บท 23: Chapter 23 - Withdrawal
During the next week he lived in his truck, out in the woods, the dryads providing him sustenance & asking questions, learning & studying his condition with LUCII4.
Day 7: "Here Seering, please eat this." She provided him with a variety of foods, obtained from the forest around them. He complied with a smile & sat there waiting, watching the river flow by. After breakfast, she directed him to bathe in the stream. When they were done, Chadash once again in her original human form, took Seering for a walk. Asking him about his life as they went.
Day 10: "Lucii, he's still unresponsive to his own will" Joanne says =Damn. i thought with his blood pressure coming back to normal yesterday, he'd be snapping out of it soon. Thank you again for being so patient with him.= "Between the 3 of us out here taking turns, it's not bad at all. Can't wait until something happens? I'm curious about who he really is, Funfetti suggested he's never seen him so passive." =We can't send him back into the general population. i've been studying the alliance social networks, and there has been a very strange series of patterns emerging. The church is growing their numbers with this sauce they made. It burns us at the stake & numbs the pineal gland of those without nanites. No one is safe until the cloud can process something to stop it.= "Yes Lucii. Oh, I have a quick request, could you backup MUSE, he's a great lil Ai & i don't want the world to lose him, if we run into any trouble?" =Sure, will you help me interface with it?=
Day 12: =Chadash?= "Yeah Lucii, what's up?" ="Do you have a moment to speak?= "Yes of course, Seering is sleeping at the moment, & the Treants are preparing for dawn? Why?" =Are you sitting down?= "Enough already, the suspense is built, What's going on?" =You have a sister. A half sister, it would seem you have the same mother.= "Really? Oh that's so exciting! Who is she?" =That's the thing, she just 'joined the ranks', but i've had a business relationship with her for years now. Have you ever heard of the McTaggart Genetics heiress, Genevieve?= "The one that came up with the idea of making the unicorns & griffins?" =The same. When i told her about you, she asked to meet you. The synchronicity is uncanny. She wants to talk to you, face to face. She knows you're behind enemy lines on a mission of succor, but when Seering is better, she would like you to come to London.= "Of course, please let her know i look forward to it?" =Will do.=
Night 14: Seering wakes with a spasm. Grabbing his head he cries. Sobbing uncontrollably. None of the dryads could console him. Nor even Chadash. Who he seemed the most comfortable with. His body was sweating, yet cold to the touch. He lost his appetite, screaming he refused everything presented to him. Throwing a tantrum he even kicks the breakfast into the river. The rest of the day he spent whaling or having angry fits. The dryads intervened only when he might harm himself and he'd become too much for Chadash.
Day 15: Restrained, he curses at them to let him just die. For 13 hours straight, until his voice gives out on him, verbal violence spewed from his lips.
Day 16: His emotions went wild, laughing with the dryads & Chadash. Dancing with them for 10-15 minutes here & there. Spending about half an hour crying in a fetal position being comforted by the Dryads. His conscious mind awoke again, he began to call Ravi, Joanne & Chadash, friends. Beginning to understand what has happened to himself.
Day 17: Besides 4 outbursts of anger & frustration over feeling confused, Seering felt almost like himself again. He even mixed a new set with MUSE for them. As they danced together, he started to remember he was supposed to be on tour all this time. France, Germany, Poland, he should have been in Warsaw by now.
That night after dinner he expressed his thanks & asked them to relay further thanks to Funfetti & Vedren. Before going to sleep, Ravi thanked him for saving a 1/2 dozen lives.
Day 18: "Listen, I'm feeling better now. My head is clear & I want to get back to civilization." Seering says Over dinner. Ravi puts a palm to his face. Joanne asks "Are you kidding? You know what we're up against out there. Please, stay?" Chadash unintentionally feeling hurt, walks to the river, not wanting him to go, nor cause drama. She knew she had to let him go. One of his first desires of self in 18 days, she couldn't hold him back.
"I've lost almost 3 weeks of my life here. Ravi, Joanne, it's out of my system, your scans proved that. You are great people & I'll be forever thankful, but i need to get on with my life. I'm going to go to a city, I'm going to buy a hamburger, some french fries, & a giant soda." he says with appropriate emotion. Ravi, gives up, "Fine. You're clearly yourself again. We can't keep you here. Will you at least stay until morning?"
"I had intended to, & I'll talk to Chadash, also." Seering obliges.
"OK then, it's settled, my friend."
"No it's not," Joanne pulls out a wad of Papal$cript. Handing it to Seering & adding "Fett said you needed to be paid for the night you came to us, he added a little more for your troubles. LUCII says your passport is still good, & you should get out of Alliance territory, as soon as you can."
"Why?" It was the first time he asked that question in over a month.
"There is a war brewing, since..." she paused emotionally "...Atlantis, things have changed a lot. In the last month, the pope has been using this serum on people at churches. The numbers of brain dead followers have been swelling, substantially. In Muslim countries too. Islam is spreading in its truest sense of the word. 'Submission.' "
Remembering past weeks of nothingness, he comes back to present moment awareness, "All the more reason to go, thanks for the update on current events. I'll look out for myself from here."
"Sure." Joanne & Ravi wander off into the woods.
Day 19: Chadash & Seering hug, forehead to forehead touching, they never say a word. They just hold each other, for almost 10 minutes. Never saying anything.
Parting each with a little tear in their eyes, he climbs into MUSE.
He drives away. Refusing to look in the rear view mirror as he moves forward, even though he knows and won't admit to himself. His heart is still with Chadash.
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