Getting Ready

“You scare me sometimes, Unique’, William told her.

“Well, good. As long as you hold onto the proper attitude of respect, we’ll get along just fine. How’s your arm doing?”

“It hurts like hell and it’s beginning to throb. It feels like a second heart beat in there.” Unique scrambled around the floor of the basket. She spotted SC’s shoulder bag peeking out from under John’s body. She gave a tug on the strap and John’s torso shifted. His head thumped on the floor of the basket, his eyes staring at the sky. Unique turned away and upended SC’s bag.

“What are you doing, Unique?” William asked. “That isn’t yours.”

“I know that, William. I’m looking for something we can use and SC isn’t going to need it. “Aha”, she said, “I think I’ve found our lunch. It’s not what I was looking for, but it will do.”

“You found lunch; did she have a happy meal tucked away in there?” William asked sarcastically.

“Sorry, no chicken nuggets for you, Will, but I found a pack of nabs and a bottle of water. Of course, if SC had been a real Southern girl, this would be a bottle of RC cola. But water’s probably better for us anyway.” Unique started to tuck items back into SC’s bag. Her hand closed around a small cylinder. “What do you know, pepper spray.” Unique tucked the black and yellow cylinder in the back pocket of her jeans. She had always had an unreasonable fear of rabid animals and they were a long way out in the woods.

“Did you find a cell phone in there by any chance?” William interrupted Unique’s reverie.

“What? Oh, no William. No cell phone. If SC had one she must have left it back in her room. But she did have some useful things in here.” Unique stood up and crossed over to where William was sitting. She reached into her front pocked and pulled out a small tin. “Hold out your hand.”

“Altoids? I know they’re curiously strong mints, but I don’t think they’ll do me any good Unique.”

“Will Haskins, shut up and hold out your hand.” Unique opened the little tin and selected four tablets. “Do you have any allergies, Will? Are you allergic to codeine or aspirin or anything like that?”

“Not that I know of”, he replied. “Why do you ask?”

“Here, take these.” Unique dropped one long pink tablet and three small round white ones into William’s outstretched palm.

“The pink one is Darvocet and there’s an aspirin and two Tylenol. I have two Tylenol 3’s left but I think I’ll hold onto those for now. You might need them more later. Those won’t stop your pain, but hopefully they’ll help take the edge off”, she said as she cracked the top on the bottle of water.

“Can you do them all at once or do you need to do them one at a time?”

“I think I know how to do this, Unique”, said William.

“I’m just trying to help you, Will. You can’t use your right hand and you are right handed, aren’t you?”

William tossed the handful of pills into his mouth and held out his hand for the water bottle. He threw back his head and washed down the pills with a quick swallow. He took another drink and handed the bottle back to Unique. She twisted the cap back on and handed it back to him.

“Do you always carry a small pharmacy with you in your pocket?”

“Whenever I leave the house, yes, I do.”

“Why?” William tilted his head and looked at her curiously. “You don’t look like a druggie and those aren’t exactly street drugs. What else do you have in your pocket?”

“It's for chronic pain, William. I've had it for over 20 years. Most of the time I can deal with it; sometimes I can’t. My ‘pocket stash’ is for when I can’t.” Unique turned away and started going through John’s backpack. William sat in stunned silence as he realized the import of what she’d just said.

“You gave me your medicine, Unique. You’re willing to suffer so I won’t have to.” William watched her going through what little gear there was in the basket. Unique had started a small pile next to John’s empty backpack.

She turned to face him. “I’m used to it, William, and you’re not. And you’re going to be hurting a lot more than I am. I don’t have much. SC had some Midol in her purse; that’ll help. What I really want is something long and flat and stiff to use as a splint for your arm. And I’m not finding anything.” She sat down with a thump and held her head in her hands. She ran her fingers through her hair at the temples. To William, it looked as though she were trying to pull her hair out.

“What’s wrong, Unique?” William asked quietly, “Besides the obvious, that is.”

She looked up at him with a sigh. “We have to get out of here, William. It gets cold in these mountains at night. It’s late August and that’s more like October or November where we’re from. Your arm’s set for now, but that’s only because you’re holding still. The minute we try to climb out of this basket, it’s going to shift. Not only is that going to hurt like hell, I’m afraid it’s going to break through the skin. I don’t have anything to dress it with, no antibiotics, no nothing. We don’t even know where we are and neither does anyone else.” Unique put her head back in her hands.

“I’m sorry. I’m really and truly sorry for this”, William said.

Unique looked back up at William. “This isn’t your fault. How could this be your fault? You didn’t know Neuro was going to go crazy like that. Hell, I didn’t know he was crazy and I’d met him before, plenty of times. I’d been to his lab, I’d met his family.” Her voice trailed off as she noticed a blackening sky behind William’s head.

“Did you take his research notes, Unique?”

“Will Haskins, I’m going to break your other arm. Of course I didn’t. We’re not even in the same field, for God’s sake. I tried to explain that to him and he didn’t want to listen. And I don’t know about him”, she nodded toward Neuro’s body, ‘but I’m a survivor and that’s what I intend to do.” She crawled over to Neuro and started unthreading his belt from his jeans. She laid the belt aside and struggled to get his jacket off his body.

“What are you doing?” William asked.

“I’m collecting”, she told him.

“Collecting what? I’m not wearing a dead man’s clothes.”

“You will if it gets cold enough. And I believe it’s fixin’ to rain. At least I hope it’s rain. I don’t know what the elevation is here so I’m hoping it doesn’t snow.” Unique crab walked back to John’s body and removed his belt. She wiped the blood off the leather on the legs of his jeans.

“What are you going to do with the belts?” William asked.

“You’ll see”, she said. Unique rolled a sweat shirt she’d found in John’s back pack into a tight tube. “Hold out your arm, Will. Gently now, lay it down on top of this.” She ran a belt above and below the break in William’s arm. As she tightened them, she said, “Let me know if I pull it too tight. I want it to hold still, but I don’t want to cut off your circulation. It’s only temporary until I can work out something better.” Once she had his arm padded and stabilized she looked at him and said, “Will, you’re not going to like this part.”