(Myls)
The most broken rose, mine, keeps holding my hand like a child as we walk.
Most of the others follow. One who is in better shape walks ahead and looks for food.
They all tried to eat grass, roots, bark and even dirt for reasons I can't understand. Starvation I guess.
They all are ill now.
We're on the road on our way to Zeslinry. We should reach her in one day probably.
I do my best to have them survive meanwhile. They luckily are quite strong and intelligent enough to panic. Well, most of the time.
Mine has calmed down and is apparently more open than I would have expected to be my love interest.
I'm neither her former lover nor Blume, but I'm the best she got for now. All the others are still thinking about the situation and their options. But this one accepted my offer to be with me for now.
I have what I wanted in some murky corner of my heart, and she has something to help her survive for now. It's like a psychological bias, it's not perfect and wouldn't be useful after the main problem is solved but counterproductive.
We'll see how it goes over time. Since I'm not virtual like a psychological reply to trauma, I won't linger over her or prevent her to evolve when wants to. She can escape me the day she wishes so.
I kiss her a lot while she doesn't, and play with her body as much as she lets me.
She doesn't like the later that much. I'll settle with what she agrees on, despite what I could fantasize or desire.
I'm rather happy with what I got already, no matter how much empathy and thirst I could share with all of them.
The next day, along the road, I see the truck coming our way.
I laugh and cheer happily. The roses are surprised by the vehicle.
Zeslinry decided to come back for me and that's lucky for the roses.
Zeslinry is shocked by what she discovers.
Once she is off the vehicle, we get closer. She looks at us agape.
Z - Are they... Well, obviously they are...
M - Some of the mindless roses stood behind to look for others. And this one is mine.
Z - Yours?
I kiss my rose deep. She's still a little lost but doesn't seem to mind that much. More importantly, Zeslinry is flustered and embarrassed. I could get used to this...
M - Pwah... Her mind. Is more deply broken. I'm not sure she'll recover but I'll try to help her while enjoying her company.
Z - You're serious... This sounds so wrong...
M - I haven't found a better idea yet, and I won't keep her locked with me... Though if you want one, please chose another one.
Z - Why would I want one as a pet like you imply... Ah... Well... You're young. It's better than nothing for you I guess.
M - She doesn't want sex yet.
Z - Let's get them fed first of all okay? You're embarrassing me Myls, what happened to you?
M - ... I've had a weird mood since Licht came over, and it got worst since I found them. I know I'm usually more mature and composed. I'll stay careful at least but I think I need a good shower and fresh air.
Z - We'll try to give that to all of you... Welcome back Rose... Roses.
Zeslinry hugs them one after another like reuniting with old friends in the most normal of worlds.
They appreciate that, enough to tear up. They hug her back heartily. I feel that twinge too.
This is like an odd family reunion. They're all touched by Zeslinry's kindness.
I'm sure she had violent thoughts and ideas of sex when she was my age, but now she really is like a mother to us all.
She doesn't seem to mind at all.
I wonder if I can be both a woman like I want, like Rose, and a mature person like her, my Zes.
Why not?
We ride in the truck feeling relieved. We're all going toward a new home.
~
It may be temporary, but this home isn't bad at all. It's a place we had found a long time ago and had set as an escape plan if we were attacked at home in our city.
It's a modern mansion. Most of the electrical tools within are now useless, but it was built to last for generations, and did so. Not a single window was broken when we discovered it.
This mansion is like a small city, a castle or an hotel park.
It's too big for a house.
We stocked a little of everything inside over time. We even got some water to run in the pipes.
Not electricity yet, but sets of mirrors and optical fibres bring daylight everywhere in the house.
While Zes is showing the place to the roses, I go into the shower first. I feel dirty.
I vomited my guts there without warning.
Something liquid fled away more than it flowed. I was infected... I've caught parasites again.
Why do they affect my mind too?
Before, the kinds of diseases were bacterias, viruses, cancers, and fungus, and parasites also.
Now, well, there are new kinds of parasites one could say, along everything else.
These other things are a bit of everything. Some even react to antibiotics or specific food or hygiene.
And this one probably screwed me up badly because I can feel a sudden shift in my mind as soon as It left me.
M - What have I done...
The water keeps washing me, cleaning everything at my feet while I vomit the remaining slugs.
I don't know if I can honestly blame my behaviour as one could blame alcohol for behaving weirdly or aggressively, or in any unusual manner.
I've been drunk for a few days or weeks I guess. I vomit the last drops. Some kind of translucent worms try to flee.
I crush one below my heel.
I feel like I've seen that thing before.
~
I run through a corridor where we piled up boxes of various goods over time. I eat a many years old cereal bar. It tastes like cardboard but it's still edible, and still better than cardboard.
I reach the garage and from there, the basement. It's too dark. I pick up a big box and bring it outside.
I set the microscope up and begin to look at that thing I crushed. I drop a drop of haematological reactant on it and press it between two glass slides.
I look. I see.
It's a tiny slug from the kind of the clothes eating slug.
It had left something like eggs behind I guess.
All the roses are probably infected as well. Well... They could use a shower anyway.
As I look up from the microscope, my rose is there and looking at me. Now I'm embarrassed like a kid and look away, apologetic.
M - I'm sorry... This thing had me drunk...
Maybe.
I let her look.
She doesn't seem to know what she's looking at, but enjoys playing with the microscope nonetheless.
That makes me smile.
~
I'm cutting wood and throwing it into the furnace that is the basement heater.
Zeslinry is pumping water by hand, turning a crank endlessly.
Upstairs, the roses are being washed. Only three of them were severely infected it seems, and cured the same way as me. A wash and a vomit. The others were good.
I speak a little of English so I can get them to understand.
We have empty fields here. Zeslinry and I will now settle here. If they want to help us, they're welcome to stay. The offer made to the first Rose we met still stands for every one of them.
Actually we both hope that they will stay, because this is exhausting work and the more we are, the easier it will become for everyone to survive.
The roses are still completely lost. But I can see that some consider staying for good with us.
Others are thinking, wondering. I can see that some of them will go travelling like their original counterpart.
For the night, we don't have beds for everyone, but we're all used to sleep in the wild. Some that get along share beds. They're family to each other in a way.
At the first light of dawn, Zeslinry leaves with the truck and a crate of food loaded.
She'll go meet the ones left behind at the caldera.
The roses are left wandering around the property, getting to know the surroundings, or helping with anything that needs to be done.
My rose actually comes to follow me now when she sees me. I feel so awkward.
And I feel sad for her. How must she feel now? She hasn't found yet a better reason to live, than following me around and keeping me company like a dog. And I still have my desires over her, along with as little more shame now.
Still, she looks a little better now. At least that's some good.
She comes with me as I check the perimeter of the property. This mansion was a private estate with a huge park and even a few farms within. All of that park locked behind walls. So it takes almost the entire day, but we can walk along the property limits to see if nothing big happened.
Not that nowadays a wall means much, but it's still useful. If it's broken, I'll know something big might have come in, and I'll go get a rifle.
We spend the day walking along the wall and checking the few gates that open to the outside. My rose is looking around as we walk, saying nothing.
At dusk, as we're on our way back to the mansion, I notice that something is bugging her.
She asks me about an odd looking barn that is built over a swamp.
If she noticed something, there might be something of Blume left in her. And since there is no point trying to hide it, I get her to come.
We walk on the pontoon toward a creepy old barn. Night is falling to add to the uneasy mood. There's nothing horrible inside though.
I open the door and we go in. It's too dark to see at first. She's uneasy. I am too now.
I lit a torch. She sees, and gasps.
In the middle of the broken floor lie two giant fleshy eggs. Living things, muscular and translucent where the skin is thinner. They have roots plunged in the swamp below.
My rose overcomes her initial surprise and gets closer. She has seen this kind of things before. Of course she has...
She recognises it. I lend her the torchlight so she can see.
Inside the first egg, she recognizes herself.
- Rose...
M - Yes. She's alive. Healing. Licht left her in our care before she went to free you.
She seems to understand. She then gets closer to the second egg, probably thinking like I did that it held Blume.
She jumps, startled.
The young woman being built inside is someone else, that she recognises and has memories of.
I've heard her name mentioned a few times only, but I recall it being Blue.
My rose looks like blood is vanishing from her body, turning paler and sorrowful.
She steps back, and runs away in tears.
~