20 Code:Aspen

***

Carrying Varin wasn't as hard as it should have been, even with his injured ankle. Although it felt mostly healed somehow.

As the sky darkened Dagen found it harder and harder to see, until eventually he pulled out a flashlight and pointed it to the ground. He tried to make it as dim as possible, covering a portion of the light with his hand.

Finally, he came upon a break in the trees. Standing in the treeline, he could see a small wooden shack situated in the middle. He gently laid Varin down and readied his gun, approaching the shack with caution as he circled around it. There were no people in sight and no signs of anyone having been here in a long time.

Turns out the roofed structure he saw was just a wilderness hut. A completely wooden hut with an elevated floor, a roof, and 3 walls. Generally one would find structures like this along hiking trails and in national parks, for people to camp or take breaks. This one however, looks like it hasn't been tended to in many years. The wood was rotting away and there were holes here and there along the floor and ceiling. It seemed solid enough to lay on for a night though.

Going back over to Varin, he picked him up and took him to the hut. Dagen laid him on the floor and tried to make it as comfortable as possible.

Even in his sleep he looked to be in pain.

After taking a moment to check Varins wounds, he grabbed a slim Jim and turned off the flashlight. Making sure he was keeping his ears alert to their surroundings.

'I suppose whatever is happening to his arms and shins will have to wait until I can see.'

After a few hours of sitting in silence, without being able to see much, Dagen heard a faint familiar sound, causing him to freeze for a moment.

…

'Shit! It's a drone!'

He grabbed the duffle and quickly threw it under the hut. He then wrapped Varin in the blanket he was on and used it to drag him under the floor as gently, but as quickly as possible. Hurilly squeezing in next to him with his gun ready. Panic was closing in on his mind, he could barely see but he could hear it getting closer.

'Why does the drone only appear at night? Is it really looking for us? I can't see it! I could really use your eyes right about now Varin!? Where is it!?'

Then, it sounded like it flew up to the back of the hut, paused and then circled around it. Hearing it come closer to the front made Dagens heart race.

'Go away! Please go away!'

A few torturous seconds later, the drone flew away and into the night.

Hearing the drone get further and further away, Dagen finally allowed himself to breathe while still hyper focusing on his hearing. Listening for any sound of danger.

*Cough, cough*

Varin let out a light cough that made Dagen jolt up and hit his head on the floor. His heart just about lept out of his chest.

"Ah! Son of a- ow."

'Goddamnit man! You ARE going to give me a heart attack!'

Calming down a little, Dagen realized that Varin coughing wasn't a good sign. He leaned over and felt for Varins forehead. He had a cold sweat and was shaking a bit.

'Not good. It must have gotten infected. Please be okay until morning.'

After the appearance of the drone, Dagen didn't want to risk using any light, so he just prayed and waited for the dawn to come.

***

As the light peaked over the horizon, Dagen crawled out from under the hut and looked around, tranq gun ready. Not seeing any threat, he pulled Varin out from under the floor and put him back on the top side of the floor. He then grabbed the duffle and unwraped Varin from the blanket. Finally able to see, he took a moment to check his condition.

The first thing he checked was the injury of his waist. It did look like it was getting infected but he suspected that the main problem was internal. So he opened another wound wipe and tried to deal with the outer infection. After tending to that, he checked the scratch on his eye, luckily that seemed to be healing up nicely. He then noticed a little blood on the blanket next to Varins hands. The blood looked to have come from underneath Varins fingernails, which were now pointed and resembled claws.

'Oh, shit. That must have happened overnight.'

Then, with some hesitation, he pulled up Varins sleeve. His forearm was sprinkled with small, 1/2inch long, grey barbs. Only some of them had little black tuffs on the tips.

'Wait a minute… those aren't barbs. Those are the shafts of newly grown feathers. Oh my gods, Varin is growing feathers!?'

He checked Varins shins to confirm what was growing on them. Just like his firearms, he was growing little black feathers on his shins as well.

'Let's hope he doesn't grow feathers anywhere else, like his face. That'll be hard to hide.'

He then took a moment to take a mental inventory of what was left of their supplies.

6 bottles of water (5

4 blankets

3 flashlights

2 lighters

2 duffle bags

1 tarp

1 bundle of rope

1 bag of jerky

1 cube dry food rations (3 of 4 parts remain

5 slim Jim's (4

'Oddly enough, I'm not hungry, or thirsty. Hmmm? I should be famished and parched after everything that has happened.'

'Maybe on top of healing quicker, I don't need as much food and water anymore? Maybe I'm stronger too? Or maybe Varins bones have gotten lighter, hollow, like a bird?'

Suddenly, an invasive thought occurred to him and won. He was sure glad no one was around to watch this. He walked over to the nearest tree and sighed.

'I can't believe I'm about to do this.'

Then, he wound back and punched the tree as hard as he could.

*Thud!*

…

"Huh? Wow!"

His hand felt fine, and he left a fist size dent in the trees bark. His eyes widened in amazement as he studied his fist.

"No fricken way! Cool!"

…

"Cool?"

After saying such a thing, he felt kinda bad, especially with Varin laying over there. Sure it was cool and he couldn't help but wonder what else he could do, but what was happening to them was more freaky than cool.

'I really shouldn't be so enthusiastic in front of him, I'm sure he wouldn't consider what's happening to him to be "cool". I shouldn't have left him alone in his condition either.'

He sighed with shame as he went back over to Varin.

***

Varin woke up feeling like absolute shit. Everything ached, his eyes hurt from being assaulted by the light, his waist was warm and stung like hell, and he was sweating.

*Ugh*

Lifting his hand to cover his eyes, he immediately noticed a startling difference. Sitting up with a little jolt, he slid back to the wall and stared at his hands.

'Holy shit! Well that's new.'

'What about…?'

He lifted up both sleeves and pant legs and saw the little black tuffs on the tips of the barbs. Lifting his arms and rotating them to get a good look, he started trembling and freaking out a bit.

'How long was I out? Where am I? Where's Dagen!?'

*Ack!*

The sharp pain in his side reminded him to calm down and breathe. As he did, Dagen came around the corner, startling both of them.

"Oh! Varin?"

"Oh! Dagen?"

*Phew*

Varin looked back down at his hands.

"Is this the roofed structure that you saw from the tree?"

"...Yeah."

"What happened after I passed out?"

"Well… we were so close to this place after you passed out that I decided to carry you the rest of the way. There was no one here and I couldn't continue without a flashlight. A few hours after dark, a drone came by, I hid us under the floor. It didn't seem to notice us as it flew away. I decided to stay under the floor until the sunlight came back so that I could see our surroundings. After it did I crawled out and put you back up here, then I looked at your condition and… took a look at your arms and legs. I noticed your nails and that those barbs might actually be feathers that are growing in. The wound on your side is probably infected as well. I tried using another wound wipe but…"

…

"Varin?"

*Sigh*

"Well… isn't that just great."

'Feathers huh?'

"It feels infected."

"How is your condition?"

Dagen honestly wasn't sure exactly what to say.

"I… it's hard to tell with how things are but… I think that I heal faster, based on the state of the wounds I have received lately. Either I'm stronger, or your oddly light. I'm tougher, because my fist was fine even after punching a tree full force. I don't think I need as much food and water, cause somehow I'm not hungry or thirsty. I also don't get tired as fast. But like I said, it's hard to get a measure on how much these things have improved, if they have at all. I'm just going off of feeling over here."

Varin looked at Dagen with curiosity and a bit of jealousy.

"Lucky you. I guess the doctor really did cook up something good for himself huh? But we really should find a way to test your new limits later."

Dagen looked towards the floor and mumbled:

"I'm sorry."

Hearing the sudden pity in Dagens voice ticked Varin off a little.

"Don't you dare say you're sorry! You have absolutely nothing to apologize for! You didn't do this to me, to us. All we've done since meeting in that hell is save each others asses, so the only thing to say is "thank you". Never apologize for your luck, or for your survival. For I will never hold those things against you. Do you understand!?"

Dagen was stunned by Varins words, here he was, yet again, finding himself being comforted by him when he felt it should be the other way around. Looking up with a soft smile Dagen said:

"I understand. Thank you."

Varin gave a satisfied nod and replied:

"Good. Now you may not be, but I am parched and my stomach feels like it's trying to eat itself."

*Ha ha*

Dagen grabbed a bottle of water and a slim Jim and gave them to Varin, which he promptly took and demolished.

"Haaa, that's better."

"So… where should we go from here?"

Dagen looked around and said:

"Hmmm, I'm not sure. I haven't really had a chance to look around the area. This hut tells me that there might be a hiking trail nearby, but the state of it says that it hasn't been tended to in a long while."

Varin looked around at the poor state of the hut and said:

"Well… should we just pick a direction and go? That is how we began this unfortunate trip."

Dagen really didn't like the idea of wandering around without a clear destination in mind, but he didn't have any better ideas.

"I guess. Let's look around firs-"

*Snap*

Varin and Dagen froze as they heard a twig snap next to the hut. They slowly raised their weapons as they heard footsteps approaching, Dagen rose to his knees and put his finger on the trigger.

Then, an unassuming man walked into view. He was about 5'6'' and wearing a hiking bag, his hands were relaxed and holding the straps. He looked into the hut and saw 2 men pointing guns at him.

"woah, Woah, WOAH!"

They saw the man take a step back and in unison, yelled:

"DON'T MOVE!"

The man raised both his hands, looked towards the ground and froze.

"Please don't shoot me! I'm just passing through! I didn't hear or see anything! I didn't know anyone was here! We were never here… okay? Okay!"

The man took another step back and froze, hearing Varin's cold voice sent a shiver down his spine.

"Take another step, and I WILL shoot you."

Dagen took a deep breath and allowed himself to actually look at the man. He had shoulder length dirty blonde hair put up in a half ponytail. He had green eyes and freckles. All he had on him was a hiking bag, nothing to show an immediate threat. Dagen lowered his gun, tried to relaxe a little and asked the man:

"What is your name and what are you doing here?"

The man looked up at him and started trembling a little.

"I-I don't feel comfortable giving my name to a couple of guys pointing guns at me. And… what I'm doing here is n-none of your bus- Ah!"

*Pow*

A dart flew right into the top of the man's hiking bag, right next to his head.

Dagen could feel a cold shift in the air next to him as Varin loaded another dart, making him a little nervous.

"Answer this man's questions or the next one is going in your eye!"

The man's eyes widened in fear and if you could barely notice him trembling before, he definitely was now.

"M-my name is Aspen and I'm just hiking to get animal footage at night!"

'Animal footage at night?'

Dagen looked back at Aspen and asked:

"You didn't happen to get that footage with a drone did you? Did you use it last night perhaps?"

Aspens face tilted with confusion.

"Uh… I did. Why?"

Dagen fell back on his behind and sighed.

"You scared the shit out of me last night man!"

…

"Huh?"

Dagen looked to Varin and said:

"I don't think he's who were worried about. Put the gun down we're freaking him out."

"Hey Aspen, right? I'm sorry for pointing my gun at you but you really scared us man. Please answer a couple more questions."

He looked back at Varin and saw that he still hasn't lowered his gun. With a sigh he leaned over and pushed the barrel down with his hand.

"Come on man, we need his help."

Varin was staring daggers at Aspen and replied:

"If he tries anything, I'll kill him."

After hearing Dagens kind voice and that they needed help, Aspen lowered his arms and began to calm down, but the way Varin was looking at him made him feel like he is still very much in danger and to be careful.

'These guys give off 2 totally different vibes. How the hell did they end up here together? Also, the mean one doesn't look too good.'

"Alright Aspen, this might sound strange but please answer. Where are we and what is the date? Also, in what direction is the closest town or populated area?"

Aspen couldn't help but find those questions a little worrisome, but funny, in an odd way.

'These guys look like mercenaries and sound like lost time travelers.'

"Um… this is Azuran, it is July 15th and we are about 8 miles from Ebontin, a town in that direction."

Varin and Dagens faces dropped as they glanced at each other upon hearing the date.

'I was in that hell for 3 whole weeks?'

'I was trapped there for 1 week? Felt longer.'

Seeing the looks on their faces made Aspen feel a little worried and sad for them for some reason.

"Hey guys… pardon my boldness but are you okay? Are you lost?"

Varin looked at Aspen with the smallest hint of a hidden plea, Dagen looked at him and gave a sad smile.

"Let's just say, me and my friend here have had the worst luck these past weeks and simply wish to get out of the woods, so to speak. Can you help us do that?"

Aspen looked at Varin and realized that these guys were just lost and desperate. He also summoned some courage and without breaking eye contact, tried his luck with some of his own questions.

"I can help you guys back to town, but… I want to know some things first if you don't mind."

Varin looked annoyed and impressed by Aspen's sudden show of courage. Dagen found it entertaining.

"I guess you would have some questions wouldn't you? Ask away, but no guarantees for an answer. Okay?"

"Right, um… first, what are your names? I want to be able to call you something."

"My name is Dagen, he is Varin."

"Oh, okay. Nice to officially meet you Dagen and V-Varin. I know this one is a long shot but, why are you wandering the woods and why didn't I see you on my drone feed last night if you were here?"

Varin and Dagen exchanged silent words as they looked at each other, Dagen answered:

"To be honest with you Aspen, we don't know how we got here. We were knocked out and brought here for reasons we still don't know. We were stuck for too long before we managed to escape. Slowly, we made our way here. Now the reason you didn't see us last night is because we hid under the floor of this hut when we heard it coming. We thought that whoever kidnapped us was looking for us with your drone."

Aspen was baffled by this answer.

"So… you guys were kidnapped!? I'm just going to assume you got those guns and gear from your escape. What about your injuries? Varin especially doesn't look too good."

Varin wasn't appreciating Aspen's bluntness.

"Gee thanks, I feel great too, thank you."

"Oh, sorry."

*Heh*

"I just got my ankle scratched. He got injured while being pulled out of a tree by a dying grizzly that was attacking us. A branch had a rendezvous with the front of his side, unfortunately the back of his side was in the way. I cauterized it but it's getting an infection."

Aspen's jaw dropped with how absurd that sounded.

'Attacked by a grizzly? He killed it? Fell from a tree? A branch went through his side? Is that what happened to his eye too? Damn.'

"Alright then. Let's get you guys to town."

Dagen gave Aspen an excited nod and began rolling everything back into the duffle.