Day Twelve
Hunter almost groaned as she caught up to Toni who had moved rather fast for someone who usually wasn't that quick at running compared to the blonde. Toni was panting slightly, pacing back and forth across the sand as she clenched her jaw and fists in anger at what Shelby had said, even though she always had the suspicion that those would be her beliefs.
"Hey," Hunter breathed, standing her ground as Toni angrily spun around, her anger coursing through her veins before she noticed it was Hunter and visibly relaxed ever so slightly. She knew the rest of the girls didn't share the same views about her and Hunter's sexualities the way Shelby did, but it didn't make her willing to chat to them about how this felt. She'd felt it more often in her life than she liked to admit.
"I can't fucking believe her," Toni spat, continuing to pace before snorting at her own words. "Actually, scrap that, I can believe it. What I can't believe is that Martha even had the guts to defend her and say she wasn't like that when she clearly is!"
"Hey, hey," Hunter soothed, stepping closer to the raven haired girl who took a step back, worried that she would get angry and somehow hurt the fragile girl that was trying to coax her to calm down. "Toni, breathe!"
Hunter reached out again, placing both of her hands on Toni's shoulders as the girl tried to avoid her eye contact as she heaved with anger still, her eyes fluttering down to look at where Hunter was holding her in place. They'd came a long way since the night of the rainstorm and Toni having to restrain the girl. A long way indeed.
"Shelby's just ignorant," Hunter murmered, searching Toni's eyes as the girl finally looked up and met her own. "Harmless, but ignorant. What she thinks about people like us, it doesn't matter."
Toni nodded as she tried to cool down, knowing that Hunter was right. Shelby's thoughts and opinions on them wasn't going to change how they were or how they saw each other. Hunter smiled gently as she let her arms from from Toni's face, taking a few steps away as she turned around and began to move away from the girl now that she had succeeded in calming her down slightly.
"Hunter?" Toni asked, the girl looking over her shoulder as she mumbled a noise of acknowledgement. "With my anger, how did you know I wouldn't..."
"Hit me?" Hunter asked, blunt and straight to the point as per usual. Toni nodded sheepishly as Hunter smiled at the girl, a genuine one that gave Toni literal butterflies in her stomach. "Cause I trust you Toni. You're not like him. You never could be - not to me anyway."
As Hunter began to walk away again, Toni's thoughts all went out of the window as she lunged forward and lightly wrapped her hand around Hunter's wrist to tug her back to face the girl. Hunter spun around quickly, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise as Toni lightly held on to her wrist.
"Is this okay?" Toni asked as she touched the girl, Hunter breaking into a smile as she looked at Toni's afraid face. She was afraid that Hunter would reject her touch and that they'd be right back to square one.
"Only if this is," Hunter told Toni as she moved forward, noticing how Toni's eyes grew wide as she realised what the girl was about to do. Hunter placed her spare hand against the back of Toni's neck, tugging her forward and sealing their lips together in less than a second.
Toni's eyes immediately closed as she adjusted to the feel of Hunter's lips on her own, her mind running a thousand miles per hour as she let her hands tug the girl in closer by the waist, feeling Hunter move her other hand to rest on Toni's shoulder as the other caressed the back of her neck.
As they pilled away Toni grinned widely at Hunter who was looking at her with curious eyes, worried that the raven haired girl wasn't into her the way that she was into Toni. Toni laughed lightly before smugly chuckling to herself, looking Hunter up and down before poking her tongue out slightly.
"Knew you wouldn't be able to stay away from me," Toni joked, causing Hunter to laugh along, pushing her shoulder lightly as the two began to walk back towards the campsite. Any anger Toni had about Shelby was simmered for now, replaced with an inextinguishable desire for the other blonde that was currently holding her hand and tugging her along. Toni knew that she would let Hunter drag her anywhere if it meant the blonde would kiss her like that again.
"Yeah, whatever," Hunter joked, before a sudden feeling of nausea rolled around in her stomach. She paused in her steps, feeling the bile rise up in her throat as she looked at Toni for a second. Toni raised an eyebrow, holding her hands out to steady Hunter as she swayed slightly.
"Hey, you good?"
Hunter nodded for a brief second before turning around and vomiting onto the sand beneath them. Toni jumped in surprise, letting out a slight yell as she rubbed the puking Hunter's back, confused as to why she was suddenly being sick when she was fine less than a minute prior.
"Surely I'm not that bad of a kisser?" Toni joked, trying to make Hunter feel better but the blonde couldn't even laugh as she continued to hack up her guts. Toni noticed that she had sudden started to develop a temperature, realising that she herself was beginning to break into a sweat too.
As Toni watched Hunter throw up the mussels that she had ate, she too found herself turning to the side and throwing up the ones that she had ate too.
That's when chaos truly started.
_____
Fatin rested Toni's body across her arms as she tried to force water down the girl's throat, having already attempted to try and get Hunter to swallow some too with little success. The blonde had barely been legible, but it was clear from the way she was batting Fatin off that she wanted the Californian girl to help Toni before helping her.
She was insanely worried about Hunter but she also knew that the girl would never forgive her if she didn't help Toni too. So Fatin did what she had to do, tilting Toni's head back as she tried to force the water into her.
"Help me out girl," Fatin begged Toni as the girl coughed and spluttered, hanging loose and limp in her arms like a dead fish out of water. "Swallow. Swallow, bitch."
There was a moment of silence in which the only sounds that could be heard other than Toni's coughing was Hunter's quick breathing and coughing too, while Fatin paused as she reflected upon her choice of words.
"You see what you made me do? You made me sound like a rapey frat bro," Fatin joked, attempting to get some response from either of the girls who usually would have laughed at her comments. Nothing but coughs and groans again.
Martha approached the three, noticing how Toni and Hunter were both in bad states while Fatin was cradling her friend. The other girl went to sit down beside Hunter, lifting her cautiously as she wasn't sure how the girl would react to being touched when she was so vulnerable, especially since Hunter and Martha hadn't really spent that much time together while they were on the island.
It didn't seem like the blonde had the energy to complain however, since she barely moved as Martha laid her head on her lap.
"My pants..." Martha drawled out as she explained her current look to Fatin. "I had to leave them."
"Yeah, fuck pants," Fatin told the girl, pleased that she wasn't in as bad a state as Hunter or Toni. "Drink."
Martha took the can from the other girl, trying not to spill any on Hunter as she twitched slightly in Martha's lap. Her eyes travelled from Hunter to Toni as she took a chug of the water, worried for her best friend and the girl that she had a crush on. Her and Toni might not have been on speaking terms recently, but they'd always be best friends.
"Is she... is she okay? And Hunter?" Martha asked as Toni spluttered in Fatin's arms, concerned that they were going to lose another one of their team.
Fatin's face was maybe the most solemn and serious that Martha had ever seen it as the girl looked back at her, tears forming in her eyes as she clutched on to Toni for dear life. As her head shook in a no, Martha felt her whole world suddenly stop. This was serious.
For the rest of them, it was a little food poisoning. For Hunter and Toni, this was life or death.
______
"We used to fuss when the landlord dissed us, no heat, wonder why Christmas missed us. Birthdays was the worst days, now we sip champagne when we thirsty..."
Fatin looked up from where she was running her hands gently through Hunter's hair, noticing that while Martha had been singing she had also been doing the same to Toni. They were a long way from when Martha had told them all she didn't care what Toni did anymore, and this was an obvious sign that she would always care about her best friend.
"Hey," Fatin mumbled as she nudged Hunter's shoulder, trying to get a response from the girl. "Hudson would be so embarrassed at you coughing all over the place, huh?"
Martha watched too, hoping that the jab would illicit some sort of response from Hunter but it didn't. The girl just continued to wheeze from where Fatin had placed her in her lap, nothing but concern crossing across their faces as Dot walked over to them.
She crouched down, checking both of the girls temperatures before turning her head to try and hide the severly panicked look on her face. She'd sent Leah out to find the supplies, but the girl was yet to reappear.
"Where the fuck is Leah?"
______
"You thought that you'd gotten them all?"
"I don't know how I let it happen."
"Well, I have some guesses. Delirium, dehydration, gravity. Honestly, I would encourage you to go easy on yourself. Just chalk it up to tough luck. But that wasn't your first unforced error was it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Sorry if that sounded glib. I'm a tennis fan. Uh, what I mean was... an unintentional misstep on your part that proved costly. The phone call that night that you made to your friend. Your emotions were running so high, if I recall, that you weren't able to make a plea for help."
"You gonna throw my fuckups back in my face over and over? What good does that do?"
"No, no, no. That's not my intent at all. I'm simply trying to identify a patten here. That's all, Leah. Your mind, it's like a um...it's like a fog machine. It creates all this obsessive energy, this obsessive suspicion, this obsessive grief, obsessive love, so much so that your judgement becomes clouded and ultimately, you make mistakes."
______
"God, come on," Dot mumbled as she frantically rummaged through the bag, looking for the pills that she needed to help Toni and Hunter. Martha was sitting with them and Fatin, both of the girls getting more and more worried for their friends as time went on. "Where the fuck is the goddamn Halophen?"
Martha herself wasn't feeling amazing, but she wasn't much worse than the rest of the girls looked so she didn't feel the need to take the attention away from Toni and Hunter when they were clearly on death's door. Leah noticed Dot's obsessive rummaging and moved over to the girl, instant dread filling her as she noticed that Dot was trying to find something that wasn't there.
"What the hell happened to this bag? It's full of dirt!"
"Um, I don't know but that stuff that you gave us, the antibiotic, that's gonna help right?" Leah asked as she tried to avoid from looking over at where Toni and Hunter were still spluttering, both girls getter worse by the minute.
"Yeah, they'll knock out the bacteria and they'll help most of us, but Toni and Hunter, they need more. Halophen will help them keep water down, and...and I know we've got three. I just need to find two of them," Dot told Leah before her eyes widened at the sight of one of the three pills she had been looking for. "Okay, halfway there. Take that over to them!"
Leah took the pill from Dot, running over to Toni, Hunter, Fatin and Martha, looking at the two girls who were on the group while their friends looked up with hope.
"I've got meds for you," Leah directed to Hunter and Toni, who weer barely able to even acknowledge her. "I have... I have a med."
"Hunter's really bad," Fatin said straight away, knowing that it was impossible to pick between the two girls but also being harshly aware that Hunter had digested the most mussels out of all of them - something that was clearly showing. "Toni's a fighter, she can hold off until Dot finds the other two pills."
Martha nodded, knowing that while Toni was really bad Fatin was right - Hunter was worse than the other girl. Leah dropped down to her knees beside Hunter, the girl using all of her energy to try and push the other girl away from her.
"Hunter," Leah muttered, almost begging the girl to open her mouth as she held out the pill. Hunter grumbled as she tilted her head in the opposite direction, refusing to take the pill from the girl. Fatin and Martha shared horrified glances at Hunter's actions, the former snatching the pill from Leah and grabbing Hunter's head to sit her up.
"Hunter, take the fucking pill!" Fatin said, her voice cracking as she watched her friend continue to refuse to accept the Halogen. It wasn't clear why until Hunter raised her hand slightly, pushing Fatin's arm closer to where Toni was laying.
"Not until she gets one," Hunter rasped out, coughing as she spluttered in Fatin's arms, knowing fine well that there was no way she was going to accept the pill until Toni had taken one. She knew that Toni had Martha needing her, and while she wasn't naive enough to know that people would miss her, she knew that she wouldn't forgive herself if she survived and Toni didn't.
Leah took the pill back from Fatin, knowing that there wasn't much time for them all to argue. She sat Toni up as Fatin pulled Hunter into her, hugging her friend as she prayed that Dot would hurry up and find the other pill. Leah poured water into Toni's mouth but the girl threw it back up, groaning in the same manner that Hunter did.
"Dot? DOT!" Leah yelled out, causing the other girl to immedialtye stop her searching and rush over to their side.
"The other Halopens, I can't find either of them!" Dot yelled as she ran over, sinking to her knees beside Toni and Hunter as she looked between them. "Shouldn't Hunter take the first one?"
"She won't take it," Martha told them all through tears as the rest of the girls ran over too. Shelby had taken this as the prime time to appear, not understanding why Toni was also refusing now to take the pill. "Not until Toni takes it."
"Oh Lord, they're in bad shape," Shelby murmured as she looked between them, unsure of how to help at all. Sure, she didn't agree with their lifestyle choices but she didn't think they deserved to die.
"This'll help, but I can only find one."
"Come on Dottie, it's obvious who needs it most!" Shelby exclaimed as she looked between Hunter and Toni, knowing that Hunter needed it more than Toni did at that given moment. Everyone shook their heads as Hunter let out a groan of disapproval too.
"She won't take it unless Toni takes it first," Fatin yelled back, annoyed that Shelby was wasting time. The sooner Toni took the pill, the sooner Dot could go back to looking for the other two. She just needed to find one out of the two they had left.
Shelby sighed as she ran a hand through her hair, taking the pill from Leah as she looked at Toni who was faintly glaring at her with the last of her energy that she had left.
"Okay Toni, I'm gonna need you to take this. All right?"
"Get away from me," Toni snarled out, not even able to open her eyes but having no intention of taking anything that Shelby tried to give her. She didn't want to take the pill until Hunter had taken it - an almost standstill that they had now found themselves at.
"Should Shelby really be on the front lines of this, considering the shit that just went down?" Fatin asked, running her hands through Hunter's hair as she tried to keep the girl calm. Her temperature was sky rocketing, and she just needed Dot to get back to finding the other pill before something even worse happened to the blonde cheerleader.
"I got this, all right?! If I put this in your hand, can you take it?" Shelby asked Toni, praying that she was going to take the pill.
"Not gonna take shit from you," Toni spat, everyone groaning as they watched their friends get worse and worse.
"It'll save your life Toni!" Shelby yelled back, getting annoyed now. "You're taking the damn pill."
"Fuck it Shelby, just give it to me! I'll fucking do it!"
"Shelby, give her the pill! Give her the fucking pill what are you waiting for!?"
"JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, AM I NOT ALLOWED TO HELP HER?"
Before any of them could say or do anything, Shelby jumped on top of Toni and straddled her, pushing the girl's head back as she held the pill above her mouth. Everyone watched in utter shock as she pinched Toni's nose, knowing that the only way the girl would be able to breathe was if she opened her mouth. As soon as Toni did, Shelby rammed the pill between her lips and held on to her mouth until she swallowed.
"Swallow the fucking pill!" Shelby growled in Toni's face, everyone else being kinda surprised at how dedicated Shelby now seemed to saving her life. Toni groaned before eventually swallowing, coughing as Shelby sat up from where she had been hovering over her.
Toni spluttered and coughed as the pill travelled down her system, Shelby jumping up and instantly running off once she realised what she had done. The sudden overwhelming realisation of the position she was in and the fact that Hunter wasn't getting a pill until they managed to find another one sunk in and she took off away from the group without another thought.
"Dot, where's the other Halopen?" Fatin asked, breaking them all out of the trance they were in. Dot nodded, rising to her feet as she sprinted back over to the med bag, Nora going with her to help look through it incase Dot had just missed the two other pills in her hurry.
Toni wheezed as she rolled on to her side, noticing how bad Hunter was compared to how she felt. The girl coughed, reaching out and putting her hand into Hunter's clammy one, looking around at them all as the other girl whimpered and shivered.
"It should have been her."
_____
"She was too proud. That's why she resisted the meds from Shelby."
"Something like that. Hunter did it out of love for Toni."
"Pride," Dr Faber said, ignoring Leah's comment about Hunter for now. "It's a dangerous thing, having too much."
"So is having none at all."
_____
"Hunter, open your eyes," Toni begged through rasps as she hovered beside the blonde, her hands pressed to either side of the girl's face as she searched her face. It had been about thirty minutes since Shelby had forced her to take the pill, and while she had improved rather quickly, Hunter just seemed to be deteriorating even more. "Please, Hunt."
Fatin raised an eyebrow at the nickname, knowing that Hunter had only let Hudson use it their entire life, but knew that now wasn't the moment to ask why Toni had picked it up. She was well aware that something had likely happened between them when they ran off after Shelby's admission but she also wasn't exactly in the position to ask about that now either.
"GUYS! WE'VE GOT THE SECOND!" Dot suddenly yelled, having taken to searching the sand around the bag incase she had knocked it out during their first search. Nora had managed to find the pill in another box - but there was no sign whatsoever of the third. Thankfully they didn't need three at that moment, but they would regret not having it by the end of the night - not that they knew that yet.
Rachel took the pill from Dot, sprinting over and passing it to Toni who was already sitting waiting to give it to Hunter. The only issue they had was that the girl was currently unresponsive. Thankfully she was breathing, but she wasn't exactly in the position to take orders from anyone included them asking her to open her mouth.
Toni shuddered at the thought of doing something that she was sure Riley had done to her before, but she mirrored Shelby's actions as she pinched Hunter's nose and waited for the girl's survival instincts to cause her to open her mouth to be able to breathe. As soon as she did, Toni dropped the pill into her mouth and released her nose, watching as she swallowed it subconsciously.
Everyone sighed and sat back in relief as Hunter didn't cough it back up, simply muttering something unintelligible under her breath as her head lolled back on to Fatin's lap. They all looked between each other before Fatin nudged Toni lightly and motioned to where Hunter was still breathing away in her arms.
"She's gonna be okay," Fatin told Toni as the girl almost cried out of relief. "She's gotta be."
______
Toni hadn't left Hunter's side all night, even as the girl became responsive and able to stand. They huddled together beside the fire, refusing to leave each other's side as everyone started to slowly fall asleep for the night.
They had been so attached to each other, that they hadn't noticed how Martha was suddenly getting worse. She had taken a Pepto earlier, knowing that she felt bad but not wanting to be helped over the two girls who had clearly been worse than her.
"Hey, remember when you said you were never going to shit outdoors?" Dot asked Fatin as they both looked away from where they had been speculating Toni and Hunter's sudden coziness. "How's that resolution going for you?"
"So fucking broken, along with my colon. And my dignity."
"Always knew I'd get food poisoning or something one day," Toni told Martha as the girl sat beside herself and Hunter. Hunter had lolled to sleep on Toni's shoulder, her snores light and causing some sniggers from the other girls at how she could be so peaceful after almost dying just hours prior. "Just thought it'd be the chicken nuggets at school."
Martha smiled ever so slightly, letting out a small hum in agreement with Toni's joke, barely able to keep her eyes open as she felt herself breaking out in a sweat.
"Thanks for watching after me today," Toni told her, knowing that they hadn't been on good terms before now but hoping that this brought things back to how they were before the island with the best friend duo.
"Yeah, you're welcome," Martha drawled out, her eyes flickering to look at her best friend slowly. "Just don't even think about it."
"Hey, you okay?" Toni asked, her hand fiddling with Hunter's fingers as the blonde continued to sleep against her shoulder. Martha nodded slightly, not wanting to worry her friend since Dot had told them all the third Halopen was no-where to be found anyway.
"Yeah, I'm just sweaty. I'm gonna go cool off," Martha told her, raising to her feet and letting the blanket that she had wrapped around her shoulders cover Toni and Hunter before heading away from the camp.
As Martha walked away, Nora walked over to take her spot beside Toni and a sleeping Hunter. She passed Toni the bottle of water that she had been drinking out of, smiling at the two girls before sitting down.
"You should stay hydrated," Nora told Toni before nodding at Hunter. "Maybe wake her and make sure she drinks some too."
Before anyone could do anything, Martha swayed slightly, her eyes not really focusing on any of them as she stumbled, hitting the ground without another word. All of them rushed forward, running to her side - including Hunter who had been woken as Toni had yelled out Martha's name.
"Turn her on her side!" Nora ordered, everyone obliging as Hunter stepped backwards so that Martha wasn't as crowded.
"What's happening to her?" Toni asked, tears pouring down her face as she immediately began to think the worst.
"I don't know," Dot admitted, concerned about their friend. "Pepto might not have been the right thing."
"Okay, so what do we do now Dottie?"
"I said I don't know!" Dot snapped back, fear coating her face as she tried to think of what to do.
"Figure something out," Toni told her, her voice shaking as she leaned over Martha the same way she had done only hours before to Hunter. The blonde was covering her mouth with her hand as she watched the scene play out before her and wondered if this was what the older felt like earlier.
"Well if we had the other Halophen, the she could keep water down!"
"Why did you do it? Why did you make me take it it?" Toni asked Hunter, not meaning to get ratty with the girl and also not thinking about the logic behind it. She knew that Hunter hadn't forced her to take it, but it was her fault that she had gotten it first. "You wasted it on me!"
"Toni, she didn't..." Shelby started, trying to defend Hunter before the girl rounded on her too.
"LOOK AT HER! Okay, she is a good person and she cares about people, and people care about her and she has a whole family and you both threw me a lifeline!" Toni snapped at Shelby and Hunter, not really meaning her anger at Hunter but not being able to help herself.
Fatin noticed how the blonde took the yelling rather well, surprised that Hunter hadn't backed down immediately as soon as she saw the anger on Toni's face.
"You were dying!" Shelby argued back, Toni immediately counteracting.
"Who cares? I don't matter! Fuck, I don't matter. I don't FUCKING MATTER!"
"I care," Hunter said, her voice cold enough that everyone paused slightly at her tone. They hadn't heard her ever sound that blunt and cut off, and Toni immediately felt bad for her outburst as she noticed the hurt in Hunter's eyes. "You know you fucking matter to me."
"There might be some more meds out there," Leah admitted, everyone snapping around to look at her in disbelief and shock. "Maybe even the ones that she needs. In the forest, I might have dropped some."
Fatin, Dot and Hunter all rose to their feet as they turned to look at Leah in utter anger. The three had their own reasons to be frustrated at the girl but it all came down to the one thing: if she had admitted it when it happened, there would have been a lot less suffering.
"I...I was out there and like, basically delirious, and I guess I dropped the bag and every...everything just spilled."
Dot lunged forward, shoving the girl in anger before snarling at her. "Why didn't you tell any of us this before?"
"I'm sorry..."
"Wherever you dropped it, you need to take me there now, Leah."
"I'm coming too," Hunter said, nodding to Dot in solidarity as Leah rushed over and grabbed a stick, making a torchlight for the three of them as she planned to take them to where she had dropped the meds.
Martha was Toni's Hudson, and Hunter wasn't about to let the basketball player lose her. She didn't deserve that even if she thought she did.
____
Leah sat down the letter as she finished rereading it once more. She understood exactly what Hunter was trying to tell her and while not all of it she had been able to translate perfectly, she got the point of the coded note.
These men, doctors and nurses weren't their friends. There was something much larger at play here.