Head Full of Ghosts

Chapter 13 - Beyond Ghosts

Not much later Claire brought him some actual food, which he gulped down gratefully. He realized with some remorse that he hadn't eaten since before the car crash, which was before he'd entered the cave. And that, according to the timeline Joe had given, had been five days earlier. He'd been living on just whatever Claire pumped into his I.V. since then.

Eli couldn't imagine going nearly six days without food. Before the outbreak he'd almost never gone six hours without food. He realized somewhat depressingly that he'd lost a lot of weight. He'd also tanned and his skin was harder from being out in the sun so much. A pretty notable beard had also begun to grow on his face, and his hair was shaggy and long. He must look nothing like himself anymore. He wondered briefly if anyone from his old life saw him if they'd even recognize him.

And then he wondered if anyone from his old life was still alive.

And then he wondered if anyone he'd ever met was still alive.

What had happened to the people back at the camp? Were Marshall and Elaine leading them all to a better life? Was Paul any closer to a cure? Had Mac made it back with the blood samples?

Was there anything waiting for him if he did?

And what about the others? Jay, Aliyah, and Gabriel? Where had the vampires taken them? Would he ever see any of them again? And what was the price of his betrayal?

He had hoped - no, he had gambled - everything on the idea that killing the queen would cleanse the curse. But he had failed. He already had proof of that. If he had succeeded, the others would've been fine. They would've been freed from their captors.

But he had failed. And now... now...

Now they were meat for vamp burgers. And it was all his fault.

And now Amber was somehow a vampire. And that, too, was his fault.

He gripped his empty bowl and tried to not think about it, but he could feel his chest tighten, his breath quicken, and suddenly he felt like he could no longer breathe.

Claire, who had been elsewhere in the room, seemed to notice and came over to him. She didn't ask any questions, just spent a moment observing, checked some of his vitals, and then injected something into his I.V.

When she was done she put a hand on his shoulder and tried to meet his gaze, though he found he really didn't want to look at her.

"Hey, it's okay," she said soothingly. "Just breathe. Just breathe. That's it. Good."

She sat down with him for a while until he calmed down. His eyes started to droop and his head started to lull to the side occasionally. Claire took the empty bowl from him and said, "Try and get some rest now."

Eli nodded and slid back down to a supine position and quickly slid further down into darkness.

Eli spent the next two days in the makeshift infirmary room recuperating. Most of the time he spent alone, though Claire stopped by often and brought him some things to read and would stay and chat for a while. Mostly she talked about herself, since Eli didn't really have much he liked to say about himself and didn't want to talk about his recent past since the outbreak.

Typically he might have found this annoying, but Claire was a very kind person and to his surprise he actually enjoyed her company. Also, it helped him keep his mind off things he didn't want to think about.

A couple times Joe stopped by, bringing with him a couple guests each time. The "others" he'd mentioned on that first day, Eli guessed. They mostly had him repeat his story and peppered him with questions he didn't really want to answer, or couldn't answer, about the vampires.