Honored

Chapter 3: Healing

Chapter 3: Healing

Behind us the gates close on the bright world outside shutting out the light and leaving us in darkness. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, but I slowly came to realize that I was enclosed by a thick clear wall. Maybe it was plastic, maybe glass. It was the same area Kevin, Rod, and I had passed through on the way out.

But the second door wasn’t opening. It was shut. We were entrapped in this tiny area. Dan noticed this at about the same time as I did, and he ran up to the closed clear door and started banging on it, but the material muted his banging so that it sounded as if he was just gently tapping it.

As my eyes adjusted more I noticed the people outside it. They were pale with white hair, as if they were ghosts, and only the blue or red eyes staring at me showed that they were real living beings.

I coughed roughly from my perch on my horse. My condition had deteriorated so much from when we left the here that I wondered if they even recognized me. Did I still look like the same girl? Of course, Maybe I wasn’t much different. When they first met me I was skin and bones from the prison. Now I was consumed by this disease. And my hair had grown. Light brown hair now hung down to my shoulder blades, but it hung in ratty, uncombed, and greasy dreadlocks.

A hand was pressed against the clear wall, and the face that went with it was Rod’s little sister. What was her name? I couldn’t really remember any of their names. They were enigmas again to me.

I let go of Kingston’s neck with one hand and reached out for her almost to fall of Kingston. Suddenly, Dan was next to me. I hadn’t seen him coming, but he was there, helping me slide off of Kingston.

For a second it seemed like my legs wouldn’t hold me, but somehow I got control of them and forced myself to stand up straight. I held onto to Kingston’s neck for support. No one was opening the door or moving. They were all just staring at us.

A loud noise caused us to jump, and then a disembodied voice came from behind spooking the horses and leaving me only Dan to grab for support. “Do not be afraid, this is technology from the past that allows us to speak to you. Outsiders, you are contaminated and must be quarantined until you are clear of any bacteria or virus that could harm anyone inside this city. No one in the city has an immune system, and we must be careful.”

The voice stopped and I wondered what they planned to do with us. Were they just going to keep us in here until I died?

Then it started talking again, “For now you will be kept in the box. Once we have a double door set up we will be able to treat you. Eventually we will figure out how to transport you to the quarantine cell without releasing whatever germs you have into our air.”

And what about bodily functions? There were four of us in here, and the horses produced a lot of manure every day. But the voice didn’t speak back up. The people drifted away but Rod’s sister kept staring at me. She was frowning at me. Did she recognize me or was she simply trying to work out how we got here.

The voice came back, “Some people have been asking how you found the city. Push the small button on the back wall to talk to us.”

“Here Liv, you should sit down against the wall and I will talk to them.” Dan helped me walk over to the wall and I slid down against it till I was sitting on the ground.

He walked over to the wall and searched around on it till he found something he was looking for. “Hi, I am Dan from a village outside the radiation zone, and the woman I travel with is Liv, full name Elizabeth, exiled from this very city and now returning and in need of immediate medical attention. She needs help now if you want her to live. Look at her. She is dying!”