Chapter 16 Uncharted territory

The nights were always long for me. Sleep is a nice tool to fast forward through an existence that is too painful to handle. We use sleep to calm down, keep us from driving ourselves mad with our own thoughts. I no longer had that luxury, but I had sworn that I wouldn’t lose myself to that madness again, for Terry, all my other friends, and now… for Mahlah.
I whittled that painful night away in the gym. Taking my frustration out on the various training equipment. All the while deciding what had to be done next. Tomorrow, after her funeral, we would set out. I decided that we would go as far as possible and spend the night outside. Hopefully, after a doing that a few times each week, going farther each time…Hopefully, after a month or so we would be ready. We would be ready to find the cure.
When morning had come I was all set to convince them of my plan, but when I got to the cafeteria they were already there. Caulin looked up and nodded to me as I approached. "You look tired, man" He said concerned. " Did you rest at all?"
"Of course I did." I lied. "So I have been thinking about how we should do this. I think we should go out today. Right after Mahlah’s funeral. We can go out as far as possible and then camp outside for the night. We will come back the next morning, but I think I would be a good start at making a break into uncharted territory. I know we weren’t planning on an excursion today but…" I trailed off. The others were exchanging worried glances. I swallowed hard and tried to continue. " Look, I know I am the least qualified person here to be making plans like these, but I just feel like this is the best thing for us to do."
Terry’s eyes watered a little. She bit her lip the way she always does before giving me bad news. "David, its not that. We all agree. That was actually kind of what we had planned anyways, after we left you last night, but…" She sighed deeply. " But as for Mahlah’s funeral." She paused. "Hector had her cremated early this morning."
I stood frozen. My mind struggled to understand. I looked up and asked, " Why so soon?"
Terry winced not wanting to answer, but she did anyways. " Hector, didn’t want anyone else there. He said he want to do it alone."
I closed my eyes and shook my head, " You mean he didn’t want me there." She averted her eyes and said nothing. I took a deep breath. " Ok, well that is his decision to make. I have to respect that. Well I guess that means we don’t need to wait. Lets go, we will be able to make it even farther this way."
The others looked up at me, concern and pity seemed to pour out of their eyes. I didn’t look back at them. Instead I started off toward the exit, but I could still feel their sad stares baring down on me.
We arrived at the main exit, still walking in silence. A guard stopped us, as we walked up. "Please, wait here for a moment. Janus wanted to address you before you went out." The guard said.
I turned to Terry with a puzzled look on my face. "How did Janus know we were coming?"
Terry smiled, "I stopped by early this morning and told him we would be going out today." she said. I smiled for the first time in a while. It was hard to believe that she knew me that well.
The guard returned after a few minutes with Janus. Janus stroked his chin and walked up to us. "So, Terry tells me that you guys are wanting to go out today even though no excursion was previously planned, and on top of that you are wanting to stay out there overnight." He said scratching his head. "I was wondering what spurred this sudden decision?"
I started to speak up, but Caulin beat me to it. "Well sir, to be honest I was the one who made the decision." He said slyly. I shot him a questioning glance. " You see, Janus, I was just getting so bored with our usual assignments. I figured that this way I might actually get to have some fun."
Gohn couldn’t help himself. He rolled his eyes and sarcastically added, "yea, it’s bound to be a great time. I don’t know about you, but it has always been a dream of mine to go out with no idea where I was going or what to expect." He laughed and then threw an arm around Caulin. "But I am sure it is nothing the almighty Caulin can’t handle."
Caulin scowled at him, while Terry and Scyll both stifled giggles. Janus continued to stroke his chin and eyed us all. Finally he spoke, " Well, I guess there is no persuading you, so instead I guess I will give you a hand." The last few words he said staring me straight in my eyes. " Please come this way."
We walked slowly down a long corridor that was attached to the room we had been in. I had never seen this area, and from the looks on my friends faces all but Caulin hadn’t either.
The hallway opened into another enormous room, this one was filled with soldiers. I had no idea the dome’s army was so big. There had to of been ten thousand men in there. My friends all looked around with wide eyes, curious of this unknown area in their home. Only Caulin’s eyes were downcast, probably the first time I had ever seen him be anything but his cocky self.
The soldiers marched around in well organized lines, performing drills and breaking off into several training areas. Their movements were crisp and well rehearsed, It was hard to believe a force like this had been wiped out the last time someone tried to venture into uncharted territory. Hard to believe and a little scary.
Everything in this area was larger than life. An entire obstacle coarse lay in one corner of the room, currently being used by some of the soldiers. The coarse looked rough, I wondered if even Caulin could complete it, without being exhausted. There was a weight room next to it that made the one we had been using look like a playground.
Janus lead us toward the far side of this room. As we walked I saw something in the corner of my eye. Four men circled one soldier in what looked like a small sparring wring. I looked closely at the man standing in the center of wring. His back was bare and a strange symbiotic backpack lay at the side of the wring next to his shirt. His fiery red hair was what gave away his identity to me. It was Hector, he was in the middle of a combat demonstration. Several younger soldiers lined the wring ready to watch his amazing abilities.
It bother me, that he was able to be here though. As his four opponents circled him I began to understand. For a spit second I was able to see into his eyes. There are several stages of grief. One of them is anger. From the look in his eyes, it was apparent he was stuck on that stage, but at that moment, I had to admit, I probably was too. Unfortunately, I think we were both angry at the same person.
Hector stood unmoving as the four men stalked him, like wolves in a pack. A quick hand signal from one of them was the only warning as all at once the four men charged him.
Hector stood undaunted by the assailants. As they approached he took a quick step forward toward one of his opponents. With a single fluid movement he side step the man and grabbed the back of his shirt, sweeping his feet out and throwing him head first into one of the other men. The two smashed their heads together and fell unconscious to the ground.
The other two men quickly backed off and started to recircled him. Again, Hector stood completely unnerved by the situation. Then without any warning Hector pivoted on his left foot and sprinted toward the combatant on his right. He was on him in a second. The man had no time to react. Hector grabbed the soldiers shoulders and kneed him hard in the stomach. The soldier doubled over and collapsed.
The last uninjured fighter rushed to his teammates aid, but Hector had been counting on that. As the final assailant reached him Hector dropped to one knee and lunged forward catching his opponent around his legs. With an outstanding display of strength and agility, he lifted the soldier off his feet and used the soldiers own momentum to flip him over his back.
As the last fighter lay stunned on his back, Hector spun around and stepped his boot on the soldier neck. The soldiers eyes widened in fear, but Hector looked away from him. His gaze landed firmly on me.
I froze and for that moment the crowded room seemed empty. He had known I was watching from the beginning. My heart skipped a beat. I could feel his anger from across the room. I soaked it in.
After an endless moment, he broke our stare and lifted his boot from the soldiers neck. Without so much as a second glance he walked back, picked up his symbiot and left the arena. Stifled cheers rose up from the ranks that had been watching, as he left the wring.
"Hey, David." I heard Terry call out from up ahead. " What are you doing, crazy. Come on." She smiled and beckoned me to hurry. I jogged to catch up with them.
Terry looked at me questioningly when I rejoined them. I tried to wipe the emotions from my face and said, " I uh, saw some guys sparring and couldn’t help but watch." She gave a sad smile, not quite accepting my answer, but she seemed content to leave it be for the moment.
We made our way through the rest of the huge room, weaving in and out of the ranks of uniformed soldiers, till finally we made it to the far side of the room. This far corner seemed to be broken into a series of small stable like areas. Each stable holding at least two or three dozen large lizard mounts, the same ones that Janus’s soldiers had used to rescue us from the behemoth.
As we approached a soldier emerged from one of these stables. He was guiding three of the large beasts out from their pins and leading them in our direction. The soldier stopped in front of Janus and gave off a crisp salute. Janus returned his salute and then took the reins from the soldier.
Janus turned toward us and said, "These Basilisk mounts can reach and maintain speeds of up to forty mile per hour. They are adapted for climbing through the dense undergrowth of the forest out there. With these you should be able to reach the edge of our charted territory in only a few hours." He motioned to the soldier who had just lead out the beasts. "Lt. Vincent here will walk you through the basics of handling them. I have to attend to some things, now. I trust you all will be safe in your trip. I will await your report with great anticipation." With a small bow he then took his leave.
I climbed up onto one of the monstrous lizards, and tried to get a feel for it. Gohn and Caulin each took one and then Scyll climbed on with Caulin and Terry with me. The lieutenant led us out of the dome through a back door.
The lieutenant showed us some of the basics for handling the Basilisk mounts. It wasn’t really all that different from riding a horse, except it was bigger… and scaly. However, Janus had been right about them. They were fast and perfectly adapted for life in the thick undergrowth of the forests.
After about an hour of practice we were able to handle the creatures well enough to head out. We thanked Lt. Vincent and started off.
The air rushed past my face as we sped along, climbing over giant roots and over the thick bushes. It was incredible to watch the scenery fly by as we moved. The familiar landscape that we had been training on for the past several months passed quickly before my eyes. It wasn’t long before we had made it farther than I had ever gone before.
As we rode I could feel Terry’s hands around my waist, holding me tightly. It was hard to stay angry in the midst of this blissful situation, but somehow I managed.
We moved so quickly through the forest that we didn’t run into any hostile mutants. The ride in truth was quite peaceful. So peaceful it made me sick. I didn’t feel like I deserved for this trip to be this easy. Plus, I needed something to take out all this frustration.
After riding for about two hours, we came upon a large field that opened up in the middle of the forest. The area seemed safe, we would surely be able to see any danger from far off. The others were tired, so we decided to rest for a little while. I really didn’t want to, but I decided it would best just to go along with the group.
We dismounted and let the lizards roam around a little on their own. The lieutenant had said they were well trained so they wouldn’t run off without us. Caulin fell back onto the soft grass. "Whew, talk about sore. Man I feel like my legs are going to fall off." He said.
Gohn stretched his legs and sat down next to Caulin, " No, kidding, but I have to say it would have taken us most of the day to make this kind of distance on foot."
Terry sat down on the grass next to me. She held her caudal in her arms and stroked it gently like a cat, its long tail twisted around her arms and then her waist. She looked over to me, concern filled her eyes. "David, you have been really quiet this whole trip."
"I know," I said trying not to look at her. " I am tired that’s all." She arched an eyebrow, but said nothing. I sighed. " Yea, I am sure she believed that one." I muttered to myself under my breath.
We rested there for a little while. The others slept, but as usual I had no such luxury. No, instead I stared into to the distance. Looking off toward the unexplored territory ahead of us. We were all so caught up in everything that had happened that we seemed to all have forgotten how dangerous it was out there, but yet, I knew that this was what we had to do. It was what I had to do, or I would never forgive myself.
A sudden cry shook me from my daydream, and woke the others. One of the Basilisks had gotten spooked by something. It was jumping around and screeching in a painfully loud way.
I looked around, startled by the sudden ruckus. Terry turned to me and asked, "David, what is going on?"
I knitted my eyebrows and shook my head, " I don’t know the stupid lizard just starting screaming for no reason." I said as I continued to scan the area to find the source of the beast’s fear.
It wasn’t long before the other two basilisks were freaking out too. Caulin threw his hands up in frustration. " I don’t see anything. Those things are losing it over nothing. Come on lets get the dumb things and leave."
It was Scyll that figured it out first. She looked down at the ground for a moment with a vexed expression. I looked to see what had caught her eye. I saw shadows dancing all over the ground. Slowly my eyes eased upward.
They were circling us, like vultures circle some near dead beast in the desert. The mutant birds looked so small, but as they circled us they descended from where they were high in the sky. As they descended it became apparent that these mutants were not small.
Their wings were leathery and must have had at least a ten foot span. They were grayish in color and appeared to be all skin and bones. At the end of each wing was a small hand tipped with sharp claws. Giving them a hellishly demonic look. Their legs were reverse jointed and as they flew were tucked up under their bodies. Their small heads were attached to short stubby necks and had long beaks that came to a very sharp point. Suddenly, it didn’t seem like the basilisks were the stupid ones anymore.
I turned to Gohn, " What are those?!" I asked.
He shrugged, " I have no idea, nothing I have ever seen." He squinted against the sun trying to count them. "Man, there looks like a lot of them though." he was right there was a lot, more than I could keep track of.
Caulin laughed. "It’s about time this got interesting." He said pulling out his symbiot. "Now all we have to do is figure out how to get them down here."
Gohn rolled his eyes. "A hundred, most likely blood thirsty mutants are flying over our head, and Caulin wants to play." He sighed deeply and readied his symbiot. "Looks like it is going to be another beautiful day."
I grew out a long sword, and looked over at Terry. Her caudal was perched on her shoulder its long tail flailed out completely unraveled, it snaked through the air showing off its absurd length.
Scyll stood next to Caulin, looking up uneasily. Honestly, we were all nervous. Even Caulin gripped his staff a little tighter than normal. We had never fought so many mutants before, especially not ones that could fly.
Gohn raised his right arm and steadied it with his left. "Lets get this started, already." He said grimly. He fired six darts in rapid succession. The darts tore through the air and imbedded into six different mutants. Gohn chose the most putrid form of death for these poor beasts. As they fell from the sky they rained down gore from the wounds he had inflicted.
Caulin snickered, " Yea, lets see how they react to that." He said his cockiness returning as he relaxed a bit, and the mutants did indeed react, though not in the way we had hoped. In a swarm they dove from the sky, like a summer downpour. I raised my arms instinctively to fend them off, but strangely we were not their target.
I watched in disgusted amazement as the beasts landed. They walked on all fours using their wings as another set of legs. Nipping at each other they approached the corpses of their fallen friends. One of the larger ones stepped up first fending off the others. It stood over one of the dead mutants and drove its long beak into it, sucking out the innards.
Caulin turned and gagged in disgust. We stood by as the scavengers tore the six fallen mutants apart. In mere seconds there was no trace left of the fallen beasts, but it was clear that these hellish birds weren’t satiated yet.
Their attack was blindingly fast. The crowd on the ground tore back into the air all at once like dust kicked up by the wind. They circled us, the sheer number of them was astounding, looking at them from below I would have sworn I was looking up through the eye of some terrible storm cloud, and without warning once again the cloud opened up in a downpour.
My mind went numb. Different emotions bubbled up amazement, shock, terror, but above all those was rage.
The first of them tore through the air diving at an unfathomable speed right toward me. The razor sharp beaks closed in on me like a rain of daggers. I heard Terry scream, but I wasn’t scared anymore.
I thrust my blade upwards as hard as I could as the first one came close enough. My blade connected with the creatures head and the sheer momentum of its dive forced the beast to be spit open as I sliced through the air.
The others were suddenly spooked not used to such small prey fighting back. They flared theirs wings and circle me again. In the mean time my friends had broken from their daze and started to engage the demon birds as well.
In the corner of my eye I saw Caulin dodging left and right swinging his staff frying one after another as they dove after him.
Gohn stood by his side firing fiercely up into the swarm above us. The dieing birds fell from above in increasing numbers, but still they kept at us.
Another group came diving after me. I started running. The creatures flared their wings skimming the ground shooting after me. After about thirty yards I spun around just in time to slice the wings off the first two chasing me. The others blew by me, leaving a gust of air in their wake. I leveled my blade at one of the escaping beasts and fired it out just as the creature arced up back into the sky. The blade impaled it and it fell lifelessly back to earth.
I turned back to see how the others were handling themselves. They had huddled close together and were working with each other to fend off the attacks of the swarming birds above. Terry’s caudal flung its tail out snatching one after another out of mid-flight. Then dashing them to the ground. Even Scyll’s symbiot was unleashed. The ravenous snakes shot out from her arm in every direction each snake searching out its own prey.
Caulin stood his ground at the center of them and would fend off any of them that came to close. Gohn stood, still by his side firing relentlessly. Altogether they formed an impressive defense, in spite of being hopelessly out numbered, it seemed it was the attackers that didn’t stand a chance.
Terry looked worriedly toward me and beckoned for me to join them. I turned back toward the group that had broken off to come after me. They were turning around now to make another pass. I steadied myself growing out another long sword.
The beasts broke off into four groups and circled me again. This time they dove at me from every direction. I spun and my heel and sprinted off toward the one on my right. I jumped into the air to meet it and severed its head as it came close enough. As I landed I spun around as fast as I could, but it wasn’t fast enough. Three of the creatures flew into me. I flailed up my arms and parried the first ones beak, but the next one skimmed my shoulder taking a large chunk with it. I fell backward and grabbed my arm in pain.
I gritted my teeth, furious. I quickly returned to my feet and launched my blade straight into the creature that was still chewing on my flesh. The blade sunk in just below the neck. Once again the bird fell to the ground.
The remaining two let out a blood curdling screech that made me cover my ears in pain. I looked up and saw a significant portion of the flock that had been engaging my friends break off and swoop down in my direction.
There was easily a hundred of them. As they sped toward me I could see their shadow moving swiftly across the field. It danced like some kind of mythical dragon. I could vaguely hear Terry screaming something at me, but my mind was lost in the fight. I simply stood there and grew out another blade to fight with.
I am not sure exactly what I was doing. Maybe I honestly thought I could win.….. Maybe I really just wanted to die, but whatever it was I certainly wasn’t thinking clearly.
I thrust my symbiot forward into them as the black wave washed over me. Like a mad man I flung my sword around slicing at everything that moved. I was coved in scrapes and cuts. Suddenly one of them knocked head first into me and we tumbled backward together. I struggled as the monster raked at me with its claws. I lied on my back with it pinning me down, the wave of black still flying only feet above our heads. In the midst of the frenzy over me, another bird raked its claws through the one that pinned me down. Then another and another till the creature fell over dead.
Still lying on my back I continued flailing my claw uselessly. Finally, they all were past me. I staggered to my feet preparing for the second attack. Now certain that this time I would not make it out alive.
Suddenly, there was a deafening roar that came from the forest behind me. The birds instantly started to screech amongst themselves. Their once uniform flock now broke. Each of them tearing off in different directions. There was another roar and then a new massive beast
erupted from the forest. Standing at least two stories tall this new creature had no arms or tail. It literally appeared to be a giant set of jaws mounted on two powerful looking reverse jointed legs. This new creature sprinted out across the field and then leapt into the air snatching four of the birds in its massive jaws with one snap. There was a nauseating sound of bones crunching as the creature inhaled its meal.
I stood there entranced as the creature chased the birds back into the forest disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. The few remaining bird mutants were flying off as fast as they could.
I could hear the others cheering. "Awesome we did it!" Caulin shouted.
"I am just glad everyone is alright." I heard Terry say. I began to tremble in anger. I wasn’t done with them yet.
I looked over to my left and saw one of them its wing had been injured and it was now pathetically trying to hobble away. "I am not done with you!" I sneered. In three steps I was on him. I plunged my blade deep into the creatures back. Then I started to hack into it. I heard myself screaming something, but I couldn’t tell what it was. I just kept hacking into it. Like it had done something terrible to me, but I don’t think I was really angry at that wretched thing.
Finally I sunk my blade into the beast a final time and released the sword into it. I looked down at my hands. Once again they were soaked in blood. Without thinking I began to vigorously wipe them on the grass and dirt. I just kept wiping them as hard as I could, but the blood wouldn’t go away.
Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Terry’s face. Her eyes watered with the same fear I had seen that night. I snapped back to reality. I looked around at my friends fear and sadness was all over their faces. I looked back at my hands. They were rubbed raw. The blood I now saw on them was my own, but even as I looked at them I could see the cuts slowly dissolving away.
I stood up wiping the blood and dirt onto my pants. I swallowed hard. Looking back toward where the basilisk mounts had run away to, about a hundred yards off near the edge of the forest.
"We had better get going." I said coldly. As I walked away, in the corner of my eye, I saw a single tear slide down Terry’s face. My heart hurt for her. Why did I have to cause them all so much pain?
We rode on for about another hour after that, by then the sun had started to go down and the looming shadows of the trees were making it very hard to see. The fight with the bird mutants had slowed us down a lot, and we hadn’t made it as far as I would have liked.
"Hey David," Terry said over my shoulder as we rode. "it is going to be dark soon we should think about finding a place to camp for the night, don’t you think?" I reluctantly nodded.
"Look over there." Scyll said pointing to a small clearing that nestled up between to massive trees. " That looks like it would be a good place to camp. The roots from those trees will provide some decent shelter and there is enough room to make a fire."
She looked to me for approval, as if I had suddenly taken the role of leader for this particular excursion. I shrugged, " Yea, that spot looks fine." I said.
We tied the basilisks up near the entrance to our makeshift camp, hoping that if anything unsavory came around they would most likely alert us as they had before.
We cleared the camp site and started the fire. Afterward we unpacked some of the supplies from the basilisks and had a small meal of meal crackers, before lying down to rest.
"We should probably sleep in shifts." Gohn said. " That way we won’t be caught off guard, I will…"
"I’ve got the first shift." I interrupted. "You all look tired get some rest I will wake one of you up in few hours to take over."
Gohn sighed and then shrugged his shoulders. Caulin stood up and walked over to me. He put his arm around my shoulder. "Hey you know you could be a real sport and just pull a double for me. I got a heck of a work out today, and I really could use some beauty sleep." He said with a smile.
Gohn scoffed at him and then added as he rolled over to sleep, " What are you talking about Caulin? All the sleep in the world can’t help you." Caulin frowned and tossed a small rock at Gohn. Scyll and Terry both chuckled at them. I stomached a half-hearted smile, but at the moment I really didn’t feel all that much like laughing.
Terry pulled up a sleeping bag over to where I was sitting for my watch. " Wake me up first, I will take the next shift." She said.
I nodded, "alright. Goodnight." I replied staring off into the darkness around us.
I wasn’t long before they were all asleep. Gohn had to get up and force Caulin over on his side because Caulin was keeping everyone else awake with his snoring, but after that even Gohn seemed to fall quickly asleep.
I wondered to myself what I was going to tell them when they woke up in the morning and I hadn’t changed shifts with any of them. I had never told them about my problems sleeping, and honestly I didn’t want to.
I spent the next few hours listening to the sounds of this strange new world. The cries of animals, the wind whistling through the trees.
I stood up and climbed to the top of one of the tall roots that made up our shelter. I peered out in the direction that I knew we still had to go. We were already in uncharted territory, but we were still so far away, and even if we did make it. How would we ever find this "special mutant". I sighed deeply.
"You weren’t planning on waking any of us up, were you?" I heard Terry’s voice say from below me. I cringed at the veiled rebuke.
"Well I was going to get around to it eventually." I lied pointlessly, as I slid down to where she was standing.
We sat down together by the fire and didn’t say anything for a while. Finally, Terry cut to the heart of the issue. "it’s not your fault you know." She said.
I looked up at her. She had a troubled look on her face, like she was concentrating on the fire as hard as she could. I looked away, " I know." I said.
"Earlier, as you were…." She stopped searching for the word.
"Losing it?" I volunteered.
She frowned, but continued. " You were screaming, "I am sorry" over and over again."
I rubbed my head, anxiety about the memory was burning in the pit of my stomach. "So that is what I was saying." I whispered.
"David, you did everything you could for Mahlah. Even Hector will realize that someday. You can’t torture yourself about this. There was just no way for you to save her." Terry said looking pleadingly into my eyes.
Slowly I answered, just now coming to this realization myself. "I….I know. I know there is nothing I could do to save her, and that is why I am so mad." She knitted her eyebrows not quite understanding. Actually I was only just then starting to myself. "While I was watching her, from the second I saw her pass out. I kept seeing you. Even though I did everything I could I still couldn’t save her. It made me realize how powerless I am against this disease, and it made me really scared. Because I can’t just stand and watch that happen to you!" I said fighting back my own tears. " That is why I have to find the cure. Because I don’t know what I would do if I lost you."
Terry looked back at me stunned. Her eyes turned very sad. Quietly she said, "Everyone dies eventually, David. You can’t try to stop everyone from dieing. It is not possible and its not healthy. All you can do is make the best of the time you are given. Besides I believe that even after death, life isn’t over. Don’t you?"
My heart skipped a beat. I froze. She was right. I remembered my mom always saying things like that to me. I looked back into her now teary eyes. I nodded. She smiled back at me. That smile alone seemed to be able to make everything better.
We sat there for a long while after that in silence. She scooted close to me and laid her head on my shoulder. Within minutes she was asleep. I still decided not to wake the others. I wanted to think some more, alone. No, not alone. I would never really be alone.
As I sat there, I thought about Mahlah and the small amount of time we had spent together. I remembered her cute little daughter and I even remembered Hector. She really loved them. I looked back at Terry sleeping there next to me, and I let myself relax for the first time in what had seemed to be a very long time.
The sun rose early the next day. Small rays of light escaped the ominous forest ceiling and sprinkled down among us. Gohn was the first to squint his eyes at the new light.
Stretching, he looked around as though lost for a moment until he remembered where he was. He rubbed his eyes lazily and sat up leaning against the massive tree that constituted our shelter. He noticed me and with a yawn he said, "David?" he rubbed his temples trying to banish the morning fog, "Did you stay up all night?" he asked.
I nodded quietly. He cocked and eyebrow and started to say something, but I held up a hand and said, "It’s ok. I fine now." He frowned unconvinced, but shrugged and let it go.
Caulin stirred next, woken by something other than the early morning sunlight. Begrudgingly he sat up looked at me and then Gohn, his eyes still half closed. "I am going to use the toilet." he grunted.
"What toilet?" Gohn replied with a coy smile. Caulin took another look around and then cursed under his breath. He stood up and lumbered off into the woods, carrying his staff.
I shook my head and laughed a little. Gohn nodded at me, "Good to see you smiling again." he said. "You going to be alright now?"
I nodded, " better at least." I replied, I took a deep breath and asked. " How do you deal with it?"
He shook his head. "You don’t." he replied simply. " when you have been dealing with death your whole life, you learn just to …. To bury it."
" I guess I see why you don’t talk about it." I said. He only nodded.
Suddenly I heard Scyll’s soft voice from behind me, "That is why we fight." she said. "So that one day people won’t have to deal with this."
I turned toward her she was sitting up now as was Terry. My face reddened as I realized they had been listening the whole time.
Just then Caulin strolled back into the camp. " Well I feel better." He cracked his neck and stretched his arms and then continued, " How about we have some breakfast I am starved."
Gohn rolled his eyes and tossed him a meal cracker from his pack. " Come on lets get packed up we have a long trip home today."
Caulin caught the cracker and downed it in one bite. His mouth still full he grumbled, " Do we have to?" He gave a sidelong glance at the Basilisk mounts and sighed, "My butt is still sore from yesterday."
I loaded my bag onto one of the large lizards. "Oh you’re just scared that we are going to run into another pig-beast and you’re going to be beaten up again." I said with a chuckle.
Caulin sneered, "Since when is he in a good mood again? I think I liked it better when he was moping." We all laughed, as we finished packing up.
The trip back was much easier. The basilisks seemed to run much faster and easier when heading back in the direction of their home. We sighted several mutants along the way, even a few that the others had not seen before, but we encountered no real resistance. We arrived home well before sundown, but we were still tired and decided to rest for the remainder of the evening after giving Janus a short report.