Page 40 of Wild Tempest

"How are you feeling?"

He gave me a look like it was a silly question. It was.

"Do you think you can stand?”

He didn't look too certain.

I helped him to his feet, and he wobbled. The rolling deck didn't help his situation. His eyes spun. I held onto his arm and kept him from falling over.

We staggered through the corridor and took the main ladderwell up to Level 02. I escorted him to an empty stateroom near Dale.

Jack crawled into a bunk and groaned.

"You need to keep hydrated,” I said. “I'll grab another IV from the med lab and another sports drink.” I put my hand on his forehead. He had a high fever. There was no denying it.

I left the stateroom, grabbed the items, and returned. I ran an IV, making sure to swab everything down. I made him sit up and drink a little of the sports drink.

"I’ll study the documents from the lab and see if there's any kind of an antidote.”

"I just came down with a cold. That's all this is.”

"I think this is a little more than a common cold.”

He dismissed it with a scowl and a headshake. "I'll be fine. I just need to sleep this off."

The violent swells tossed the rust bucket around. It was enough to make even the most hardened sailor uneasy. I gave Jack some Dramamine as a precautionary measure and told him I'd be back to check on him shortly.

Without power, it was pitch black in the berthing compartment. The batteries of our flashlights wouldn't last long. We needed to conserve them. There was no telling how long we’d be aboard this hunk of scrap.

I returned to Dale's stateroom and filled Tempest in on the situation.

"I told you he's got the bug," Dale said. "The two of you will have it before long as well. Nothing you can do to stop it.”

“Thanks for the optimism.”

“You can’t positive attitude your way out of this one, son.”

Fear filled Tempest’s eyes. It wasn’t exactly what we wanted to hear.

"Once you two lose your heads, I'm going to need a way to protect myself," Dale said.

"You'll be just fine," I said, making promises I knew I couldn't keep. There was no telling what was in store for us.

I left the compartment and looked for a place to bunk for the night. In the engineer’s stateroom next door, I shook the dust out of the sheets and made my rack.

By that time, my stomach rumbled.

It had been a while since I’d had anything to eat or drink. I needed to keep my strength up. So far, I felt great. I didn’t have any signs of fever. I hoped it stayed that way.

26

"Hey, are you in here?" Tempest asked as she stumbled through the darkness toward my stateroom. She hovered in the doorway.

I used my flashlight to read through the log books from the lab.

"I don't know about you, but I'm getting hungry,” Tempest said. “Do you think anything is safe to eat around here?”

"If we wash off bottles and cans before we open them, it might go a long way to decontaminate them. I grabbed alcohol wipes from the med bay. That should do the trick." I paused. "How are you feeling?”