The Messengers of Sanctuary

33 - Zachary

Zach had watched with unease and awe as the traders of Sanctuary ran together. There was something right about it, but it was also so strange to turn any way and see glowing blue eyes in the night. Zach had gotten used to running with Kade and Thomas, so it wasn't as strange as it could have been, but he still thought it was rather odd.

The fact that it had been weeks since he'd first seen this sight and that he had yet to get used to it was a testament to the oddity.

They were only a day off from Ironwind. Everyone had agreed that it wasn't too much of a detour, and that they really did need to get a hold of the cure and get some definite facts out of Nina.

Plus everyone was curious about what she might've discovered about the heartfire.

Another strange part of being in a caravan was the moving vehicles. Some places had figured out how to convert trucks into wood-power and sometimes even solar, but the Sanctuary traders used a combination of the two. And it was clearly professionally done. Every few days they stopped and did a thorough checkup on all the mechanics that went into it, but they didn't usually find anything going wrong.

Zach barely remembered riding in cars before the outbreak, so it still shocked him every time it started up. It also had to go decently slow in order to avoid the potholes and breaks in the road.

Either way, as Zach watched the road ahead for hours, occasionally getting off to run alongside the caravan for a few minutes. As Ironwind came into view at long last, a loud cheer erupted from the traders.

---

At least a dozen people were in one room, and yet somehow it was completely silent.

The majority of the people sported bright unnatural blue eyes that shone in the room. It wasn't the brightest place out there, and one of the lights in the back kept flickering, but it wasn't entirely obvious that the color would glow like a beacon in the darkness.

A handful of the people were entirely normal at first glance, a woman with long brown hair and a notebook, a redhead coloring in the corner, a woman who stood beside the redhead watching with interest but not interrupting as she clutched her own notebook. There was even a man standing at the ready, eyeing up the blue eyed traders with an evaluating expression. If one were to look at his eyes close enough, you could see that they were more of a burnt orange than a brown.

And somehow, even with all those people, it was silent as the dead.

Er...it was as silent as the dead were supposed to be. Which was to say, like a thick cloud, it was practically enough to make bricks out of. In fact, Zach was fairly certain that once someone spoke, the air would simply get lighter. They say that silence has flavors too, well this one was like lemon juice. Bitter, surprising, and with more than a hint of uneasy zest. It seemed to be waiting for just the right moment to squirt in the eyes of unsuspecting humans.

They were all staring at Nina, but the over energetic scientist only held her notebook with a thoughtful expression, occasionally flipping to different pages.

Finally, her thoughts were formulated into words. "Well, I discovered a lot of things about contagious heartfire. What specifically are you asking about?"

There was another long note of silence before Diane ended up being the one to respond. "Just anything that could be applicable to us really."

Nina nodded, flipping to a different page in her notebook and sitting down in a strangely luxurious chair. "Well, if it was ever in question, heartfire is a mutation of the zombie virus. I had it infect several blood samples to see its process...But I digress, you probably already knew that tidbit.

"I was also pleased to find that it does use some of the same mechanisms that the zombie virus does, but with entirely different triggers, and it seems they're completely stuck in place unless the virus happens to be contagious. It'll take me a while to map out all the triggers, but it seems like barely any of them are activated. Out of forty-two, only five are active by default. I'd test out the results of triggering different parts, but there's no telling what they do."

Zach heard Diane mutter something under her breath, "It's a fourth one, they're multiplying...!" She looked oddly amused, and most of the people who heard it smirked. A moment later Diane focused on Nina, "what are triggers?"

Nina blinked, apparently a bit lost in thought, "ah, they're the different parts." She pulled out a chart, a very thorough chart that was even colorcoded, she passed it to Diane, "this is the map I made for the zombie triggers, this one here controls their emotional output, I've only seen that one off once before in a mutation, it's usually a default. This one regulates the bloodlust, that's also the main one that the controlex changes..."

She pointed out a few more triggers, and then took the map back, tucking it into her notebook. "Overall, heartfire is certainly something I could crack, but I'm not going to be able to test any of those triggers since there's no telling what they do, so my capabilities are limited. It really depends on what you want me to find."

The silence returned, but Zach knew it wouldn't last.

Roland folded his arms, "Well that's certainly interesting. It's not like we can do anything with it though? Right?"

Nina shrugged, "Nothing I'm comfortable with at least."

The nearby terror, Daniel, glanced up from his book, "Wasn't there more that you found? The frustrating bit, I've been hearing you talk about it for the last week."

"Ah, well that was mostly speculation. I don't want to base too much on the idea..." Nina looked oddly uncomfortable.

Diane blinked, "what is it?"

The scientist flipped to a different page in her notebook, a distinct frown on her face, "well, heartfire seems to in a way be able to detect heartfire. This wasn't very strange at first, but it's not something I can really explain yet, it'll need more investigation for that."

Nina frowned, rubbing her forehead absently. "Anyway, it seems to be able to detect other heartfire, with strange pulses, it's weird and the specifics are something I'm still working out, but I can only really see this when it's contagious. All I know is that it can tell there's a large gathering of heartfire to the northeast. Which I assume is Sanctuary. The strange thing is, it's much fainter and far far too diluted, but it seems to think there's a large gathering in the south, and a second one to the west. "

The silence returned once more, but this time, it didn't break. All Zach could think as he stood there was, I sure hope Chicory is alright.

------

Spooky author noises, Y'all should vote else I haunt you :D