Dust

Chapter 4

Polaris panicked. How did this happen? He thought, making sure Rachel stayed on the bed. He called for everyone in the room to talk about what to do next. "We need herbs. She's been poisoned. I think it may be Lion's Bane from the look of it."

"How do you know?" Sirrah asked.

"Because that plant is found everywhere in this area. If you want to poison someone, that would be the one ingredient to use. I need volunteers to go out with me and find the antidote." All of them volunteered but he could not take all. Someone needed to stay with Rachel and make sure she was okay. "Ark, you stay here with her."

Ark didn't question it and nodded in agreement. Polaris knew if anyone could protect Rachel, it was Ark. He was more than capable of doing it. "I can stay outside and make sure –" Ark tried to say but Polaris interrupted him.

"No. You need to stay with her," Polaris insisted.

"What about the Undead? What if –"

Now he was becoming irritated, his face becoming a bit red. "Enough about the Undead! She was poisoned by one of them yesterday! You need to stay by her side and take care of her if she should need it."

Ark raised his eyebrow in confusion. "How?"

Sirrah handed him a shirt from her bag. "This isn't much but take this piece of clothing, boil water, and place the cloth in it before squeezing it. Make sure her fever goes down."

Josie stumbled inside the room. Polaris sighed, realizing she was still drunk. "Josie, you're staying here too. I won't be having you shoot one of us in the leg because you were drinking."

"Fine by me!" she slurred, swaying back and forth. Polaris reminded himself to make sure she knew not to be drinking alcohol.

This is an absolute shit show, Polaris thought. He curled his finger at Sirrah and Davyd to follow him, and out they went, searching nearby areas for any sign of an antidote herb. Their luck did not go the way he thought it would, as there was nothing. Strangely enough, the actual herb was poisonous itself, but the two poisons would cancel each other out. Either that or activated charcoal which could only be found in towns and cities.

It was looking like they might have to find a town. He glanced at his map, knowing roughly where they were. There was a town called Rusvil a few hours away. If no stores there had it, then he wasn't sure what to do. Polaris put it out of his mind, concentrating on getting to the town first. He didn't have time to waste worrying about what might happen. He'd cross that bridge when they got there.

Polaris made Davyd and Sirrah run; despite the fact they were just wearing themselves out before even arriving in Rusvil. He wanted it done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Davyd almost collapsed on the ground, catching his breath. "I don't know if I can go on," he said.

"Get up," Polaris said. "We can't falter now."

"Yes... but –"

"May I remind you this is your fault, Davyd," he snapped at the younger fellow, who seemed to go pale. "If you had closed the door in the first place, we wouldn't be in this damn situation!"

Davyd sighed. "I know it's my fault..."

"I don't want to hear excuses. Move unless you want to explain to Rachel why you decided to back out. Because you were too damn tired!" Polaris was far from exasperated, he was furious. He hadn't even had the chance to talk to Davyd about what happened but when did he have the time? He felt a little bad for treating him in that way.