The Twilight Zone

Chapter 28

Ellie shivered under the meager shelter of the cave. Noah lay next to her, a hand over his wounded chest, snoring softly.

Outside, the rain poured harder than ever, the thunder and lightning claiming the sky for itself.

Ellie stood up.

Dusting herself off, she took a bounding step outside, immediately becoming drenched with rain. It was an exhilarating feeling, really, for it gave her a feel of Burrow. Her hand reached out to catch a raindrop, and they pooled in her palm. They were larger than the normal ones she remembered, but she wondered if it was just another trick of it all... She hadn't seen anything like it in so long. She dwelled on the fact that she did not know exactly how long she'd been down in the Zone, and it suddenly hit her that she really didn't care, not anymore. She'd already made more friends and connections here than she ever had at home.

The sky suddenly became darker than it already was, and all of a sudden the droplets filling her hands lit up with a shocking luminescent light. She kneeled back down in the cave next to Noah, holding the liquid. He stirred.

"What's going-oh..." He saw the thing in her hands and held out his own. Ellie tipped whatever the substance was into his open hands, and he looked at it as if it was a precious commodity, a peculiar gift, acting like a child who had something he'd had a long time ago and maybe misplaced, and he'd spent most of his days wondering if he'd ever see it again.

"What is it?"

"Rain."

"Oh." She had to admit, it was a bit of a letdown, his answer. She did not know what she had expected, but it was more than that, the glowing precipitation outside of the cave's opening did not look like rain in the slightest, now. Ellie looked at Noah, who had lain back against the rocky wall of the cave once again, looking well worn. "Where's the water?"

"I drank it. You can't tell me you think that's water?"

"Why would you drink anything else?"

"It tastes tangy, almost, but I'd say the flavor's, like, here, let me think..."

"What is it, and why would you drink it if it isn't water."

Noah shrugged.

"I don't know what it is, but I'm not dead yet."

"Noah!" Ellie cried out, scolding him.

"Oh, that's what it tastes like!" Noah exclaimed, not listening to Ellie. "It tastes almost like coconut, but tangy. Make sense?"

"Of course it doesn't make sense! Coconut does not taste tangy."

"I know."

"Then why did you say that..."

"I think coconuts are good, do you?"

"No."

"Oh." Noah looked very deep in thought. "I always thought everyone liked coconuts."

Ellie slapped her forehead.

Ellie!" someone called from outside the cave.

Ellie recognized the voice and ran outside the cave. "Amelie!" she exclaimed.

"We need to go." Amelie said. "Now. Come on."

"Wait!" Ellie replied, "Noah is-"

"Ellie, come on."

"But he's-"

"Ellie, he's dead. Come on." Amelie began to walk away.

"No, Amelie. Wait!" Ellie grabbed Amelie's arm. "Noah's alive!"

Ellie pulled Amelie into the cave.

"I know you want him to be, Ellie, but..."

"Amelie, hello." Noah's voice rang out against the walls of a cave as he gave the other two a weak smile. His hands dropped uselessly at his sides, and he made a sort of noise that was almost as bad as the one he'd made when he saw Lily, yet somehow it struck a harder fear in Ellie. Maybe because she knew he was hurting... She couldn't bear to see it. His voice came out in more of a croak, a strange contrast from when he'd been talking about the substance just minutes before.

"Noah?"

"Yeah, I'm not dead yet... at least, I don't think so." He looked down at his hands, turning them over, trying to comprehend.

Amelie dragged Ellie by her arm straight out of the cave, leaving Noah confused and alone.

"Amelie, what-"

"We have to leave him."

"Why? He's fine, I swear!"

"Did you give him anything?"

"No." Amelie stared at Ellie as though, if she said one word, the rocks above would crumble down on the both of them and crush everything Ellie cared about. "Not-Not on purpose, he just, he drank something..."

"What?" Amelie looked panicked, but she also had a superior air about her, hearing this.

"Rain."

Her friend's face darkened.

"Did he tell you that it tasted like a tangy apricot?"

"Apricot?" Ellie exclaimed, looking at Amelie as though she had grown a second head.
"Yes, that's what mortiferum pluvia tastes like."

"He says it tastes like a tangy coconut, not an apricot, whatever that is..."

"They don't sell apricots in Burrow anymore?"

"They've had a food shortage... lately..."

"Oh."

"But he drank it, whatever it was?"

"He said he did..." Ellie chewed on her bottom lip. "I didn't actually see him drink the mortiferum pluvi-thingy, but I don't think he'd lie about something so trivial as putting water in his mouth."

"That is not water."

"What is it?"

"It's Mortiferum Pluvia, Ellie, I told you. It weakens the body, and distorts everything about you inside. If it gets too horrendous, it spreads to your outside, too, and even though I haven't the slightest idea how you think Noah's attractive-" Here, Ellie's face turned a shade of bright red- "He won't look the same. We need to leave Noah alone."

"Why?"

"God, Ellie, you still haven't figured it out, have you?"

"Figured what out?"