The Sickness

Chapter 11

"Her injuries appear to be self-inflicted, but what I don't understand is why," Doctor Harte said. The four of them and the doctor peered at the girl lying, pale and unconscious in the bed. He lifted up one of her arms to show the cuts, thin and frantically cut into the skin by her own hand. From wrist to elbow she'd sliced the words: "Go North. Keep North."

"Reminding herself," Maren murmured.

"Yes," Doctor Harte said. "It's the only reason I can think of for why she might give herself the next injury..." He indicated to her head. It was heavily bandaged, but the bandaging didn't do away with the image of her head in the forest: pasted with blood, glimmering with bone and the glow of the AMIG.

"What exactly did she do to her head?" Maren asked.

"By the shapes in the flesh and the break-patterns in her skull... it looks like at first she tried to cut it out of her own head. When that didn't work she attempted to beat it out of her head with a rock."

"That doesn't make any sense," Cy said. Everyone looked at her, and Cy felt herself blush red.

"She was so desperate to get here that she cut it into her skin. If she was that desperate to remember she would've cut it out from the beginning..."

"We don't know if she was desperate to get here persay.." said the Doctor.

"No it makes sense," Maren said. "Keep North. She cut it into her skin. We are the only settlement North of Neapolis she could've heard of."

"People in Neapolis don't know about New Slate," Isa countered.

"People in Neapolis don't know that it's called New Slate, but there are two known escaped Enjoiners," Maren said, indicating Isa and Cy. "-not to mention countless missing commoners, who left into the woods one day and never returned. Rumors of some other place are bound to happen, and there are six general directions to choose from. From there on out, it's just a matter of rumors trickling into the right ears, and rumors always trickle into the ears that want to hear them."

"But if she was so close, why would she resort to this?" Kelli asked, pointing to her bandaged head. "Can she even recover from an injury like this?"

"Removing the AMIGs unprofessionally can have devastating effects. As I'm sure Cy can attest to, she was one of the lucky ones, but even so, experienced permanent damage to her memory up until the treatments stopped..." Cy cringed and Isa's head snapped in Cy's direction. She frowned.

"Your treatments stopped? But you told me..."

"That isn't important right now," Maren said, her voice stony. "Your point, Doctor?"

"This woman... removed her AMIG by much cruder, desperate means. She must've been half delirious from sleep deprivation and hunger when she did it. The damage she's done is incalculable. It's a miracle she even managed to deliver in this state. It's a miracle she's even still alive, albeit comatose forever, I believe."

"So she was desperate," Maren said. "-she can't have known she was close, then."

'I don't blame her," Isa said. Her tone cold. "Clearly she had the direction, but couldn't be bothered cutting timing into her arm."

"Isa!" Kelli warned, whipping around to face her. Isa's face was impassive.

"What? It was irresponsible. She set out on this grand escape, heavily pregnant, putting undue stress on herself and the baby, resorting to cutting words into her skin, and not even something helpful, might I add. Then, without bothering to investigate what should've been overwhelming evidence in a nearby settlement, she bashes in her own skull, practically condemning her baby to death."