CHAPTER 3 - Just a Dream?

Her laughter, it built up like a wave until it eventually crashed down to the shore, cascading within the surroundings. The terrible surroundings.

Blood. Thrown limbs. Hacked bits everywhere. By the time she was done there was nothing left alive. Nothing at all.

How such a thin frame had the power to swing such a massive weapon, he could never figure out. He had his suspicions, but would rather not confirm them.

By the time he woke up, the smell of the gore permanently cemented itself into his soul. A cold sweat fevered his body. Nothing good ever came of sleeping out here in the open and no good ever came of dreaming about her, but that never stopped him, now did it? It’s just how the world had become.

Ridge hated when he dreamt about her. The feel of her. Being touched by the emotions she had. He could never understand them. Even after months of watching her from within. In fact, it just strengthened the almost instinctive dislike. Which for all he knew, could actually be instinctive.

Ridge really didn’t know much about his new race at all. In fact, he knew next to nothing.

He could feel, more than tell, that his amber eyes were a sign of his race along with the purple tips on his otherwise snow white head of hair. Even his dreams felt natural, no matter how much he thought it should be odd that he dreamt every single day of her. Always her, without fail. Feeling anger, disgust, and loathe as he was to admit it, wholeness.

Otherwise, he seemed almost the same as a regular human. Minus his odd coloring and the heat which radiated from his skin, melting the snow that fell upon him almost immediately. And his ability to form objects out of thin air, but truly that was nothing.

Especially when you took into account the two he traveled with. Originally they had been two innocent children, but now their appearances showed just what this apocalypse did. Corrupt.

They had become what old folktales and legends had described as harpies. Winged arms. Talons for feet. Hair composed of feathers. Sharp jagged teeth hidden in a wide set jaw. Gone were their previous appearances. All that was left was a body designed to be a weapon.

His ability to poof things into existence paled in comparison to the tornadoes the two could conjure.

Something within the Meteor that had crashed into the Earth caused everything to change. From the sky to the ground beneath their feet. Morphing all kinds of beings from the once normal living things of the world. Not a blade of grass wasn’t affected. Every human and animal changed. Whether it was a minute detail or a total reworking of their biology.

It was at this moment that a rustling caught his attention. The older of the two, Sef, began to awaken. His tea green eyes opened to the morning light.

“Good Morning!” He chirped happily when he noticed that he didn’t wake up alone.

His happiness quickly faded when he spotted the furrow of eyebrows pushed together upon Ridge’s face.

“Had another bad dream?”

A sigh the only reply until Sef’s eyes narrowed. ‘A proper response or else’, it said.

“I guess you could call it that.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” For someone who had yet to even turn 15, he sure knew how to give ‘the look’. Of course it had almost been four whole months since the world changed forever. Meteor be damned.

“Do I ever?”

Of course Sef knew that he never talked about his dreams with anyone. But that never seemed to stop his ever persistent askings.

“It could help, you know that, Ridge.”

“I know.”

Of course the talking stopped immediately once they noticed the breathing of their third companion shifting. It seemed that the youngest of their trio had attempted to spy on their conversation.

“Awwww. You guys are no fun! Couldn’t you have pretended a little bit longer! I was really curious as to where the conversation would go!”

“Phenna. You know that it's rude to try and listen in on other people’s conversations.”

“Meanie brother! I can’t help it when you’re talking about such juicy stuff.”

Juicy? Since when had nightmares turn into a juicy topic to discuss? Ridge couldn’t help but let out a little exasperated sigh at the weird thoughts of the twelve year old.

“And you too Ridge! Why won’t you just tell us what you keep dreaming about! Come on! Just tell us already! We haven’t been traveling together for the last month and a half for nothing you know. I almost consider you more a brother than this dweeb!”

“That’s rude!” Both Ridge and Sef couldn’t help but let out together.

“Yeah! That’s right! But it’s true! So tell us! Pwease~” At the end, she pulled out her trump card. Her already wide eyes bubbling up and glistening around the edges. Lips pulled up into a small pout. Her hands then tipped the breaking point as they reached out and tugged the edge of his hoodie as she aimed her puppy eyes at him.

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How can a little girl possibly be this cute. Almost as cute as-

No. Girls were existences that held terrible thoughts beneath their sugar coated appearances. He wouldn’t let himself be deceived by her sculpted actions.

He reached down and gently peeled her fingers from his hoodie. “Phenna. Stop. You know by now I won’t tell you, so stop playing such tricks on me.”

This time real tears started to spill out of her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away before they ever had a chance to fall. She then turned on her back claw, racing off into the distance.

She then stopped only once to yell back, “Come on guys lets get going! We still have a long way to go!”

With that the two could only pass a look between each other as they both also started their way forward. Sef ran forward and matched pace with his sister as Ridge fell into place at the rear.

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They kept walking until they hit a nice spot by a small creek around noon. By this point Phenna cheered up enough, seemingly having forgotten the morning's incident. When she came upon the creek, her eyes sparkled from the joy. It had been a while since they had last come upon such a clear stream.

Most of the water they had come across seemed to flash different lights depending on how the sun hit them, ranging from a cool aqua to an almost radioactive yellow. This never bode well with the group after they had once tried drinking from one that only looked a light blue near the beginning of their trip. Both Phenna and Sef having fallen ill for at least a week. It took them a few more days to even build back up their strength and have their walking speed come back.

Even looking at this seemingly normal creek caused the two males to remember the incident. Only Phenna looked on with childlike wonder, linking it to better days. Of playing by a stream and peering in at the little fishies below with her mother and father just a few feet away. And of days when she didn’t have to fear for her life.

But of course that was all in the past, and even Phenna wouldn’t risk getting too close to the creek before Ridge checked to make sure it was safe to drink. Ridge was the only one who didn’t get sick from the water. None of them really knew why, but the nauseous vomiting and odd color the two turned never touched him, let alone a stomachache.

That being said, Ridge inched closer to the water. Sef ready to throw some wind if anything nasty were to pop up.

Almost anticlimactically, nothing happened.

Ridge bent down and cupped his hand down near the bottom of the water. One long gulp, rolling the liquid lightly on his tongue. After a good gurgle, he confirmed that the water didn’t seem to have any of the unusual tastes they associated with poisoned water.

Of course, they gave it a good 10 minutes to see if even their most hearty formed a stomachache.

Once nothing happened, the other two then came to the creek and drank their full. Only stopping to fill the contents of their water bottles.

“Pwaahhh. This water tastes delicious~”

“Calm down Phenna. Though I do have to agree, it’s rare nowadays to find such nice water. I wonder how such a stream stayed so clean, especially so far in the wild.” Once he said that, Sef looked toward Ridge. “Can you possibly think of any reasons as to why?”

After trying to come up with a reason for a while, “No, I really can’t think of one. Maybe we should stay here a little longer to try and find out? I mean it would be kind of convenient to be able to drink actually good for you water without having to use me as a guinea pig to ‘test the waters’ every time. But then again none of us are really very, how should I put it, um fit for the job. Because I know none of us were any scientists or something like that before the fall.”

“Yeah, you’re definitely right about that!” Sef can’t help but laugh at the concept of any of them being a scientist. How would an twelve, fourteen, or seventeen year old manage to even become one?

“Maybe it’s cause we’re in Canada?” Phenna couldn’t help but say.

Everyone laughed at that. A good round of giggles and snickers at the concept of the water being in good ole Canada that made the water drinkable. “Cause even the water in Canada is nicer than in America.” Phenna finished.

A wry smile comes upon Ridge’s at the response. “Well enough of that, let’s get back on our way then. It’s still a few weeks more travel until we get to the Sanctuary.”

Phenna complained out loud at that. “Really? It’s still that long? It feels like we’ve walked enough to have made it there and back to- well there and back.” Her pout from this morning came back in full shine.

“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well if someone didn’t get sick we might have possibly been able to see it within this week.”

He knew it was a little cheap to be calling it her fault. If anything, the responsibility fell more on him as the group looked to him as the leader. When he saw the off kilter color of the water, he should have stopped either one from drinking it. But none of them by that point had experienced anything of the like as they never left the compound on their own. And even when they did, it was never too far or for too long. So truly it was his fault. He was the one who had traveled before, but then again… when he drank the water, he never got sick. So he never really had to think about whether water could make someone sick or not. Maybe it couldn’t really be called any of their faults. The damn meteor is what’s really at fault.

He especially felt bad when he saw that his comment brought tears once more to her once dry eyes.

“Damn it. You know I didn’t mean that. I’m just being my normal grumpy self, so just ignore anything that happens to come out of these lips. It wasn't anyone's fault but the meteor that caused all this. Don’t let anyone say otherwise, including my insensitive self.”

The tears in her eyes stopped at that and he swore he saw them retract in like they never even happened. “Hmph. That’s what I thought. Meanie~” The girl trilled off the last e, causing the word to sound more like birdsong than speech. It’s note bouncing off the water and into the trees lining the surrounding area.

“Yes. Yes. I’m a meanie and don’t I know it.”

He couldn’t help but agree to her point. Their journey together didn’t speak of much else. Social etiquette, a skill he could not claim as his own. Everything he said seemed to either be interpreted as irritated or actually was. Even when he apologized, it sounded like he spoke it without really meaning it. Anything that came out had a sort of deadpan, not interested tone. He wouldn’t change his ways though, it was just who he was now. Nothing would change that, he’d never go back to his former self. Even if he could.

No matter how little he knew about this new self. But hey at least there was one positive thing, he had the rest of his life to figure out what he could do. Though what really mattered right now was to start back up on their journey. There’s still a long way to go.