Panic attack
She tried to catch his gaze, but his eyes were lost, fixed on something invisible, deep in the darkness of her mind.
In a panic, she began to slap his face in an attempt to shock him awake, but nothing helped.
His eyes seemed to have lost all life.
So she tried another, more effective method.
She took him in her arms and tried to reassure him.
Simultaneously, Maxime began to tremble violently, spasms running through his body like waves of pain, and his jerky breathing worsened.
Laura, determined, tried to hold him steady, but she felt all Maxime's accumulated fear and fatigue spreading through him like an insidious, uncontrollable poison.
His clenched fists dug into the ground, and she perceived his barely audible, almost incoherent murmurs.
"I should have protected them... all this... it's my fault... I... I'm not up to it... they're all going to die..."