Chapter 35 part 4

"Well, if you think about it," Wes said. "Charlie probably caught the disease from the man when she was in close contact with him. Then it took until they were by the stream before she collapsed. However, if Amelia caught it when she was checking Charlie then it would have more than quadrupled how fast it got to the point where it would be when had Charlie collapsed."

"Are you going to be the stubborn mule here, Ralph?" Hannah asked, as Ralph opened his mouth again, likely to continue his argument.

Ralph merely closed his mouth and shook his head and didn't say anything. Which Charlie was grateful for. Not that she expected Ralph to remain that way. It was merely a temporary victory that would give her a little peace. Though, she hoped it would last longer than she really expected, which was pretty much as long as this topic was being discussed.

Which meant that she needed to do something so she wouldn't have to deal with it when he got the itch to be a pain again. On that subject, there was only one way that she could think the others would accept her not being around. Though, have gotten sick would actually work in her favor in this instance.

"If you'll let me take a nap, I'll let you know how I feel when I wake up," Charlie said, hoping that they'd let her do this. She wasn't sure how long they might go on about this topic and she'd really rather take a nap than have to listen to all of this. Not to mention that if she was awake after they moved on to another topic, then Ralph could do whatever came to mind, no matter how much of a pain it was to the rest of them.

"You know, sleeping is a good way to help get over any illness," Amelia remarked. "So, maybe Charlie and I should sleep more. We can test later on to see if it has any real effect on it."

"Well, better than nothing," Tim replied. "At the very least, it might slow the illness down and give us more time to try and find a way to deal with it."

Charlie nodded and started walking towards her tent. She was very much interested in getting some more sleep. Maybe it was the illness, or just that she'd had to get up early again, but she had to fight to keep her eyelids open as she made her way back to her tent and sleeping bag.

As she closed her eyes, she hoped that whatever this illness was that it wouldn't be that bad. That hope was what was keeping her from losing her mind from being sick from an illness that she more than likely didn't have any immunities to. Though, her only other hope about it was that it was merely a weird dream, which she didn't expect it to be that likely. Too many details of what happened were too clear for it to have been a dream.

_

Charlie and Amelia slept through almost the rest of the day. Beth had volunteered to keep an eye on them while Hannah got some firewood and the boys went to wash themselves. Beth wasn't sure what to expect after this, but she hoped that it wasn't going to be knowledge that any of her friends were going to die.

As that thought came to her mind, she couldn't help but glance at Charlie. Is that kind of what she was thinking when she thinks of that dream, she wondered. While she was sure Charlie thought no one realized she was still worried about that dream, Beth had determined that she was still focusing too much on it, but didn't say anything so Charlie wouldn't be that worried about that fact.

Though, she had to admit that thinking about that was giving her a headache. It wasn't like she worried too much about it, but with everything going on, her head was starting to just pound. Like someone was inside her head trying to escape with a hammer.

As the light began to fade, Beth wondered what was keeping Tim, Wes, and Ralph. Hannah had been back a few times to drop off small amounts of firewood, though they already had what they needed for at least the night. Beth had a feeling Hannah needed to do that in order to keep busy.

In regards to the boys, she partially wondered if they were just having fun or something. As it seemed like they were taking a lot longer than they really needed to. She was quite sure that she and the other girls didn't take that long, even though it was probably around lunchtime when they'd gotten back and they'd left just after breakfast.

Though, she wasn't really that worried. Just feeling a little bored, with just watching Charlie and Amelia sleep. It was one of the most boring things she'd had to do. While she would have normally questioned her own sanity for agreeing to do this, she had to admit that she hadn't had any idea that it would be this boring. She didn't have anything to keep her mind occupied, like a movie or anything. Even reading wasn't that appealing at the moment, with how much they'd been reading for a while.

Though, Beth wished that Flare hadn't been so eager to accompany Hannah. She felt she could use the company. If only to have something to talk to that she didn't need to worry about disturbing. Plus, she could play with Flare as well. Not that it would have changed the what was going on anyway.

However, what happened next wasn't anything that Beth would have wished for. She had been just waiting for something to happen when suddenly she was opening her eyes and Hannah was looking down at her. The light had gone out from the sky and a warm fire was blazing brightly next to her.

Beth was surprised at how she didn't find it alarming that the light had gone out in the sky without her noticing. Somehow she lost at least a few hours, but she merely noted that fact without feeling alarmed, even though she could acknowledge to herself that she should.

"Beth, you in there?" Hannah called down to her.

Beth couldn't think of anything to respond with, so she merely smiled. Which seemed to make Hannah more worried.

"Seriously," Hannah informed Beth. "If you don't cut that out, I'm going to have to get Ralph to do something to get your head back on straight."

Beth noticed something cold pressing against her hand and when she looked, she saw Flare inspecting her hand. Although, a moment after that, Flare moved away from Beth growling a little, like it detected something it really didn't like. Beth merely looked at her hellhound like she did that all the time.

"What was that about?" Hannah asked, suddenly putter a hand to her hear. "Ow, what a lousy time for a headache to come on."

Beth wasn't sure how long she looked around herself like she was looking at the world as though she wasn't a part of it, but suddenly everything snapped back to how her mind usually was and she started to feel a little freaked out.

"Hannah?" Beth said, unable to disguise the fear she was feeling.

"Finally, you're back to yourself again?"

"Hannah?" Beth repeated.

"Yeah? What is it?"

"I have a bad feeling about this," she said. Glancing around and not seeing any sign of Tim, Wes, or Ralph.

"About what?" Hannah asked, looking around herself.

"I have a feeling that the boys all came down with the disease Charlie and Amelia have and they might be on the ground around the stream," Beth said. "I think if you go and get them, you might have enough time before you collapse yourself."

"Wait, what?" Hannah asked surprised.

"If I'm right, they've gotten the disease too and I cant say if they've gotten hurt or not, but they've been gone for too long regardless," Beth said, sitting up slowly, a little afraid to go herself.

"And do you think I have it?" Hannah asked, a little sarcastically, but Beth was sure she was probably scared and trying her best to hide it.

"Probably," Beth admitted. "But even so, you haven't collapsed yet, so you'll probably be the best to check on them. I'm not sure when you'll collapse if you are infected, but if the boys are infected too, then we should get them back here I case something else might happen at the stream."

Hannah sighed. "Alright. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Beth watched Hannah disappear into the darkness. She hoped she was wrong with her assessment and that the boys were just fine and merely goofing off rather than having collapsed. She wasn't sure what they'd do if all of them came down with an unknown illness at the same time. It would make treating everyone difficult as well as taking care of everyone.

Beth couldn't help but feel her fear grow as she looked at Charlie and Amelia, who were still sleeping peacefully in the firelight. She wasn't sure what might happen if they all were infected with this illness, but it wasn't like she could do anything to stop it.

A whine caught Beth's attention and she looked down at Flare. The hellhound looked at Beth with a worried expression on her face, so Beth picked her up and began scratching her ears.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Beth said, sounding like she was assuring Flare, but when in reality, she knew she was merely trying to reassure herself.

In the end, when the boys and Hannah returned, she'd learned what happened. Fortunately, Ralph hadn't collapsed, but Tim and Wes. Although, they had taken so long in getting back initially, because, at first, they had been just goofing off. It wasn't until they'd started getting ready to return as the sun was going down that Tim had collapsed. Then as Ralph and Wes were getting ready to carry Tim, Wes collapsed.

Ralph had been at a loss for what to do, given he could carry one of them, but not both, and while they hadn't seen any predators in the area, that didn't mean there weren't any. Which is why he didn't try to bring them back one at a time. Ralph hadn't wanted to chance predators coming on whoever he might have chosen to leave behind.

Although, Beth suspected that Ralph also had the virus when he complained about a massive headache. She knew she had one come up before she collapsed, she knew both Charlie and Amelia had one before they collapsed, though Beth doubted Charlie was aware that she knew about it.

"Before we do anything else, I think we need to assess what supplies we have," Beth told Hannah and Ralph as they helped Tim and Wes to their tent. Both had come to about when they reached the camp, but with what Beth had experienced and recalled how Amelia and Charlie were when they first woke up, she doubted that they'd be much help until they became more lucid.

"What for?" Ralph asked. "Just because we're fine doesn't mean we won't catch whatever they have."

"Uh, Ralph?" Hannah said tentatively. "When I got back on my last trip from collecting firewood, Beth had collapsed herself."

"Oh," was all Ralph said in response. His demeanor changing like he was a little kid who realized he'd just screwed up royally.

"Doesn't matter," Beth said, wanting to get on with what was actually important. "I'm not sure how long we'll have to deal with this, but I think we should try to find a way to extend our supplies until we can replenish them."

"Not to sound like a downer or anything," Hannah said, "but will it really matter? I mean, unless this disease takes a while, we should be through it within a few days at most, right? So our supplies should be good for at least that long."

"Maybe, maybe not," Beth calmly replied. "Even if we get over whatever this is when you say, how long will it be until we're ready to continue on the expedition and exploring?"

Hannah didn't seem to be able to think of anything to respond to that.

"I just want to know what supplies we have so we can forage for anything if we're good enough to look around," Beth continued. "If we can't then we'll just have to figure out how to make what we have last."

"I'm sure we can collect more of those mushrooms Charlie mentioned," Ralph said. "I'm just not sure what we can make with them."

"Well, it's too dark to look for anything now," Hannah commented. "Maybe we should look first thing in the morning?"

Beth nodded. "Probably would be best. We'll at least be more rested then anyway. I just hope that we're not already behind to much on that front."

Beth wasn't sure if Flare understood them or if she just wanted to be a part of the discussion, but she chose that moment to bark. Beth couldn't help but smile at that. It was almost like Flare was wanting to offer her voice to the discussion as well.

_

In the end, the weren't able to do much foraging. Even the little they were able to manage could only be done in short trips before they were all almost falling asleep from sheer exhaustion. Charlie was always surprised at how worn out she felt when she woke up at any point.

Then after a week, colored spots started appearing on their bodies. These spots weren't like a pox, but more like a leopard's spots. Irregular and large. Each of them had a different color, though Charlie had no idea what the color was about or if it actually had any significance. The spots also seemed more like just discoloration of their skin rather than an open sore like a pox would have given them.

Charlie's spots were an orange-red, Beth's were an ice blue, Amelia's were bright yellow, Wes' were dark green, Tim's were an iridescent teal, Ralph's were bright pink, and Hannah's were an electric blue.

They also found that using their magic would tire them out so fast that just lighting a fire would be enough to knock them out if they weren't careful. They could walk to the nearest tree and back, which was probably about a fifty foot distance, before they needed to rest. In addition to that, if they touched the rock that would recover some of their expended magic, or mana, it would actually knock them out and they still wouldn't have any more magical stamina as they had that happen to a few of their group before they all agreed to stop doing that so it wouldn't get worse. Or even if it might be a separate problem altogether.

Charlie was also surprised at how much each of them were sleeping now. It didn't seem like they were doing much other than sleeping most of the time. Even changing clothes often felt like a monumental task to Charlie and she eventually stopped doing that altogether just because of how exhausted it made her.

Then with how much all of them slept, they also stopped eating as much. No one was able to cook, so they kept either eating less and less, or they'd begin to eat uncooked items, which often didn't sit well with Charlie's stomach. At least with items she was used to cooking first.

Not that she was able to eat much of it anyway. Even chewing felt like it took an enormous effort. Which made Charlie feel like their situation was getting rather bleak. She even started to wonder how many of them would survive.

After all, in her dream, the only one of her friends she could remember seeing was Beth. She'd always assumed that her other friends just weren't in the scene at that time. However, now she was starting to wonder if the didn't appear because they were already dead.

She tried not to think about that, but when she was so tired she couldn't move but couldn't sleep either, the thoughts came to her of their own accord. Even when she tried to be optimistic about it, she couldn't shake them from tormenting her.