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The Injury at Hand
It's hot.
The sun is burning. I'm burning.
Is that the exit?
A few steps further.
Just put one foot in front of the other. Maybe the fire, the anger, the pain, and the regret are all just figments of my imagination.
......
Or maybe the exit is. I don't know.
But they're watching behind me. Those eyes... are they judging me? Or just waiting to see how I'll carry the burden of their deaths?
They were great men, with tremendous accomplishments.
My commander, and the legendary Sarkaz scout... and the Captain, the last pure-blood Wendigo.
They're all dead, before me, behind me.
All that's left is sad little me, worthless me. They died so I could live.
What did they expect of me?
I can't think about it... I can't.
I can't let their deaths be meaningless.
I have to face the sun, even if it burns me.
Burn me to cinders, so that in their mighty company, I shall not be ashamed.
- ???
Ugh...
- Percival
You really do have a knack for waking up right at shift change, don't you?
- Percival
Is this the result of all that hard training, Guard?
- Guard
...Percival.
I stretch, as much as I'm allowed to. I did not sleep particularly well. On top of that series of nightmares, the old wound in my leg aches.
We almost ran straight into the Victorian battle lines in order to catch up with Nine.
The Infected I'm in charge of are used to being spat on, used to not having hope, but they've never been on a real battlefield.
They were scared headless. I was one of the better ones... and I hate that I'm used to it.
It took a lifetime's worth of good luck for us to make it to the camp in one piece.
- Guard
Just too hot, even at night.
- Guard
How long until the shift change?
- Percival
Fifteen minutes. You can sit a while longer.
- Guard
I'll go wash my face.
- Percival
What's with your leg? You're limping.
- Percival
...Have the crystals spread?
- Guard
No. Not yet.
- Guard
Give me my towel, Percival. It's to your left.
- Percival
The floral pattern?
- Guard
...Yeah.
Percival raises an eyebrow. I want to say it was a gift from the owner of that County Peninsula textile factory. Red has one just like it.
The old man had creases all over his face. He was lucky that his crystals grew on his belly, so all he needs to do is wear a shirt. Hopefully, he's still hiding them.
- Percival
Never mind.
- Percival
You brought back more hands than expected. Looks like the situation in the provinces is deteriorating, even before they turn into war zones.
- Guard
The impact is bigger than I thought, the nobles are turning a blind eye. Pretty much as expected.
- Guard
Those towns made a living trading with the caravans. They're left hanging with the convoys to Londinium stopped on account of the war.
- Guard
The Infected are always the first to get hit when things go south. They used to be able to plant a few crops on the edge of town, and villagers were willing to trade with them here and there. Money is money, after all, whoever it's from.
- Guard
It's easy to do the respectable thing when life is decent.
- Percival
Things are different now.
- Guard
It's almost time for the bean harvest. These Infected spent the last season watering the fields, caring for their crops.
- Guard
But they've chosen to run off and join us now, abandoning the harvest that would have been waiting for them in a few months, and those to come in the future. They would rather leave.
- Guard
They must be desperate.
- Guard
We Infected may be used to this kind of 'deprivation'.
- Guard
But we can't come to the same conclusion every time.
- ???
Are you still resting, sir?
- Sarkaz Drifter
I hear voices. You're awake.
- Guard
You again. I said—
- Sarkaz Drifter
Are you taking the night shift now?
- Sarkaz Drifter
Supper? I have canned food from Victoria. Not the best in terms of taste, but convenient.
- Sarkaz Drifter
Cigarettes, wine, a bit of a pick-me-up in the middle of the night? Pretty clean, all things considered. Razors, Arts Units, you name it.
- Sarkaz Drifter
What about you, Percival? Would you like some hair cream? Not easy to find this stuff these days. It's usually only the officers who carry it, after all.
- Percival
Officers don't die so often?
- Sarkaz Drifter
No, just harder to dig them out from the heap. They're usually at the bottom, you know.
- Guard
You need medicine again?
- Sarkaz Drifter
Well, I haven't been feeling my best... a lot of pain, the occasional hallucination... I'm scared that the rocks could start growing into my brain.
- Percival
It's not going to get any better if you keep digging in those dusty craters.
- Percival
The best we can do is basic medicine that slows the progression of the condition. Don't expect it to save your life.
- Sarkaz Drifter
I know, I know, I—
- Guard
I know you're re-selling our medicine.
- Guard
This bunch of Infected told me that they bought Oripathy meds from a Sarkaz on a motorbike, and that they 'worked okay'.
- Sarkaz Drifter
Well, but—
- Percival
Made some decent money, didn't you? How about we decide your punishment based on how many coins you have in your pocket?
- Sarkaz Drifter
......
- Sarkaz Drifter
I was just, er, making sure that stuff got where it's needed... there's a war going on, after all.
- Guard
You won't get another warning.
- Guard
But at least the meds made it to them, when we don't have enough Messengers to deliver to everyone.
- Sarkaz Drifter
It won't happen again, I promise! Just a little bit... a few pills! I've been running a fever for days.
- Percival
Guard?
- Guard
......
- Guard
Put in a form for him. Make sure he's registered this time.
- Sarkaz Drifter
Th-Thank you!
- Guard
Don't thank us. Thank the doctors.
- Guard
They went from elite to pariah when they contracted Oripathy in their labs and their companies didn't want to pay the insurance. It's not an easy change to accept.
- Guard
Fortunately, they heard of the Reunion and came looking for us.
- Percival
What about your old stomping grounds?
- Guard
I'm more than just grateful to them, but they'll never forgive me... I chose this path on my own.
- Percival
We just don't have the same grade of equipment that Rhodes Island does. Well, we're not really developing medicine either.
- Guard
Right... we don't take medicine to get well, just to live a little longer.
- Guard
There is no medicine that will cure Oripathy.
I still remember the operators hurrying around Medical, and the sight of Dr. Kal'tsit in her lab when I was at Rhodes Island.
If there is hope for an Oripathy cure, then it's at Rhodes Island.
I still feel a sense of pride for having been part of it... even though I have no right to, because I chose betrayal.
But when will the day come when a cure for Oripathy is found?
Fifty years? A hundred years? A thousand years? And what do the Infected do before then?
Oripathy is no longer just a condition.
It is a symbol of hatred, victimization, blame, and alienation.
Everyone here has a story, and they are all alike.
What good is medicine in the face of all that?
It is like rowing against the tide. This land is not a glorious one of morality and kindness.
That's why we can't turn away from violence, shameful as it is, it's powerful.
But, maybe... no, that's something for the distant future.
- Guard
What's your name?
- Sarkaz Drifter
Me? Oh...
- Sarkaz Drifter
Erm... 'Medicine Peddler'? 'Man On Bike'? I'm not the kind of guy anyone needs to remember.
- Guard
That's not a name.
- Sarkaz Drifter
Ok, let me think of a cool one—
- Sarkaz Drifter
Wh-What's going on?
Shouting, and the sound of weapons clanging.
- Guard
Go hide in the back, Sarkaz.
- Guard
Percival, go and reassure the civilians that just joined us. They're scared enough as is.
I put a hand on the sword on my belt. It is always at the ready.
- Angry NCO
Hrrh— hrrh—
- Red
You really want me to kill you? You men are in no shape to fight.
Our warriors surround a group of bruised and dirty Victorian soldiers. Their sergeant is panting, with fresh wounds on his body.
Was this really an attack?
- Guard
What's going on, Nine?
- Nine
They sneaked into the village from the north. Romanich took a bolt. The doctor is taking care of him now.
- Nine
They're out of their minds, trying to attack our camp with just twenty-one men, including a handful on stretchers.
- Angry NCO
Ha! Look at what we have in the heartland of our country, a stone's throw from our great capital!
- Angry NCO
A swarm of damned Reunion Infected! Come! Kill me if you dare! Or I'll kill you all!
- Angry NCO
Conspirators, agitators, rioters, murderers... a blight! You're a blight!
- Angry NCO
No wonder the war is going badly! Those barbaric devils could never beat us! The real enemy is among us, behind our backs!
- Angry NCO
Wherever there's disorder, you Infected are never far away!
- Nine
Looks like you just came back from the front lines.
- Nine
Low morale, poor organization, hastily wrapped wounds, obsolete equipment... you don't look like professional soldiers. Conscripts?
- Injured Soldier
We're from the Duke of Fife's Fourth Battalion... what's the name of the company again? Blackstream Squad and Eastham Squad. Do you have a doctor here?
- Angry NCO
Shut up, soldier, and ready your weapon!
- Injured Soldier
But Sergeant, Victor...
- Angry NCO
This is an order! Ready your weapon!
- Guard
Keep your voice down, Victorian. There are civilians sleeping in the camp.
- Guard
Victorian civilians.
- Angry NCO
Civilians? Victoria would have given them the life they deserve, if they didn't join you to become criminals and malcontents!
- Angry NCO
Why are all the scum in this land Infected?
- Angry NCO
Why is every gangster, bandit, devil, and Reunion traitor an Infected?
- Angry NCO
Why is the honorable Duke of Fife not Infected? Why was His Majesty Frederick III not Infected? Why are honest and upright folk not Infected?
- Angry NCO
Do people become despicable because they're Infected... or do they become Infected because they're despicable?
- Guard
What about you?
- Guard
Is despicability infectious too?
- Angry NCO
How dare you—
- Injured Soldier
Enough!
The Victorian sergeant's eyes widen as he turns to one side, trying to hide his arm from my sight.
His lips tremble, but no words come out.
- Injured Soldier
We're all despicable scum now!
- Injured Soldier
...Aren't we, sir?
- Angry NCO
I...
- Angry NCO
I'm different... this is an honorable...
- Guard
Your arm.
- Guard
I can see the crystals protruding from it. Your condition is progressing rapidly.
- Angry NCO
I'm fighting and killing Sarkaz for my country! I just got a bit of dirt on it... maybe devil blood...
- Guard
......
- Guard
What did you learn in boot camp? Didn't they teach you anything about Active Originium Zones?
- Injured Soldier
The instructor just told us to aim and pull the trigger... that's what we spent our two weeks on.
- Guard
I take it you weren't issued any inhibitors, either.
- Injured Soldier
Er... inhibitors?
- Guard
Nine, I think they're all Infected.
- Injured Soldier
I-It can't be! I just got a physical one week ago, and I was in perfect health!
- Nine
One week... could be a rapid onset. Or they lied to you to keep you on the front lines.
- Angry NCO
Shut up!
- Nine
How long have the ones on the stretchers been unconscious? They're in critical condition.
- Injured Soldier
Wh-What?
- Nine
Death and disintegration from acute condition is dangerous to both you and us.
- Nine
You were right to have the unconscious lying face-up on the stretchers, to prevent suffocation.
- Nine
But... did you check their backs?
- Angry NCO
......
Suddenly silent, the sergeant walks towards the stretcher, as though trying to turn the man lying on it over, but withdraws his hand as soon as it touches the soldier.
The sergeant looks helpless, like he's facing a deadly tuskbeast that could spit lightning and poison, one that could leap at him at any moment.
But the man is his comrade. Before they were comrades, they might have been cousins, tilling the same piece of land together.
I sigh and sit the unconscious Victorian soldier up.
There is no need to remove his jacket. Originium crystals have pierced the clothing on his back.
- Angry NCO
Heavens...
- Injured Soldier
Victor! Damn it!
- Injured Soldier
I shouldn't have taken him along... his dad would kill him, then kill me, if he learned that his son was Infected!
- Angry NCO
Those Sarkaz used witchcraft to infect us! I knew it! It's the devil's curse!
- Angry NCO
It's not enough that they defiled our land, now they want to defile our souls too!
- Guard
That's enough.
- Guard
Sarkaz are naturally susceptible to Infection, and their soldiers are overwhelmingly Infected. When you kill them, or when you get Infected and they kill you...
- Guard
If there's no one to clean up the bodies...
I said no more. I heard a sound.
It's a familiar sound, whether in Rim Billiton, Rhodes Island, or here and now.
The sound that every Infected fears most.
The sound of us shattering.
- Injured Soldier
I've heard... sounds... in the trenches...
- Injured Soldier
You told me it was artillery, Sergeant!
- Angry NCO
It was artillery!
- Angry NCO
Our enemy will use anything and everything to destroy us and our country, including their own deaths!
- Angry NCO
Devils, bandits, Tarans... there was none of this crap during His Majesty Frederick III's reign!
- Angry NCO
We... we must expel this scum from Victoria... we...
- Angry NCO
We...
- Angry NCO
What can we do? Can we save Victor? We... we dwell in the blessing of glorious Victoria...
- Guard
......
- Guard
What an idiot.
- Guard
I'll say this again. You're an Infected. Very Infected.
- Guard
In case this isn't clear to you, like us, like everyone else here...
- Guard
You're going to die.
