Night 3
“Glad! Glad! Is it you?” A familiar voice reached me through the crowd. It was Dare. She was easily a foot taller then when last I’d seen her. “My father will be happy to see you safe. Please come with me to the house.” It was hard to tell I was in the same place. The landscape had been reworked to smooth it in some places and a road was forming across Hav’s fields. In addition to this, tents were strewn about and people wandered in and out of campsites.
Quickly, I followed Dare to the house. “Not another wounded- oh! Glad, it’s you! How good it is to see you,” said Chalynge. “Hav! Come and see!”
Hav came in from outside. “Glad! Let me draw for you,” Hav said.
“We are still family. There is no need to draw. You are busy with your new relatives.”
“Yes,” Hav agreed. “They come in droves, and many are wounded. The ancestors whisper, but still we share what we have.” I glanced around and saw the house was set up like a medic parlor, with bandages and alcohol, and water boiling.
“But what has happened?” I asked.
Hav shrugged. “Ruffians from the South. They do not work for their food and drink but fight and kill for it. Those pushed out come here, and we do what we can for them.”
Chalynge added, “They move north as they attack, or so we have heard. But we haven’t seen any of them here.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked. Chalynge and Hav looked at each other. Then Hav said, “If you travel on, you might come back to us with a wood circle to fix the well, and a good sharp pair of shears. But if this is impossible, travel with our blessing and what food and drink we can spare.”
I clasped their hands. “I will bring you what you ask and return soon.”
Night 4
My bag was heavy on my shoulder with things, although I’d discarded some of my own to make room for the wood circle and shears that Hav requested. I worked my way back with some difficulty. There were people walking past me northwards. Several of them looked haunted and did not speak. One man shook me when I said I carried no food. After this incident I stayed less in the open. Late in the day I reached the house, but it was deserted. Inside I found things in a state of disarray. Everything was empty or broken. Looking around the garden, things were the same. Nothing growing was left, much of the stonework was pulled apart, and fragments of dishes were everywhere. I went to the broken well to try to draw water before moving on, but it was caved in. I left the wood circle behind, happy to be lighter without it.
After an hour or two I came upon a band of travelers. I hesitated, fearful. One of them, a teenaged, came up to me. “Water,” she said. I didn’t know if she was asking me or telling me. I backed away slowly. “The ancestors show me no water today,” I said. “Glad, Glad!” someone was saying. The teenaged said, “I have water to share. Are you Glad? Chalynge said we were to watch for you.” She dipped her finger into the jug of water she carried, licking it quickly and handed it to me. I drank as little as I could before handing it back.
By now, Bug had reached me. “Glad the ancestors… They are,” Bug tried to remember the formula. “They are hungry but not thirsty. Do you have food?”
“My ancestors have not fed me either,” I said.
Bug frowned. “Mama needs food. She says the baby won’t grow right if she doesn’t eat.”
“Where do you walk?” I asked. “North. It’s said there’s food there and we will be safe. Will you walk with us?”
“Yes.” I said and followed him to Chalynge and Hav. I did not see Dare.
Chalynge saw me looking and replied, “Dare is ahead on the road scouting for us.” As if summoned by the mention of her name, Dare appeared. She jogged toward us holding her hands together. She stopped in front of us and pushed a handful of dried meat at Chalynge. “Eat mother. You need to.” Chalynge looked pained. She said, “How can I eat until I feed my children?” Dare shook her head. “Feed your smallest one first. Bug and I are grown.”
“I never thought it would be like this,” sighed Chalynge. I walked near her, watchful in case one of the vacant ones in the family was driven to try to take the food. We walked until dark. Finding nowhere to stop, we kept walking. Far into the night, near morning, our group came to an open area under large trees.
“Let’s rest,” said Hav as he supported Chalynge with one arm.
“This is a good spot,” Dare said, squinting in the brightening dawn. “Those are barb trees. The husks are sharp but the fruit inside is sweet. We must gather as many as we can.”
“I can help,” I said, though I ached all over. The trees bore fruits covered in piercing spikes that made our fingers bleed, but inside each was a small tough but edible fruit. We filled a bag with them. I was feeling utterly exhausted by this time.
“Glad?” said Dare, “You look pale. Are you well?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. My arms seemed pinned to my sides. I heard voices distantly. A name formed in my mind. Jim. And was I named- Marie? I felt myself waking. I don’t know what it seemed to Dare was happening. But her face changed and she looked perhaps frightened, perhaps shocked. I saw her spin away from me in a blur. I could hear her voice calling, “GLAD Glad glad glad”
I woke. Jim was beside me. And River. River? “What happened?” I asked.
“It’s over,” River said simply.
“Over? No. The story isn’t finished,” I said desperately. “Besides, you said I’d have these dreams for a week. It’s been three days.”
“Your body cleared the infection more quickly than I expected. The dNA is retreating. The connection to the story is breaking.”
“But they need me! Dare and Chalynge and Hav and Bug, they’re in trouble. River! You must help me. I’ve got to get back there!”
“I’m sorry Marie. The virus is going dormant. It will always be a part of you now, but only rarely would it recur.”
“It can recur? How?”
“Somnastravirus stays in the body but only activates in times of tremendous stress or sickness. It’s often misidentified as a fever dream.”
“Can we cause it to return?”
“It wouldn’t be safe.”
“But can we do it?”
River sighed heavily. “Can we do it? Yes there is a way. But it’s deadly dangerous. You’d need someone to watch over you and administer the antidote.”
At this point Jim broke in, “Antidote? It almost sounds as though you plan to poison her.”
I looked at River. River looked at me. Jim looked shocked.“I don’t like this plan. You said ‘deadly dangerous’. And hang on! You just carry around dangerous poisons and their antidotes then?”
“A girl has to be prepared for anything.” River winked. “Watch me carefully, Jim,” she said. She took an object the size of a button from her pocket and pushed it against my arm until it clicked. The click hardly sounded at all in my ears because at the same time it felt like she’d driven a pencil-sized icicle into my vein. The ice crept through my arm and into my chest, advancing steadily, as I lay back helplessly.
“Cover her up Jim. Good. Oh! One last thing Marie. The virus was nearly eliminated and the dream signal will be very low. You may not end up exactly where or when you were before. It should be very close. Good luck finding your family. Jim, you’ll need to check her for fever once every two hours. This is the antidote. You’ll need to…”