“I appreciate your generosity and hospitality,” Richard remarked as he walked over and joined the group.
“Don’t mention it,” Jake replied. “I’m just relieved to find out there are still some other humans out there.”
“I was wondering if you have seen any recently infected individuals pass through?” Richard asked in a reluctant tone, knowing some of them might have been from his clan.
“We shoot anyone infected on site. No exceptions,” Jake replied without hesitation.
“So do we,” Richard remarked in a sad voice. Jake could see by Richard’s expression that there was more to the story, but he didn’t press the issue.
“Well, I have a few things to take care of, but I’ll catch up with you after dinner,” Jake said as he excused himself. Richard nodded and then sat down next to Mitch who was entertaining several young ladies with one of his rancher tales.
“There I was, smack dab between a love struck bull and his heifer. He must have thought I was making a move on his girl because he snorted at me and then stomped his foot twice. I realized at that very moment what a terrible mistake I had made, but before I could get out of the corral, he came running at me as fast as he could. With nowhere to go, I grabbed the milk bucket I was about to use on the heifer, and put it over my head like a helmet. The next thing I knew, the bull scooped me up with his horns and tossed me into the air. That’s when I landed squarely on his back with the milk bucket stuck to my head. The bull bucked wildly as I tried to get the bucket with one hand while holding on for dear life with the other. When I finally got the bucket off my head, I immediately jumped off the bull and landed in the water trough,” Mitch said as laughter filled the air for several minutes. There was no denying that he was a gifted storyteller.
“I see you have made some new friends,” Richard remarked once the laughter died down.
“Ladies, this is Richard, the leader of our clan… Richard, this is Meagan and her sister Josephine.”
“Nice to meet you,” Richard said politely as he glanced over at them. Meagan nodded and then looked away while her sister held his gaze for a moment before smiling back at him.
“Mitch said you saved his life a couple of times,” Josephine remarked.
“Yeah, he’s like a brother to me,” Richard replied. Mitch looked a little surprised by the comment. It wasn’t that he didn’t feel the same way, but because Richard wasn’t one to reveal his emotions in public.
“That’s nice,” Josephine commented. Richard nodded and then looked over at Mitch so he could return to his story telling. As Mitch continued, Josephine kept looking over in Richard’s direction, and each time he glanced back, she would quickly look away. At first he wasn’t sure what to make of it, but he thought she might be flirting with him. He could not deny her beauty, but he felt a little uncomfortable eyeing another woman when it had only been a few months since his wife’s passing. To be polite he smiled back at her, but then looked down at the ground.
“What’s wrong?” Josephine asked in a tender and inquisitive tone.
“I lost my wife not long ago,” Richard replied with a look of sorrow in his eyes.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s okay, everyone has lost someone special,” Richard remarked as he excused himself to avoid making anyone else feel uncomfortable. Josephine looked on as he disappeared into the cool night air and then she got up and followed after him.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you,” she said apologetically after catching up with him by a large outcrop of boulders.
Richard sighed, but his heavy heart kept him from replying. Josephine stood quietly next to him for a few minutes hoping he would say something, but when he didn’t, she turned and started to leave.
“Please don’t go,” he said in a pensive tone. “I need someone to talk to, someone who can judge my actions objectively.”
“Okay,” Josephine replied as she sat down next to him on a large boulder.
“When my wife got infected, I had to choose between letting her join the Augs, or euthanizing her. It was the hardest decision I have ever had to make. I chose the latter only because we promised not to let each other be turned into one of those mindless creatures, but I question that decision every day,” Richard said in a jittery voice.
“I think you did the right thing,” Josephine replied in a gentle voice.
“I want to think so, but we made that promise before our kids were taken, and now I can’t help but wonder if she would have preferred to have become an Aug after all. There is a chance she could have been reunited with our children…” Richard confessed as he struggled to hold back the tears.
“You kept your promise,” Josephine said as reached over and held Richards hand. “I know I would never want to be taken over by a disgusting worm. The parasite just uses its host, turning it into a mindless automaton working for a collective. From what I have seen, they don’t have any feelings, there are no friendships, and no family ties. Your wife would not have recognized your children, and they would not have known her.”
“I appreciate your honesty. The members of my clan told me that I did the right thing, but they see me as their leader, and rarely question my actions when perhaps they should,” Richard remarked.
“I can tell you’re a good person, and you follow what is in your heart. I think that’s what makes someone a good leader, and that’s why your clan respects you,” Josephine observed.
“You’re too kind,” Richard said as a firefly darted in and out of a crevice in the boulders next to them.
“Is there anything else bothering you?” Josephine asked.
“What would happen if an infected person took the fern powder?” Richard asked.
“As long as the person takes it right after being bitten the vermifuges in the fern powder will kill the larva before it reaches the brain, but once it implants, it’s too late,” Josephine replied.
“So what happens if you take it after implantation?” he asked.
“Then you would suffer a horrifically painful death. The larva doesn’t go without a fight,” Josephine said in an unsettling voice.
“Have you witnessed that?” Richard asked hesitantly.
“Yeah, Sean gave the fern powered to a couple of Augs that we captured to see if the augmentation process could be reversed. Unfortunately, if the parasite dies, so does its host. Sean even tried to surgically remove a worm from an Aug, but when he started cutting on it, the worm used some kind of neuro-toxin to kill the host once it was mortally threatened. It’s a perverse form of mutually assured destruction that prevents the parasite from being tampered with after it implants,” Josephine explained.
“Then there really was nothing I could have done to save my wife,” Richard admitted.
“I’m afraid not. Even if you had known about the fern powder, you would have had to give it to her in the first few days after being infected,” Josephine replied.
“Unfortunately I didn’t even know she had been bitten by a mosquito until I noticed the telltale faint yellow spots in her eyes,” Richard said in a sorrowful tone.
“You did the right thing, and I am sure she is in a better place,” Josephine insisted as she gently held Richard’s hand in hers.
“Thank you… and I apologize that I have burdened you with my troubles. I just couldn’t bear my soul to anyone in my own clan. They all think I’m invincible or something,” Richard scoffed.
“I know you feel that as their leader you need to appear courageous, but keeping stuff like that bottled up for months at a time is very unhealthy. You have to let it out or it will just eat away at you,” Josephine remarked.
“I know, and after telling you, I do feel better, thank you,” he said with a smile that was all but lost in the darkness.