Over the following two hours, we prepared ourselves and the horses for the remainder of our trip.
Nothing felt right, though...
Several times an hour, I'd look frantically around for Calix, going so far as to call for him before I spotted his bear sitting beside my bed, and then I'd remember. My companions shot me pitying and, on Scout's part, concerned looks.
Echo treated me like glass. Gone was the girl who chattered, made jokes at inappropriate times, and was more loose than any of us. She'd been replaced with a deathly straight-faced girl who kept a low voice around me and was patient to a fault. Not that I was actually disagreeable. I had finally reached the point that simply nothing mattered. Everything that mattered was dead and gone...
Madeline was different, too, but not to the extent of the others. She kept her distance from all of us most of the time, but especially from me. Apart from the occasional question or statement to me or a hand on my back - all done as motherly as she dared - she gave me my space, which I was grateful for. She had been sweet, and kind, and caring... but I didn't want her comfort.
Scout had the biggest change in stature of them all, though. I caught him glancing my way more times than both of the others combined, his eyes always holding their guarded, concerned expression. He was beside me often enough to be noticeable, but not enough to be eldritch, and I practically saw his hands itching to embrace me.
How had I missed it all those years?
He was a poor actor approximately fifty percent of the time, but I had only chosen to notice the times he played up his apparent hatred of me.
It was due to this fact that whenever he randomly touched my shoulder, either an act of self-reassurance or an attempt to project his sympathy and concern onto me, I made an effort to force a smile onto my face. And whenever I did, I noted his face soften as the premature lines smoothed out again the tension drained from his features.
"You have no idea how worried he was about you." Madeline murmured in my ear as we finished packing our things to leave. But I saw his motions and looks to me, so, just as quietly, I replied, "I think I do..."
*
Scout, ever the gentleman, offered his hand to each of us to help us onto our horses: first Echo, then Madeline behind her, and last of all myself before he mounted behind me. We rode fast, the two of us in front on Inca with Artemis following close behind.
"Where are we going?" I questioned.
"Specifically?" Scout answered. "We're going to a secret airstrip not far from here. No one knows the existence of it except for us Unseens, and there are a few there now waiting to fly us back to the District in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania."
"What are Unseens?"
The term was odd, but strangely comfortable to me.
"You're an Unseen," he told me. "And Echo, and all the others like you. The Senate never saw you coming... they never expected you to exist."
We followed Scout's GPS for over an hour before stopping for a rest. Madeline pulled out a canteen and some dried fruit and we passed it around. Echo fell asleep on Madeline's shoulder and I reached for Calix, drawing him into my lap and kissing his forehead, but he faded into nothing. I felt Scout's arm circle my shoulders and I turned into him, gripping his shirt for dear life as the stabbing pain in my lungs diminished.
"Only about a half-hour left until we reach the airstrip," he told us quietly. He met Madeline's eyes calmly as he rested his chin on the top of my head and squeezed me tighter for a moment before he stood up and pulled me to my feet.
I strolled over to our horse and unstrapped my bow from the saddle, sliding my finger along the taught string before turning around.
"Where's my crossbow?" I asked curiously.
"It snapped," Madeline told me regretfully. "When the horse spooked, it didn't make it out in one piece."
"I liked that crossbow."
"We'll find you another one," Madeline assured me. "You're handy with that thing."
"She is, indeed," Scout spoke up. "I can count on all my fingers and toes how many times she almost killed me with it."
"Still not convinced I shouldn't have tried harder."
I said it with no conviction, though, and sure enough, after another moment, I felt his hand on my shoulder as he offered his hand to help me up onto Inca. When Echo and Madeline were safely on Artemis, he swung up behind me and we continued on silently.
Even the birds were silent, the wind rustling the trees being the only sound for nearly ten minutes. And then Madeline sang the first verse and refrain to the the song she had sang that night of the sixth day.
"Wooden bow and arrows long
Sturdy fabric fitted tight
Notes ring out in a birdsong
Stepping into dead of night.
Lonely Archer, sweet and young
Lonely life hardly begun."
She was silent, then, but I saw her and Scout exchange a small smile. I closed my eyes tightly, trying to recall where I'd first heard the song and what the second line was.
"Calm expression, keenest eyes," I started quietly, keeping with the tune Madeline had used.
"Mind at ready for the task
Where creature creeps and bird now flies
Face fall into darkest mask.
Lonely Archer, sweet and young
Lonely life hardly begun."
Scout remained silent, Madeline seemed confused, and Echo only looked between the two of them like it was a game of racket ball. I went on with the third verse.
"Rustled leaves and branches snap
Hints come first from quiet sound
Moving into hunter's trap
Her forest eyes now look around."
The refrain followed the verse, and then came the fourth verse.
"Arrow swiftly from the quiver
Latched onto the bowstring tight
Swift and direct as the river
Weapon released out of sight.
Lonely Archer, sweet and young
Lonely life hardly begun."
The next verse followed.
"A tear blinked back from lonely lid,"
And moving to find where it fell
Her face is blank, expressions hid
A job now finished clean and well.
Lonely Archer, sweet and young
Lonely life hardly begun."
I finished the refrain and fell silent, unable to remember the final verse. For nearly two minutes, there was no noise save the horses' hoofs on the ground and the wind in the trees, and then Scout spoke up.
"With hope she might go home tonight..."
He spoke it calmly.
"But sorrow passed to see it end
A creature gone without a fight
The archer's only real friend.
Lonely Archer, sweet and young
A lonely life hardly begun
Alone once more in memory
A silent battle never won."
His voice had been so low I wasn't sure I had heard it at all, but when I quickly met his eyes, I knew I wasn't wrong.
"Poor excuse of poetry, right?"
"It was you," I said slowly, and he nodded.
"Madeline begged me to teach it to her. It was written for my sister... and then I met you and it changed. Only the first verse is original. I'm afraid you took all the rest... but you remind me of her, sometimes..."
"What happened to her?" I asked, but the look on his face said more than words ever could.
She, too, was gone from the virus.