> The researchers startled from their tents to hear screaming from the tent belonging to the humans. They see two humans trying to calm the third, who looked terrified. They explained, gently, their friend dealt with night-terrors sometimes, the past was not a gentle one. -- The New Guy
Of all possible rude awakenings, one of the worst has to be waking up to witness your roommate being killed. Leading slightly above that is doing the same with _another_ individual readying their weapon for you. Somewhere in the top twenty is waking up to terrified screaming.
Terrified screaming _in the wilderness_ ramps that up to the top fifteen.
Botanist Rol stumbled out of bed and into his livesuit. Stunner armed and ready as he looked for a source of the issue. If one of the team's Humans was screaming in the middle of the night, there _had_ to be a reason.
The perimeter had not been breached. No creatures native to this world had found its way over or under. Why was the Human screaming? Had their protectors had a Deathworlder falling out?
Inside the shelter, Human Lon was was darting her gaze around and flinching for no apparent reason. The screams had fallen off into whimpers and occasional shrieks. Human Sam was turning the crank of a music box while Human Jym was alternately touching Lon's face, or gently rubbing their back.
Why Lon was in a sleeping bag that could only open from the outside was a question for later.
The plus side of whatever this was, was that there was nothing to point a gun at in order to solve the problem. Almost always a good outcome, honestly. Except, in this case, for the screaming.
Rol put his weapon away. "Okay," he said. "What the flying flakk?"
Lon's gaze was still darting to random places in their shelter. Focussed on Rol for just an instant. "Is he really there?"
Jym glanced. "Yeah. We must've woken him up. Sorry, pal. Night terrors."
Rol said, "What the what?"
Human brains sometimes malfunctioned, Sam explained as ze turned the handle. Dreams and reality could blend in various phases of their sleep cycle. Sometimes, the part of the brain that turned off body movement didn't work right. Sometimes, full consciousness didn't quite reach all of the brain. And in those circumstances, the patient in question experienced strange phenomena.
The sleep paralysis demon. Waking nightmares. Sleepwalking. Dreaming of waking up again and again and _again_, sometimes resulting in the patient doubting reality when they were finally awake.
Jym and Sam had known Lon for some significant time. Long enough to know what to do to help her re-establish what reality was and, hopefully, return to sleep.
"Aren't there meds that help?" asked Rol. He was not a fan of any further awakenings like this one.
"Yes and no," said Lon, now returned to reality. "They're new, and give me funky dreams. Funkier nightmares. We're still fine-tuning the dosage."
Oh great. This expedition was going to be a _barrel_ of laughs.
[Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@ladymilkydeer?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Olesya Yemets</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/a-group-of-people-walking-down-a-hallway-LyW7pqsP81k?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Unsplash</a>]
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