marched herself back upstairs with the three of us following closely behind her. She crouched down beside Derrick, where he was slumped up against the wall, and pressed two fingers against his neck, checking for a pulse. "Yep. He's alive. When you get an overdose of saffron, it can lead to stupor."

"Stupor?" I asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"Being in a state of unconsciousness. When he wakes up, the drug might have worn off by then. Let's just let him rest for now." We nodded and went back downstairs, each of us wondering when we would be able to keep moving on with the journey.

I glanced over at Angeli, realizing that there was something I forgot to mention. "Hey, Angeli." She looked up from the map she was staring at and looked at me. "Sorry about how I was acting earlier. I guess I get grumpy when I don't sleep well."

She smiled. "It's ok. I know I would have been grumpy too." I smiled back, still bearing an apologetic stature. "You just haven't been yourself today and it kind of does worry me."

"Worry you? What would you have to worry about?" I asked a highly stupid question.

"Seeing with what happened to Derrick, maybe something happened to you too. You did start acting up after eating those crackers." I shook my head lightly.

"No, that's not it. I'm fine, I just have a lot on my mind and it's started to get the best of me." She nodded, understanding.

"Yeah, I get the feeling." She looked back down at the map, wonder emerging on her face.

"What's up?" I sat beside her, peering over her shoulder at the large worn out paper.

"Nothing important. Just that Derrick marked the place where the asylum was. In Kassel. I was just thinking back to what happened in there." She had a far away gaze in her eyes as she stared at it.