heavensreader | [IC Inbox -- Snowblind]

Is it worki - oh. Ahem. This is Kesara Freamon. Please leave your message here and I will call back on you as soon as I can.

Wait, is it still - argh, how do I ma-

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

devoutish

Kesara. Give me a ring, when you can.

[If she can. If she ever comes back.]

From:

heavensreader

[At last, after days, the tiniest squeak of a voice. She sounds fresh out of nearly hyperventilating herself unconscious. But it's her voice. She's alive.]

Mr. Solomons...?

From:

devoutish

[He feels a flood of relief, and doesn't bother to hide it from his voice.]

Kesara.

Where are you?

From:

heavensreader

I don't know. [No attempt to hide or lie. None.] I can't see. My face feels strange and I can't see.

From:

devoutish

Take a photograph. Send it to me.

[His words might be curt, but his tone is calm and even - soothing, he hopes.]

From:

heavensreader

[There is only so much calm that she can achieve right now. She tries, though, if nothing else she needs to speak clearly so her tablet understands.]

Alexander, turn the, the video on. I want Mr. Solomons to see where we are.

[The tablet complies. Wobbling in her hands as she holds it up, it shows the church morgue. She swings it in a wide arc to show him as much of the room as she can.]

Can you see anything? Is there light?

From:

devoutish

[She's very far away from him - but closer, he hopes, to Zach and Steph.]

You're in the chapel. Do you know anyone nearby?

From:

heavensreader

The chapel? [She'd never been there before. A new place and she can't see it...]

The tunnels aren't far - we were just getting to the tunnels when - when -!

[And she dissolves again.]

From:

devoutish

All right. All right.

[Still calm and patient; still nonjudgemental over her upset. He's actually really concerned over her predicament, though he's hiding it - she's going to be kicked out of the chapel before lockdown, he assumes, but there's no way she'll get far with the snow and the lack of eyesight.]

Have you got your supplies on you?

From:

heavensreader

[She wants to be braver, really she does - well - a part of her does, she's sure. She can't quite find that part right now. It's a terrible mess, in there.]

I - I have my bag, and my coat, and everything - I think, I can't tell everything by feel - but I have the water bottles.

[That's the most important part. She remembers. The desert has made it so she won't ever forget.]

From:

devoutish

No tent?

[That's a big concern. The tent had served her well before.]

From:

heavensreader

It was all dried out in the morning, the hide cracked, I left it... [She's starting to clear up enough to understand the problem.] Mr. Solomons - is there anywhere safe to stay - near the chapel?

From:

devoutish

You're in a field, and near a pond. The nearest buildings are a third of a day's walk away, in normal weather.

It's not normal weather, right now. There's an awful storm.

From:

heavensreader

[She's going to die again.

Kesara almost screams. She really thinks she might scream. Then she thinks it's not possible. It's too much. She can't think that. If she thinks that her mind will blank out completely and she will lie down and the snow will cover her like the sand did to the bodies in the desert.

Her voice rasps with the tight steadiness of desperation.] If there is - then - maybe the chapel will let me stay after all - sometimes you can stay.

From:

devoutish

Try. For as long as you can. Keep yourself snug.

[She'd die in the snow no matter what, day or night - especially blind. Better to give staying inside a shot.]

From:

heavensreader

I survived the tunnel.

[She had a tent then. She knew she was going to survive. This is nothing like that. This is completely different. This isn't on purpose. This isn't what she meant to do.]

Do you know if anyone is close? Even - even a little close?

From:

devoutish

Put out a call, on the network. Find someone.

[He doesn't know of anyone off the top of his head, but that doesn't mean they aren't there.]

From:

heavensreader

Someone will find me. Zach and Steph... Zach and Steph can't be far. They should be in the tunnels. We were all in the tunnels...

[She doesn't want to think of the tunnels, suddenly.]

Did you talk to them, after I...?

From:

devoutish

Only to ask what had happened, when you were on the obituary.

From:

heavensreader

[She hadn't thought of the obituary. She swallows another little distressed sound.]

They must have been - oah - I wish I'd been more careful!

From:

devoutish

You'll do better next time, then. If you don't think you did well, then you learn from it.

From:

heavensreader

I will - I think - I'd have to -

[Learn from her own death? It's absurd. She feels like she might laugh. The laughter feels like nausea.]

While I can - while it isn't really real - it's the very best lesson, isn't it?