Part 37: If Thyne Eye Offend Thee . . .

The evening had arrived once again. John and McKay had come through for everybody. Taylor, Mandy and Yolanda even went and reloaded on water. They confessed they were scared out of their minds but didn’t see the polar bear. It was a choice of whether to succumb to their fear or survive with the water. McKay admitted him was proud of them.

Everyone was strolling on the beach. Martin was igniting the torches they had created. Taylor and Mandy were relishing in their chocolate bars that McKay let them have. John and McKay sat by themselves. The archer quietly munched on his popcorn, while the Australian sampled some Oreos. They both stared out in to the dark water, with the moon light reflecting over it. They had been sitting for over an hour and hadn’t said a word to each other. John finished off his popcorn and stuffed the bag into the sand. “So, uh . .You want to tell them?” he said, breaking the silence.

“HELL NO, mate.” McKay gritted through his teeth.

“What exactly did we hear?” John said, still confused.

“I’ll you what we heard, mate. We heard whispering from people who weren’t there, so is that what you want to tell these people? They are bloody well scared enough.”

John heard what his friend said. Why bother telling them about a situation they couldn’t explain? The three dead men gave them enough of a scare. “Yeah, “John sighed, “No reason to alarm them any further.”

“We’ll wait and decide whether or not to tell anybody.” McKay ate his Oreo, “In the mean time, keep quiet.”

John sipped on his water. He could hear the waves crashing into the surf. As he just concentrated on things, he could hear the other people talking. Then he heard Tony mentioned in their conversation. It was Natasha, Cecil and Bernard, discussing something about Tony and food. “HEY!” John called, getting their attention.

The three people stopped talking and turned toward the archer. “What are you three talking about?” John asked.

They didn’t say anything, just looked at each other. John then abruptly stood up and began to walk toward them. McKay finished his last cookie and followed him. The archer snapped his fingers at the brunette. “Natasha, are you three talking about Tony?” he asked.

“We just discussing our situation, John,” she whispered.

“And how does Tony fit into that?”

“You figure it out, stud,” Cecil said abruptly.

John’s eyes gazed at the old man in contempt. He didn’t like the way that sounded when he said it. “Maybe I’m gonna need you to spell it out for me.”

“Tony is not only blind, he’s dying. His wound will get infected if not already.” Cecil said coldly, “In the end, he is doing nothing but wasting food. Food that could be kept to help us last longer for the rescue party.”

“Tony’s gonna make it,” McKay mentioned, “He also is a doctor and we need him.”

“Yeah, a blind doctor! What good is he? None of you have the guts to admit what should be done.”

Bernard raised his hand, “Now, Cecil, that is not necessarily what we talked about-“

“Hold on, Bernard, “John said, “I want to hear what he means by what should be done.”

“He’s not going to make it. He should be put out of his misery.” Cecil whispered.

“And exactly how are we supposed to do that?” asked John.

“You’re the one with the weapon, boy, you tell me.”

John blinked. He couldn’t believe what they were hearing. He then immediately grabbed Cecil by the collar. McKay grabbed his arms, and so did Bernard. “You piece of trash!” John yelled in the old man’s face, “Did you honestly expect me to kill him? He’s my friend.”

“I’m sorry, boy, “Cecil said, angrily, “I was under the assumption you had a pair.”

“What’s going on here?” asked Marita, seeing the commotion.

McKay and Bernard finally pulled John away from Cecil. The old man coughed and immediately lit up a cigarette. The archer moved away from the men and walked to Marita. “That gutless rat bastard wants me to kill Tony,” he pointed, “Just to save food.”

Marita was shocked, “There is plenty of food to go around.”

“Really, chica?” Cecil replied, “How do you know that? We’ve been eating the coconuts in this area for six days now. They are gonna run out soon. How can we rely on one man to fish for us? We have to take what we have and dig in deep, long enough for the cavalry to arrive. The doctor is slowly us down.”

“He IS a doctor.” Marita hissed, “We need him.”

Cecil then blinked, “Or don’t you mean YOU need?”

Marita was furious. This man was striking out at them in their weakness points. Her growing love of Tony had nothing to do with the fact that the group of survivors needed him. Taylor gently held onto the Latina as she controlled her anger. She also knew of Cecil’s rudeness.



Back at the encampment, Tony said by himself with Eddie. The little boy just sat on the suitcase watching his friend suffer. The doctor held tightly to his blanket, trying to get warm. The fire and the blanket were not helping but he hoped they would. He knew he was running out of options. He also felt bad about being a burden to the others. “Have your Daredevil powers kicked in yet?” asked Eddie.

“Not yet,” Tony chuckled, humoring the little boy.

“They will. Pretty soon.”

“Sure.” Tony shivered.

His fists were clinched tightly, trying to stop the shivering by sheer will power. It wasn’t working. Tony gritted his teeth. He hated the fact that he was forced into this. He knew what had to be done and any other soldier that he knew would have just died. But he was a medic and the one thing precious to him was life. He wanted to live. Besides the fact that he was at that moment blind, he felt there was still so much he could do. He wasn’t ready to die just yet. The first step to helping him was to seal his wound.

Tony gently began to remove his blind fold with his trembling hands. He draped it on his knee like always and then began to remove the cloth in his eye. It was the last chance to talk himself out of it. He tossed the cloth into the fire and waited. Soon he felt it again. Blood streaming down his cheek. He gritted his teeth in anger. The wound was still not closing. He had no more choice. “Uh . .Eddie?” he said, “Could you get me a shirt?”

“You want a strip for your eye?” the little boy said.

“No, I am gonna need a shirt,” Tony shivered, “I want you to go get Marita to help change my wound.”

“But I can help you do it.”

“No, Eddie. You’ve seen enough. Go get Marita.”

The little boy walked over to his friend and gave him the shirt. Tony looked at the boy with his left eye, seeing nothing but the blurry shape of a small child. He placed his hand on his shoulder with reassurance. “Now go get Marita, okay?” he smiled, blood still streaming down his face.

“What are you gonna do?” asked Eddie, almost certain his blind friend was up to something.

“Eddie, please, go get Marita. PLEASE?”

Eddie finally began to walk away. Tony breathed deeply, feeling the blood drip from his chin onto his shirt. The little boy then paused and turned. “Tony?” he asked.

Tony tilted his head toward him.

“I love you.” The boy whispered.

Tony looked at him, seeing his blurry shape in the distance. Then he heard Eddie’s little footsteps running away in the distance to go get Marita. The blind doctor squeezed his fists as his arms trembled beyond his control. He could feel a tear escape his left eye. “I love you too, boy,” he whispered.

Tony then rolled up the shirt and bit into it. He then reached down and removed the blanket covering up his metal cane. Unknown to his friends he had kept a good portion of the cane stuck in the fire all day. He tilted it up and saw the smoldering tip, glowing a slight blurry orange. He took a deep breath and bit hard into the shirt. Quickly he flipped the burning cane toward his bleeding eye socket.


”Marita! Marita!” Little Eddie called as he ran toward the group.

Marita, John, McKay and the others were arguing with other adults. Eddie didn’t understand why they were so angry. The little boy then came up and tugged on Marita’s hand. The Latina then stopped arguing with the others and turned around, kneeling to face Eddie. “Eddie, what are you doing here?” she asked.

“Tony needs you to help change his bandage.”

“Okay, “ she said, taking his hand,” Why don’t you come with me? These guys need to discuss-“

‘”EEEEEEEYYYYAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH”

Marita looked up sharply toward the encampment, hearing Tony scream. Eddie gasped at what he heard. McKay and John stopped arguing with Cecil and the others when they heard their blind friend screaming. They all then immediately ran up the beach. Marita grabbed Eddie by the hand and ran with him.

The friends ran past all the torches and made it up to the harder dirt. John and McKay were first at the encampment. They stopped at what they saw. Marita quickly arrived shortly after them. “TONY?” she called.

She gasped, placing her hands over her mouth. The blind doctor was laying on the luggage behind him.

With a small stream of smoke from his eye wound.


-----------------------------------------,

John and McKay heaved as they brought the unconscious doctor back into his bed. Marita brought over strips that she soaked in water. She gently began to wipe away the burnt blood from around his eye. Within second, Tony was slowly awake. “Wha?” he moaned.

“Tony, what the hell were you thinking?” snapped John.

“Had to . . .had to close the wound,” he groaned.

“And you did, Tony,” Marita said, cleaning the eye and placed a piece of cloth onto it.

“Why didn’t you one of us help you?” asked John.

“Would you have stopped me?”

“Probably.”

“Well, there you go,” Tony chuckled, then coughed.

“Did you help yourself out any, doc?” asked McKay.

“Probably . . .bought myself another three days. Maybe five if I am lucky.” The blind doctor whispered, “But not much after that. The infection is still in my blood stream.”

“We’ll think of something, Tony.” John told him.

“I know we will, my friend,” the blind man smiled.

“All guys, we should let him rest,” Marita said, motioning everybody out of the tent.

The others made their way out of the tent area to allow the blind man his sleep. As they were moving out, McKay paused and turned around. “Hey, Doc, their pretty big, you know?” he said.

“What is, McKay?” Tony called.

“Your cast iron testicles.” McKay said, “I wouldn’t have had the guts to do what you did. You’re one hell of a man, mate.”

Tony just smiled as his friends left the tent. Marita slowly placed the blanket over him. She noticed Tony raising up both of his arms. She smiled as she gently lay down next to him. Eddie took his kangaroo and slowly curled up to him on the left hand side. Tony breathed deeply, allowing his body to relax as it was the first moment he wasn’t shivering.

It might help him get a good nights sleep.