The Fountain of Death

Spunk awoke with ears ringing and mouth dry. The surrounding area was dark, and nothing stirred around him. He struggled to sit up and felt for the ground, finding an arm instead. He blinked a few times to clear the crud from his head.

"Harold?" He shook the arm that lay in his grasp. "Is that you?"

"Unghhhh..." The gruff sound of Harold's voice came from the body next to him.

"Flashlight on!" Spunk said as he fished the GPS unit out of his pocket and tried to sit up. "Damn it is dark up in here."

"What happened?" Harold moaned, and Spunk could tell that he, too, was trying to get his wits about him. "Where's Edie? Saffold?"

"I don't know." Spunk muttered. He felt guilt rush through him as he realized that he had forgotten about Edie until just that moment. "Here, let me help you up." Spunk rose unsteadily to his own feet and extended a hand to his partner. It was really, really dim there. They must've been out for hours.

Harold grabbed Spunk's hand and pulled himself up. For an awkward moment, they both wavered on their feet. But eventually, they found their respective balances.

"I am ready to be off this planet." Harold muttered. "Flashlight on!" He said loudly to some device that he was pulling out of his pocket. It, too, began to glow.

"Edie?" Spunk called loudly, hoping that she, too, had been knocked out somewhere close by. He swung the flashlight left and right looking for her. "Edie, are you here?" He called again.

"Shit." He heard Harold's soft voice behind him. "Spunk. Look."

Spunk lifted his eyes to where the light was shining, on the surface of the water.

Edie lay floating in her army greens, in the middle of the darkened, calm, mirror like pool. There was no sign of life.

"Oh, god." Spunk said. "What have we done?"

Before thoughts could even fully form, he was in the water. He had dropped his pack and his flashlight and before Harold could even think to grab him, he was gone. He waded into the water, tripping and stumbling when his feet expected a shoreline and found only the cool depths of the ancient pool. He shifted into a slow, tedious dog paddle towards her.

"Be careful, Spunk." Harold called, unable to do much else. "You don't know if something lives in there."

Or if something lives out here. And is attracted to loud noises. A stray thought crossed Harold's mind. He squashed it quickly, before it had time to morph into full fledged panic.

"Edie!" Spunk called as he closed the distance to her body. Harold tried to shine the light in Spunk's direction without hitting him in the eyes. He watched as spunk reached out to grab her arm. "She's cold!" Spunk shouted to Harold.

"Bring her in! We've got a med kit!" Harold shouted back, and scanned the darkened ground below him trying to remember where the kit was. The bucket that held Saffold's body was helpfully at the water's edge, but the med kit was nowhere to be seen. It must've been hiding in the bag.

"Here, help me!" Spunk coughed out a bit of water as he drew close with her body floating weirdly on the surface.

"I got you." Harold said as he left the pile of bags and went to the water's edge. "Wow, is she floating stiff like that?" He asked but didn't expect an answer. He leaned down and grabbed her cold, lifeless arm. "Come on, easy now." He said as he pulled her body effortlessly across the surface of the water and onto the sand. "We got you." He muttered. He offered a hand to Spunk, but Spunk had already pulled himself most of the way out of the water.

"Not sure where the med kit is." Harold said, crouching over her body. "You know better than I do."

"Is she breathing?" Spunk asked and Harold flashed his light towards her body. For coming out of a pond, she seemed totally dry. There were just a few water splatters around her, but there was no pool forming like one would expect.

"This is weird, Spunk. I'm not.... yes. I just saw her inhale!" Harold said excitedly. He had seen her chest rise a fraction of an inch. "She must be in some sort of trance."

"Here it is." Spunk said as he rustled through the bag. "What do you think will help?" He pulled the kit open and spread it on the ground.

"Stimulant, maybe?" Harold asked as he eyed the body in front of him. "Let's try giving her a good shake first. Edie!" His last word was shouted loudly into the unconscious girl's ear as he gripped her shoulders and gave them a good shake. She did not stir.

"Here." Spunk said and held out a syringe to Harold. Harold let one of Edie's shoulders fall from his grasp.

"Where..?" Harold asked inquisitively and Spunk shrugged.

"Thigh, I think." He offered. "Can't hurt, right?"

Harold grabbed the quick injector from his friend and examined it in the dim light. The instructions on the side were just a picture, showing how to stab someone and press the button. It seemed easy enough. It had been a long time since Harold had received medic training, but surely he could administer a single syringe.

"Do it." Spunk said, not really an order. More of an encouragement. Hand shaking, Harold lifted the needle in the sky and brought it down firmly into Edie's thigh. He heard a click and remembered to push the button. He felt the syringe move against his hand.

"Now what?" Harold asked as they both stared. He drew the needle up from her body and held it out to Spunk.

"Now we wait I guess." Spunk said. "We can't travel back to the ship in this light level anyway. And certainly not if she's still unconscious." Or dead. Harold thought. What if she had been dead this whole time, and they had imagined her breathing?

Seconds turned to minutes, passed achingly as they sat near her body, watching for any sign of life. Other than the occasional breath -- she definitely was not dead -- she did not stir.

"So we came as four and now... what? Down to two?" Harold said finally into the silence. "We do not make for a very safe adventure."

"God, I forgot about Saffold until just now." Spunk said, his voice filled with sorrow and disappointment. "That poor dude. What a life to live."

The two sat in silence for a moment longer as they weighed their options. They could not go any farther than they had come, and both of their charges were dead or close enough to it to count.

A moan erupted from Edie, startling them. Spunk jumped up from the place in the dirt that he had been sitting on and rushed over to her.

"Edie!" He nearly shouted in her ear. "Are you okay?"

Previous Chapter: The Fountain of Youth
Next Chapter: Wayfaring Strangers
Go Home: Go To Title Page