Patrick came over to Ruth as she gasped and sobbed. He put an arm around her, carefully.
"I'm sorry," she sobbed. "I'm such an idiot..." He shook his head.
"That's not true," he said. "It's ok." She cried in his arms. The pain was dying down a little, but it was still bad. She wondered how long this would go on for, how long she would be able to stand it.
"And the others don't even know," Patrick said softly. "They thought maybe we'd be punished a bit- but not like this."
"Maybe it's better that way," Ruth said gently. "We knew the risk when we chose to stay, when we chose to let them go. If they knew, they might try to rescue us, and end up sharing our fate."
"If Will and Zoe hadn't kidnapped us," he began.
"I don't blame them," Ruth said quickly. "They never meant this to happen. Yes, what they did was wrong, but a thousand things have happened since then that have brought us here, and if any one of them had been different this might not have happened. Don't feel bitter towards them."
"You're saying it's all down to events? That we're just the victims of circumstances?"
"Not just," Ruth replied.
"But don't you want someone to blame?" Patrick said. "Someone to be mad at for what's happening?"
"Not if it's not their fault," Ruth said quietly. "Besides, although we may not have chosen to put ourselves in danger, we chose to stay here, to put our lives at risk, to help the others. Events don't dictate our lives. There is always a choice, and the choice we make shows who we are."
"If you put it like that," Patrick said, looking up at her with an attempt at a smile, "we're heroes."
"I'd never call myself that," she replied, a hint of bitterness in her voice.
"But you are," he said. "Really."
"Look who's talking, Sydney Carton," she said.
"Then who are you?" he said.
"Just some kind of fool," she replied, with a sad, almost wistful smile. "A fool who cares too much." He pressed her hand in silence.
"Do you know why I stayed?" she said. "I mean, really? Because I was ashamed. As soon as I'm in danger I want to get out, at any cost. I'd sacrifice other people to be safe if I could. But then I feel ashamed of what I've thought. So I make myself do things I don't want to, that I'm afraid of, because I'm ashamed of what a coward I am underneath, and scared of what people would think if they found out. I'm no hero." He said nothing, but kept his arm round her and hugged her tighter.
There was nothing to do but wait. The pain died down but didn't go away, remaining an unpleasant undercurrent. They sat there for hours, hardly moving, hardly speaking. There was nothing to do, nothing to say.
At last they heard a noise in the corridor. Ruth looked up, heart beating fast, knowing what it meant. The door began to open. She was shaking with fear. She couldn't bear that pain again- and this time probably it would be worse. Patrick gripped her hand. She could see that he was afraid too.
"Ready for the nexxt dossse of medicssine?" the creature grinned. It advanced on them. Ruth shrank back, ashamed of her cowardice but too afraid to do anything else. It reared up and hovered over her until she could think of nothing else. She shut her eyes, but it was still there. She waited, tense.
"But ssssomeone hassn't had their firssst dossse yet, have they?" the creature said, and turned away from her. She opened her eyes to see it preparing to bite a terrified Patrick.
"No!" she shouted, reaching forward, but it was too late.
He cried out, as she had done, and backed away, utter terror in his eyes. She felt a renewed wince of pain as she remembered what it had felt like. The creature laughed and slid out of the room.
Ruth looked at her friend, whimpering in pain as she had been. She longed to be able to help him, to take the pain on herself, but there was no way of doing that. She sat down by him where he was curled up on the floor and hesitantly put an arm around him, as he had done for her. He looked up at her.
"I'm sorry," he began. She smiled brokenly, and shook her head. She put her arms around him and they hugged. Ruth felt a tear on his cheek as it rested against her own, but didn't say anything. She was crying herself.
More waiting, more hours of endurance. The pain seemed to die away, and then suddenly it would return, before slowly dying away again only to return. Ruth wondered how long the snakes would torment them for. Days? Weeks? It made her shudder to think of that. Presumably, since she had been bitten first she would die first. Then Patrick would be alone- would die all alone in this horrible place. She shuddered at the thought. Somehow, now that the others had gone, it emphasised the loneliness. Being the only Earth-dwellers for light years around wasn't so bad when there were twenty or more of you. But when there were only two...it was a frightening thought. Two minus one left only one.
Again the noise in the corridor, again the quickening heartbeat and flash of fear. Some hero I am, she thought bitterly. The two of them exchanged glances. Which of them would it be this time?
It entered the room. "I hope you are well?" it asked sardonically. "Now, which of you ssshall I choossse thisss time?" He hovered over Patrick, who shrunk back. Then he turned away from him, and moved towards Ruth. He laughed.
This time the pain took her breath away. She collapsed again, gasping, unable even to scream. She heard the creature laughing again, and she had never hated a sound so much.
"You cruel ...beast!" she heard Patrick yell.
The laughter stopped abruptly. "Perhapsss both of you thisss time, then?" she heard the snake say. Dimly she saw the creature strike out at Patrick too. She heard him cry out, heard their tormentor laugh again as the door closed behind it. Ruth and Patrick were alone again, alone with their fears and their pain.
He lay in the angle between the wall and the floor. She curled up next to him, her back to the wall.
"Are you ok?" she asked, looking at him. It sounded like the most stupid question ever. He looked up. "It hurts," he said hesitantly, "And I'm scared."
She reached out and took his hand again. "So am I," she replied. There was nothing they could do, and they both knew it.
So this was it. All her life before leaving Earth she had lived a normal life, boring at times, where the most exciting things were performing G&S shows. The sort of life anyone might lead. Occasionally she had wished idly for some adventure, but in her heart she had known that she was a coward and would go to pieces in a dangerous situation. And then everything had changed, her ordinary life had become extraordinary. Since leaving earth she had seen things that probably no Earth-dweller had seen before, her life had been in danger more than once, and she had discovered courage she hadn't known she possessed. The same was true of her friends- people she had thought she knew well, yet now suddenly hidden depths were revealed. And now she and Patrick would die here, alone on a strange planet, so far from home. What would their families think of them, if they ever heard what had happened? They had had several narrow escapes lately. But this time there would be no happy ending.
The story continues...
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