Chapter 29 - THE VISITOR
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I was confronted with another urgent and horrifying problem before I even made it back to the river. The entire riverbank was on fire! Bits of burning debris from the explosion, not to mention our own carelessly lit fire, had set the rivergrass ablaze. I couldn't even get to the pit, from which I'd planned to retrieve the painkilling drugs we'd left down there. And the blaze was rapidly spreading. I ran upriver to the fire's edge, looking around but not seeing any sign of Jarel. Obviously the young swimmer had decided the fire was second priority and swum across the river to bring the medic. I, meanwhile, had finished my trail and knew I had to do something to stop the blaze before it grew further and killed us all. But I had no idea what to do.
Bo! He was a crafter. He was ingenuous and resourceful. He could figure out how to solve this! I turned and ran back, following my trail of tree nuts much sooner than I had expected to. I felt no guilt at leaving the scene � there was so obviously nothing I could do. I reached the beginning of the trail and quickly and breathlessly explained the problem. Bo left Rolan alone and rushed back with me. The blaze had spread even since I'd left. Bo surveyed the area and clenched his fists in frustration. "A whole river right here and we can't put out a fire!" "Maybe I could use my shirt," I tried. "Fill it up with water and use it as a bucket?" "No, no, no." Bo shook his head. He ran his hands through his hair. "Bryt, there's only one thing we can do, and you'll have to be the one to do it, since you've still go your full uniform. Get in the river and soak yourself as well as you can. It'll help retard the flames for a while. You need to run into the blaze, get down into the pit, and get out those buckets we left there from digging the holes. It's not much, but it's all we've got. Okay?" I nodded gravely. What kind of lunatic runs into a fire from an explosion? I wondered as I ran for the river. But just the same, I was glad to be playing an important part. I jumped into the water and submerged myself, staying under a few seconds, and then did the same thing twice more. When I was as thoroughly soaked as I could be, Bo helped me pull myself heavily up on the shore. He looked into my eyes for a second, no doubt wishing me luck, and then I was off and into the fire. I held one hand in front of my face and squinted, my eyes half open. I kept running � I was afraid if I slowed I'd catch fire. I couldn't tell if what I was feeling were just suffocating heat pressing in all around me or if I were actually getting burned. I used my free arm to try to brush away the burning grass as I ran through. I reached the roof of the pit, on fire just like everything else, lifted it, and jumped down. Luckily the pit was unharmed by the blaze. The floor was mud ten centimeters deep from the water that had poured in, and the hole had enlarged just enough that more was leaking in through the clay. I quickly plugged it up and grabbed the four buckets. Then I rubbed mud on my face and hands, the resulting sting telling me that I had indeed been burned. I gasped at the pain and hoped the mud would block the fire better than water had. I climbed the sunken staircase and reemerged into the flames, the oppressive heat choking me. I had to stop, though, to replace the burning roof and keep the fires out of the pit. As I left I felt an unbearable burning sensation across my back and legs, and was sure I was on fire! I ran as fast as I'd ever run out of there, the whole time keeping one arm holding two buckets in front of my face. When I burst out of that blazing furnace I rolled, extinguishing the flames in my hair and clothing, tears springing to my eyes at the pain when my burned skin impacted the ground. I stood up, slapping myself all over despite the pain, coughing and gasping at air that felt comparatively cool and clean though I knew it was neither. "Good job, Bryt! Good job!" Bo cried, running up to me and grabbing two buckets. He immediately took off for the river. I'm sure my face fell as I looked on hopelessly. What good could two people with buckets do against that monstrous blaze? But I picked up the other two buckets and followed Bo in his effort. Water splashed and black grass smoked. But we weren't making much of a difference. Even when Jarel returned with one of the large barrels they'd used to carry metal parts during the trip up, our effort was basically futile. We kept trying, though, forcing ourselves to work until we collapsed, and then getting up and trying again. If we didn't put the fire out we'd die anyway. Everything around me fused into a burning, glowing, smoky, pulsating blur. I don't even remember how it ended. I guess it eventually burned itself out, before it could reach the forest. I just remember looking up from a pile of burnt grass and seeing the riverbank almost flame-free. I saw a small fire still rising up from some half-charred reeds. Rather than move all the way to the river, I just stood up, stumbled over, and threw myself on top of the flame, effectively smothering it.* * *
It was night the next time I woke. My lungs burned from all the smoke, ash, and heat I'd inhaled. My eyes burned from staring into bright light for too long. My back burned from actual burn.
I'd never been so tired in my life. I closed my eyes and tried to fall back asleep. "No, Bryt. Wake up. I need your help." It was Jarel's voice, though so hoarse I almost didn't recognize it. He was shaking me gently, pulling me to my feet. "Come on, Bryt, come on. The medic's here." Medic? Oh yeah, we needed a medic for Rolan. This must be that medic. But why did they need me? Why didn't they just follow the tree nuts I'd left? Then I groaned a little, and my head rolled down. Jarel didn't know about the stupid nuts! "Bryt, come on! Bo won't wake up either, and I can't carry him!" His voice took on a frantic note and I felt myself lifted off the ground. "Tell me where to go. Please, say you remember where we left him!" I tried to talk, to tell him about the trail, but my voice wouldn't work fast enough. He shook me in his arms. It didn't hurt as much as it might have, since he was soaking wet, but it was painful enough that I struggled to put my feet on the ground. Once upright, I opened my eyes and looked around. The night was surprisingly peaceful. No more fires burned on either side of the river. I could see dark silhouettes of the other half of our team moving about across the water. Pale moonlight lit the scene, and insects chirped, the same as every night. "We did it," I managed to whisper, looking up into Jarel's eyes. His eyes look just like the river. Very fitting, I thought as the world got blurry again. "We did it," Jarel confirmed with a short smile, and caught me as I started falling over."Now we have to save our teammate's life. Do you �" "I left a trail of tree nuts," I explained, fighting for balance. I tried to remember where I'd ended it. It was actually harder to judge with the fire gone. And when I finally found the nuts in the dim moonlight, they were almost as hard to follow. "Wouldn't it be easier if we light a torch?" the medic suggested helpfully. "NO!" the two of us both vehemently refused, but in the end that was what we did. Especially as the forest got thicker, it was impossible to follow the trail by moonlight alone. So we stopped, rubbed sticks together, and made a very small torch. We held it low to the ground and followed the trail. I was relieved when we reached Rolan's supine figure, and I sat down hard on the ground as the medic quickly got to work. He felt his pulse and listened to his heart, all the traditional medical stuff. Interested but tired beyond belief, I lay back and closed my eyes. "He's dead." I opened my eyes. I felt my heart start to pound. "What?" "What do you mean he's dead?" The medic put an understanding hand on Jarel's shoulder. "Can't you...fix him?" Jarel demanded, shaking his head in denial. "He has no pulse. He isn't breathing. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. He's dead." The medic also shook his head. "No!" Jarel's echoing scream was a knife through the night, as he grabbed his friend's lifeless body by the shoulders and shook it. The medic let him � he couldn't do any harm. "Rolan, please. Rolan, please, please." I half-expected the corpse to awaken and sit up, but, of course, it didn't. I realized I was crying when I felt the hot, salty tears stinging my burned cheeks. "You two are both badly burned." The medic turned to me. His eyes were dry, but filled with such grief that even the most empathically insensitive person would have looked away. I wondered how many patients this medic had lost, how many soldiers he'd seen die. Did it make it any easier, I wondered, if the person were already dead when he arrived? Not to judge by the look on his face right now. But he calmly dressed my injuries, gently removing clothing as was necessary. He rubbed on a salve from his bag, which calmed the burn but didn't numb the pain. I just sat still; dirty, sweaty, and exhausted, while waves of fear and guilt washed over me and helpless tears rolled down my face. I distantly felt the medic finish with me and ease me to the ground as I cried myself into a merciful sleep.* * *
It was a pretty dismal party the next morning. I woke to the sound of Midrot and Jossander's angry voices.
"You requested two medics." Midrot sounded like he was arguing. "This mission needed two medics." The sun was just rising, so I couldn't have slept for long. Jarel and Ashlar were asleep next to me, Ashlar's head resting on Jarel's back. To see anyone else would have required for me to move, and that was out of the question. "Look how well we used the medic we had," Joss snapped back. "How could I be so blind? I didn't underestimate the runners or overestimate ourselves...I just didn't think!" I shut my eyes, not wanting to know what they were talking about, not wanting to hear the misery in their tones. "It may not have made a difference anyway, with a wound that bad," Midrot argued. What was the problem? The mission had been a success. We'd killed over fifty Barons, sunk a warship, destroyed explosive weapons, and lost only one Col. I sighed, for, though that may be considered an excellent ratio by students learning strategy, it wasn't so simple for the team actually out in the field. "He bled to death. If the medic had gotten here sooner...Mid, he would have been there hours sooner if I'd brought him up as soon as the construction was done!" Angry, so angry! Angry at who? "The medic said he died of internal bleeding. There's not much he could have done for that, and may I remind you that once we'd finished building we weren't doing anything and the runners were still running." "Yeah, but Mid, I didn't think about that �" "Joss, you're not helping anything �" "I know it!" Their voices fell silent for a minute, then Joss said, "Look, we might as well wake them up." Midrot apparently agreed because I felt something moving close to me. "It's okay. I'm awake," I murmured, pushing myself up and groaning at the pain in my back. I felt stiff all over. "Me too," Ashlar agreed when Midrot turned to him. "Me too," Jarel sighed from beneath him. The two friends blinked at each other, neither having realized the other was awake. "You've got a bony back," Ashlar finally said. "Well, you've got a hard head." Joss awakened Bo and Chalia, who had fallen asleep in each other's arms; the medic; and the runner, Sturge this time. Once everyone was awake, we buried Rolan and tried to have a funeral service. It was more than most honorably dead soldiers receive. The Captain said that recording Rolan as an honorable death would be the first thing they did when they got back. Ashlar looked uncomfortable. "What do you mean, Joss?" "Let's strip all the metal out of the pits and anything else useful. Sturge, you'll have to call all the runners in." "Come on now, Joss, you're not going to give up just like that?" Bo sounded incredulous, if tired. Joss looked around at us for about ten seconds, then exploded. "Look at this place!" he cried. "It's burnt to a crisp! Do you think the Barons won't notice? The first rowboat that comes by here, the secret's out! The mission's over. Just face it � the mission's over!" My breath caught. He was right. "Oh," Ashlar mumbled dully. "Now, wait a minute," Bo said sternly. "We'd've had to abandon the project when the leaves fell anyway. Couldn't we just drop it a little early and come back in the spring, after the grass has had a chance to grow back?" "Well, sure," Joss sarcastically agreed. "If we fill in the pits and start all over again, maybe we'll get lucky and they'll think this damage was all done by lightning. And while we're at it we should find a new location and rework the plan a little so they won't get suspicious. I'm sure our wondrously generous superiors will give us the people and materials we need this time, once we report the overwhelming success of this mission! Maybe even �" "Joss, shut up!" Ashlar suddenly shouted, his eyes tearing a little. Jossander was so startled that he complied. "The mission was a success," Midrot said earnestly in the ensuing silence. Yes, I realized, we've done all that was realistically expected of us. But we hoped to do so much better! Sometimes the dream is more important than the reality. "All right, let's go back across. Cool off a little," Joss said, irritably pulling at his hair. "Bo, Bryt, and Jarel, stay and take up anything useful in the pit. Let's go." So we all trekked back to the pit (once again following my tree nut trail) and everyone except the three of us crossed back to the other side. It seemed such a waste breaking everything down after all the work it had been to set up. We used the stairway crates to carry everything back over the water. We swam across far upriver from the site of the attack. There was still some debris left in the water. Debris as in charred, cooked human bodies. Barons, to be sure, but still soldiers. Not really any different from us except that they wore gray uniforms instead of blue. And what kind of a difference was that? My uniform was gray. "Don't think of the Barons we killed," Midrot said to me, noticing how I was staring into the river. "Think of all the Cols we saved by stopping this army. They would have used that powder against us. Think how many of our own people we saved from that fiery death." I nodded, recognizing this line of thought as a rationalization but also realizing that it was probably true. I wondered if I'd saved anyone I knew by helping with this project. It was likely I had. I could be proud. Suddenly, Midrot frowned. "What's that?" I looked and was amazed to see a little, round puffan rolling through the burnt grass toward us. Despite my fondly remembered association with a vast multitude of the creatures, my first reaction was to step back. Then, to my astonishment and clearly to Midrot's as well, the green-furred ball rolled right up to us and started circling and chirping. A thought danced in the back of my mind. Sure, all puffans looked and sounded about the same, but... "Spike?" I asked, barely daring to hope. I knelt down, and the little animal rolled around into my hands and flashed her huge, idiotic grin up at me. Very out of place in the blackened field, but certainly a welcome sight. "Is that really you, Spike?" Of course she didn't answer, but I was positive, through and beyond empathy, that this was our puffan. It wasn't the time or place to jump for joy, but I know I couldn't keep the elation out of my face. "Is this a friend of yours, Bryt?" Midrot asked tartly, in a tone I'd come to recognize as amused. "Yes! This is � Mid, I'm sure this is my teammate's puffan! I think my team is near here!" "Very possible," Midrot agreed, patting the puffan on the head (the top of her body). The little monster smiled up at him almost flirtatiously. "So will you be leaving us now, too?" "Oh, I...well, yeah...I guess so," I said guiltily. I didn't want to offend anyone by appearing too eager to leave, but knowing my real team was nearby I could barely contain myself! That first month I'd spent missioneering had been the best time of my life. "Where's Joss?" I frowned, noticing the Captain was not among the crowd that had gathered around. "He walked off somewhere," Jarel informed me. "I think he wanted to be alone." "Wish he wouldn't be so hard on himself," Bo said scornfully. "That's just the way Joss is," Chalia explained tolerantly. "He puts all the blame on himself." "He's got a Captain's mind but not the mentality," Midrot commented. "Don't worry about him; he'll pick himself up. And if he doesn't, I will. We can't afford to lose a Captain that good that young." "He's taking this awfully hard, though," said Bo. "Give him some time." Midrot was speaking to all of us. "It's never easy for a Captain to accept when a man dies, and he has a teammate's death on his head. Especially the first one." "He did make a mistake," Chalia said softly. "Yes, he did," Midrot said firmly. "And knows it all too well. But the mission would be ended, even if he'd brought the medic up. None of us understood the power of that powder. When I think how beautiful that first explosion was, and then it wouldn't stop..." he shrugged, unable to put his emotions into words. "Too much of a good thing?" Bo cursed under his breath, but he smiled for the first time in what seemed like ages. "It's been a great month," Chalia said, the corners of her mouth upturned. Moving as it was to see the group packing everything up, really working on their last project together, I was impatient to leave. Spike obviously was, too, circling around so fast it made me dizzy. But I knew I had to wait for Jossander to return and ask his permission to leave, even if I'd proven I wasn't a spy, and even if he wasn't really my Captain anyway. He needed that boost to his confidence. I wondered what adventures my team had had that I'd missed. I was so excited that Bo wouldn't let me handle anything sharp or heavy. When I finally spotted Joss emerging from the forest, I threw on my backpack and snatched Spike up by her top leg, while she squeaked in protest until I shifted her to a more comfortable position. Then I met eyes with Ashlar and Chalia, and Bo nodded to me, Jarel smiled shyly, and Midrot called, "Hey, Bryt." I turned. "Sorry about clubbing you over the head." I ran to him and hugged him. It surprised me how much I'd come to appreciate the paranoid, suspicious crafter. "I'm glad you did," I told him, and it was true. I was glad for the week I'd spent as a part of this team, even as I was bursting to leave. I met Joss before he reached the edge of the woods. He looked less angry than when he'd left that morning, but no less depressed. He didn't even smile when I held up the permanently grinning Spike. He did look curious, though. "This is Spike," I explained. "She came and found me � they have a great sense of smell, you know." I took a breath. "She's my teammate's puffan. My team must be nearby here. I'd like to go with Spike and find them, if, well..." "Why are you asking me?" "Because you're the Captain!" I said, forcing my influence a little too hard. For once I wished I'd learned some telepathy. "I'm not your Captain at all," he pointed out. "You're the Captain here," I repeated firmly. "And your team needs you." "I'm sure they do." "And you need them, too. Stop trying to bear this on your own." He didn't say anything for a long time, and eventually I found myself hugging him to me, determined to radiate heart back into the man even as I felt tears resurface in my own eyes. Spike crooned, sounding concerned. I didn't move until I felt him stop trembling. "Even great heroes have their lowest moments," I whispered. As if this statement were a release, Joss pulled away and looked at me. His eyes were dry, his face stressed, but I think he'd come a step closer to reaching a peace with himself. "Thanks, Bryt," he said softly. "And I'm sorry. Your Captain's real lucky to have you on his team." "I'll miss you," I told him. "I'll miss everyone. I'm glad I got to be a part of this. It was a good project." He nodded, almost smiled, and turned and left. I watched until he'd reached the charred rivergrass and sat down with his teammates in a circle. Then I looked at Spike, still wheeling and chirping impatiently, and was suddenly seized with an all-consuming desire to reunite with my own mission team.|
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