Episode 15 (Serena Season 1)

Serena's walking fast enough that I can't catch up with her without leaving the guys behind.

I want to talk to her,

but I have to hang back and ensure that Logan and Arthur don't get distracted and wander off.

(Even when we first met, Serena was sarcastic, but she didn't ignore me.)

(This isn't good.)

Arthur: "Everything's so colorful..."

Arthur: "And my head is pounding."

Arthur: "It's lke a thousand bees stinging the inside of my skull!"

ARthur: "Why is this jungle so warm? The sun was so nice just a moment ago..."

(No, not him too! Not now!)

MC: "Arthur, it'll be okay."

MC: "We just have to keep walking, alright?"

Arthur: "Yes, walking."

Arthur: "Past all the plants and their scintillating colors, it's quite lovely."

Arthur: "Even if everything hurts."

Arthur: "Now it's spreading down the back of my neck."

Arthur: "Fascinating!"

Alarming as it is to hear him describing all the pain,

I know that if Arthur is still talking, he's in better shape than Clyde was.

I keep a hand low on his back to make sure he keeps walking forward,

even if I'm occasionally elbowed during his dramatic gesturing.

(If Arthur passes out in the jungle, we'll have to carry him all the way back to the resort.)

Logan: "So if he's getting worse now, that means I'm next, right?"

I jump a bit, surprised by the voice behind me.

Logan hadn't said a word since we left the beach up until now.

MC: "We'll find some fresh water so everyone gets better, Logan."

MC: "You'll be fine."

MC: "Just keep holding on, okay?"

Logan: "If you say so."

Serena: "You shouldn't give him false hope."

I turn from Logan back to Serena, who has stopped short a few feet ahead of us.

Her dark eyes have taken on a harder edge,

more cold and serious than I've ever seen them before.

MC: "I didn't think you were listening, since you've been marching ahead the whole way."

Serena: "Because the sooner we get back the better."

Serena: "And that doesn't change the fact that lying to Logan won't help anything."

MC: "It's not a lie! We're looking for a cure."

Serena: "And right now we don't have one."

Serena: "We don't even have a lead on one."

MC: "What else am I supposed to say?"

MC: "'Sorry, Logan, you're probably going to die, but cheer up'? That's terrible."

MC: "I'm not going to presume the worst unless it happens."

Serena: "There's optimism and then there's denial, ."

Serena: "We have to be realistic."

Serena: "The odds of us surviving are not in our favor."

(Does she really think we're all going to die before we find a cure?)

(I know it's technically a possibility, but we've managed to get this far.)

(We went from sleeping on the ground eating tomatoes to living in a resort with canned food in a few days.)

(And Serena recovered.)

(The guys can too.)

MC: "Are you saying you're giving up?"

Serena: "No."

Serena: "But it wouldn't be a bad idea to look for a shovel when we're back at the resort."

Her words hit like a slap to the face, stopping me in place.

Serena turns back around and starts walking again,

the distance between us stretching before I force my legs to start moving again,

reeling with the implications.

(I'm missing something.)

(Serena wanted me to stay strong before, focus on the brighter side of things.)

(If that's changed, is there anything I can do to help?)

It's a long walk back to the resort, but we find TK and Clyde as soon as we head inside.

Both of them are sprawled out on the couches and looking in poor shape,

curled up in damp blankets with a few open cans of fruit between them.

Serena: "Clyde, what are you doing out of bed?"

Clyde: "I was burning up in that little room."

Clyde: "TK was feeling the squeeze too."

Clyde: "There's a lot more air in here, aye? We can actually breathe a bit."

(He knows he's sick? That's... progress, I think.)

(Clyde doesn't look any worse, but he doesn't look any better either.)

(Maybe the illness has stalled out for now.)

(But I can't say the same thing for TK.)

Serena: "Are you feeling better now?"

Clyde: "Much better."

Clyde: "I'm not actually sick, you know, it's just the sun..."

MC: "There's not a lot of sun in your room, Clyde."

Clyde: "I'll be fit as a fiddle in no time, ."

Clyde: "We can all go swimming again if you want."

His big smile tells me the moment of lucidity has passed, and I sigh.

If only we'd managed to find just one more cooler of water, this whole situation would be solved.

Arthur: "Swimming."

Arthur: "My head is swimming..."

Serena: "Come on, Arthur."

Serena: "Let's go lay down."

She guides him to the couch despite all his mumbling,

and I see TK reaching out to one of the cans of fruit with a shaking hand, not quite able to grasp it.

I pick it up from the table and put it into his grasp,

moving the lid so he can scoop the fruit up and take a bite.

TK: "Thanks, ."

TK: "You're such a great friend, you know? I'm so lucky."

I force a smile to my face and help TK eat a bit more of the fruit.

I wish more than anything that he'd go back to joking about the food- or even teasing me-

- rather than being this feverish zombie that doesn't know any better.

(It's scary to see someone acting completely different, even if they're techniclly 'nicer.')

(I didn't sign up for a creepy mirror dimension.)

Clyde: "Come sit down with us, Serena."

Clyde: "You look tired too."

Clyde: "Nothing wrong with taking a lazy Sunday once in a while."

Serena: "I'm fine, Clyde."

Serena: "And it's not Sunday."

Confusion breaks across Clyde's face for a moment before he shrugs,

letting Serena take his temperature again while he takes the last full can of fruit and starts to eat.

(Damn, Serena was right.)

(We're going to run out of fruit pretty fast.)

(Logan carries the last of the tomatoes back from the patch,)

(but it's not like they're going to grow back every day.)

MC: "Serena, are we going to let everyone stay out here?"

Serena: "If they're more comfortable, then it doesn't matter to me."

Serena: "And everyone will be easier to watch all in one place."

(At least she responded to me.)

(Maybe I can get somewhere now.)

A. Do you want to work in shifts?

B. We should talk.

C. How can I help?

---

C. How can I help?

MC: "Is there any way I can help?"

---

Serena: "Right now, I need you to let me be the doctor."

Serena: "This isn't what you're trained to do, and I don't have time to give out lessons."

Serena turns away from me without another word,

snuffing out the last hopeful spark I was still clinging to.

(She's barely looking at me at this point.)

(It's like there's twenty walls between us and I can't do anything to tear them down.)

(We can't rely on each other if we don't talk, if Serena doesn't at least consider what I have to say.)

(Goddamn it.)

(How do I get her to open up again?)

Once all of the guys are settled in on the couches and persuaded to eat what fruit we have left,

Serena breaks away from them and goes deep into thought.

She looks exhausted, and she has to be as thirsty as I am, but we can't stop at this point.

Serena: "I can't believe I'm considering this."

MC: "What?"

Serena stops short, as if surprised that she said the words out loud,

but relents with a weak grimace.

Serena: "There's plenty of plants on this island that might be of some herbal use."

Serena: "I'm pretty sure half of them shouldn't be here, but that really doesn't matter at this point."

Serena: "It's possible something could be made into medicine."

Serena: "Incredibly crude and not half as effective as something you'd buy over the counter, but medicine."

Serena: "I wouldn't think it was worth the time if we weren't in such dire straits."

Serena: "So I'm heading back out."

Serena: "I'll come back when I find something useful."

MC: "You can't go by yourself."

MC: "Let me come with you."

Serena: "No."

(Jeez, she's not even going to entertain the idea? What did I do?)

A. You'll need the extra hands.

B. It's not safe to go alone.

C. Serena, come on.

---

B. It's not safe to go alone.

MC: "It's not safe to go alone, Serena."

MC: "Those animals are still wild and out there."

MC: "We don't even know how many of them have been living off that lake."

MC: "You could really get hurt."

---

Serena: "..."

Serena: "Alright."

Serena: "Let's go."

(Okay, that was a lot easier than I expected.)

(I'm not going to look too hard into why.)

Heading back into the jungle when the sun is already starting to set unsettles my nerves somewhat,

but it's better to be out here with Serena than worrying that she'd get ambushed in the dark by a bear.

She's quiet while walking as usual, but her pace is a little slower, fatigue taking its toll.

MC: "So what are we looking for?"

Serena: "There's a few possibilities, but elderberries would be the most common."

Serena: "My mother used to make tea and syrup out of them to reduce fever."

MC: "Your mom?"

MC: "But... you don't approve?"

Serena: "I didn't go to medical school for many expensive years to start relying on folk medicines."

Serena: "Some of them work, but plenty of them can make someone even more sick."

Strain edges into Serena's every word, and I reach out to take her hand and offer some comfort.

Our fingers brush but she subtly pulls away,

eyes averting from mine to keep scanning the trees and bushes around us.

(Damn it.)

(All we have is each other, Serena.)

(It's not a bad thing if you need to lean on me for a while.)

Darkness falls by the time we reach a broad meadow, and Serena suddenly dashes forward.

I'm alarmed before I see her kneel by a flowering bush, its branches flush with berries.

MC: "Are those elderberries?"

Serena: "That's what it looks like."

Serena reaches under her skirt and I blink in confusion when she produces a folded pocket knife,

flipping open the blade and starting to cut through the branches with quick strokes.

(When did she--did she have that the entire time?)

Serena: "Hold your hands out."

MC: "Oh! Sorry."

She fills my arms with the elderberries until there's barely any left on the bush,

wiping her knife off on the grass before standing up.

MC: "This is good, right? There's a ton of them."

Serena: "Because we need a ton."

Serena: "I'll have to mash everything up and strain it to make something a bit stronger."

Serena: "Don't mistake this for a cure, ."

Serena: "This is a temporary fix."

Serena: "Without clean water, without a real cure, we're dead."

The defeat in Serena's voice is painful to hear, as if we're just buying time.

I let the berries in my arms fall to the grass before pulling her into a tight hug,

my chest pressed against Serena's back.

MC: "It'll be okay--"

Serena: "Stop."

Serena: "I can't--"

Serena: "I'm not doing this."

Serena: "Not with you."

Serena: "We don't have time."

The last few words crack in her throat,

but Serena's untangled herself from me before I can see if she's crying,

gathering up the berries that I dropped and walking back through the grass.

For a moment I can't move, despair grounding me like I've been turned to stone.

(She's hurting so much and she won't even let me see.)

(Maybe we really are doomed.)