Chapter 54 Blue Petals

Chapter 54 Blue Petals

It took an hour and half of rest before their Arkana had replenished to a level that allowed them to stand without feeling the weight of the wind and immediately they could, they'd gotten to work. Maerik harvested the last of the cores and threw it to Dravy to place with the others in the pile they had formed. Wiping the stain of blood off his hands, he walked back to where Matthew, Dean and Seth laid on the ground as they received first aid treatment from Sandra.

“How are you all feeling?”

“We'll survive sir.” Matthew said, a pained grimace on his face as the sting of the wound shot through him.

Maerik forced a smile. “Good man.” He tapped gently on Matthews chest as he turned to the other two, Seth had a rag placed over his eyes, he'd most likely fallen asleep after Sandra gave him a pain killer. Dean on the other hand was still his chatty self, numb to the pain with the help of the meds as he chatted away with Grace and Elijah. A gladness filled him, he'd feared that the injuries would be a bigger issue than what he'd originally thought them to be but as he watched Sandra cut off the excess bandage off Matthews body with that familiar warm look in her eyes, relief flooded him.

“Get some rest.” She said quietly as she kissed her palm and placed it on his forehead, a ritual she did anytime she finished taking care of one of them. She rose to her feet, walked to Maerik and stood by his side.

“Thank you for being here.” Maerik abruptly said with a smile.

“No thanks needed sir, you all did your part, so I'll do mine.” She said with a smile then walked to where Dravy was organizing the cores.

He turned back, only to see Rylan staring at one of the rapidly decaying corpses, a far gone look in his eyes.

“Are you ok?” He asked as he walked to Rylan's side.

Rylan turned to him slowly, like his mind had been elsewhere till he'd heard that question. “I am.” He replied, then turned his attention back to the corpse. “Don’t you think it's fascinating, the second we pull out their cores decay starts, does that also mean that if we don't do that then we haven't really killed them.”

Maerik stared at him for a long while before turning back to the corpse and replying. “We just had a major victory thanks to you and here you are thinking of the mechanics behind corpse decay.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Enjoy your victories. We have all the time in the world to figure out this world and all its many insanities, and we will, but for now enjoy the win cause we may not get a lot of them.” He said with a firm hand on Rylan's shoulder.

Rylan didn't need to think about what Maerik had just said because it was clear that he was right. He didn't need to think about the next anomaly now, for now he could just enjoy this small victory they'd accomplished. “You're right, I'm glad it worked without anyone losing their life. I wish the injuries could have been avoided though.”

“When you do this enough times you realize that this will always be the best scenario when doing something like that, looking for a completely clean victory will be the thing that drags you to your death, wishing things turned out better is nothing short of idiotic, we accept the circumstance and we adapt, that is how my squad works.”

Rylan nodded along silently before turning back to where everyone else was, he watched carefully, the way they moved from one point to another, the way every single person had a role and did it without being told, the way they interacted, it was all Soo….precise. “I'm guessing you're not all gamer buddies.”

Maerik looked at him for a beat and smiled. “We're not.”

“Army?” Rylan didn't know why that was his first guess, but something about Maerik just made him feel like that was the only plausible explanation to their behavior.

“Division 3, squad 13.” The answer was short and brief, Rylan wasn't satisfied with just that but he could tell just from Maerik's tone that he wasn't going to say any more than that.

“Good to know.” Rylan said then walked away. Maerik stayed for a couple more seconds before his eyes turned to the the corpse or it's skeletal remains and something immediately caught his eye, flowers, blue petal flowers had began to grow around the decay, a beautiful and somehow horrific sight to behold, Maerik had to force himself to look away as he thought to himself. ‘this world really is a mystery.’

“We're all set to go sir.” Dravy said, slinging over his shoulder a rucksack and strapping it unto himself. Elijah, Grace and Chris helped up the injured.

“Ohk let's—” He paused then turned to Rylan with a worried look in his eyes, Rylan stared back at him like he knew what he was about to ask, they shared a nod and Rylan immediately jumped unto a tree and climbed to the top. A few seconds passed, necks hurting as they all looked up at him wondering what it was he and Maerik had sensed, Maerik turned to Dravy and called him over.

“How many can you sense?”

“A little foggy.”

“Same.”

A few seconds later Rylan dropped down with a worried look on his face.

“How many?”

“4 on the path to the cabin, 2 behind us and 6 spread through the area.”

“Fuck.” Maerik cussed aloud, gritting his teeth as he began to think, their senses had been dulled so they couldn't rely on them and if they couldn't rely on their senses then continuous movement would be suicidal, Maerik was at a loss, staying here wasn't a better option and confrontation was an even worse one, so in this situation, what could be done.