The Thanaton Syndrome

Chapter Ten

"Outlander!"

"Rachel," Seth murmured. "Here, right here..."

"Seth, can you hear me?"

"Rachel!" Seth sat bolt upright, then yelled in alarm. The wind almost knocked him into free air, but he just managed to grab ahold of Risa's mane before toppling off.

"Who's Rachel?" He glanced up, heart hammering, to find Jenna looking down at him with concern from her own pegasus.

He caught his breath, the battle from the clearing coming back to him. "Jenna! What happened? Is everyone okay?"

She looked relived, and said, "We'll explain everything in a little bit. We land in a few minutes."

He nodded. He looked around, searching for others who might have survived. He couldn't see anything through the thick clouds though, and decided to take heart in the fact that Jenna had said "we." Surely that meant others had made it out.

About ten minutes later, Risa began the descent. They followed Jenna and landed on a cliff, where they found a rock ledge big enough to hold a large company.

Seth braced himself for the jolt before they landed, and then glanced around to see other pegasai trotting in behind him. He looked at the numbers, surprised and relieved. Not nearly as many people as he'd thought had died.

Spencer called orders right away to get a medic station running and camp set up. Most people had managed to wrap up their wounds in the flight, but Seth couldn't avoid seeing the blood. The ones capable began unpacking tents and setting them up.

Still not used to getting on or off the pegasus, Seth jumped off Risa and prided himself for not falling to his knees. Then he searched for Jeremiah, Peter, and others to make sure they'd all made it.

"No, don't touch it." Seth turned to hear Peter's familiar growl.

"But it will fester!" Miriam tried to prod at a nasty cut on the man's forearm.

"Treat others first."

Seth glanced around, spotting Christian setting up a tent. He found the woman who had told him to flee being treated by Jenna. Miriam went to help Piper bind up her arm, and Jeremiah sat off, looking exhausted as someone else stitched up his leg.

Seth warily approached Jeremiah. "What happened?" He asked.

Jeremiah uttered a soft groan as the man helping him poured water over the wound in Jeremiah's thigh. "We got the pegasai under control, and flew off," he said. "Not before one of the buggers shot me in the leg, though." He groaned again when the man wrapped a bandage around his leg.

"How bad is it?" Seth said, wincing a little as he watched.

"Not too bad. Most of us got hurt somehow, but it'll be fine." The boy waved away his concern, and gritted his teeth as the bandages wound tighter around the wound.

"But...people died." Seth couldn't believe Jeremiah's careless tone. He didn't know how many they'd started with that morning, but only one day had passed and they'd already lost at least five to ten questers.

Jeremiah sighed. "Yeah people died, but it could have ended up so much worse. We didn't even get too much injured." Just as he said this, the man pulled the bandage tight on his leg and he winced. Seth didn't understand how getting shot with an arrow could be considered as "not too much injured," but Jeremiah forced a grin. "See, in Alaisia, we deal with this all the time. You learn to get used to it."

"Try not to walk more than you have to until that heals," the man said, standing. He nodded to Seth before rushing off to help someone else.

"Nice fellow, John." Jeremiah swung his leg around and tenderly put pressure on it.