by D A Rice
Gabriel shook his head, “No. Look, Zakiya.” My jaw dropped as I saw that Isaac was still breathing laboriously. His skin was cracking all the way down his body, hairline fractures that continued to grow and crack into smaller fractions. His breathing hitched as a crack sounded through the forest. I could hear the distant waterfall, even as Isaac’s body creaked like old drying leather.
Gabriel chuckled, “my blood is not a cure, this will not fix him. You were right to seek out the Garden of Eden for that, but this will give him his humanity back if he is willing to reach for it. Lucky you, it looks as if he is. Otherwise, my blood would have killed him.”
I was speechless as Isaac’s body heaved, and then cracked all the way open like an egg. Another, smaller body pushed its way up from the Corrupted’s back, pushing itself to its knees and looking up at the sky. I could only see his back, covered in demonic blood, but I could see that it was tan instead of red, and stuck to his head was his dark brown chaotic hair. Scars, like the cracks that had covered the demon’s back, crisscrossed on his own and smaller versions of his horns grew from his head, but it was him; it was Isaac.
My hands came up to my mouth as Gabriel slid down to the ground the rest of the way, the blood in between his fingers building up. “I need to rest,” he said softly, “and he will need clothes. I should have at least one spare in my pack,” he added, his speech turning lethargic.
I snapped out of my shock as I took Gabriel in. In the next moment, I was skidding over to where his coat lay and digging out the bandages. I took one last look at Isaac, who had not moved from his kneeling position, his knees still buried in the body below him. His head was tilted towards the sky, eyes closed as if soaking in the sunlight that moments before had burned him.
I came back to Gabriel and shifted him into my lap, moving his hands so that I could bandage his gaping wound. He had lost consciousness in the time it took me to get back to him. He had said he would heal fast, but I was sure that if he lost anymore blood, he may not heal at all. I wrapped his shoulder tightly and lay him back down. “thank you,” I offered before looking up to find Isaac’s light brown gaze on me, the cracks still spreading out from his eyes as scars.
“Zakiya,” he said.
13
Isaac’s voice held the weight of worlds in it as he spoke my name and I nodded, accepting everything there. I could feel his apology, his accusations, his sorrow; as if they were my own. “Shalom, Abadi,” I said softly back, and he nodded once. I pulled Gabriel’s pack to me, digging out the clothes he had said would be there. “I did not bring your swords, but I have my knives if you wish to use them. There is a waterfall very nearby as well if you wish to clean.”
Isaac did not move, only watched me with an eerie stillness, “I can hear it,” he said softly after a moment. I held his gaze for a moment longer, before setting Gabriel’s clothes near him.
“I am not sure how big these will be on you, but he says that you are welcome to them,” I said shifting back and away from him awkwardly. There was so much I wanted to say to him, and so much his eyes were telling me, yet I could not bring the conversation out. He was different, I knew he was. Gabriel had said that this was not a cure. I had to know what he meant by that, but I could not ask him until he came to again. I glanced at Gabriel now, watching his chest rise and fall as he rested. Isaac shifted behind me, moving to stand. I did not turn as I listened to him swipe up Gabriel’s hunting clothes and pause.
“How did he do that, Z?” he asked softly from behind me. I had the feeling he was still crouched there, studying the same man I was.
My eyes closed as I took a deep breath, “I do not know, Isaac. There is much I just do not know.” Isaac seemed to accept this, then he was gone from behind me, his footsteps retreating in the direction of the waterfall.
I was standing over Isaac’s broken Corrupted form with my arms crossed over my chest when Gabriel finally shifted behind me, sitting up with a groan. I glanced back at him as he cradled his bound shoulder, his face pale. “Remind me never to do that again, lass. That was stupid,” he croaked out before his jade eyes met mine. He sobered quickly, “how is he?”
I shrugged, turning my attention back to the massacred body in front of me. Gabriel stood slowly and joined me, hugging his arm to his side, “will he turn back, Gabriel?”
Gabriel sighed, “that is up to him, Zakiya. He is different than he was before. Like me, he is part Corrupted now. In order to free him completely, you will need that cure you are seeking. My blood is only a band-aid for what a real cure can do.”
“Why did the Corrupted in me reject your blood, Gabriel?” Isaac’s soft voice had us turning as he strode back into the makeshift campsite. His hair still dripped wet, but the gore was gone from his body. He had on Gabriel’s pants and a dark green tunic tucked into his waistband. He had cut strips out of some leather he had found, making impromptu suspenders. Isaac was leaner than Gabriel, that much was evident in how he wore the other man’s clothes. Gabriel took it all in stride as he sat down where he was, still deeply fatigued.
“My blood is what you would call Angel-blessed. When my father experimented on me, I have a feeling he mixed in both worlds. Where he got Angel blood, I have yet to figure out. You are not the first to bite me, Isaac, but you are the first to have survived. My blood is lethal to the Corrupted. It is one of many reasons they stay away from me,” Gabriel shivered and then shrugged as he rummaged through his pack, pulling out the last of the food.
“My blood offers a Corrupted the chance to take back their humanity. It is up to them whether they chose to take it or not. Often, they are too far gone to make that choice. You, it would seem, were not.” Gabriel smiled up at Isaac, his eyes flicking to me pointedly before he unwrapped the food and spread it out.
I knelt beside him as Isaac glanced out into the forest, his arms crossed, “we will need more food if we are to finish this journey.” His eyes landed on Gabriel again, “might I use your bow?”
Gabriel watched him for a long moment, assessing something I could not see, before nodding once. He pulled his bow from where he had dropped it and tossed it up. Isaac caught it in one smooth motion, before scooping up the quiver full of arrows next. “I will hunt and be back before nightfall,” Isaac glanced at me for a moment, then turned, disappearing into the forest around us. My heart dropped as I watched him leave. He was so distant, and I did not blame him. It had only been a week since things had changed for him, but it had been a lifetime ago as well. To go from being a Warrior of Adonai, to a Corrupted, to something in between had to be unsettling.
Gabriel must have had the same thoughts as he studied me. “It will take time for him to adjust, Zakiya,” he said, voice gentle, “be comforted in the fact that, out of the choices he had, he chose to live. He chose to come back to you.”
I nodded as Gabriel offered me a piece of rabbit, “I know.” It was all I could say as the weight of all that had been done settled on my shoulders. Gabriel accepted this in silence, peeling bits of rabbit meat apart, and cringing with his wounded shoulder. He rotated it on occasion, his hand coming up to check the bandage. It had not bled through. I was surprised by this, considering how much he had been bleeding earlier. “Your wound seems to have stopped bleeding.”
Gabriel’s smile turned sideways, “so it would seem. It is only sore right now,” he glanced at me, his gaze settling on my own injuries, “and you?”
I shrugged, “probably not as sore as you. I think I will don my armor after Isaac gets back and see how it feels.”
“That is probably wise. The closer we get to the garden, the more dangerous it will be. I will be glad to have Isaac with us again,” Gabriel glanced out into the woods, tilting his head. His eyes turned sad as he listened to something I could not hear.
“What is it?”
Gabriel shook himself and met my gaze, “a man in mourning.” His hand shot out to stop me from rising, “let him be, lass. This you cannot help him with.”
My eyes found his, “why?”
Gabriel watched me, “it is you he mourns.”
I shook my head, my gaze searching out the forest, “but I am right here,” I whispered.
“You may be, but he is not the same. He mourns what he had with you, he mourns that you did not kill him, he mourns that he made you suffer. He is angry that you let him,” I could feel each one of Gabriel’s words like a weight, pushing my head down the more he spoke. I could feel my own tears threatening to spill over. His hand found the back of my neck and I met his gaze, “he will come around.”
“How do you know?” I breathed out, and Gabriel smiled.
“Because he chose to live, lass.”
When Isaac returned, he carried a doe across his back, a few rabbits in one hand, and what looked like a pheasant in the other. The horns on top of his head were also missing. They looked like they had been forcibly broken off. The quiver on his back was full, the arrows cleaned, and the bow was strapped across his back, held tight at an angle so as not to break under the doe’s weight. He set down his kills before easing the doe off his back. Gabriel whistled as he stood, procuring his hunting knife from his bag and stepping forward as Isaac knelt beside him. Gabriel’s eyes flicked do the top of Isaac’s head in a flash, but he said nothing as he knelt over the dead animals, sorting through them.
Isaac glanced at me, “do you have that knife I could borrow?”
I nodded, speechless as I took in the jagged edges of his once-curling horns, much smaller than they’d been when he was Corrupted, even smaller now that he had broken them off. He had to be in pain, but he did not show it as I pulled my knives out and handed them over to him. After selecting one from many, he knelt to help Gabriel.
I took my armor from Gabriel’s pack as they skinned and divided the meat. I had no idea how Gabriel was going to store all this food without the tinfoil, but he didn’t seem too worried about it as he struck up a conversation with Isaac. I lay out my armor before me, organizing it and brushing my fingers over each piece, cringing with the bits I had not yet cleaned. I turned to the boys, “I need to clean this; I am going to the waterfall.” I gathered each piece up, slinging my breast and back plates over my shoulders. I did not know what I would clean them with, but if nothing else, I would take a piece of my own torn tunic to do the job.
Gabriel looked up from his knife work even as Isaac’s steady gaze found mine. “Ah, I had forgotten about the mess I caused on your armor, lass. Sorry.” He dug around the front of his pack for a moment before bringing out a couple of large, orange leaves, “dip these into the water and scrub down your armor with them. They are maple leaves, grown out here after the radiation destroyed everything else. The trees just evolved, growing back stronger. These leaves can withstand almost anything.” Gabriel smirked in amusement as I took the leaves with a nod of gratitude.
I stepped around them, feeling Isaac watching me as Gabriel returned to his work. He said nothing as I picked my way through the brush between the campsite and the stream turned into a roaring river. I could feel it when his gaze shifted back to the task before him, and I felt an odd sort of relief. I didn’t know where we stood anymore or whether he still loved me, but I knew that I could never stop loving him, even as he was now. I leaned against the rocks near the river, suddenly very tired, before taking each piece of armor and setting it down. The boys were far enough away that they could not see me. I could see the sun reaching its zenith above me as I calculated how much time I had to myself.
I pulled out my hair and stripped down, setting each article of clothing neatly into a pile. No Corrupted would come for me in this bright of an afternoon and I needed to clean myself. It was the only way I could relax. I dove into the calm part of the river, downstream from the waterfall itself and dunked my head back into the water. Using my fingers, I combed through the dirt and the grime, letting it float downstream. I didn’t have soap, but I made do with the water as I cupped it up and let it flow down each part of my skin. I made quick work of it, and then I was up and dressed again, dipping the mutated leaves into the water and ringing them out.
Footsteps behind me had me glancing up, startled. Isaac approached me, his steps light, pheasant meat and fruit in his arms as he took me in. I sat with my chest plate on my lap, a leaf poised to buff out the dried blood there. His eyes turned pained as he made the connection of my bloody armor to the night he had helped me leave the dome. I pulled my wet blonde hair over my shoulder and turned my attention back to my armor, “it is not your fault, you know.” I told him quietly.
He shifted, setting the food down beside me on the rabbit pelt Gabriel had saved from earlier, before sitting in front of me and taking one of the maple leaves from the pile I had gathered. He pulled my back plate into his own lap and dipped the leaf into the water silently. I let him have his moment before he finally spoke, “I know.”
I paused, before continuing to scrub with more ferocity, “I am sorry, Isaac.” I could feel the tears gathering in my eyes as I spoke the words I had wanted to tell him for so long, “it is my fault. If I had been paying attention, if I had….” I choked on my words, my hands clenching the leaves as I tried to compose myself, my armor forgotten.
A hand on my cheek caused my head to lift as Isaac leaned over the piece in my lap to meet me. He had set aside the piece he had been working on. His thumb brushed itself across my cheek as he studied me, his eyes sad. “Shalom, Zakiya,” he said in his gentle way, and a dam burst in me. He pulled the armor out of my lap and then was pulling me into his, his hand brushing the hair out of my face as his strong arms became a barrier to the outside world. I cried, releasing every part of me that I had kept caged for so long, trying to be strong.
“I am so sorry, Isaac. I could not kill you, but I could not watch you suffer. I could not protect you and you always, always protected me. I love you so much, but I would understand if you left, if you did not love me anymore….” I was babbling now, and I knew it, but there was so much inside of me, so many doubts and pains, so many regrets that I could not tell anyone. Isaac said nothing as I sobbed into his shoulders, only strengthened his hold around me, letting me be weak in his presence, just as he always had.
When he did speak, his voice was steady, his mind made up, “we are in this together, Z, just as we always have been. I chose to love you, just as I always have. How could I say I love you if I could not continue to love you now?” I pulled back from him to look him in the face. His eyes were as steady as his voice. His forehead came down, meeting mine in the middle.
“I do not blame you for what has happened. You did not send the Corrupted on us. You did not ask for me to become one. Most of all, you did not give up on me, even when I gave up on myself. You could have killed me when I attacked you, instead you tried talk me down.” He grinned here, his lips kissing the tears from my eyes, “be at peace. I have not forgotten my love for you.”
He hadn’t spoken much since his return to humanity, but my heart swelled with what he chose to say now. I did not deserve him. I knew he now had traumas he may never be able to tell me about. I would love him through them. He was so selfless, with all he had been through, seeing to my needs even as he had plenty more of his own.
I could be patient for him, I could be selfless for him, but most of all, I would find a way to soothe the scars the last few weeks had left on his heart.
14
“There is a ghost town not far from here,” Gabriel said as he led us away from the cliffs, over the waterfall we had camped at the base of earlier. After we finished drying out the meat to the best of our ability and gathered our supplies, my armor cleaned and strapped on with the help of Isaac, we made our way to the top of the cliffs. It had taken most of the rest of the day. Gabriel glanced back at Isaac now, a smile pulling his lips up the side of his face, “the lass tells me you are good with weapons. I know where we can find a cache. Back in the day, a group of survivalists made residence there. They left plenty of weapons for the
picking.”
Isaac nodded once, and I smiled at Gabriel’s enthusiasm, even if Isaac didn’t share it quite to his degree, “will there be short swords there?” I asked him.
Gabriel shrugged, “who knows what we will find? I am hoping, however, to find a crossbow to add to my own arsenal.” He glanced up towards the sky, judging how much time we had before night fell, “I’m not sure we will make it before the sun sets, but I suggest we try anyway.”
“I agree,” Isaac said, glancing at me and the coat that he had placed on my shoulders as the temperature dropped. “Zakiya could use a break from the chill. Any sort of shelter would work better than nothing. I would prefer something defensible, however.”
Gabriel nodded at the wisdom in Isaac’s words as we picked our way forward in the darkening sky, “I couldn’t agree more, lad.”
I said nothing. Isaac stood to the side of me, his eyes shifting as he scanned the area. Every once in a while, he would cock his head, listening to things only he and Gabriel could hear. I was not surprised he did not feel the cold as I did. He and Gabriel were in a class of their own.
Isaac had taken the knives I had brought, as well as the belt they were strapped onto, and strapped it across his chest. He was one of the best knife throwers I knew, but he did not like to use them if he could avoid it. He said throwing knives were not guaranteed to come back, whereas his short swords were an extension of himself. I wondered if he could feel the loss of them now. My own sword hung across my back, snug against my armor as we moved through the trees, further from the roaring of the waterfall which was now behind us.
