Iridescent: Chapter Twenty-Three

Iridescent

Chapter Twenty-Three

~Medical Leave~

After the Fall

Naru woke up to a light shining in his eyes. He squinted and tried turning his head away from the light. The light followed his movements however and wouldn’t go away.

“Stay still,” a voice told him.

Soon after, the light disappeared and he looked into the face of his doctor. Naru shot up and backed away. Dr. Jekyll simply stared at him before looking away at some equipment in the ambulance.

“Nice to see you as well, Naru,” the doctor said.

“Dr. Jekyll,” Naru’s voice was hoarse and an octave higher than he intended, “What are you doing here?”

Jekyll turned to look at him again, “I don’t know, saving your life or something of that nature. You were critically dehydrated. If you want I could leave. If I do, however, you chances on surviving are not overwhelmingly in your favor.”

“What do you mean?” Naru asked. He thought that if he could get away with it he would rather take care of himself.

The doctor sighed, “Well, you can’t eat any solids at the moment else your body will go into shock. Therefore you are on a liquid diet. You need an I.V. drip for a few days to get some liquid back into your system and that is before you can even drink any kind of liquid on your own. Did I mention that you’re legs need to be amputated? The bottom of your feet have serious burns as well. That just about covers half of what is wrong with you. Oh, and your most likely to die in the next twenty-four hours.”

“Oh,” again Naru’s voice jumped an octave.

“For now, get some rest,” Jekyll got up and walked out of the ambulance, “But not too much because you might go into a coma.”

The doctor grabbed his wide brimmed hat as he left. He closed the door and smiled to himself.

“Was that a smile I saw, Doctor?” Puppetmaster asked as he walked up to the ambulance.

Jekyll looked at the coming visitor. The smile on his face had disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. He pulled on his hat slightly.

“I haven’t the least idea what you mean,” Jekyll said.

Puppetmaster smiled, “How is our last patient doing?”

“He’s perfectly healthy,” Jekyll said, “He just needs a little while longer on the I.V. drip.”

“That’s good to hear,” Puppetmaster nodded.

He looked in the direction of Kumo and Chou. Kumo had a black blindfold over his eyes and his sister was helping him around the camp. She made sure he didn’t run into anything or anyone. Chou looked after her brother like any good sister would.

“How is Kumo doing?” Puppetmaster asked.

Jekyll looked over at the two for a moment, “He only has temporary blindness. In combination with his dehydration and his taking of the Blue Gold the stress on his body was too much. There was no lasting damage and he should get his eyes sight back gradually.”

“And his sister?” Puppetmaster pointed.

“I told her that they both need to take it easy and drink a lot of water,” Jekyll leaned against the ambulance, “She understood and I haven’t seen her without a full water bottle yet. Hina as well.”

Puppetmaster smiled, “Yeah, Hina is quite the fighter isn’t she. She hasn’t been quite herself without her brother. Are you sure he will be alright?”

Jekyll thought a moment, “Yes. He might be under the impression he might die at any moment in time but in reality he’s just fine.”

“Geez,” Puppetmaster shook his head, “I’m glad you aren’t my doctor.”

As the two talked like old friends, Chaud disembarked the bus. He looked around a moment before finding Hina sitting in the shade of one of the trucks. She looked up as Chaud walked up to her. Chaud sat down next to her.

“Why is it so hot?” Hina asked.

Chaud looked at her, “I think is has a large part to do with that we’re in a desert.”

“Why are deserts hot?” Hina asked again.

Chaud smiled and used his hands to demonstrate, “If I remember right it’s because the clouds get pushed up because of the mountains and the clouds kind of by pass this area. The cost isn’t as much as a desert. It rains more there.”

“Is that why there are so many oases there?” Hina questioned.

“Theoretically,” Chaud smiled.

“We’re headed over there right? At least that is what I hear,” Hina said.

“Yep,” Chaud nodded, “We’re headed off the Island.”

Hina looked at him, “You know, you are the most annoying person I know. I never thought I’d be happy to see you again so soon.”

“Thanks.” Chaud furrowed his eyebrows, “I think.”

“Don’t you think its ironic Naru gets stuck with Dr. Jekyll again?” Hina laughed, “I think it’s freaking hilarious!!”

Chaud started to look concerned, “Yeah, I should probably check on the poor guy.”

“Leave him for a bit. I think he deserves it for almost getting us all killed. Man, is this water good or what!?” Hina took a sip of water. She stopped a moment and looked at Chaud, “How are you holding up?”

Chaud shrugged, “I’m doing alright I guess. I like to think that I’m looking after Amber but it seems she’s the one doing the most looking after over me. You know, I think Naru really just wanted the best for you and to keep you safe. Even if it ended up a disaster unlike he planned.”

“Yeah, I know,” Hina sighed, “You sound like you’ve had your fair share of screw ups.”

Chaud nodded, “We big brothers try, you know.”

Hina smiled, “That might be true but we little sisters aren’t a bunch a pushovers you know. We can pick up your slack.”

“That’s good to know,” Chaud said as he thought to himself. He got up to his feet, “I think I’ll pay your brother a visit.”

“Tell him I laugh upon his misery!” Hina called.

Chaud walked toward the ambulance where Naru was being held. Puppetmaster looked at Chaud as he approached. He smiled and reached out a hand toward Chaud’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry about waking you up abruptly last night,” Puppetmaster apologies.

“I only got a bump on the back of my head. I’ll be fine,” Chaud stated.

Jekyll looked over at Chaud, “I could take a look if you’d like.”

Chaud shook his head, “No, I’m fine.”

Jekyll shrugged and crossed his arms, “If you drop dead in a few hours, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Chaud smiled awkwardly, “You’re joking right?”

“We’ll just have to see in a few hours,” Jekyll looked serious with his usual blank expression.

“Right,” Chaud said, “How is Naru doing?”

“Dead,” Jekyll said casually.

Puppetmaster smiled, “We were just talking about him. He’s going to be just fine. Only he doesn’t know that.”

“Is it cool if I pay him a visit?” Chaud asked.

Jekyll shrugged. He didn’t care either way so Chaud opened the ambulance and climbed in. Naru looked stressed out to say the least. He turned his head slowly toward Chaud. His skin was pale and his black hair didn’t help either making him look sickly. Jekyll’s mental games were already taking their toll. Chaud crossed his arms and sighed. Now he was going to have to persuade Naru that he was going to live no matter what Jekyll had said. That was going to take a while. Luckily they had some time on the trip to talk about it.