Journey

Elijah

So tired! I don't know why. I have slept for a long time. Lorelei is getting worried. She stayed in my tent after I collapsed. She has been sitting in the chair next to my bed for about 15 hours. She hasn't fallen asleep yet.

"Lorelei. Go to sleep," I slur.

"I don't have anywhere to sleep," She says.

I scoot over. If she is tired she can have the bed. I am almost asleep again when she slides in next to me. The shock of her cool skin against me wakes me up again. She feels cold against my skin but she isn't shivering. I pull her closer because her cold skin feels good against my feverish one.

"Elijah you are burning up!" She exclaims.

She jumps out of the bed and grabs a cloth and wets it and places it on my head. I start sweating.

"It's too hot in here," I complain.

She pulls my shirt off and the air feels a little better. She opens the door a crack and the wind blows in. The brisk air feels nice.

"Can you come here?" I ask her.

I can't think straight. My skin still feels like it's on fire. I know I want her here though. She walks over and climbs back into the bed. I press my body against hers and instant relief. Her skin feels so cold. Then the doctor rushes into the room. He is wearing a mask. I guess I might be contagious.

He gives me some headache medicine and healing suaves. The healing suaves work wonders against my fever. It drops to 100 F. I continue to hold Lorelei against me. She hugs me tight. I drift into a deep sleep.

"How are you feeling?" She asks.

I sit up. My back feels stiff with unuse. My head is pounding.

"Not tired," I say.

"Do you need anything?" She asks.

"Do you have any headache medicine left?" I ask.

She fumbles with a container and hands me three mint green pills. I swallow them. I collapse back into my bed.

"What ridiculous things did I say while I was sick," I ask.

She looks confused.

"When I was younger I always said the weirdest things when I had a really bad fever," I explain.

"You didn't say anything weird," She quickly said.

"Did I do anything weird?" I ask.

"You slept a lot. Kept asking for me and Alaina," She explained.

"Sound like me," I wince.

"Wait you were here the whole time. Are you okay?" I ask genuinely worried.

"No I'm fine. I got checked out by the doctor," She said looking down.

"What is it?"

"We don't know where this disease came from. We have nothing like this in our database. We are lucky the healing suaves worked," She explained.

"No there is something else," I say.

"I can't hide anything from you," She laughs.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Well. The uhh, the disease is highly contagious and fast spreading. It is now an epidemic," Lorelei sighed.

"Everyone is sick?" I ask.

She nods.

"Including the doctor," She says miserably.

"And you?" I ask.

"The disease doesn't affect me," She says.

"Do we have any idea where it came from?"

"We believe the first person to have spread it was Alaina," She says trying to sound confident but falters.

"Alaina! Is she okay?" I ask worriedly.

"Alaina is fine. We found her after you started having symptoms."

I try and get up but fail. I'm still too weak.

"Wait why are you still in here? If we have an epidemic on our hands why aren't you helping?" I ask.

She looks so miserable. Like she wishes she could be out there and helping.

"I got benched. But at least I can help you," She says with fake enthusiasm.

We start playing cards and working to build up my strength. It was a very long day. I was tired at the end of it but I could tell that Lorelei was exhausted.

"Do you want to go home?" I ask her.

"I'm stuck in here," She says.

I let her sleep in the bed. She deserves it. She has been up for at least a few days straight and needs some sleep. I sleep on the floor with a pillow but I slept well knowing that Lorelei was sleeping. Lorelei slept several hours longer than I had. She looked so peaceful while she slept that I drew her. It was easily one of my most beautiful drawings because I had a beautiful muse. When she woke up I was finishing my drawing.

"What are you working on?" She asked me.

"You ready for this glory?" I ask her.

She nods and I reveal to her the drawing of her asleep on the bed.

"I thought that you drew realistically."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"There's no way that is me. I look too angelic," She said.

"This is exactly how I see you," I whisper to her.

She gazes into my eyes.

"Alivia!" She exclaims.

She gets up and runs out of the tent. I get up and run after her. She sprints to Alivia's tent. She doesn't bother to knock and bursts into her tent. Alivia is asleep on her bed. She wakes up the noise of the door hitting the tent.

"What's going on?" Alivia asks.

"Are you okay?" Lorelei asks her.

"I guess I'm fine why?" Alivia asks again.

"There is an epidemic going around and we shouldn't even be here but we needed to warn you to not go outside," Lorelei exclaims.

Alivia's eyes get wide. Than Lorelei sprints back out of the tent.