11
(ODESZA, WYNNE, Mansionair- Line of Sight)
Adam
Dazzling glimmers of sunshine orbited my dizzy eyes, which opened to a scene of the azure sky and gently swaying leaves.
So familiar. Reminds me of waking up in that other world. Wait…
“Adam!” Desmond’s new voice was jarring to hear, sending me up to a seated position, staring down at the green mitts that were my new hands. I sighed.
So it wasn’t just a nightmare, waking up in another world and getting eviscerated by a giant bug. Am I relieved? Discouraged? What happened? I woke up in the forest. Wagon exploded. Talked with the boys. Then I ended up here.
My stomach panged with dull aches as I winced through stretching my core. My sword lightly scratched against the stone and into a mess of yellow ichor and blood. Blood, which soaked me from stomach to toe. And the smell, like rotting meat and burnt hair. Wherever it was coming from, it was revolting enough for my guts to retch up runny yellow fluid and dirt. I heaved and gagged out to my side, then wiped my lips.
How the hell did bug juice and dirt get in me? And how am I alive? I only have light scars, but my entire stomach… it was ripped out.
“No fuckin’ way you’re alive,” Desmond limped to my side and grabbed my arm, leaving blood and yellow paste where he touched. “Come on, Adam, we gotta go.”
As Desmond pulled me upward, jolts of pain shot through my core, cramping and keeping me in place.
“Erg, I can’t! Desmond, stop, I can’t get up yet.”
He let go and slapped his leg. “Shit, well somebody’s gotta help Venmo! My ankle got fucked tryna roll your fat ass over. I can’t carry her anywhere fast!” He winced and then locked his intense green eyes on me. “Are ya sure ya can’t get up, man?!”
I pushed against the ground and threw myself to a standing position. Suddenly, the world spiraled, darkness clouded my vision and I landed on my hands and knees, spitting out more dirty yellowed blood.
“God dammit!” Desmond hastily limped toward the cliffside groans of Brenden and Tells. I leaned back, catching my breath, watching them stand up. Both Brenden and Tells rose without much issue, stretching and wincing as they each felt their own scarred bodies.
“What’s going-” Brenden started, then his eyes locked on the body laying at the cliff’s edge, convulsing in a pool of blood.
My heart rate spiked.
No way we’re all okay, but she’s…
“Desmond!” I yelled, “ What happened?!”
“The hell do you think happened?!” Desmond panickedly yanked Brenden and Tells to their feet, just trying to convey the weight of our friend dying to us. “She healed all of you and then keeled over! Her arms are noodles and she ain’t responding! Somebody’s gotta run her to town!”
Brenden dashed over to her side in a panic. “What are we supposed to do, Desmond?”
“What’d I just fuckin’ say?! She’s the healer! Somebody’s gotta carry her to another healer, probably in that town!”
“You won’t make it in time with your leg like that, Desmond,” I pointed out.
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Desmond yelled in a frenzy, pushing Tells toward Vetia. “No shit! That’s why I’m trying to get your sorry asses up! Tells, how are you feeling? Can you run her into town or at least help me move her? I don’t give a shit! I’ll take her, but if one of you can go faster then do something for fuck’s sake!”
Tells squinted and took in the scene, horror in her violet pearls, then ran over to Vetia. She hoisted our limp and convulsing friend onto her shoulders almost effortlessly and sprinted along the cliffside, into the forest.
“Tells! Wait!” Brenden took a few steps and then stopped with a confused and almost hopeless look about him.
“The fuck you mean, wait?! Let her go!” Desmond slapped the back of Brenden’s head.
He weakly spoke. “I can help.”
Desmond finally allowed himself to breathe and limped toward his strewn gear. “Brother, your scrawny ass ain’t carrying shit. Besides, she’s probably the best one to do it. She’s tough and Papa Samson taught us how to do some of that life-saving firefighter shit. I got faith.”
Brenden frantically started retrieving our stuff which was strewn around the cliff, stopping as he held Vetia’s book in his hands. “Come on, guys, get up, we gotta follow them, like, fast!”
“She’ll be fine.” Desmond leaned against a tree and sighed. “I’m sure the town is gonna have a healer just like her and she’ll be spic-n-span by the time we get there.”
“What if Tells trips and falls and hits her head? What if she breaks her ankle or slips off the cliff? Or what if her asthma starts acting up?! Desmond, we’ve gotta follow her! I’ve gotta go after her just to make sure she gets there okay! Not just for Tells either, she’s got Rowan too!”
“Wah wah wah!” Desmond mocked. “What if she gets eaten by a giant sandworm?! What if she stops for some tea and crumpets just for gits and shiggles?! What if she hops in a plane and hits the Freedom Tower for the long awaited 9/11 sequel?! I don’t fuckin’ know, man! We’re rollin’ with the punches!” He frowned, clenched his fists and kicked the tree with his hurt foot, screaming out over as the pain swept through him. “Fuckin foot! Fine, Brenden! Go in behind her and get lost! Follow her with your busted ass! You think I wanted to be hurt and useless?! I coulda carried her down just fine if I didn’t have to cover for all of you getting your shit kicked in because nobody wanted to take anything seriously!”
“I have been taking this seriously, dipshit!” Brenden’s temper got the better of him and his frustration came to a head. “None of us asked to die! None of us asked to be reincarnated into the hellish world! We didn’t ask Rowan to kill himself for us!” Brenden paused and began whimpering his words upward. “God, can’t you ever just throw us a bone? First it was shitty jobs and debt, and never having enough money to not be stressed. We barely ever saw each other because we were all working or in college. And the second we finally go to hang out, we die!”
Desmond groaned and shook his head, looking off toward the village. “Cry me a river, Brenden, you ain’t the only one with a shit hand in life. We’re all dead together.”
“Shut the fuck up!” My booming voice startled even me a little and it silenced them. “Bitch about it later! We’ve got better things to do than argue who has it worse. We don’t have a choice in the matter. We just have to keep moving forward. Home isn’t here. We can’t afford to labor on what we lost.” I found myself on the verge of passing out, but I swallowed and sighed. “We can’t linger on what we can’t change. Eyes forward. We keep moving.”
“Fuckin’ finally somebody wants to take this seriously,” Desmond shook his ankle and trudged toward the treeline.
Brenden’s blue eyes furiously locked on him. “Are you shitting me? That’s all I’ve been saying this whole time!”
“Glad we finally see eye-to-eye.”
I groaned and pressed myself up, the lower half of my body verging on collapse. Pins and needles wrought my legs as I jerked them forward, one by one. I held a thigh in one hand and used my sword as a walking stick. I had to move, to show them that we weren’t out of this. I trudged to Brenden and leaned against the same tree, looking into his eyes.
“Brenden,” I tried to calm him, “none of us can walk or run well at all. You and I lost a lot of blood. Running is only gonna ensure that we collapse in the middle of the forest. Tells wasn’t hurt as bad as us.”
“She lost blood too, Adam!” Brenden looked up from his hunched position, gasping for breath. “That thing cut the shit outta her! She’s just as bad as us right now!”
I put my hand on his shoulder. “Brenden. We’ve just gotta trust her. She knows what she’s doing. We’ll be right behind her.”
Brenden nodded and pushed off of the tree. I glanced over to Desmond, and he just shrugged and raised his hand to me like “you lead the way.”
I picked up my backpack, the straps now severed, and found myself staring off the cliff toward the village, toward the world in front of us. It was so gorgeous, the way the sun reflected off the lightly rippling lakefront. The way the trees swayed along with the water, like the point where two oceans meet. And at that connection was the village where people would be, hopefully, to help us.
Desmond picked up his bag and bow, limping forward. We began the slow walk through the woods and down to the village.
“I’m not gonna let any of us die,” I reassured them. “We’re in this together.”