To Kiss A Corpse Goodbye

19 - 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐄

The time in the bunker was perhaps some of the most unpleasant and miserable of the entire journey. There was no goal beyond trying to become less ill, but even that was rather difficult. The two of them only grew more sick as they waited. Furthermore, they only continued to become more sick of each other, trapped with no room to be apart.

The food in the bunker was ill tasting mash that made Adelaide consider whether starvation might have been a better option. The water had an off taste. It hadn't been sealed correctly and had been left sitting and absorbing the gentle taste of mildew.

Rainmaker wound up sleeping for the most part. He couldn't eat and keep the food down, so he tried to conserve his energy until he had the ability to manage keeping something down. He slept curled in a corner. He wanted nothing to do with the couch and just slept curled on himself in a corner.

It seemed as though time had become sluggish on purpose within that bunker. It was almost vicious how each passing moment stretched into an eternity of discomfort. Adelaide herself was caught in a cycle of nausea, her stomach churning with every unappetizing mouthful of mash. She however did not have the luxury of sleeping at all times like Rainmaker. She was waiting for a call.

Any chance at all that Forrest might answer her. Might say something to her. Might make her happy to have kept a hold on the radio. But nothing happened. The relay never came to life. Part of her was left suspicious of Rainmaker. Part of her wanted to believe he'd broken it completely just to spite her. But the relay was still buzzing. If she put it on certain frequencies, it played messages.

The fact Rainmaker hadn't broken it really only made Adelaide angrier. Angrier that those maggots which were causing her skin to swell up had filled her mind and forced her to push him away. Forrest would never have gone if those maggots hadn't bred out of control and destroyed everything.

At best, Adelaide and Rainmaker ignored each other for most of it, both lost in their own minds.

Adelaide had fancied up a new theory about how the world functioned. The world was a pyramid, and Jisako, its pharoah. Those at the top were few, of course, but their weight pushed down on everything below. She had seen an image of a bent pyramid. Strange and misshapen from some sort of collapse.

There must have been some undisputable hierarchy to the world, and Jisako must have been at the very top, exercising a gentle rule. None of the decadence of Ptolemy and Anthony. A rule so gentle, its influence on the world went unnoticed.

She forgot the rest of the nonsense she'd cooked up a few days after coming up with it, of course, but for a few moments, she was utterly convinced of its truthfulness.

They crawled out of the bunker after a few days, when Adelaide could feel her fingers and when Rainmaker wasn't consistently having to expel the contents of his stomach through his mouth. They still looked like garbage, and they still felt it too, but it also was nicer than being completely sick from poisoning.

Though Adelaide was fairly certain they wouldn't live very long, still. They had eaten from the tree. There would be no surviving that. Well– she had eaten from the tree. She didn't know whether Rainmaker had or not. She hadn't seen and he hadn't said, but it was hard to believe he wouldn't at least try to reach for the fruit that she hadn't gotten to. If he had, she could imagine him nervously keeping it secret to avoid a scolding. She didn't really care if he had, though. He had no interest in survival, and neither did she. It was a perfect match.

Adelaide practically dragged the briefcase along now, though. No matter how hard she tried, its weight was becoming far too much for her. It felt a bit like losing a part of her to think about abandoning it-- holding onto it would be holding onto hope. Giving up, dropping it, and leaving felt a bit too cold and extreme of an action to take.