The Messengers of Sanctuary

23 - River

River sat beside Chicory in the mess hall, silently begging her to just let them get moving already. It had only been one day, but it felt like an eternity. And so River was glaring at everyone, and Chicory was simply chatting with Zach about getting him to some of her messengers.

Nicky, that crazy redhead, had somehow invited herself over, she was currently trying to dare Chicory to do a myriad of things. Including but not limited to, a three-legged race, a one-legged race, some sort of contest that involved cheese which River wasn't clear on the rules of, and a dare to...go kickboxing with some regular zombies? River had no idea where half of those were coming from.

Chicory at first had taken the redhead seriously, but Zach simply sighed tiredly and explained that at one point he'd tried one of them because Nicky wouldn't leave him alone. After complaining to Nina about it, he'd found that the redhead was simply bored because that nightstalker who lived here still wasn't back from her vacation.

And so Chicory tried to ignore her, but Nicky kept on coming back.

River thought this was hilarious, especially since for the moment, everyone was ignoring him. That gave him peace of mind.

Being in the mess hall was aggravating, and Chicory kept elbowing him in the side as she emphasized something in her conversion. On top of that, his instincts were still annoyed with him for forcing them to be in the presence of a terror for more than three seconds earlier.

So on average, his insides were twisted about as his instincts tried their hardest to make him snarl at someone and leave, which wasn't completely off the table for an exit strategy. On the other side of the coin, they'd be perfectly fine if he ate Chicory since she kept on elbowing him, and they definitely remembered that one time she'd surprised him and made him lose his balance.

River ignored the idea, redirecting their suspicious nature onto his goals for the future, picking out possible flaws in the plan. The instincts liked the idea of ruling the world, which is why he tried to phrase it that way whenever he could. The instincts didn't much care for his reasons behind world domination, but they felt like having more power was the best idea ever.

River was becoming increasingly certain that if he was ever the one directly in charge, it would become a dictatorship real fast.

Which was bad.

After River finished picking at his food in silence and analyzing Nicky, he made his escape by simply standing up, and leaving. They had these special tanks for zombie dishes, and Nina had requested that Heartfire people use them too just in case, but it was right next to the other tank so he didn't really have to go out of his way. Plus everyone here knew he was a zombie already so it didn't really matter.

He left the mess hall and sat down outside of it, waiting for Chicory to be done so he could remind her that she had to go see Nina after this. She probably remembered, but it wasn't something River would bet his life on.

---

Nina held the syringe at the ready as Chicory prepared to do whatever weird thing she had to do to get the virus in her blood to accept a new host. "Whenever someone donates at Sanctuary, they have a nurse on either side to get as much blood as possible in the timeframe. I'll be tired afterward no matter how much you take so you might as well make it count."

Nina nodded and handed Logan, a man who hung around the scientist a lot, a spare syringe. They stood at Chicory's sides and River backed up a step, knowing that there would be a decent amount of human-smelling blood nearby soon enough.

To preoccupy his instincts and help somewhat with the bloodlust that would be spiking shortly, he started to analyze the room, throwing the information at it as he played the notice things game. It was a game his mom had come up with to keep him calm at church and then at school when he was little. It was funny to him that he was still using it, even into his adult life.

He observed the architecture, the shapes of the walls, and the angles of the counters. River observed the people around him, taking note of their scents and clothing choices. He observed the room, keeping his breathing steady as Chicory said start and the needles pricked her skin.

River observed her blood as it flowed into the syringes, it was a light blue color with hints of purple now that he was looking. It glowed softly to his eyes and there was a faint oil sheen to it. River analyzed it, carefully not thinking too much about the fact that it was blood lest his instincts stop being helpful and demand he attack.

But they did notice something he hadn't at first, this contagious heartfire, well it didn't smell very much like human blood. It still had the distinct tang that the bloodlust craved, but it was overpowered easily as Chicory's entire scent changed to match this.

River's eyes narrowed as he examined the strange scent, picking it apart in his mind as his instincts amazingly backed away of their own accord, they seemed rather cross with Chicory. They were telling him that this scent was a scent of deception.

Finally, River realized what had happened, that slight tang at the edge of the heartfire scent had overpowered her human one. How he hadn't noticed this the first time she'd infected someone was anybody's guess, perhaps it was because it was her first time doing so and she wasn't used to it. River had no idea.

But at the moment, his instincts wanted nothing to do with her, they were clever little things so River doubted they'd ever trust Chicory again now, even once her scent returned to normal.

And it did, rather quickly and in kind of a suspiciously effective way. The slight tang of not quite human remained though as if telling everyone around that Chicory wasn't someone you should mess with at the moment.

Zach, who was also there, was looking at Chicory in a very confused way, and River suspected that he could somehow detect that change. Perhaps some sort of weird failsafe to make sure Chicory wasn't helpless after that?

River had no idea, so he went back to observing the room as Chicory stood up shakily. Ah, never mind, it seemed he would have to physically escort her to her room. Somehow he'd forgotten how tired she was last time.

Zach seemed unwilling to leave Chicory to her own devices, so he came too as River tried his hardest to force Chicory up the stairs without picking her up and running.

Chicory looked at the stairs blankly for several moments, as if contemplating her life choices. "Now I get why they made an elevator back at Sanctuary."

The door at the top of the stairs opened and a woman peeked down, clearly curious about something. River would have ignored her completely if his nose didn't immediately let him know that this was a fellow nightstalker. Great.

He'd heard about the local nightstalker, he'd mostly been hoping Chicory would have been ready to leave before she showed up because meeting new zombies was something he'd much prefer to just not. The two minutes he'd been in a room with the terror were plenty enough, and runners were also taxing to be around. Humans weren't much better, but at least the only thing his instincts yelled at him during those interactions was to consume their flesh.

Either way, another nightstalker would set off all sorts of things in his instincts and he didn't want to deal with that right now.

At that point, he would have just left Chicory to climb the stairs herself and trusted that Zach could drop her off in her room in one piece, but the nightstalker was blocking the only exit, and leaving a friend behind after forcing her to climb this far already would just wound his pride.

And so River resorted to his last option: ignore her completely and keep going.

The nightstalker left the doorway, very courteous of her, she clearly didn't have anything pressing to do and probably planned on coming back later or something.

They got halfway up the stairs when River finally gave up and hoisted Chicory over his shoulder, marching up the stairs with Zach in tow. When he got to the top and passed the nightstalker, he bared his teeth at her in greeting and kept going. 

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