Children Of Gaia

Chapter 8

Maddison sat staring out the narrow windows of the Behemoth, the fog was beginning to clear, the chorus of night life had finally subsided and the morning parade of small winged insects had begun. She had volunteered for sentry duties as often as Niezen would allow, but within two days Niezen noticed she wasn't sleeping between her shifts. Maddison did well to hide her insomnia but the darkness around her bloodshot eyes betrayed her. When Baxter was sent to keep an eye on Maddison he found she had taken it upon herself to activate a drone. Without a competent pilot, or even the knowledge to engage autopilot, the drone was running late for its date with a nearby tree just as Baxter stumbled upon her. Maddison shrieked as Baxter picked her up from the console and sat her aside, luckily with time to activate the return prompt function. With his hand forced, Niezen decided to keep Maddison under constant guard. For hours she paced before finally collapsing. Carl had tried to reason with her too, but to no avail, so Niezen decided it was time to intervene further.

"You can't keep this up, you need to eat something," advised Niezen sounding like a parent scolding their wayward child. His message went unanswered as Maddison stared at the floor waiting for him to give up and leave. "I know this sounds trite but what would he want for you?"

Her eyes flit upward. "You think he's dead don't you?" she spat.

Niezen scoffed, "I'm not the one crippled by depression here." Niezen did well to hide the fact that he cringed as he said it. Expecting an assault of both the face and groin, Niezen closed his eyes awaiting punishment. An agonising moment passed until he realised he had lucked out. Niezen opened his eyes to find Maddison sitting there in silence with a single tear on her right cheek. "Please have a drink, you're that dehydrated you can't even cry from both eyes."

Maddison's lip quivered as she gave in with the slightest nod. Niezen got up to collect a canteen and sat back down with her. She drank some water, without being forced but said nothing further for the next few hours that Niezen sat with her.

For days there had been no sign of Felix. Maddison had eaten almost nothing and slept even less.

Finally on the seventh day Felix returned. His armour was filthy and carrying a spear he strolled back into camp with an entourage of two, perhaps the same pair he had left with for all the others knew.

"Sir! The Doc's back!" cheered Baxter as he woke Niezen who had been up half the previous night on watch, "looks like he brought his friends back with him."

"Thank you Sergeant," Niezen yawned as he rubbed his eyes, still stinging, "Best go let Maddison know he's back."

"No need Sir." replied Baxter as he activated a screen to an external camera showing Maddison running toward Felix as fast as her weakened state would allow. Niezen grinned and snorted before taking to his feet. As they exited their Behemoth they found the entire camp gathered around the visitors gawking like tourists. Maddison was still yet to release Felix from her embrace. Her tears continued to flow as her knees grew weak, she faltered just as Felix held her tighter calling out for assistance.

"Maddie, I'm sorry I made you worry," Felix whispered whilst leaning over her. A stretcher appeared and Maddison was taken back inside. Felix noticing Niezen turned to him, "how could you let her get that bad?" Felix grunted as he straightened his back.

"I'm sorry buddy but she didn't give us much choice. Baxter even caught her trying to use a drone to find you, she almost crashed the bloody thing," he answered with a smirk. Felix chuckled, excusing himself for a moment.

Felix went inside to see Maddison, she had been put on an IV with a hint of sedative to ensure she rested completely. She slowly drifted out of consciousness with a child-like smile, squeezing Felix's hand. Her grip lessened and her arm swung down past her side, Felix caught it, then placed her arm across her chest.