Haven

Chapter 7 Gassed

"Stop kidding around!" Henry said, but Anna was already down on the floor with Adam trying to rouse him.

"Something is wrong!" Anna called. "Look at his color! He is clammy and cold!"

Judy had put down the bowl she was carrying and checking Adam's eyes and looking him over. "He is grey as a ghost!"

Anna patted his cheek and hands. "Come back to us, Adam. What happened to him, Robert?" She began to wonder if it could have had to do with the thawing process. Maybe she had not done it right.

"We had just finished the last home and were sitting on the ground drinking coffee. Haven whispered to us to come here, that you needed us. She did say to hurry. But I thought that it meant that food was ready. Just as we got here, there was a very funny smell." While Robert was talking, they were moving Adam to Anna's bed, and Anna went about picking up this instrument and that.

"Well, he's still breathing. Pulse is thready. He seems in shock. Where's that tank of oxygen, oh, here it is." Anna was searching in the first aid closet and found all she needed. Robert saw she had more than she could carry and helped her back to the bed with it. Judy placed the oxygen mask over Adam's nose and mouth and started airflow for him. Beth remembered how the scan worked and ran it and read the numbers to Anna as she got to them.

"Adam seems to have been gassed!" Anna stated. "Robert, what has happened? If you smelled it, why didn't you faint?

"I was way in here when I got the whiff. I feel slightly woozy but not too bad, really."

"Run the scan on him too, Beth." Anna paused and thought, 'I wonder if this is what Haven wanted us to avoid?'

The scan on Robert was a little off, and so Anna had him lay back on Judy's bed. She found another oxygen tank, and the girls set him up with it.

"Let's take a look at the internal specs and see if there is any gas still in here."

Judy found the air sensor on the wall and read the specs from that. "Looks like we're okay in here. Adam must have been out there just a moment too long. Oh, look, his color is coming back now." Judy said.

Anna went and felt his face. "Yes, his skin is much better." Adam, how are you feeling?"

Adam groaned a bit and seemed a little dazed at first but soon was focusing on the group. "Actually, I feel pretty good now. I'm famished!"

"Suck just a bit more oxygen to equalize that gas, and we'll go eat," Anna said as Beth took another scan of both Adam and Robert.

"They are okay now," Beth stated. "So what was it you had to tell us, Anna?"

"Let's go back into the kitchen and eat."

***

Once they were all up and eating, Anna took time between bites to tell them about her adventure with Shea and how she was sent away so quickly.

"It wasn't as though Haven told me what was happening or how bad it was going to be; just that we needed to hurry and go home to be safe. And you were told just to get here, thinking that Haven just wanted us to eat together?"

Up till now, this planet had surprised them with how she could heal or fix things for them. But this particularity puzzled them all. Why wouldn't she have made sure to make them move faster or stop whatever it was that caused the gas to happen? Adam had suffered due to something on her. What could it mean? Would there be any long-term effects? They sat and discussed these questions. Each one had a theory, and each one had another problem to disprove it. But soon, the food was gone. They were satisfied; the kitchen cleaned up.