Going through the Walls

The village looked as similar as it did up close than further away, still resembling a poorly stacked pile of crates buildings upwards in the centre while the average height of the buildings decreased the further away from the centre, building materials shifting from stones to make formal establishments to planks of wood, making comfortable houses, to straw and mud huts that looked to be propped up by the kindness of the uneven land.

Lee let himself be dragged by the children through the dusty streets, all the way up to the big central building at the centre.

It was three stories tall and was adorned with the large notice of 'VACANCIES OPEN', resembling an inn and restaurant rather than the village hall. The insides were unlit and the building rested on stilts.

"That's the village hall where the elder lives. Because we're not really rich because of the town on the other side buying our food and taking all the business away by employing all the talented people on a wage, we don't have many guests. My grandma used to be a weaver but she lost her shop because of the big mansion family opening up a bigger shop, so people went to her, and because she needed money, she had to work for them, only she made less there because she couldn't keep any profits. It's really not fair," one child announced, sharing out his grievances for all the other children to nod along to, the universal truth of the place.

She then sighed loudly into her hands," Father makes more money at the farm than mother does in the manor."

The adults in the street mostly roamed listless, a few lighting up when they saw the children parade through the streets, while others didn't look even like ghosts, sitting there on stools within their huts, waving their hands around, and watching them travel through the walls of their homes, as if they didn't even exist.

One old lady, who walked the streets bent over badly swaying as if she needed a walking stick to keep going, fell close to the group of children, barely keeping off the floor by a few friends, looking to be barely older than toddlers, diving beneath her and cushioning her fall through the support of their backs.

Lee skidded over to them, hesitant to touch her or cause her any undue harm accidently. Her body was much more transparent than all the others here, her skeleton easily visible despite the blue light that radiated out of her.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was wandering around looking for my A-Yao. I've not been able to find him all night," she coughed out, asking one of the children who she was led down next to, in an attempt to free her saviours.

One of the older children, almost looking as if he was a teenager, walked up to her.

"Grand Auntie, Grand Uncle is with the doctor in the office. He always is because he can't leave the bed," he explained to her, letting her lean on him and use him as her crutch.

"Grand Auntie! A-Ru, when did you get so big? You were next to my knees yesterday! Oh, I know, your mother really did take my advice to make my own grandmother's special growing soup. I knew that it would make you big and strong!" the lady exclaimed, a bright smile broke out on her face, and she stopped for a moment to give her grand nephew a pinch on the cheek, before continuing to hobble along with him.

Lee's eyes widened and he swept around to look at all the other children within the group that he was in. On the surface, they all looked reasonably healthy, with no obvious wounds or gashes marring their bodies.

He looked over to the teenagers and asked one to take off his his outer and inner layers, leaving him bare in his trousers.

The boy did so, without a single word, and Lee saw.

Only one building in the village was lit in the whole village.

It was a little ways away from the inn complex and Lee pointed to it, asking out loud softly," Is someone alive in there?"

"Yes," the lanky boy, who had instigated this entire exchange, replied to Lee, looking over towards it with dimmed eyes, looking down onto the ground in front of the entrance of the home.

Lee stepped out, deciding to venture towards it and see what was happening.

The sounds of pained grunts and exhausted sobbing emanated from the place, stronger than the sickly yellow lights that poured down onto the floors.

From the gaps in the wood, Lee managed to spy the outline of a teenage girl bent over a small bed. A bucket of water sat by her as well as a pile of wet bandages, reflecting the softer oranges of the candles that were set up all around her.

She mumbled out prayers and melodies to whoever was lying down, soothing them with kind words and listened to each of their cries of pain and pleas out into the world for the pain to stop, for the heat to go away, and for everything to end.

Lee knocked on the door thrice, and without waiting for an answer, he walked inside.

The girl at the bedside swivelled around, eyes wide with surprise, and made to yell at Lee," Who are you!? You can't have him! You can't have my son!"

Lee startled back and flinched, raising his arms up and spluttered out," No, no. I'm not going to take your son away. I can help. I've got herbs."

The teenager relaxed slightly, before shifting her posture to something less aggressive, glancing over to the side to the bucket, before kneeling down once more, picking up another wet cloth from the bucket and placing it on her son's head.

Lee took the opportunity to automatically reach over to his back, before abruptly realising that the pouch of herbs in the water skin bag were in his travel pack back in the town on the other side of the lake.

He took a deep breath, before blurting out," I need to go get them," running off in a dead sprint to try and save that little boy's life.