To Mend a Broken Memory - [Troy Otto]

Chapter XXXXXI

No one dares speak on the truck. We left our shelter again, at first light, and no one has spoken for hours. Of course, the first one to break the silence is Nick.

"Ok, tell me again what we're looking for here"

"We're looking for snake poison" Lee says, sitting right next to him but looking outside the window. There's not much to look at actually, there's just dust and wind.

"And how do we find it?" Nick insists.

"By squeezing it from a magic tree" I can't help it. Sometimes Nick is so... not here. He asks stupid questions because he's not been really listening the whole time.

"You're a peach in the morning. I mean, how do we get it from the snake"

"Ask Troy, that's his specialty" sadly I know, after what he told me about his time in the desert.

"Is it? I thought snakes were your relatives" Nick has a sharp tongue too, he rarely uses it on me though. That's why I know he's joking.

"Very sad joke" then the truck stops right when he's grinning.

"Why did we stop Troy?" Lee asks.

"We're here" it's kind of hard to define 'here'. There's nothing around us, nor before us.

"Here in the middle of nowhere? Yes we noticed" Nick gives voice to my thoughts.

"Here we can find a snake" only him can know that.

"Come on, let's get down. But quietly, too much noise can scare the ones around" he gets off the car, and he starts looking around. We imitate him, but Nick remains on a bit longer, his face puzzled.

"Hold on, are you seriously going out there to get bitten by a freaking snake?!"

"That's the plan" wait, we're supposed to find the snake, not make it bite Lee.

"The plan my arse, Troy. He won't get bitten before we have the antidote!" I angrily reply.

"Not possible. Where we get the antidote is almost impossible to find a rattlesnake. Or do you want to bring one along as a travelling buddy?" yeah, I thought so. I know he didn't say that at first, this has been his plan all along. But I thought he was coming around. So I get close to him and grab him by the arm to get his attention.

"Troy, no. It's too risky"

"We discussed it, it's not your call. Besides, if we try and get one of those, he'll spill the poison by trying to bite his way out" I roll my eyes and go to Lee instead, hoping to find some more common sense.

"Lee, please, be more reasonable than this lunatic"

"I may not have time Leyla. I have to do this" he shuts me down too, so I raise my hands in surrender and go away nervously.

"This is crazy! You're all insane!"

"Look, we have a couple hours to get there and find the thing. We can arrive in one" Troy tries to reassure me.

"And what if we don't find it"

"He'll die. But he'll die even if we waste time"

"Leyla's right, you're crazy. And I am even crazier that I support this" Nick mumbles. But then he gets down and with a stick he starts looking.

We spend something like half an hour searching for the creature, but nothing came of it.

"Troy, tell me something more specific to find it. It's a goose chase"