The Thanaton Syndrome

Chapter Thirty Two: Pt. 1

Within minutes, Seth stumbled along with all the other boys, doing his best to drag bundles of arrows and act as though he knew what he was doing. He tried multiple times to catch a quester's eye, but they paid little attention to any of the younger recruits. When they began to travel, Seth knew his luck had run thin. The archers had the questers near the front, surrounded on all sides, and the younger boys in the back, followed by a couple older archers. As hard as he thought and analyzed and studied, he couldn't find any way to get access to the questers.

They seemed to trudge on for hours. Seth could only imagine how the other questers felt after the full day of hiking before, little sleep, and now this walking and trundling in the dark.

At one point, he heard a yell of annoyance from in front of him, followed by a harsh rebuke and a scream. He couldn't tell who had drawn the berating of the jailor, but the scream was enough to make him jump and almost rush up to the front and help. He couldn't escape visions of Jeremiah or Peter or Spencer losing their tempers and thrashing back at the archers, and wanted only to run to them and tell them to wait, to stay calm.

If it weren't for Thomas tugging on his cloak, he felt sure he'd have done it too. The other boys shot him strange looks, but Seth ignored them and focused on getting his temper under control. He couldn't do anything to help, at least not yet.

Unlike journeying with the questers, the archers didn't talk as they went. If any of the boys made a peep, they got a wack on the head, and if a quester so much as breathed a little too loud, Seth heard the sound of sliding metal and a cry of pain a millisecond later.

Despite the questers' harsh circumstances, Seth longed to be up there with them. Traveling with Thomas and the other boys felt strange and alien when he saw the figures of his friends just a little ways ahead. Though he hadn't wanted to admit it to himself for a long time, he had begun to care about the questers. Now that he was blocked from them, he couldn't stop wishing for Jeremiah's corny jokes and Pipers' cold manner. He wanted Jenna to talk to him about his power, and have Spencer's guidance constantly in his ears. He wanted that reassurance from Christian, John, and Peter, and Miriam's gentle voice prodding him to eat. All these things, he realized, he'd grown so accustomed to and now missed dearly.

Finally, they stopped walking, about mid morning. No one called for a stop, no one warned him, and nothing whatsoever signaled for them to stop. The archers simply stopped walking, and the younger boys quickly followed suit. The questers stumbled and ran into each other, but also quickly got the memo.

It was Seth and the other boys' job to get food out and serve it to the archers. One boy was assigned the job of giving meager amounts of food to the questers. Seth watched this boy go, and tried with all his might to figure out how he could make an excuse to go.

Unable to help himself, he warily picked up a bag of food and started to make his way over to the questers. He made it about three feet before feeling a small tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he found himself face to face with an archer. Although, he didn't get a really great look at his face due to the massive hood covering most of it up.

"What, may I ask, are you doing?"

Seth tried to contain his scattered thoughts, but his voice came out in some sort of strange, strangled rhythm with no clear words.

He was still trying to push something coherent from his mouth when he felt the rough smack across his face. Cheeks stinging, he fell silent and blinked, stumbling back a few steps.

"Go finish your bread, and mind your own business, please." The man's voice sent shivers of uneasiness through Seth's whole body, the calmness edging each word stinging almost more than the slap.

Seth nodded, and floundered back to the other boys.

Thomas shook his head when he saw him. When he spoke, it was barely over a murmur so no one else could hear. "Don't even try to pull a move like that again. Take my advice: anything you have planned can wait for Frell. Please, for us, don't try to do something like that again." By "us" Seth assumed he meant the other boys, and suddenly felt guilty. "Here, you're bleeding."

Seth grabbed the small cloth Thomas had slipped to him, and held it to his lip in frustration. He didn't know how long it would be before they got to Frell, but he knew it was too long. He knew the questers well enough to know they wouldn't stay quiet much longer.