The Messengers of Sanctuary

14 - Zachary

Ironwind stronghold was fairly ordinary as far as strongholds went. It had a fence that could rival a feral terror and saferooms with mechanisms to disturb the scents, but those things weren't very clear upon entry.

In fact, a local at Ironwind would more likely label the place as a strange exercise in over-preparedness. They'd never even used most of the safeguards.

A newcomer, like say, our friend Zach here, would most assuredly just see the fence as fancy protection and not notice any of the other pieces. And so, as Zach entered Ironwind stronghold, it was made abundantly clear to him that it was completely ordinary, no doubt about it.

One of the guards who had let him in descended from the post with practiced ease, greeting him. "Welcome to ironwind, stranger! What can we help you with?"

Zach smiled hesitantly, keeping his hands at his sides with some effort, "Um, I was wondering if I could talk to whoever's in charge of the cure and zombie drugs and stuff?"

The guard blinked and glanced at him, "are you looking to get some?"

Zach shrugged, "Well I don't think so, I just need to exchange information?"

He looked at him oddly, but nodded anyway, "Nina should be somewhere around here."

Zach hesitantly knocked on the door that the guard had directed him at, pulling it open as a voice acknowledged them, "Come on in!"

The radio room was fairly impressive as post-fall radios went. It had plenty of backup systems, solar-powered batteries, and the ability to broadcast a message or just send it to one viable signal at a time.

As Zach entered, there were only three people inside, a middle-aged woman who seemed to be in charge here, sitting at the microphone of the broadcasting device, a similarly aged man who stood at her side, flipping quickly through a book filled with plants, and a woman who was sitting behind him, drawing something furiously in a pad of paper.

The woman at the microphone glanced up when he entered the room, giving him a curious look, "We're almost done here, would you be willing to wait a couple of minutes?"

Zach nodded and stood awkwardly beside the door. The guard who'd accompanied him gave him a nod and then left without even entering the room, presumably returning to his post. After that, Zach watched the organized chaos flow.

The man stopped on a page and glanced at the woman who was drawing with a frown, "are you sure that's a plant?"

The woman sent him an unamused look, scribbling harder, "Well I remember it's an Aster, and I know the leaf shape, but I cannot for the life of me describe it." she sighed, "Plus, you can ask Trin, I clearly don't have any skill with art."

The man frowned harder, glancing back at his plant book as the woman at the microphone started speaking, "Well, I know how to make the poultice, and I can definitely guide you through radio. Unfortunately, we can't remember what the main ingredient is called, it's fairly obscure you see. Haven't needed it in a while."

"hey that's fine, take your time." a voice spoke through the radio.

The woman at the microphone thanked them and turned toward the other two, "Have we checked in the subfamilies? Haven't we been having trouble with those in particular?"

The man paused and flipped to a different section of the book, "Aster has a lot of subfamilies. Jess, any luck remembering?"

Jess, the woman who was drawing sighed dramatically, "Can't we just wait for Trinity to get back? She probably remembers what it smells like since she kept complaining about that when I had her help me crush it up."

"The fact that we can't find a simple plant is cause enough for concern. Do you remember at all where it grows? That might help." The man handed the book to Jess hopefully.

Jess took the book in a resigned way, "we tried this already." she pointed out, but she complied, flipping through the pages.

The woman at the microphone tapped her chin a few times, glancing at Zach as if to make sure he was still there, and then back at the two botanists. Clearly, she wasn't as versed in this type of thing. "And Luke wouldn't be able to find it either? Or Daniel? Trinity won't be back for a week or so."

Jess shook her head, pausing at a page and squinting for a moment, "No, I've tried them before, plus they don't know what it smells like and I'm not quite sure if I could describe it right."

The woman frowned and glanced at the picture Jess had been drawing, clearly at a loss for words.

After a couple more minutes Jess stopped, staring at a page, "Wow I must be getting old, this is one of the basics..." She held up the book to her two companions, who relaxed visibly as they saw the plant in question.

The microphone woman grinned and turned back toward it, starting the broadcast back up. "Hey, Cherry, we found it, I'm going to need you to gather as much of it as you can find and then call me back, once you do, I can walk you through it!" she turned back toward Jess, "Jess, can you describe the plant to her?"

They switched places and the microphone woman finally approached Zach, "Sorry for the wait, I'm Nina, what did you need?"

Zach smiled slightly, "I'm Zach, I came here with some questions about the logistics of your cure. At first, I was looking for a friend, but it seems like she was never here in the first place."

The scientist blinked, "oh, what specifically do you want to know? There's a lot of things that go into the cure."

"Well...it's kind of a weird request, really. I was going to ask if you could make sure I'm cured. Because I'm fairly sure that the cure I was given is different from what you've been distributing. I'm kind of worried since a lot of...weird stuff is happening to me."

Nina nodded, a concerned look appearing on her face, "of course, I can look at a blood sample." She opened the door, leading Zach to some unknown location, "what kinds of weird changes have you seen?"

"Well, my eyes were hazel before."

Nina didn't look startled per se, but she glanced at his eyes, which were a bright blue that was only unnatural if you looked at them long enough. "That's...definitely something I should check on."

She led him to the bottom of the building and then finally into a side room that seemed at first glance to be a simple closet. Nina descended the stairs beyond and Zach obediently followed her, examining the rooms below.

The lab was a large place. It had several rooms that branched off from a main hallway, each with sturdy doors and complicated locks. Those seemed to be mostly for emergencies though, because as Nina led him through one of the doors, she didn't even have to unlock it, and she left it slightly ajar.

"Alright Zach, can I have you sit right here so I can take a blood sample?"

Zach sat down, proffering one of his arms obediently. He didn't remember much from the old world, and he wasn't sure exactly how needles worked per se, but he somehow only flinched a little as the needle bit into his flesh and sucked away his life force.

They both blinked at the blood that came out. At first, it was red, but as it came out into the syringe, it sort of...changed color? Not very much, but the color that it was currently was definitely impossible, it had hints of green in it.

Nina pulled out the device and gently tapped it, squinting at the substance, "I'm assuming you didn't know about this?"

Zach shook his head, eyes going wide.

"I'll definitely be testing this..."

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