Apocalypsis 03 - Exodus

know , geez. Bossy ever?” I leaned over towards the patient, sparing a second to scowl at Winky. I held the bottle under Jenny’s nose for a couple seconds before she started coughing and then choking, yelling weakly at the same time.
    “Oh, no! What is …? Ow, that …! What’s going on?” she rasped out, reaching up a trembling hand to wipe under her nose.
    “Holy crap, what was that?” asked Bianca, looking up at Winky.
    “Abonia,” she said simply, taking it back from me. “Worgs lyg a jarm.” She smiled.
    “Can’t you, like, kill brain cells with ammonia?” asked Gretchen. She looked like she was warring with herself, trying to decide whether to be grateful or pissed.
    “Maybe a gupple. Bud she’s awage now. Give her sub wadder.”
    I left the argument about methods alone and focused on getting Jenny to drink some water. She protested weakly, but was overruled by everyone around her. She drank a few sips before putting her hand on her stomach. “No more. I’m going to throw up.”
    Gretchen put her finger in Jenny’s face. “Don’t you dare! You keep that down. No fair dying on us now. We’ve made it to Happyville.”
    Jenny smiled thinly. “Happyville? Is that an actual place?” She looked around. “It looks like an office lobby.”
    “It’s a prison, actually, and the name is temporary. But it’s a safe place and no one here is going to hurt you. So please, try to stay awake and eat something. Please?”
    Bianca pushed her further into a sitting position. “Yeah, please? Come on, we miss you! Gretchen is so incredibly boring, I’m going crazy.”
    “Yeah, and Bianca is as dull as dirt. We need you to liven the place up.” Gretchen was rubbing Jenny’s back in circles.
    “I’ll try,” said Jenny. “But is there somewhere I can go to the bathroom, maybe?”
    “Take her outside, in the bushes somewhere,” I said.
    Peter ran into the nearby restroom and came out, grinning and holding out a handful of toilet paper. “Ta daaaaa!” he said, handing it to Jenny.
    She took it and smiled. “Wow. It’s real. I haven’t seen anything but grass and leaves in …” She looked at Bianca. “How long has it been?”
    “Too long,” said Bianca. “Come on, let’s go.” She and Gretchen lifted Jenny by the armpits and guided her out the door. She was walking, but barely.
    After the door closed behind them, Winky asked. “Do you thig she’s gudda mayg it?”
    “I don’t know. We don’t even know what’s wrong with her.” I decided then not to worry about things I couldn’t control. I had plenty of other concerns to keep myself worried and stressed about. I’d leave Gretchen and Bianca to worry about their friend, at least for now.
    Winky and I helped the guys with dinner. We splurged and had some cans of beans, some dried meat, and some limp but still decent vegetables we’d taken from the swamp. Jenny was even able to eat some of it and keep it down. As she got more water in her, the heat on her forehead seemed to lessen and she became more animated.
    Once dinner was done, we sat in a circle, ready to bed down for the night. None of us wanted any privacy, and kept our sleeping spots together.
    “So what is our plan for tomorrow?” asked Peter. “And when are we going to start?”
    “Step one has to be finding out where the dead bodies are,” I said, without hesitation.
    Everyone but Winky and I groaned.
    “What? Stop being babies. We need to find them and get rid of them. We can’t make a home here until that nasty business is taken care of. And we’re all going to help.”
    “Except Jenny,” said Bianca.
    “Yeah. Except Jenny,” I conceded. She was already asleep again, and I wasn’t convinced she was going to survive whatever was ailing her.
    “What if there are, like, hundreds of corpses here?” asked Jamal. “I don’t mean to be morbid, but that’s just … I don’t know. Creepy. They’ll all be skeletons by now.”
    “Thank you for introducing that image into my nightmares for tonight, Jamal,” I said, rolling my eyes.
    “Sorry. Just thought I’d point out the possibilities.”
    Bodo was sitting next to me, holding my hand and stroking my fingers. It felt good to not only have him near but also sober, finally.
    “I agree with Bryn. We findt da bodies, bury dem in da yard somewhere, clean da place down, and den start to make a home.”
    “This place is huger than huge,” said Gretchen. “We could all fit in the smallest part of