The Messengers of Sanctuary

6 - Zachary

It was cold. So cold that Zach thought he was going to die for a moment. But that didn't last long. It traveled throughout his body, the temperature returning to normal, even as his body was still registering as more of it entered him.

The woman who'd saved him slumped down, her hand still pressed to his wound. After a moment she pulled it away, blinking rapidly.

Her eyes were a pure vibrant blue, a deeper blue than should be possible. But as she blinked their color faded, returning to their original lighter color. The woman wrapped her hand in a clean bandage and took out more bandages. He didn't object as she began to wrap his arm.

He felt...relatively normal as he stood up, besides the twinge in his arm from the bite. "so...I'm cured then?"

The woman shrugged. She just shrugged. "You won't die. But your troubles aren't over." she put a hand to her mouth as she yawned, her expression seemed surprised at the action. "Sparks I'm tired, let's get back already, River what is that stronghold called? You never told me."

The man who'd come with her, River, blinked. He'd been staring at her for a bit. "It's Featherwood."

She nodded slowly, ambling down the hill as Zach and River followed her, "so, what's your name anyway?" Zach hesitantly asked. Usually, he'd have pulled that information out of her far sooner, but well...he'd been positive he was about to die less than ten minutes ago.

The woman yawned again, "Chicory."

They walked in silence for a bit longer.

"And um...how exactly does the cure work? I've heard rumors of it, everyone has. But I didn't know it had anything to do with blood."

Chicory shrugged again, but she gave him a sympathetic look. "It's going to hurt a lot for the next couple of days. I don't remember the timelines, but in a couple of hours it'll start. Once that happens, you need to keep moving through the pain."

Zach nodded, she hadn't actually answered his question so he waited for her to elaborate, but she didn't. She yawned again. River kept giving her odd looks whenever that happened, perhaps there was something that Zach was missing?

---

The rest of the way back was silent. Zach kept trying to dig for information but Chicory didn't seem to be thinking straight. Once they returned, she had River take her to a spare room and she was out cold just moments after promising to tell Zach everything 'in the morning.'

Her tired mind didn't seem to be able to tell that it was still midday.

The hours wore on, Zach sat outside her door, intent on ambushing her with questions the moment she got up. He probably would have been able to do it if the pain hadn't started. It was waves of heat and twinges as his nerves began to fire constantly. At first he figured he could just last throught he pain, but then he remembered what Chicory had said, "you need to keep moving through the pain."

Zach sighed and stood up.

---

"What in the hells are you doing." An unamused voice interrupted Zach as he did another pushup.

He had to crane his neck in an odd way to see the person above him, but he wasn't surprised to see that it was River. "Um, Chicory said to keep moving?"

River sighed and looked at the door, "There is something off about her. I don't know what it is but she's far too happy."

Zach did another pushup, making a reluctantly affirmative noise. He'd known Chicory for a couple of hours and most of that had been her sleeping, so he probably wasn't qualified to talk about her personality.

"Plus she has a cure in her blood. Which makes no sense, it smells basically the same as everyone else's blood...I suppose it's a bit odd, but still."

Zach glanced up at him between pushups, "what? Are you saying I'm still infected?"

River shrugged absently, "no, as far as I can tell you're being cured,"

Zach sighed, "Alright, but how in the world can you tell that?"

He didn't answer, seemingly lost in thought. Zach kept doing pushups. He was starting to get tired, but it was helping with the pain somewhat. He kept going for several more minutes and finally, River spoke. "So uh...how are you feeling?"

Zach frowned slightly, Chicory wasn't the only person being weird, River was too. "I feel mostly fine, my muscles are burning though, but Chicory said that there would be pain so I expected that."

River nodded slowly.

It was then that the door chose to burst open.

Zach was shocked at the sudden movement and fell on his face mid-pushup, looking up frantically for the problem. Normal people didn't simply break open doors just like that. "Ack, what's happening?!"

Chicory was smiling down at him, her hands on her hips. It had only been a couple of hours since she'd fallen asleep, the sun was already setting though. "You look much less dead." She prodded his side with a foot.

River backed away from the woman, once more frowning, it seemed like the guy spent most of his time doing that. Zach was somewhat glad that River hadn't smiled, he had the feeling that such an expression wouldn't quite fit him and end up more disconcerting than anything.

Chicory shook her head slowly, "Ah, well I have to keep going, I'm glad you seem to be doing better." She began walking away, her coat was zipped up already and her bag was slung over her arms.

Zach was too dumbfounded to argue with her as she exited the hallway. Near the end she turned around, smiling at him, "You've got heartfire now, whenever it starts to hurt, go for a run."

And then she was gone.

Later, when Zach realized that she'd given him little to no information and that some really weird crap was happening to him, he tried to track her down, but apparently, she'd continued on with her journey.

Zach stood beside a map the next morning, frowning at the circled area, "you're sure that's the stronghold that's been distributing the cure?"

The old woman across from him nodded sharply, her fingers weaving some type of blanket. "Yes, our radio tower picked up its frequency a couple of years ago, we sent a group to collect a few dosages of the cure but they had to use all five vials of it just to get everyone home in one piece. The last vial, that sanity serum thing, was used less than a week later."

Zach examined the distance between the two points on the map, wincing internally. If he wanted to find Chicory and figure out exactly what she'd done to him, he would have to go there.

Zach sighed and folded up the map, "thank you, ma'am, I'll try to return it if I can."

The woman shook her head, "No no, just to see that someone is determined to live is enough for me. Too many of us have given up by the time we get where you got."

Zach winced as he remembered the state that Chicory and River had found him in. curled up on the ground, waiting to die. "I promise you, I'll live. I'll find this stronghold and Chicory, and then I'll come back here and help you guys out, you're the only place that didn't threaten to shoot me for coming near the fence."

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That one unnamed old lady would tell you to vote for this chapter... *wink wink*