X-Marks: Hiding Shadows

Worse

A groan came from my side. I looked over at the others. Their blotchy figures danced under my clouded vision. Evee was still asleep, her chest rising and falling with ever wheezy breath. She had been for sleeping for days. Or had I always been asleep when she was awake?

It only took one day of eating the granola that had no signs of its impending rot to leave us this broken. Nate speculated it was the cloth of the packs that had become wet from the fog and molded the granola. It was likely he was right, but it was too late, and we were too miserable to do anything about it now.

Nate, could barely able to hold in his food, but still, he rubbed Evee's back through each of her coughing fits. That whiny groan at my side, that was Mat. He wasn't so tough when he was sick.

Ocean was the only one of us who had not gotten sick. She had decided to finish her packs of dried fish from Abe instead of the granola and all the better for it.

It had been seven days since we had something to eat that wasn't from the salty stream nearby. Ocean was catching as much fish for us as she could while we were huddled together in a damp cave overlooking the grassy hills outside.

A stir came from the bell-shaped opening of the cave and distracted me from my aches. I felt no need to turn and find out who this disturbance was. Whatever was there, I had no strength to do anything about it.

"I had good luck today," Ocean said from behind me.

I turned to her. In Ocean's hand was a dripping net that swarmed with heaps of fish squirming for their freedom. Ocean had a proud smirk as she walked into the cave. I laid my light head back to the pillow of leaves on the jagged rocky bottom of the cave floor.

Ocean hauled the fish next to the simmering fire pit that was near my feet. Nate sat up from Evee's side as Mat's groan continued to grow.

"He should be better after he has some food," Ocean said and added more branched to the fire.

"He hasn't touched it yet," Nate said with a weary voice, "You know he hates fish."

"He should just deal with it," I said and coughed on my dry throat.

The smells of the charing salty fish gripped my stomach until it was too much to contain. What little food I had came back up and spilled onto my pillow of leaves.

Yes, this was much worse.

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"We can't stay like this," Evee said that night slumped in her corner of the cave.

It was the fourth time she had said these exact words.

"Evee, you're all still sick. What can any of us do?" Ocean said, her eyes focused on the waning fire pit in the center of the cave.

"We should skip route," Evee said and slumped back further.

Nate lifted his head from Evee's feet, "Skip route?"

"You know we can't do that," I said as I watched the green light of the tracker blink near my face on the cave floor.

"We can't keep doing this either," Evee said and reached for the postcard map at Nate's side.

Nate lifted himself and sat beside Evee. She dragged her finger across the middle of the postcard. Nate's eyes grew with every move of her finger.

"That would get us there quicker but -," Nate said.

"Then what are we doing here!" Mat interrupted from beneath his blanket.

"Quicker, but probably not alive," Nate continued and raised his brow towards Mat.

Ocean stood above Evee and Nate as they looked over the map.

"That would have us cross that stripped line?" she said and pointed down at the map.

Nate nodded, "Yeah - across Ally travel routes."

Another ached lifted from under my gut, and it wasn't from hearing the word Ally. It was from thinking of spending another day, curled to my ankles with nothing but the slimy meat of fish to eat, and only a thin blanket to cover my shivers at night.

"We should try it," I said and unwrapped myself from under my blanket.

I found the strength to stand with Ocean above the map.

"How long should this cut the walk by?" I asked Nate.

"If we start tonight," he said, "We would be there in two days."

Mat rushed from under his covers and stood with us.

"Then what are we doing, sitting around here?" he said and began to pack his blanket into his backpack.

Just what were we doing was a good question.

We had no idea what we were doing, and this was the worst part of it all.