“Stop it,” she whispers to herself, and shakes her head. She tries to control her temper and calm herself. What is it that she’s going to reveal? She hasn’t done anything wrong. Or forbidden. She comforted a friend from the clan who had a nightmare, something she’d do for every single one of them. She just doesn’t want any of the others, or Dagwood, misunderstanding her actions or intentions.
Knox starts questioning Dagwood about the past days’ events, and Skye’s torn from her thoughts. They all gather around Dagwood, and Skye is a bit annoyed that she didn’t get a chance to talk to him alone first. She looks around to see where Salomon is and spots him by the hut. He’s looking at her, but she quickly turns her head away when their eyes meet. She carefully looks around to see if someone else has seen their exchange of looks, but they all seem occupied by Dagwood’s story.
She slowly pulls away from the others. Suddenly she doesn’t want to stand next to Flo and the others fighting for Dagwood’s attention, even though she’s very anxious to hear about their rescue mission. She feels like walking over to Salomon instead and asking him the questions that are burning inside. But she doesn’t. She chooses to walk in the opposite direction, toward Twice’s old sleeping place.
Puk is lying half asleep on the ground in Twice’s destroyed enclosure. He’s hugging a small bundle containing his lifeless friend close to his body. Skye stands looking at them without speaking. She’s afraid to wake him because she knows how you feel in the moment after you wake up. In that moment, you’ve forgotten all the terrible and sad things that have happened, and for a brief second you think that everything is as it used to be. The pain that hits you when you realize it’s not the same and everything has changed is the worst feeling in the world, and your heart explodes in sorrow and hopelessness. That’s what it feels like, and nothing or no one can take away that feeling. You have to go through it alone. In the end, you’re afraid to fall asleep, afraid to wake up, afraid to go through that horrible feeling again and again.
Skye sits on the ground next to Puk and can tell he’s not really sleeping even though his eyes are closed. But how would he be able to anyway, with that horrible experience on his mind? She slowly reaches her hand forward and caresses him gently on the head. Twice’s small legs are sticking out of the bundle in his arms, and the little bloody snout is glued to Puk’s neck as if he’s thirsting for warmth and comfort. She’s afraid to look under the blanket and see what’s happened to the roundsnout, but the blood tells her that it’s something violent.
Carefully she crawls to the other side of Twice and lies down so they form a small circle around him. Her forehead is touching Puk’s slightly as she continues to caress his head.
He opens his eyes and looks at her, whispering: “He was so small and so happy … I’m going to miss him so incredibly … much …”
His voice is filled with grief, and large tears run down his cheeks. One by one they hit the small snout pressing against his neck and the tears run down the small nostrils. Skye tries to wipe away some of the tears from Puk’s cheek with her hand, because she remembers how Dagwood comforted her in the same way when she was crying over the death of Ecco. Suddenly she feels a small movement by her wrist, and she quickly pulls her hand back.
Puk looks at her, asking with worry in his voice: “What is it?”
Hesitantly, she answers him: “Did you feel something moving too?”
Puk looks quickly down at the bundle, and then at Skye again as he desperately asks: “Was that something moving?”
Suddenly, Skye sees a small bubble of snot blowing in and out of Twice’s nostril. She gets up on her elbow and looks Puk in the eye.
“Oh, Puk, Twice is breathing. He’s alive!”
“How can this be true? He was dead when we found him …”
Dagwood doesn’t quite understand what Skye is telling him, and he walks to the enclosure with long strides. Puk bends over Twice, who’s lying on the ground. He’s opened the bundle so that the entire body of the animal is visible, and Skye shivers when she sees the little bloody and mishandled body. He looks more dead than alive, and she understands why they would think he was dead.
“I’ve seen it before. Sometimes, when my brother returned with long-ears he’d caught in snares or traps they were completely lifeless and didn’t move. But when he dropped them in a bundle on the ground they would sometimes wake up again and take off. It was as if they were in shock, or pretending to be dead to trick him.”
Dagwood nods in acknowledgement at Skye.
“Hmm, it sounds like a possible explanation, but it still seems incredible. This little animal has gone through a lot of torment. He should be dead. The pain alone, after the torture of those two disgusting boys, should have finished him off …”
Even though Skye still hasn’t heard the entire story of what’s happened, she instinctively knows that it’s Fella and Hackett he’s talking about. Naturally they’d wanted to get back at Puk. But to mistreat an innocent animal in such a way to satisfy a thirst for revenge is incomprehensible to her.
She looks at Dagwood and asks: “What did you do to them? Did you catch them?”
She’s hoping for a yes but is disappointed when she hears his answer.
“We only found Hackett. Fella is still out there, but we’ll surely get him one day.”
He squeezes her arm and goes on: “We all need to talk about this later tonight by the fire. About what happened out there. And what we discovered … It’s something important we need to discuss … but first we need to get some life into the little weakling so Puk can dry his eyes.”
He smiles at Puk, who gently washes the small animal’s body clean of blood. Skye worries when she hears Dagwood’s words. What is it they’ve seen and discovered out there? She’s curious, but doesn’t want to disturb him anymore with her questions. Instead, she hurries over to Puk to help him nurse Twice.
Dagwood can’t stop smiling as he sees Twice stagger towards him. All four legs are tied to small pieces of wood to support his broken and mutilated legs, and one eye is covered with a patch. The other eye is swollen and red, and there are still traces of blood in his fur around his mouth.
“I couldn’t save the other eye, but I still think that this one’s working. I’ve covered the burn sores on his belly with some of the cooling sap from the thick plant stems by the river. I don’t know if it works, but it’ll protect his wound against dirt and larva,” Puk explains, as he holds a hand underneath Twice’s belly to support him. He’s struggling to keep his balance with the stiff legs.
“Mostly I’m worried about whether he can eat. It looks really bad in his mouth. It’s completely bloody and swollen, and many of his teeth are gone. And he’ll have to eat a lot to regain his strength. I hope that the dog still has some milk in her …”
Dagwood answers: “You’ve done everything you can. If he makes it through the night, I think he’ll survive. He’s a tough little one. It’s good he has you.”
“Maybe, but it’s also because of me he’s ended up like this. If only they’d taken it out on me instead. I hate them so much!”
Dagwood doesn’t comment on his outburst, but he understands Puk’s feelings and hopes that one day Fella will be held accountable for his actions.
“Come on, let’s join the others. We’ve important things to talk about.”
Puk lifts the small roundsnout up to his chest and it cries out in pain. He gently strokes it on the head and it calms in his arms. They move to the fire, where the rest of the clan sits waiting.
CHAPTER 32
“There’s no easy way to say this …”
Dagwood stops in the middle of the sentence and paces back and forth. Everyone’s eyes are glued to him, but no one speaks a word. Salomon sits in the middle of the group and is more visible than he normally is. Skye looks at him observing and is happy to see that he’s not hiding in the backg
round as he normally does. She tries to read his face, but he doesn’t move a muscle and she can’t tell whether he’s scared or upset, and there’s still a worry in his eyes that disturbs her. After a short silence, Dagwood continues speaking again.
“As I’ve already told you … Hackett was dead when we found him out there in the forest. But that wasn’t the whole truth.”
The others start looking at each other in astonishment, and the unrest grows among them.
Knox says impatiently: “What happened, Dag? Tell us. You’re scaring us.”
Dagwood breathes deeply before he goes on.
“Sorry, Knox. I don’t want to scare you … but when we found Hackett he was lying twisted on the ground with colorless eyes and his chest was bloody and torn open. By himself.”
He swallows another time before he finishes his explanation.
“The sickness has returned!”
They all start talking at once, and no one’s listening to what anyone else is saying. Evi gets up in a panic and walks over to Dagwood. Her voice shakes uncontrollably.
“What does that mean? Are we all sick? Are we all going to die now?”
He looks at her and answers: “I don’t know what it means, Evi. I’m scared too. But we’ve survived it before, so …”
The noise of the others drowns out his voice and he stands up straight.
“Be quiet! Everyone, be quiet!”
His voice is loud and firm, and the noisy voices around him go quiet again.
“I know we’re all scared right now, but let’s not panic. Maybe none of us is sick or infected. Hackett wasn’t sick when he left the camp, so he must have been infected by someone else on his way. Maybe he’s eaten or touched something in the forest that infected him. We never found Fella, so we don’t know whether he’s sick too. Maybe he left Hackett when he became sick. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if he left Hackett behind. He never was a very good friend.”
The others start calming down as they listen to Dagwood’s explanation and the mood settles again.
“We have to think back about the time the world changed. I know it’s painful to talk about, and that it brings back horrible memories. But if we’re going to avoid getting sick and die, we need to talk about it.”
Dagwood’s voice is loud and clear, and everyone’s listening without interrupting. They’ve never spoken about what happened back then before. They’ve all tried to repress the memories, even though all of them have struggled with them in their heads and have relived them in their nightmares, night after night. But now the time has come to talk about them out loud – whether they want to or not.
“What do we know about the disease from back then? Why was it only some people who fell sick and not others? Why was it only grown-up people who died, and not the children or the animals?”
His eyes meet the others’ in turn, as he tries to make them remember – remember the details from back then, when the disease was raging and leaving villages desolated.
“I remember my parents became ill almost at the same time. They were coughing a lot in the beginning and their skin started to itch. Slowly, they became more and more tired and exhausted, and soon they had to lie in bed all day. And then all the blood came … Suddenly one day there was blood all over their bodies. And it went fast. Their legs and arms … and their chests. In the end, I couldn’t get through to them. They were lying there, screaming in their beds while they were tearing their skin apart, especially around their hearts. It was terrible to look at and listen to. And nothing would help, no matter what I did.”
Knox blinks quickly between each word he says, as if he is trying to erase every memory from his thoughts and eyes.
“That’s also how I remember it. The coughing, the blood, the screams, the hopelessness.”
Flo agrees with Knox’s story. And soon everyone is nodding in agreement.
Dagwood’s also nodding as he listens, and says: “But where did the sickness come from? It can’t have been something they ate, could it? Because we were eating the same things they were. Or is there someone who lost a sister or brother back then? Because of the sickness, not during The Large Confusion or while you were leaving the villages.”
They all shake their heads as they look at Dagwood, who continues: “Why did they get sick when we didn’t? What did they do different to us? I don’t understand it.”
He lifts his arms, shakes his head, and then sits next to Salomon. Finch has drawn some figures in the grey ash dust surrounding the fire, but he stops when Dagwood sits down, and looks at him.
“Could they have become infected in the mines or the fields? Maybe there was some strange disease in the stones that was transferred to those who touched them and worked with them?”
He starts drawing in the dust again, creating a scary scene with large stones and screaming people.
Dagwood answers him: “Mmm. Yes, it’s a possibility, but not everyone worked in the mines. Far from it. And there were also a lot of children and animals in the mines who never got sick. But maybe you’re right. Maybe the disease came from something they touched, or from something that moved through the air. I mean, those who worked in the forest and in the fields got sick too.”
He gets up and starts pacing again.
“Yes, that’s must be it. It was something from nature that infected them. It also makes sense because Hackett fell ill on his way through the forest … or …”
He stops speaking for a moment and touches his chin as he closes his eyes to think.
“I suddenly remember that he and Fella were coughing and scratching themselves quite a lot before they left the camp. Well, it’s all very mysterious where the sickness comes from. But I don’t think that it’s contagious from human to human. I hugged my father many times before and after he died, and I didn’t get sick.”
The conversation around the fire is quieter than normal. Everyone’s listening to Dagwood in silence. If you could hear the noise from their beating hearts, you’d know that they’re all scared, and it’s the all-consuming fear of death that’s silencing them.
Dagwood’s thirsty from talking so much, and he stops speaking for a moment to drink some water before he continues: “Have any of you experienced or seen others who’ve been sick in this way? I mean not then or right after, but later. It’s been a long time since the world changed, and we’ve all met other people and experienced quite a lot since then …”
Skye looks at Salomon, and they both look at each other for a while with expressionless faces. She knows he must’ve seen Ecco when he found her lying next to him. Seen his wounds and the scratch marks around his heart. How could he have avoided it? Ecco’s shirt was open, and his chest exposed and bloody.
She looks away and prays to The Great Giver that he won’t tell the others. She’s never asked The Great Giver for anything before, but she’s terrified that Salomon will give away Ecco’s secret. If Salomon exposes Ecco she will have to tell them about his condition, and maybe the others will think she’s sick and contagious too. What if the disease is contagious from human to human and it’s her who’s infected Hackett – and maybe even Fella. Will they evict her from the clan, and chase her away from the camp before she infects the others? But Salomon doesn’t say a word, and Skye breathes a sigh of relief when Dagwood starts talking again.
“If no one’s been infected since, then why has the disease suddenly returned? And it still makes no sense to me why us children didn’t get sick and die. Not a single one of us has had any of the symptoms. It’s like the disease avoided us. We were invisible to it. Until now … Until it found Hackett.”
He breathes deeply, and looks into the darkness as he clenches his hands hard.
“There must be something we’re overlooking. Something or someone that can lead us back and makes us understand. A lead that can …”
He suddenly stops in the middl
e of the sentence and slowly turns his head to Salomon. He remembers Salomon’s scars from the Marking Day, and Dagwood knows that he’ll have to bring it up. He hopes Salomon will mention it himself so he won’t have to force him to tell them how he got his scars. Maybe there’s a logical explanation for why his body’s marked with scars. An explanation that has nothing to do with the disease.
Salomon starts moving uneasily from side to side in his seat. He notices that the eyes of the others are looking at him, and he knows why. They’ve all seen his scars, and they know that some of the scars are on his chest close to the heart. The exact same place from where the sick try to tear their skin and rip their heart out. Dagwood looks Salomon deeply in the eye, and talks to him as they were alone.
“If any one of you have seen or experienced the disease since then, you have to tell us. It’s for our survival. It’s essential we find out what it is that makes people sick.”
Their eyes are locked on each other, and without words Dagwood tries to tell Salomon he shouldn’t be afraid. No matter what he has to tell about his past and his scars, he’ll back him up and stand by his side. He won’t judge or condemn him for things in the past. Nothing he can tell him will change the way he thinks about him. They’re friends. Family. He wishes it was only the two of them by the fire. Then he’d walk over to him and tell him what was on his mind, but he knows Salomon well enough to know that he doesn’t share his memories easily.
Dagwood is about to go on when Salomon is saved by Puk, who shouts loudly with bitterness in his voice: “I only know that Fella and Hackett were sick in their hearts! They were evil. Pure evil. It was darkness and coldness that infected them and their hearts!”
The Dawn of Skye (The Someday Children Book 1) Page 21