The Messengers of Sanctuary

20 - River

Ironwind was the only reason that River was sane. At least, that's what he'd assumed at first. The more he thought about it, the sanity serum only got rid of the normal zombie option, so he probably should have just ended up as a runner.

And clearly he was a nightstalker, there was a lot of undeniable proof for that fact. So he wasn't sure if he should thank them or not since he might've been perfectly fine anyway.

He'd never actually been to Ironwind, it was a long trip when most places didn't have working vehicles anymore, and horses were hard to come by, but Featherwood had managed to obtain a vial of sanity serum.

As River finally approached the gates of that stronghold, he was struck by just how normal it looked. It was definitely better built than most, but besides that, it didn't really stand out in any identifiable way.

They were hailed from the gates, "Hey! Who are you guys!"

Chicory called back to them, being the best person for the job. "I'm Chicory, this is River, we just came from Featherwood, and we're hoping to...uh..."

River glanced at her from his task of examining the palisade, appreciating its craftsmanship. "We need to get a few vials of their cure, and have a chat with some people about heartfire."

Chicory nodded, and since River hadn't said it loudly she explained the situation. "We were hoping to trade for some of the cure and talk with your scientists about establishing trade between here and Sanctuary, also we have something they might be interested in."

The man on the wall nodded happily, "Come on in, I'll send someone to let Nina know you're here. Can you wait just inside for a few minutes? That's probably best."

Chicory nodded and went inside, River following at her heels.

The gate closed behind them and Chicory marked the exact location of the stronghold on her map with bold letters 'Ironwind Stronghold.'

River glanced away as he realized what she was doing, and noticed someone approaching, the guards gave her warry looks but besides that they didn't react much. The woman was grinning as she sized them up, she stopped a few lengths away. "Helloooooooo! I'm going to be your entire welcoming committee today and by the time I'm done, you'll be cured of any preconceptions of sanity."

River blinked at her and remained silent, but Chicory did no such thing. "Are you here to take us to Nina?"

The redhead shrugged, "Well yeah, I guess that's what they asked me to do." With that, she began to walk off, River watching her curiously.

She seemed to be touched in the brain, which could be an odd experience if she didn't have a good handle on it. River examined her closely as he walked behind her, half tuning out what she was saying as he tried to figure out what was so off about her. Chicory kept responding to the woman, in turn giving the odd redhead more fuel.

"This is Ironwind, just in case you didn't realize that. Home to zombies and insane people."

Sweet, pure-hearted Chicory, simply tilted her head, "Do you fall under either of those categories?"

The woman grinned, "I'm too cool to be a zombie, I know all the best ways to annoy them. And I would claim to be perfectly sane. But I don't try to be, and neither should you. Because if you want to survive, you've got to embrace the madness and run away with it before the rest of the world realizes your genius." She tapped the side of her head and grinned, walking onward.

They arrived at a building that had probably existed pre-outbreak, and the woman opened the door with a flourish, leading them down a flight of stairs into what seemed to be a lab space. The redhead burst through a door and then saluted, leaving to do some unknown bit of chaos.

River still wasn't sure what he thought of her, but he certainly admired her ability to simply have a presence.

A responsible-looking woman frowned at the crazy person's retreating form, but she turned to them and smiled, "I'm Nina, I heard you wanted to speak with me about something?"

Chicory nodded, "I'm Chicory and this is River, we're here to get a few vials of the cure and figure out how we can establish trade between Ironwind and Sanctuary. We also have an uh...something we think you'd be interested in."

Nina blinked, "Chicory? Aren't you the one who saved Zach's life with that odd virus?"

Chicory opened her mouth, but before she could respond River laughed out loud, it was a short laugh, and it had very little practice, but it was a laugh. River found this entire thing far too amusing. He wasn't sure what to do about that, but at the moment he was just happy that Chicory was finally being called out.

"Oh, fantastic." River said, grinning, "Finally, someone remembers about Zach." he glanced at Chicory, still smiling, "As I said, he was quite distraught when you disappeared into thin air before he could interrogate you properly."

Chicory glared at him, "Hey! how was I supposed to know he would chase after me? I planned on coming back." She glanced back at Nina with a sigh, "I take it that means he made it here? Is he still around or did he chase some other lead after realizing I wasn't here?"

Nina nodded, "Yeah, he's still here, what was that interesting thing you wanted to show me?"

Chicory shrugged, "It was just the heartfire virus, but since you've had Zach this entire time you probably already know all about it."

River rolled his eyes, but with his glasses on no one could really see that fact. "Chicory, don't underestimate how little that people can gather just from you chucking a half-dead test subject at them."

She glared at him and glanced back at Nina, who was brimming with a question, "You called the virus heartfire?"

Chicory nodded, "Yeah, that's what it got named, I personally think there were better options, but it fits since the sparking heat feels like literal fire."

Which was probably why she always emphasized things with sparks! River had been trying to figure out that one for a while, so he filed away that information for later confirmation.

"Oh, that's interesting, who named it?"

Chicory shrugged, "Just some scientist that Diane dragged a bunch of explanations out of. She's dead now from bandits, otherwise, I would probably remember her name."

"Don't you have the entire story memorized?" River asked, examining a piece of lab equipment with a curious expression.

"Well yes, but I suck at names, and she's dead so I figured there was no point in trying to remember an extra one."

River grunted.

The grunt seemed to have turned the curious scientist on him, "And do you have heartfire too, River? Why are you here?"

River snorted, which only served to cause Chicory to grin, "No, he's a nightstalker that I cleverly kidnapped along the way."

"And now I'm leaving, thank you so much. You two chat about weird heartfire stuff, I'm going to go find a place to nap"

Nina perked up, "Oh, are you guys staying for a few days?"

Chicory nodded, "Yeah, actually I was wondering where we could stay, I mean we could just sleep in the forest like we did the way here, but beds are pretty nice."

River sighed and left, deciding that he didn't really want a bed anyway, forests were plenty fine, and this way random humans wouldn't appear and force him to talk to them. If he hid really well he might even be able to evade Chicory until morning. She'd be looking for him during her runs. 

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Vote to remember about Zach