Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Support System

He woke up in pain, gasping to life like a man breaching the surface of frozen water. Pain thrummed deep inside his chest, radiating outward into his limbs, using his major arteries as free highways into the rest of his system.

But it wasn't the pain in his chest that was so distracting, but the pain of his leg and his eye.

Dim light blinded his only working eye, and he squinted. Tears of pain dripped down his cheek as his eye attempted to readjust itself, but it tool longer than it should have and it left him in agony for what felt like hours on end, but was probably closer to minutes.

All around him voices echoed.

It took him even longer to decode that mess.

"Adam, Adam can you hear us."

Something touched the side of his face.

"Vitals."

"Heart rate 83 steady and within range blood oxygen 96% and climbing.

"Brain function."

"Elevated, he's awake."

"Give him a few seconds."

Adam grimaced and turned his head as if that was going to help him figure out what was going on.

It didn't.

Something touched the other side of his face, holding him in place. A light was shined in his good eye. He grimaced and tried to pull away.

"Reactivity good."

"Adam can you hear us?"

He opened his mouth to answer, finally understanding the words that he was haring, but only managed to wheeze pathetically as dry air squeaked past even dryer vocal cords.

He gasped again.

"Sit him up."

And suddenly he was vertical, or somewhat vertical, and a cold plastic straw was being pressed to his lips, "Drink this."

He did as told.

He couldn't taste anything, and wasn't sure if that was his dry mouth, or if something was actually wrong, but still the liquid, whatever it was, was cool and soothing, easing the cracked dryness of his mouth and throat.

Sitting up was so much effort.

He felt like he was crawling up hill dragging 200 lbs of dead weight behind him. It was then that his spine made the executive decision to quit.

He couldn't blame it.

He slumped backwards, and the voices around him rose in a light frenzy.

"Woah woah."

"Someone keep hold of him."

"Hold him up."

"Make sure he doesn't strain his neck."

"Hold his head up."

And they did, all of that. The bed was readjusted so he could lean back though someone kept a hand on him to make sure he didn't slide over. Something, squishy and rolled into a tight cylinder was placed behind his neck to stabilize it upright.

This felt a little better, at least he didn't have to use his core muscles.

"Here drink some more."

He was more than eager to do so, and when the drink touched his lips, this time his tongue was wet enough to actually taste what they were giving him. It was cool and cold, which was a plus, but it was also mildly sweet and a little bit salty, not all together unpleasant, not that that was right at the top of his list of priorities at the moment.