COMPLETE! The Wasteland. A woman screams in the night. Spotlights flash on a pile of dust in the desolate patch of land that lay just beyond the tall crosses that picket the boundary of Encampment R-34. A group of curious students leave their bunkho...
MELL'S NOTES BOOK November 3, 2245 Entry #10 - Handwritten
Felicity was eager to tell me all that she had heard from Trigger about the Scaver maps. Bryne and I relayed her information to the rest of the group, and we made a plan for retrieving them and leaving the encampment. But that was later in the day. After work. The first thing I did this morning was ask Bryne what he thought about Ezzelin's final words. We were cleaning out the sewage trap at the time, which is one of the more disgusting jobs for Generals. He wasn't very happy with me volunteering us for the task, but I wanted a chance to get him alone.
"It's just the beginning," Bryne explained, his voice muffled from the plastic clothespin that was clamping his nose from the stench. "Coming back from the dead is actually the least interesting detail of what you're about to read."
I kept on him about how Dracula had changed Ezzelin and how it was obvious that Kumpan had also turned. Bryne didn't want to talk. He was too anxious about the events of the night, which went a lot smoother than we predicted.
When I wouldn't stop, he spoke bluntly, with a splash of dropped muck, "James Woislaw is next. He only has one hand. Just watch the dates. You'll see. It's strange, but Dracula lives on. He may still be alive today."
"How is that possible?"
"Just help me clean this up so we can move on to something else, will ya?"
Once our work was through, Felicity waited for us at the Bathhouse, where we attempted to lose the scent of the sewage from our skin. She explained that, without a question, Trigger shared not only where the maps were located, but how to access them.
What stuck in my memory is that she looked more nervous than usual. Felicity said that Trigger has been talking about our group often. I don't know what he could be saying, but she expressed in few words that "he knows things". We'll need to be more careful. If Trigger spotted us returning to R-13 the day the Scavers came home, he might not have been the only one.
From there, Bryne and I snuck around the encampment to speak with everyone. Ideas passed between each of us until a solid plan developed. What we needed was access to the secret storage room below Inventory Post.
According to Trigger, this room is where the most-valuables are kept. Most-valuables are items that the Elder Council wants to keep safe (and away from their people). One Elder is in charge of the storage room, Elder Samod. He still practices his life job as a Breeder. Lane confirmed this fact. She's seen him numerous times, talking to her job-head. And there is a key on a chain around his neck.
At first, it sounded impossible to me, but our class was crafty, as Teacher Deirdre would say, and good at solving problems. It started with Edie. Now that her sickness has made the Bearers concerned, she has lost her life-job and had asked to stay on as a Helper at Hospital House, after spending so much time there over the past weeks. It's needless to mention that she is thrilled to hear this. She came up with the idea of drugging Elder Samod with some medicine that they give to Elder Farolyn, the crone. She was in the room beside Edie and was often shrieking out in the night, begging to be released, to be exiled. To silence her, they forced a kind of sleepiness on her, and Farolyn forgot where she was, what her complaints were, and, more importantly, it calmed her spirit. Since this drug was often administered at random times, Edie knew that she could get her hands on some without anyone noticing.
Next was how to get the drug into Elder Samod's system, and how to obtain the key. Crevan came up with the solution, using Roz and Luther Priest as aides. At dinner-hour, the Priests individually hand deliver plates every third night to all of the Encampers in order to serve them and to extend a blessing onto the food. As the plan went, Roz mixed the liquid Edie had passed to her in the courtyard into a bowl of the Garlic Bisque, then handed it to Luther Priest, who placed it directly in front of Elder Samod.
The only hiccup of the night happened during dinner-hour, as each of us watched the Elder table expectantly. Right as Elder Samod brought the spoon to his lips, Elder Hemaris stood and addressed the mess hall, which he often does.
"Encampers, if I may have your attention."
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