stuck_mynock | [OOM] Kazic III.

[OOM] Kazic III.

Out in the vast forests of Kazic III, the carpet of snow is rather abruptly disturbed as a flash of green light sends snowflakes flying outwards and animals fleeing.

A moment later, a green line appears in the air, and widens to admit (more like toss out with considerable force) three people. It flickers for a moment, before creaking closed again, and vanishing with a puff of greenish-white flame.

As far as worlds go, it's one of the more interesting ones to land in. The trees are evergreen and ridiculously tall, the snow is thick and heavy, and the sky has no sun to speak of, just shifting and glowing clouds in shades of gold, pink, amber and red.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Traumatic? Like Nottingham Castle again? No wonder there were more nightmares after. I wish he would have said something. What was yours about? Holby? Those gangs attacking hospital people again?"

Teja takes Guppy's wrist.

"The world is very dangerous," he says. "Even yours has all that darkness lurking under the bright face of everyday life."

"No, mine was okay. I saw Alex, a lot older, playing in a band. It was entrancing but not frightning, though following it could have lead me into danger by not being aware of my surroundings."

There's plenty more she can get out of him, but that is the truth about his own hallucination.

"I don't know what Will's was about, but he was very frightened, we had to hold him back."

He keeps focusing on Atton being missing, on how he felt when the others were so frightened, Atton's hallucination that they could all see. But those aren't his stories to tell to Kate, and keeping those under wraps add to the tension.

"Hold him back? What the hell happened? And what about Atton? I remember that time when he was missing, and we thought he was gone." She was getting increasingly upset about what was held back.

"And what attacked all of you? Couldn't be just what we saw here so far, right?"

Teja holds on to Guppy's wrist and says nothing. Kate is scary enough by herself.

Guppy's pulse quickens as Kate starts to get upset, as does his breathing. He's got his pulse up to about 120 now.

"He saw something we couldn't see, and started running away from it... we had to hold him back, it wasn't safe in the caves if he got lost. We hugged him tight and kept him safe until it was over. Atton was with us, he had a similar one."

He holds back that they could all see it. It was Atton's moment.

"I don't know what was attacking us back there. Many things attacked us on the trip, mostly zombies." his voice starts to shake slightly.

"There was a man, a sort of half zombie, called Enzu Koren, who chased us across the galaxy trying to kill us."

"Wait, across the galaxy?! Is he still out there? Gee, way not to tell us about *that* threat!"

If she is a tiny bit scarier yet, Kate will get Guppy to panic, easily.

Teja knows that this is the purpose, and so pushes down his instinct to defend the poor man against this fierce valkyrie.

Okay, this is working, his pulse is up to about 140 now, and his breathing noticably quicker. Guppy concentrates on death, doom and the fact that he's really upsetting Kate, then gives his answer.

"No, we killed Koren. The three of us, together. It's... it's the only time I've ever wished for a person to die. He would have killed us but I still helped take a life. The final blow was struck simultaneously by the three of us, as I stabbed my sword into his middle. We were all wounded, though Atton fixed us up. I don't remember much about Will's injuries; I collapsed from blood loss after the fight and had to be carried to safety."

He can count his own pulse; it's thumping in his ears. It's about 150 now, and he's starting to get chest pain. And inside he knows it's because of the panic attack, but that cold feeling is creeping up inside him - what if it's not? What if it's a heart attack? What if he goes into cardiac arrest right here, where neither Kate or Teja have any idea how to prevent it? His heart is racing, his fingers are starting to tingle with the hyperventilation, he's sweating, he's shaking and he feels like he's going to die. And then Alex will have to grow up an orphan and he'll never see him or Frogspawn again...

No, it's not a heart attack, it's a panic attack. One that is starting to self-perpetuate because he knows he's losing control of it. But the longer he can keep this up, the more likely he can attract Atton.

"Next question?" he asks, breathlessly.

160, if Teja can count that fast.

Kate's eyes narrowed, more from concern than anger now, seeing how much he was being affected.

"You all had to kill him? Even you? You're a doctor though," She asked, even though her worry and concern was showing more in her expression.

Teja nods to her, and makes a calming gesture.

Guppy's pulse is high enough already to, hopefully, serve as a beacon for Atton.

"I did what I had to do." Guppy says. "It took three of us. At one point, I had to stop Koren bringing his sword down on Atton's neck."

His eyes darken.

"You think we didn't talk about it because we wanted to hide things from you? I don't know about Will, or Atton, but the reason why I didn't talk about it was because... because I'm not proud of having killed someone... of being so weak that I nearly cracked up in the middle of the trip... of letting them down over and over again... because things on that trip frightened me, and I've been frightened too long..."

He feels like he's struggling to breathe, but he knows he's hyperventilating. He's also starting to go a funny colour.

"So I bottled it up, repressed it... shoved down everything that was bad, or frightening, or I was ashamed of from that trip. And don't you dare tell Atton it affected me."

He glances at Teja. "What's my pulse rate... at? Feel like I'm dying here."

Kate watched him, and came closer to lend a hand of support.

"First of all, you're not weak! Stop thinking you are. You're a strong doctor, husband, and father."

She then added, "And you did hide it. Ok, you had a point. Atton's always secretive about things that bother, and Will didn't want to worry."

"His pulse is fast, and he fears badly enough," Teja says to her. "You may stop scaring him now, Kate."

Guppy shoots Kate a grateful look, and nods at Teja.

Okay, now he needs to take control. Easier said than done. He concentrates on breathing, pushing the response back again. It's slow progress; his chest hurts and the fear that he's actually damaged himself is keeping his heart rate up.

Fortunately his body decides to take charge of this situation by performing a system restart - as his heart rate slows down a bit, his blood pressure drops and he quietly passes out on Teja.

Once he's down, his heart rate and breathing return to normal. He'll come around in a minute.

As Guppy passed out, Kate shot Teja a look, "I wasn't scaring him now. I stopped a minute ago. How is he?" His color was starting to improve at least.

"His pulse is slowing," Teja says. "He is returning to normal; and still, Atton his not appeared to save him. We must try something else."

Guppy opens his eyes and looks up at them. He tries to sit up.

"Take it easy. Need anything?" Kate went to help him up, crouched down on the opposite side from Teja.

"You might wish to drink something," Teja says.

Pause.

"This did not work; so we must follow the first plan."

"Depends how far away he is." Guppy says to Teja. "And how far the signal goes."

Looking at Teja. "There's some water and a bottle of valium in the kit bag, please. Watch out, it's deeper than it looks."

"We don't know if he ended up in the same place or world as us," Kate pointed out, and went to open up the kit bag. She stared down in it.

"How deep is this?"

"That looks like water," Teja says, "but I know not what manner of draught 'Valium' would be. Something to make him well?"

Judging from the Latin.

"It's an anti-anxiety medication." Guppy says. "It was the one thing I kept wishing I'd packed on my last trip."

Kate then fished out the water, and took a few moments to locate the hidden bottle of Valium.

"Here," She remarked as she handed both to Guppy.

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