Chapter 2 :

I am tired; I’ll stop to catch my breath. Water is rarer these days; the rain doesn’t drop very often. I need to keep looking for a stable source of water. I want to drink so bad, but I’ll save it for later.

Lost in my thoughts, I fell asleep.

My dream, it feels so real. It seems I am in a forest; there are a lot of trees around me, they are so tall, they disappear in a long line into the sky, so old, I say that they are ancient like they express a time where things were free. The sun shows through its shining ray the old outer bark in a magnificent way; it’s so patterned, they stretch up, as if so proud to stand there under the sun in any weather.

This greenwood seems just undisturbed. Suddenly I close my eyes and imagine the fallen leaves as from a dream, each one with a great past, if they could talk, they would narrate the stories of ancient civilisations, different eras and the passing people that were greedy enough or had the wisdom to pass a day in this warm forest, in the shadow of these mighty creatures made from nature itself, I think of how many years it had taken them to grow this tall, perhaps a thousand years or it isn’t enough for it. The many sounds of different creatures resonate like a lullaby in my ears. A medley of wild noises that belong to birds and insects, I guess most of it.

I closed my eyes in that dream that felt so real, and I opened them again, this time I spot young maiden drinking from a river, that flew endlessly. I approach her asking where I am; she answered that we are in the real world, yet we aren’t, that this place is isolated from everything that seemed harmful. She was suddenly surprised by how I got here since it is centuries that she saw a human being. She told me that she is a spirit that was living in this forest; this was how it looked back then. After the disease, this place was created specifically for her to keep living like a dreamland that you can only reach when you are sleeping. I’ve never come here before, yet she said that I looked like someone she knew, except that I have dark black hair and she was blond.

She said that she had a strange necklace around her neck, that it was beautiful, it was a gem that you can’t find anywhere. I showed her the one that I was keeping, a dark red stone gem that shines brightly in the scorching sun. Weirdly, I feel the heat and even her touch.

She was happy that she saw that gem again. I told her that it was my mother’s souvenir. I keep it with me all the time because I always wanted to remember the way she died protecting me. I asked her about how to get out from this place; she said one sentence; wake up. I am sleeping; I need to wake up. It’s like I was slapped in the face, I am sleeping in a vulnerable place. I need to wake up.

« The time here isn’t flowing like in the outside; here the time is frozen; you can’t grow older or change, stay with me, keep me the company, you’ll be freed from the endless suffering… No, don’t disappear, don’t leave me alone… Nooo… »

Her words were disappearing. I couldn’t hear anything afterwards because I woke up. At last, I woke up. A young man was sitting in front of me, shaking me to wake me up.

« What are you doing sleeping here? You don’t know how it’s dangerous to stay here. Glad that I was the one who found you, » he said.

« Who are you ? and thank you for waking me up, I was like in a strange dream. »

« You must be Reina, the exiled soldier. I am Shurin. »

« How do you know about me? Wait, you said Shurin, why do you give me the vibes of the capital? »

« I was sent to give you this box of medicine, it’s small, but there are useful medicines here. I am glad that I kept it with me, these bastards they deserted me. A tree scratched me, and they said that I am infected and threw me out. »

« So they got rid of you, one of the trusted fellow of Damien. That’s sad ! »

« I thought about it too, he has so many eyes on him now, it’s sick to live in a snake’s nest. »

« Your hand… I guess enough shaking; I am awake. »

« I am sorry, I guess I was lost… at the moment. »

I return tracking the caravan right away. From the sky’s colour, I’ve been asleep for almost four hours. Great, I’ll have to spend more energy now to reach that damned caravan. I walk fast followed by Shurin. I got used to being alone; I see him as a nuisance. I feel sorry for myself, maybe if I live alone much longer. I’ll forget how to talk. I wonder who was that spirit. Is it even real? It seemed so real. How did she know my mother?

We kept silence; we only talked when it was something urgent, like warning about unwanted dangers or notifying about strange things.

I was shocked by the outcome of what happened. The caravan that I was sent to protect is completely raided. The caravan's belonging was tossed around the main road. I wonder who did this. Did some infected invade this area? But it’s completely protected by the light energy.

« It’s horrible, did the madmen do this? »

« I don’t know, Robert stops sticking to me, I want to investigate their cause of death. »

« Why? How can you touch something this horrible? »

I come closer to one of the bodies that were in a prone position. I examined his back; it was completely unscattered. I turned him over and noticed that he was missing his heart; it is completely terrible. The victims didn’t even have the time to retaliate; their hands are clean; their death was quick.

« I guess you were lucky, Robert, if you were with them, you’d be dead for sure. »

« Must you say something this terrible? And don’t touch me without washing your hands with alcohol. »

« Stop freaking out over everything, are you even a soldier, I doubt it with your intellectual. I can’t believe that the caravan was eliminated. Let’s take what we can from the chests before that someone arrives. It will probably take no more than one hour, come and help me. »

« No »

« So you are planning to come back, what will you tell them that you were thrown behind. you are naive; you’ll be beheaded before you know it. »

We took what we can and left the site. People will be thrilled to see this sight. We walk back to my house, the one that I built before. I emptied my bag and headed outside.

« Beautiful house, did you build it yourself? Ooooh, bad question, who will build it for you? »

« You talk too much you know, I’ve been accustomed to living alone and silence. »

« Where are you going? Don’t leave me just here and go on your own; maybe I can help you. »

« I’ve been thinking of this, all the way back. I want to do tests on the madmen; I want to know their strength, senses, how they move, what kind of power they have? Before we have only seen the weak ones, but I heard before my sentence that a stronger one appeared. I think that it’s best to see the end of this, and we’re good, there were some papers and pens within the caravan's chests, I will make a dairy to write all the things that I will observe. »

« So you’ll travel to other lands because the infected don’t crowd this place, this place was chosen specifically for you to live in security. »

« I know, but someone needs to do something, and I am determined to know the cause of the disease, maybe this way, we’ll come up with an antidote curing them. »

« But they are dead. You can’t cure a dead person. »

« Since when dead people move. »

They aren’t dead; I know that because a corpse can’t move. I don’t know why they smell bad, but I know they aren’t dead. If we can fix their rotten bodies, perhaps we’ll make their lives better. We call them madmen, meatbag since they don’t have intellect, infected, some even call them the walking dead, but a dead body can’t move, if it were so, it would be impossible to kill them, yet when we slaughter them, they die. They are alive, but I don’t know how that’s why I call them the madmen. Damien thought like men the past; there was one time, he took the body of a dead soldier and let it get infected, he observed it for a month, the body stayed dead, a corpse.

Robert is a tall, handsome man with a large scar on his left eye. I asked him about it he said that he got it from a tiger while he was a child, since then it stayed like a mark-making him remember it. He has green eyes and lights blond hair. In the days that I spent going back and forth, from home to different areas, praying that night won’t catch me outside, Robert was accommodating, when I went to do tests, he stayed behind, when I got back I found meals made. Everything arranged in place; he went with me sometimes when I travelled to search to food, I can’t grow anything, the ground isn’t a fertile land.

In the end, I noticed that the weak ones are just standing in their places, I threw a wet towel at one of them, but he didn’t react so I assumed that he couldn’t feel pain or anything, no wonder they don’t flutter or back off when they attack someone. I even threw a large rock using my brut force, it fell without getting up, but when I came closer to check on him, he got up immediately as if he despises humans. It didn't smell good. It really makes me want to vomit, but I am used to it, I won’t do that.