Wonderer's Wish World 2: Evolutionary Rebirth

Into the Light

Day 14

Time: 7:30 PM

Location: Mess Hall, Rime 12

There had been two people brought in from the snow while Darius had apparently been sleeping. A young boy, maybe a little older than Darius, with neat black hair, and a much younger girl, around Greg's age, with a short bob and rosy cheeks. As they slept, their chests went up and down shallowly, but their breaths were deepening by the minute, as if they were just starting to get it back. Darius couldn't stop staring at them, unable to really believe that one of these two were attached to the lifeless, limb hand they had been outside. How... how could they still be alive?

Darius shook out his head, hardly daring to believe it, but... he knew, deep down, that it wasn't impossible. And maybe that was a good thing. It's not like Darius wanted to find a dead body.

Finally, he remembered that Angelico had said something to him. He looked to her with wide eyes, mouth agape. Angelico gave him an eve, patient look back.

He was grateful for that, at least.

"T-Talk?" Darius asked her, his voice stuttered. "Talk about what?"

Angelico gave him a disappointed look, and then waved a hand to the children laying at Darius' feet.

"Oh... Who are they?"

Angelico tilted her head at him. "You don't know them?" she pondered. Darius blinked, wondering what that meant.

"Um, no?" he told her, and it probably wasn't a good thing when it came out like a question. "I've never seen these two in my life. Why am I supposed to know them?"

Darius hadn't quite meant to say it so aggressively, so he was a little sheepish when Angelico backed off. However, not so much that he wasn't annoyed at her for not answering his question.

Angelico paused for a minute, the tension in the room quickly growing. But just when Darius was about to break and apologize when Angelico turned her head away.

"They were residents here," Angelico explained. "But they aren't from here. Just like you five, we picked them up and brought them in, in exchange for something. But unlike you five... we have no idea where they are from, and they won't tell us. It's like they just... appeared into this place... suddenly one day. It was strange."

Darius started to frown, before suddenly, his eyes widened. His wrist itched, but he resisted the urge to check his watch. Not with Angelico in the room, anyway.

"What... What did they trade?" Darius asked, struggling to keep focused when he wanted nothing more to confirm what she said. He really wanted to check but... something bad told him that might not be the best idea.

Angelico leaned in. "We gave them food, shelter and clothes. Enough of it to get them through the worst of the storms and feed them for at least a week or so. And then we sent them out in the general direction of the Death-Tastin' Desert and sent them off. The desert isn't much better than here, but at least it's got more company and more radio towers. We hope, anyway. It was our last shot so if something went wrong there, too, we'd be done for."

Darius felt his stomach sink. "But... they didn't get there. They didn't even get a mile out."

Angelico's mouth pressed into a line and she sighed. "That's the thing... I pretty sure they did. But something must have happened out there, so they came crawling back. Obviously, they didn't make it all the way. And what's worse if they didn't bring anything but the clothes on their back with them."

Darius gulped. Suddenly, these two weren't just two people that had been successfully found and retrieved from the snow. They were a damnation. A failure. A brutal reminder that they, all of them, were stuck here.