EarthFall

Chap 15 Fuck protocol

Brianna's heart shaped face was the first thing that Carson laid eyes on when he woke up, Thank god. She held his hand up to her face. Her eyes were red.

He tightened his grip. "Water?" He whispered in a cracked voice.

She flinched, then screamed.

"He's awake!"

She kissed his forehead. Then his lips. Then she fetched some water from a large clay bowl that rested on a stone slab. Who had made those clay bowls? Carson thought groggily. Where were they?

He looked around. It hurt to turn his head. But then again, everything hurt. They were in a massive cave of some sort. At least 20 feet high, and 60 by 60 feet with various furniture carved out of stone here and there. He lay on one such structure now. There was also what appeared to be... some metal chairs and stripped parts from what looked like old HUD mining rigs?

The cavern was well lit... but he couldn't seem to find a light source. Where...

It took Carson a moment to pinpoint the source of illumination. He had to focus his eyes to make out the details of the tiny little guys. The cavern was lit with thousands and thousands of small, luminescent mushrooms that stemmed mostly from the ceiling, but Carson spotted them on the Walls and other structures as well.

Brianna returned with the clay bowl of water and lifted it to his lips.

"How long?" Carson asked after his throat wasn't so dry. Pain emanated from his core. It felt... absolute. Dominating. Like a 10 ton stone slab on his chest.

"Almost 18 hours." She lifted the bowl to his lips to let him drink "Listen. Chief is gone, he took the Phoenix to go collect some of the Exo-suits we left in the Lake. He left a time lock note explaining why on the hard tablet.. Abel, the guy who tried to hijack the Phoenix has been sitting in handcuffs, behaving for now. Cornelius and Tucker have been taking turns watching him. You have a fever. I've anesthetized you, but I think I need to operate..."

Tucker came running into the room.

"Carson!!"

He began to hug Carson, thought better of it, then put his hand on his shoulder. He opened his mouth to say something, then looked at Brianna and paused.

"Thank god you're alive, Carson.You look great, by the way. Also there's a robot thing here that says it can fix you."

Brianna fists shook. She looked at Carson with a fiercely protective concern. She tried to feign a casual tone. "Oh, yea. And there's also an alien metal sphere robot thing at the mouth of the cave that says it wants to stick you with some sort of... medicine."

Well this was a lot to take in. How to prioritize...

"Has the robot thing been civil?" Carson asked. Brianna looked at him like he was mad.

"I don't trust an Ai, a cold, emotionless, calculating harbinger of the doom of old humanity to--"

"I'm dying." Carson interrupted her quietly.

Tucker nodded after the barest hesitation.

Brianna shook her head. Tears fell from her eyes. She wiped them away.

"That's not true! We have enough supplies to do the surgery if we start now! I worked with Graff on her papers before! I can do the procedure Tucker! The message from Chief will open in the next few hours. We should just see what he said before doing anything crazy. We just have to stop the internal bleeding somehow. We just... have to stop the bleeding..." There were tears in her eyes.