Shadow Walker

The Cure

Dec woke to the rhythmic, musical drumbeat of rain on the roof of the shelter—a sound he'd almost forgotten in the long summer drought. At first, he thought he must've been imagining it, that he must've be dreaming, or floating in a desert-dust induced hallucination between life and death. But when he opened his eyes, he realised he wasn't imagining it at all. In the eerie light of early morning, swirled marble by dark, nimbus thunder clouds, the three-and-a-half walled shelter had become three-and-a-quarter walls, the inundation having washed clear the extra rubble from the entrance. Heavy droplets pushed their way through the cracks in the roof to gather in claggy pools on the floor. Dec lay propped against the driest of the three rain-battered walls, head resting on the canvas bags Teegan had brought back from the dump. The back of his pants were soaked through, with what he hoped was water. Somewhere along the line, damp mineral earth smells had replaced the acidic tang of urine.

He licked his chaffed lips, which thirsted despite the rain-sop all around and he turned his head in search of a bottle. Teegan and Rain were at the centre of the room, squatted on either side of a gas-blue flame which was hooked to a space-age trangia by long copper wires. Teegan was holding a needle to Rain's arm, and Rain was letting her pierce the skin down the length of the vein, unflinching as the needle drew pinpricks of blood. They spoke in low tones, audible in the lulls between each cascading downpour. He was about to call out to them, when he heard his name.

"You and Dec ... " Teegan said, massaging a water-soaked mixture of the desert dust into the pinpricks on Rain's forearm. "How did you meet again?"

Rain made a hissing sound through her teeth and Dec noticed her skin had gone bright red wherever it came into contact with the solution. "There was a work relation," she said. "I was interpreting on a delivery to Overlands Trading."

"So, through a mutual colleague or something?" Teegan said.

"Yes, colleague." Rain chewed the word as though attempting to work out the lumps. Then, she winced again as her aggravated skin began to ooze blood.

"I thought you said it was pure chance," Teegan said, seemingly oblivious to the blood. "Like you passed each other on the street."

Rain took a moment to answer. "It was by chance through the colleague."

Dec watched with intrigue. He wouldn't have called his father a 'colleague.' So this is what the Northerner looked and sounded like when she lied? As far as he could tell, it was no different to when she was explaining the origins of her people's folk songs, or when she was telling him to jump off a train.

"How do you know Declan?" Rain asked Teegan, though Dec was certain she knew the answer.

"By chance," Teegan said, gasping when she finally noticed Rain's arm. "Gosh! Sorry! I thought it wouldn't affect you. But this is ridiculous." She dabbed at the blood with the sleeve of her lab coat.

"Maybe this batch is stronger than the last," Rain said.

"Maybe," Teegan replied, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small torch, which she shone into Rain's eyes. "How are your eyes?"

"Dry," Rain said, squinting against the torchlight. "And the brightness feels like thousands of paper cuts in my irises."

Teegan elicited a low growl of frustration and withdrew another apparatus from her pocket that looked like a spacer attached to an asthma puffer. She held it out. "Breathe through this."

Rain breathed through the mouthpiece and held her breath.

"Dry?" Teegan said after few seconds.

Rain coughed. "Like thousands of bees stinging me in the throat."

Teegan placed the apparatus on the ground with shaking hands. "I can't. This is too dangerous. This batch is definitely stronger than whatever they released in the storm."