AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURES
Chapter 7: Bud
Sid was faster than Maximus and came around the bend into the tors first, skidding
to a sudden halt at the sight awaiting him. His mouth opened slightly in
surprise. Bud! Bud was there, crouching beside Joimus.
************************************************************
"Check!" Nash said, grinning
with satisfaction across the chess board at Charles.
"STEPHEN!"
hollered Bunny. "Stephen! Where are you?" She saw
Nash setting down a chess piece,
looking toward empty air. "John! Is Charles with you?"
Nash frowned at her.
"Leave him alone, Bunny. He just came back. You can't have
Stephen now."
Bunny turned away from John,
looking at the empty space on the far side of the chess board.
"Stephen!" she cried. "I think you are going to be needed."
"Stop that!"
Nash shouted. "We're not finished yet! Go away!"
When she turned her eyes
back from Nash, Stephen was getting to his feet. "Oh, good!" she
breathed in relief.
"What's the matter,
Bunny?" the Doctor asked, concerned.
"I don't know,"
she said, shaking her head. "But I just have this
terrible feeling you are going to be needed."
"That's silly,"
Nash humphed. "I need Charles so we can finish our game. Go away!"
Franki sighed.
John's social skills were just not improving to any noticeable extent.
She, too, spoke up. "Why do you think this, Bunny?"
"Sid and Maximus,"
Bunny said, her brow creasing in real worry. "They... they...just
looked strangely at one another and then...ran off."
"Where?" Stephen
asked.
"I...I don't
know!" she said sadly. "But I just...feel...like something is
wrong."
"Maximus ran? With
his leg?" Stephen said, not liking the concept of the General
abusing his not-yet-healed wound in such a manner.
"Yes," Bunny
continued. "That he would do that, all by itself, makes me worry the
most."
Stephen looked seriously
at Franki. "I think we should go with Bunny."
Nash's eyes widened.
"Not BOTH of you!" he said, obviously upset.
"Come with us,
John," Franki offered.
"Why?" he
replied, his eyes narrowing now as his suspicions grew.
"So you can, um,
be...with us," she patiently explained.
Nash looked harshly at
Stephen. "But he's not Charles."
Stephen rested his hand on
John's shoulder. "I am, John, truly I am."
"You are NOT!"
Nash protested, eyeing the Doctor's early 19th century garb.
"Charles would NEVER wear that!"
Stephen sighed. It
was so hard at times being the friend and confidant of two different characters.
"You know, John, that at The Heart of Me I am both Stephen AND Charles.
You know that there are times I must be one and not the other."
Nash just shook his head,
sticking his chin out stubbornly.
Bunny was practically bouncing
up and down where she stood. "Stephen! We have to go!"
Stephen nodded at her.
"Bunny's right, John,"
he said firmly.
"Damn!" muttered
John, looking longingly at the chessboard.
Bunny was already heading
back to the spot where she and Sid and Maximus had been just a short while ago.
"Here is where we were when they ran off." She pointed at
the faint trail. "That way." The four of them hurried
along, both Sid's and Maximus' prints easily visible in the soft soil.
"BUD!" Sid called.
Officer White turned his head. The dead nanotech organism wavered in the red air.
"Oh...God," he moaned, sitting heavily over
onto his left hip.
Maximus ran up beside Sid, limping terribly now from the strain the long sprint had put on his leg. Bud saw the two of them side by side as the waves of red wavered around them. "Hell," he murmured. "I'm in hell." He turned his head toward the top of the tor. "Did I jump?" he wondered, his mind a complete fog. He couldn't remember if he had or not. He must have. Yeah, he must have.
He looked down at Joimus.
"Mom? Don't worry, Mom. I'll help you.
It's ok, Mom." He began to pat her arm.
Maximus paused
briefly, leaning his hand on Sid for support as he gasped for breath. His
eyes blurred for a moment, then as he refocused, he saw Bud sitting on the rocks patting Joimus. His breath
sucked in with a long, sharp hiss. Had Bud hurt her...again? He
started toward them and would have fallen after two or three steps had Sid not
quickly grabbed his arm. Sid felt him reaching for his sword as they
walked.
"No, Maximus,"
he said softly, his eyes more aware of Bud's condition.
Maximus
sank to his knees. Without taking his eyes off her face, he asked, his voice
low, terrible, "What have you done to her?"
"Done?" Bud
repeated blankly. Then he resumed his patting of her arm.
"Don't worry, Mom. I won't let him hurt you. I'll keep you
safe, Mom. I will, Mom. I promise I will."
"Mom?" Maximus
growled, finally looking at Bud.
Sid had been carefully
observing Bud. "Something's wrong with him, Maximus," he said.
"I think something's terribly wrong with him."
Maximus made some low
sound in his throat and turned his attention back to Joimus. He touched
her cheek. Good, she was warm. He didn't like Bud patting her arm.
"Back off!" he growled.
Sid squatted in front of
Bud, gripping his upper arms and shifting him slightly away from Joimus.
Bud blinked several times then stared in Sid's face.
"Sid," he smiled. "I figured you'd be here."
"You did?" Sid
smiled back. "Why?"
Bud's head bobbled around
a bit on his neck. "'Cause hell was made for us, ya know. Yep!
Made for us." He smiled sloppily at Sid again. Then he looked at Maximus. "Why's he here?" He looked
confused, then frightened as he saw Maximus touching her face.
"Hey!" he cried. "Don't hurt my Mom!"
He tried to turn but Sid
held tightly onto his arms. "BUD!" Sid said firmly.
"That's Joimus."
"Joimus?" he
repeated. "Joimus?" His face crumpled. "I
killed her." He looked up sadly at Sid. "I did. I killed
her."
"I know," Sid
said, "but not this time. Not here. Not now."
"Not now?"
"No, Bud, she's not dead."
"Not dead?"
"No, not dead,
Bud."
"You?"
"I'm not dead,
either. Nor is Maximus."
Bud's lips parted and he
began to breathe raggedly. "I...killed her," he gasped.
He twisted sharply in Sid's grip, lunging toward Joimus. "I won't
let him hurt you, Mom!" he sobbed.
Franki, Stephen, Bunny, and John ran up just as he sobbed out that last.
Sid looked up at Franki. "Good you're here," he said.
"He needs you."
How fortunate, indeed, our
cast was to have an honest-to-goodness psych nurse amongst their members.
"His mind is going back and forth from Joimus to when he saw his
mother beaten to death," he explained.
Franki had heard the story
and did not find it terribly surprising that Bud was responding the way he was.
Bunny stood a bit to one side, watching Sid acting like a
normal...nice...character. She shook her head. This was all
very...strange...somehow.
Stephen knelt quickly beside Joimus. Looking up at the tors, he asked,
"Did she fall from there?"
Maximus turned to follow
his gaze. "Probably," he sighed.
"Looks like she hit
her forehead as she fell," Stephen commented, touching a developing bruise
line above her brows. Taking out his canteen, he wet his handkerchief
then gently pressed it to her temple.
"Mmmmmmm...,"
she moaned, turning her head slightly.
Sudden tears stung
Maximus' eyes. "Oh, gods," he murmured, "she's going to be
all right."
Stephen's hands were busy,
checking her for broken bones. "Seems to
be ok," he pronounced.
"We should get her to
a hospital," Franki said.
Stephen looked at her.
"In three years of epis, has any cast member ever been to a hospital?"
he asked.
"Well...no," she
had to admit.
"So why start
now?" he asked reasonably.
"Her back could be
broken?" she replied, her 21st century medical habits sparring with his
turn of the 1800's.
"It's not," he
said.
"How do you
know?" she insisted.
"It's not in the
script," he said, lifting his chin a bit.
"There IS no
script!" she cried.
"Right!" he said.
"So it can't be in it, now can it?"
She sighed. One could
hardly sometimes ever win in epis for losing.
Joimus' eyes fluttered open, her brow creasing in pain. "Ack!" she
moaned epiishly.
"She's gonna be
OK," Bunny said. "She 'acked'."
Suddenly remembering Bud,
Joimus tried to sit. Her eyes bugged after she'd raised her self just a couple
of inches, though, and she lay back."I hurt all over," she said. "Everywhere."
"Not surprising,"
Stephen clucked. "You fell pretty far."
She turned her head toward
Bud, who was sitting there, just blinking over and over. "Bud?"
she called softly.
"That's good,"
Franki encouraged, "he needs to see that you're all right."
He didn't stop blinking,
so she tried again. "Bud?" She gritted her teeth and
stretched her right arm out toward him, just managing to touch his left knee
with her fingertips. He looked down at her hand. It was trembling
with the effort it took her to reach out as she had done. He could feel the
tremble of it on his knee. He cocked his head, studying her hand.
He licked his lips, studying it some more. After a while, he picked
up his left hand and put it over hers.
Franki smiled. Sid
smiled. Bunny smiled. Stephen smiled. Even Joimus managed to smile.
Bud began to stroke it
lightly. "Mom," he said.
The smiles faded.
Bunny cleared her throat. "Perhaps if...Berti...?" she
suggested.
Franki nodded.
"She may be our only hope," she said.
Bud lifted her hand to his
mouth, kissing her fingertips. "I won't let him hurt you, Mom."
Several large tears rolled down his cheeks.
"Help me get him up," Franki asked Sid. Stephen stepped over to
help, too. It took their combined efforts to get him to his feet.
"It's a long way back
to camp," Sid said, "do you think he can make it?"
"If you take one arm
and I take the other," Stephen said.
But Sid looked at John.
"John," he called firmly, "YOU help Stephen with
Bud."
Nash walked reluctantly over
and, making a bit of a face, took Bud's left arm around his neck.
"Why can't you do it?" he groused.
But Sid had already gone back to Joimus and the General. Maximus was trying to lift her up into his arms, but the sharp pains in his leg were making that monumentally difficult for him. Sid knelt, facing Maximus. "Together," he whispered, "like above the waterfall." He locked his eyes on Maximus', waiting for his assent to show. When it did, Sid slid his arms under Joimus, easily lifting her then positioning her so that she rested between the two of them on their interlocked hands, rather in a half-sitting chair position. He knew it would be much simpler if he carried her alone, but he also knew that Maximus needed to be a part of it, no matter the pain it would cause his leg.
They walked carefully, trying not to jostle her. She
leaned her head to the left, resting her cheek on Maximus' shoulder, closing
her eyes. Her head really, really hurt.
Himself looked up as the strange grouping approached the main campsite.
When he saw Bud between Stephen and Nash, he exhaled a long breath of
relief, hurrying towards them. As he neared them, though, a deep frown formed.
Bud seemed to be hanging almost limply between the two men. It was plain to see that without their
support, he would not have been able to stand at all.
Turning to Phyllis, he
said urgently, "Please go find Berti...quickly!" She darted off
toward the far end of the camp where she knew Berti was sitting with annsmac
and Terry.
Stephen and John lowered
Bud down onto a picnic bench. "What happened?" Himself asked,
squatting in front of him, examining his face.
"We're not
sure," Stephen explained. "He seems to have gotten Joimus and his
dead mother confused in his mind."
Himself sighed. He
knew Bud inside and out. He immediately understood. Tears brimmed in his
eyes. He understood all too well.
Hearing more sounds of scuffling feet, he looked up just as Sid and a rather
staggering Maximus came into view. "What now?" he said, standing,
squinting his eyes in their direction.
"Joimus,"
Stephen explained. "She fell from a tor." At Himself's shocked expression,
he added, "Bud was beside her when we found them."
Very gently, very carefully,
Sid and Maximus lay Joimus atop the picnic table. She kept her lids shut.
The light was bothering her eyes. She looked very pale which only made
the darkening bruise across her forehead stand out all the more.
"My God!" Himself
cried. "Is she all right?"
Stephen sighed.
"Nothing's broken that I can tell," he said. "But
I'm not...sure."
"You are not
sure?" Maximus rasped. "Of what are you not sure?"
"Of...other
things."
"Other things?
What?"
I need to wait and
see," he sighed.
Maximus rubbed his hand
across his mouth and chin. Suddenly his leg gave way and he sat heavily on
the bench on the other side of the picnic table.
"Ahhh!" moaned
Joimus.
Bud turned quickly,
resting his hand on her arm. "I won't let him hurt you, Mom,"
he said. "I won't."
Himself took a step back,
his teeth smacking sharply together. You just couldn't trust epis any
more.
Berti came rushing up, out of breath, flinging herself between Bud's knees,
wrapping her arms around his middle.
"Oh, hi, Berti,"
he said mildly, leaning forward to kiss her head. "I killed Joimus, you
know."
"Oh...Bud!" she
cried. "I'm so glad we found you!"
"No," he said,
looking off into the distance. "I waited and I waited and I waited.
But nobody came." Still looking off, he continued, "And I
hadda pee, you know. Only I held it and I held it until it ran down my
leg." His face crumpled. "It...it...made a puddle."
He looked into her brimming eyes. "It did, you know. And
Mom's blood...it had dried. I waited so long that it dried, you
know." Huge teardrops rolled out of his eyes. "But I got
it...wet...again." He shivered. "It was wet again." He
closed his eyes, his lashes starred with tears. "I hated that. Oh, I
hated that...so much. But...nobody came that day. Not all day. Not
even the next day."
Behind him Joimus moaned
softly again. He twisted toward her. "It's all right, Mom," he
soothed, stroking her arm. "I'll make it be all right. I
promise."
Berti thought she was going
to break in half on the spot. He turned back toward her, kissing her head
again. "I killed Joimus, you know." His chin trembled.
"But there wasn't a corner. I didn't have a corner," he
said, looking into Berti's eyes. "So I had to run so it couldn't get
me."
"Wh..what couldn't
get you?" she managed to say.
"The blood," he
continued. "It was going to get on my shoes. So I had to
leave. You know that, don't you?" he asked. "That I had
to leave?"
"I know," she said,
pressing her face into his chest. "I know."
He looked back at Joimus
again. "Mom's blood got on my shoes. I didn't want it to do that." His face screwed up. "But I
couldn't get away from it. I kicked the radiator and I kicked and kicked
it...but nobody heard me." He sighed deeply. "Then I took
the picture of my Gran'ma off the wall and I beat on the radiator with
that." He nodded. "I did. But the glass broke and I cut my hand." He lifted
his right hand, pointing to a small jagged scar on his index finger.
"Here," he said.
She tipped her head down
and kissed it. He smiled slightly.
"Oh...oh...oh!" gasped Jewelie. "I thought...I
thought...she tortured Maximus. But...THIS!!"
Ando shrugged.
"Turns."
"There didn't
USED to be...turns!" Jewelie snapped.
"I think," Jim
said, his voice almost a hoarse whisper, "that after YOOK...things
changed. She...changed. She's more...dangerous...now."
"We're not safe, are
we...not any more?" she sighed.
"No...not anymore.
Not...ever again."
Maximus leaned forward, rubbing his thigh, as he kissed Joimus' cheek. She turned
her head toward him, her lips curving into a small smile as she lifted her eyes
to his beloved face. He seemed a little blurry to her, so she blinked several
times.
"Your head
hurts?" he asked.
She nodded.
"Sun bothers my eyes."
He shifted his position so
that his body cast some shade over her face now that it was getting late in the
afternoon and the sun was much lower in the sky. He grimaced slightly as he
moved.
"Your leg!" she
said.
"It is fine," he
lied. "Let me worry about you."
She closed her eyes and he
began softly stroking her hair. "I like that," she murmured.
"Me, too," he
said.
"We need to get her
to a more comfortable place," Stephen commented. "She can't lie
there the rest of the day on that hard table."
"I'll take care of
it," Sid said, walking toward the edge of the trees.
"I'll help,"
Bunny added. She was still not at all used to this new Sid. He
slowed, turned, and held out his hand to her, waiting for her to join him.
"Are you all
right?" she asked him.
"I'm fine," he
grinned. "Never better."
For the next half hour
they gathered leaves and moss, making a wide, soft bed under the arching
branches of a mid-sized yook. "Why so big?" Bunny asked.
"Needs to be.
Has to fit two."
She stared at him.
He was being...thoughtful. Considerate, even. When it was the
size he wanted, he fetched Joimus' backpack from their earlier site and spread
the rust-colored cape over the leaves. "The drape'll make a good pillow," he said, pleased.
He walked back to the
table. "It's ready," he announced. "Let me help you
carry her over there."
"I can probably
manage," Maximus protested.
"You probably can,
Big Guy," Sid said fondly, "but there's no need, now is there?"
"No," Maximus
said, smiling tiredly, "no need."
Together, they gently got
her over to the leaf bed, settling her carefully down. "Ummmmm!
Soft!" she murmured gratefully.
Maximus sat beside her,
rubbing his leg again, then leaning back on his right elbow to look at her.
"Tell me about the tor," he asked.
She opened her eyes.
He seemed somehow vague and out of focus. She closed them again.
"I wanted to see the view," she replied. "It was
nice... but I missed you."
He smiled at her.
"Then what happened?"
"I saw Bud. He was
stumbling...falling...and I wanted to let him know I was all right. I
tried to climb down too fast, I guess, and my foot slipped."
"You shouldn't climb
things like that alone," he admonished gently.
"I'm not a
Victorian," she chuckled.
"What's
'Victorian'?" he asked.
"Oh, that's when the
ladies wore whale-bone corsets and flopped over on fainting couches," she
explained.
He let his fingers walk
across her very un-corseted middle. "This is better," he
stated.
"Much," she
agreed. She looked at him again. He was barely visible. Her
brow creased. "Would you get Stephen for me?" she asked.
"Why?" he said,
suddenly alarmed.
"I just want to ask
him about something," she replied off-handedly.
He got to his feet.
"I'll find him," he said, walking with a pronounced limp toward
the main camp.
Sid was suddenly there as though he had not been far away all along. "You
don't intend to tell him?" he asked.
"Tell him what?"
she said defensively.
"That you can't
see."
She caught her breath.
"How did you know?"
"Green," he
said. "Blue brings things to yellow that red does not."
She pressed her hands to
her eyes. "It's been fading all afternoon. I...I'd hoped it would go away."
He squatted beside her,
laying his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure it will be all
right," he said softly. A tear trickled down her cheek and he caught
it on his finger. He lifted it close to his eyes, looking at the
refraction of light in its depth. When he heard approaching footsteps, he
melted quietly into the woods.
Maximus was accompanied by both Stephen and Marti. Joimus opened her
eyes, seeing nothing, her fingers digging into the cape. She licked her
lips. "Maximus," would you
find out for me how Bud is doing? I'm really worried about him.
I'd rest better if I knew."
He had not expected her to
ask him to walk back to camp a second time, but he smiled and said, "Of
course."
She listened as the sound
of his steps faded away. Stephen knelt beside her. "What's going on?" he asked.
"My eyes," she
whispered. "I can't see any more."
He looked carefully into
one and then the other, then sat back on his heels, thinking.
"Let me look," Marti said. "I have had hardly any lines of late and am in the mood to offer my medical expertise." She had a small flashlight which she shone into Joimus' eyes.
"Hmmmmm?" she said. "Looks
like transitory ischemia with impaired axonal conduction due to transmitted
forces from a blunt bilateral injury to the forehead to me....Doctor."
"What?" he said,
his eyes widening.
"Optic nerve
concussion," she supplied.
"But why did it take
a while to happen?" Joimus asked.
"The
edema...swelling...is just now getting to that point."
"Will...will...it go away?"
"Possibly," she
answered, helpfully, "not definitely. About 8% probability of
recovery, I'd say."
"Can we do anything
to help?" Stephen asked, truly impressed by the Queen.
"Well, some
Methylprednisolone would reduce the swelling," she said. "You
got any, Doc?"
“Um, not on me," he
allowed.
"Give me a sec,"
Marti said, walking off toward the camp. "Hando!" she called.
"I got a job for you, Baby."
He swung down from the
tree branch he'd been doing pull-ups
on. "What?" he growled.
"I need you to go
into Armidale and round me up a batch of
Methylprednisolone. Oh, and some oral prednisolone, too."
He grinned.
"How do you want me to do that?"
She smiled back.
"Anyway you can."
He cocked an eyebrow. "You serious?"
"Yep. Just
hurry. I need it ASAP."
"You got it,
Babes!" he said, happily sprinting off down the long slope.
"And don't get arrested!" she called after him.
"I'll try not!"
he shouted back.
Maximus heard the end of
the conversation. "Why might he get arrested?" he asked.
"Getting meds for
Joimus," she replied.
"Medicine? Why does
she need medicine?"
"Blind as a
bat," she said sympathetically.
"What?" he
gasped.
"Yep. Been
gettin' that way for the better part of the afternoon, she has."
But he was gone, off like
a shot toward the leaf bed. Stephen was still there when he flung himself
down beside Joimus. "Is it true?" he panted.
Stephen nodded his head.
When Maximus saw Joimus reaching her hand out, trying to find his, but missing,
his breath caught in his throat. "Why didn't you tell me?" he
whispered, taking her hand, kissing her knuckles.
"I..I thought it
might go away," she murmured. "I didn't want to worry
you."
She could tell by the way
he was breathing that he was really upset. "At least I don't need maggots,"
she said, hoping to make him feel better.
"Or garlic," he
rejoined, trying to let his words belie the tears on his cheeks. Stephen
left quietly and Maximus settled down close to her, pulling her into his arms,
resting his chin atop her head. She nestled into him, and listening to
the beating of his great heart, drifted off to sleep. He lay there,
holding her, his tears quietly dripping onto the fur drape.
"She's GONE!" Biebe cried.
"Weren't you watching
her?" Himself exclaimed, getting a bit overwhelmed by the way epis were going of late, truth be told. Of course
he had no say whatsoever in such matters and so had to roll with the punches,
so to speak.
"
Who's
gone?" Eryn wanted to know.
"Buggie," Biebe
sighed, looking at her with great sad eyes. "She's been
Buggie-duffed."
"Is that...bad?"
Colin asked.
Biebe looked a bit
confused. "I...I...think so. It IS, isn't it?" he inquired,
looking at Himself.
"It could be...probably
is...if Thunderbolt thinks she's his Bugg."
"His bug?" Eryn
repeated.
"Yeah, Mary Bugg, a
part-Aborigine woman he loved."
"But Buggie doesn't
look part-Aborigine at all," Eryn protested.
"He hasn't had his eyeglasses
updated since 1865," Himself shrugged. "He probably can't tell
the difference."
Marti, walking by on her
way back to Jeff, commented, "Sounds like Joimus."
"What do you mean?"
Himself asked.
"Blind as a
bat," she said. "You seen Jeff anywhere?"
"Wait a minute!"
Himself exclaimed. "What are you saying?"
"That clonk on her
head," she explained. "She can't see."
"Marti!" Eryn
said, shocked. "You could be a bit more...um...well, something...about
it!"
"You think I write
this dialog?" Marti asked sternly. "You think I would write
stuff like THIS? Sheesh!"
"You could go write
'Eucalyptus'," Himself interjected.
"I'm still waiting for
them to film Wolf's Bane," she snorted.
"You know I don't do
the same character twice," he said, looking at her levelly.
"There could
be...exceptions," she said, "if you wanted."
"Well, it's a damn
sight better than the whole prequel concept, I must admit," he agreed.
Marti smiled a bit
lasciviously, thinking of all the body-washings in her plot.
Ute walked up, looking a bit perturbed by recent developments.
"Look," she said, "I know they get overdone in modern films and
all, but doesn't ANYBODY out of the half a hundred of us have a &*^%$^% CELL PHONE?"
"Why, no,"
Himself replied, shocked at the concept. "They make things all too
conveniently...easy...for them to be found in an epi."
"Yeah,"
Colin agreed. "No one has EVER had a cell phone in any epi."
"Cell phone?"
asked Laura, reaching into her briefcase. "Does someone need to make
a call?"
Wouldn't you know just at
that very moment it rang. "Hello?" she said.
"Who?" She frowned. "When?" She
frowned again, then folded
the phone. "Hando," she sighed.
"What about
Hando?" Marti asked, suddenly concerned.
"That was the police
chief in Armidale. Hando's been arrested."
"Ack!" Marti
dialoged.
