[closed | graham & mikaela funtiemz]

[greasemunkygal]

WHO: Mikaela Banes & Graham Spector
WHEN: During the second wave
WHERE: Midgard 8
WHAT: ...Mikaela's infected D:
NOTES: None!
STATUS: COMPLETE

Comments

[mywrenchsaysyes]

     Hot? Hot? What was she talking about- it was freezing around here! "...." She drew away from his hand, the look on her face unlike anything he'd ever seen, and her babbling made him uneasy. "Wha..." He shook his head, and rather than doing as she had said, he leaned closer-

There were very few things that startled Graham Spector, and even less that managed to scare him. Even then, the latter never lasted for very long. But something was wrong here, something very very wrong... Mikaela moved suddenly, and with how close he had been it wasn't hard to grab him so easily. His wrench was by reflex, held tight in his hand, but he stared at her wide-eyed as she spoke again.

"...sick? No, no- you can't be sick..." They were foolish words, he could already tell once they'd departed his mouth. Even though he was wearing gloves, he could feel the unnatural heat from her body as he grabbed a hold of her shoulder. This was bad. There were others that had gotten sick. There was talk of colds. But people shouldn't be dying from colds. Why wasn't anyone saying anything? What was going on? "Hey..." He tried to force a smile, but even he found that hard to do as he looked at her. Mikaela didn't look good at all.

[greasemunkygal]

Mikaela can't seem to stop trembling; she's hot, she's cold, she's hot, so hot. She runs her tongue across her lips and she shifts, refusing to let go of him right away. Her expression blanks out.

"They...They're right outside, moving. Can't you hear them?" She moves one hand to press a finger to her lips, face changing from recognition of him to one that was in a faraway place. "Be quiet." She glances around again, the terror very evident on her face. She doesn't seem to register the hand on his shoulder, she can't even feel it.

Looking back up at him, Mikaela shudders and presses her lips together, face pale and sweaty as she reaches to press a hand against her head. It ached, everything ached and she sways a little.

"Sick. Really...really sick, somethings happening. Help...help me..." She releases him to fall back, letting her back slam against the doorframe with a grunt. "So...hot."

[mywrenchsaysyes]

     "Who's... Hey, there's nothing. No one's out there-" None that were making any audible noise that could possibly have bothered her, anyway, drafty building or not. He frowned, watching her. This wasn't right. He squeezed her shoulder lightly, shifting his hand to wave in front of her, tensing once she finally looked back at him.

"I don't..." Don't know what to do...! He couldn't catch her before she crashed back against the door. He was beginning to feel uneasy about the whole situation. This wasn't something he was used to handling! People never asked him for help, not on purpose! "Hot? It's not hot- it's cold. But you've got a fever so it doesn't matter- but that's not natural- you could fry eggs on-" He shook his head. Less talk, more action.

He moved to try picking her up. What after that? He wasn't thinking that far ahead.

[greasemunkygal]

"Decepticons," she whispers, slipping back into her hallucination. "Be quiet!" She covers her face, pressing herself back and against the wall. "Nonononono, they're gonna hear us, find us, kill us..." She starts to cry, the tears streaming down her already damp cheeks. She's fading in and out, and it's terrifying.

"Graham please..." She shudders, whimpering under her breath and mumbling incoherently about motorcycles. "I'm late, gotta...gotta get home, get to work, Dad's waiting...need Bee to give him a ride. I-I forgot to call Bee!" She looks frantic, then shakes her head trying to bring herself back.

When he starts to pick her up, she flings herself into his arms, sobbing hysterically. "Graham...Graham I think I'm dying."

[mywrenchsaysyes]

     No, don't cry...! There wasn't any point to be crying- and now what was she talking about? He stared at her. She was jumping subjects like oil on a skillet.

Slowly he stood with her, the wrench tucked under an arm somehow. He took a step back so the wouldn't both go falling against the wall as Mikaela moved again. "Just....no... shh-" What was he supposed to say?! Something like that wasn't supposed to make him feel so...helpless? It had to be that. He vaguely recalled such a feeling before. He hated it. "No, no, no no...." Graham propelled himself down the hall with her. Outside. Outside where?? What the hell do you do in this situation..?!

[greasemunkygal]

She can't help it, and she clings to him desperately, looking up at him pleadingly as she's pulled to her feet. Leaning heavily on him, she stumbles with him as he heads down the hall.

"I...I think I am, it's...I'm hot and...and the Decepticons..." She's racked with chills and shivers and tears. "Dying I'm...I'm dying!" She shouts, practically tripping over her own feet because she can't feel them anymore.

"Th-thirsty..." She mumbles, too afraid to let go of Graham.

[mywrenchsaysyes]

     "There aren't any De...Decepticons here," he assured her as they went. His hold around her tightened as she kept stumbling. Why can't she walk? Why why why-

...you know why, don't you? But you don't want to admit it- It's not possible but then where's everyone else gone around here! He'd noticed how empty the apartments had gotten so abruptly, the talk of sickness, the smell of fresh fires and the familiar stench of burning flesh. Had he ignored it, or just wondered why no alarm had been raised about another zombie invasion?

Graham nodded numbly as he led her out. "We'll get you something then, okay?" Door. Door outside, right there. "I'll take you to Ironhide, yeah? Him an' the yellow jacket-"

[greasemunkygal]

"I...I see them you can't see them? There-there's Barricade 'n S-Starsream and M-Megatron..." She can't seem to stop her tears, regardless of how dehydrated she is, and she stumbles again, grabbing on to him with gloved hands as she struggles not to fall. They're all around them, why doesn't he see what she sees?

Mikaela continues to mutter to herself about the Decepticons she thinks she sees as she goes with him outside.

"I-Ironhide? He's...he's here? Is he okay? I Saw him...he was on fire and then...Sam...Megatron shot him..." Her tears start over and she stops in her tracks right outside the door, digging her heels in and flinging her arms around his neck. She's practically steaming in the cold air.

"I'm...I'm really scared I don't want to die, Graham...please don't let me die."

[mywrenchsaysyes]

     She was delusional. Wonderful. "No, they're not- Mikaela, there's no one here but me. Me an' you. Okay? Ironhide's fine unless-" No- stick to facts. "-he's fine, he's here an' Ratchet- they're in the junkyard hangin' out, remember?" REMEMBER.

He stopped himself short of shaking her out of frustration. Instead he nearly trips when Mikaela suddenly stops and then throws herself at him again. So hot. Was that...steam? That ain't right... Normally he'd take a moment to stare in awe of such an unusual phenomena but the girl's words are gripping, almost as uncomfortably tight as her grip is around his neck.

"Don't say that..." he hissed.

[greasemunkygal]

"You." She stares at him, trying to focus her eyes on his face as she holds onto him. "You. Graham...you're...I know you." She shakes her head, trying to swallow. Why does it feel like her mouth is full of cotton? "Here." She pats his chest carefully with one hand, smoothing his jacket then flinging her arm back around his neck. "I...Ironhide who? You have a ratchet somewhere?" She looks around idly, then rests her head on his shoulder and hums quietly.

"Don't say what?" What had she said? Don't say what? She doesn't remember. She doesn't think she does, anyway...it's hard to think when you're brain feels like it's on fire. "'S hot. I'm hot. Hot out here. Isn't it hot? Like...like Egypt." She lets him go and moves further outside into the cold open air, staring at her gloves hands, legs feeling like jelly beneath her. So much so that she just...drops to the ground with a hysterical laugh, tugging her gloves off as she curls in a little ball, flinging them from her.

Except...her hand. Her hand is wrong all wrong where she'd been scratched by the villager, and it looks wrong.

"Mmmm...'s numb, can't feel...my fingers." She holds her hand up and wiggles her fingers, body beginning to shiver. "Can't feel 'em, nope." She blinks up at him, pushing herself to her knees and trying desperately to get to her feet. What's this mean? It means she's dying, she thinks.

"Don't...don't wanna die...don't want to die please don't...don't let me die..." She's crying to herself and she can't stop, and she lets her face drop into her hands as she sits there on her knees.

[mywrenchsaysyes]

     He found himself shaking his own head as he watched her, as he listened to her. She was becoming more and more detached by the second. The lull in conversation sent an odd chill through him, and he wasn't sure what to say as she hummed. There were no other words for it. This was scary.

"...you don't remember?" Graham watched as she disentangled herself from him and wandered off a few steps before collapsing again. He took two steps after her and then stopped when he saw the wound on her hand. He'd seen stuff like that plenty of times before. He knew discolored skin and ugly marks like that didn't belong on Mikaela. A curse forced its way past his lips, about the only other thing he could do at the moment besides stare at her as she laughed and not minutes later was crying again, curling up there on the cold ground.

He wasn't sure when his wrench had made it back into his hand, but he could barely feel his own fingers for how tightly he was grasping it, like a lifeline. This wasn't happening. This wasn't supposed to happen. How did something like this happen?

[greasemunkygal]

"Stupid...Decepticons...over there behind you. You should be quiet." This is quite possibly one of the most frightening situations she's ever found herself in. She knows something is wrong, that she's going crazy and she doesn't know why. Losing all sense of stability, Mikaela pulls her legs under her and sits on them, dropping her face into her hands. Standing isn't an option anymore. not right now.

"No. I can't...there's something important, really important, like...big stuff, really big stuff with guns, bu--" She cuts herself off and gasps, it all comes back in a whirlwind and she looks up at him with recognition. "Graham! Where-where's Ironhide, is he okay? Please...tell me he's okay." She angrily rubs the tears from her face, and finally stares at her hand, watching the steam rise off of the wound itself. "Oh...oh God, I--"

Blinking up at him, she frantically reaches for her gloves to cover it, hide it, keep it from being exposed to him, because he's important, right? He's important to her and she knows this but she's forgotten his name again, and she's terrified.

"What's happening to me?"

[mywrenchsaysyes]

     The mechanic remained silent for the longest time. Mikaela hardly gave him much of a chance to throw in any more words, and the more she spoke and flipped back and forth between things, the tighter the feeling in his chest became.

Too late. He'd seen it. He knew. She should know now, too.

"...so that's it..." He broke his silence, lowering his head, his eyes curtained by his long bangs. "...heh."

This wasn't how things were supposed to go. None of this had ever gone the way he wanted or expected it to. His shoulders began to shake in silent laughter, and he ran his free hand across his face. "...what's happening..? That's a good question. That's what I wanna know. Why don't they tell us these things? But then should I be surprised, the way things are around here? ....Why didn't you say anything...?"

[greasemunkygal]

She fell quiet too, her breathing coming in short, staccato gasps. It was the only thing she could hear for a while, until he spoke again. She blinks up at him, trying to push herself to her feet. It’s hard to do and she teeters a little before she manages to balance herself out, but she does it all the same. Mikaela knows what this is, heard about it, never seen it. The realization that yes, she is dying in a sense is a little much to bear, and in her fevered and crazed mind it almost makes some sort of morbid sense.

“One of…those things, that’s what’s happening to me, isn’t it?” She tries to breathe normally. “Turning…into something that’s not even gonna be recognizable.” It’s a struggle to stay coherent, and she blinks back more tears. Why hadn’t she said something? It’s not like there was something to be done about it, she’d heard the whispers, thought there was nothing to help the people that were infected. It hadn’t even occurred to her to think that was the problem, she'd just thought she’d been sick.

Except death before she becomes something…else. Can she really ask him to do that?

“Graham, you…Can you…do me a favor?” It's scary, standing here in the cold. She's not alone, but she's never felt more so in her whole life.

[mywrenchsaysyes]

     "..." All he could do was stand there. He wasn't two feet from her but his feet wouldn't bridge that small gap. It might as well have been miles.

"...why does this place do this- what's it tryin' to do to me..!" Bring a person, take a person, bring 'em back but they don't know you- He hated this place. At first he managed to delude himself into thinking it didn't matter, but things always happened to remind him otherwise, and more often than not with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

He heard his name. She knew his name still. She knew, she knew, she knew. And he had a feeling he knew what she was going to ask him.

[greasemunkygal]

She sways a little on her feet, it's so hard to keep herself standing upright, but she thinks she has to, just for a little bit. Just long enough to make a request.

If she can remember it, that is.

"I-I'm...sorry..." She mumbles, voice trailing off into some kind of unintelligible babble about Decepticons and motorcycles and talking Autobots. When she remembers, she feels terrible, so awful for it but then just as soon as she can remember something she blanks into dementia again, unable to recall where she is or who the person is in front of her. She battles with this in silence for a few minutes, before gasping and remembering what she was trying to say.

"Just....end it for me, please? Before I turn...into a monster." It's a horrible request and she feels guilty for a fraction of a second before she drops to her knees again, landing hard on the ground. Where was she...?