FLARE

“Shit.”

The cut in her arm was red and hot, the skin around it puffy.

She thought she’d have more time.

Okay. She definitely couldn’t get Gaunt today, this needed to be treated now. She didn’t know how long it took for sepsis to set in but she did know it was not something she should fuck around with.

Antibiotics. She needed antibiotics, and clean bandages. Pharmacies had bandages, right? And extras for Gaunt and maybe stitches for them too.

May as well splash some more whisky on before she goes. Would it do anything? Probably not but it wouldn’t hurt. She uncorked it and let a bit drizzle onto the cut.

“Kiiiiiiii son of a bitch!”

That was a lie, it really hurt.

That being done, she corked it and stuffed it in her backpack, cushioned with the towel. She tossed in her reusable water bottle on top, as well as the soap and her can opener. Just in case she found something she needed to open or a spot to clean up. The little duffel went in a different compartment since it didn’t fit in the main section. It was a struggle to zip it up but she made it work.

She’d fashioned a crude hilt for one of the kitchen knives. It still wasn’t a good weapon since only one side was sharp, but now she could use it without worrying about slipping and cutting herself. The blade was stuck into an empty plastic water bottle as a makeshift (crappy) sheath and stuffed into a side pocket of her backpack, in easy reach.

The rest of her stuff could probably stay here for now. That being said, she did take the liberty of at least hiding it in the cupboard under the concierge desk. It was useful, but probably not too difficult to find and cumbersome to carry on supply runs.

Time to go.

She exited the lobby, squinting in the sun. Once her eyes adjusted, she looked around to make sure she didn’t miss anything. Okay, that wall was seriously huge, how did Gaunt not see it? How had she not seen it?

Whatever. It could wait until she wasn’t dying.

It was only a few kilometres to the old pharmacy, so she made it within an hour. The insides were dim and a lot of the shelves were bare, which wasn’t ideal. There was also a mysterious splatter of something gluey covering an entire shelf. Fortunately it looked dry by now.

The first thing she did was go for the shelves that weren’t empty. Laxatives. Makeup and nail polish. Hand lotion.

Nothing super useful. All the other sections were stripped bare.

That was… fine. It was fine. Antibiotics were controlled, they would be in the back anyways.

She was hungry. She was so hungry, and the walk had only made it worse. How much were those chips and tomatoes? Maybe 400 calories all together?

She was thirsty, too, but she didn’t want to drink the rest of her water yet. She didn’t know when she’d get more.

Why wasn’t there some candy here, at least?

She lay down at the floor, squinting through the darkness at the spaces under the shelves, moving every so often to check a different set.

Nothing.

She grabbed something once, but it turned out to be a crumpled tissue.

Okay. Check behind the counter.

She swung her legs over the counter at the back. The back wall… wasn’t that supposed to be full of stuff, usually?

There were only a few pill bottles here and there on the floor.

She picked one up. Empty. Didn’t recognize the name.

Same with the second except instead of being empty, it was full of sand, a bit of broken glass, and what might be pill dust at the very bottom.

This one was empty…

Amoxicillin.

Damn it, why did it have to be empty?!

Maybe there were pills scattered on the floor?

She looked at the floor. Got down on her hands and knees and felt around. Stuck her fingers into the gross dusty corners and undersides where they barely fit. Clawed at the separation between wall and floor. Checked all the drawers and the spaces behind and under them. Ripped up the chair cushions. Went into the private room for consults and getting vaccines, and looked everywhere there. Tried opening the time-delay safe and obviously failed. Which was probably for the best since getting addicted to drugs was not on her to-do-list.

Did something she almost didn’t believe with how gross it was, and checked in the bathrooms and inside the toilets, sink drains and urinals as much as she could. She wasn’t a plumber. And had no clue how to take the pipes apart so she left those be.

She found some stuff. Not in the toilets, thank god. But she had a good handful of loose pills of various kinds.

Unfortunately, she didn’t know which ones were the ones she wanted.

The little blue ones looked… vaguely familiar. Where had she seen them before?

Not Tylenol, not allergy meds. Probably not a vitamin pill.

One of her friends took it, she was pretty sure. Always at the same time…

Right. Birth control.

Not what she wanted.

She separated all the birth control pills out, setting them in a neat pile on the counter. Then she took the other 3 kinds, and separated those out too.

After a minute of staring, she was forced to admit that she had no clue what they were.

She also noticed it was getting stuffy inside the pharmacy.

Great.

Her choices were:

Eat random pills and possibly die as a result.

Don’t eat random pills and likely die of infection.

Doesn’t matter, you’re gonna die of thirst no matter what you do.

She must have sat there for fifteen minutes, deliberating.

Then got her phone out and sent a text.

Anyone know what antibiotics look like? I have pills here and I don’t know what they are. One is a large white pill that’s kind of long and squarish. There’s a little orange one that’s shaped like a round disk, and the last one is cylindrical, half red and half yellow.

After about ten minutes, Spike replied.

No i cant help

So she was waiting for Gaunt and Lyre.

It was another hour before she gave up. At this point, it was hot enough inside the pharmacy that she was starting to sweat.

That wasn’t good. She didn’t have the water to spare.

She couldn’t wait around here anymore, she had to make a decision and leave for somewhere cooler. She needed to go out and search for food and water.

This was so stupid.

She picked up an orange pill. Stared at it.

“Is this like one of those heart medications that kill people?” She asked, to no one in particular.

In this state, she couldn’t travel far. She’d get dehydrated and possibly make the infection worse.

It was these pills, or nothing.

I’m doing something kind of stupid. If I don’t text back by tomorrow I’m probably dead.

She tossed the pill into her mouth, washing it down with the last of her water. Then, she cleaned up the three unknown piles, pouring them into the smallest compartment of her backpack.

She didn’t die immediately, which was good.

She should probably go look for water now.

She left the pharmacy. It was marginally cooler outside despite being under the burning sun, but that was little relief when it was still unbearably hot.

Had she seen any other good buildings? A clinic or hospital? She’d seen a university campus, but it was too far away.

She’d just go to the next intact building and search there, then.

After a little while of walking, she stumbled and fell. She was tired. Good to rest…

She woke up to an awful smell, and opened her eyes to see a snout inches from her face.

“AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!”

Her hands came up, whacking the thing away, and then she was crawling back and trying to fumble with her knife at the same time. Oh god, why was that rat so big? Her fingers wouldn’t listen to her, they were clumsy and her body felt heavy.

Where did it come from- how did she get here? Did she pass out? She yanked the knife out of her backpack, but it was still in its sheath and she had to grab it and tear it off.

She tried to scramble to her feet, nearly lost her balance, then succeeded. Standing on wobbly legs, she pointed her knife at the rat- there was a second one beside it.

Were they going to attack now that she was awake?

And there was a third, scuttling in behind the other two. While she was watching it, one of them leaped at her, and she jumped away on instinct. Unfortunately, she stumbled on the landing, falling backwards onto her butt.

When another jumped at her, she swung out clumsily with the knife. It skidded along the rat’s fur, and while she didn’t see, it didn’t feel like much damage. The rat fell beside her, and then attempted to bite her leg.

“No!” She slammed her fist down, trying to crush its head, but it easily dodged.

One of the other rats sunk its teeth into her shoe, and she started frantically kicking, trying to dislodge it. Thankfully, it worked, and the rat went flying a couple feet away.

She couldn’t get away. She couldn’t run. The rat that had gone flying was already back up on its feet, and the one from before was still trying to get close as she flailed with the knife. She didn’t know where the third was.

Rocks. Rocks had worked with the dog, right? She fumbled around for any loose stones or bits of cement she could throw, but mostly just came up with a handful of gravel. She threw it in front of her anyway, at the rat crouching in preparation for another lunge.

It did absolutely nothing, and the rat hit her arm, clinging on with its little legs. Searing pain erupted as it sank its teeth into her arm, and she momentarily chose to ignore the other rat to turn the knife on it.

The blade parted fur and skin, only to hit something hard and slide across without doing any more damage. In desperation, she tried again and again, only to get the same result. She tried a stabbing motion, going into the rat’s side as little feet clung to her lower back and started climbing up her shirt.

The knife skidded, caught, and slid into the rat, the tip emerging from the other side as it choked blood onto her arm. She shook her arm, and it let go, still held up by her hand holding the knife.

She purposely fell backwards, squashing the rat on her back between her and the ground, as she freed her knife. It slid out from under her with the impact, and she lurched up again, twisting around with her knife in her good hand.

The knife slipped and bounced off it, not even getting through the fur.

What the fuck sort of rat was this?

Knife didn’t work. What did she have?

There, a big rock. She grabbed it and hurled it at the rat, striking near its shoulders.

It squished like soft clay, totally flattening the rat at the impact site, no sound except a soft thump. The rat tried to stand, blood spurted from its nostrils, and it collapsed, dead.

“Where are your FUCKING BONES?!”

Third rat. Where was it?

There. Creeping forwards slowly. It froze when it realised it had been spotted, the two staring at each other.

“Go away or I’ll kill you too.”

It ran forwards, and she held up her knife, grabbing the bloody rock with the other, unfortunately injured hand.

Which one?

She made a snap decision and threw the rock at it, choosing to keep the knife. Her arm screamed in pain, but she did manage to hit it, though not with the force she would have liked. The rat barely flinched, spine bending it a way it definitely wasn’t supposed to to absorb the little shock there was.

Knife.

As it went for her leg, she stabbed the knife down. It went through like the rat was made of water, jarring her arm as it hit the ground and the tip broke off.

It was hurt, but still trying to get to her, and there wasn’t any noticeable bleeding. She pulled out the knife, so she could try a slashing motion.

The stab wound pulled together again, no visible damage save for a thin line in the fur.

Shit.

Slashing wouldn’t work, then. She kicked it away to give herself time to think. Not blunt force either.

Decapitation?

Worth a shot.

She’d need to hold it down.

“Get back here, you wretched bastard!”

She grabbed onto it, and it did not feel the way a rat was supposed to. Her fingers pierced through many thin, wet membranes, the surface slipping but the holes pinning it in place. She raised a foot and stomped just in front of her hand, feeling it flatten, but it was stuck under her shoe.

She switched her knife back to her good hand and crouched, sawing at its neck.

It worked, in the most disgusting way possible. Slimy layers of the head slid off as they were detached from the main body, piling in a goopy mass on the ground.

She had scraped roadkill bunnies into Tupperware containers and eaten the salvageable bits in stew, but this was too much even for her.

How did she even know if this monstrosity was dead?

She ground her foot a little into what remained.

Seemed dead.

You know, now that she had a moment to think, it was entirely possible she was tripping off that pill she swallowed and none of this was even real.

She got out her phone and checked the time- oh ew her hand was still slimy.

She’d been out for hours.

She looked back at the possibly-drug-fuelled-hallucination rat corpses.

Maybe best to assume things were real until proven otherwise, just in case. That bite felt pretty damn real.

Another route for infection. God damn it.

She needed to stop and take a look, not out in the open, so she made her way to a gas station convenience store that was still mostly standing.

When she stepped inside, she paused.

Was that…?

No, no way, it was probably empty, no way she got that lucky-

It was full.

Somehow, there was a full, four-liter jug of water sitting in the corner for her to take.

“Yes!”

She sat down beside it, opened it up, and drank without hesitation. It tasted like it had been sitting around for a while and also like the best drink she’d ever had.

Finally, a lucky break. She’d wash out her wounds, maybe look for other stuff here. It was late, so she’d stay the night.

Once she’d gotten herself cleaned up, she opened up her phone, and started typing.