The Messengers of Sanctuary

55 - Chicory

Nina groaned, leaning back in her chair and massaging her forehead, "This is being very uncooperative..."

Chicory looked up from the plant book she'd snagged from Jess's workshop, "Huh? Is it the pyro triggers again?"

Nina nodded, "It's almost like the way it's arranged is intentional."

Chicory jerked in surprise, "What? Somebody made it?"

Nina gave her a confused look, "Oh, no probably not, I was just mentioning how the way it's arrayed seems like it's trying to confuse me on purpose. There's clearly something happening under the surface here. The cure does nothing to it, but somehow the controlex seems to affect mostly the same areas as the zombie virus. I would test with the higher cures, but we ran out of the chemicals for that a long time ago." She sighed, "The pains of science..."

Chicory nodded, "And you still can't get back to the tunneler thing?"

The scientist shook her head, "Not a chance, I'm missing something big and I still need a second tunneler to find out what it is. Now...maybe if I try out those mutation chemicals..." Nina bent back down over the microscope, pulling out several vials of some mystery substance.

Chicory sat back in the chair, once more pouring over the tome of botany.

---

It had only been a couple of days since they'd arrived, but it felt like a lifetime. Nina kept the pyros busy, requesting blood samples, taking notes of their symptoms, requesting timelines, and far far more. She even managed to get a surprising amount of questions at Chicory in the time between.

And yet somehow Nina hadn't gotten much more out of it. She'd warned Chicory that once she ran out of data to gather, things would be much less smooth sailing, and considering there hadn't been much of any progress to begin with?

Well they had completely run out of things to try.

"If I only had a second tunneler, I feel like I could get their mutations down, but this one seems to have had some sort of blood disease before infection, and that's lowering the amount of data I've been able to get out of it..."

Chicory was kind of confused about where this had come from, she was currently eating and Nina had for some reason decided to track her down, "ah...alright? And what do you expect me to do?"

Nina sat down across from her, "I need a second tunneler, you're the only ones who can show me where to get one."

Chicory blinked in confusion, "You could just go south and start digging, that's what me and River did to attract the attention of that one. "

Nina wrote something in her notebook, "that's probably what will end up happening...when are you heading back there?"

Chicory thought for a moment, "well it depends on Ephriam mostly, I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to leave. But regardless, I don't want us to stay longer than another week, hopefully less. I was mostly waiting to see what you discovered."

Nina massaged her forehead, "mostly nothing, but...if I could bother you for some more contagious heartfire? I want to try some experiments before we decide anything."

Chicory nodded cordially, whatever would get them back sooner. "When do you need it? I could donate now if you want."

Nina perked up, she was usually perky so this wasn't much of a change in stance, "that would be wonderful!"

---

Chicory sat down, completely drained from blood donation. She would have gone back to her room at this point, but apparently she'd promised Nicky to help her...clean her room? Chicory didn't remember promising that, but hey, it was kind of too late.

Nicky looked down at her, holding up some kind of a rubber dinosaur and a really really fancy fork. "Do these go in the miscellaneous category? That drawer is getting kind of full..."

Chicory tiredly examined the objects, "You know, they could just go back in that box of dubious junk under your bed."

Nicky shook her head, "No no, that box is only for things that might annoy Daniel."

Chicory raised an eyebrow, "Why am I the one helping you with this again?"

The redhead shrugged, "Trinity said something about all the monsters that must have spawned here in the three years since I organized it, Jess was too busy trying to trick someone into becoming her apprentice, and no one else is cool enough to ever agree to this."

Chicory nodded absently, "Uh huh."

Nicky gave her a sideways look, "You're not nearly as attentive as usual."

Chicory shrugged helplessly, "I had to donate blood for Nina. I swear, science folk are vampires."

Nicky scoffed, "Nina doesn't drink blood. Trinity though? Definitely. Never bug a nightstalker when they haven't killed something for five days."

Chicory blinked, "Huh?"

Nicky picked up a rabbit plush and tossed it to the side, "Don't you hang out with a nightstalker all the time?"

"Well yeah, River's a nightstalker, what does that have to do with killing things every five days?"

Nicky looked baffled, "You're telling me that you never push him hard enough to find out all his secrets!!?!? Do you even know about tomato soup and soap?!"

Chicory was too tired to really think straight, but part of her was very sure that those things were unrelated, "Uh...no?"

Nicky shook her head, saying something about how 'kids these days would drive the world sane.' Then she dropped to her knees and dug under her bed for five entire minutes, neglecting to explain what the sparks she'd been talking about.

After the time passed, Nicky sat back up, triumphantly holding a single can of tomato soup. Chicory hadn't seen canned food since the fall of the eastern raiders...which was like...six years ago. It was definitely expired, no food had been designed to stay viable for fourteen years, even packed full of preservatives. Clutched in her other hand, Chicory noticed a bottle of liquid dish soap, the label replaced with an artistic rendition of the words 'for use on zombies only.'

Nicky held up the can reverently, holding the bottle to her heart with a nostalgic expression. "Open your ears young Chicory, and let me tell you a tale. A tale of a sane zombie, a former resident of an insane asylum, and a road trip that absolutely refused to end!"

She waved her arms theatrically, "Picture this, a grocery store, abandoned after the outbreak, filled with very confused humans who had just barely realized that one of their companions wasn't human..."

Nicky spun a magnificent tale, her voice rising and falling, her arms waving about her in emphasis. With glee she mentioned the various things she'd done, the various secrets to the zombie virus, advising her in ways to annoy, entrap, and befriend zombies.

As the tale went on, it became increasingly obvious that Nicky wasn't just a simple village crazy. She was someone who saw the deeper picture, and for some reason, she'd decided to take Chicory under her wing and teach her the secrets of her art.

An art that was...absolutely insane honestly, but Nicky didn't seem to see it that way. She knew just how far to push without getting hurt, and she knew how to wear down those boundaries over time.

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