Xia of Tumen

Chapter 13

Xia woke up and stared at the sky for a few minutes. Eventually the ground began to feel lumpy and hard, so she began to get up, but as soon as she moved a pang of pain shot through her. She sat up anyway.

Xia noticed that Chung-Ae had ripped off part of his shirt and made it into a bandage for where she had been shot. He was shivering, but also sweaty. Xia put her hand on his forehead, and it was very warm. He had a fever.

Chung-Ae woke up and stood up. He tried to say something, and then started coughing before he could, then finally, he said, "How are you feeling?"

"How am I feeling? You have a fever and a cough. I'm feeling fine, how about you?"

"Fine except for a little headache."

"Your fingers are blue! We better go see Chen about this. This isn't just a normal cold. This is worse."

"Oh alright. Let's go."

As they were walking over to Dr. Chen's house, Xia noticed Chung-Ae becoming out of breath really fast. She put her arm around him so he could lean on her. He took that, and leaned a bit. Her side stung, but she didn't mention it. By the time they got to Chen's house, every step felt like it took hours. Chung-Ae was not doing well.

Chen was deep into a book when he heard the door open. He looked up expecting to see some little old lady who thought she had cancer, or someone who wasn't sick and thought they were about to die. Instead, It was Xia, with an old man leaning on her shoulder.

Chen put down his book and rushed to catch the old man as he fell off her shoulder. "What is it?"

"I don't know" Xia said, "He has a cough, fever, and headache, and his fingers are turning blue!"

"That sounds like Pneumonia. Let me make sure, let's take him into the back room."

Xia and Chen worked together to get Chung-Ae to the back room where all the equipment was. They laid him down on the bed, and Dr. Chen did a quick examination. "That's definitely pneumonia." Chen said, "We should put him to bed, and give him antibiotics. He should be fine. It might take a few weeks, but he should be fine."

Chen looked over and saw that Xia looked very pale, "Are you alright Xia? You look a little pale."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I guess I was just worried about Chung-Ae. He's like a father to me." She said she was fine, but she was not. She was beginning to feel a little dizzy.

Xia and Chen carried Chung-Ae through a door Xia never noticed, into a cozy kitchen/dining room, then up a little set of stairs that wound up from there. They had probably converted the living room into an examination room, and the little room where you leave your shoes into a little tiny waiting room.

They went into a room at the top of the stairs, and laid Chung-Ae in the bed. Xia walked out of the room, barely able to stand up straight. She came to the stairs before Chen had left the room with Chung-Ae. She grabbed the rails to catch her balance. The world swayed in front of her. She slowly started leaning forward, she tried to stop, but she couldn't. Her hands came from the rails, and she started tumbling down, but before she even hit the first step, the world blacked out.

Chen heard something tumbling down the stairs, and something big. Xia had seemed a little pale... he rushed to the stairs, and saw Xia laying at the bottom of the stairs. Falling down the stairs could happen to anyone, but she must have hit her head, or maybe she fainted at the top. Either way, something must be wrong, because she was still laying there at the bottom of the stairs when he got to her.

Xia woke up for a couple seconds, with the world still swaying, with Chen standing above her. He pushed on her side and said, "Does that hurt?". It hurt, but she didn't have to reply. Her face showed it very much. "Yep," Chen said, "that had to have hurt." But Xia didn't hear it. The world had already blacked out on her again.