Alive and Kicking

Jonah had finished his shower. His black hair still wet from the water, a towel wrapped around his waist as he stared at the man in the steamed mirror. Showers were a small bliss in this god forsaken wasteland they called a world. In that shower Jonah had came to a decision. Today would be the day he shared how he felt about Sean. The reality was that Jonah wasn’t even sure how he felt about his best friend. All he knew was that he couldn’t imagine surviving this world with anyone else but him. Yes... today Sean would know.

He left the bathroom and upon his exit he heard the one and only Sean. A small smile crept along his pale face exposing perfect white teeth that concealed what was left of his tongue. “Here. I am here.” Jonah responded as best he could. Not having a tongue really made some of the sounds hard or completely impossible. Jonah watched out of view Sean as he finished his words that made a laugh erupt from him. Jonah in that moment wanted to tell him how he felt but he didn’t. Instead he pulled out himself a chair after taking some breakfast from the table. “I-I wanna ell ou omthing” Jonah know Sean could understand him even with his tongue problem.

Donavan had just started to fill jars with whiskey when he heard a knock on his front door. "Donavan? You in there?" He recognized the voice to be Lila's. "Yeah, one second." Donavan said as he finished filling a jar with whiskey and placed another sizably larger jar in front of the spout of the Still to catch more of the liquor. Donavan then started walking quickly to the front door and opened it right when Lila asked if he needed any help. Donavan smiled and said "Well I'm basically just filling jars with fresh whiskey from my Still, um if you've got the time I could use a little help in a bit, the Still can be a pain in the ass at times when I need to clean it." Donavan said. "Oh, uh come on in if you like." Donavan said as he stood aside in the doorway to let Lila in. "Good morning by the way" Donavan said with a warm smile as he walked back towards his Still and switched out the jars in front of the spout. "So how has your day been so far?" He said as he continued filling up jars with whiskey.

The first week of Milah's stay in Sunrise had been fraught with medication, hydration, and so much sleep that she almost felt she was in a coma. The people that had greeted them at the gate, a memory that was now foggy with illness, had been kind enough to immediately point them in the direction of doctors and nurses. They had gotten very, very fortunate, and Milah realized this in the brief glimmers of consciousness that she had throughout the week. In and out of fever dreams, she heard snippets of conversation between the medical staff. They had started to treat her with antibiotics in order to see what she responded well to, and on top of that, they had provided her with a healthy dose of steroids in order to get her lungs back in order. She had heard mention of no one really knowing what she had, but that the hopes were that either the medicine would clear whatever bacteria was afflicting her, or that if it was a virus, the steroids would help her to gather strength while her body fought off the infection.

Milah didn't know which one was had been making her ill, but she did know, as she opened her eyes late into the morning on the seventh day, that she was finally starting to come around the bend and feel a little bit better. She was still extremely exhausted, despite doing almost nothing but sleeping, and she very much felt like all of her limbs were weighed down by a heavy bag of bricks. However, her lungs ceased burning, and the coughing was finally beginning to subside. Her fever had certainly broken as well, if the sweat in her hairline was anything to go by.

In her almost comatose state, she remembered spurts of Lincoln's voice, and the touch of his hand on her own. As she looked around the room, she didn't notice him anywhere, and that absence made her miss him terribly. Lincoln had saved her all those years ago, and he had saved her once again. He had saved her a thousand times in between, too. He was her knight in shining, bloody armor, and she smiled despite herself as she sat up and ran her hands through her hair.

"Feeling any better today?" Frank asked as he walked into the room. Milah remembered him, the kind doctor that had administered her care in the first place. She smiled and nodded, though when she tried to speak, she found her throat to be sore and dry. He smiled and offered her a bottle of water. Milah took a few sips, and he sat down on the chair beside the bed. "If you're feeling up to it, I think that you should go out and get some fresh air. But I do think you should wear your mask for today, just in case."

"Thank you, Doctor," Milah croaked. She cleared her throat and took the medical mask from his outstretched hands. She had overheard the nurses saying that she probably wasn't contagious anymore this far along, but it was better to be safe than to risk getting anyone else sick. Frank nodded and left her to her business, and she donned the mask. She could feel her breath, hot against her face, and rose from the bed. Her body was achy, and pulling her hair up into a messy bun made her arms sore. She opted to leave on her shirt and sweatpants, but she took the blanket with her as she went off in search of Lincoln. She kept it huddled around herself, looking very much like royalty as the tail of it trailed along the floor and up the stairs in her search.

"Lincoln?" She called. She ventured up the stairs and to a room where the door was cracked, and when she peeked inside, she saw the man in question. He was laying in bed, but appeared to be awake. She poked her head in, her temple resting on the door frame. And although her mouth was concealed by the mask, her eyes reflected her smile. She was in good spirits, despite being so weak from sickness. "Good morning. Do I look spooky?"

She wasted no time walking into the bedroom and coming over to the bed. They had always slept in bed together, so to be without him at night for that long was strange for her. Though, the sickness kept her asleep for so much of that time that it didn't affect her nearly as much as it affected him. She sat down on the side of the bed and came to lay on her side, pressing her back into his arm. She would have much rather lay down facing him, but she didn't want to risk it. Cuddled up in a blanket, she rested the back of her head against his shoulder and said, "I missed you. Wanna go for a walk?"

Sean grinned as he heard Jonah replying. “Aah there you are, get your ass over here.” He said jokingly. They had been through so much shit the last weeks, that it was good to actually joke around and have fun. Sean was also very happy to see Jonah was doing ok, he could only imagine how mentally broken he was after the Alfred incident. “Thank god I arrived on time.” He thought. Sean then was pulled out of his thoughts as he saw Jonah.

Sean watched as Jo sat down and started to take some food of the table. “Thanks Sean for making this, you are the best.” He spoke with a grin. “I know I’m great.” He added, clearly giving himself compliments, before laughing. He then locked eyes with Jonah and heard that he needed to tell him something. After being together for so long, Sean learned his language.

“What’s wrong?” Sean asked. “Everything ok?” he added. Sean was always worried if it came to Jonah. He knew he had meeting to do and all that. But first he had to know what Jonah wanted to tell him.

(Sorry short post, but i'm still in the house with Jo ^^)

Donavan couldn't help but laugh a little at Lila's first question when she came into the house. "Well, I'm a bit of a light sleeper so figured I'd spend my morning doing something while I waited to talk to Sean, I've been meaning to volunteer for any upcoming supply runs if he needed any more people for that." He continued to swap out jars in front of the spout as he listened to Lila talk about her day. "Uneventful is always good, gives people time to relax.

Donavan hadn't noticed Blair until Lila pointed her out to him. "Oh, uh, no, I hadn't had the chance to talk to her yet." Donavan turned to Blair and gave her a welcoming smile, "Hi, I'm Donavan, but people here call me Don or Donnie." He said as he shook her hand before returning his attention to the Still while also paying attention to Lila as she said that Blair needed a job and asked what he needed help with. "Well, there's a few thing a want to get done." He said as he finished filling the last jar with whiskey and sealing the lid along with putting out the gas burner. "For starters I want to get another mash barrel set up with some of the ingredients I have left so I can make some Ethanol, after that, the Still will have most likely cooled so I'll need help taking it apart and cleaning it." Donavan laughed at her joke before starting to clean out the mash barrel he had emptied earlier that morning to make whiskey. "Well, all help would be appreciated ." He said smiling.

Being in Lincoln's arms again after being away from him for the longest stint of time since they had met made her feel more safe and at ease than all of the antibiotics in the world. She rested her head on his chest, listening to the sound of his heartbeat, and let her arms lay against his sides as to keep the blanket up around her shoulders. She stayed pressed against him for a few moments, reveling in his strong presence, before he whispered a teasing joke about how he was the beauty this time around. She laughed, a sound that put a bit of a strain on her throat, and looked up at him with bright, happy eyes. Close to him now, she drank him in and smiled. He looked different from before they arrived, more clean. His usual blood-streaked skin was clean, and his clothes were a bit neater than usual, too. His beard had grown a bit, but overall, he looked better than he had before her treatment.

At least in some ways. He didn't look as though he had really slept.

"You really are the beauty, huh?" She reached up and stroked his chin and cheek, letting the hair prickle against her skin. "I must look like crap."

She chuckled, the excitement that she felt simply to be near him infectious, and watched as he went to grab a shirt and get dressed. Her eyes ran down his bare back, over the broad, strong shoulders and along every bump of his spine. If she hadn't felt so lethargic, she would have felt strong desire. For now, it was all appreciation as she went and ran the tip of her finger down his spine, running over each and every vertebrae. "Yeah, I think I'm okay to walk. The doctor recommended getting fresh air. Plus, I've been cooped up for a week and I wanna get out of the house."

It was then that she heard herself speak, and it startled her that things seemed so commonplace. It was if she was a child again, wanting to go out and play in the backyard. She and Lincoln had been traveling for so many years in the hopes of getting back to her original home state that they rarely had the time or opportunity to set up camp like this. It brought her own questions welling up in her mind, but first, she answered his.

"I don't think that they knew. The doctor said that it was either a bacterial infection or a viral flu. They gave me antibiotics and steroids to make sure that they cleared whatever it was." She reached out and held his hand when they were fully dressed, and she played with his fingers, her own rubbing over the rough, calloused skin. "They said that they don't think I'm contagious anymore. But for now, I'm wearing this just in case."

She pointed to the medical mask that hid her mouth and nose, but it only seemed to accentuate her eyes, which were light and full of joy. She walked with him out of the room, holding his hand and swinging their arms lightly as they went. "How is this place so far? Is everyone nice? Do you think it's legit?"

She walked down the stairs, though realized that the blanket was still trailing behind her and that she was still in old, borrowed pajamas. She smiled and led him into the room where she had been staying, wasting no time returning the blanket to the bed and making sure no one else had entered before undressing. She made quick work of finding the dress she had arrived in, and although it was spotted with dirt and old blood, she didn't have much else to work with. She pulled it over her head, slipped on her boots, and returned to him.

"Let's try to go for a walk. I want to see what this place is like. If I can't handle it, we can come back inside." Taking his hand again, she led him out into the crisp, cool morning.

Lila stood there as the pleasantries between Blair and Donovan were exchanged. She remembered she had something in her pocket, so she dug deep down, retrieving the little band. As they spoke about the still, it was apparent they had something in common and she pulled her hair back into a stiff ponytail. She thought to herself that she would kill for a good, thorough shampooing and haircut at a salon anymore. Maybe they would pickup a hair stylist along the way or something.

She leaned back on a counter, looking at Don's set up, pretty impressed at what he was creating. "This is good for trade. Next time I go out, I could take a few jars and see what I can get."

She heard Blair talk about her life on the farm and the girl seemed to have learned some skills, but she had yet to prove if she could put those skills to actual use. She was still new to the complex and there was plenty of time. "We got some woods nearby. Maybe you can get us some squirrel with those hunting skills. I hear wild boars out there at night too."

She looked out the window remembering the new folks that arrived and the very sick girl that had come with them. She worried about the spread of the illness and knew they had no way of coping with anything more serious then allergies or a cold. Antibiotics were a luxury and the only thing that could save anyone these days was pouring pure alcohol into a wound in hopes of keeping it clean. That's where Don's skills came in very handy.

"We got two new people here too. I haven't been over there to check on the girl, but I suspect we need more medical supplies. Blair, you see any pharmacies out there before you got here? I may go see what they have left. I have a feeling that girl may have depleted some of our supplies, depending on how sick she was. Don, you can go with me if you want. I don't know when I'm going through. Maybe a bit later."